Trying to add and set properties in my own plugin for Train Simulator

[Bekns]

Hi

I have written a plugin for Simhub that reads data from a text file and adds the properties to Simhub, but for any properties that are updated via the SetProp method they seem to jump around but only in the Additional Properties tab, it does not translate through to the dash for some reason.

I have used your plugin as a reference on how to add and set the properties and was wondering if you had come across something like this while developing your plugin, the numbers are not random either, they appear to be previous values like they are stored somewhere and then displaying randomly.

It probably wouldnt bother me except there is a definite slow down in the dashboards while these properties are not behaving themselves.

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks

Total amateur when it comes to coding but here it is anyways :)
EDIT: not sure what is going on with the code tags but I couldnt make it work, not much hope for me if I cant even get that right

Main Plugin Code

using GameReaderCommon;
using SimHub.Plugins;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Media.Media3D;

namespace Bekns.TrainSimulatorPlugin
{
    [PluginName("Train Simulator Plugin")]
    [PluginDescription("Additional properties for use with Train Simulator 20xx")]
    [PluginAuthor("Bekns")]

    public class TSDataPlugin : IPlugin, IDataPlugin, IWPFSettingsV2, INotifyPropertyChanged
    {
        private Raildriver64DLL raildriverInstance; // Declare an instance of RaildriverDLL

        private string _raildriverDLLFolder; // Add this line to declare _raildriverDLLFolder

        public string RaildriverDLLFolder
        {
            get { return _raildriverDLLFolder; }
            set
            {
                if (_raildriverDLLFolder != value)
                {
                    _raildriverDLLFolder = value;
                    OnPropertyChanged(nameof(RaildriverDLLFolder));
                    DisplayText = RaildriverDLLFolder;
                    SaveRaildriverDLLFolder(); // Save the folder when it changes
                    SimHub.Logging.Current.Info($"RaildriverDLLFolder changed to: {RaildriverDLLFolder}");
                }
            }
        }

        private const string RaildriverDLLFolderFileName = "RaildriverDLLFolder.txt";

        private void SaveRaildriverDLLFolder()
        {
            try
            {
                File.WriteAllText(RaildriverDLLFolderFileName, RaildriverDLLFolder);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                SimHub.Logging.Current.Error($"Error saving RaildriverDLLFolder to file: {ex.Message}");
            }
        }

        public void LoadRaildriverDLLFolder()
        {
            try
            {
                if (File.Exists(RaildriverDLLFolderFileName))
                {
                    RaildriverDLLFolder = File.ReadAllText(RaildriverDLLFolderFileName);
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                SimHub.Logging.Current.Error($"Error loading RaildriverDLLFolder from file: {ex.Message}");
            }
        }

        private string _displayText;

        public string DisplayText
        {
            get { return _displayText; }
            set
            {
                if (_displayText != value)
                {
                    _displayText = value;
                    OnPropertyChanged(nameof(DisplayText));
                    SimHub.Logging.Current.Info($"DisplayText changed to: {DisplayText}");
                }
            }
        }

        public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

        protected virtual void OnPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
        {
            PropertyChanged?.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
        }

        public TSDataPluginSettings Settings;

        public PluginManager PluginManager { get; set; }

        public ImageSource PictureIcon => this.ToIcon(Properties.Resources.sdkmenuicon);

        public string LeftMenuTitle => "Train Simulator Plugin";

        public void DataUpdate(PluginManager pluginManager, ref GameData data)
        {
            if (data.GameRunning)
            {
                if(data.OldData != null && data.NewData != null)
                {

                    List<ControlData> controlDataList = raildriverInstance.ReadControlDataFromTextFile(RaildriverDLLFolder);

                    raildriverInstance.DataUpdate();

                }

            }
        }

        public void End(PluginManager pluginManager)
        {
            this.SaveCommonSettings("GeneralSettings", Settings);
        }

        public System.Windows.Controls.Control GetWPFSettingsControl(PluginManager pluginManager)
        {
            return new TSSettingsControl(this);
        }

        public void Init(PluginManager pluginManager)
        {
            SimHub.Logging.Current.Info("TSDataPlugin.Starting plugin");

            // Load the saved folder on initialization
            LoadRaildriverDLLFolder();
            SimHub.Logging.Current.Info($"TSDataPlugin.RaildriverDLL Folder on SimHub startup: {RaildriverDLLFolder}");

            Settings = this.ReadCommonSettings<TSDataPluginSettings>("GeneralSettings", () => new TSDataPluginSettings());

            raildriverInstance = new Raildriver64DLL(this); // Instantiate RaildriverDLL without arguments

            raildriverInstance.AddTrainSimulatorProperties();
        }

        public void AddProp(string PropertyName, dynamic defaultValue) => PluginManager.AddProperty(PropertyName, GetType(), defaultValue);
        public void SetProp(string PropertyName, dynamic value) => PluginManager.SetPropertyValue(PropertyName, GetType(), value);
    }
}

Code for adding and setting property values

using Bekns.TrainSimulatorPlugin;
using GameReaderCommon;
using SimHub.Plugins;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;

namespace Bekns.TrainSimulatorPlugin
{
    public class Raildriver64DLL
    {
        private TSDataPlugin Base;

        List<ControlData> controlDataList = new List<ControlData>();

        public Raildriver64DLL(TSDataPlugin tsDataPlugin)
        {
            Base = tsDataPlugin;

            controlDataList = ReadControlDataFromTextFile(tsDataPlugin.RaildriverDLLFolder);

            // Add Train Simulator properties
            //AddTrainSimulatorProperties();
        }

        public List<ControlData> ReadControlDataFromTextFile(string folderPath)
        {
            string filePath = Path.Combine(folderPath, "Raildriver64API_DataFromRaildriver64.txt");
            string controlName = "";  // Declare controlName outside the loop

            try
            {
                if (File.Exists(filePath))
                {
                    string[] lines = File.ReadAllLines(filePath);

                    // Skip the first 4 lines
                    for (int i = 4; i < lines.Length; i++)
                    {
                        string[] values = lines[i].Split(',');

                        if (values.Length == 5)
                        {
                            int controlId = int.Parse(values[0].Trim());
                            controlName = values[1].Trim();
                            double value = double.Parse(values[2].Trim());
                            double valueMin = double.Parse(values[3].Trim());
                            double valueMax = double.Parse(values[4].Trim());

                            ControlData controlData = new ControlData
                            {
                                ControlName = controlName,
                                Value = value,
                                ValueMin = valueMin,
                                ValueMax = valueMax
                            };

                            controlDataList.Add(controlData);
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            // Blank line encountered, end of controls
                            break;
                        }
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    SimHub.Logging.Current.Warn($"Raildriver64API_DataFromRaildriver64.txt not found at: {filePath}");
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                SimHub.Logging.Current.Error($"Error reading Raildriver64API_DataFromRaildriver64.txt for control '{controlName}': {ex.Message}");
            }

            return controlDataList;
        }

        public void AddTrainSimulatorProperties()
        {
            // Example: Adding properties for each control
            foreach (var controlData in controlDataList)
            {
                // Set property for the control value
                Base.AddProp($"TrainSimulatorPlugin.{controlData.ControlName}", 0);

                // Set property for the control minimum value
                Base.AddProp($"TrainSimulatorPlugin.{controlData.ControlName}_Min", 0);

                // Set property for the control minimum value
                Base.AddProp($"TrainSimulatorPlugin.{controlData.ControlName}_Max", 0);
            }
        }

        public void DataUpdate()
        {
            // Example: Updating properties for each control
            foreach (var controlData in controlDataList)
            {
                // Set property for the control value
                Base.SetProp($"TrainSimulatorPlugin.{controlData.ControlName}", controlData.Value);

                // Set property for the control minimum value
                Base.SetProp($"TrainSimulatorPlugin.{controlData.ControlName}_Min", controlData.ValueMin);

                // Set property for the control minimum value
                Base.SetProp($"TrainSimulatorPlugin.{controlData.ControlName}_Max", controlData.ValueMax);
            }
        }
    }

    // Create a separate class for storing control data
    public class ControlData
    {
        public string ControlName { get; set; }
        public double Value { get; set; }
        public double ValueMin { get; set; }
        public double ValueMax { get; set; }
    }
}

[sjdawson]

not sure what is going on with the code tags

Updated your post for you to fix the code tags. (Edit your post to see how they were fixed - three backticks followed by the language to open, then three backticks to close).

However, I'm not sure what's going on in terms of what's wrong, but I could offer the following potential idea - If it's causing a slowdown and the numbers jumping around, there's a chance that something is running too frequently, or the previous iteration hasn't finished it's update before it runs the code again to update the properties. Pseudo explanation:

1. Opening and reading the text file into the variables takes time, and until that's done, the properties can't be updated yet.
2. But the plugin has already begun the next loop, trying to open and read the text file, and until that's done, the properties can't be updated yet.
3. But the plugin has already begun the next loop, trying to open and read the text file, and until that's done, the properties can't be updated yet.
4. The first time the file was opened (instruction 1 here) is now complete, so we'll set a property test = 1
5. The third time the file was opened (instruction 3 here) is now complete, so we'll set a property test = 3
6. The second time the file was opened (instruction 2 here) is now complete, so we'll set a property test = 2

For whatever reason, the second time the file tried to be opened, there was a delay - causing it to complete after the third iteration of the loop.

This is entirely hypothetical though - without knowing what's in the text file, or how often it's updated, or where that data is coming from, it's quite difficult to diagnose.

[Bekns]

I feel like you have hit the nail on the head here, it would explain exactly what I am seeing. I am going to try and implement some kind of pause to slow down the loop and hopefully allow the the properties to set in the correct order.

The issue I have is that Train Simulator is 64bit but the plugins for Simhub are 32bit so I have another program that runs and writes the text file then the plugin can read from that. If I cant get this to play nicely I might have a look at the program sending the info via UDP or something.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, it is much appreciated