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AviTab for Microsoft Flight Simulator
A Windows executable Avitab-msfs.exe (Avitab-MSFS) is provided in the Avitab download for running with MSFS. This is a standalone application which communicates with MSFS using the MSFS SDK. The executable requires SimConnect.dll to be in the same directory. Avitab-MSFS is an early prototype version mainly suitable for those coming from XPlane who already have some familiarity with Avitab and have assets such as calibrated Mercator charts.
As of Avitab 0.6.1, it is very much a work in progress. Nav data may be inconsistent with MSFS and it does have several quirks/bugs. Nevertheless, a few of us have been using it for several months and have found it has enhanced our MSFS flying experience.
If you are a die-hard MSFS fan with no interest in XPlane, this may not be for you just yet. Work on an improved Avitab for MSFS is ongoing and is hoped that in the future, it will become a better fit for MSFS users.
To use Avitab-MSFS simply start running the executable. It can be started before or after Flight Simulator. The familiar Avitab display will appear in a desktop Window, initially Loading nav data ..., followed by the home screen. In the maps display the user aircraft will be shown at location (0,0) until the flight is started, and will then locate correctly.
A significant issue is that Avitab-MSFS still pulls all its nav/airport data from files in an XPlane install. So even though using with MSFS, it still needs an XPlane install to work. It is not necessary to run XPlane. Installing a (free) demo version of XPlane is sufficient for Avitab MSFS to work.
There will be inconsistencies in data. Almost all aerodrome locations will be correct (these don't normally move about). Older navaid locations will be correct. Some navaids and waypoints may be missing. Bearings and runway headings may have changed. With XPlane Avitab, some data is dynamically accessed from XPlane, so may result in bad data in MSFS.
Mercator charts can be calibrated with Avitab using XPlane data and verified using XPlane map overlays. Almost all info required by a pilot is typically on a chart PDF already, so map overlays (e.g. navaids) are not required for a chart when in flight. The calibration itself will still be valid, so provided no overlays are enabled, there should be no inconsistent data shown on the chart.
Other Avitab apps, like Airports, Routes may have data inconsistencies.
The Aircraft app looks for XPlane data, so does not work with MSFS.
This is always shown as 1000
The user aircraft position, heading and altitude is tracked OK through MSFS SimConnect.
Some other MSFS aircraft are shown if the "Other Aircraft" overlay is enabled. However, these are not reliably MSFS Multiplayer or injected (e.g. Vatsim) aircraft, but seem to be AI aircraft generated by the simulation. MSFS SDK updates are required for this to work correctly. Maybe then it might start working in a useful way. But for the moment, it's best to disable this overlay.
This is a standalone application which does not automatically have a VR window in MSFS VR. Work is underway to improve this.
There are several solutions which allow users to bring a desktop window into VR. Steam VR allows any desktop window/application to be imported into VR, positioned and resized.
Mouse/VR controller focus then can become awkward, but JoyToKey helps. A couple of techniques are in use to toggle focus between MSFS and Avitab-MSFS. In both cases ensure that Flight Simulator is running in windowed (ie not full-screen) mode.
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Ensure MSFS and Avitab are at positions 1 and 2 in the Windows taskbar. In JoyToKey, assign 2 buttons to the Windows keyboard shortcuts for [Windows Logo Key + 1] and [Windows Logo Key + 2]. This allows a button click (with a little mouse wiggling) to shift focus between MSFS and Avitab.
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Using JoyToKey, assign a button to trigger the key sequence [Alt-tab] followed by [Enter] after a short delay (500ms works well). This will toggle the top two windows in the stack. Before immersing yourself in VR ensure that Flight Simulator and Avitab-MSFS are the foreground and next window. During flight a single button click will move focus.
Others have reported some success with OVRToolkit for this sort of thing, but I've not managed to get it to work acceptably with Avitab-MSFS.