Studio

Simulation Instrument Studio is a free application you install to create and test instruments. Simulation Panel is a free application that lets you place those instruments together and run them.

The panel is the part of the cockpit you actually look at. A gauge that will not run, or that costs another seat for the screen on the other side of the room, gets in the way of that. An instrument you develop, one you import from the community, or one you bring from another platform runs free in Studio and in Panel, on the computer in front of you, a Raspberry Pi, or a mini-PC.

A premium instrument is a different thing. Some are built button by button to match a cockpit instrument. They are in the store if you want that one. You do not buy one to run an instrument you already have.

Test Pilot is built into Studio. It runs the instrument without starting the simulator, so a change to a needle or a caption does not cost you a full boot. You stay in the work.

A breakpoint stops the code and freezes the instrument on the screen. From there you can step through every file and every function in the instrument or continue on to the next breakpoint. You see the screen rendered in sync with your debugging. Hover a variable and Studio shows its value. You finish the instrument you had in mind, put it on the panel, and fly it.