This is the 6th and final part in my series of blog posts on RTI RID configuration tips. Each of these tips, unless otherwise noted, works in HLA 1.3, HLA 1516-2000, or HLA Evolved. If you’re interested in learning how to make better use of your RID file, check out the previous posts in this series as well.

Part 1 – RID Consistency Checking
Part 2 – The Advantages of MTL
Part 3 – Utilize Environment Variables
Part 4 – Modularizing Your RID 
Part 5 – Programmatic Configuration 

Make sure you know what parameters your federate is actually using

Anyone who spends any time configuring RID files is bound to make a mistake from time to time. I know I do, and a large number of the questions we get in support are configuration issues as well. Even if you think you’ve setup your RID file correctly, there are some parameters that can be overridden by the RTI Assistant or programmatically by your federate code. That means examining the RID file doesn’t always tell you exactly how a federate is configured. So how can you tell? Well, there’s a RID parameter for that, of course!

This is part 5 in my series of blog posts on RTI RID configuration tips. Check out the previous posts in this series, and stay tuned for more to come.

Part 1 – RID Consistency Checking 

Part 2 – The Advantages of MTL

Part 3 – Utilize Environment Variables 

Part 4 – Modularizing Your RID 

Change RID parameters programmatically in HLA 1516-2000 and HLA Evolved

The RID file isn’t the only way to specify RTI configuration parameters. Many people don’t know that RID parameters can also be specified programmatically by the federate. Unfortunately there was no mechanism for this in the HLA 1.3 API, but in 1516-2000 such a mechanism was added, and the same idea was kept in HLA Evolved (though the API for it changed). In HLA 1516-2000 and HLA Evolved, the standard included a way to pass a string or series of strings to the RTI to be used in RTI initialization. Since RTI configuration is different for every RTI, the standard left it to RTI developers to determine how these strings were used. As a result, this is one of the few areas of the API that will work differently from RTI to RTI. So if your federate needs to operate with multiple RTIs, you may want to consider other configuration options or have a switch in your code based on what RTI you are using. So how can you use these strings with the MÄK RTI?