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IXEG 737 Progress Update - December 1st


tkyler
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Will there be mouse-scroll support?

 

Not initially. It'll come after user feedback. The manipulators are something of a wonder on this aircraft and will probably be the smoothest mouse click/drag experience you've ever seen in a product. I've not found myself missing scroll wheel AT ALL in this product, but we'll see what you guys all so for future versions after you have a play.

 

 

 

Is there any way to save the panel state to continue flights later

 

I haven't personally tested this, but given the presence of tons of custom datarefs, I'm going to say "probably not".

 

 

 

or try different things from one starting point in the air?

 

You can do selections in X-Plane like approach, etc and it'll work okay in some instances.

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Thx for your fast reply.

 

 

You can do selections in X-Plane like approach, etc and it'll work okay in some instances.

 

I am not sure, if i understand what you want to say.

Maybe if i want to train different Approaches i thought i have to fly to the point where to decide what approach i wanna use, pause the sim  and save the situation within x-Plane. With the saved situation i can start the training over and over again from the same position. Do you have another way in mind?

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I am not sure, if i understand what you want to say.
Maybe if i want to train different Approaches i thought i have to fly to the point where to decide what approach i wanna use, pause the sim  and save the situation within x-Plane. With the saved situation i can start the training over and over again from the same position. Do you have another way in mind?

 

X-Plane has a menu selection you can use to do various things, including being on final for a specific runway, etc as a load state. It is this feature I am speaking of.

 

I suppose if you do a load/save situation with very basic settings (not a bunch of stuff saved in the FMS, etc) you might find it to work. Your mileage may vary on this one!

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There are a myriad of things we want to do and have no argument against putting a lot in.   There really isn't a request we are not aware of or haven't heard of, and perhaps agree with.

 

Most of these what I will call "convenience items",  scrollwheel,  shared copilot, hardware integration, replay, saved situations, etc...they MIGHT be doable.   It is difficult to answer the question TBH because we are not currently looking at / focused on those things.  We have given ourselves an imperative to get the product out with as much "accurate functionality" as we can muster.   The INTERFACE to that functionality and conveniences thereof....we'll really have to wait until after its released and we can turn our focus to those items.

 

The ability of the software is getting so vast now that what we CAN do is increasing faster than our resources can keep up.  The paradigm of having a super complete product is more difficult than it used to be.    We certainly need a minimum amount of course and our idea of a minimum amount is a lot, but its not all. 

 

Ok, given all that jibber,  "mid-flight" scenarios have their challenges mostly due to x-plane's own simulation engine.  At the instant you reset the state, about a gazillion variables are getting intiialized and not always in the correct order, meaning some variables we try to read at startup/reset aren't ready yet...and this can be enough to cause havoc.   So while we have the means to control start state of controls on our end, we do not have the ability to control start state on x-plane's end.  There are probably ways to code around this, but it won't be looked at for a bit.  The request/desire for the feature is duly noted though, even with us.  Flying complete flights to test approaches isn't the most efficient use of time at the moment.

 

-tkyler

Edited by tkyler
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Feature creep can cause unnecessary delays in software development. IXEG is taking the right approach here. It appears that the project is at a stage where they are no longer adding new features, but are instead focused on refining all the items that will make it into release. Getting version 1.0 out and into the hands of customer is an important step. All the non critical parts can be added in subsequent version of the software.

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@tkyler: Any screenshot at this time would be highly welcome :) If it's just what you are working with atm or some quick render. Please go ahead and post it. I don't know what to do right now. I am planning on ordering three ixeg 737's as fast as they just come out. For me, and for flight simmer friends :D Maybe just a quick 1080p recording if you already are planning on hopping in for a quick flight. I love to see the ixeg 737 flying, and seeing the all the nice cockpit elements in action! :D You guys rock!!

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Thx for your fast reply.

 

 

 

I am not sure, if i understand what you want to say.

Maybe if i want to train different Approaches i thought i have to fly to the point where to decide what approach i wanna use, pause the sim  and save the situation within x-Plane. With the saved situation i can start the training over and over again from the same position. Do you have another way in mind?

 

We have some code in place to switch the plane into a flyable state if you use X-Plane´s "position onto final" buttons on the local map.

 

There is another way I use to "set myself up" wherever I want, either at a 10NM final or at 37.000 feet mid-air: Spawn the plane on the runway. Set up flaps the way you like. Use the local map to position the plane, set the desired altitude and airspeed. Click close. Now the plane is where you put it, raise the gear, turn on the autopilot and autothrust and click ALT HOLD. Now you can take over from there...

 

As far as more screenshots and video is concerned: They are coming. We are pondering to release the videos I am making to accompany our written tutorials. There will be at least 6 of them, and I think we will space them to lead up to release. That being said, we won´t really start posting them until we have a "finished product" and what is remaining is documentation and packaging. Our beta testers will also be free to share their impressions before we release, so there should be a flurry of media in the timeframe before release.

 

Cheers, Jan

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The manipulators are something of a wonder on this aircraft and will probably be the smoothest mouse click/drag experience you've ever seen in a product. I've not found myself missing scroll wheel AT ALL in this product, but we'll see what you guys all so for future versions after you have a play.

 

Other airliners for X-Plane have had click/drag controls that have been terrible to use and that's maybe why people are crying out for scroll wheel. However, the click/drag on FlyJSim's 727 and 737 is pretty good and shows if you get it right, there is no need for scroll wheel operation. Try setting the altimeter on the 732 Twinjet, it's silky smooth and really easy to get the setting you're aiming for. 

 

I fly X-Plane and FSX, and one of many great things about X-Plane is being able to quickly zoom in and out of the cockpit with the scroll wheel, combined with the right mouse button for panning - you can't do that in FSX. Where X-Plane aircraft have implemented scroll wheel support, the end result is when I'm trying to pan and zoom around the cockpit I sometimes grab a scroll wheel control by mistake and end up changing the speed selection or altimeter baro setting when I actually wanted to zoom in to read something. Honestly, having one physical control/movement doing 2 completely different things is really bad HMI design.

 

So, good on IXEG for sticking to their guns, let people try using click/drag and if some people really, really need to have it work like an FSX aircraft then implement scroll wheel support as a switchable option.

 

Also, as my profile photo shows, I've had a quick flight in a 737NG fixed base simulator - trust me, dialling in a big heading change with a quick spin of a mouse scroll wheel like you can in FSX aircraft is not realistic and a scroll wheel doesn't allow the range of movement or accuracy of the knobs in the real thing. My mouse scroll wheel only moves about 9 detents before I have to lift my finger and start again. So, how can I dial in 120 degrees heading change with one movement in the PMDG 777? Well, the answer is I can't. I can try, but I might dial in 107 degrees, or I might dial 144 degrees -  I have no way to control how fast the knob turns in response to the scroll wheel. It's nonsense but it's all FSX has to offer. X-Plane is better than that.

Edited by captain_alligator
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The Best Testteam is not a 10 Head Team.

 

The Best Testteam is a Team with more above 200 Headteam :D

 

So relese the 737CL and let yous Test the Plane and your work.

 

and i say you, The Community find more issus if you want ;-)

 

So lets Go Start the Payment of the Plane now :wub:

Edited by simeg
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The Best Testteam is not a 10 Head Team.

 

The Best Testteam is a Team with more above 200 Headteam :D

 

So relese the 737CL and let yous Test the Plane and your work.

 

and i say you, The Community find more issus if you want ;-)

 

So lets Go Start the Payment of the Plane now :wub:

 

But a 200-strong test team can be overwhelming - These guys know what they're doing, and they want happy users with a highly-stable and accurate simulation - Not a tonne of complaints about things not being right!

 

Patience is rewarding, why not just wait a little longer and not have to worry about any problems?

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PFPX lets you export a myriad of different formats for different addons, I couldn't find one in .fpl but I know that many addons use Aerosoft Airbuses .flp and I could export XP's .fms

All of the other addons seem to use different kinds of formats. Don't know if they will be of any use but I'll drop them here just in case. 

 

Hello Heinz, so we managed to write an importer for this format (.flp)....at least for the sample given.   Would you mind tossing another .flp plan out with a DIRECT in the route, so we know how .flp represents those?

 

a small inconvenience with the .flp example files you provided is that the first airway (or via) in the file is an airway...whereas usually the first line in a plan/coroute is a "DIRECT' to some point and then from there airways are specified.  I have to do a bit of a code tap dance around this when a simple entry such as:  Airway1=DIRECT would fix the issue.  Is this something you have control over?  or is this just how the plan is generated?  Its not critical, we've already coded around it, but I'm more curious if we are apt to see a variation that we haven't accounted for in the format.

 

-tkyler

Edited by tkyler
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a small inconvenience with the .flp example files you provided is that the first airway (or via) in the file is an airway...whereas usually the first line in a plan/coroute is a "DIRECT' to some point and then from there airways are specified.  I have to do a bit of a code tap dance around this when a simple entry such as:  Airway1=DIRECT would fix the issue.  Is this something you have control over?  or is this just how the plan is generated?  Its not critical, we've already coded around it, but I'm more curious if we are apt to see a variation that we haven't accounted for in the format.

 

Hi tkyler, I hope Heinz wont mind me helping out here. I have been looking at some previous flights I have exported from PFPX and here is an example of the direct format you where looking for.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o5ollzbndcu13qy/LOWILFMN.flp?dl=0

 

Regards 

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thanks for all those .fpls guys, we'll try a few of them this week...should be no problem.

 

At release time will there be a list of custom datarefs that are used for people who are interested in doing hardware?

 

We hope so....it doesn't take long to export them all into a list; however, making that list nice and pretty with descriptions of each might be time-consuming enough that we wait until after release.   Do note, we plan to be very busy after release as well.  Certainly a list of both datarefs and commands are warranted.   

 

-tkyler

Edited by tkyler
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thanks for all those .fpls guys, we'll try a few of them this week...should be no problem.

 

We hope so....it doesn't take long to export them all into a list; however, making that list nice and pretty with descriptions of each might be time-consuming enough that we wait until after release.   Do note, we plan to be very busy after release as well.  Certainly a list of both datarefs and commands are warranted.   

 

-tkyler

 

Almost every time now I read a post from you, that has something to do with "release" it makes me more happy, you're talking like it's boiling for release. :D I think you guys are just around the corner now. :D 

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