Features I would like to see

As a user of X-Plane since version 5.xx it has been a joy to see how the sim has grown and changed. The XP community is remarkably active, creating add-ons, new scenery, thousands of aircraft, enhancements and tweaks.  And now with Microsoft's plans to end support for MSFS X-Plane can now take the foremost spot in personal computer flight simulation. 

However, there as still some things that I dream of seeing in XP.  First of all, I would like to see a "full featured" Garmin GNS 430/530.  Austin has no plans at this time to bring his 430 instrument up to speed.  There is an excellent one now available from reality-xp.com for the PC, but as I am running Mac my frustration remains.

A "full" G1000 would also be sweet.

Austin is remarkably receptive to suggestions for his marvelous creation.  For this we are all grateful, and we have all benefited from this openness.  His magnum opus is truly a community creation.

Does anyone know of other developments for XP glass? 

Also, what other features would you all like to see?

Ozwald,

I agree with a lot of what you have mentioned. In terms of glass the "technology" for it is being developed and working, and some previews of that type of stuff can be found here: http://forums.x-pilot.com/index.php?topic=81.0

It's not a fully featured G1000, but it IS a moving map with TAWS and TCAS, and completely custom code with no generics involved. I would say it's a safe guess that a G1000 will be in the foreseeable future.

   I was lucky enough to meet Austin a couple of weeks ago, and I asked him about all of the Garmin nav stuff. As you all may know, Austin needs to make money, and right now, the most money to be made is with the iPhone, agreed? So, Austin is currently focussing on the iPhone, so he can get the most sales. In the future, (When the iPhone buzz looses it's fizz) Austin's intentions are to eventually make a functional Garmin 430, 530, and 1000. Along with that, he wishes to take some time off to make a Columbia 400 for X-Plane. There are other features which he is working to add in the future, (which I am not allowed to tell you) but currently the sales equal: Garmin 430, 530, 1000: A few more sales, iPhone: 4000 times MORE sales  So for now, Austin is focused on the iPhone.  

   On a different note, I would like to see some new ground physics, such as runway friction with tires, and helicopter "sliding" And a feature that we all want, (Hey, admit it!) AI Traffic, is (supposedly) in development, but there are still no promises about it being implemented in X-Plane any time soon.

That's about all I have (Allowed ) to say for now!

-Jman

The lack of grip on runways is probably my biggest gripe with X-Plane. 

Jim

Yeah.  I keep meaning to modify the "screaming tires at 4 mph" sound file, too.  What a distraction.

What i would like to see if some aircraft on level with PMDG, LEVEL-D and the likes, all systems working and lovely 3D pits (the only way to fly). Things are going that way with X-Aviation and from what i can tell XPJets but still a little way off yet. To me the X737 just dosnt cut it compared to the PMDG737 so i only fly the MU-2 and Tecnam P92 in X-Plane at the moment.

About the tires screaming at 4 mph and the brakes not working proper, or the helicopter skids not working, I am talking with Austin about redoing some coeficients to make the ground model more realistic.

I would like to see (either as part of the main app, or probably more logically as another app) a benchmarking utility.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could:

1. Double Click "X-Performance Tuner.app"

2. The app would run through a series of real XP scenarios, testing performance of your system, sharing those results with the rest of the XP world in generic form (OS + RAM + VideoCard + HardDrive + MoBo...) and then recommending settings that are suitable for your hardware.

- I assume this would have to involve the main testing app launching and relaunching a helper app that systematically iterated through different graphics settings in a predetermined area + weather + plane to ensure you were actually testing the hardware consistently.

It would be nice to actually see standardized benchmarks for which people could use to help make purchasing decisions and help see what frame rates are possible with different settings enabled (generally speaking since different areas with different geography and object counts will impact this).

I should think this would also be tremendously useful for Laminar to be able to have hundreds of users around the world help test the performance of XP Betas on thousands of different machine configurations and help quickly compile performance data in a standardized manner.

Heck, you could even do something like we do in the web testing world with automated testing...the app could compile sample screen shots during the tests so that it's easy to do very basic validation that rendering isn't broken on some systems by looking for artifacts, white square..missing elements...etc.

X-Plane does have benchmark modes built in, I've been thinking about creating a web-app to consume the output of them so that they can be collated in a friendly, useful manner.

The downside is that X-Plane doesn't turn off all plugins when it runs the benchmarks..... some plugins use a lot of CPU time and not all users have them installed, and this skews the results.

Maybe I should take this up with Ben so that the benchmark modes disable the plugins when they're running...

The other thing is that the benchmark is run at the default airport for whatever version of the Sim you're using, this used to be KSBD in 8.x and now it's LOWI in 9.x.... it may change again in future, hopefully not halfway through a version run though.

We would also need a small helper app to kick X-Plane into the benchmark modes and take care of pushing the log files to the web-app on the server, it's a bit fiddly for some users. (Involves terminal... results are written to Log.txt)

(For the curious, it's a command line switch, --fps_test=1 2 or 3... 1 being low settings, 3 being high.)

Wynthorpe:

When you say the PMDG737, what exactly to you mean? 

John

Hiya Indi,

Cool idea to collect all that output.

I think the benchmarks should be run on stock setup of XP at the same airport and airplane. The only factors that are changing would be the hardware and the cmdline parameters.

Do you know which specific settings are used when running the benchmark options?

X-Plane does have benchmark modes built in, I've been thinking about creating a web-app to consume the output of them so that they can be collated in a friendly, useful manner.

The downside is that X-Plane doesn't turn off all plugins when it runs the benchmarks..... some plugins use a lot of CPU time and not all users have them installed, and this skews the results.

Maybe I should take this up with Ben so that the benchmark modes disable the plugins when they're running...

The other thing is that the benchmark is run at the default airport for whatever version of the Sim you're using, this used to be KSBD in 8.x and now it's LOWI in 9.x.... it may change again in future, hopefully not halfway through a version run though.

We would also need a small helper app to kick X-Plane into the benchmark modes and take care of pushing the log files to the web-app on the server, it's a bit fiddly for some users. (Involves terminal... results are written to Log.txt)

(For the curious, it's a command line switch, --fps_test=1 2 or 3... 1 being low settings, 3 being high.)

As far as I know it uses the default aircraft and default airport for a given version run.

The rest of the settings are controlled by laminar and basically range from very low graphics options to very high graphics options.

As already stated, the down side of this is that plugins are left enabled which can skew the results.

What i would like to see if some aircraft on level with PMDG, LEVEL-D and the likes, all systems working and lovely 3D pits (the only way to fly). Things are going that way with X-Aviation and from what i can tell XPJets but still a little way off yet. To me the X737 just dosnt cut it compared to the PMDG737 so i only fly the MU-2 and Tecnam P92 in X-Plane at the moment.

X737 V.4 may be better than the pmdg 737 And best of all its free. We are working on a new fuselage a 3d pit which I am building and new landing gear.

The avatar, which is showing the new fuselage and (untextured) gear, looks fantastic!

Yeah i know...im too much into eye candy  :

Thank you we put alot of work into this project. And there is still ALOT more to come

Rafael,

you should put up a few progress shots now and then, while we wait, so we have something to drool over and to pass the time I'm sure looking forward to a more detailed version!

Haha! Definitely  I may put up a whole section of the X737 project on the website. But I should get permission to first :-\. Who knows how long that can take!. But look forward to seeing new shots now and then..

Judging by your Avatar, the V4 of the x737 should be amazing! Both realism and Eye Candy! More than anyone could ever possibly want! Is there any place where we may be able to look at screenshots of V4's progress?

Thanks - Jason

;D as of today.. YES! there is a new section under Developement teams that I am building currently. Check it out please.

Hmmmmm....  ???

I can't find this section on the aedt website.  :-\

Ooh heh, there it is, on this forum

4 hours of flying online is too much  :

Hmmmmm....  ???

I can't find this section on the aedt website.  :-\

Nova,

It's a new section added here on X-Pilot.