Call for X-RAAS 2.0 testers (simulated Runway Awareness and Advisory System)

[skiselkov]

What is X-RAAS/RAAS?

X-RAAS is a simulation of the Honeywell Runway Awareness and Advisory System(*), an extension to the EGPWS. If you've ever seen cockpit videos where some robotic voice announces something like 'APPROACHING 09 RIGHT' or 'ON RUNWAY 09 RIGHT', that's RAAS.

What's the point of this post?

I've been hard at work on X-RAAS version 2.0. Basically, this is a from the ground up rewrite of X-RAAS 1.0, because I wasn't satisfied with the Lua scripting performance and limitations. As a consequence, X-RAAS 2.0 is written in C and is instead compiled as a native binary plugin with no dependencies on anything else. We retain all features from X-RAAS 1.0 (refer to link above), as well as get some new ones:

• Configuration GUI: no need to hack around with config files anymore. Everything can be set up through an easy to use graphical user interface.
• X-Plane 11 compatibility.
• Much better performance: no more stuttering when Lua decides to collect garbage.
• Resolved all audio compatibility issues: we now use a dedicate OpenAL context, so no more compatibility issues with JAR's GroundHandling and the LES SAAB 340A.
• Ability to selectively enable/disable each monitoring function.
• Much nicer text rendering and substitutable fonts.
• Ability to change the 'LONG LANDING' into the 'DEEP LANDING' annunciation.

This is a call for alpha/beta testers. The code is very nearly finished and is usable for day-to-day flying, but there is always potential for pitfalls. Given that this is written in C, bugs can lead to crashing the simulator. As such, the beta release is only suitable for people who are not afraid to see the occasional crash and are willing to provide testing feedback, such as explaining what you did, what settings you were using, willing to supply log files / crash dumps, etc.

If you are not turned off by this, head over to https://github.com/skiselkov/X-RAAS2/releases, grab the latest X-RAAS2.zip and go flying!

Note to aircraft developers

If you'd like to integrate X-RAAS into your avionics package, you are quite welcome to do so! X-RAAS can feed you visual alerts for display on the ND, configuring the stabilized approach monitor and more. The installation package includes an avionics integration guide in the Documentation folder to guide you in the process (or just message me, I'll be happy to help). You can also grab the source from Github and build an embeddable version, so you can ship X-RAAS with your product.

(*) More accurately, Honeywell SmartRunway and SmartLanding.

Edited December 13, 2016 by skiselkov
Removed "beta" from forum topic name.

[Defiance_co]

Hiya,

Count me in

Thanks

Tony

[skiselkov]

Just now, Defiance_co said:

Count me in

Thanks. Let me know if you need any help getting this running. If you were running X-RAAS 1.0, be sure to remove it so you don't get duplicate callouts. This no longer depends on FlyWithLua, so just install it as a stand-alone plugin into Resources/plugins.

[Defiance_co]

Hiya,

Fresh install so nothing added

Any problems i'll post back, be tomorrow i start testing as i need sleep (almost 11pm)

Have Fun

Thanks

Tony

[skiselkov]

Version 2.0 beta 2 is out, available on the Github project releases page. Changes:

• Fixed assertion failure when an invalid runway ID is detected in an apt.dat.

• Hardened parsers to perform much more validation of the scenery database.

• Bumped X-RAAS cache version number to force cache rebuild using new algorithm.

• Implemented auto-translation of US runway numbers in scenery database.

• Implemented stripping of 'T' from earth_nav.dat files referencing runways using true heading numbers (e.g. "08T" at BGTL).

[skiselkov]

Version 2.0, release candidate 1, available on the Github project release page. Changes:

• Added harder detection of malformed VGSI entries.
• Made GS antenna elevation always be equal to the threshold elevation for auto-computation purposes (avoids strange behaviors for GS antennas with bad elevation values).
• Fixed error when the cache was manually removed and subsequently the user used the menu entry to recreate it.
• Fixed incorrect cache location in gui.c after it has been moved to Output/caches.
• Bumped cache version to regenerate caches using newly hardened algorithm.

[skiselkov]

Version 2.0, release candidate 2, available on the Github project release page. Changes:

• Fixed regression when enabling use_tts would crash the sim on attempting to emit an annunciation.

[skiselkov]

Version 2.0, release candidate 3, available on the Github project release page. Changes:

• Implemented parsing of APPCH procedures to extract the runway GPA.
• Removed guessing at the TCH & GPA by scanning the location of GS antennas.
• Documented all the new options in the PDF and the sample config file.
• Included sample config in distribution package.
• Added the auto_disable_notify option to the config GUI.
• Switched from '--' to '#' for comments in the config file. The legacy '--' combo is retained for backwards compatibility.

[skiselkov]

Version 2.0, release candidate 4, available on the Github project release page. Changes:

• Rewritten documentation in pdfTeX to obtain more consistent formatting.
• Added lots more error checking and reporting to the OpenAL integration to check for all kinds of weird underlying OpenAL errors.

Edited January 2, 2017 by skiselkov

[skiselkov]

GA version 2.0 released: