Reversers don't display in replay

[Bill Grabowski]

CRJ Team,

Before I hit the topic, I just want to say that after several flights in both Win 7 and Linux, I am impressed. You get 5 stars for realism and usability, and I love flying the CRJ. I'm also impressed with the manual. It really gets the info out in an clear, informative,and easily read style (I'm 1/3 the way through it, but worth it). Well done!

The one thing I've noticed so far is that in replay mode the thrust reversers aren't seen to reverse. This is a small bug admittedly, but was also present in another commercial RJ for X-Plane, and there is a solution.

Thank you for your excellent work!

Bill

P.S. I also note better frame rates in Linux than Win 7, but I have not yet found a way to use my TrackIR and PFC yoke, pedals, and quadrant in Linux, and they hugely add to realism.

[Ben Russell]

Complicated products dont mix well with X-Planes replay mode.

The "solution" is to use a chunk of system ram and sacrifice FPS to saving data you may never want to see.

Then we have to write a whole bunch of code to make sure all the data you may never want to see replays properly.

It's a little like putting 3 months of editing work into a movie of a 1 week family vacation.

Personally I'd just get used to X-Planes replay mode being broken and quirky, you're going to see more and more of it as systems complexity increases.

[Bill Grabowski]

Ben,

Hmm ... the CRJ flaps, spoilers, and gear all work with the replay mode, and I would consider the reversers to be a major subsystem, so it's not something "I would not want to see" in operation in a replay mode, which I use frequently and consider a major advantage of X-Plane over its main rival whose name will not be mentioned. I would guess the reversers are controlled by a boolean variable whose value shouldn't take much memory, and the reverser display code should be an existing function easily called.

But ... I'll take your word for it and I'll "imagine" the reversers. A minor but quite noticeable omission as I hear the engine thrust increase while the airplane slows.

Bill

[brownsen]

As Ben said, you gotta get used to. Planes like Peter Hager's A380 also behave in a funny way.

Sometimes I actually get some fun out of it. Load the CRJ200, connect the GPU, load a replay with a CRJ200 in flight. Now enjoy a flying GPU 

[gdxplane]

I would like to add my voice to those who think replay mode is an important feature of X-Plane. I've been told that unless

the flight control uses X-Plane standard datafefs, it will not show in replay. I e-mailed my concern to Randy Witt at X-Plane

and he forwarded it to Austin Meyer with the suggestion that this issue be considered in future upgrades of X-Plane 10.

Hopefully developers and the people at X-Plane can find a way to retain what have been the good features of X-Plane. In

the future I will be checking with the developer about how well the aircraft offered for sale performs in replay mode before

spending $59.95.

[Cameron]

In

the future I will be checking with the developer about how well the aircraft offered for sale performs in replay mode before

spending $59.95.

I do realize some people have their own reasons for things, so I'm sorry to hear your not satisfied with your purchase due to replay not showing reverse thrusters, Gene.

This is really an X-Plane limitation. Using the standard dataref over our own for systems modeling purposes can cause another feature of the aircraft not to work during flight, and two datarefs cannot be tied to the same animation. Given this situation, I think it's best we opt for what works during your flight experience in real time and not what happens in replay mode.

I'd like to ask...out of simple curiosity, however...what is it about a reverse thrust not showing in replay mode that makes your purchase price factor be questionable so much? What do you use it for?

[gdxplane]

Cameron,

I've had X-Plane for years and have purchased many aircraft. I enjoy the accurate real-time external

views of the aircraft and have always enjoyed being able to watch replays of difficult landing situations.

Until now most of the basic operations of the aircraft have been visible in replay. I understand that it is

not now practical to save everything to replay mode, but I hate to see the movement of basic flight controls

eliminated from replay. I have so many beautiful planes now that I will just be more careful in the future

to choose products sensitive to my preferences. I only mentioned the price in this discussion because

the CRJ-200 is described as one of the most advanced X-Planes. I enjoy the CRJ-200 very much, but one

of the features I always took for granted does not work any more.

[Cameron]

Hi, Gene,

As an X-Plane user myself going on 12 years I can certainly understand how things have just always "worked." Part of that was the simplicity level for which X-Plane offered to artists. Until the SDK came out we did not even have the ability to do things like reverse thrust animations.

As time goes on and the market demands it, things like you speak of will go further and further into the realm of departing X-Plane's internal, default capabilities and more features like you speak of will break in replay mode. The only real solution here is for Austin to do a complete re-write, but knowing him as well as I do, I am quite certain this would and is not anywhere near the top of his bucket list.

Not having reverse thrust animations (or flaps should it end up that way someday) show up in replay mode is not a bad compromise in my opinion when it comes to functionality during live flight. So long as we are able to push the bounds of X-Plane into a new era, I think the replay mode shouldn't be such a drawback.

That said, I do realize I am one man, and this is one man's opinion. In a perfect world we would have both, but we're teeter tottering between leveraging the SDK and pushing the bounds for exceptional add-ons, or keeping thing relatively status quo just for the sake of replaying a landing and seeing an animation "go." Given the options, I'm quite confident we've made the right decision to continue to push the envelope further than what X-Plane's default engine provides, and I dearly hope other developers and distributors do the same!