What is Gizmo and why is it used in a freeware aircraft but not possible to download?

[InitiatedAunt74]

@InitiatedAunt74 currently the only way to get the Gizmo plugin is if you own any X-Aviation product.

 

Uh wait what?   I thought Gizmo was available for, and required by a variety of freeware aircraft including the PIAGGIO P180_Avanti_II from this forum's downloads section.

There's a website with a broken dropbox link, but this Gizmo thing, which is uniquely associated with x-pilot and x-aviation is now abandonware that can't be downloaded anywhere?

>Gizmo64 is a plugin for the X-Plane flight simulator that lets you program in Lua Script.

So, now, besides not being available for Linux, which is one of the three platforms that XPlane users use, we have the issue that it's basically not possible to get this and use it for aircraft developers, or people using things that rely on it?

Shouldn't the gizmo64.com website be downed then?   Other references on other forums point to this being used by other commercial and freeware products.

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by InitiatedAunt74

[Ben Russell]

19 minutes ago, InitiatedAunt74 said:

@InitiatedAunt74 currently the only way to get the Gizmo plugin is if you own any X-Aviation product.

 

Uh wait what?   I thought Gizmo was available for, and required by a variety of freeware aircraft including the PIAGGIO P180_Avanti_II from this forum's downloads section.

There's a website with a broken dropbox link, but this Gizmo thing, which is uniquely associated with x-pilot and x-aviation is now abandonware that can't be downloaded anywhere?

That gives me a bad feeling.  Quoting its web page, which is still up:

Gizmo64 is a plugin for the X-Plane flight simulator that lets you program in Lua Script.

So, now, besides not being available for Linux, which is one of the three platforms that XPlane users use, we have the issue that it's basically abandonware?

We have XLua, XTLua,  FlyWithLua, and SASL all of which support all three, and we have one you can download if you buy an X-Aviation product only? 

Shouldn't the gizmo64.com website be downed then?   Other references on other forums point to this being used by other commercial and freeware products.

 

Maybe it's your entitled attitude that should be downed.

Gizmo is alive and well. You, wanting a free lunch, will have to wait your turn. I owe you exactly nothing.

[InitiatedAunt74]

Wow, that was rude.

Are you always this testy Ben?

[Cameron]

Hey @InitiatedAunt74,

Was it the Piaggio specifically you're trying to get to work? It's true that public access has been removed. I'm not aware of wide scale freeware adoption outside of the Piaggio, but if you need help obtaining it you can message me.

That said, if it's use on Linux you're after, you're right, there's no Linux plugin available regardless of what I can provide.

[InitiatedAunt74]

It turns out that for the Piaggio specifically, it includes a subdirectory with a zip file inside that includes the runtime files needed to install in your primary X-Plane

plugins folder.  

Isn't that hilarious?     The author of the Piaggio stated that it wasn't there, but I was looking around, and it's there.

Anyways, my complaint was not that I can't have a free aircraft (WAH! POOR ME!) my complaint is that I'm a new X-Plane aircraft maker of freeware aircraft and wanted to evaluate this thing to see if I want to use it. We had been discussing SASL versus GIZMO over on .org's plane maker sub forum.

But I'm distinctly displeased not only with Ben's attitude towards me, but also the way he treats other people on threads on these forums.  It seems to me that Gizmo is a one man show, and I'm not a big fan of that one man's attitude or vibe.    You remember that kid who wants to take his marbles and go home, when you were in grade three. Yeah that.

The Piaggio is a great draw to the X-Pilot site as it's literally one of the nicest freeware aircraft out there for X-Plane.  However, I do not much like the Gizmo process of being a main-XPlane-resources folder plugin, I would much rather it be a per aircraft plugin, but perhaps that's not possible.   Whatever, it works.

Strike two is lack of Linux support, as I want to provide all three.  Strike three, is it seems that freeware use is probably not a great idea, as the focus seems to be for payware authors, and if you want to use it, you use it at Ben's discretion and if and only if he says so, which seems like not a great fit if being thought of as an alternative to SASL, which it's basically not.

Edited February 12, 2022 by InitiatedAunt74

[Cameron]

@InitiatedAunt74,

I would agree that it doesn't seem Gizmo would be for you on the premise that you prefer a per-aircraft setup. Linux is up in the air as well, and as you've indicated that's important for you.

For now, we really aren't utilizing it for anything but payware. That may change one day, but not for now. I won't get into semantics over your displeasure with Ben, but I will stand up for Gizmo and state that it's extremely powerful and optimized over the competing option.

Only other note, while irrelevant at this point, is Gizmo is installed already on hundreds of thousands of computers. The per aircraft thing is kind of moot anyhow at this point. Chances are very, very slim someone you have installing whatever future product you create doesn't also have Gizmo installed anyhow.

Best of luck in whatever you create!

[InitiatedAunt74]

Totally agree and thanks for being a friendly community around here. You guys are great.

[-Paul-]

On 2/17/2022 at 12:21 AM, InitiatedAunt74 said:

Totally agree and thanks for being a friendly community around here. You guys are great.

Agreed. Most of the posts within this forum are great too.

[Ashelyan]

Guys anyone can help me in providing a proper link to download the latest Gizmo64 plugin version 20.07.19.0120?

I tried many links and even the Gizmo offical site but non of the links are working. The Gizmo64 download on the Gizmo site leads to a dropbox error page???

Is there any link I can download the Gizmo64.plugin-20.07.19.0120

Thank you

[mjrhealth]

6 hours ago, Ashelyan said:

Guys anyone can help me in providing a proper link to download the latest Gizmo64 plugin version 20.07.19.0120?

I tried many links and even the Gizmo offical site but non of the links are working. The Gizmo64 download on the Gizmo site leads to a dropbox error page???

Is there any link I can download the Gizmo64.plugin-20.07.19.0120

Thank you

No you cant. Gizmo updates it self from what I understand unless they are doing Beta testing.

[Ben Russell]

8 hours ago, Ashelyan said:

Guys anyone can help me in providing a proper link to download the latest Gizmo64 plugin version 20.07.19.0120?

I tried many links and even the Gizmo offical site but non of the links are working. The Gizmo64 download on the Gizmo site leads to a dropbox error page???

Is there any link I can download the Gizmo64.plugin-20.07.19.0120

Thank you

Why do you need an old version of Gizmo?

 

[RandyC]

Ben, it's not that I need an "old version of Gizmo", but in my case, Gizmo64 keeps notifying me with a popup that there is a new version and I need to update.  I've been checking your site for a few months now, but on your Gizmo page, there isn't a link to download a new version, or any version of the Gizmo64 plugin.
I would like to update mine.  I have version 20.07.0120.  If there is a new version out there, could you please post a link where I can download it?  Every link I find to download it either takes me to Threshold, where this is also no link to download the package, or to your Gizmo page, where there is also no link to download the package anymore.
If nothing else, could you at please advise me on how to turn off the popup that keeps telling me to download the new version?  It covers other plugin status notifications and I can't figure out a way to move it out of the way.

Oh, you had, in another thread, advised me to "rerun my product installer to get the update", but that didn't tell me which product installer you were advising me to rerun.  I didn't get an installer with my original download of Gizmo64.  It was just a Zip file to unpack and drop in plugins.  I did drop in a fresh copy of that from my backup drive, but that didn't make the notification go away.  I assume that's because that's the same version I already have.

Thanks. 

Edited May 17, 2022 by RandyC

[Cameron]

51 minutes ago, RandyC said:

Oh, you had, in another thread, advised me to "rerun my product installer to get the update", but that didn't tell me which product installer you were advising me to rerun.

Any X-Aviation product installer. It is the only way to obtain new version of Gizmo. It is no longer available for public consumption outside of that.

 

51 minutes ago, RandyC said:

If nothing else, could you at please advise me on how to turn off the popup that keeps telling me to download the new version?  It covers other plugin status notifications and I can't figure out a way to move it out of the way.

You can't.

[Ben Russell]

The only product I'm aware of that was distributed without an installer is the piagio avanti which is a freeware demo product.

Clicking the update notice box should hide it. 

[RandyC]

Cameron, Ben, Thank you both for your replies.  Yes, it was when I installed the Piaggio Avanti that I got that plugin.  That explains it.  Thanks for your replies.

Ben, yes clicking it does clear it, it's just in the same position as two other plugin info boxes that only load at startup, so with it there, I can't read any of them.  No big deal.  Thanks again.

Edited May 19, 2022 by RandyC

[InitiatedAunt74]

So for anyone following up:

 

1. Gizmo is for payware authors on Windows and Mac only.  (not linux)

 

2. Get a different piaggio download (not the one from x-pilot) that was made for XPlane 9 and ported to XP10 and XP 11, elsewhere if you want a piaggio that flies and has no gizmo.

 

Edited September 23, 2022 by InitiatedAunt74

[Cameron]

7 minutes ago, InitiatedAunt74 said:

1. Gizmo is for payware authors on Windows only.

And Mac.

[Ben Russell]

... Which covers 98% of users. 

http://dashboard.x-plane.com/

 

Also, the avanti has been shipped with the xp11 sim for free for years. 

Not sure if it's still included with 12..

[daemotron]

It was included up to v10 - in 11, Laminar had it removed already.

P. S. for anyone starting to dip their toes into creating aircraft, before going with the big bazookas (Gizmo, SASL) why not do your first steps with xLua (or xtLua)? Sure it's less powerful, but also simpler and easier to get into the absolute basics.

Edited September 24, 2022 by daemotron