MU-2 progress towards update

[Xflyboy]

Family is ALWAYS first!

Best of Luck.

[Dozer]

That will coincide with me getting my X-Plane PC back into Gizmoland! Awesome.

[tkyler]

REPORT. Hey guys, I am definitely not staying idle on the MU2. In fact, I have been on it for days now simply trying to animate the throttle levers with hardware. Simple right? Well it SHOULD BE. and for all you code guys out there who might say, "have you tried this or have you tried that", then the answer is yes. You can try a lot of different things and troubleshooting over 24 hours of trying to achieve one task in about 15 lines of code. Consistency of operation of the throttle like the Moo is a pain. I am running into behavior I haven't seen before, like x-plane choking on a empty for loop inside a flight loop....."well it shouldn't"......well it does, etc. Anyhow, this is out of my inbox and on my desk and just as soon as I can get it all working, we'll put it out. Sorry guys....but I keep getting tackled at the goal line.

Edited January 18, 2012 by tkyler

[steven winslow]

I took the Moo up for a quick pattern at KSCK last night. What a joy to fly with all my Saitek gear. I bought the MU2 back when I was flying with only a mouse and she was a joy then, but now, with rudder pedals, radios, throttle quadrant and yoke, she's a blast! Just need to remember how to trim her for takeoff now. Looking forward to the update, but still in love with the original!

[tkyler]

Well I think you'll really love the update Steven. I'm making steady progress on this one issue...probably stubbornness trying to make what I designed work instead of using a workaround...but either/or, I'm determined to get this done asap.

[tkyler]

OK..I think perseverance has paid off. Special thanks to Sandy Barbour for getting me past a wall, as usual, his help is of immense value to the community. I think I've got all the bugs for this release squashed and I'm in comprehensive testing. Let's hope nothing crops up. After my testing, I'll send it off to some other testers while we prepare the distribution stuff and....fingers crossed....3-5 days is my current hope. There's a few scraggling "features" I still hope to put in after the release..mostly for convenience reasons..but at the least it'll still leave something to look forward to.

-Tom

Edited January 19, 2012 by tkyler

[MaidenFan]

Great! I'm really looking forward to this update!

[Dozer]

That's awesome! Sadly I'm in my internetless flat for another two months (hooray for contract extensions!) so there's no way for me to update the MU-2 until April, now. Unless the DRM allows the update to be downloaded on a heavily limited corporate laptop, put on a USB stick, then installed over the top of the current version.

I'm also hitting my head on the wall while trying to code for hardware - in this case though, I'm building my own hardware. A plywood box with toggle switches mounted on it represents an early autopilot console as used in the DH Comet. Clarity of thought is needed to connect toggle-switches to datarefs...

[larjeet]

just out of curiosity how will the framerates be with the update ?

[tkyler]

just out of curiosity how will the framerates be with the update ?

No way to know Larry. FPS are really system dependent, but I don't think this version hits any harder than the current one. There's nothing significantly added processing wise, only refinement in the code, objects and textures.

TK

still toiling. I'm a bit rusty compiling on windows and we have something keeping the windows plugin from working. Soon as I chase it down and we get the windows version working, we'll package it up and get it out. Mac version is working to my satisfaction for this release.

Edited January 24, 2012 by tkyler

[tkyler]

windows issues have been resolved and as far as I'm concerned were the last. I'd say I finally made it into the endzone (to coin an American football term)...I only have to kick the field goal. Working on the trivial todos like looking over the paint kit, making the "what's new" pretty and touching up some last minute textures. This thing is about done. Will need a few days to prep it for mass distribution. This is something we would have done already if not chasing the last unforseen programming bugs. Prep for distribution means making sure all the package is in order, the installer is assembled, all promo graphics have been generated, web site updated, etc. That's what we're doing folks, this one is on it's way out the door!!!

[FloB]

Great! Can't wait.

[Dozer]

Fantastic Tom! Can't believe it's almost here. I may need to buy a pay-as-you-go mobile internet thing for my main PC so I can download and activate it!

[MaidenFan]

Sweet! I can't wait!

[tkyler]

Ok ladies and gentlemen...we're over the technical issues for this release. This whole "last second delay" thing started when the throttles levers would not animate with the joystick. This is because I use a custom dataref for the throttles. I do so because Austin's default throttle ratio is not very suitable to the MU2 with prop locks. Version 1.1.1 of the MU2 did not simulate prop locks, but 1.5 does.....with caveats. You can override that throttle variable but when you do so, you basically bypass x-plane's FADEC and end up having to write your own..and for the MU2, that means also writing your own prop governor. Once you go down that road, you're committing to basically writing your own engine management systems and while I would like to do it, now isn't the time. So then, first I got the joystick animating...but it was between 0 - 1, meaning that as you pulled your joystick throttle back, you'd go into reverse...and without detents on joysticks, accidentally going into reverse and crashing after your long MU2 flight in xplane is NO fun. It was determined that the "traditional" way of pulling the joystick paddle all the way back, then hitting the period key to go into beta/reverse mode was a more palatable solution for simming and I then had to set about reading differing types of joystick input (windows/mac) while still outputing the same results to the MU2 throttle. This necessetated a custom "reverse toggle" command as Austin's was not suitable either because when you hit the toggle, you change xplane's prop status. In the MU2, the lever position changes the prop status, so I didn't want folks hitting the reverse key and changing the engine model if the throttle levers were in the wrong spot...SO then, I have a command called "reverse toggle" that you can map to the period key. The effect is the same, it's just a custom command and not one of laminars. I am going to make a concession by putting a indicator light on the panel that will light up when you are in reverse mode. In this way, when you can't look down to see the quadrant, at least you'll know what's going to happen when you move your throttle paddle.

So with all that done, it's going out for testing and while that is happenging, I'm gathering up liveries, paint kits, writing the what's new booklet and setting up the new installer. I am over the hump and now it's just time to make sure the update gets a nice rollout. I"ve focused on the cockpit and systems so long, I'll problem forget something else that will need to be cleaned up with small updates.

-Tom Kyler

Edited January 25, 2012 by tkyler

[Dozer]

That's great Tom. I take it there is going to be support for Teensy-using throttle quadrant builders too...?

[tkyler]

since day 1, I have designed the system to be able to eventually interface with custom hardware....it still has some development yet to go, but in general, I'll simply give you a list of custom datarefs to point your hardware to. Of course it'll be tested already....my teensies are on their way from Paul's site. Paul is really doing something special for xplane.

Edited January 25, 2012 by tkyler

[larjeet]

So then, first I got the joystick animating...but it was between 0 - 1, meaning that as you pulled your joystick throttle back, you'd go into reverse...and without detents on joysticks, accidentally going into reverse and crashing after your long MU2 flight in xplane is NO fun. -Tom Kyler

That also happens in the default King-air I pull back on the throttle and it goes into reverse . It works great for loosing altitude really quick :lol: :o

[andyw248]

Great news! I still find the previous versions of the MU-2 pretty decent, and the Falco is my preferred single engine model, mostly due to its stunning cockpit. I'm sure these two combined will blow away most of the other offerings in the market...

[Dozer]

I think the race is on to see if I can complete my SEP2 autopilot console and be the first to build a Teensy-based X-Plane hardware device :-)

I have a good headstart though - all the switches and LEDs are wired to the board with a temporary harness and I've written a Teensy sketch which allows me to confirm they're all working. Got four out of eleven inputs definitely working too before I had to go to work!

Edit: I'm not the first! Curd Zechmeister beat me by nearly two years, integrating L-1011 avionics to X-Plane.

Edited January 25, 2012 by Dozer

[tkyler]

Many have always said that X-Plane 'breaks' the flight model between versions and I have always heavily disputed that....at least to a degree. I have always conceded that every new release brings minor caveats that developers have to deal with and this is part of the improvement process....well XP10 is no different. The MU2 works well enough for release...for Version 9...but the hardware/joystick stuff I've worked on so much for Version 9 doensn't work the same for version 10. So then...as I have been preparing the MU2 for release..and would have liked to have put it out already...the engineer in me REALLY wants to solve this Version 10 issue and with any luck, release a version that works in both XPlane 9 and 10...and that's the source of these few extra days I'm taking. I'm like a kid who doensn't want to leave the arcade...."just one more game"....and I am really on the fence as to whether or not to just stop and put out the Moo, which will only really work well for V9...or keep taking a little bit more time and try to get it working on V10 first. So my answer is that I think I'm going to take a few more days and really try and get this going in V10...and if I can't get it by the weekend, say the heck with it and finish preparing the package it for those who are happy to use it in V9 and then promptly get on a V10 version. That's the current update.

[pmorris]

Thanks Tom. Your candid aproach to what you are trying to achieve with this upgrade is just so refreshing when compared to the "keep 'em in the dark" atitudes of some other deveopers. Communication is much appreciated.

Phil

[FloB]

Hi Tom,

I understand perfectly what you are going through. You know what you want and what you indeed can achieve so you are not going to be satisfied with anything less. And I don't bother about some more days of delay for the update. But since this joystick/hardware-issue seems to be a brain twister, I think that weekend-deadline plan is a good idea. Sometimes you just can't constrain perfection.

All the best

Flo

[Dozer]

The amount of work you've put into this, Tom, if you'd put it into a regular job, you could have paid for flight training and a personal real MU-2 for every one of your customers!

[Emalice]

I have flown the MU-2 on a friend's system and I loved it (he has Saitek Panels whereas I only have Saitek Yoke+Rudders and 2 Throttle quadrants) and I loved the plane. Sadly with a X-Plane 9.67 (latest at the time we tried), we had problems with the lights (they won't illuminate the cockpit) so we had to make an emergency landing almost in complete darkness.

Hi there.

I suppose that for the panels, your friend uses the plugins from Sparker ? The lighting problems comes from that : the dataref used by Sparker is in conflict with a custom dataref used by Tom for his MU-2.

Tell your friend to turn on "panel lighting" and "avionics" switches on his saitek panel BEFORE he loads the MU-2 and he should be fine.