MU-2 progress towards update

[FloB]

...and make this MU2 update for V10 available for you for free when you (and the MU2) is ready......hundreds of hours of work with zero return, utilizing the latest tech to make the best product I can. We care about customers a great deal!

Tom

I really appreciate that and I never had hard feelings about the delay of the V10 update (just some minor disappointment). I can imagine that the update is a lot of work and that things changed in a manner that was unpredictable for you. I really hope that the V10 update will generate some income for you as more/new X-Planers will buy the "new" MU2.

Cheers

Flo

[Dozer]

Porting is paying pretty big dividends. I'm moving very quickly through the code base, fixing lots of things that were not "right" when done in C because the "compile > reload" was just too cumbersome. I've got about 75% of the code base rewritten in the last 3 days. With the burden of working in C removed and the added experience of the 737 coding, it is much easier to try new things or rewrite algorithms. I know many won't be too happy, but this update will be V10 only. After a year of working on V10 and it getting reasonably stabilized, there is no reason not too, there is just too many nice features to take advantage of. This is just the way computer software is. The Moo now has "real" landing lights on the wings, real wing ice light...independent taxi light control on the nose, higher fidelity systems simulation etc.

That's great news about the systems coding - I'd love to see more stuff in the spirit of the Falco's undercarriage circuit breaker!

I mitigated the C++ compile/reload delay by writing the AircraftSwitcher plugin, where you can assign X-Plane commands for loading specific aircraft. I set up Shift-1 to 'testing aircraft 1' and Shift-2 to 'testing aircraft 2', using two copies of the default King Air as testing platforms as they load fast and usually DataRefEditor for speedy input/output. Compile plugin, install in aircraft 1, press shift-1 to load and test, compile changes, load into aircraft 2, press shift-2 to load and test... it is very fast! (Source code is on github here, and a Windows-compiled version is on the .org file library. It uses PPL. Look at the source code! It's just 82 lines, and that includes code to read the selected aircraft path from the .ini file during runtime!)

I'm a bit disappointed about the v10-only news, as I'm still on v9. I have two PCs, one that's just been retired by the local council and another that's stuck in England. The first has a low-form-factor case and no graphics card - it can load the v1.1.1 Mu-2 with unreadable cockpit textures and 19fps framerates, so it's only really useful for testing Teensy code and plugin-writing. The English PC can just about cope with the 3d cockpit if nothing exciting is going on. It's also unupgradable (AGP graphics card). It remains to be seen if I can source an affordable, low-form-factor graphics card for the ex-council PC which would allow me to run XP10, but I'm likely to be XP9-only for a while yet.

I'd like to think that if you're replacing large swathes of XP10 with your own code, you'd be in a situation where you could port the code to XP9 and replace large swathes of XP9 to give the same results and for minimal effort. But I'm probably naive of the complexities of exactly what you're replacing and exactly how you stitch your work into the rest of the sim.

Don't be so hasty to judge the compass system stable - I've almost completed writing a C++ object-oriented reimplementation of the GeoMag 7.0 magnetic declination modelling software, which I will then put into a HistoricWorld plugin and also submit to Austin for use within X-Plane. Soon it will be possible to have reasonably accurate magnetic declination for any location on Earth for any date since 1900, and it will be possible to fly over historic (rather than current) scenery using historic charts and navaids. Anyway, one way or another there will be updates to the compass system...

Edited October 31, 2012 by Dozer

[tkyler]

Point taken on the magnetic mode Jack

That's great news about the systems coding - I'd love to see more stuff in the spirit of the Falco's undercarriage circuit breaker!

The "super system" version will be all new for V2.0 I have to leave something to get paid for in the future but several areas are getting refined for this update. There's no reason I can't do the entire MU2 systems accurately from what I can see, including relays and circuit breakers. Having done the 737 hydraulics and electrics has totally changed my approach to what can be done.....and along the way, we got XP to get out of our way on some critical areas. The best thing that has come from the evolution of coding the MU2 simulation is a refined organization that is scalable. My code has evolved from original MU2 to Falco to refined MU2 (which didn't quite make it in C)...and now with Gizmo, taken lessons from the 737 and the "brick walls" I hit with my previous MU2 code, I think I finally have a system and structure that will work at any level of aircraft simulation with high fidelity. I can't tell you how excited I'm getting...with Gizmo's upcoming features, X-Plane's new access to electrical systems and V10 lights/shadows..there is just about everything available now to make a darn near perfect simulation given enough time.

Here's one good reason why I want to go with V10. I've been wanting to do this since 2006!

Edited October 31, 2012 by tkyler

[Big T]

Tkler,

I've always admired your posts over at the Avsim forums and can say that I'm really looking forward to your MU2 V2 as well as that classic 737. The Falco you speak of is it the one for sale here at xaviation? I've been eyeballing it, I cruised around in the Real Air SF260 a lot when FSX was my primary sim. Might have to pick that Falco up and add it to my GA fleet I fly inside of Airhauler to hold me over a bit; looks real nice.

[tkyler]

Thank you Big T. Yes, that is the Falco available at x-aviation. It's a fun little GA for sure and relatively full featured for IFR flying with working circuit breakers....though TBH, being a few years old, it's nothing like what we can do now in X-Plane. I "cut my MU2 teeth" flying with a buddy on night cargo runs and with X-Plane's night lighting abilities are really bringing back some memories.

Here's a video of some light effects on the gear lights

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/955680/xsMU2B60_15_3.mov

Edited November 1, 2012 by tkyler

[Dozer]

Looks fantastic Tom!

One plea, even if I can't use this myself: model the GPS power switch, or circuit breaker. Its stock 2d panel ugliness looks out of place here. Ideally release a version with a KNS-80 in its place - a friend of mine has a simulation of one which might be used by the MU-2 if asked nicely.

I noticed something yesterday I hadn't noticed for years. The little rectangular gauges on the bottom of the Falco's panel (fuel, oil pressure, volts etc) have 3d animated needles! I thought they were stock Planemaker gauges, because you seem to have used Planemaker gauges for the background. Dear Tom, why??? Please promise me you'll never use stock Planemaker gauges in your panels anymore, except for the GPS screen, which will have a functioning power switch at least and ideally a non-GPS panel option!

Big T, I can strongly recommend the Falco. It's still a beautiful cockpit, and the systems modelling is fantastic. It's got nice features like what must be a fully-modelled Garmin GTX327 transponder (full of different timers, altitude monitors, information readouts as well as just being a transponder). I've had a lot of fun with it on short IFR flights. The only negative is that there's a couple of Planemaker gauges on the panel which really look out of place. I did manage to remove them on my old PC but I forget exactly how.

[Cameron]

The only negative is that there's a couple of Planemaker gauges on the panel which really look out of place. I did manage to remove them on my old PC but I forget exactly how.

To each his own, but I have to say I don't agree with you here, nor do I see anything that strikes me out of place. Lucky for us, you're the only one to make such a funky statement.

Here's a video of some light effects on the gear lights

https://dl.dropbox.c...MU2B60_15_3.mov

Fantastic work, Tom!

[Dozer]

I must be one of your more demanding customers Cameron! (edit: how come I'm not seeing the ALT SET window on the bottom of my panel?)

Bear in mind this is the ONLY negative I have about the Falco. In every other way it is unsurpassed.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Dozer

[Cameron]

I must be one of your more demanding customers Cameron! (edit: how come I'm not seeing the ALT SET window on the bottom of my panel?)

Bear in mind this is the ONLY negative I have about the Falco. In every other way it is unsurpassed.

I guess that's never bothered me because Tom had implemented it well enough and god forbid I never fly my aircraft in the angle you have shown as an example (yes, I love 3D too and understand where you come from).

Back to the MU-2. Tom's doing an outstanding job here and I do not want to divert this topic. Please focus on post #530, people!

[tkyler]

Dear Tom, why

It's reasonable for people to want to know why, I'm happy to oblige. Lets just say those were my adolescent years developmentally Jack and there were a few inexperienced edges there for both myself and x-plane t. The Hobbs meter was not one I was willing to program for a myriad of reasons then, but would definitely do so today. Also, I suspect the default meter backgrounds were done that way just because I was lazy or tired of working on it at the time. Each project is a learning experience where you discover something you could do better or more effeciently and as such, we seem to paint ourselves into corners routinely in certain areas that we just say, "oh well, lets get paint on our shoes and do it better next time"....and we get better each time.

There are good things on the x-plane horizon....have been since 2009 in my opinion, but we're just now cresting the hill and seeing what's on the other side with V10 here. I'll go back and fix that Falco one day.... what was cumbersome then is not so much now.

Regarding the GPS, I thought I had a functioning power switch in the Falco? Anyhow, yea...the GPS is a lacking point in x-plane, always has been. Given the work we've done on the 737 thus far, there is no doubt in my mind that we could do a fully custom "native" Garmin 430 today in Gizmo with graphics and everything, but such a task is a large project in and of itself and will just have to wait I'm afraid. Once a few of us are fully sustained by x-plane add-on income, then we can devote 100% of our time to all the shortcoming we want to resolve and keeping product up-to-date and fully featured.

Tom

Edited November 1, 2012 by tkyler

[Dozer]

Oh yes, the Falco definitely has a GPS power switch (also a circuit breaker), no problem there. I love that feature. I'm not asking for a good Garmin. I'm just asking for the option of no bad Garmin in future projects. That's my gripe with the Planemaker instruments - my strong preference is that an instrument be missing than implemented as a default-textured instrument. I'd find the absence less jarring!

I'm probably coming across as a bit obsessive. I think that's because I'm a bit obsessed! I don't post critical comments on most of the aircraft I've purchased, and that's because - maybe it's unkind of me to say this - because most of the aircraft I've purchased didn't really hold my interest for long. They were far enough from 'my kind of sim aircraft' I didn't speak about how they could be made better because there was no point, I had no realistic hope they could be made into something I'd like to fly routinely. I have a much deeper affection for the Falco and MU-2 though, which is why the minor blemishes aggravate me so.

Thanks for the explanation Tom, although I had no right to expect one! I appreciate how open you are about the development process.

@Cameron yes, I don't actually fly like that. The difference is more obvious as a marked difference in texture brightness but it's harder to get that across in a small screenshot, especially on a machine without a graphics card. And yes, let's get back to the v1.5 MU-2!

Edited November 1, 2012 by Dozer

[tkyler]

I'm probably coming across as a bit obsessive. I think that's because I'm a bit obsessed!

We are all Jack...we all want perfection too. The issue is simply time. The blemishes aggravate all of us, including me. Time will take care of it....as frustrating as it is to wait.

Tom

[tkyler]

I rewrote the MU2 master annunciator system today, bypassing X-Plane's altogether. The MU2 has a lot of caution warnings for "MU2 specific' components that x-plane does not have (like windshield temp) so now I have space to grow. Any caution light that goes off on the side annunciator panel now triggers the master caution annunciator on the dash. Some of these caution lights are currently wired up to x-plane datarefs but some of them are "empty". Eventually, I'll I'll put in code to simulate these MU2 specific functions. Caution lights are, of course, tied to the electrical system, and also (*cough) button/switch and bulb integrity. Bulb "burn out" and switch failure code (MTBF) hasn't been implemented yet, but will in the future.

I was on a MU2 flight from San Antonio to Dallas once and the radio transmitter switch on the yoke "stuck" and we couldn't receive transmissions. We had to end up landing using the light beam from the tower for communication. You never know what might break on these old aircraft.

Tom

Edited November 2, 2012 by tkyler

[Dozer]

And what sweet relief it will be to link Teensy LEDs to those datarefs. I've spent a disproportionate amount of time showing people how to build their own annunciator simulation on a Teensy board, because the default X-Plane annunciators aren't so useful. I ended up writing a class which links LEDs to datarefs very elegantly, which also includes an optional master warning system and some other features. It didn't bypass X-Plane, it bypassed the entire computer! I didn't go as far as to model bulb failures. It's hard enough getting real hardware to work properly...

Simulation should rightly be done by the aircraft's plugin/scripts. It's very daft to do anything more involved than interfacing in the hardware! Hopefully by the time v1.5 is released Paul will have added a couple of missing features to Teensyduino and I can use the MU-2 to demonstrate how to handle custom datarefs.

I love the idea of unreliable switches. In Lua/Gizmo can you create classes for repeated elements like that? And join them in a linked list or some other convenient container, so the 'sim experience director' model can automatically step through the list and find an element to fail, regardless of the scale of the code? I know next to nothing about languages which aren't C/C++. Writing classes is almost as much fun as using them to build stuff.

'Signal-light ATC communications' is also on the long, long list of things I'd really like to model in X-Plane. Ever since seeing "Flashing green light: clear for takeoff (not applicable for ground vehicles)" in the British Gliding Association rulebook.

Edited November 3, 2012 by Dozer

[tkyler]

I still need to get my teensyduino going. I'll be pinging you on that one day Jack.

In Lua/Gizmo can you create classes for repeated elements like that?

Not in that exact paradigm. Lua uses tables for data storage...tables that have both index and hash components. They are highly adaptable to many physical paradigms. Tables can hold both data and functions and so can mimic classes but there are also other ways of approaching object oriented code. The Lua table library manages the tables in lots of convenient ways for you, including iterating in numerous ways and automatically growing/shrinking it for you along with "garbage collection"...so think of it as a ready-made linked list for you and you don't have to roll your own list algorithms for most tasks. It's made me 10x more productive on simulating systems...the entire 737 classic is written in Lua and to a very high level of fidelity, probably 30,000 lines + with nare a performance hit.

Ben told me I'd get hooked and he was right. If the goal is accomplishing a simulation (as opposed to exercising ones brains in the joys of programming and learning C++ for other reasons), then I have definitely found my comfort zone. I can focus more on the algorithms and not get bogged down by code structure. It works great for me.

Tom

Edited November 3, 2012 by tkyler

[birdy.dma]

Regarding the GPS, I thought I had a functioning power switch in the Falco? Anyhow, yea...the GPS is a lacking point in x-plane, always has been. Given the work we've done on the 737 thus far, there is no doubt in my mind that we could do a fully custom "native" Garmin 430 today in Gizmo with graphics and everything, but such a task is a large project in and of itself and will just have to wait I'm afraid. Once a few of us are fully sustained by x-plane add-on income, then we can devote 100% of our time to all the shortcoming we want to resolve and keeping product up-to-date and fully featured.

Waiting for this ( a agree with Dozer, the stock GPS is out dated ), i plane to buy a gps from reality xp. A 430+530 is alot of money, and may be they don't run corectly with x p 10. So, my question: have you an opinion about those softs ?

[tkyler]

I am unsure about the state of reality XP products. They are great products when they work but of course are Windows only being that they run off of the Garmin Simulator software. I do not know if they currently work in the V10 run and you would have to inquire with Reality XP. But I do like the products.

-Tom K

[giacer]

i plane to buy a gps from reality xp. A 430+530 is alot of money, and may be they don't run corectly with x p 10. So, my question: have you an opinion about those softs ?

I do not know if they currently work in the V10 run and you would have to inquire with Reality XP. But I do like the products.

-Tom K

i have GNS430 from RealityXP, working well with V10! (win obviously)

[birdy.dma]

Yesterday i have posted my question to Reality XP. Not yet answer. They have too much buyers.

Here at X-Pilot we have really nice guys, nice support, nice customers. Thanks.

Regards

[Dozer]

I was about to suggest the freeware KLN 90B, but it uses an incompatible plugin system that won't work with the MU-2

[birdy.dma]

I dont fly the MU2, but the Falco, and of corse some other planes using the poor stock Garmin. Waiting for a best one, i can live with the stock one.

[giacer]

KLN 90B is is another good choice, it is free, but you have to spend to update the aircac cycle.

With realityXP (pay) you have NO way to update the aircac cycle (sad reality ).

The KLN 90B does not work with aircraft powered by GIZMO(Falco for example).

I stop here, we're slightly OT here

Edited November 9, 2012 by Stardust

[Dozer]

KLN 90B is is another good choice, it is free, but you have to spend to update the aircac cycle.

With realityXP (pay) you have NO way to update the aircac cycle (sad reality ).

The KLN 90B does not work with aircraft powered by GIZMO(Falco for example).

I stop here, we're slightly OT here

That's the system I just suggested! I haven't used it yet, but I hear it works with the v1.1.1 (current) MU-2. But if it doesn't work with the Falco, it won't work with the updated MU-2, which will be even more Gizmoidian than the Falco.

*goes off to see if SASL KLN90B can be ported to C++*

[tkyler]

More work today.....very satisfied with everything so. I'm well past the "stalling point" I found myself in a year ago and have the Moo in beta testing with Jan, the IXEG 737 tech advisor. He's already found a few things and there are yet a few things left to implement, but nothing near as serious as what I dealt with a year ago. Once the update goes out, I'll keep an eye out for the obvious bugs that need to be squashed but once it seems robust and reliable, I'll call the version 1 run over and work on new 3D for version 2.0. No time frame on that of course.

Tom K

[tkyler]

Report. Moo 1.5 update is in beta testing.....I have a very small punchlist to do but nothing terribly serious. All the "worrisome" stuff is done and today is "clean up day", chasing small bugs and refining operation. We still have to prep the distribution and new screenshots, go over the what's new docs and makes sure all that stuff is in order, but after flying the Moo for the last few days, minus the small punchlist items I'd say the 1.5 update is ready to go and a ball to fly compared to 1.1. Again, this update version is Gizmo powered and version 10 only. Stay tuned. I'll put a quick "what's new" list here later to recap.

Edited November 12, 2012 by tkyler