XPlane10 Blog

[Simmo W]

Hi, just letting you know that we posted a great interview with Vic Kabernique, freeware developer of the Avanti Alterna, here:

http://xplane10.wordpress.com/x-plane-developer-interviews/vic-kabernique/

Who knows, maybe one day he'll be payware, here!

Goran's given us some fascinating replies himself, so we'll be posting in days....

Volunteers for our Water-boarding program welcome  ;D

Simon

[Jack Skieczius]

not to fond of water nor downing so i will skip the water-boarding.......(reads ferther)

oh! i get it.

[Simmo W]

Don't worry Jack, sometimes my pommie humour is too obscure! However you do know you can't escape, our black ops helos will eventually hunt you down as well...

[Lukasz]

I've just read the interview and there are some points, I'd like to comment.

1) I strongly agree, that in general there is too much attention paid to visual details and stunning effects, rather than realistic flight behaviour AND avionics modelling. I understand, that it's much easier to model nice exterior, than nice flight dynamics, but in the end I don't download or buy an airplane to showcase it, but to fly it. As a side note, I have to admit, that over the years I've been spoiled myself by great and photorealistic graphics, which results in that I won't fly anything looking wrong, outdated or straight ugly - that may sound brutal but I'm honest here.

However, what I find the most disappointing, is the fact, that aircraft with great looking exteriors have often mediocre or even poor cockpits. C'mon, it's not HAWX! I'm not going to fly it from external view, just for the sake of flying this specific model, because the way the panel and gauges look, makes me only want to pull the ejection seat handle! I can forgive even not having external model at all, I really care only for the parts, that are visible from cockpit anyway (the same goes for super detailed passenger compartments in airliners and additional visual only animations, like doors, that I use maybe 2-3 times a year), but, somehow in exchange, I'd like to have a flight model that gives me as close flight experience to the real counterpart, as possible, with regards to the sim itself and obvious "flying from behind a desk" limitations.

2) The documentation included with an aircraft is extremely important for me. For example I have a collection of real aircraft manuals and POHs for WW2 warbirds, just to enchance my "Sturmovik" experience. You'd be surprised, how much close to the real thing this sim is, in certain aspects! The same goes for X-Plane. I find it totally unacceptable to release an aircraft without any documentation, even for a freeware, especially when the creator has all the performance and technical data and checklists at hand. Also I higly value any remarks, as what was faithfully represented in a sim and what couldn't be done.

3) Actually, I find the manipulators technology being the most natural and immersing way of interacting with aircraft and it's avionics, short of sitting in a whole home-build dedicated cockpit. There is undoubtly more similarity, between reaching a hand and clicking a button, and "reaching" a 3D representation of a button and clicking it with mouse, in a 3D virtual cockpit, than playing with electronic devices situated all over the desk. I've tried it and the moment of transition between on-screen cockpit and off-screen avionics is somehow destroying sim-immersion for me.

The only devices I actually use, are 2 pieces HOTAS (with separate rudder pedals) set, Track IR and Acer notebook. HOTAS is used only for controlling the aircraft and using time-sensitive, or not modelled in 3D cockpit, functions like engine restart or weapons release. Also the separate throttle makes a really good collective for helicopters Track IR's value in making simming more immersive is widely known, so I won't further dwell into that. Notebook is useful for displaying charts, manuals, checklists and maps - anything I'd have to print in order to use during a flight and later, after few flights, manage with a wealthy pile of papers, mostly needed and used only once.

Another problem with additional accessories, like GoFlight, is their price. Yes, I know that aviation is an expensive hobby, no matter what part of it you take into account, and there are people that can afford hardware like that. However, with my limited resources, I'd prefer to upgrade my computer or go for a real airshow, instead of getting another module.

4) What wasn't mentioned in the interwiev, is the custom sound. It makes a great and total difference, to fly the same aircraft with "generic buzzing" and with sounds recorded from a real counterpart, not to mention custom sound systems and plugins. Again, I understand, that not everyone can have access to an actual aircraft or the aircraft itself doesn't exist anymore, but for that matter I'd prefer having real sounds recorded from another but similar plane or engine, rather than general "flat" synthetic sounds, especially the sounds like engine, propeller and rotor.

In the end I'd like to state, that fortunately there are people, who make high quality addons for X-Plane and who pursue the same goals as I do in flight simming, and I wholeheartedly thank you for doing that!

[Simmo W]

Thanks for your great reply, could you post that to the blog as a reply, or can I? It's really good, well thought out!

Agree. That's why The x aviation planes stand out, great documentation. Same with the manipulators, I like knowing that  reaching for the trim down on the floor (say) means that in a real one I would also know where it is located.

Scary new development re. Charts and documentation- I got my wife an ipad, and through 'testing' it thoroughly, I've seen it is a very capable and fast PDF viewer. SIDS and stars and Gorans poh come up so big and Clear and can swap pages instantly. My new EFB!

I too prefer accurate and varied incidental sound. When will we get better, more varied radio chatter? I've long turned that off!

Thanks again for your reply and thoughts   

[Simmo W]

Yes, after much formatting by Chip,  we've finally been able to publish this after Goran's extensive replies. A few surprises.... Thanks to Goran of course, for giving us all more background to his own experiences and projects. Enjoy

http://xplane10.wordpress.com/x-plane-developer-interviews/goran-matovina/

[MdMax]

http://xplane10.wordpress.com/x-plane-developer-interviews/goran-matovina/

Very nice ! Thank you for this interview !  8)

[Lukasz]

"Per blendera - ad astra!"  Very informative and motivating interview. Thank you, Goran!

[Goran_M]

Cheers Gents.

[Simmo W]

;D No worries Goran. I enjoyed trawling through your WIP pics yesterday, a trip down memory lane! But not that long ago....

[Simmo W]

Hi Chaps, as promised by Chip, the interview's up here:

http://xplane10.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/peter-hager-a380-dev-interviewed/

Just hangin out for the next X-Aviation release to feature, or is there a surprise coming soon....

In the meantime, Nils has been captured by our ops team and is spilling the beans right now, should be out in a few weeks :-)

Simon

[Simmo W]

posted yesterday. coverage of the QPAC is also included.

pity the external features don't come up as well using cntrl-o, but then again it is donate-ware.

http://xplane10.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/eadt-x737-review/

An interview with one of the key players in XPFR coming up this weekend..

[Lukasz]

I like your articles, reviews and interviews very much. They are very well written, being at the same time informative, enthusiastic and reasonable. Also, they make fantastic resource, I can use when confronting anyone, who thinks that X-Plane is poor and ugly. I love the sound of jaws hitting the ground Good job and keep it up!

[Simmo W]

thanks for the feedback lis, really nice. I'll forward to Chip my partner in rhyme, who writes most of the articles and formats those PDFs. that's what we wanted to do it for- to help spread the word (done, hundreds of views per day) and be a good repository of reviews or articles(almost done, getting bigger every day).

oh, we are sort of official now, we have our very xplane link here! another good portal for xplane sites, some VERY good auspice sites in there :-)

http://www.x-plane.com/pg_X-World.html

[cw7]

I have to second the thanks as well, Lis.

Simon and I talked about the need to 'get the word out' while conversing at the Flight Simulator Network, and as I can't stand the poisoned atmosphere in "other" forums it was sort of a natural to start doing something we felt was lacking in our corner of the world. The Problem? There is so much development going on and the scope of this development is fragmented and difficult to grasp, but vital to our community's growth. Building excitement for a product is vital as well to it's success (example: if someone just barely mentions the CRJ-200, X-Planers start to swoon and drool!), yet the forum to spread information is, well, limited by constraints that are inappropriate to the free exchange of ideas. We hope to bridge the gap, help developers get word about their projects out to a broad audience, yet the one thing Simon and I agreed on was that we'd never put other people's work down, limit our criticism to constructive comments. I've come to appreciate just how daunting a task creating one of these files is, and I want to share that understanding with the X-Plane community. I think when people truly understand the nature of these creations they will regard them as Art, possibly great Art. A new artform, to be sure, but one worthy of awe. And respect.

Cw

[Simmo W]

XPFRs Arnaud interviewed. These guys are what the Xplane community should be about.

http://xplane10.wordpress.com/2010/07/10/xpfrs-arnaud-interviewed/

[Simmo W]

Interview with Nils Danielsson, and a review of his Yak-55M, just posted to the blog. Some amazing photoshop piccies just posted too.

Hmm, I just noticed I am now 'ranked' as a Snr. Member. That might explain my fuzzy vision! ;D

http://xplane10.wordpress.com/