The B737 Classic Project

[tkyler]

I flew Southwest airlines last week on a -300, with winglets AND a mechanical ADI / HSI.  That caught me by surprise, but I'm telling you I saw it with my own two eyes.

 

TomK

Edited August 9, 2014 by tkyler

[Ben Russell]

I've never seen France with my own two eyes. Clearly it must not exist. 

[shishkabab]

A quick search on Flightradar24 shows 80 B733s in the air over the US and 60 in Europe at the moment.  And thats only the -300.. (not -4 and -500) 

Very interesting. What airlines?

[ryancz]

Very interesting. What airlines?

Over the US, mostly Southwest.

[Ben Russell]

Very interesting. What airlines?

 

http://www.flightradar24.com/60,15/6

 

See for yourself.

[Tom Knudsen]

I've never seen France with my own two eyes. Clearly it must not exist.

It doesnt, just a rumor

[mmerelles]

is this project still alive? i mean, the 737 classic from ixeg? Haven´t seen any new video/news for some time existing previews were amazing

[tkyler]

is this project still alive?

 

 

Very much so.  We have taken a bit of a break this summer but are steadily working on the FMS system.  There is simply not much to show during this phase.  A whole lot of core code has to be written before the fun stuff can be seen.  We are well into it though and moving along steadily.  It will be many months yet; however, the FMS is the last significant work to be done before we begin to prepare for distribution. 

 

TomK

[mmerelles]

great to hear that ! thanks for your prompt response. We will keep waiting then.

[shishkabab]

Why the heck do they need so many old aircraft let alone fly Boeing 727-200s? I cant believe this! I found this on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines

 

But I also think that the 737-300/400/500 was the best variant of the whole 737 fleet in my opinion. Thank you IXEG for making this aircraft. 

Edited August 10, 2014 by shishkabab

[tkyler]

Why the heck do they need so many old aircraft

 

These planes probably "paid off" a long time ago, which means these are some of their more profitable aircraft.  That is offset by maintenance I'm sure but its as simple as "are they making profit".  At some point, the operating cost, upkeep, risk and even passenger perception will begin to make these not so attractive, but on paper, they are probaby still turning profits.  It makes sense to keep them along as they make money with an calculable amount of risk.

 

Regarding the -300 model.  Way back when, we did this because the x737 was making good progress and we did not want to overlap work.   We do not see things the same way now of course, but it is what it is...HOWEVER, this -300 has really really grown on us.  We kind of get the best of many worlds.  We have a reasonably modern EHSI / EADI with an FMS so we get all the fun from flight planning and dancing with the magenta line...but we also get a little bit of nostalgia from the steam gauges.   We have put enormous effort into making the steam gauges look and feel absolutely realistic.  If you watch some of Jans videos in-flight, you might have caught a bit of motion blur on the RMI DME scrolling digits.  You might also have noticed the "servo powered"  mechanical speedbug on the ASI during power up.  Combined with a lot of attention to detail in the sound department, we think this aircraft is tons of fun to fly and really immersive.   Considering a lot of -300s are still in service today speaks volumes that its certainly still viable.

 

TomK

[tkyler]

so for all you folks out there who want to see screenshots of progress...here's two.  Aren't they lovely?

Edited August 10, 2014 by tkyler

[PinkJackal]

Is it FPS friendly? 

[tkyler]

Is it FPS friendly?

 

Not on my computer with its 512MB video card.  When the VRAM requirments dip below 512, it runs pretty darn good.  Other folks run it with 1MB video well and folks with 2MB cards seem to have no issue at all....so it seems video card ability is the critical link.  We will start some performance testing with select testers in the next month or so to determine a data set for hardware vs. performance.   It is my opinion that the FPS is very friendly as long as you have enough RAM and VRAM.  We'll try and put numbers on that before all is said and done.

 

Do NOT take this comment as an insinuation that we are almost done.   We simply have a goal and move steadily toward it and its done when its done and we hope its sooner rather than later.

 

TomK

[Jakob Ludwig]

Nice flowchart.... Love it. Like the "road to success" ;-)

[TheSlasher]

Can't wait until I have this beauty in my hangar 

 

Edited August 15, 2014 by TheSlasher

[Tom Knudsen]

Hope you have a large hangar then

Edited August 16, 2014 by Tom Knudsen

[tkyler]

Here's a tiny little bit of visual progress as a result of the FMS coding.  There is a large amount of infrastructure code to handle route editing, calculation and entry....and what you see here is the beginnings of tying this foundation code into the CDU display itself, beginning with SIDs.   Current work is to tie this code into all procedure entry and then into the LEG and RTE pages.

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/955680/CDU2.mp4

Edited August 16, 2014 by tkyler

[mmerelles]

nice i like the key sound as well

[AnonymousUser68]

Looking very good!

 

Now I just need to persuade my Virtual Airline to let me fly the -300 on -800 routes 

 

Keep up the good work guys    

[Tom Knudsen]

WooooW got to love those tingling teasers, more please..

 

So to the questions

 

1. I see there is a view changing "windows" - How will this interact with the CTRL+keypad default feature in X-Plane (sure hope with can select or even use both)

- Why an external window popup infront of the cockpit if not needed?

 

2. Whats that sound, awsome it truly was. First I thought the aircraft was rolling down the runway LOL..

[Ben Russell]

I can name at least two reasons without much effort:

 

1: Quick Look is limited to ten views. The IXEG window has thirteen listed.

 

2: Quick Look was added to the sim during the development of the project.

http://developer.x-plane.com/2012/07/the-views-updates-to-a-very-important-system/

 

 

edit: Make that three...

 

Keyboards with a numeric pad on them are crap for ergonomics and no longer ship as default with Macs. Quick Look isn't even possible on one of these:

Edited August 18, 2014 by Ben Russell

[Litjan]

WooooW got to love those tingling teasers, more please..

 

So to the questions

 

1. I see there is a view changing "windows" - How will this interact with the CTRL+keypad default feature in X-Plane (sure hope with can select or even use both)

- Why an external window popup infront of the cockpit if not needed?

 

2. Whats that sound, awsome it truly was. First I thought the aircraft was rolling down the runway LOL..

 

1.)The CTRL-numpad thingy works just fine - the view-changing window is acutally a remnant from times when XP did not have this feature yet. We will probably keep it, because some users might like it (i.e. not having to go through setting up views and remembering which key is which). Fwiw, you can also adjust and save those views in the view-window.

 

2.) The sound you are hearing is a combination of aircondition airflow, avionics vent blower, standby-altimeter vibrator and engines running on low idle.

 

Jan

 

Edit: Ben beat me on 1.) ;-)

Edited August 18, 2014 by Litjan

[mmerelles]

 

edit: Make that three...

 

Keyboards with a numeric pad on them are crap for ergonomics and no longer ship as default with Macs. Quick Look isn't even possible on one of these:

 

I do have that keyboard on my imac as well. Quick looks work just great!!

 

Go to settings, joystick and assignment, keys tab. Look for "view quick look mem slots" and replace the existing saving sequence CTRL-numpad-# for another key sequence you like. I.E. i do use CTRL+CMD+#.

 

then replace the key assignment for using them, look for "view quick look #" and replace existing viewing sequence numkeypad-# for just # (0 to 9)

 

You are done, just press CTRL+CMD+# (0 to 9) and it gets saved on that slot. Press just # (0 to 9) to use them.

 

You can save 10 quick looks per aircraft flawlessly (i do save captain, copilot, upper panel, main panel, pedestal, and some nice panoramic wing or landing gear views, this is a great feature LR introduced.

 

EDIT: forgotten to explain the view assignment, not just saving.

Edited August 18, 2014 by mmerelles

[Tom Knudsen]

1.)The CTRL-numpad thingy works just fine - the view-changing window is acutally a remnant from times when XP did not have this feature yet. We will probably keep it, because some users might like it (i.e. not having to go through setting up views and remembering which key is which). Fwiw, you can also adjust and save those views in the view-window.

 

2.) The sound you are hearing is a combination of aircondition airflow, avionics vent blower, standby-altimeter vibrator and engines running on low idle.

 

Jan

 

Edit: Ben beat me on 1.) ;-)

 

1. Sound logical to keep it and it does not harm anybody so...

 

Keyboards with a numeric pad on them are crap for ergonomics and no longer ship as default with Macs. Quick Look isn't even possible on one of these:

 

Did not know that Ben, just another reason not to get a mac, at least for my sake..

 

"oh how I love to digress so....".

I am using the numeric pad all day at work to be frank, and love it. Still I thank god there is "DAS Keyboard"  and Windows for now,  though if not for 3 factors I'd use Linux all day!!!

 

 

The sound you are hearing is a combination of aircondition airflow, avionics vent blower, standby-altimeter vibrator and engines running on low idle.

 

Just awsome Litjan, totally impressed.