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Saab 340A

Hey here is something else Id like to point out in regards to SMP. This shot shows how large the clouds will be at a distance. Have you ever seen towering cloud formations in real life? This is a few cumulus layer and I set the maximum cloud size pretty high......It makes for a dramatic and realistic environment.......Again this is a good benefit of procedurally drawn clouds....

Hong Kong Intl Airport terminal model preview-

You're implying that everything is complete, ready, and we're just holding the push of a button till the last second. This isn't the case. It's a date range as best estimate. Wrong thinking. This is a VERY complex installer setup code wise. The most complex we have done yet. Thanks! All of you with weird thoughts: None of this is about marketing hype and waiting till the last minute (I suppose that would be fun in another world). We're giving you access to information that we typically keep close. Many of you have asked, so we're taking the time to inform. The information we give you is what we believe to be true internally the second we write about it. Take it or leave it! I think we're on about our third or fourth week straight with ridiculous work hours doing all of this. There's a lot of prep that goes into all of the backend code, manuals, and installers. Personally, I average about 4 hours of sleep per night right now, so calm yourselves and the theories a bit, please. We're pretty close to schedule this time. The livery manager took a little longer than expected to get working correctly (that was last nights project), but we've got that solved now. We are currently all testing the installers on the live servers now. A few minor bumps found, but nothing too major. The release will be today, not far from this prediction as indicated in status report #3.

OK I need to get back to work, here is the last tease for today:

9 different sky themes- done by sabach's HDR mod enchanced 3d effect?-Sabach's HDR mod HD Glaciers- John's GlacierMAXX HD Runways/taxiways-FlyJSim's textures Sun/Moon halo-also modded by Sabach in his HDR Mod and by more?

New jetway model 90% complete!

Its so ugly its beautiful...

Public domain here, supplied by John there. Freeware work from Pierre here. Freeware work from John there. Seems these days it's easy to find a loophole, package it, sell it. You should try this with FlightGear as it's all free. Oh wait, thats already been done by another opportunist. Come on man, Seriously ? Not knocking what you do (well I am actually) just how you go about doing it. Where did you get the clouds from by the way ? If this post gets me banned or put on vacation for a while I'll take it gladly. You know, there's some real satisfaction in doing the work, owning it and saying look what I did. The things that the two guys that posted on this have done for the community for FREE should remain so. Well thanks for listening and I'm off to find some freeware without any disclaimers to sell. FREE HD MOON !

So nothing has changed since AWG's first tries to sell freeware as payware, some months ago? Sad.

I went back to basics and flew this:

Ok, out of caution, guys, AWG will release : 9 different sky themes4 different cloud textures with an enhanced 3d effectHD glaciers (supplied by John from MaXX-XP, different from his freeware ones)HD runway/taxiway airport texturesSun/Moon halo and flareTweaked city lights...and more to announce.Just making sure we all know that by now.

And another one for good measure.....

Why windows compatibility only? From the looks of this all you are adding are different sky colors. Why not just have the user install them into the proper folder. Seems like you are complicating this add-on. Additionally are you adjusting the colors of the sky or are you working on or also the ambient lighting to include cloud color and sunlight color? These are affected by the skycolor.png The reason I ask is because all I see in your images are clear skies and to put together a nicer set of colors one should look at all the ways those PNG's are working in the sim. And the effort of adding an installer does not justify a pricetag my friend...... Now please refrain from ever mentioning me and any of my stuff in a post ever. I am not threatened by what you have going but you operate as someone who manipulates others to do all the work for you. You have no interest with being part of the community, only to profit from it and I have serious doubts you know how to properly develop at all. Aaron I have kept my distance from you, I advise you to do the same...... Folks he tried manipulating my time and effort out of my hands to include I offered a version of UrbanMAXX with his OSM add-on but was insistent on trying to take credit for it . His glacier textures included in the OSM package are mine, I told him go ahead when I cut ties with him. The OSM add-on is freely available BTW and his version does nothing to warrant a price tag. I am seeing my name thrown around by you on different social outlets and to be honest I am starting to get tweaked. I refrain from posting anything even though I know you are a fraud because it will seem self motivated. It isnt guys and I am sincerely trying to keep an eye out on the community. I see how he operates.....

Hi all, I'm VERY happy to get the honor of announcing this project which I know many have been waiting for (In-sim shot, not a render) A new team called IXEG - International X-Plane Engineering Group has been formed to make this wonderful classic aircraft. The team is handpicked for the job, and, as the name indicates consists of mainly engineers which also have very long experience with X-Plane. In addition we have an in-type captain as consultant. I'm sure the Boeing 737 Classic needs no further introductions since most of you probably have been in one. To be a bit more precise, it will be the B737-300. It will have it all, FMC, full plugin driven systems, and the most accurate flightmodel ever made for any heavy in X-Plane. Visually it will be state of the art, so will also the 3D panel with manipulators and whatever v10 might contain of new features. The answer to the question most of you probably are thinking of right now ... ETA is Christmas 2011 M

Sounds like you're waiting for just the right asset to appear so you can "borrow" it......

Cameron, we need a father figure...

This is precisely why we date ranged it. Originally we thought same day as announcement, but things happen in this funky world they call programming. We'll all live another few hours and it'll be behind us. It's not like we're looking at days late again.

Definitely the torque bug. And when you were in final approach, I thought you'd crash.

Tweaked lights: Chris K's Modified Lighting for X-Plane 10. Why don't you throw in some wide taxiway markings and HD Taxi signs?

Ok we will wait what atc will say. Maybe there are strong crosswinds or so, or another go-around is needed or the Saab is on final approach.

Can't wait to buy your mighty sky John !!

Now if they would upgrade it to SASL 2.0 it wouldn't crash in 64bit:

Mm yeah ... Honestly, after 3 Release Status Report ( all saying it was about to be ... ) I start to think we'll never see this one out soon ;-( I know they are playing with our nerves, thinking it will raise dramatically the day one customer number ... But I imagin that phenomenon like a curve, where the maximum would be at a certain point of teasing/excitement/mouth watering etc etc ... Then, if it continue to be teased for hours, days, weeks ... it becomes not supportable anymore and frustration takes place instead, and the curve goes down, dramatically ... Hope I'm wrong, but if it's not released this week end, with all promises ( of this #3 RSR saying within 48 ), we will be very very disapointed and will start to think there isn't only the installer that still need to be done ... Once again, hope I'm wrong ;-)

I still fail to see the point of giving a specific time frame, and then releasing the last hour/minute of that time frame. (Which remains tot be seen atm) i hope there isn't too much cognitive dissonance after the marketing boy's work. In fact, there will be a lot if marketing did their job right.

Itching to create the Loganair British Airways livery - I took one on a flight between Manchester and Londonderry once...

Here's a mini-update for the poor souls who waste their time reading my development threads: NSTU layout work will restart next weekend, with the entire airport being reworked. I'm currently throwing together custom line files to replace the chunky and unrealistic default X-Plane ones and I am also sifting the the CGTextures website for all the pavement I've ever needed. Orthoimagery touching-up is in progress, I still haven't put anything into X-Plane. There is one spot where I don't even have an image (the USGS screwed up their data somehow, and the tiff file for the area is solid black). In the meantime, I'm putting together a map of the airport objects to send to a friend to have them built in Blender or SketchUp or whatever he uses. A demonstration of the scenery package will be released on December 24th, 2013. This demonstration will include the entire island of Tau, with NSFQ Fiti'uta Airport, capable of handling small regional flights. This island will include examples of naturally forested land, cultivated land, towns, coastlines, and a gravel airstrip (HI36 Tau, defunct in real life and unusable). The earliest plausible release date for the entire package, currently, is February 1st, 2014. Thanks for reading if you actually did. I would like to make a mission statement with this project: "The goal of the American Samoa Countrywide Project for X-Plane 10 is to create a realistic flying environment that is free and appropriate for professional sim flyers and casual X-Plane users, and allows exploration of unique environments from above."

Here we are with the first objects placed... university does not leave much time for X-Plane development. American Samoa Countrywide is still chugging along, very very very slowly. Thanks to Peter T I now have better resources and plans, so things will be slightly even more delayed. Although, yes, I know, Abbotsford Intl doesn't look anything like this, I'm doing my best with default assets. American Samoa Countrywide won't be like that. Most of the airport stuff will be custom, although I'll be staying with my OpenSceneryX and other free to use libraries for objects in other parts of the country. Anyways, here's the terminal so far at YXX. Plausibility, not accuracy. Realism, not actualism (is that a word? Do I care?)

Looking forward to seeing this masterpiece! Time for a new standard to be set.

The price of the plane will be announced the minute it is released.

Stormy time over Ketchikan in a Staggerwing repaint

let´s take it easy.. and dont get the expectations to high so we would get a bit sad if something happens un expected again

Very nice! So we finally will have the chance to fly it this week-end ...great! ;-)

Hd glaciers from maxx-xp....lol

You do realize I was specifically inquiring about the moon.

Mister Aaron, I'd love to know what is so different with your moon and the one over there, that I made available to the community for free, which, in all fairness, does look just as good to me : I'm afraid I'm missing what is justifying the cost/added value here, since the moon imagery you're using is public domain (I can recognize it from a mile away). Do enlighten me.

That's how most of the X-Plane development world works, freeware or payware. You can never tell when you'll find something to add, something to fix or something to remove.

The vapor is condensed and the first drop is about to fall!

If you want a prime example X-A Vapourware just refer to the CRJ which was officially, publicly, cancelled. Only to be finished off in peace and released to go on to become easily one of the most popular X-Plane products ever. And who published it? X-A.

Hello, Captains!, We're over here working feverishly as usual and I'm just finding a quick break in-between to provide you guys with a little preview on what to expect with our menu system for the Saab 340A! While this aircraft is complex by nature, we have taken a lot of things into account to make your life a little easier while inflight and prepping for a flight. So, let's get to it!... The Saab 340 menu's are all located in the Gizmo tool tray, which conveniently comes into view when you hover your mouse over the right hand side of the X-Plane window. While there are a number of icons that will pop out, we're going to focus just on the Saab icons, which are highlighted below in red: The first icon we have here is a '+' icon. This icon, when clicked, will pull up a window for the Condition Lever Joystick Assignments. The Saab has two condition levers, in addition to two throttle levers, so for those of you with hardware this will come in handy! In the below photo I have assigned one of the two levers to my hardware. The next item on the tool tray appears as three horizontal bars lined one after the other. This icon will launch the Saab 340A Virtual Checklist window, which is actually one of my favorite features. As complex as this aircraft is, and as much as we know a lot of customers don't like to read (come on, you know it's true), this comes in handy! I'll explain that in the following series of images. First, the window presented to you when you click the icon to launch the window... From the above image and for this example, let's click on the 'Preparatory Check' select button. This will then bring up that specific checklist, with a list of buttons and checkboxes. Below, I have clicked to view the first item on the checklist, and it takes me right to where I need to go on the overhead panel. No searching around, no reading the manual to figure out the location, and no scratching my head! Just verify what the checklist says and when I'm done, click to view the next item and let the camera take me there! Just for fun, I also wanted to show you what it looks like when you select to view the 'Walk Around' checklist... Okay, moving on to menu item number three in the tool tray we see a camera icon. If you haven't guessed already this launches a window to select pre-set camera views hardcoded into the product. This means that in addition to this, you may also make your own standard X-Plane pre-set camera views, but these will always be there for you! I'm going to walk you through what each view looks like. To start, here's the initial window you are presented with... Caution: Images contain razor sharp custom programmed EFIS display. And, the following images show where each button on this menu will take you to... Overhead Pilot VFR CoPilot VFR MCP Pilot IFR Ctr Panel CoPilot IFR L Side Pnl TQ (Throttle Quadrant) R Side Pnl Radios Continuing on with the next tool tray icon, we have a picture of a truck. This icon will open the Ground Support Equipment window. There are a number of visible features on the exterior of the aircraft that correlate directly to this menu. When you first load up the aircraft, the engines will be shut down and all of the 'Remove Before Flight' flags will be in place on the aircraft just like you'd find them in real life. Additionally, there are safety cones, chocks, and the ground power unit (GPU) selectable from this menu. It's pretty straightforward, but here's what it looks like... The next item in the tool tray available to you has the text that says "Saab TQ". This icon when clicked will open a very helpful menu which I think you pilots will use quite frequently and find very handy! This is actually a virtual window which shows a render of the throttle quadrant and the location of all the throttle and condition levers. Yellow represents where your levers are currently placed, while red represents a limit when in the air (flight idle). As you move your levers up and down, the yellow lines will animate on the fly and display a percentage value (also very important to know so you don't burn up your engines). When in the air, no matter how far down you move your throttle levers with your hardware, the red line will limit your throttle position from actually going below that point. This is a lock mechanism which is also present in the real aircraft. As soon as the plane touches down, you can then move below this red line and into the various positions (like reverse). A very handy feature, for sure! Moving along, the next available icon in the tool tray depicts charts. This is another really great feature on this aircraft! We allow you to create or download your own charts from the internet and place them in a folder. The charts will then be available to you in the Chart Selector window, where you can select the checkbox next to the chart you want, and it will actually place that specific chart into the chart clip on the yoke! Below shows a selection for Newark (KEWR). Note...in the below image there's an alignment issue with the selection vs. text, and it's just due to some code editing but I wanted to show you anyhow! Next up we have an icon of a speaker. If you haven't figured this one out by now, this is a menu for our 3D sound engine preferences (called soundXtreme). The Saab 340A has some amazing sound features included to really give you a great experience! Quite literally, we were provided the access to get EVERY aural sound from the cockpit, hydraulic pump sounds, interior and exterior engine sounds, button and dial sounds, stair sounds, flaps, wipers, recirc fans, you name it! I'll be sure to dedicate some time to further explain this, but I really can't stress enough how much the sounds in this product enhance it to a whole new level! The menu options for this window allow you to customize what sounds you would like to hear at what volume levels... The next item and icon selectable looks like a "play" button. For those of you who are short on time, or just want to get up and go (hey, the babies diaper needs changing, or sometimes you just need to use the loo), we haven't forgot about you! We realize the Saab 340A is a complex simulation with a lot going on and requires some reading if you really want to know how to do everything properly. However, some of you do not like that. We know this, and we want to include you in on this product too! As such, we have created an Auto-Start window for you. This window will quite literally move switches, monitor systems, and do the dirty work for you until all the important systems and engines are up and running so that the only thing you have to do is essentially move your condition and throttle levers forward to roll down the runway! For those of you who just like to watch and learn, we have made a Auto-Start interval input where you can tell the Saab how quickly you want it to flip switches during the startup sequence. This is great to slow down if you want to just get a feel for how things work! The following images depict a typical Auto-Start sequence... Last but certainly not least we have the User Preferences icon. This icon opens a window to allow user selection of certain data to be popped up on screen depending on an action taking place. This is REALLY handy for people who map these specific items to hardware, as the knobs (such as heading) are situated in the center pedestal. As virtual pilots, we don't have the luxury that real world pilots do to use our hands in one spot and our eyes targeted on another, so this helps heaps! I have two images to show you for this. The first image depicts the actual window that launches when the icon is clicked from the tool tray... And the following image depicts what happens if I select the 'Heading Selection Pop-Up' option, and then adjust my actual heading knob. You'll see in the upper left corner of the screen a real-time view of my current heading selection will come up until I have discontinued adjusting my heading. Really handy! A final word!.... In addition to all that has been mentioned above, night flying can be tricky due to dark conditions and these windows being bright blue. But, fear not! We have taken this into account for you, and during dark hours these windows will auto-dim so that you're not blinded. Think of it like a GPS when driving down the road. The GPS has a day and night mode, and we have the same here! So, that's a walk through of our rather expansive menu system for this product. We've tried to think of many scenarios that would initially be bothersome and implement them into easy to use interfaces instead! I hope you've enjoyed learning a little more about the Saab 340A, and that this helps you get a little more acquainted with the experience you're about to have! Cheers, and Blue Skies!

I feel your consternation my friend and I TRULY appreciate what the LES Team and X-Aviation are doing! Forget the negativity ... it's just squashed bugs on the windscreen on the long haul through a development cycle . You are ALL doing a bang up job .. no doubts in my mind and anyone who's attempts to hold you to a schedule is a fool! Don't fall for it ... Cheers, Kris P.

Unfortunately, for some people, their entire lives appear to revolve around release dates for flight sim products. I, too am eagerly awaiting the Saab, but unlike some, my fingers are not hovering over the refresh button awaiting news. Release when it's ready, and I, like most sane flight simmers will happily buy it.

My HP probook I am using for school (not X-Plane) is literally falling to 1000 small pieces, apple laptops are excellent for X-Plane

Hmm it looks great, but a similar set of skycolours are offered from EPORT Aviation, and SkyMaxx has more features including new cloud textures and a skybox add-on feature that makes the sky look more real..