Leaderboard

Another uneventful testflight completed..

Or we could enjoy the fact this team is not trying to be everyone else. Doing their own thing and working according to their own values. Last time I checked the world was still spinning and I also noticed my other aircraft in X-Plane still worked. So "tired of waiting"... Go to sleep. And stop demanding things you have no right to demand. IXEG! Good job guys! And thank you guys for being patient and developing this wonderful product up to the standards you guys desire. I believe the X-Plane payware world is in need of more dedicated and passionate guys like you! It was in 1998 that the virus of aviation infected me big time. As a human lvl 8 I was invited to the cockpit of PH-OZA of Air Holland and was blown away by the cockpit of this 733 and the distant view of mountain tops on the horizon, sticking out from the clouds. Ever since I wanted to be in aviation. Took a weird detour in health care a couple of years ago and I am glad I stepped away from that and went back to aviation. Now, maybe more than ever, I know what I want to do in aviation. So... before I write an autobiography here.... I have always had a special place in my heart for the 733 and this IXEG tribute is therefore something I very much look forward to enjoying for many years to come. Happy landings y'all!

I admit, since that last video I check this forum on a 'I'm addicted' basis e.g. first thing you do when you wake up: check IXEG forum, and last thing you do before you go to sleep: check IXEG forum, when going to toilet: bring mobile with you and check IXEG forum.

No WE are not tired of waiting. WE are happy that IXEG have taken the time to give us a landmark product and that they are also testing it properly. The ones who moan most about releasing and fixing bugs afterward are usually the ones that moan most about bugs when it is released. Patience is a virtue.

I think this will be a dynamic process, getting everybody accommodated and hopefully everyone can be patient. We will have two hardware forums though, one for the custom guys (micro-controllers) to exchange ideas and techniques.....and another to support COTS hardware (Commercial Off The Shelf, i.e. GoFlight, Saitek, etc ). We do not have a cross-section of all hardware types just yet, in order to test all the potential setups so we hope to work hand-in-hand with owners and hardware developers in order to get the right kind of interface implemented. The probable order after release will be. 1.) Fix any critical (non-hardware related) operational bugs that crop up...any crashes, compatibility issues, gizmo issues, etc....then...when the sim seems to be operating with some stability, we will then turn our attention to getting hardware accommodated. I expect this to be a process and our approach to support is to be readily available and accessible in these hardware forums. That being said, commands and custom datarefs will be available. -tkyler

Agreed, the IXEG team are creating a very complex aircraft which simulates the real planes systems. This takes time. With the release being so close I'm very excited but i can wait for a great product that I will be happy to spend my money on.

THIS ! Since April the 10th.

Many thanks Ben for looking into it! I can post here some of my research results. I use two PC setup: one PC for simulation and another PC for instruments screen (and additional small screens planned for the future development as well). So I investigate heavily the topic of showing instruments on the second screen or second PS. I think there is no need to talk about MSFS, it was giving the possibility to open different 2D panels in separate windows so users could position it over the second (3rd, 4th, etc…) monitors of the same PC. I don’t know about FSX/P3D capabilities, since I left MSFS towards X-plane quite many years back. DCS (Digital Combat Simulator) It uses the concept of the viewports. So user can edit lua file defining a size and position of the main 3D screen as well as instruments viewports. In the multi monitor configuration it gives a bit of a flexibility, but its very bad from performance point of view. DSC is DirectX application so performance is degraded if user uses more than one screen: they cannot use full screen mode of the graphic adapter. There is another solution to this – SoftTH. This is a DirectX wrapper that creates a virtual video adapter space for 3D rendering that user can split later on the several 2D screens without performance impact. Anyway I don’t use it and prefer a solution with transmissions of the displays over the network to another PC. DCS used to have this feature in early development of the Flaming Cliffs (exporting display textures as a block of memory) but they quit supporting it now days. Falcon BMS Since Falcon4 has been rebuilt by BMS team it had cockpit builder’s interfaces. They decided to use the concept of shared memory. They published C++ .h files with shared memory definitions so any external application could catch it. In the shared memory there were several sections: 1) Binary data containing several information like status of the lights/annunciators, status of the systems, any other useful variables (of course we use datarefs for this purpose in X-plane, so no need to bother with it) 2) Blocks of memory containing bitmaps of the displays. I bet they just do memory copy to the shared RAM section before writing it into the texture memory of the graphics adapter. Copying blocks of memory (even large ones) is almost resource free for CPU. Using this API some people created different client/server applications capable of sending flight variables as well as instrument screens over the LAN specific to FalconBMS: (Lightning MFCDE, GiGurra GPT). I prefer GPT for open code, simplicity and performance. Wrapper tricks There was a very interesting thread by some time ago in DCS forum by the guy who experimented with the DirectX wrapper trying to locate the textures they used in A10 MFD’s. He succeeded but with one exception that ruined the approach – DCS A10 used shaders to post process MFD screens, so no “as is” texture extractions were possible. Screen replicators Some people tend to use screen replicators to display information on the other PC’s. There are many such applications available using different technology, but it makes no sense to use it since they read video adapter buffer memory to replicate it later on over the network. Memory controllers are optimized to write data from RAM to VRAM but no vice versa. So in case we need to export the instruments bitmaps we need to share the bitmap just BEFORE it went to VRAM. As far as I understand X-plane acf file concept – there are predefined blocks for any dynamic texture we want to see in 3D cockpit. What I don’t understand is why it cannot be shared the same way as DataRefs for plugins. Two years back I asked about such sharing option of the Xplane forum, but nobody cared. So that’s pretty much were we are today… P.S. Once more many thanks to IXEG team to make 737 classic possible. That’s my most beloved civil bird before the era of iPad-alike planes. P.P.S. My best regards to Jan! Long time passed since the day he landed 737 with the jammed flaps 40 in Kiev. That was nice days! P.P.P.S. My pair of 737 yokes, pedals and seats are waiting for it’s time. Even though one of the seats temporary serving as ACESII

Yes I do. There are several ones but I prefer the set of Java tools made by GuGurra from BMS forum tool thread link There is a simple program (display transmiter) on the host machine to catch shared memory segment. It uses turbojpeg library to quickly compress every frame and send to another PC (or the same PC) where another application recieves the compressed frames and shows it in the several windows with user configured sizes and positions on the PC screen. Performance impact of this set of tools is close to zero - I have 1-2 fps impact on Falcon BMS. Several F16 displays is extracted over the LAN with no delay (two MFD's and also RWR). I believe the same can be done with EADI, EHSI and both FMC screens. Displays texture memory sharing feature will have the product priceless for 737 cockpit builders and the users who likes to use a second monitor/PC. Source code of the tools is also available on the project page https://github.com/GiGurra/gpt/releases

Hi guys, nothing much to add to Morten´s reply. The -500s and -400s simply saved money during certification by omitting FLAPS 1 takeoff certification. Tailstrike concerns might have played a part for the -400s. In general, FLAPS 1 will get you both a more quiet, faster and less fuel consumption climbout - so unless field lenght or close-in obstacles are an issue, FLAPS 1 is the choice for takeoffs. Jan

GCLP/LPA Gran Canaria Airport

Ok, I will be Patient

@LPNils: "human lvl 8" LOL In 1998 I was only lvl 6 but I remember it like it was yesterday since it was also my first encounter with the B733, Air Europa EC-FKJ from LKTB to LEPA, delayed midnight flight, too cold in the terminal. It was a substitute plane (of different airline) since the original one had some technical issues that night. I was kind of scared because of that plus I remembered the words of my great grandma who was too worried that the plane would fall down... That didn't happen luckily and it got me hooked up to aviation for life. In 2003 I got my first digital camera and this is the first picture of a plane I took with it, can anyone guess the airport?

Dear IXEG team, can you please think about exporting EADI & EHSI displays content to show on the second screen/second PC? This neat feature exists in DCS and in Falcon BMS for quite some time already so maybe you can do this as well in your product. In my mind the best option to do it is to copy displays textures in the shared memory like its done in Falcon BMS. And we as cockpit builders can use the same replication software as we already use for BMS. I understand this feature to be welcomed by small number of users, but the option to have at least EADI and EHSI on the second PC (laptop) will attract a lot of users. Thanks! Cheers, V

Do you guys plan to add a RAAS for the 733 after V1? CMB Sent from Tapatalk

Running RWC with XP metar running and I must say it is real spooky flying without weather popping at me like it used to do. Flew my trusty STMA Pilatus from/ to PAKT up to FL60 through some soupy weather (the only place on the West Coast I could find some) using the RWY11 GPS approach to try it out and the weather transition was smooth as silk. I was very impressed how realistic it now is and am a very happy pilot. RWC and SMP 3.1 just kicked up my flying experience by a couple of orders of magnitude. Will probably get FSGRW next. Thanks.

If there are any other bits of software that people are using to achieve this sort of thing please post them here for review. Best solution wins.

Thanks for the detailed reply. I'll look into the provided links and see what we can do to make it happen. It won't be in v1.0 but you'll probably see support for this sort of thing before Christmas. (I'm responsible for the plugin(Gizmo64) that underlies all of IXEG's scripting. Big changes like this are going to have to be dealt with by me.)

Do you have links to the "replication software as we already use for BMS" ?

@vitolo: Yes! But seeing your location it was not much of a challenge for you I guess .

Does anyone actually think a buggy product on release is more desirable just because "everyone does it"? The only reason "everyone" does so is to make a quick buck.

On another note: When there is a thunderstorm with SMP 3.1.1 I see the whole cloud shaking when the lightning strike appears. Is this intended? It looks not too realistic. Thx for your great support btw!

Haha! What an adorable co-pilot!

The pilot has control over the thrust levers when the servos are disconnected, e.g. when the A/T is in ARM or HOLD mode.

TBH i don´t think they´ll make it that exciting for all of us and just throw that beauty out, without announcing it WAY before. They´ll probably tell us the exact release date 3-4 weeks before its actually happening. :-) BUT i hope i am completely wrong here and we´ll have it in our hands next friday or so. haha

Nothing yet. I have an external programmer for this one, and he needs to make a living by other means while working on this in his spare time. It was originally going to be a "lite" product, but after the add ons we've put out so far, it's going to be procedural. Full system simulation.

Definitely in hibernation. Throwing ourselves in the Citation and Saab fixes. Actually, more like "üpgrades". But it's definitely not vaporware. I've done too much work on it to discard it.

For an average x-plane aircraft one buys and tries out for a month or two? Yes. For probably the most advanced simulated aircraft for x-plane ever, developed during half a decade, modelling virtually every possible instrument and behaviour of the plane and where extreme precision have been taken to visually mimic every aspect of the physical plane? No. High quality modelling of wing flex for an aircraft in the highest rang, as I see it, should be one of the top priorities when it comes to visuals. Just because some simmers may be 100% interested in the instruments does not automatically mean we do not at all need a 3d model. Visuals, as well as physics and instrumentation all sums up and makes a good simulation. As more stuff is cut off from the model, the model itself becomes less equivalent to the real-to-life aircraft. IXEG have already modelled details in the simulation that most probably will not be seen/experienced by 99,95% of simmers. But they do this to make the perfect simulation. Having this in mind, I see no logical argument to - when the time is right and all other coding-critical aspects have been addressed - make an as immerse simulation of wing flex, to add to the already 99,9% complete simulated aircraft.

A320 gets my vote. It's such a popular airliner and we don't have a good one for X-Plane. However, I'd also love to see the A380, so far there isn't a good one on any platform. It's been flying in the real world for so long now it's about time somebody tackled it!

We are tired of waiting... Then releases the v1 and next fixes in subsequent versions, that's what everyone does