Leaderboard

Conversion of all 3D to the new toolchain is complete and we have exported out all of the 737 objects from the new version of Blender. Jan and I will begin testing the functionality to see what I may have missed in the conversion as I had to hand-edit an enormous volume of elements to prep it for the conversion software. Next up is converting the sounds. The attached screenshot shows a "quickie adjustment" I made to test drive the 3D update process......about 15 minutes of fooling around in Blender to see how quick I could make an update to the 3D with the new toolchain. (I know, the circle isn't perfectly round....but it was only 15 minutes) -tkyler

So the following screenshot tells two stories. 1). We have almost completed the conversion of all 3D assets to to the new Toolchain. Two assets remain and I'll probably knock that out over the weekend. The second story....is that with the upgrading of our assets, we finally have a workflow between 3D and Substance Painter® for texturing....in this screenshot the glare shield has a bit of a texture to it, nothing major, but adds to the immersion that's so important to us. We'll be able to start sharpening up several 3D elements that are a bit low-res by todays standards. The roadmap after this 3D conversion is to then convert the sounds to FMOD, upgrade the 3D a bit, including a revised cabin and working doors and make any adjustments required by the X-Plane flight model itself for stability and we'll probably put out an update then. Then I'll move back to the FMS to finish up my integration of the XP1100 data format and get the holds integrated, the VNAV cleaned up and several other FMS polish work. -tkyler

With modern tools, comes modern features.

Hello All. This post will be locked as its only intended for public statement. While many people are aware of the IXEG Development status, many others will not and so this post is intended to provide clarifying information. For a while now, IXEG development has sat relatively idle. The reasons for this are multiple and have been stated in other forums; however, two significant factors contributing to that idleness have since wained and IXEG are looking at how to best move forward with IXEG updates again. There are two areas we are looking at for updates, 3D cabin/doors/animations and the FMS. Regarding the FMS, IXEG are looking at transitioning to the XP1100 Navdata format, which is derived from the ARINC 424 standard. Moving to this dataset format would yield increased accuracy in the representation of procedures and more practical data with which to improve LNAV / VNAV / performance caclulations. If it turns out that porting our code to the new XP1100 format is too cumbersome in the short term, then we will seek to patch what we have now and transition at a later time. The important thing is that IXEG are moving again to improve the FMS. Regarding the 3D, this will be a bit more of a undertaking. The development tools IXEG used for 3D development are nearly fully deprecated and there has been a major transition to newer tools and methods. This necessitates IXEG reconfigure our source material to the new formats and we have a LOT of 3D material to translate. This means that the 3D updates will be longer in coming than the FMS updates. Once the 3D is ported to the new tools though, any updates we implement thereafter would come much quicker, simliar to what was done shortly after our release for those that recall. We apologize for the idle time and appreciate all our customers and any patience you've exercised. We are sincerely committed to making the most immersive and accurate simulation of this aircraft as we can and will continue to push towards that goal, no matter where its end may be. -Tom Kyler

Real "Impulse 100" (Pocket Rocket) airplane with 450-horsepower Allison turbine has the following performance: - Stall power on: none, climbs with 80° nose up - Stall power off: 39 kts Well, with the "Experimental Flight Model - ON", after some custom Aerodynamic and Prop improvements TorqueSim Pocket Rocket is very close to the above mentioned performance. She is like silk now!

After another week of hard work, we are excited to show some new screenshots and provide some more information regarding our development progress of the SR22 G3 GTS. First off, we are excited to announce that the SR22T G3 will come bundled with the SR22! The turbocharged variant of the SR22 will allow the option for faster cruise speeds and higher cruising altitudes. As always, you can see all the current renders here: https://torques.im/sr22 G1000 Perspective System (Work in Progress): Check out the next previews by clicking here!

Adding the 22T model is Brilliant!!

Hi Coop! Did a bit of detective work recently. I think I can confirm that this "bobbing" effect is connected to using AP (doesn't matter if it's the G1000 or the 530/430 stack. What happens with all the models is when at altitude and configured so the IAS is at about 170kts or above if the AP is selected this "bobbing" effect occurs. If the AP is left on and MP is reduced at about 160kts or less the "bobbing" will cease or be reduced to the point where I can't detect it easily. If the models are hand flown this effect does not occur at any speed. You may be aware of all this already, I just wanted to confirm what you may already know.

I just did a full manual approach into LPPT, no fmc, no ILS approach, just a full manual and all went well. Tomorrow i will do a full flight, with a full ILS approach and let you know the outcome. Both of the flight that failed were RNAV approaches. Thank you for your reply.

Hey, I'm just curious, is this the standard or turbo version? Or is it the same thing?

another update, for those who may not have seen discussions in other threads. As much as I've spoken about FMS work...that was mostly because all the other aspects of our project, the 3D, the sounds, etc....were bound up in deprecated technology and tools, making it VERY difficult to update things....whereas the FMS was just code work. This was not really a lack of foresight on our part regarding the 3D tools, but rather being so far ahead of the game way back when we started, we came up with our own solutions.....that were not quite compatible with the way X-Plane moved with regards to developer tools. WELL.....thanks to Ted Greene of Laminar.....he has coded up a "converter" between the old toolchain we used and the 'toolchain of today'. Only in the last week did we work out some critical bugs that allowed us to begin converting all our assets into the modern workflow supported by Laminar. We are currently in the process of converting all our work to this new toolchain and have converted some of the most complex aspects of it already...so we do not anticpate much resistance converting the rest of the work. This converter by Laminar is a huge lifeline of sorts and will allow us to again respond quickly to bugs and manage updates once we establish a new baseline with these tools. -TomK

So its been a while, time for another update. There was a pause after the rush of FMS work mentioned above. During this pause, I have finished up my NASA obligations...and demobilized from Houston back to San Antonio, where I live, and some much needed stability to my schedule. Last week, I dug back into the FMS code and started coding up the route editing features using the new XP1100 dataset. This is the backbone of the FMS future with regards to performance.....for VNAV calculations, performance progress and also holds. Its one of those things that I wanted to be real sure I was ready to dig into before doing so. This route editing coding will go on for a bit......'route editing' involves building the route data that the FMS will use during lnav and vnav tracking and so is critical to be flexible and correct. It is my belief that if carefully done now, the FMS will be functional and stable for many years to come, which is the most important thing. -TomK

Hello again. I'd like to give another update. During our investigation into updating our NavData to the XP1100 format, it became apparent that this must be the way to go for long-term future compatibility and more reliable route calculations, including holds, but would require a significant rewrite of the FMS base architecture to do so. So over the last 4 weeks, we have done exactly that. We now have the beginnings of a 2nd FMS running in parallel with... but independently of.... our original FMS. We are running 'newFMS' on CDU1 and 'oldFMS' on CDU2. We will NOT be simulating dual FMCs though. This old/new arrangement only exists so we can compare the new with the old while developing the new. It is much like building a new bridge alongside an old bridge...and when the new one is ready, we will remove the old. Much of the challenges we have faced with regards to drawing routes / vnav have been related to the limited nature of the navData format we have used since we began the project. Moving to a format which have been designed expressly for "navigation processing" will go a long way towards easing our algorithm development. The image below shows the two CDUs, both on the "IDENT" page, but clearly displaying differing data as they use differing algorithms/databases....and for those curious, the pilot CDU displays 'odd' formatting simply because we were testing our new display drawing code. We are very excited moving to this new XP1100 format. We have, in 4 weeks, accomplished what took us over 24 months to accomplish originally. Of course we have the benefit of experience, but the elegance and efficiency of the new navData format and architecture allow us to focus on the FMS functionality by orders of magnitude more than before. With the new infrastructure complete, we will begin working on the route editing. The current navData set only supports about 8 different waypoint types. Arcs are not supported, as is common in today's RNAV procedures, but the new format contains all path/terminator types typical in today's procedures. As usual, we thank you for any patience you have managed to muster as we work to improve the IXEG 733. P.S. Jan and myself will be at Flight Sim Expo in Orlando, FL/USA in a few weeks if anyone wants to talk shop. -Tom Kyler