Cameron

He's on a 30 day forced sabbatical, and the first person on these ever forums to receive one. Quite frankly, with minimal positive contributions and a lot of yapping, it's nice to have a change.

Hello, Captains!, Work continues and we're still working feverishly over here. We've concluded our testing on our latest feature implemented, and I wanted to show that to you here! Recently there was some internal discussion about how the Saab 340A lacks RNAV capability. It is, after-all, an old school aircraft by design, and primarily requires VOR/NDB type flying. The aircraft itself comes standard with two radios for VOR 1 and VOR 2 tracking which makes the autopilot as well as the aircraft interactive and fun to fly. Aside from general complexity in the simulation of this aircraft, the navigation aspect alone will really brush up your skills as a pilot in general. It's really a lot of fun to surf the skies and have something to do all the time! But, RNAV is becoming ever so popular and dominant in places like Europe (all over the world really), where a lot of radio frequency waypoints (like VOR) no longer exist. Instead, they rely on FIXs and that is something the Saab 340A is not capable of out of the box. In the USA it's a bit easier because VORs still exist, and any type of FIX can generally (usually) be associated to some form of radial on a VOR. All this said, to solve the RNAV issue we made the executive decision to create our own GPS in X-Plane. We are calling this a Mini-GPS, and it is accessible in the tool tray just like all of our other menus seen in our last topic covering this type of information. The Mini-GPS will work only with FIXs, as the aircraft itself can already handle radio frequency waypoints like VORs. The Mini-GPS window will give you three options when first opened. The first, is to set the initial position that the GPS will track from. For convenience we have a button to set it to your current aircraft position. The second and third inputs are for FIXs. We allow you up to two waypoints for convenience, and as you cross a FIX in flight, the second FIX you entered will move to the 'Active' position. This will make flying things like SIDs and STARs a lot more attractive to a lot of you. Additionally, the menu allows you to select checkboxes for what data you'd like to display on screen. This includes your active waypoint, a deviation bar (just like you'd find on a real GPS), and your 'Next' waypoint if entered. It looks like this: In the below screenshot, I have just taken off from KIAH and am on my way to the 'ZORLU' FIX. You can see the data in the upper left displays what heading from my current position this FIX is located at, and how far I am from the FIX based on my current position. This data constantly updates as I fly! You'll also note the deviation bar in the middle of the screen. The small diamond constantly updates, tracks, and displays the proper information for me to know when I am on the correct flight path between the two waypoints I have entered (in this case my position on the runway at KIAH and the FIX 'ZORLU'). Click image to see full size. So this is just a quick run down of our latest feature implemented. I believe this will be attractive for a lot of you who fly online and follow SIDs and STARs. It solves a problem in our virtual world for an aircraft that typically does not have RNAV capability, and still makes the flying fun just like VOR to VOR flying would be. Thanks for reading! We'll have more updates shortly as we progress to release!

Hi, All, I just wanted to give you a new progress update. As you know we announced release week by Tuesday earlier this week and we are now four days into a delay. This is not without good reason, though I understand frustration is likely felt by some whom are excited about the impending release. We were very, very close to hitting the "up for sale" button last week, but a number of very last minute, 11th hour issues popped up. These include: 1. An executive decision by us to re-work the manuals a bit. This is a very complex product in simulation and deserves a well put together systems manual. We have been very happy with the revisions thus far, and are moving as quickly as possible around the clock to get this done. 2. A sound issue was discovered in certain circumstances on Windows hardware. We just completed the fix for this today. 3. In a very last minute move, we made the decision to add a new menu item which will be announced soon, but it's a very handy one and pretty darn cool! We think you all will really enjoy this one when announced. We finished most of the coding on this feature through the night tonight and are currently testing it. 4. A flight tutorial is currently being created. It just seemed like the right thing to do. We have worked extremely hard since we made the initial "week" announcement and tried every best, honest effort to meet our timeline. These last minute decisions and unexpected items in-between have added to that initial timeline, but I assure you we are not far off from release. The extra time taken will ensure the product you receive is more than well rounded compared to any others. We'll be sure of that! We wanted to get some new previews out to at least satisfy the wait, but it's been really hard to squeeze time in for play this week with the work we are trying to pull off in a short period of time. In the meantime, I hope this update gives enough insight to hold you over for a bit. We really apologize for the delay. I assure you it will have been worth the wait! Thanks for your patience, understanding, and for reading!

Philipp did NOT suggest removing the file. You did that on your own. He suggested you contact X-Aviation instead. By removing Gizmo you broke your aircraft in the process. Ever since Gizmo 64-bit, there are no conflict issues. The problem you're having is related to a modified aircraft not originally made for the activation system. You'll note now that because you have removed this plug-in, a number of your displays will no longer work. An e-mail was sent to you with the proper aircraft file for the modification you seek.

Items which will be described once we have formed a solution and deal with an idea given the limitations of the environment of a sim platform. Making life easy is part of the process (example being our virtual checklist menu).

This is just another affirmation that anything Steven Winslow ever tries to say is a light hearted poke and apologizes for is pure rubbish. Didn't believe him then, don't believe him now.

Probably because you've been hanging out in the world of censorship that is x-plane.org. Anyways, no matter now. Your wait to see it and experience it will be far less than those that have followed it for years.

You're giving us a really good case as to why we traditionally give you guys almost NO info on release dates. Let this comment be an example. Who started this whole "today" thing, anyhow? I haven't seen any of our own people make such a comment, so just curious. We've been pretty good about making this form of info available to you.

Did you elect to just post this instead of read the status report?

This is incorrect. The FMS is not optional on an A variant. Anything you read about an FMS comes from a B or B+ model.That's like saying the 737 has all glass displays, when really only the NG models do.

Hi, Captains!, This is just a quick status report on where we stand. Tomorrow will mark our one week window of release week information. We are making every effort to meet that time, though unexpected items (small or big) can get in the way and delay that only slightly, if at all. We have released Release Candidate 1.0 to our test team and they are putting the installer and programming through the paces. At this point it's important to ensure we have squashed the bugs they report from beta to beta (so far so good). We will continue to get feedback from them and fix as necessary. This is also our quality control check time. We are verifying that the package contains all it needs to, and none of what it shouldn't. We go through every texture, variant, and livery. We're also fine tuning a few animations we didn't quite like and had better ideas for, but that's nothing big or delay worthy. The big one right now is the manual. We are still in the phase of compiling the final layout and content aside from what we have had already during this time. Releasing a product like this without a good quality manual renders this product almost useless for the majority of folks, so it's important we get this one done. I don't know exactly when we'll get this out the door (tonight, tomorrow morning, whatever) other than to say when we say it's "done!" It's very, very, very close, and it's exciting for all of us to say the least! So, this is just a little status report. We're still here, working around the clock, and ready for a vacation. Talk soon!

It's been publicized before. The answer is that we have been there, done that. Not only is it a support challenge due to the vast amount of "flavors" of Linux (which FEELS like instability to a support person due to inconsistencies), it's also an ROI issue. For what we need, it's not as simple as pressing the "compile" button. There's many libraries that need to be in order for various items prior to this, then there's just the general bug sifting. Once that's out of the way, the support headache just adds the icing to the cake. I have had MORE Linux issues from LESS Linux sales than I have from Windows users over the years from a technical runnable product standpoint. I'll give you one thing...ya'll are passionate and vocal about your OS. That said, we've dipped our feet in those waters before and know what it's like from experience already.

This question has been asked and answered multiple times. The 340A, both in sim and in real life, is not equipped with an FMS.

He's on the west coast.

The entire study level simulation is, yes. Limitless, to say the least.

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!

Any products released from this day forward will lack X-Plane 9 support. It's as simple as that.

This was not all we had in store. Aside from that, there's tons of info being posted here as of late, and will be translated to the product page. If you can read content in a video, you can surely read content in posts! Thanks to everyone else here! Very encouraging comments, indeed, and we're glad you've shared your enjoyment of the video and aircraft!

We have these fixes in place and they'll be released soon. It's overload work schedule for us right now, so bear with us. Sorry, guys!

Hello, Captains!, Today we're pleased to show you the official Saab 340A promo video! The video highlights a number of features on this aircraft, and also brings to light the fact we are using a brand new 3D sound engine called soundXtreme! This was developed in-house by X-Scenery to squash issues we felt were present in existing sound solutions. We will provide more info about the sounds on this aircraft in a bit, but to put it simple: the sounds on this aircraft are amazing. We felt this was a big part of the experience in order to make it real, and we went to great lengths to get every possible sound on the real Saab 340A to make this happen! This includes everything from all cockpit warnings, pump sounds, and exterior/interior sounds. Again, more on this part of the aircraft soon! Also present in the video is a number of unannounced liveries. This is still only some of the liveries we have in store for you, and we'll be sure to show all of those off soon too! The video has been produced by our talented friend Dave Robertson (aka redpiper1). Enjoy! Highly suggest you select at least 720p!

Hi, Captains!, Today we're here to show you a third variant included with the Saab package at no extra charge! As a reminder, we've already announced in the past the passenger and cargo variants, and today we are announcing the Airborne Early Warning (AEW) variant! There's not a whole lot to say on this one other than it's a fun addition that caters to a few people not interested in passenger or cargo flights! Enjoy!

The rain dissipates quicker as airspeed increases, just as one would expect on the real aircraft.

Thanks! Glad you're enjoying the shots!

LOL. That made me laugh pretty good.

While you're over there debating the thickness of the vstab (which we know is right, but due to FOV settings gave a wide appearance), I'm going to sip coffee here and enjoy the high fidelity of the simulation. Interesting first post as a new member, for sure. Three years. I'm not worried.