Cameron

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.

Yes, it is 64-bit compatible.

Hi, all!, One of the bigger questions we get in e-mail and sometimes in forums is if the Saab 340A has rain effects. The answer to this question is 'Yes!', but it goes a bit deeper than that. In stormy conditions where precipitation is present, you can visually watch the drops of rain land on the window and "splat". It's a pretty looking effect for sure, and the overall effect took quite a while to get right. There are many instances that will effect what the rain will look like given conditions. A picture in idle rainy conditions is below... Cold, snowy weather will also yield a dangerous situation. As snow falls, or conditions are kept cold without heat, the windows will ice up. De-icing is not instant and will take time, just as you would expect in real life! Just a small explanation and preview, but I hope this has been informative and fun none-the-less!

A number of turboprops have them. The Q400, EMB-120, and the Saab 340B/B+ variants just to name a few. The A variant we modeled this after is not quite the power house that the B/B+ is/was, but it's very close. It was essentially Saab's first version of the 340, with the revisions going to the B/B+ (including the FMS).

Correction. Nicolas has assigned Steven to write reviews on products that Nicolas sells.

Thanks for the compliments, Dave. Indeed, as Goran has stated no FMS, as the 'A' is not equipped with one in real life. We do have ideas for a path to the 'B' variant, but nothing firm just yet. I've said it before, and I'll say it here again...don't let this fool you. The aircraft is still VERY complex in systems programming. The Autopilot, electric bus systems, hydraulics, displays, engine control, etc...it's all custom per spec of the real world AOM for the aircraft. It's nothing like a default X-Plane aircraft. As much as we've shown off pics, I'm 100% sure people will be shocked at how insane this product is the moment they load it up on their machines. It's that good.

Not really. Third party apps are just that. Our job is to make sure the base product works, doesn't CONFLICT with other third party add-ons, and is as bug free as possible. Compatibility with other utilities or add-ons requires work on the part of the utility developers' part.

Hi, Folks!, Rolling on with the news that we have reached release week, here are some more shots showing off the interior of the aircraft!... A quick shot showing off some of the normal mapping, remove before flight flags, chocks, and 3D props. The chocks and flags can be removed through a menu system we will be showing you soon! Also note the cabin interior through the window. Some cockpit shots! This is just after startup, and the CRT screens are just heating up enough to turn on. The system is going through alignment as the system powers up. In general, CRT screens take some time to warm up before you even see anything fade in on the screen, and we have modeled this as well! Below you'll note the AHRS system has aligned and the CRTs are now displaying proper navigational data. The process takes some time for the system to calibrate, just like in real life! Just showing off some close up switches. This panel contains your throttle quadrant, radios, and some very important autopilot functionality. More panel shots... Cabin at night. The cabin features a functional cabin lighting panel just in front of the flight attendant jumpseat. Window shades adjust, overhead and side panel cabin lighting is functional, flight attendant call buttons work, and even the seat reading lights illuminate the seats below them when turned on! Showing off the night lit panel. Note the CRT screens casting off light!

Back on topic, guys. We had our fun. Lots to look forward to now!

It's vaporware, dude. Simon or Steven just hasn't canonized it yet.

Sorry to hear that, guys. Nicolas Taureau (who runs the org) is known to do things like that. There are many other pro-consumer communities out there. Participate there instead.

Looking for screenshots? Scroll below to see links to topics with screenshots! Hello, Captains, Welcome to what we feel is going to be a very exciting week (defined as our own 7 day period starting now)! Why? Well, release time is upon us! The Saab 340A is on final approach and will be ready for you to fly very soon! The last three years of work is about to be unleashed in this new product for X-Plane 10, and we're confident you will agree it to be a game changer. There have been some awesome aircraft released over the years, and this has provoked us to raise the bar during development. We've raised our own bar over here time and time again to strive for better than we already are or ever were. The Saab 340A will be a study level sim. You can read the AOM from the real aircraft and step into this product and know just what to do; just what to see! We realize some folks are not interested in overly complex simulations, and trust me, we've worked hard to consider you as well. We'll announce more about that shortly! I realize some of you just like to "get in and go," and that's just fine! That said, this product will REALLY cater even more-so to the folks that love a true-to-life simulation experience. Our real world Saab 340 beta test team has been not only a tremendous help, but also good affirmation that we've been doing this right for the last three years; that we have something really special on our hands! So, what will these upcoming days hold? Well, here's what I can tell you: 1. We are currently wrapping up documentation and working on some last minute systems logic/animations (smaller stuff). 2. Our beta team has been provided their fourth release today, which incorporated a ton of bug fixes (thanks team!) and additions. While the team is busy putting the changes and additions through their paces, we are implementing any fixes or concerns that come up almost right away. 3. A lot of you have asked for a video. Truth be told, our plate has been really, really full with work here. Some of us have pulled up to 30 hour work days without sleep. That said, we will not let you down and more on that will be released in time. Video has been released! 4. We are busy testing new download servers just deployed in preparation for release day. 5. Everyone constantly asks about a release date. We actually have a hard date set for this launch already. We will not be releasing this info right now. Last minute things can change, but I thought giving you a time range (I did say a week ) would be more than satisfactory. The ONLY way something will change at this point is if something really, really "bad" happens to the extent we cannot release the product. The chances of this occurring are very slim. What can you do?... We've worked tirelessly on this add-on for all these years. We're confident in what a success it will be (just hearing the initial reactions from those involved in the beta make us smile), but you can never have too much publicity. You guys are sometimes our best marketers by spreading the word and sharing your excitement, so please, from today on, if you see something you like with screenshots, announcements, or any other info that will come out this week, share it! If you participate in other forums, that's a great starting point as well. Your excitement fuels OUR motivation! Lastly, thanks to everyone who has followed us on this multi year journey. Our job is almost done, but yours has just begun! Get those checklists out! Enjoy what's to come this week...It's going to be busy with information! ------------------------------------------------- Missed the screenshots? Haven't seen screenshots/previews or want to look at them again? Check them out below! Expansive Menu System Preview - September 8th, 2013 Saab 340A Promo Video - September 6th, 2013 Airborne Early Warning Variant - September 6th, 2013 Weather Conditions - September 4th, 2013 Cockpit and Cabin - September 4th, 2013 Kenya Airways - September 1st, 2013 Silver Airways - June 24th, 2013 REX - June 24th, 2013 Aloha Air Cargo Variant - April 2nd, 2013 NextJet and Cockpit - February 15th, 2013 Cockpit Photo - January 28th, 2013 ...and many more!