tkyler

Elevator trim will not be visible that is correct. Everything outside of the cockpit panel really needs a massive upgrade, including the wheels / landing_gear! I'm on it! Actually, there is a "cutout" in the gear doors for this in reality. The wheel is the right size.. its the gear door that is messed up :-P

I think I've gotten the engines simulated enough to my satisfaction....the biggest thing was behavior consistent with start up and shut down in both "cold and dark" and "engine running" scenarios, given all possible switch and lever combinations. (Hope I didn't miss one!) As far as I can tell (unless I've missed some real obscure abnormal procedure)....you will have to follow real-world normal procedures on start up and shut down. The performance (RPM, EGT, power) during startup is not 100% exact as the real thing, but it's very close. Unless you have real time in one, you probably won't notice...I barely do! I'm letting a few buddies at it while I move on to the mundane stuff like cleaning up the light textures, a few extraneous textures that offend me in cockpit view and a few straggling animations. I think I can say the "race" is done and I'm on the wind-down lap. I'll look to release sometime in May. I expect to squash a few bugs and add a few features after the release, but that will be pretty much end the V1 series. From there, I'll move on to vastly improving the artwork for the V2 series, adding eye candy features and animations and look for any straggling systems and features worth simulating. EDIT: I did try an air start and though the procedure is 100% NOT REAL...it does get the engine started, though with a few "huh, what the heck is that" moment. I'll document the procedure.

I like that description...it very much captures what an "in depth" systems simulation is all about.

I haven't gotten to that test yet, but I suspect a modified procedure...probably using the start button as normal...of course this only applies in the sense of an intentional shutdown with xplane. A "failure" certainly would keep the engine unusable in flight.

Any of the standard x-plane failures will do it.

I don't mean I'm going to take anything out...not at all! There's just some things that x-plane can't simulate easiliy because the engine model is one of the "least accessible" things in x-plane. See...when I test my systems...I really abuse them. I try everything. I try shutting engines down in the middle of a start...I try it with the condition lever..I try it with the RCS switches, I try it with the fuel valve switches...I try it when in reverse, I try it at idle, I try it running down the runway, etc, I try it with the mouse, I try it with keystrokes, I try it with hardware....every possible way you can shut the engine down and just about every situation...and when I go to restart / unfeather, I expect it t work in reality and in about 95% of the cases, it works fine. I'm saying I'm going to let go of that 5% that most will never see because I'm abusing the tar out of the procedures. One of the things I'm reluctantly giving up is a "air start procedure". I have to totally override Austin's prop governor to do that and that will come with a lot of effort that would drastically delay a release. It's a seldom used feature, rarely done in reality and one that my 4000 hour MU2 buddy has only done once...so that's an example of something I'm willing to let go.

They're almost too accurate. Twice already I've tried to chase bugs that weren't bugs at all because I didn't follow procedure. I was thinking the system wasn't working when it was working perfectly. I started up the engines....then shut them down again wanting to test the prop locks....and the props wouldn't feather and I sat there for a minute quite frustrated and then realized I forgot to take them OFF the locks in the first place...so no way there were going to feather. I can guarantee...I WILL hear complaints from people who think this is a bug. :-) I think in the end, I'll have to drop some of the obsessiveness and give up some measure of accuracy that few will ever care about or notice.

Thought I might have had it tonight. 6 straight hours....about 50+ "relaunches" of x-plane (spare me gizmo pitches...I know I know) but still there's some bugs yet to be squashed in my code. I have each function with regards to the engine working perfectly, but I can't get all the functions to work at the right time. It's like pushing one side of a see-saw down...then going to the other side and pushing it down. What you want is both sides down but you never seem to get it. I'm so close I can taste it. Once I squash these last two bugs, I just need to wire up some light switches and animations and be done with it. I have the prop locks working proper on start up. If you don't take the props off the locks properly, you won't be going anywhere. Simulating those prop locks also means simulating an over speed governor too....so there's yet another procedure to follow during startup. Now that I think about it, I have quite a bit to add to the manual.

The current MU2 plugin wasn't designed well to handle multiple types of "preferences". Because I primarily use a trackball and keyboard, you'll note that it's very "mouse manipulator intensive" as opposed to being hardware friendly. This was a big issue for me and was a heavy factor in the plugin redesign. My goal is to allow any preference to be utilized whether keyboard input, mouse input or hardware input and still have consistency in the animations and functionality. That may sound trivial but I think a lot of people would be surprised just what a pain it is to make everything work...and when it all "just works", then nobody will notice because it just works as you'd expect. As it turns out, the throttles are the biggest pain to make work with custom plugin and animation. Austin's hardware setup is tied into his throttle dataref pretty tight..so you have to intercept the joystick input value to make the animations work with customization...and it just goes on and on and on. That last 5% takes a long time!

Thank you Kevin, that is very much appreciated. Are you still looking to get one? I quite miss flying in them, they are quite something to me. I am anxious to get the next update out, it will be quite a step up from the current offering....and for those who are wondering WHEN that it....well there's a few little niggling things left that I need to hunt down. I'm working quite furiously on V10 still and only get in the occasional weekend work on it....but I'm telling ya, it's real close!

The altimeter is part of the "flight director system" and therefore provides electrical signals to the flight director for barometric altitude info. The flag, like the others on the ADI and HSI, represents an "unreliable signal" in that some signal conditioning and cross-comparisons (from other sources) are done by the computer before "officially" being used to control the plane through the autopilot. Of course lack of power cause the flags to display also. The "system" is collectively referred to as the "Sperry SPZ-500 Automatic Flight Control System" and consists of the autopilot controller, mode selector, pilot's altimeter, radio altimeter, altitude alert controller, ADI and HSI. As to it's dependency on "avionics power".....it's more accurate to say that these components are powered from the left hand radio bus (I think?). (it's powered off the AC busses, which xp does not explicitly simulate)....and in the absence of real AC busses in x-plane, it's the best I can do. I had requested some features for x-plane 10 regarding electrical bus simulations but Austin has said he will not put the feature in for now. I am going to investigate my own multi - bus simulation...which means a refresher on simultaneous equations and gauss-seidel numerical techniques (my way of saying it ain't a quick solution)....and I'm REAL REAL rusty on that stuff, so no telling when I'll have it, but I'll keep plugging away. Until I get the busses modeled accurately, I'm going to make some "convenience" concessions". The right switch will control the avionics and nav2 stuff and the left will control the nav1 stuff and flags. This is just procedural and wont' affect anything because in reality, the electronics are MUCH more sophisticated...so it'll mostly be for "immersion" in normal operations.

Added flags to the altimeter and ADI. These flags are animated as opposed to "instant snap" and work off the left radio bus. Protocol calls for starting the right engine, then left, THEN flipping the radio master switches. If you watch the video above of the real MU2 that details the engine start, you'll see that the engines are both running before the flags on the altimeter and ADI disappear when the pilot flips the radio master switches.

I totally agree, but this is where perspective's differ. The release of the ipad and iphone versions of x-plane were absolutely critical in their timing...if Austin had not done that, other's could have passed him by. This is public knowledge...by austin himself. He garnered nearly 3.5 million dollars in sales in the first 1.5 years off those apps...and THAT is funding x-plane 10 development now. Without the handheld sales, we would have no x-plane 10. Austin is managing development brilliantly...no loan needed!

One final thing I'll say...with regards to you comments on marketing. We don't have enough material yet to market..at least not in one place. Right now, we are like "sub-contractors" where we all have our "bits and pieces" and none of that has been pulled together for final assembly...and final assembly is where the marketing materials will come from. Showing bits and pieces is not sexy....so when the time is right, the marketing will come!

I did not call you an idiot, you are simply ignorant of what is going on inside laminar. Ignorance indicates a lack of knowledge, nothing more...it's usage has been bastardized by others...I am ignorant of lots of things myself. I'm sure you are quite intelligent and smart and you're writing was very well worded in that it clearly conveyed your "concern", "observations" and "opinions". I wish others would write just as clearly. We're dealing with a philosophical approach here. "hype" is not what we do...."deliver" is what we do. There are those that may argue, but this is a fact and that is that the x-plane market has grown steadily since the day it was introduced and is growing at a phenomenal rate. We will begin marketing when we have marketable materials to market. The public all sees the same information, but others do not gather what you gather nor conclude what you conclude. We can't help that...but I can say that there is not a single concern that you mentioned that is not being addressed. If you think we should be marketing more, well then...that's just a tactical difference we have I guess. Rest assured, lots of money, talent, time and work are going into making x-plane 10 and beyond a really cool sim. X-plane 10 will lay a final foundation (the DSF / object 8 was the first) to build upon. X-Plane 10 will have much more scenery, but still not as much as MSFS due to its maturity; however, we ARE building easier tools to make scenery for the community than MSFS had and we hope that the community will help build the x-plane world. "Give a man a fish, you feed him for one meal, Teach a man to fish and you feed him his whole life". I'm sorry if you took offense to my comment, it was not intended. -Tom

Your concerns are seriously unfounded, way off base and indicate a vast amount of ignorance of what is going on.

Accent? What accent? :-P I started work on the C framework before Gizmo was as complete and robust as it is today so I've stuck with it as it's very flexible and I'm comfortable with it. I do plan to integrate Gizmo on the MU2 later, not as a replacement, but as a compliment as it's possible to integrate the two techs. Ben has put some really neat stuff in Gizmo and made it quite painless to get quick results and when the time is right...meaning pretty soon as I'm getting happy with the systems on the Moo.... I plan on putting it to good use.

Ok..make sure you check out the videos in the post above first...because those are the videos I'm referring to in THIS video.

Do watch the following videos.....and note the engine sound and rate of acceleration just before the engine settles at idle. The RPMs "jump" very quickly between about 55% and 72% (idle) as the engine comes into it's "powerband".... I'll post my simulation in a couple of hours for comparison! I have had a VERY successful day getting the engine simulation working darn near 100% accurate to the real thing! How real? I keep thinking I screwed up the plugin but it's the procedure I keep screwing up! Oh yea....the propeller locks are simulated too!...at least within reason! If you shut down improperly and try to restart (in the same x-plane session) you won't be able to get the engine going unless you utilize the unfeather procedure properly (I hope...still testing every possible situation, but looks good so far). Eventually, I'll maintain persistence across x-plane sessions so that if you forget to shut down properly..then the next time you start up the sim, you'll have to utilize proper procedure.

I love that plane! I'd get a kick out of seeing that develop!

No new screens though new work has been done....was actually working on it recently. I'm trying to touch it now and then between other stuff so as to keep progress for the day I can break from V10 work and jump back on it.

Because we're consumers ourselves and want the same things! Right now the problem is that the type of aircraft you're asking for...a bit more complex than x-plane simulates natively, requires more specialized knowledge and experience that the x-plane market will not currently support financially full time. Those that CAN do this are tied up with "day jobs" and progress is slow. I've been at this for about 6 years now with x-scenery and have watched the slow transition from small sim to big foundation. I use the term "foundation" because all the glamour and glitz has not been built on the foundation; however, that is about the change. My "day job"...or old day job rather, was in architecture and construction and it was typical to see 2 years of design result in just a year of building...the prelim stuff takes a while. So we know what consumers want, there's just not enough producers to meet the demand...but that is changing. I'm front and center in xplane development and there is a whirlwind of development beginning. It may take another 2 years to get going full swing, but recall that Microsoft is over 25 years old and x-plane in the "modern age".....i.e. more than one team member" is less than / about 10 years old. ...we definitely have to come of age in time. I for one get most excited about business GA and would like to see this grow. The work I've put into the MU2 is easily transferrable to other projects but as long as I'm working on V10, that work has to take a back seat.....DDens Bombardier 300 looks to be a nice addition to business GA...though I'm not sure how in depth the systems will be. I tend to be a systems fan.

Me too! Everybody wants everything...and I don't mean that in a bad way. I simply mean that there are lots of folks who want what you're asking for, lots of developers who would like to do it and just a real need for these....but the market has to move at it's own pace.....so it's not a matter of WILL someone do it, it's only a matter of when. If I wasn't tied up working with laminar, I would be all over corporate GA and will be again eventually. -Tom

Got me some of that Oahu action in the MU2....this is how we roll at x-aviation! :-P

Thanks for the sentiment lis..but it has a long way to go...and I won't stop till it's darn near perfect, it's an addiction this guy. I still have to redo all the 3D that is NOT the cockpit panel; however, I'm the type that likes to get everything working properly before I make everything pretty. Many others do it the other way around but I generally don't so there's still lots of eye candy yet to come once I'm happy with the cockpit, engine and systems models.