tkyler

I apologize for this one, we are aware...so how did it end up this way? Well...... I reverse my scrollwheel direction for my 3D work in Blender and so it worked 'normally' on my end and I simply didn't catch it during the exports.....I understand I'm the exception here. For those interested in a workaround, until we send out a patch, you can 1). use the manips as previously or 2) reverse your mouse scrollwheel direction in the OS before running X-Plane. This is on our list. -tkyler

....for those interested, we are probably not going to get the datarefs and commands we want to in the next update; however, we are not averse to very short cycle updates. Because this update had such a backlog of important things, its taken a while and we must focus on those, but now that we are essentailly "caught up", will be able to implment improvements rather quickly and are targeting another update in less than a month to include many more commands and datarefs for hardware. -tkyler

So with the update relatively imminent, I thought I'd go over some things that are on my mind, because I expect many folks will have some expectations of things in this update that are not there and may naturally wonder just what we do and don't care about. Way back when, we had to be quite conscious of our poly count and texture size, and while that is still true to some degree,, machines can handle a lot more now than they could in our early planning stages. As we've gone through this update, some of the things we defintely want to improve, and which you can expect us to continue working towards are (in random, brain dump order): wingflex, FMS performance (holds, VNAV, progress, etc), higher density and more regular 3D mesh and more accurate 'penetrations' modeling, i.e. NACA ducts, ports, etc, higher resolution textures, new paint kit (sorry, liveries will have to be done again for a V2.0), full cabin lighting and control, high rez cabin model, FMOD sounds, failure management. So just because we haven't put something in yet obviously doesn't mean we don't "see it" and know it needs improvement. We are very happy with how fast and efficient we have been able to move since porting our work to Blender 2.8 and expect to be able to make timlely 3D improvements and updates as we move forward with development. Improvements will be more regular and systematic rather than some "huge V2.0" type of thing with sweeping visual changes...nowadays release/patch cycles are much shorter and incremental. I can envision a V2.0 update essentially being the revised FMS using the XP1100 dataset and a higher resolution 3D model/textures with a new paint kit and not much else, maybe the FMOD sounds. Those are somewhat 'big ticket' redos and will take some time. Priority after this release will be the FMS work and the FMOD sound conversion. -tkyler

haven't noticed that, but we will definitely run a test and look into it. Definitely not the effect that we want. -tkyler

I doubt we'll address this for this next release. Given the various techniques of achieving "smooth braking", my preference is to opt for a PI(D) algorithm which controls "deceleration Gs'....which would be set by a slider, and IMO, feel the most natural. Accomodating braking by hardware, keystroke, commmand and accounting for separate toe braking requires a bit of forethought. Its really easy to implement one method and end up breaking (no pun intended) the implementation for another user, so i don't want to rush into it assuming its simple. We are fast focusing on final details of the upcoming release and I'm reluctant to mess with any systems programming at this point. Of course we'll work on it for the one after as it is a good idea. -tkyler

so the option to disable the main menu as a popout has been implemented. The preferences window shows you the command you'll need to toggle the main menu ON/OFF (which is nice to know right before you disable the pop out). Once you opt for "command" control of main menu, its just a toggle command. There are 2 occasions where the menu will appear in the center of the screen 1). First execution of the toggle command after clicking the preference to disable the popup and 2). Anytime the command is toggled and the main menu title bar is outside the viewable area (or super close to being out of view...like within 15 pixels). This can happen if you accidentally drag too fast and slip off the mouse button and all the sudden the window is "off the page". Simply toggle the command and it will reappear in the middle of the window in this case. Other than those two occasions, the main menu window will remember its position, including between runs of X-Plane. -tkyler

anything is possible. We'll look into those lesser frequency 'failure scenarios" after we have everything else squared away. We certainly would like to simulate those kinds of things. We will most defnintely look at it in the future. -tkyler

we reworked the animations during replay so you actually have decent replays to watch/record your landings. We have too much custom stuff to replay the "cockpit" of course, but all the control surfaces replay as expected. The video shows the changes. The landing was pretty bad, but I had a cheap joystick in one hand and was monitoring a bunch of stuff at the same time. Oh ya....new winglet shapes too.

yea, that should be doable. will do. -tkyler

I understand and actually agree with this feature...I think its a good idea. I also don't have pedals and even the 50% / 100% braking can lead to jerky motion. The idea of a command that you "hold" for progressive braking, I think is worth a look-see. Commands don't really cost anything and are easy to add. -tkyler

Here's a pic from Jan's own -300 (when he was flying them). That's the way that area is. I could probably refine it to be "more accurate", but not "more smooth" as the design isn't that way. .....definitely not as smooth as the NG series anyhow.

We had a request to resize the 'mini EHSI', and also be able to toggle it on and off. That is now in for the next update.

Done and implemented. A preview video will make its way to the update threads within a few hours. There are two new commands to toggle the EHSI mini maps, one for each side, and there is also now a slider in the preferences dialog to scale the ehsi mini-map...from the small size it is now to "not so mini". We are not implementing "floating / detachable" windows however. -TomK

screenshot of what you're referring to? There is a "wing to fairing" blend...and a "fairing to fuse" blend (which can use LOTS of work)...but not a "wing to fuse" blend directly . Now I myself can see several areas I'd like to clean up indeed, but I am curious what areas you're seeing that you'd like addressed -TomK

Done

Windmilling Fans added. This example shows direct headwind and tailwind for simplicity. The magnitude is obviously diminished off-axis with practical limits..and the rotation speed is asymptotic, so 100 kt winds doesn't create unrealistic rotation animations. Tail winds are less effective on fan rotation than headwinds, due to wind turbulence through the vanes that saps energy. Also, alignment with the wind vector has to be closer for tailwinds than headwinds to yield fan rotation. -tkyler

We squeezed in native AviTab support. What a great product! We definintely encourage you to get it and support the software author with a donation. If you have AviTab installed, you should see a new preference checkbox to enable AviTab. If you do not have AviTab installed, you won't see this preference option available. The video below shows the implementation, along with a bit of coroute usage. -tkyler

So we have reached the "minimum" of what we need to put out an update. I want to make sure all understand the nature of this update. It is NOT a major fix of FMS stuff. This update has significance to us as developers, which will lead to significance for customers. From our perspective, its validation of our current toolchain, i.e. we can output code and flight model / 3D changes quickly with modern tools...being that the entire product has been generated from this new toolchain. From the customer perspective, it is mostly compatibility changes to the flight model given the changes in X-Plane 11.5....with a few visual enhancements added-in as able and tweaks to the coroute loaders, scrollwheel support, etc. Those visual enhancements, as of this post are simply some "sharpenings" of the engine 3D/animation and a tweak here or there to some textures. Between now and the update though (occuring soon after 11.50 goes final)....we will try and squeeze in fixes and enhancements as able. I am currently working on the front galley and main door animation...I'd really like to get that squeezed in to the next update if possible. If not, then it will be soon thereafter. We are also perusing some forum posts to see what else we can address in the estimated time-frame before release. I have also begun refactoring my VNAV code...in anticipation of addressing that (and holds) asap after the release. So to recap, the priorities after this update will be FMOD sounds, VNAV and holds. I am optimistic that being back full time on this, we can address the FMS deficiencies in a timely manner and get out some much needed improvements. Again, I am supremely grateful for our patient supporters and we will continue to work on making the IXEG the most immersive airliner simulation available.. -tkyler

thanks mmerelles....x-plane moving faster than me nowadays. -tkyler

I can't find that "tune NAV1" dialog in X-Plane....is it default? tuning radios from a map view seems a bit odd. Its its some kind of add-on plugin, then that could be some point of disconnect. -tkyler

yes....and as far as how much, I couldn't say. The plan is, "do what we think you can do before 11.50 goes final....and start with the most desired stuff first". So after this engine work, I'm going after the front galley and main cabin door. I doubt there will be any more visual beyond that for the next release. After the release, we'll focus on new cabin 3D, rear galley, remaining doors and the FMS VNAV......and somewhere in there I'll look into wing flex. -tkyler

A long as something is 'distinguishable from video / photograph / sound / behavior", then there will always be something to pursue for improvement, whether we do so or not. There is an enormous amount of visual detail and functionality that is still to be had and which we intend to continue working on. -tkyler

I am shooting for custom waypoints for this patch, PBD, PB/PB and Lat/Lon..., I have the code to parse the entries added, but haven't yet to ties these into the route editing / leg naming. The other issues, as mmerelles said, will come after the patch. I want to stress, that with the up-to-date workflow...patches and features are able to come much quicker than has been the case. So if we don't get some FMS feature in the next patch, we'll immediately continue working on the FMS and release featues as they are completed. -tkyler

So we finally have something visual to show for the next update. With our 3D toolchain in place, we are able to make 3D updates reasonably quick... thoughit still takes time to add in the detail. This is a screenshot showing a typical mesh refinment before/after. Whereas when we started the 737 10 years ago, we had to be conscious of our polygon count, its not as bad as it was and X-Plane and modern hardware can suppport more detail. So as we move forward with our updates, we will be making these kinds of refinements around the airplane...moreso out of the cockpit than in, because the cockpit was done pretty darn well the first time IMO. We'll show more sneak peeks as we have stuff to show. -tkyler