tkyler

well thank you Simon...I'm happy you feel that way. I have no issue with the ribbing I get. Customers should be demanding and I did seem to just "fall out a bit". I did; however, say I'd elaborate a bit more once the xplane dev conference is over and that's exactly what I'll do. The primary reason for the MU-2 delay that I haven't said is that I have diverted to work on a prominent airliner project in addition to a scenery project and of course, laminar work. I'm a developer on said airliner team with a demanding workload....having recently wrapped up a hydraulics simulation *cough *cough. Internal situations on this project towards Dec/Jan caused me to expedite my work and the MU-2 moved to the back-burner. I'm also putting my scenery experience with XP10 to good use with another talented 3D developer to put out a "designed for V10" scenery product and not just a modified conversion. The fact that the code I used 3 years ago on the MU2 doesn't work as well with XP10 features I have available to me now that I did not then doesn't help. If the Moo was the only project I was working on, sure I'd be making progress, but at the end of the day, I'd have a marginally known aircraft with a free update and little cash in my pocket. I found it imperative, in order to stay in this market and continue to make good add-ons, to basically pause the work and sprint to some more profitable add-ons during this critical time when MSFS users would start looking our way. Discussion from the conference shows that was a good decision. I showed our work to some folks at the x-plane dev conference and several PMDG owners indicated we very easily kept pace. The work done on this project will find it's way back into the MU2 and the code base for the electrical system will allow "per circuit breaker" simulation on the MU2.....not sure I'll do that, but it can. Also, I've learned quite a bit more during this dev process that should allow me to pretty much perfect the MU2's operation. I probably will hold off on MU2 work until the scenery comes out though as that should be out first and give me some breathing room. With no add-ons for a while and part-time laminar work....money ain't exactly knocking on my doorstep.....yet I feel this is the prudent move as once this work is done later this year, I will be in a position to continue to develop higher quality add-ons for x-plane. It's a very promising time for XP and by the end of 2012, we (at Laminar) hope to incorporate some nice things that will endear XP to more MSFS users. So that's what's up. I work 10-12 hours between laminar, the airliner and the scenery....and well, the MU2 gets leftover hours depending on my mood. It was only recently though that I identified some V10 issues that finally made me say, "OK, I have to back up a bit on my code" and on a day or two, here and there, that is exactly what I'll do and with any luck, it won't take as long as I might think and I could just go...."hrm...that works" and put something out. But for now, I find it imperative to work on the airliner and some custom scenery. So if nothing else...the MU2 waits a bit, but the time is not wasted on things that won't benefit end users. I'll keep reporting as usual when work gets done, even if its not visible. Tom K

I'd definitely never just abandon customers on this one. Barring some medical or other major catastrophy, the MU2 shoud live a long life and steadily move towards the absolute top level of quality and accuracy in flight simming. Though not as "operationally full featured" as a 737 like PMDG, it is still a complex simulation and I will certainly be endeavoring to make it the most accurate in it's class. I've put so much into the flight model and systems, and am almost there...that once done using override methods, I should not have to deal with it for a very long time....and then I just redo the 3D model and textures to bring them up to modern standards and I forsee the Moo being a very stable product for many years.

You are right E, no arguement there....and I fully understand your frustration, indeed share it on many levels. All I can say is that we didn't intentionally set out to deceive anyone. We are just having to make some adjustments given the current climate. I will get the udpate out at first opportunity. Tom

E. It will not take a year. As I mentioned, I will elaborate more in about a week. There are very good reasons why the MU2 has sat on the back burner and these reasons are not just good for me, they're good for you, xplane and everybody. As mentioned, the 5% left on the Moo in V10 is very glaring....you would start the Mu2 and the engines would rev to about 200% among other things, make all sorts of noise and you would be writing back to me in short order saying what the heck was I doing. My experience shows that life goes on and it will be as fun when it becomes available as it would be today. The X-Plane market is in a huge climate shift.... and these days are very special and important days for making good impression to the new MSFS users and developers and also establishing a strong foothold in a rapidly competitive market so as to be able to make better products faster in the future. I find it "unprudent" to just work on the MU2 while other opportunites need to be capitalized on immediately. It is important that the work I'm doing get done so that I can make not only the MU2 better, but future products as well. The flight sim market is 30 years old....I've seen the same folks here for 10 years and it's not going anywhere. These are exciting times in my opinion. This is what we've asked for and some times, when a crowd shows up on your doorstep, you have to stop what you're doing and address the opportunity.

A report. Trying to get the Moo to work in V10 given my current plugin code...which you might recall is based on V8/V9 behavior, is proving to be a headache. Due to other work I'm involved in, which is time sensitive and thus demanding much of my time.... has LOTS of technology which I believe will address the shortcomings in the MU2 engine model and also be applicable to simulating the Moo to another level of accuracy. I am a REAL stickler for operating accuracy and I'm expending a lot of effort trying to get the last 5 percent of accuracy from a 4 year old approach...and I think the effort is becoming exponential. The thing is the "last 5%" of operation is operations that are very visible and common, so it's not some obscure functionality....it's behavior that is glaringly wrong. So, I am going to "back up" a bit....try to replace the old code with new code that uses overrides. By doing so, I can guarantee compatibility with future versions for a long time to come. I have spoke with Austin and Ben about overrides and where to allow hardcore custom developers to "tap into" the xplane model in a way that won't limit them or break stuff in the future. I'll be attending the x-plane conference in South Carolina in a week and meeting with Ben and Austin with a list of issues that have caused headaches for some time. My hope is that instead of beating my head against a wall in an effort to try and meet some timeframe with a nasty, patched up engine model, I can back up a short bit and put out a product that is "done right" and I can look back and tell customers...THIS is the way it is, it IS right and we can sit back and say, "ah..it just works and was worth the wait". I apologize, it's not just laziness, but a serious desire to make sure that all customers....in all the myriad of ways they'll interact with the Moo...it will just work for them. I'll probably expand on more details in about a week, after the x-plane developer conference.

Sorry Larry but no. I worked on it a bit last week and came across several problems with the engine model related to version 10. ....enough to have to back up and do more tests and figure out why it's not working the same in 10 as it is in 9. People are moving to 10 frequently enough that I need to get it figured out.

A bit more explanation for those interested Mostly slow down by choice. The projects I'm involved in were initiated at a time when I was not devoting full-time to laminar....and when I went full-time prior to V10 release...I was over-extended. As you noted, because of x-plane growth and community demands, there is plenty of work and I have a choice to get paid hourly populating airports or pursue my own work. Of course I'm going to choose pursue my own work where the return on investment is greater.....but I reap no revenue on until they're out for purchase. So on any given day, if I work for laminar...I put food in my mouth, but do not forward my future.....it's a dead end road.....so I partition my time working on my own projects and then on laminar's work. Laminar is agreeable to this, knowing my intentions. I am in the process of "un-extending" myself and tying up the loose ends and it is just taking a bit of time. So given the limited time I have doing non-laminar work, I simply make priorities on the tasks I do have (x-plane AND non-xplane) and work down that list. Now all that being said...I am going to pick a day this week to turn to the Moo and stick to it and further this along.

Bernhard..this is definitely my fault...and I apologize...but the udpate is in the near future indeed. Being a free udpate, I can't feed my family on it, so I am busy making sure I have income given my slow down in Laminar work...and when that is secured, I'll turn back to the MU2 and get it out. Tom Kyler

Derek. I think you are letting your past activation experience dictate your future experience with a different system, that is sounds like you have no experience with. I hate the current MU2 activation system myself, it's cumbersome and annoying but it was a necessary evil at the time. This experience is what led XA to develop it's current system. Even org products are pushing the use of SASL which now also has a DRM activation component....so you'd get no free ride there either...at least not for much longer. I don't mind the concept of activation ....all the software I have nowadays uses it...I just don't want it getting in my way or invading my privacy and that's exactly what XA's new system does. It does it's job and pretty much stays out of your way. Run installer, enter user name and pass, get activated and "fly". It's nothing like the current MU2 system. If you're simply opposed to that idea of activation at all, then I don't really see any recourse. Most software in the future is heading towards some form of rights management...the org's products will too one day I suspect. All things being equal, I'd take X-Aviation's customer service (and lack of newsletter and forum spamming) over the org anyday.

haven't even heard of that. No..I was in on a few iphone apps....nothing serious, just some 3D content.

Its the end of the month where I have to burn every living hour working for others just to pay the bills. Normally I then spend the first part of the month catching up on xp stuff...but here in the good ol' USA, our tax deadline is in about 2 weeks and I have to deal with that...so no telling where the Moo will fit it. It "just under" other things that keep popping up. Eventually, I'll have all higher priorities out of the way and will write that last page and do all my testing. In the not to distant future, I'll come clean about what else I'm working on and why it has to come in front of the Moo and hopefully things will make sense and you guys will know I haven't just been ignoring the Moo. With x-plane growth, I'm trying to tie up a bunch of loose ends...no more King Air, no more RV6, etc...and focus on very niche areas. Slowly but surely, I'm wrapping up some of thees other things and the Moo will get swept up in that pretty soon. Laminar work has slowed substantially for me and I'm having to turn my attention to keeping the household running while still pursuing an x-plane future. It's a stresser for sure. I have great long term plans for the Moo though...to keep it up to date and state of the art. It has a bright future.

It's Ok guys...I think it's really funny, definitely get a kick out of it all. I'll admit my motivation level on any given day or two varies with whatever falls on my plate on any given day. The best that I can say is that on any given day, without a doubt, is that I'm toiling away on something relevant for x-plane....be it the MU2, scenery, the scenery library, or my "other project". In each case, I have partners that depend on my getting work done and I have responsibilities to them in addition to customers. So here's the weather report. I have one day of work on the MU2...mostly quality checks. If you guys have ever had to do "proofreading", you know that you have to do it several times to be sure...and this is one of those things. I've checked it a dozen times but need to "check it again"....AND write one more paragraph. Now BEFORE I take that day....I have to do my lawn, clean my house, grocery shop, work on that dumb motorcycle some more, move some furniture, travel out of town, work heaviliy on KATL for Laminar, adjust KSEA, make modifications to the Baron, King Air and Phantom ASAP, do some programming for "project X"......so I'm guessing that I'll take that 'DAY' probably Thursday of next week....then travel out of town on Friday to work with X-Aviation on distribution. I am not looking for sympathy here..not making excuses. I'm just the type of guy that likes to know what's going on and figures others do to. I had hoped to finish it up, but turns out the free day I had last week was only one free day and I decided to make that day, "Free from x-plane day". So I know you guys have been super patient....keep the ribbing coming if they're funny....it's good pressure, it works...I feel it and that's a good thing. TK

Nothing encouraging other than I do have a plan for it at the proper time. X-Plane needs some other types of work first in my opinion given the current xplane climate. I wish I could do it all at once. -Tom

Real life strikes again. Have a daughter moving out (have to be a good dad and help), another coming back for spring break (have to drive way far to pick her up)....medical (minor) injuries to my wife, making me the family chauffeur etc....causing a loss of a few days in work. Will resume very shortly. -Tom

Had to take a short getaway with the wife. No choices in those kinds of matters. Andy...you have usage of "mixture 3" in the joystick menu to use for the prop/condition levers. You have this one dataref to operate BOTH condition levers simultaneously. If your hardware has multiple prop/condition levers, then I apologize, but there's some hardware out there that only has one prop lever so this is the most flexible setup for those guys too. Keep in mind that this is a "hack" in that usually X-Plane doesn't manipulate datarefs for indicies higher than the number of engines. We just got lucky for now. OK. I WAS done with the docs but pending this little feature for Andy will write something up real quick and we'll proceed with getting this out. Tom

Yep. All except the mixture ratio that I've seen. I think Andy might have gotten a loophole with that and no telling how long before that closes though.

No go on that one Jack. I got lucky with Austin allowing mixture input on indices higher than the number of engines in PM. For prop/throttles though, any indicie higher than the number of engines seems to be non-functional. I have asked Austin/Ben for custom functionality on joysticks and didn't get too warm a reception for various reasons that I can't recall. The operation is pretty smooth now as it is....good enough to get by till I write my own engine stuff.

Hey Jack. I've can't say as I've ever tried republishing commands. Notice that those are Version 2.0 SDK features....guess I should stay updated That does look like it will work. If I can basically steal the default "toggle_reverse" command where I get control rather than x-plane, just using it as a flag (because I can't afford to let x-plane control my prop modes)...then I'm all for that. I certainly don't want to be fighting x-plane for control....but if that works, folks won't have to remap that button in such a case. SUCCESS on the reverse toggle. Ditto on override "prop up/prop dn" Scratch navigating to custom commands. Thanks Jack. As far as the condition levers go using indicies 2 and 3 of the mixture...I'll check into that as that'd keep the standard USB HIB guys with multiple levers happy. Definitely not too late....I can compile plugins up till the last second. Thanks for the suggestions Jack... I'll see about sticking it in. I still need long term solutions in code though to handle various hardware. The whole "toggle reverse" thing is a concession to the practicalities of using a joystick without detents but when I get around to finishing my hardware, I want none of that "toggle reverse" business. This is one reason my plugin decouples from x-plane datarefs and I do not like using the default condition and throttle datarefs as they're too limiting and always require these goofy workaround; however, at least I have the flexibilty to plug into the extra datarefs for this case yet still use the same code base for more complex cases in the future. Tom

I don't like it any more than you do Andy, but that's all I have for the moment. X-Plane will not allow custom datarefs to be assigned to analog axes. Adding just one extra axes for calibration means I now have to write a custom calibration screen like Austin does and that would delay the release way too long or the procedure would just be too complex. This is the price I pay for pushing the limits of xplane customization for hardware uses...it's an evolutionary step. While you may not see the advances, they are in place in the code base and once I can get a utility written, my works will allow full customization for hardware users. While I can rewrite the plugin to use the standard "throttle_ratio" dataref for the joystick...I cannot do the same for the condition levers as I do not have the same override functionality that I do for the throttles. Without writing my own custom screen, there is no way to get 100% simulation accuracy...especially given the fact that Austin's engine simulation doesn't really take the Garretts into account. I DO very much want to write my own calibration screen and will look into that for the future. As far as a noisy pot goes, I've already dealt with two hardware setups with that situation and have overcome it in code...at least for these two test machines. If a pot is noiser than I've allowed for, then folks should get another pot. I normalize the joystick input to unity and you have to overcome 65% of axis travel in order to pick up the axis. It's important that the calibration step is done prior to the 'picking up the axis' step because Austin stores the high and low values during this step and that's what I use to normalize the input. So a pot would have to vary by 65% of it's limit. I've tried it on about 4 differing hardware setups. If I have a unique situation, then I'm willing to try to overcome that for that individual. I think that's pretty good service; however, I am sure it won't be 100% but nothing ever is and someone always gets left out and is unhappy. I am sympathetic to these individuals for certain, but I myself have been the odd data point at times and that's just the way it goes. I am a pretty picky individual and the system works pretty good and is very very quick. It's 'livable' for a free upgrade to a 30.00 simulation that is not too bad. Simulation has its limits....all I can say is I'm committed moreso than just about anybody to getting to a level where cockpit builders and folks with complex hardware setups can work with my products and I can still maintain simulation accuracy. X-Plane's setup is still a bit too generic and if you get one thing, you usually give up something in return. I will continue to field enquiries though and make improvements..that's all I can promise. If it's any consolation, I'm building a throttle quadrant for my MU2 that I can't use either until I write the code to support it...so we are most definitely in the same boat. Best, Tom EDIT: Andy, Dozer has come up with a suggestion that I will explore using "unused" datarefs whereby you can assign two of your levers to the condition levers 3 & 4. If this works....and without detents on your hardware though, you will have to be careful about not pulling the condition levers past the taxi position as you'll risk shutting the engines down. I am not going to put a "toggle reverse" command for the condition levers too...bad enough doing it for the throttles. As far as the power levers go....unfortunately, you will still only have the one input to actuate both levers. This was a tactical decision as we rarely used levers independently in the real thing...but the problem stems from the fact that x-plane will not allow per engine prop override. So because x-plane does not simulate prop locks, when you override one prop during a single engine "prop lock" operation, the other prop will get overriden as well. This means you cannot shut down your engines independently of one another without causing prop pitch problems on the restart. Now this only occurs when you shut down and restart the engines in the same sim session though..which is not a typical scenario..but it does exist. I have requested 'per engine' prop override and gotten an OK from Austin, but it's not in the sim as of version 10 yet either. I will say though..that when we shut down the engines, we allways did both at the same time...so what I have simulated is pretty accurate with regards to 'normal procedure"

You are welcome. Here is an excerpt from the manual that covers what's new. Yah yah...I know there's a typo or two. whats_new_1.5.pdf

Big day today. Not because I wrote more docs...but because what I WAS writing...some particularly annoying "known issues" and "workarounds" are no longer issues or workarounds. Turns out I tried to fix something in the plugin and broke it pretty bad. In the course of fixing it, I ended up fixing some things that have been bothering me for the better part of a year now....things where I WAS going to have to tell the users how to work around it but don't have to anymore. For the first time since I started this simulation, I feel like it's running where I don't think "that's just not how it is". There are still a few known issues in what I'll call "fringe cases" where you do things that you would never do in the real aircraft....BUT if some intrepid soul got to experimenting, they might come across it. Anyhow...with MANY little quality improvements in the simulation reliability, I can now write the final page or so of the docs explaining the joystick throttle setup. This thing is as good as off to XA for gift wrapping. It'll take a several days or so ( as usual )...but I can honestly say that in my mind, Im' ready to pass it on...including the docs.

Thanks hobotfat. I'm sorry the 3D exterior and cabin is a bit behind current tech. I'm even a bit disappointed in the engine model.....but that just goes with the territory of evolution of technology I guess. As long as tech moves, I'll have to keep reworking this thing I guess. I just hope you guys can still enjoy it even with it's warts. Tom

sure..why not. I've added 10 new pages to the docs, rewriting the autopilot section and bringing the docs into conformance with all the system updates....and fixing the typos (I hope). Writing a few notes on hardware setup today and then will get with XA on packaging....which means newsletter, promo screenshots, web page update.... and that will probably eat a few days too. Exact release depends on XA and my schedule. My wife is in Las Vegas and I'm doing double duty managing the household. We'll see how it goes. TK

Some new liveries too. Some of these are on the org, but I've included in the upcoming update along with the new paint kit.

awesome! let's remind everybody' what's coming.