ilias.tselios

Hi to all! An update. The v1.1 will take some time to be released. I'm gearing up with SASL. This has two advantages. First I will remove many of the custom instruments and replace them with SASL code. So, it will be lighter on textures (= less VRAM). Second, added functionality to systems that are not very well simulated at the first release.

Thank you very much!

You are welcomed!

It's here! http://forums.x-pilot.com/index.php/files/file/347-piaggio-p180-avanti-ii-upgrade/ Go and get it!

File Name: Piaggio P.180 Avanti II (upgrade) File Submitter: airfighter File Submitted: 10 Jan 2013 File Category: General Aviation X-Plane Version(s): X-Plane 9 & 10 ATTENTION! VERSION 1.2.1 X-Plane 9 version have been added. VERSION 1.2 In this version are included the 3 fixes I have posted after v1.1 release (Mostly for X-Plane 10): -Landing light flickering. -A circle that appeared on FO PFD with HDR ON. -Added prefill object to improve frame rates (you should see improvement even up to 20%). Moreover, now when the aircraft is loaded, the displays are bright (HDR-ON). Also, in this version have been added realistic shadows to the panel when you turn on the cockpit light (the one below the AP panel). --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- Version 1.1 This version is more optimized for better performance of the low end machines. Features: Flight model within 10% of the real aircraft (as per manual) Autopilot operations as the real aircraft Many functions and screen indications are SASL driven X-Plane 10 64 bit full compatible Main landing gear object has added (was missing for XP10 in the previous version) Electronic checklist in MFD Real clock functions Engine indication turn red when limits exceeded UFMC and X-FMC config files are included. Those files have been adapted specially for this aircraft New 2-page checklist to be printed in a single sheet Updated Operating manual You can use now the condition levers and flap lever by mouse PAY ATTENTION: Use caution when using the throttles! As in the real aircraft, be advancing the throttles too full, torque limits can be exceeded by a lot! PLEASE: Any questions or problems post them to the forum for this aircraft. I'm visiting it daily so I can respond as quick as possible. At last, I want to THANK Tony Day, who, with his experience and work, helped me to make this aircraft as real as possible. ATTENTION TO ALL X-PLANE 10 USERS: When switching on the landing lights (LDG position), the lights might not come on, instead the will flicker. To fix that download the file below. https://www.dropbox.com/s/qac6wqsus2pwfl0/switches.lua.zip INSTALLATION: 1. Unzip the file. 2. Put the file to P180 Avanti II/Customs Avionics folder, and replace the previous file. 3. Go and test it. ---------------------------------------------------- After 7 months of work, finally is here! The Piaggio P.180 Avanti II. This is an upgrade of the original P.180 Avanti. Features:New full 3D glass cockpit with emulation of Proline 21 Avionics Suite. Most of the switches are operational Realistic cockpit lighting 170+ customs instruments Various operations driven by SASL scripts Compatibility with UFMC and X-FMC (config files are provided) Operating Manual Checklist It is designed for X-Plane 9, but it have been tested and performs very well in X-Plane 10 32-bit, with some minor issues. It is not recommended for X-Plane 10 64-bit. A detailed Operating Manual is provided. PLESE READ IT! Also, a standalone A5 size checklist is provided for printing. SPECIAL THANKS TO: Robert Pearson, for his permission to upgrade the P.180 Avanti (and the rest of the team, Massimo Durando and Sergio Santagada, for this beautiful aircraft) Vonhinx, for his help with SASL. Dan Klaue, his tutorials inspired me into creating aircraft for X-Plane, and now I creating aircrafts and I don't fly! (well, except testing!) My tools was Blender and Gimp. SUPPORT: At the forum: http://forums.x-pilot.com/index.php/topic/3467-piaggio-p180-avanti-ii-upgrade/ PLEASE: Before asking for support, READ THE MANUAL! KNOWN ISSUES:A "XFEED" annunciator, may indicate a problem with the plugin. By reloading the aircraft this is solved. In X-Plane 10, the rear legs of the landing gear are...transparent. This will be solved in the next release. In X-Plane 10, the cockpit during the night, with HDR OFF, is very bright. With HDR ON is ok. Since there is no available 64-bit SASL plugin, this aircraft will not work with 64-bit. FUTURE: At least one more version (1.1) will be released for X-Plane 9 and 10, solving any problems that will come up. A v 2.0 will be released later, when SASL 64-bit will be available and will have all the new features of the X-Plane 10. Click here to download this file

Wow Kris! Thank a lot! Definitely it's a hard job and it needs a lot of patient. Needs a couple of things to be able to export correctly from Blender. First you have to put the io_xplane2blender folder into scripts/addons and enable it through user settings. Then go to scene and at X-Plane tab, Add X-Plane layers. At 1st layer put the name of cockpit object (KingAirC90B_cockpit.obj). Below select the textures for that object. Then every object you make must have a material. With that, you will be able to export correctly. But you need to know a few things, like obj file definitions. Here:http://scenery.x-plane.com/library.php?doc=obj8spec.php. I've made a lot of research on many things. I've watched thousands of hours of blender videos (CGCookie, BlenderGuru, BlenderNerds) and of course many times Dan Klaue's tutorials. All start and end at patient!

You are welcomed GrahamH!

Hi there! A last update before release! Currently, I'm trying to finish the Operating Manual. It's harder than it seems. There are a lot of things that must be explained to work this aircraft's systems. So I think that the most probable date for release will be in about a week. Also I'm trying to make everything as it should and look so too. I find out that one of the most important things that missing from X-Plane is the simulation of a 3-way switch! Of course there is SASL to solve that! And my present to all of you for the new year... a few screenshot of the final touches (cockpit night lighting). 1. The cockpit light - on. 2. Flood lights - off 3. Flood lights - DIM 4. Flood lights - BRT I hope you like it! HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!

If you haven't done any animations, you can just open it in 2.49

KNOWING ISSUES: 1. Transparencies on the edge of external surfaces (like rudder): - I haven't touch this area cause I'm using the original Avanti's external object. I will check it and try to repair the textures. 2. Non functional switches, bleed air and pressurization systems: I'm working on that right know. Pressurization, now is working OK in auto mode, manual mode is remaining. 3. Some switches have too "flat" textures: This might remain as is at this point, cause I have to rearrange objects and textures, almost for scratch for more efficient use. Sure it will done in Avanti II v 2.0! 4. Aircraft cannot be started from cold&dark: This one has been solved. The L/R firewall valve switch will go on automatically when starting up an engine. From that point, can be handled independently.

KNOWING ISSUES: 1. Transparencies on the edge of external surfaces (like rudder): - I haven't touch this area cause I'm using the original Avanti's external object. I will check it and try to repair the textures. 2. Non functional switches, bleed air and pressurization systems: I'm working on that right know. Pressurization, now is working OK in auto mode, manual mode is remaining. 3. Some switches have too "flat" textures: This might remain as is at this point, cause I have to rearrange objects and textures, almost for scratch for more efficient use. Sure it will done in Avanti II v 2.0! 4. Aircraft cannot be started from cold&dark. This have slipped completely from my attention. I've made a bit of investigation on that and seems a major one. The real aircraft has a L/R Firewall valve which lets fuel into the engines and cuts it off to shutdown the engines. When you start with engines running, you can shutdown them and then start them again. But from cold&dark this is not the case. Although there is commands to operate the firewall valves, there are not any datarefs for that. Might have to change the startup sequence a bit, or write a script about it. Till I resolve this issue, please use the aircraft with engines running.

First of all, I would like to say thank you to all those guys that have enter the beta testing of my project. Since there are many beta testers all ready, the beta testing participation stops here. I'm doing that cause now I'm waiting for the feedback from the testers, gather the issues and then solve them, so the aircraft to be available for downloading till the end of the year. KNOWING ISSUES (so far): 1. Transparencies on the edge of external surfaces (like rudder): - I haven't touch this area cause I'm using the original Avanti's external object. I will check it and try to repair the textures. 2. Weak brakes: Done. 3. Non functional switches, bleed air and pressurization systems: I'm working on that right know. Pressurization, now is working OK in auto mode, manual mode is remaining. 4. Yoke is not hidden and cover a few switches: Done 5. Some switches have too "flat" textures: This might remain as is at this point, cause I have to rearrange objects and textures, almost for scratch for more efficient use. Sure it will done in Avanti II v 2.0! This list will be renewed as I get more feedback from beta testers, and solving issues! To beta testers: Once I have solve the issues you will have a round 2 of tests for finalizing the aircraft. Thank you so much for your cooperation!

Thanks Kris, you are welcomed!

Hi to everyone! As this project is coming closer to finish, I would like to ask for a few beta testers. Requirements are to be experienced in using aircrafts without manual, so they have to find their way around the cockpit (the manual is in progress now...). Also this plane can be used with UFMC and X-FMC (about the second, not so sure!). The feedback that I'm looking for is for the functionality of the cockpit, since the aircraft maintains the original flight characteristics. Also any suggestion is welcomed! Anyone interested in, please PM me. EDIT: Please include an email to send you the file directly. Forgot to mention that this is for X-Plane 9.70!

I think that the textures are posing more stress on computers than polygon. Specially to those with limited VRAM like most Macs (like mine IMac)!

Thanks guys a lot! @GrahamH this will be available for everyone to download it for sure. When I finished I will send it to Laminar, but the other thing that is sure now it is that the first release will be for X-Plane 9.70. Test I've made so far with X-Plane 10, shows me that it can be used without problems, but I would like to work more on this to make sure that everything will work and look fine. There are some difference how things are handled in XP10 (e.g. global illumination) that needs more studying of me to implement it right. Since now Laminar updates only XP10, when I make it XP10 "ready" I will send it to them. @Dozer as I said before initial release will be for XP9.70 and then optimized for XP10. I'm using plugins but no too much, because first I am new to aircraft development, but in plugins I'm trying just to crawl. What I'm using is SASL, and for me that's heavy programming! But it offers amazing possibilities. Example, in MFD display at the bottom, there is an indication that is labeled ISA. That indication shows how much the current outside temperature deviates from standard temp at any altitude you fly. I made that working using a small script. Also, X-Plane when at night it loads the plane with lights about half bright. That's a problem cause some light switches are on/off, but the datarefs are float type, so when the aircraft loaded the switch was in a position about half way, which is not a real position! So I had to write a script again to load them at off position (0) or at on (1). I'm really excited about the possibilities you have with plugins and I would like to implement as much as possible, but at this point my lack of free time is not allowing to go further than the absolute necessary. As a pilot myself with deep knowledge of complicated systems, I really want something to work as in real life! I would like to make it as functional as the real on, but since I'm working in upgrading an existing aircraft that's freeware, imposes some restrictions. But what you propose to build it in mind to use with hardware it is very interesting and what I can say now is that I will have it in mind from start in my next project. About polytext, I've read it and it is interesting. I haven't try it but I will check it.

Some progress with night lighting (a few minor things need adjustments) Enjoy!

New video showing new futures added! MFD now has 2 pages, one for navigation and the other for startup and misc systems (still WIP). Startup checklist added that monitors your progress through the startup procedure. Labes on buttons and knobs indicate the right function. More to come... View it on HD!

Karingka and Redfisher thanks a lot! Working now on the rest of cockpit animations. Some are easy, but some need a bit of coding to simulate the real aircraft. SASL is on! I am on dilema now and I would like to listen to your opinions. Since I'm not going to fully simulate the avionics of the Avanti II and there are few buttons/knobs that will work in different manner than the label they have, should I keep the exact labeling and state what they doing in tooltip and the manual, or change the labels to what they actually doing in my cockpit? In example: between pilot's PFD and MFD there is a control panel with few buttons and knobs. One of them in the real aircraft is labeled as "REFS" (it opens windows within PFD/MFD to set a few things). In my cockpit it will cycle the nav source (nav1/nav2/fms). Should I change the label to "SOURCE"?

Thanks Nicola! It's good to like you

Hi there! You can see all the images of this project here! Here is a video (it's a bit low res and off color), of starting up from cold and dark. Hope you enjoy it!

About 2 years ago, I downloaded blender (as free, a good option) but since I had no idea of 3D programs use, it let it aside. Then 1 year ago i fell on Dan Klaue's tutorials. I tried a bit, then I found the CGCookie website with nice tutorials, and I started doing a few things. Now I can use blender quite well, and although many say that is a hard to use program, now I think that is not that hard at all. I don't know for any more advanced programs than blender, but I think it's very powerful and If you give it a shot, is getting easier day by day. At the end, I believe that you can use any 3D program to do your job depending on how you feel it. For me, blender's keyboard shortcuts work very nice!