Tradewind Forums

Hi guys,
Just a question to those who attended the Convention, are there any news worth sharing?

Even more news from the DevCon held just before, but I can't say much about that...

The FanCon didn't really have a lot that was "revolutionary".

There were several more or less full motion cockpits - they look a lot like a Piper Cub frame without the fabric sitting on servos.

There was a demonstration of an amazing Australia scenery - satellite image accuracy, all the roads and most of the buildings in the right place, etc, that is under development, with more to follow (including the Pacific NW).

TrackIR was demonstrating. Rick tried to schmooze a deal with them for TCA pilots - that didn't work, but he did talk them into giving him a cap.

There was a demonstration of another movement tracker with 3-D goggles, but they seemed to be having video stabilization issues. If they work that out, it would be really neat.

PMDG was showing their new MD-11, that still isn't quite ready for release. But the cockpit procedures are dauntingly accurate. I'm pretty certain <CONTROL-E> doesn't start the engines.

There were several other software vendors, but interestingly, Avsim had an empty table - of course, they were pretty busy running the show. And intel didn't show up at all.

Lots of questions were asked, and a few of them were answered.

And no amount of alcohol could pry any Developer's Conference secrets from Felix's lips. That Non-Disclosure Agreement must have some real teeth backing it up. I wonder who designed their AKM...?

Darrel

Thanks Felix, too bad you're under an NDA, I thought it was a bit too early in the development process. Just one more question, why is it that most aircraft ported from FS9 have blank textures in DX10 mode? Is it something that could be corrected with a paint program or only by the designer himself? Except for the default ones, only the Aerosoft BeaverX and the Alphasim Caribou(vc panel has blank textures too) work in DX10.
Cheers

Hi Darrel,
Thanks, are you sure he wasn't mixing his drinks with water?

Francisco

have a look into msdn, there is an informaive doc about DX10 texture conversion for FS.

as far as I remember, there is a (free) tool with the SDK (I think DX10 SDK) which converts textures to the DX10 compatible format.

Alas, since I am no paint specialist I cannot remember more

Cheers
K

anyone from the up-and-coming terrain-physics-cards showing up ?
By the looks of it this is going to be the major trend in future virtual 3D environments, so I have reason to believe FS11 will make use of that, too.

Cheers
K

Hey K (Kyle?, Karl?)
Thanks for jumping in.The tool you mention must be imagetool, and I couldn't find it in my hd, although I have the sdk installed . Couldn't find the doc in msdn either. Anyway, I've been searching other forums and it seems the blank textures issue can only be solved by the developers, not by the end user.

Francisco,
The show was smaller than I hoped but I was able to meet many people I'd read about and talked with over the years so putting faces with the names was really fun.

There were several exibits of semi-cockpits with moving chairs. They were certainly great gimmicks but the prices were astronomical so it's hard to imagine someone adding these toys to their hobby. On the other hand, there was an excellent display of a panel with yoke, rudder peddles, full radio stack that would certainly give you that 'cockpit' feel.

I ended up with a TrackIR image tracking system. It appeared to be tough to setup when I got home but it was operator error. I finally selected 'default' setups and it worked perfectly. I've rediscovered the sim. It's amazing to view flying in a 3D cockpit and as you move your head to look left, for example, the screen image instantly follows your head movement and you are looking left out the plane. The movement is subtle enough that while you are turning your head, the further you turn the more you look in that direction until you can actually look behind in the plane, yet you are still watching the monitor. You can move left or right, forward or back, up and down and the image follows you. You can raise up in your chair to view a plane at a lower altitude passing under the nose of your plane just as you would in the real situation.

Amazing to sit ready for take off and glance left and right down the runway or taxiway to see other plane movements. It actually makes you feel very much like being in the real situation. And the good news, I couldn't detect any frame rate hit at all. It runs extremely smooth. It also supports many other games like IL-2, Silent Hunter, Falcon 4, LockOn, Battle of Brittain and many more.

The PMDG guys are amazing in their dedication to detail. The MD-11 presentation spent an hour discussing the future release of the plane showing details of the panel. There looked to be some 30 sub-panels. All knobs and switches work. Each with the approapriate sounds of the real plane. There are right and left click mouse functions throughout the panel. Variable lighting is now possible with knobs that rotate like the real ones. For those who love this level of accuracy, this plane will be a raging success. Release date, ?????. They are still working on it after many years.

Rick

Hello Rick,
Thanks a lot. TrackIr has been in my wish list for a while now