Reality XP Upgrade

Posted: Monday, August 11, 2003 - 15:58
Reality XP has announced the release of its full product line upgrade with more than 42 new features and enhancements. These range from cross GPS functions between the Garmin GNS530 and the Apollo GX50, an automatic integration of the GPS line with the Jet Line series of products, and the support for keyboard-shortcuts plus the addition of a newly designed graphics engine and Garmin Trainer program handling code, the Reality XP Flight Line 530XP is faster and more robust. "Our latest upgrade release shows our commitment to our customers" said Jean-Luc Dupiot, President of Reality XP. "More than 1 year after its first introduction, the Apollo is a strong product, and with the cross GPS functions which links the Garmin and the Apollo, it is becoming an even more interesting choice for our customers, especially with the special discount we continue to offer this summer when purchasing the Apollo/Garmin bundle. This is the best we can offer to our customer as a company!"

With the release of its full product line upgrade, Reality XP also officially announces that all customers of its Flight Simulator 2002 product line will receive a free Flight Simulator 2004 upgrade. For more information, consult the Reality XP Web Site at www.reality-xp.com. Flight Line Avionics Apollo and Flight Line 530XP Garmin are available in a special bundle offer during summer 2003.

The Growing Community of AVSIM

Posted: Sunday, August 10, 2003 - 14:47
Did you know that AVSIM provides the simming enthusiast one of the largest and most popular online communities available for our hobby? If you have not explored the AVSIM forums, you will want to consider doing so. AVSIM offers more areas of discussion in our hobby than any other site on the Internet, with over 80 forums covering virtually every subject in flight simulation, and now with real life Certified Flight Instructors providing ground school training! If your interest is Helicopters, you can visit our rotor heads forum. If your interest is bush flying, you can do so at a number of forums on AVSIM. If your interest is panel, aircraft, scenery or utilities design, we have forums for those too. Are you interested in Train Sim? Go to our train sim forum and join a rapidly growing segment of our simulation community. What about historical aircraft and real aviation topics? We have forums for those too! If you haven't paid the AVSIM Forums a visit in awhile, please do so today! Join us here!

Conference Presentations Showcase

Posted: Sunday, August 10, 2003 - 11:28
As the time for AVSIM 2003 Conference and Exhibition gets closer so are the details on several activities we're planning. One of them is a series of presentations conducted by your fellow flight sim enthusiasts and known names in this hobby.

In the days ahead we'll be bringing more details on speakers and their presentations. We're starting today with Damion Shelton from The Open Source Glass Cockpit Project. Damion will talk and present The Open Source Glass Cockpit Project (OpenGC), an effort to develop cross-platform, cross-simulator software for creating glass cockpit displays suitable for use in a networked flight simulation environment. "By leveraging open source toolkits, we have been able to create an application that runs identically on 3 different operating systems (Windows, MacOS X, and Linux) with 3 different simulators (FS200x, X-Plane, and Flightgear). In addition, the architecture of the system is extensible, making the addition of additional simulators and gauges relatively trivial."

For more details on the conference and how to register please check out the Conference Page.

LAGO Releases Venice Scenery

Posted: Sunday, August 10, 2003 - 10:49
LAGO informs us they have now released their latest FS2004 scenery package featuring the historic Venice Scenery. The FS2002 version will be available later today. You can get full details here.

Eaglesoft Beechjet 400 Updated to FS2004

Posted: Saturday, August 9, 2003 - 19:06
Eaglesoft Development Group today announced that their FS9 Compatibity Updates for the Beechjet 400A/Premier1 Package are now available on their Downloads Page here.

According to Ron Hamilton, President of Eaglesoft Development Group, "Although our aircraft fly very well in FS2004 there were a number of tweaks we wanted to do in order to make these aircraft even more enjoybale for the the FS Community! We are happy to announce that these tweaks are NOW available for both current and new owners to enjoy!"

ASRC & GrndMaker Team on RIF/WIF

Posted: Saturday, August 9, 2003 - 17:58
In a message of interest to online ATC simmers Mike Evans has advised us that, "The Advanced Simulated Radar Client (ASRC) development team is pleased to announce that Corey Wirun, author of GndMaker, has joined us in a cooperative venture to support the recently announced Region Information Format (RIF) standard. Corey has signed on to develop the RIF compiler that will be delivered as part of the ASRC installation package."

"Version 1.2 of ASRC, slated for release later this year, will no longer support the sector file format currently used in the online aviation community. Instead, RIF compliant text-based files will provide the “region” information previously found in legacy sector files."

You can read about all the details in this post on the ASRC Forum

SFP1 Patch #2 News

Posted: Saturday, August 9, 2003 - 14:35
Combat sim fans anxiously awaiting the second patch to the 60's era jet fighter sim StrikeFighters: Project1 (SFP1) will want to check out a news item from our combat sim friends over at Biohazard.com with some additional "straight from the horse's mouth" details on the upcoming patch. You can check it out here.

Gibraltar for FS2004 Released

Posted: Saturday, August 9, 2003 - 14:14
Thorsten Loth has advised us that GIBRALTAR for FS2004 (2002) has now been released. According to Thorsten, "GIBRALTAR is still one of those very special places in Europe! It's geographical location, it's rich and interesting history and it's political status make it one of the most interesting places in Europe. The Airport of Gibraltar is also unique: the main and only access road to the peninsula from mainlaind Spain crosses the airfield, demanding special flight skills from any pilot approaching and landing! This scenery features the Airport of Gibraltar (LXGB) in very high detail, the 'Rock' that made Gibraltar so well known in full mesh and many scenery objects on the peninsula [including] - The "Point of Europe" lighthouse - The "Ibrahim al Ibrahim" mosque - The "Pillars of Hercules" monument - The "Gibraltar - Cradle of History" monument - The Cable car (animated) - The border installations - Ships (animiated) - circling sea gulls - exact coastlines - car traffic crossing the runway - Barriers open and close when an aircraft crosses the road - Follow Me car [and more].

Interested simmers are cleared at pilot's discretion to check it out here.

Avsim Conference Draws Global Response

Posted: Saturday, August 9, 2003 - 13:59
With registrations coming in from countries around the world the AVSIM 2003 Conference and Exhibition is your chance to join a crowd of flight simmers from all over the globe -- and, if you register early enough, to have a chance to win $500 worth of flight simulation software! Any attendee who registers for the Conference before August 15th will automatically be entered into our special prize draw, with the prizes presented during the Conference Proceedings.

In addition to this, don't forget our Awards Banquet, featuring keynote speaker Captain Richard J. Walsh, Director of Flight Center Operations for United Airlines, and the AVSIM - MAAM-SIM Low Level Lottery -- a chance to win a flight aboard Briefing Time, the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's B-25!

The registration process for the Conference is easy! Just click here for full details, as well as detailed information on all conference activities. Convenient and secure online payment gets you registered fast.

We look forward to seeing you all in Reading!

Maderia Islands Scenery Updates to FS2004

Posted: Saturday, August 9, 2003 - 13:49
In an email to Avsim today Luis Sa from scenery publisher PTSIM announced that their Madeira Islands scenery "... is now availbale with an automatic installer for FS2004. Madeira Islands includes the famous airport of Funchal which is widely known known as a "dangerous airport". [I]ts runway is built on a platform over the sea. In addition, wind conditions and the surrounding mountains, make it a real challenge, even for experimented pilots. You can test several operation[al] procedures using Madeira Islands scenery and assess your ability in, for example, making a night approach to runway 05 following a sequence of 17 flashing lights curved along the shore!"

Interested simmers can get more information here.

LAGO Venice Scenery Exclusive Preview

Posted: Saturday, August 9, 2003 - 0:28
AVSIM has obtained a set of exclusive screenshots from upcoming LAGO Venice Scenery for FS2004, which is scheduled for release later this weekend. Screenshots presented were taken over several parts of this historic city on the coast of Adriatic Sea. You can see them here and be sure to click on thumbnails to see the full size screenshots with all the details.

AirsideTV Reports From Oshkosh

Posted: Friday, August 8, 2003 - 23:44
AVSIM Partner site AirsideTV just returned from Air Venture 2003 in Oshkosh where they provided full coverage of this event as a part of Centennial Of Flight celebration. The reports are now available as six one hour video highlight packages and are available for a small fee. "Coverage includes Countdown to Kittyhawk, Scott Crossfield, Chuck Yeager, an inside tour of the Airbus Beluga transporter, the Orbis DC-10 flying eye hospital, all the flying display action including aerobatic and military and much more!" The sample video clip which includes some of their exclusive interview with the Microsoft team and lots of flying action is available here. In addition AirsideTV would also like to announce the winners of their FS2004 Contest: Karen Schiora, Pete Aasen, Howard Hiler, Raymond Kleber, Tom Cox, Gert Frank, Floyd Gntt, R. Maxey Hester, Phillip Bartnicki, Jesus Manteca. You can get more details at www.airsidetv.com.

Kristiansand Kjevik Airport Scenery Released

Posted: Friday, August 8, 2003 - 23:16
FS Dream Factory today announced the release of their latest scenery product featuring the Norvegian airport Kristiansand Kjevik for FS2004. As announced: "Kjevik airport is a regional airport but it also serves flights to destinations in Europe like summer flights with Spanair to Mallorca and Canary Islands aswell as to Cyprus. The airport was built in 1939. Features: highly dense scenery over Kristiansand Kjevik, photorealistic textures on many of the buildings, as always the airports were built with real photos taken on the airports and maps as reference, beautiful night lights on the aprons and buildings, landclass for the airport area, mesh scenery for the airport area , marshalers on on the stands, dynamic scenery, static vehicles, static aircrafts, functioning wig-wags and more." Full details are available here.

FS Sound Studio Now FS2004 Compatible

Posted: Friday, August 8, 2003 - 22:56
Users of FS Sound Studio will be happy to hear that the product is now FS2004 compatible. Here are more details from the press release by Flight One Software: "Ed Struzynski has just completed a Flight Simulator 2004 compatiblity build for his best selling FS Sound Studio. FS Sound Studio is the best tool available for managing and editing Flight Simulator Sound Configurations. The graphical interface makes it easy to see the effects of changes, and you can immediately hear the results in preview mode." For full details check here.

SimFlyers Sceneries Now FS2004 Compatible

Posted: Friday, August 8, 2003 - 20:57
SimFlyers are happy to announce that all their sceneries are compatible with MS Flight Simulator 2004 - A Century of Flight. Registered users will find updates for download free of charge from the SimFlyers website here. The update installers require the scenery registration keys for installing the full version. Older keys (less than 25 characters long) will not be accepted anymore, but users owning these old-style keys may apply for a new, personalized replacement key from SimFlyers. FS 2004 AI at the moment will not yet work as designed and intended. As soon as the tools are available they will be fixing this. In the meantime AI aircraft will park in buildings and taxi/takeoff/land next to runways and taxiways.

Voice Master 3.0.1 Released

Posted: Friday, August 8, 2003 - 13:46
Voice Master Pro is a voice control product with built-in interactive speech syntesis. This new version 3.0.1 brings full FS2004 and Directx9 support, user interface and file format changes and more. Here are some more details as announced: "Voice Master PRO is a full featured shareware release, that adds voice control to any DirectX 7,8 or 9 simulation or game. Support is also available for several OpenGL titles. Designed for FS2004, FS2002, FS2000 and FS98, this product also provides many synthesized voices that can be used to simulate interactive feedback such as Co-pilots, Ground Crews, ATC, check-lists read back, etc. Additional voice models are available for download at our site along with many other support tools." For details check out here.

ISD Project Releases LIPZ & LIPV 2003

Posted: Friday, August 8, 2003 - 13:34
Members of Italian Scenery Design - ISD team today announced the release of their highly anticipated freeware scenery of two airports just next to Venice city, a wonderful reproduction of the Venice Tessera Internationl airport (LIPZ) and the General aviation airport San Nicolo(LIPV) including photoreal grounds of the area around the airports including Venice city itself using some aerial pictures. You can download this freeware release and get more information here.

Abacus Announces FS Repaint

Posted: Friday, August 8, 2003 - 13:24
Abacus announces FS Repaint, a new repaint tool for both FS2004 and FS2002. According to their press release: "For years, users have been asking for an easy way to repaint their planes. Using many of their suggestions, we approached Jorge Santoro and Marco Paulo da Silva to devise a way to do this. Run FS Repaint, choose one of your planes and it appears on the screen in full 3D view. On the left side of the window are the textures. A texture is a portion of the paint that is applied to various sections of the aircraft.

Make your changes using the integrated graphic tools. For example change the color from silver to green or add the name of your favorite airline. Instantly your changes are applied to the aircraft for you to review. You see the changes without having to startup Flight Simulator. It's truly a time saver.

FS Repaint can be used to repaint most FS2004 and FS2002 aircraft including the stock aircraft, FS Design Studio aircraft and gmax aircraft, both freeware and payware. May not support some encrypted or highly modified aircraft." Product is scheduled for release on August 15th, for more details click here.

IFSD Releases Ireland Scenery 1.05

Posted: Friday, August 8, 2003 - 13:19
In a press release Irish Flight Sim Design group announces the freeware release of Ireland Scenery 1.05, which is now also compatible to FS2004. Here are some more details: "The most vital change is a new more intelligent installer application. All further IFSD releases will utilise this format. This once off download ensures that further additions or improvments can be added far easier and not require any further "entire package" downloads. Further to that we have included a number of improvements and fixes: improvements to two car park textures, fixed dual EIDW entry, Howth head autogen buildings added, mesh for Howth head added, Hill of Tara "UFO" added, Gerrish Grey's excellent trees in Dublin City, Skyfest Fireworks added to Dublin City, fixed Dublin Tower Texture Issue, fixed EIDW Tower Grass. All our previous freeware scenery for Dublin, Howth, Cork, Waterford, Galway, Kilkenny and Belfast is included. Further releases, including the very soon to be released Sligo Airport will all require this new easy and professional quality installation method." For more information check out here.

The AVSIM Conference -- Will You Be There?

Posted: Thursday, August 7, 2003 - 23:18
Flight simmers from Australia to Slovenia, from Greece to Korea, and all over the U.S. and Canada have been making plans and registering to attend the 2003 AVSIM Conference and Exhibition at Carl Spaatz Field in Reading, Pennsylvania September 26 & 27. Will you be there?

Attendees will all share in a tremendous weekend of historical aviation, great presentations by members of our community, fellowship in a hobby, a chance to win great prizes, and much much more! For complete information on the Conference, Exhibition, registration and hotel information go here.

Also, don't forget our $500 Flight Sim Prize Draw! Any attendee who registers for the Conference before August 15th will automatically be entered into our special prize draw, with the prizes presented during the Conference Proceedings.

Register now for the Friday Social and the Saturday Awards Banquet featuring Captain Rich Walsh, Director of Flight Center Operations for United Air Lines, as guest speaker. Space is limited -- and the hotel rooms are going pretty fast too!

We look forward to seeing you in Reading!