Elrond,I for one would have been greatly disappointed with anything shorter from you ! :-) :-)It's an interesting discussion that seems to be popping up time and again. It's all about making add-ons for MSFS that everybody seems to want badly, yet nobody seems to be able to afford to either make or pay for. Hmmm..As both you and Mathijs said, if it was possible to do so, somebody would have done by now, for free. Since apparently it is not so easy only LAGO made FSSE and of course they have to earn some money from it, since their time spent on it goes for paying their salary (and there is no alternative for that).The hybrid model seems a possibility, where a commercial company builds a tool/program, that others can then use to add to or build upon. But..... that means that the company building it will need to make A LOT of money on the basic program, otherwise they can not make a living. That in turn would most likely be prohibitive for simmers to buy it in the first placem thus defeating the purpose ;-)I too would like a tool like FSSE (but not limited to this one) be open in the sense that anybody could add objects, to be freely distributed. The big question is, how to keep it financially feasible for LAGO if they would have done that. Perhaps it IS an option once the market has been saturated and not many new sales are to be expected..... to then open it up and allow 'freeware objects' being added.In the end the whole thing is highly hypothetical, since we do not own LAGO and can not tell them what to do, nor can we decide for them how to pay their mortgages ;-) So that leaves the freeware option, i.e. to build freeware tools that would do the same.... that in turn needs LOTS of talents, skills and knowledge that so far has not surfaced other than within dedicated companies. (at least ion this topic).Just my Euro .02 :-outta Francois :-wave________________________Francois A. "Navman" DumasAssociate Editor &Forums AdministratorAVSIM Online!email: [email protected]________________________

Mathijs,"Stamatis, this is a cheap shot, but as we go way back I know I can do it to you."Hehe... It only goes to show how much you have run out of arguments when you want to convince me that it is justified to consider statics a top priority in a Scenery Enhancement package, when AI Traffic is out there... :-)"For some undefined reasons I saw an Fedex 737 and an MD11(?) UPS standing next to each other there for there days solid next to each other on a freight platform."a) I have never created anything with FSSE I only use it to view the enhancements of others, so I maybe wrong here, but I thought if I do them with FSSE, they will be there forever, not just for your three days?:( Yes, it is very easy to program the aircraft to stay at a Gate for 3 days via TtoolsUnrelated to the subject discussed: You saw a FedEx 737? Never seen one in FedEx colors.Stamatis

>Since we all know of the HUGE limitations of the M$ default >AI crap, I do NOT wonder why people want their static's >back! If you are prepared to put in the work (and have the time!) then AI is VERY impressive if you have all the GMAX aircraft that are available (I am currently up to 800, and counting!).Statics do get in the way at the gates ut have their place if placed in tech. areas/remote parking etc. A combination of the two can be stunning although your frame rates suffer.Live and let live I say - but ships? Leave the inclusion of port effects etc to the large array of API's which are available to be used with Airport. At least then you can add/remove your created BGLs when and how you want too.Peter Leadbeater,Air Pierre, Warrington, UK.

>edit: I apologize for the length of this post :-eek! It >sure didn't feel this long while writting it! :-) Heck, we might disagree on things (sometimes rather a lot) but you always make sense, in this case a lot of good sense:-). We'll see what happens next year as we do plan a 2.0 version. I still believe it is very (if not impossible) to make money on a scenery tool (most do sell but not nearly the numbers I need) but if we can find a way to get a hybrid...Now, let me get a beer and some weekend.Mathijs

I don't see how you could think you would loose money when the very company your writeing addons for is doing it successfully. Microsoft has been doing this for years with FLight Simulator. They have had no problems producing a foundation we all in turn build from. If you created an open source FSSE program, most users of Flight Simulator would by it, you can't loose money there, you would have a profit that would be ongoing. I don't see why you can't see that.

Hmmm, no offense Dillol, but either you have not read or have not understood the many messages that have been exchanged previously on this subject.As for your remark about MS making money.. yes, on selling Flight Simulator... nothing else. Add-ons are a totally different matter and it is no coincidence that MS does not market ANY add-ons to their own basic FS program! ;-) :-outta Francois :-wave________________________Francois A. "Navman" DumasAssociate Editor &Forums AdministratorAVSIM Online!email: [email protected]________________________