Personally I think this is what a lot of people have been waiting for; fix the core, then add new stuff.

Although the feature list has not yet been made public, I think we will be pleasantly surprised when it does appear.

 

I predict there will be an overhaul to the graphics engine (visibility/HDR/AA etc) and quite a few datarefs added so developers can better interface with XP10.

Improvements to ATC and so on will likely come later.

I got to thinking about the AI and ATC issues and a few programs that are available for Xplane now.

 

WorldTraffic- AI program, not user friendly, have to create Everything, but is light on resources and  I've had over 50 AI planes in the air at one time going all up and down the East Coast. 

Flight School for XPXlane - has the ability to track your plane's position and provide verbal inputs on your flying. could be ATC'ish.

 

Both programs seem to show that if a 3PD truly wanted to create a full fledged AI/ATC program it is possible.

 

I wish LR would just work with an existing 3PD ATC (Prosimatc/RC4/VoxATC) and just provide a bridge to XPX since most reside outside FSX anyway.

In a comment under his own blog post, Ben wrote the following regarding seasons:

 

 

I have considered providing a reasonable interface for third parties to do seasons – in particular, I would like to do a seasonal interface for third parties sooner, so that third parties can do seasonal add-ons. (If there is a real community desire, then doing a payware add-on would be a reasonable business venture.) In the past we’ve deferred the interface because we didn’t have our own art assets, but I think doing the interface sooner would be a good thing for everyone.

 

http://developer.x-plane.com/2014/02/irons-in-the-fire/#comment-8328

 

Esp. the statement "if there is a real community desire" is interesting. It seems as if LR / Ben are not really convinced that there IS indeed a big desire for seasons.

You can't. You can only set it to "glance left", "glance right", "forward view", "look behind", but not real panning. Use the right mouse button instead, it's a very quick way to move around (and one which I really miss in FSX).

 

Nonsense, I have mine set to pan just fine...

 

Left and Right mapped to general/rot_left_fast and general/rot_right_fast

 

Up and Down mapped to general/rot_up and general/rot_down

 

works fine

In a comment under his own blog post, Ben wrote the following regarding seasons:

 

 

http://developer.x-plane.com/2014/02/irons-in-the-fire/#comment-8328

 

Esp. the statement "if there is a real community desire" is interesting. It seems as if LR / Ben are not really convinced that there IS indeed a big desire for seasons.

 

The stress on "a real" is your interpretation Mario. I think Ben is well read enough to know that seasons are one of the most requested features. My own interpretation is that he is keen to get this implemented but is of the opinion that due to resources it would happen a lot sooner by opening up X-Plane to 3rd parties.

The stress on "a real" is your interpretation Mario. I think Ben is well read enough to know that seasons are one of the most requested features. My own interpretation is that he is keen to get this implemented but is of the opinion that due to resources it would happen a lot sooner by opening up X-Plane to 3rd parties.

Correct ... I think many users do not know (or can't imagine) how time and resource consuming artwork creation is (especially if it has to have some quality!!!). Indeed, its maybe one of the most tedious tasks in the X-Plane development ... (just ask how long, or how many people this or that scenery devloper/s needed for their visually more pleasing projects). Of course, some might argue, that all those resources could be bought with money ... but is it really that simple? And if - for now - 3rd parties can do some of that work, why not (and why not support them with that money)? 

 

This could be discussed without an end, and there will be about 100 different views (some of them completely orthogonal to each other) on this same topic. If someone wants to see it negatively, so be it, if someone sees it positively, thats ok too (and maybe makes that person more happy).

It's clear that the shortage (as seen by the community) of manpower, has influenced mostly the scenery, namely urban autogen and seasons. IMO, Laminar has done some right and wise choices in the last years (OSM-based scenery, early switch to 64 bits), but a wrong one in not acquiring more resources to bring at least seasons. It's something everyone expects nowadays from a product like X-Plane. FS2000 (1999) had seasonal textures.

I still can't figure out how the heck to set the hat switch of my joystick to pan the camera in the virtual cockpit or spot plane view.

 

In the buttons tab of the Joystick and Equipment pref panel, on the right-most column there's commands for tilt up/down, pan left/right, and fast versions of each.

 

In the second column views options you can assign a button to View still spot, however this might not be exactly what you're used to in FSX.

I understand that creating seasonal textures would take quite a substantial effort.

 

However, consider this for a second:

 

FSX has in addition to the default seasonal textures additional texture sets available from GEX, FTXG, FScene and a couple of freeware texture sets. That's FIVE options beyond the default.

 

XP10 has none.

 

Why?

 

Because XP doesn't have anywhere near the same number of active addon developers.

 

Why?

 

Because XP doesn't have nearly the same number of users.

 

Why?

 

Because XP lacks what many perceive to be key features such as seasonal textures.

 

It's a circular argument that will only be broken by Laminar pulling their finger out and actually adding this stuff into XP. If they do more users will come. More users means more developers. More developers means more addons and more features being exploited. More addons and more features being exploited means better XP for everyone.

 

Right now I'm still seeing Laminar as being a terribly insular developer severely lacking in vision and drive to really push XP to be everything it could be. Which is a real shame.

I can't disagree with the fact that they're doing their best to optimise whatever they have right now instead of bogging down the simulator with lots of new features, but they really need to work on some areas where X-Plane is really deficient compared to the competition. The lack of seasons is something they have to get to.

 

Another area I'd really like to see improved is the GUI. I keep coming to the X-Plane 10 demo, only to run away immediately because of how hard for me it is to use it, coming from FSX. I still can't figure out how the heck to set the hat switch of my joystick to pan the camera in the virtual cockpit or spot plane view.

 

It's good that they're improving what they have, but if they want to become more competitive, they badly need to fill some gaps.

 

I agree with improving on deficiencies, however the interface was not a problem for myself. I actually like it better. I use the hat switch with PilotView to flip to preset views around the VC, I also supplement that with TrackIR so I can adjust. For example, push up on the hat and I go centered on the overhead panel. I can move my head slightly to look around a bit. It's just fantastic. In X-plane the hat isn't used to pan, you just right click on the mouse and move it. It's more intuitive in my opinion. When you're flying, you have one hand on the yoke and one on the mouse. Use the right button/mouse to look around and the left button/mouse to interact.

I agree with improving on deficiencies, however the interface was not a problem for myself. I actually like it better. I use the hat switch with PilotView to flip to preset views around the VC, I also supplement that with TrackIR so I can adjust. For example, push up on the hat and I go centered on the overhead panel. I can move my head slightly to look around a bit. It's just fantastic. In X-plane the hat isn't used to pan, you just right click on the mouse and move it. It's more intuitive in my opinion. When you're flying, you have one hand on the yoke and one on the mouse. Use the right button/mouse to look around and the left button/mouse to interact.

 

This is what I can't get used to, having one hand on the mouse to look around. I can't use both hands because I'm using both my joystick and my mouse with the right hand. Panning around with the hat switch is a lot more convenient.

 

I'll try what NikkiAA said next time I install X-Plane 10.

 

 

I still can't figure out how the heck to set the hat switch of my joystick to pan the camera in the virtual cockpit or spot plane view.

 

Please refer to my post in this thread, you may (I hope) find it useful:

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/396721-new-to-x-plane-10-hat-switch-look-around-controls-question/?p=2920453

 

Cheers.

Nonsense, I have mine set to pan just fine...

 

Left and Right mapped to general/rot_left_fast and general/rot_right_fast

 

Up and Down mapped to general/rot_up and general/rot_down

 

works fine

Well, interesting! Good to know! Thanks.

The main thing to me is the blurry scenery at cruising altitude in a jet.  It is a shame because we have such wonderful tubeliners now... LR needs to fix the issue.

I understand that creating seasonal textures would take quite a substantial effort.

 

However, consider this for a second:

 

FSX has in addition to the default seasonal textures additional texture sets available from GEX, FTXG, FScene and a couple of freeware texture sets. That's FIVE options beyond the default.

 

XP10 has none.

 

Why?

 

Because XP doesn't have anywhere near the same number of active addon developers.

 

Why?

 

Because XP doesn't have nearly the same number of users.

 

Why?

 

Because XP lacks what many perceive to be key features such as seasonal textures.

 

It's a circular argument that will only be broken by Laminar pulling their finger out and actually adding this stuff into XP. If they do more users will come. More users means more developers. More developers means more addons and more features being exploited. More addons and more features being exploited means better XP for everyone.

 

Right now I'm still seeing Laminar as being a terribly insular developer severely lacking in vision and drive to really push XP to be everything it could be. Which is a real shame.

 

I think you're wrong. A read a lot of statements by 3PDs that Laminar is extremely helpful in supporting them and Ben stated that they are working on providing new datarefs and interfaces for addon developers. All this is going VERY slowly but in the end you have to accept that X-Plane is by far more visionary (64bit, community- custom-made airports for the whole world, OSM based scenery, puff based cloud generation, HDR rendering, etc.) than everything else in the flightsim market. In contrary: I would say they are often too ambitious and that leads to a lot of unfinished stuff, half-done stuff and permanent fixing...

 

Flo