Aerodynamics - clear text models

[ErichB 3,638]

One of the interviews with the MS developers has hinted that the flight dynamics models are clear text files.   Does this mean that anyone who looks into the aircraft folder can see the FDE modeling implemented for each aircraft?  Bearing in mind that companies like PMDG would consider anything of the sort created for their aircraft to be exclusive IP, how does that leave developers who do not want this information shared?

Edited October 1, 2019 by ErichB

[dilore 126]

I understand it as an option, binary .air files will also work.

Edited October 1, 2019 by dilore

[ErichB 3,638]

9 minutes ago, dilore said:

I understand it as an option, binary .air files will also work.

Does that apply to the new FDE models or the old ones?

[dilore 126]

I have not seen/heard more details.

But since .air files are mandatory for the legacy models, I would guess that the opposite is true for new FDE model.  

 

[Murmur 3,941]

10 hours ago, ErichB said:

how does that leave developers who do not want this information shared?

I reckon, if not mistaken, the old .air files were not encrypted and could be read by various .air editors. So in practice they were not protected.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Murmur

[kand 205]

You can easily decompile the current MS type airfile to find the values used by the designer now, the protection to sensitive information is really protected within the low resolution that the airfile offers. You end up approximating a lot, when I say low resolution I mean mach values which only scale drag at .20 increments etc 

I have written lots of airfiles over the last few years, and even with access to a myriad of real manufacturer data, its not possible under the current system to just go and type it all in and hey bingo you have a 747. Some of it can be but then you have to compensate for all the flawed values of the sim physics of the current environmental model

Hoping the new fsim will fix the science of flight once and for all, but I fear this new aerodynamics package will be more an artistic representation that a transfer of real world coefficients. Happy to stand corrected when its released ! 

[Murmur 3,941]

Speaking of Mach, I wonder if the new flight model already includes compressibility effects, or is limited to uncompressible regimes. We will probably know more in the discovery series.