A Challenge To The Fly! II Community

[Guest Eagle]

This thread started with an offer from Tony to help with the development of Fly. Most of the comments were a comparison of Fly to MSFS. I don't recall seeing any post from a developer saying "Thanks Tony for your offer. I could use your help, please contact me."I would also like to help, but I am not interested in the scenery aspect. I would like to become involved in aircraft development. About two months ago I attempted a panel for a plane, but when I became stuck I searched the web for help. The only information on panel development was found on Barts Fly! Place which was of great help, but did not answer all of my questions. True you could post questions in the developers forum, which I have and always received a response. It would be of great help if ROTW or some other developer could publish a manual on creating panels for Fly. I realize that would be a great undertaking and that is where I would be willingly to help. My occupation is retired and, unlike a lot of you in this forum, I have the time to devote to a project.As far as the negative comments by Realair Simulations, negative in the fact that they have conceded that the sale of the Seneca will be below their development cost, is something I don't understand. How do they know this? I for one will purchase the plane, although I did not purchase the single engine planes because I don't like flying them. The twins and jets are my planes of choice.Let me end this by saying that I believe the development help is out there, all you have to do is ask. I for one am willing to help.Keep FLYing

[Guest]

Hi Tony,don't know if i miss the point, but you were asking for help, about something that is very important, making a robust developper documentation, weren't you?Most of the reply in this post are just about the how and why of the economic failure of Fly!. Too many posts allready about it.I'm learning python and in the process start to unveil some of the mystery of this simulation. I'm not a programmer but if none else do it i would be glad to make some kind of tutorial about programming adventure scrip in python. And, yes....i'm not english neither :)That's not quite like making a entire plane but, it's a good beginning.Let me know if you're interressed.RegardsChem

[Guest]

Hi Chem,Nope. You got the point dead on. The SDK for Fly! II is remarkably robust--though I suspect there is a bit of griping to be done by the folks who started with the original Fly! and can fully appreciate some of the changes that were steps in the wrong direction. Nevertheless, the Fly! II SDK is complex and how implemented SDK components interact with the internal flight systems modeling is even more so.My complaint is focused on the learning curve that needs to be overcome to gain any proficiency with the SDK. It makes it very hard for a newcomer to get involved in projects of any complexity. I have recently discovered Rob Young's treatise on Flight Model tweaking, which is great but doesn't really explain how all of the bits of the SVH file fit together when trying to model a new aircraft. Moreover, the tutorial was written for Fly!, not Fly! II.There is Jean Sabatier's Modeling with 3DS Max tutorial. I discovered that one about two weeks ago.And this is part of my problem: there is a great deal of knowledge out there, but it is dispersed. Is there no way that we can centralize that knowledge? I'll look into the trueSpace to 3DS conversion problem to see what if anything can be done. (Chris Wallace are you lurking about? I understand you had started looking into this problem. Any comments?}But I still would like to start working on a project to document the SDK properly. My idea is to have a document that essentially works through the construction of a complete (if not simple) aircraft. This would entail everything from constructing the 3DS file to import into Fly! II's keyframe editor to constructing panels to producing a flight model to writing custom DLL's for panel components. Any takers? Cheers, Tony

[Guest Josve]

I'm glad you kept on working Dan!! That looks great!!Johnny"I'LL BE BACK"[div align=center]http://www.avsim.com/hangar/fly/josve/fly2/vas.gif][/div

[Guest Josve]

You and the rest of the ROTW team have the right spirit Jean!!It's nice to hear people doing something they like,just because they like what they do :)As long as this spirit exists among us Flyers,the sim will certaily evolve!!Johnny"I'LL BE BACK"[div align=center]http://www.avsim.com/hangar/fly/josve/fly2/vas.gif][/div

[Guest tonyc]

I think a better idea would be for Richard HArvey to go through the all the wonderful list of the scripting How-to and just elaborate on how some of the less well know commands could be used. In fact, imagine if 10 per day were elaborated on. I remember when I wrote the little script that the learning curve is simply too steep, especially if there's an insufficient number of fly scripts available. I still propose that we start a FLY association, with dues, that can promote all kinds of activities toward a number of goals. I am also intrigued by the idea of hiring programmers to do specific things for a specific sum of money. Imagine what a college kid could do for $500 in his spare time! What is needed is leadership and organization. We need, however, someone who is has a great deal of time to devote to it. I think someone like Larry Adamson would be ideal for this.tony

[Guest Henri W]

Dan,Thanks for the inspiring words. And of course, your pannel is looking great.Best regards,Henri

[Guest]

>I think a better idea would be for Richard HArvey to go >through the all the wonderful list of the scripting How-to >and just elaborate on how some of the less well know >commands could be used. In fact, imagine if 10 per day were >elaborated on. I remember when I wrote the little script >that the learning curve is simply too steep, especially if >there's an insufficient number of fly scripts available. I >still propose that we start a FLY association, with dues, >that can promote all kinds of activities toward a number of >goals. I am also intrigued by the idea of hiring programmers >to do specific things for a specific sum of money. Imagine >what a college kid could do for $500 in his spare time! What >is needed is leadership and organization. We need, however, >someone who is has a great deal of time to devote to it. I >think someone like Larry Adamson would be ideal for this. >>tonyTony, Im kinda late here in joining this discussion. You mentioned R Harveys taking the time to relate to us here script commands and such. Not to say it couldnt be done, but the time involved to properly explain even some of the simplest commands would be a task. I dont know alot of programming but I know the basics. So I pulled up the PDF file that is included with FlyII on SDK programming. Yes I know that it is for Fly! not FlyII!. But just bare with me on this. Here is a line of text that is included in the PDF. These are I would presume someone from Fly! development team. "Language tools/CompilerThe Fly! SDK was designed to be used with the Microsoft Visual C++ environment on the Windowsplatform, and the MetroWerks CodeWarrior environment on the Macintosh. All the supplied sourcecode, libraries, and samples are for these environments only. However, the interfaces have purposefullybeen coded in a straight "C" interface for easy conversion to other languages (Pascal/Delphi, VisualBasic, etc.) Terminal Reality will not be providing any assistance or tools for these alternateenvironments."So having said that much. I think it was Eagle who posted here that the were retired and also they had C++ programming knowledge. I have C++ and several other components on my system. Im not retired by no means, but I do have alot of spare time on my hands. :) With all the flying I have done with FlyII!, I could have made several trips around the world by now. I know it sounds crazy, but give it a shot and see if Eagle is interested. My problem is when it comes to anything that has to do with computers. I dont read the manuals. I plug the sucker in and keep trying until I get it right. OT If you could ask my kids they would tell you about some of strange X-mas gifts they have had after I put them together for them. :)TonyWhy Oh .... Why cant I ????FlyII! ver. 2.30Directx 8.1nVidia drivers 28.32ECS K7S5A SOCKETA /DDR/ AUDIO/ATX MB, DDR 128MB PC-2100 266MHZ MEMORY ,AMD ATHLON T-BIRD 1.2GHZ 256K FSB266 PGA , NVIDIA GEFORCE2 MX-400 64MB 4X-AGP

[LAdamson 240]

> We need, however, >someone who is has a great deal of time to devote to it. I >think someone like Larry Adamson would be ideal for this. >>tony :-lol :-lol :-lol

[Guest dajackman]

Yea, these post have sparked somthing it appears. I would like to help the Community also. However I don't have much to offer. I do have a web server sitting here doing nothing. Would there be a need for a web site to manage some of the things mentioned here? I'm willing to get something up if the need is there. Anyone have any comments? Server is Red Hat 7.3Latest ApachePostNuke content management systemMySQL backendCurrently running on a pretty good cable connection. -dajackman