A Flying future

[Guest]

Just a thought on the future of fly, I have followed the recent threads but not, studied them all so if this has been suggested or dismissed then please forgive me.If a commercial developer is unlikely to pick up the baton to develop fly, then how about releasing the code as open source, being an avid supporter of Mr Stallman and his philosophy, this could secure a bright future for fly.There are a number of very talented users and companies developing products for fly, if the base product was free and open source third parties would be free to use this base to add and then sell value addons,Just an idea?

[Guest]

I doubt we'll ever see Fly go open source. TRI spent a few million dollars developing it, and it's unlikely they'll give it all away for free. Rich mentioned that some of the code is shared company-wide, so by giving out Fly, they'd also be giving away big chunks of Monster Truck Madness and other franchises which might continue.Something that might work would be an NDA or other sort of contract for people to work on Fly2 under certain guidelines (can't sell it, remains property of TRI, etc.) This is the deal GT Interactive made with the people hacking Falcon 4.If you're really into open-source flight sims, there's always Flight Gear. -Frank

[Guest]

yes understand the fact that TRI have spent vast sums of $$$$ developing the product, but if no other income is going to come from the product, it has no value ?But the points about shared code would i think kill the idea!just a idea, you never know!

[michal 44]

I don't think it will ever happen. Even if TRI decided to release the software 'as is' to the community for free the sheer difficulty of deciphering this volume of probably not very 'self-explanatory' software would probably make the process too painful for casual freeware developers. It would take another commercial group of flightsim developers to pick up the pieces and put it to some good use.Michael J.

[Guest]

I have the feeling that somewhere there is someone (or maybe some company) who will come forward to help fund the next release. Someone who knows and loves aviation, and has had a glimps of this sim and what it does in comparison to other similar sims. Someone with great 'vision'.I have also played with the idea that the Flight Sim Community (or at least users of the Fly Series) put forth money for publishing another version, but that in itself would mean that every user of Fly put up a couple of hundred dollers at least, if not more to actually purchase the product! (I know that would put me out of the running...)I just wonder how Laminar does it with X-Plane. We can pretty much understand how MS can do it with FS. Then there are the free ware Sims like the Space Orbiter, etc. Started out small and grew. How are their businesses based?Still, I bet the 'company' code is what makes the back bone of most of the unique features of Fly, from Guages that create their own windows with a click, to the scenery rendering engine, to the code for the Java/Python expandability, to the special code that allows the windows to take on any frame you program.But I have a gut feeling that someone will come forward within the next year, if not sooner. Till then, I hope developers really go for it!Tom

[Guest]

>I have also played with the idea that the Flight Sim >Community (or at least users of the Fly Series) put forth >money for publishing another version, but that in itself >would mean that every user of Fly put up a couple of hundred >dollers at least, if not more to actually purchase the >product! (I know that would put me out of the running...) >>I just wonder how Laminar does it with X-Plane. We can >pretty much understand how MS can do it with FS. Then there >are the free ware Sims like the Space Orbiter, etc. Started >out small and grew. How are their businesses based? Interestingly enough, when I bought x-plane I paid around $180; it's now at about $70 I believe. Austin provided himself with a hefty income with a niche product. He stated at one point that he intentionally priced it to keep out the riff-raff. But in typical Austin style he decided to go head to head with MSFS which, in my view, is when x-plane took a turn for the worse. conclusion: there is a market out there that will bear a larger price for a quality flight sim.

[akriesman 0]

Phil,In case you do not know, there are several of us developers on a Fly! "Beta Team". We have discussed this matter often.Rich would love to keep Fly! going using developers that have offered our free time. I believe that he even has some support from others at TRI regarding this issue.Unfortunately, there is a sticking point. There is a portion of the Fly! engine that is shared amongst other TRI product releases. It is a small portion (about 10%), but Fly contains well over 1 million lines of code (as per Rich). While the TRI management might be willing to get some outside help regarding the source for the Fly! specific portion, they do not want to release the shared portion. Personally, I totally understand their concerns.There are some other options that Rich is looking at. The best option right now involves having Rich release the shared portion in object code form. The other options would require too much work on Rich's part, and his free time is minimal these days (as you know).As long as the Fly! community continues to thrive, I have a feeling that something will come up. If anybody has other ideas, feel free to throw them out here. I commend Rich and TRI for even considering these options, but the shared source code causes a real dilemma.Take care,Allen

[akriesman 0]

Hi Michael,I agree, in that I don't think releasing the software 'as is' to the community would work.However, a handful of developers, minimally supervised by Rich, might be able to keep things going.Right now, I think that there are about 4 or 5 of us on the Beta team that are developers. Each of us seems to have an expertise and interest in different areas of the sim (which is good). The 'beta team' format seems to work really well. And, it requires minimal support by Rich, which I am sure is very important.I am not suggesting blocking out non-beta team members from helping out. Others could be added to the 'developer beta-team' later if they desire.But, the idea would be to keep the developer beta team small and managable, just like the current beta team. These are just my thoughts, not necessarily Rich's. Cheers,Allen

[Guest]

Tom...what did you mean about Java/Python expandability? I already know about expanding with Python, but Java? I would love to know since I'm a Java developer.