an open source future for Fly?

[Guest DSandberg]

Obviously there are going to be some things that can't be done with any SDK, but I certainly wouldn't try to enumerate them even if I considered myself one of the experienced SDK folks (which I'm not). The point is that there is so much more that can be done with the sim if the SDKs are fully utilized that for people to already be talking about the sim "falling behind" is way premature (IMO). If Fly II really is "falling behind", then I'd say that's primarily the fault of the community for not yet having made use of such a large part of the potential that is already there and waiting to be exploited.I can tell you that in the area that I've personally been interested in and have investigated most fully (weather) I believe it is very possible to write an SDK-based weather add-on for Fly II that does more than any equivalent add-on for any other current flight sim. I don't want to go into too many details because I don't want to give away all of my ideas. :) I still hope and intend to create something like this myself at some point. (I expect that I'll get more motivated to do so once I have a machine capable of running Fly II well ... it's hard to get excited about writing utilities that you won't be able to enjoy the use of yourself.)[table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0][tr][td width=320]http://www.usinternet.com/users/mystic/infomsig.gif[/td][td width=170 align=center]God wants Richard Harvey to be his copilot.[/td][/tr][/table]

[Guest tonyc]

what size rig do you currently run? tony

[Guest DSandberg]

P3-450 with a Matrox G400 MAX 32MB videocard (those are the limiting factors). Technically it can run Fly II (barely), but the results are neither pretty nor fun.[table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0][tr][td width=320]http://www.usinternet.com/users/mystic/infomsig.gif[/td][td width=170 align=center]God wants Richard Harvey to be his copilot.[/td][/tr][/table]

[Guest Fly II Pilot]

David:Within the next 60 days I'm planning to upgrade my Video Card to a 128Mb one. You're welcome to have mine, just tell me where to ship it to.Take care,Alejandro AmigorenaCheshire, CTFly! II Beta Team MemberAthlon XP 1800ABIT KR7A-RAID768Mb RAMMSI GeForce 3 Ti 500 64MBSB Audigy GamerCH Flight Yoke USBCH Pro Pedals USB

[Guest tonyc]

I've got possibly a motherboard/xp2000 for you. Do you want to make a deal? and SDK for a motherboard/xp2000 combination?tony

[Guest]

Ken - with respect, I would disagree with your example of FU2/3, and in fact I see that as an example in the opposite direction.I have a soft spot in my heart for the FU series, and it does still have a small but active user community. However, every passing month makes it a more marginalized sim, and its core technology has not been updated. The basic limitations of the package which were present at release, are still present. There have (as far as I know) been no updates to the core graphics engine. I still have FU3, and still play it once in a while, but it definately is showing its age.Now, Fly has an extensive SDK, which blurs this line a little bit, but in the end, there will need to be improvements that cannot be made through an SDK. One thing that comes to mind: the graphics engine in Fly uses texture memory on the graphics card quite inefficiently - I haven't looked at everything in the SDK, but I'd be quite surprised if that could be addressed through the SDK.I'd agree that Fly has a while before core technology becomes a pressing concern, because its a very capable and expandable sim. But I'm not sure time is on our side, either. The longer a program goes without development, the more marginalized it becomes, and marganization brings a smaller user base to fund something like purchasing of rights.That's just my take on it - I don't mean any disrespect to your opinion, I just see it a little differently I guess.

[Guest Javier]

OMG!! This is second time I see a post like this !! and both ONLY in this forum!! I LOVE THIS COMMUNITY. :-wave Dave: Your development, time and freeware to this community deserves this and more, let me see if I have a spare Memory that I can ship to you. :-beerchugRegards.Javier.

[Guest DSandberg]

Tony,If you meant "an SDK-based add-on" in exchange for an MB/XP2000, any such add-on would have to wait for at least a few months. For that amount of time I expect to be fully preoccupied with preparing myself to go back to work fulltime, so I can't really make such a "deal" in good faith just yet. But thanks very much for offering. :)[table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0][tr][td width=320]http://www.usinternet.com/users/mystic/infomsig.gif[/td][td width=170 align=center]God wants Richard Harvey to be his copilot.[/td][/tr][/table]

[Guest DSandberg]

Wow, sometimes I really can't believe how great this place is. Fly will live on for a good long time, if only because of people like you. Thank you all![table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0][tr][td width=320]http://www.usinternet.com/users/mystic/infomsig.gif[/td][td width=170 align=center]God wants Richard Harvey to be his copilot.[/td][/tr][/table]

[Guest DSandberg]

> One thing that comes to mind: the graphics engine in Fly uses> texture memory on the graphics card quite inefficiently ...I actually don't disagree with most of what you've said ... although I think the SDK blurs things more than a little bit, eventually there is unfortunately no question but that new flight sims will leave Fly behind (in fact we should be so lucky). But I think the example you gave above may in fact be a case of something that will become less and less of an issue for Fly II over time and eventually not need addressing at all, as the texture memory of graphics cards continues to grow larger and larger in size.[table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0][tr][td width=320]http://www.usinternet.com/users/mystic/infomsig.gif[/td][td width=170 align=center]God wants Richard Harvey to be his copilot.[/td][/tr][/table]

[Guest tonyc]

David, your infometar has provided me with many, many hours of pure fun. that's the least I can do. E-mail me yor address, and there will be no strings attached. I want you to enjoy FLY2 like the rest of us.tony

[Guest]

"Unfortunately I'm just starting to learn C++ but do you know the reason why I decided to learn it on my own? It's Fly!"Hmmmm I wasnt sure what programming that Fly2 was built with exactly. I have C++ on my system. Not really good with it though. Looks like I need to dig out the manuals Eh? http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cadillac43/dedication.htmlhttp://mywebpages.comcast.net/cadillac43/takeoff.gifTonyFlyII! ver. 2.40Directx 8.1nVidia drivers 41.09ECS K7S5A SOCKETA /DDR/ATX MB, DDR SRAM 128MB PC-2100 266MHZ MEMORY ,AMD ATHLON T-BIRD 1.2GHZ 256K FSB266 PGA , NVIDIA GEFORCE2 MX-400 64MB AGP

[Guest]

"I'm amazed at Fly!'s flexibility and complexity and am finding it as interesting (if not more) to develop as to flying.Think positive, and let's hope for the best. That's all we can do."I totally agree with you.I didnt mean to sound negative. I want to think that if enough people stay involved with Fly2 that positive things can still happen. Has anyone heard about the Space Shuttle tragedy this morning? Its looking like we lost another shuttle ths morning. :( Along with 7 good astronauts. http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cadillac43/dedication.htmlhttp://mywebpages.comcast.net/cadillac43/takeoff.gifTonyFlyII! ver. 2.40Directx 8.1nVidia drivers 41.09ECS K7S5A SOCKETA /DDR/ATX MB, DDR SRAM 128MB PC-2100 266MHZ MEMORY ,AMD ATHLON T-BIRD 1.2GHZ 256K FSB266 PGA , NVIDIA GEFORCE2 MX-400 64MB AGP

[Guest]

"I furthermore believe that's where the community's energies should be focused from here on out, rather than on the long shot of badgering TRI yet again to release their source code."David, Thats what I was trying to say in one of my posts. It would great and wonderful if the code were to be released. One needs to be realistic about it though. I didnt happen a year ago and isnt going to happen now. I have a question about the open source code. I know just enough to get frustrated when working with it. Correct me if I'm wrong on this point. When they develop programming like this. Isnt there a sort of lock or protection that is built into it. That keeps someone from being able to actually change or modify the actual open source base coding? I have C++ on my system and have tried to tinker around with some of the files and I've run into this several times. When trying to change a certain line of coding and upon saving. I get access denied type of window. Isn't this the protection that I'm talking about?http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cadillac43/dedication.htmlhttp://mywebpages.comcast.net/cadillac43/takeoff.gifTonyFlyII! ver. 2.40Directx 8.1nVidia drivers 41.09

[Guest Fly II Pilot]

Tony:Re the Space Shuttle Columbia, I found out when I opened Avsim.Very sad news...Alejandro AmigorenaCheshire, CTFly! II Beta Team MemberAthlon XP 1800ABIT KR7A-RAID768Mb RAMMSI GeForce 3 Ti 500 64MBSB Audigy GamerCH Flight Yoke USBCH Pro Pedals USB