[calipilot227]

It's a sad day when an X-Plane FREEWARE plane becomes payware, but I'm sure it'll be well worth the price tag.

[MatthewS]

CaptainG37, on 04 May 2010 - 08:57 AM, said:

Yes, it will have hanging bogeys.

Excellent!

Is it possible to have the tilt animate progressively during touchdown and take off? In FSX hanging bogeys seem to "snap" between titled and level positions.

[six7]

calipilot227, on 04 May 2010 - 07:46 PM, said:

It's a sad day when an X-Plane FREEWARE plane becomes payware, but I'm sure it'll be well worth the price tag.

That's the nature of progress. As quality aircraft become more complex and time-consuming to create, it's not unrealistic for developers to expect some sort of compensation.

[CaptainG37]

Calipilot, as Nick mentioned, it is extremely regrettable. But you have to understand there are GIGABYTES worth of manuals for a 747-400, and it is completely unreasonable to remotely assume that a fully functioning (read study sim) of a 747-400 will be made freeware in a short amount of time. Yes, it is possible, but will take YEARS (PMDG took 5 years to finish their version and that was with a full time staff) to get to a point where it would be classed a study sim.
Payware developers do this kind of thing on a full time basis. I work on my projects for a minimum of 14 hours a day/6 days a week. Sundays I do about 12 hours. I also research, read manuals, answer emails and respond to the forums where my products are being shown during those "work" hours. The XPFW guys have jobs that pay their bills and they can only work on freeware in their spare time. With Nick starting his studies to be a doctor, it is now reasonable to assume that if the 744 would be freeware, it would never get finished. Building a flight model, 3D mesh, texturing and programming a 744 are massive tasks.
In saying all that, it all seemed to make sense that he and Dennis collaborates with Theo and myself to get this done in the shortest amount of time possible and with the highest quality possible. Agreements have been made and we want to create the most realistic payware 744 and 742 that is available for X-Plane using whatever resources are available to us.
In saying all this, I would not say it's a sad day, but rather, a very happy day, as now we can guarantee a high fidelity 744 simulation being made available in a fraction of the time.

Matthew,
Yes, it will be possible to gradually animate the tilting bogeys on take off and landing. I've actually gone through what needs to be done to both of these planes and a surprisingly large number of functions and animations are achievable with straight out of the box datarefs. The key to making them work properly is knowing how to keyframe everything and what values to put into the scripts for exporting.
Goran

[gilbernl]

calipilot227, on 04 May 2010 - 07:46 PM, said:

It's a sad day when an X-Plane FREEWARE plane becomes payware, but I'm sure it'll be well worth the price tag.

X-Plane Freeware is still alive and well. It is, and will always be X-Plane Freeware. That being said, it must be clear that the 744 is no longer an XPFW project. While XPFW staff will work on it, this is a Leading Edge Simulations product. XPFW, alive and well, will continue to work on bringing ya'll freeware aircraft, despite the fact that it may take a bit longer...

[flightime56]

I'm actually thrilled the B747-400 it is going to be payware, if not it spends years in development hell, sometimes to the point of being dropped or closed down, the B747-400 is a major aircraft for Xplane and should be supported and given its rightful quality that 3d can give, to support the sim we have to support the developers, we know their hearts are in the right place, but these quality models are lightyears away from the standard Xplane model, and the second point is if we don't support the team effort it will slowly takeaway Xplane as well, this is stepup for the sim, and digging out a few dollars will bring even more developers to the table and even better more exciting models, so how good is that.

[CaptainG37]

flightime56, on 09 May 2010 - 07:48 PM, said:

I'm actually thrilled the B747-400 it is going to be payware, if not it spends years in development hell, sometimes to the point of being dropped or closed down, the B747-400 is a major aircraft for Xplane and should be supported and given its rightful quality that 3d can give, to support the sim we have to support the developers, we know their hearts are in the right place, but these quality models are lightyears away from the standard Xplane model, and the second point is if we don't support the team effort it will slowly takeaway Xplane as well, this is stepup for the sim, and digging out a few dollars will bring even more developers to the table and even better more exciting models, so how good is that.

That's exactly how we look at it.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Goran

[ajzdad35]

I have began to notice something lately. First ill make a disclaimer. I know most if not all of us have jobs, and lives. This is all just for fun ( hobby ), but not much has been goin on here. Seems like its slowly fading away. Not much in the new planes or upgrades department. Also whats going on with xp jets and there triple 7s? any word on that? I have been around here for quite a few years and really seen this grow. There are talented people, that have done outstanding work over the years. This not a complaint but rather just a thought. I will continue to look at the website and fly around as much as possible. I just recently finally got xsqwaukbox, and vatsim on my computer, pretty cool. I know im pry way behind the times, but better late then never i guess. With vatsim are you able to fly all over the world or just the area that you made as your "area"? Thanks Jeff

[namaui]

ajzdad35, on 21 July 2010 - 09:45 AM, said:

I have began to notice something lately. First ill make a disclaimer. I know most if not all of us have jobs, and lives. This is all just for fun ( hobby ), but not much has been goin on here. Seems like its slowly fading away. Not much in the new planes or upgrades department. Also whats going on with xp jets and there triple 7s? any word on that? I have been around here for quite a few years and really seen this grow. There are talented people, that have done outstanding work over the years. This not a complaint but rather just a thought. I will continue to look at the website and fly around as much as possible. I just recently finally got xsqwaukbox, and vatsim on my computer, pretty cool. I know im pry way behind the times, but better late then never i guess. With vatsim are you able to fly all over the world or just the area that you made as your "area"? Thanks Jeff

Nothing fading away lol, a lot of aircraft are being released this year, or are in the works. The XPJets 777 is a huge project but last I heard it was still a WIP. With MSFS no longer being developed, I strongly doubt X-Plane is going to stop growing.

[guym-p]

ajzdad35, on 21 July 2010 - 09:45 AM, said:

not much has been goin on here. Seems like its slowly fading away. Not much in the new planes or upgrades department.

Speaking as an independent developer, and not a member of the XPFW team, I can only re-iterate that the changes in X-Plane over the last 2-3 years have been amazing. Horizons have expanded. It seems the extent of development is only limited by the power of computers to push stuff around the sky. The trouble with that is that our workload has gone through the roof. Not that I'm complaining, because it's an immense pleasure, but I think a lot of individuals and teams have gone quiet only because they're studiously busy. Picture a large hanger door, lights burning by day and night, and tinkering sounds from within. Great things are afoot.

Guy.

[namaui]

guym-p, on 22 July 2010 - 11:18 AM, said:

Picture a large hanger door, lights burning by day and night, and tinkering sounds from within. Great things are afoot.

XPJets and JRollon come to mind, as well as numerous other devs.

[MatthewS]

namaui, on 23 July 2010 - 02:25 AM, said:

With MSFS no longer being developed, I strongly doubt X-Plane is going to stop growing.

You should research the addon market for FSX. X-Plane is not going to catch it anytime soon. FSX is a stable platform now with new commercial addons coming out all of the time.

PMDGs 737NG is just around the corner... lets not forget all the existing addons such as PMDG 747/MD11, LDS 767, Coolsky Super80 classic & pro, Aersoft A320 (soon), FSL ConcordeX....and many more, and that's just the liners, didn't bother mentioning GA.

Name me a single aircraft for XP that can compare to any of those liners above in complexity and systems modelling, nothing!

XP has a very very long way to go, and frankly you guys are dreaming if you think any freeware offering will ever come anywhere close to what's available for FSX.

Things might change with XP10 if some of the FSX developers come across to XP, but that's years away.

[Sandy Barbour]

MatthewS, on 23 July 2010 - 10:27 AM, said:

Things might change with XP10 if some of the FSX developers come across to XP, but that's years away.

I don't quite understand that statment Matthew.
No matter who the developer is the toolset that will be available in XP10 will be the same for all developers.

[MatthewS]

Sandy Barbour, on 23 July 2010 - 07:50 PM, said:

I don't quite understand that statment Matthew.
No matter who the developer is the toolset that will be available in XP10 will be the same for all developers.

ie, the number of complex products that can compare to what's available for FSX might increase after XP10's release if some of those AAA FSX developers are convinced to target XP10. Atm I really don't see anyone in the XP space capable of delivering a PMDG level of quality product.

However, the upcoming CRJ200 seems quite promising based on the videos, but there have been so many delays that I'm beginning to be a little sceptical about what they can actually deliver.

[Sandy Barbour]

MatthewS, on 23 July 2010 - 02:09 PM, said:

ie, the number of complex products that can compare to what's available for FSX might increase after XP10's release if some of those AAA FSX developers are convinced to target XP10. Atm I really don't see anyone in the XP space capable of delivering a PMDG level of quality product.

However, the upcoming CRJ200 seems quite promising based on the videos, but there have been so many delays that I'm beginning to be a little sceptical about what they can actually deliver.

Ok, thanks for the explanation.
We shall see.

[six7]

MatthewS, on 23 July 2010 - 05:27 AM, said:

You should research the addon market for FSX. X-Plane is not going to catch it anytime soon. FSX is a stable platform now with new commercial addons coming out all of the time.

PMDGs 737NG is just around the corner... lets not forget all the existing addons such as PMDG 747/MD11, LDS 767, Coolsky Super80 classic & pro, Aersoft A320 (soon), FSL ConcordeX....and many more, and that's just the liners, didn't bother mentioning GA.

Irrespective of how many add-ons are currently available, There's no long-term future for developers in software that has ceased development (Nobody's developing for PS2 anymore). That developers will eventually abandon FS is inevitable. The (truly talented) ones who do it soonest, will reap the greatest rewards.

MatthewS, on 23 July 2010 - 05:27 AM, said:

Name me a single aircraft for XP that can compare to any of those liners above in complexity and systems modelling, nothing!

I don't have an intimate enough knowledge of FS aircraft to say with any certainty, but in terms of commercial airliners - probably none (but a couple that come close). Nils Danielsson's aircraft are as good, or better than any FS aircraft I've ever seen. Felis' An-24 is simply outstanding. Greg Hofer's F-104 is impeccable. Also, from what I understand, Alex Gifford (aka Propsman) is currently developing for XP10. For anyone who knows his work - enough said.

[namaui]

MatthewS, on 23 July 2010 - 09:09 AM, said:

ie, the number of complex products that can compare to what's available for FSX might increase after XP10's release if some of those AAA FSX developers are convinced to target XP10. Atm I really don't see anyone in the XP space capable of delivering a PMDG level of quality product.

However, the upcoming CRJ200 seems quite promising based on the videos, but there have been so many delays that I'm beginning to be a little sceptical about what they can actually deliver.

PMDG is the same standard I tend to use when measuring aircraft system depth and detail. Currently, the CRJ-200, XPJets 777, 742 and the no-longer-freeware 744 all show the ability of being able to match the depth and quality of PMDG products (like their MD-11, really the only reason I keep FSX installed).

All three of those projects are huge undertakings with lots of custom code and detailed models/textures, being done by small teams of people. As far as I know, all of those projects are active.