X-Plane by Laminar Research - playable demo/upgrade v8.06
NEW STUFF FOR X-Plane 8.06 SINCE 8.05:
The total-energy variometer is now based on INDICATED airspeed, not true
groundspeed. this is the way real total-energy varios work.
The visual flight model ('/' key a few times to see it in different levels) now
shows the PROPELLER forces per element... it's cool to see the varying lift
distributions on helicopters and VTOLS when they are moving forwards rapidly,
creating all sorts of strange asymmetric effects!
Control systems with artificial stability can "flutter" at low frame-rates.
While this can never be totally avoided (you need some speed to run a
flight-control computer!) the worst-case flutter condition has been
considerably reduced, improving low-frame-rate artificial stability, of course
with no detriment to the high-frame-rate cases.
New joystick buttons options: speedbrakes retract 1 notch, speedbrakes extend
one notch... as well, if you hit the retract button when the brakes are
already retracted, the brakes go the "auto-deploy" mode.
Set the initial THROTTLE now in the map view when placing aircraft by clicking
on the various maps. Kind of nice.
Elec system: The battery voltage indicators now indicate the bus voltage, as in
the real airplane... Turning on the generators will show a higher voltage if
the generators are able to turn out more voltage than the battery... this is
dependant on whether the generators are on, the engine they are connected to is
turning fast enough, and they have not broken!
Mods to the GPS NMEA output should allow altitude display on more receivers.
bug-fix: ADF 1/2 really does show both ADG-1 and ADF-2!
bug-fix: sim could crash in certain weather conditions... fixed now
bug fix: if you select the "get lost" menu item when on mars, then (you guessed
it) you get lost on Mars
bug-fix: fewer (if any) "bumpy runways"
NEW STUFF FOR X-Plane 8.05 SINCE 8.04:
The flight controls on the fighters that will not exceed the deflections listed
in the controls screen... the "ailerons with pitch", etc, do indeed add
control deflection, but they will not exceed the deflection limit.
NEW STUFF FOR X-Plane 8.04 SINCE 8.03:
This version of X-Plane is designed to have far more systems-simulations and
equipment-failure-simulations, including multiple hydraulic, electric, and
vacuum systems, with failures of countless instruments and subsystems available
so you can practice getting airplanes on the ground with countless things going
wrong with the plane, from failed hydraulic and electrical and vacuum systems
to engines that are surging randomly due to fuel-flow fluctuations, or
throttles that have failed to the "wide open" position... this is great fun in
the sim, and useful for training as well. In Plane-Maker, you specify which
electric or vacuum system each instrument is on, so you can have the right
instruments shut down in flight when an electrical bus in the airplane goes
down! We also have new detail with APU's and bleed-air simulations to get
aircraft and engine start much more realistic, right from the first APU
start-up!
Here are the specifics:
Multiple Hydraulic and Electric and Vacuum Systems
2 hydraulic systems, with hydraulic pump and hydraulic containment failures,
and a new check box in Plane-Maker to determine whether the hydraulic systems
are pressurized by the engines or not. Of course this is usually checked TRUE
for most airplanes, but craft like the Space Shuttle and X-15 have hydraulic
systems that work whether the engines are running or not! This check box is set
in the "equipment" screen in Plane-Maker.
As well, you can have hydraulic OVERPRESSURE failures as well!
2 electrical systems now simulated! One fails? You may have another for SOME
systems.
2 vacuum systems now simulated! One fails? You may have another for SOME
systems.
Look at the panel editor in Plane-Maker...
You can now specify which vacuum system or electrical system each instrument is
on.
This will determine which instruments are brought down with which systems
failures. The right instruments will fail with the right systems.
Look at the panel editor in Plane-Maker...
You can now specify which cockpit side (pilot or copilot) each instrument is
on.
This will determine which settings apply to which instruments. The barometric
pressure, for example, can be different for the pilots and copilots altimeters!
APU and Pressurization Systems Modelling for Engine-Start and Pressurization:
The APU is more fully modelled... now you have "ON", "OFF", and "START" for the
APU.
Put it to START and let it start up, then let the switch come back to ON. The
APU is now supplying bleed air and generator voltage to the rest of the
airplane. What do you do with that? Read on!
BLEED AIR (button for the panel is in pressurization folder in the
panel-editor) is now more fully modelled... you can select bleed air as: off,
left, both, right, or APU. Bleed air is used for both starting jet engines, and
pressurizing the airplane if you have pressurization controls. Here's how it
works:
If the bleed air is set to OFF, then you will not be able to pressurize the
airplane, or start any jet engines.
If the bleed air is set to LEFT, then you will not be able to pressurize the
airplane, or start any jet engines unless the LEFT engine is running.
If the bleed air is set to RIGHT, then you will not be able to pressurize the
airplane, or start any jet engines unless the RIGHT engine is running.
If the bleed air is set to BOTH, then you will not be able to pressurize the
airplane, or start any jet engines unless the first TWO engines are running.
If the bleed air is set to APU, then you will not be able to pressurize the
airplane, or start any jet engines unless the APU is running.
So, to do a full start up in X-Plane (and a real jet, by the way):
1: In Plane-Maker, equip your plane with both an APU (buttons folder) and a
full bleed air knob (pressurization folder).
2: run X-Plane and start the APU ("start", then "on")
3: set the bleed air to APU so you have bleed air coming from a running APU
4: hit the engine starts to start the engines
5: set the bleed air to BOTH to get bleed air from the engines for the
pressurization and any in-flight starting
6: turn off the APU
This is how you start up a real plane, and how you do it in X-Plane if you
equip the plane with APU and bleed-air switches.
Question: How can I start the engines in flight if they are not running, and
the APU is off?
Answer: whatever engine IS running will provide the bleed-air, and the engines
windmill even if shut down.. 10% N1 is enough to drive the systems.
New Failure-Modelling:
New engine failure type option: engine fire.
If you specify an engine fire, then the engine smokes as it fails... regular
engine failure does not leave a trail of smoke though.
New Instrument failures: Specific Instruments.
This lets you fail specific instruments on the panel, so if you have 2 attitude
indicators, for example, you can fail just one of them. This is already
possible, of course, by putting them on different electrical or vacuum systems,
but this is a way you can fail any instrument you like without that failure
affecting other instruments if you like.
Pitot system failure resulting in airspeed indication error.
Engine SEIZURE, and engine INDICATION failures.
Low battery failure, resulting in inability to get up to starting N1.
Transponder can fail.
Left and right brakes can fail! Awfully fun on landing in planes with
free-castoring gear!
The throttle can fail to low, current, or max setting!
APU pressurization failure... so you can't start the engines on a jet.
Cabin depressurization!
ITT runaway, compressor stall, and fuel-flow fluctuation failures... all with
varying results in power output.
New Instruments:
New instrument type: ALTERNATE AIR. This lets air into the engine through an
alternate path... with a 5% power reduction due to the inefficient path the air
must take to get to the engine!
New instrument type: fuel pump annunciator, along with better fuel-pressure
simulation: The fuel pressure and fuel flow are properly affected by the fuel
pump.
More pressurization instruments to simulate more aircraft.
See the pressurization folder in the Panel-Editor in Plane-Maker.
New autopilot button: Instrument source. This can either use the pilot or
copilot-side instruments for autopilot reference.
Remember that in Plane-Maker you can specify if each instrument is pilot-side
or copilot-side, primary or secondary system.
New angle of attack indicator: Round with settable maximum angle, above which
the stall warning goes off.
New instrument: angle-of-attack anti-ice.
New instrument: Pilot and co-pilot side pitot heat, each for the respective
system.
New instruments: transmission oil pressure and temperature.
New button for the panels: Jet Sync. This is an engine sync that can be set to
"fan", "off", or "turbine".
This simply syncs the fans or turbines on your jets, getting all the engines to
follow engine #1 exactly.
Ignition on/off... this could be used for old World-War 1 airplanes that had
separate ignition and starter switches,
or modern jets that have ignition that is simply turned on or off...
though you must still hit the starter to turn the engine over for starting!
New autopilot annunciator panel, with all the terminology and annunciators for
typical GA planes with good equipment
New General Features:
NMEA string output: drive any (real) moving map or other piece of hardware or
software from X-Plane, where X-Plane acts like a (real) GPS to that device.
(currently Windows-version only)
New joystick button for straight ahead view when in 3d cockpit view.
Special Controls in Plane-Maker:
Flaps with pitch and roll can now be customized to apply to either flaps 1 or 2
or both.
As well, they can be set to only phase in above 50% control deflection if you
like.
In the "Other Aircraft" screen, you can enter the heading, altitude, and speed
ratio for the OTHER AIRCRAFT for the FORMATION FLYING option in the LOCATION
menu.
Check out the Special Controls screen in Plane-Maker...
just like you can have the slats automatically deploy near the stall, now you
can have the FLAPS do the same!
Custom afterburner texture now possible per aircraft... see the example
plane... the filename is simply airplane_name_flame.png. Do any afterburner or
rocket textures you like for any plane!
Glider winches are 950 meters, as per reality.
Glider winches disconnect if the cable angle ever gets too steep, as in
reality.
Glider winches automatically disconnect if the line forces get way too high.
New RMI type: ADF-1 VOR-2. This is a useful addition to many simple panels...
you get an ADF and second VOR in one instrument... nice to complement an HSI
that shows VOR-1 complete with glideslope. Now, of course, this whole
"position-fix/vor radial" thing is a ridiculous old circus-stunt the from
medieval days... any plane should just be using GPS with moving maps and ILS in
this day and age, but if you want old-school, here it is!
The 8 and 0 looked similar on the FMS in earlier versions... close enough that
someone thought that 87.8 miles was 7.8 miles!
He reported the bug as an error in the FMS, saying that the FMS gave too low a
readout... CLASSIC mis-direction by a computer!!!
In fact, it was only the FONT that was confusing him... so the fonts have now
been improved.
Flight-Model Refinements:
New fuel-flow modelling...
Enter the idle and max SFC in Plane-Maker to get the fuel-flow right at a wider
variety of flight conditions.
Turning off (or failing) the FADECs on non-helicopter aircraft will cost you 3%
throttle, as will happen with real jet engines when the FADEC fails or is
turned off.
General Refinements:
Real-Weather now checks the entire planet, not just USA. It's about time!
HUD goes to 90 degrees... a surprisingly common request... this will be used
more for going straight UP than straight DOWN, I hope!
X-Plane will now load any CUSTOM scenery files with precedence over any DEFAULT
scenery files... regardless of who is DSF, and who is ENV.
If you have custom DSF AND ENV, or default DSF AND ENV, then in that case DSF
takes precedence for any given area.
The level-of-detail of rendered objects is handled a bit more precisely
Your airplane is NOT drawn any more in the "straight down" view... if you have
a nice 3-D cockpit, you would just see the COCKPIT FLOOR when you looked down
in 803! Oops!!!!
On the HSIs and VORs, the glideslope flag is only visible when an ILS frequency
is selected.
Cool New Planes:
I have included a new folder called "Austin's Designs" in the "Aircraft" folder
with some interesting designs of mine... be sure to read the readme in that
folder.
Check out the new CL-415 in the Seaplanes folder... the plane is still in
development, but this is a great start!
Be sure to hit control-o to enter the virtual cockpit mode and look around the
cockpit in flight!
http://www.quality-planes.com/KRISS/CL-415/
Bug-Fixes:
Visual wind-vectors (hitting /-key a bunch of times) plot in right direction.
Custom terrain textures don't have little annoying color bands out in the
Ocean.
Nosewheel transitions the steering at the proper speeds
Airport flattening flattens airports more.
FMS shows proper distance along your flight plan.
The VIEW location no longer effects the thermals! Oops!
Airports saved properly in World-Maker.
Tech-Notes:
Note: I am computing the fuel-flow a bit differently at idle now, now
considering the internal engine friction and pumping losses when computing fuel
flow at idle... this is more realistic of course, but this means you will have
to tweak your SFC (specific fuel consumption, or fuel flow per unit horsepower)
in the engine screen in plane-maker to get the idle fuel flow just right.
Remember, the idle SFC is the LEFT of the two SFC numbers in the engine screen,
second tab.
Note: If you do custom cockpit design with custom HSI TEXTURES (there are
probably only about 3 or 4 people that fit that description, but I am notifying
anyway) I have added 2 new slots to the mechanical (but not glass) HSI-layer-2
images... this is for new "NAV" and "HDG" flags for the HSI... be sure to add
these to your custom PNG files, if you made any.
I changed a few filenames, which will require any aircraft-designers to change
a few filenames for their custom instruments in a few rare cases... If you have
a custom "RMI_N12GPS_GA.png" then you should change it to "RMI_N12_GA.png"...
ditto that for the BC and HM versions of that instrument.
NEW STUFF FOR X-Plane 8.03 SINCE 8.02:
New joystick axis selection: look around in the 3-d cockpits.
Access to more joystick axis on more sticks and yokes.
Scenery upgrade: Many more types of buildings and more detailed buildings.
Incredible new CL-415 Seaplane with 3-D Virtual Cockpit!
NEW STUFF FOR X-Plane 8.02 SINCE 8.01:
Lower load times, lower RAM requirements, and higher frame-rates.
Compared to 8.01, load times are DOWN by about 10%
Compared to 8.01, frame-rate is UP by about 75%! (not a typo! this is on a G-5)
Compared to 8.01, RAM use is DOWN by about 10%
Other features:
GPS refinement:
GPS can work independently until you actually enter a plan into the FMS... then
the FMS takes over the GPS.
Custom limits for round AOA! Jason Chandler needs it for one of his next
planes... a LearJet! Well known to be among the most overpowered and
challenging civilian planes to fly, this one should be interesting!
Hydraulic quantity and pressure gages as well, as requested.
3-D cockpits functions no matter what resolution you are running the sim in.
Ctrl-o goes SMOOTHLY from 2-d to 3-d cockpit. It was a little distracting
before.
Reverse-thrust-engaged annunciators. Kind of nice. Some airline pilot wanted
them.
New joystick button option: AUTOPILOT: CWS (for control-wheel steering) Hit
this and... NOTHING HAPPENS! (Except the DISCONNECT of any pitch and heading
autopilot functions) but then, RELEASE the button, and the pitch and heading at
the moment you released the button are held... Be sure your plane has a PITCH
SYNC and HEADING HOLD button to see the annunciators and know what is going on,
and so you can hit them to turn this mode OFF!
See the rendering options screen: There is an option to mostly flatten the
airports. Flatten them out a good bit if you see fit.
More accuracy with prop-strikes... the elevation of the ground or pavement
right under the prop is considered, not just the general ground altitude in the
"vicinity" of the plane.
Better ITT & EGT during turbine engine starts... The temperature is hooked to
the start fuel intro time as defined in Plane-Maker engine screen.
Change the size of the EFIS and HUD ALTITUDE and AIRSPEED layer-3 images to
define the size of the instruments in the panel, if desired. You can also
change their size the easy way (instrument size ration in Plane-Maker), but
that method results in blurriness, and is not optimal.
More realistic FLOAT-PLANE physics... the step IS currently simulated, so be
sure you DO have a STEP in your floats!
More realistic THERMAL physics for gliders... for every bit of thermals you
ride UP, there is an equal amount of air coming DOWN! Beware!
Starter voltage draw on the battery is improved.
New joystick button options: Load situation. Save any 3 situations to any 3
joystick buttons in the Joystick window and the Other Aircaft and Situations
window.
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR PEOPLE THAT CONTROL X-PLANE BY UDP: THE VEH1 AND VEHA
STRUCTS ARE NOW BETTER, INCLUDING GEAR, FLAP, AND VECTOR POSITIONS... THOUGH
YOU MUST UPDATE YOUR VEH1 AND VEHA STRUCTS TO USE THEM! See the UDP ref.html in
the Instructions folder!
Custom terrain textures from Generation-7 scenery should not show up as "wet"
in X-Plane any more.
Negative-area speedbrakes (if you enter them backwards in Plane-Maker) should
not push the plane forwards (!!) any more.
Note: Someone said that the horizontal stabilator does not work on X-Plane
8.01... not true!
You have to set the "INCIDENCE WITH ELEVATOR" per-element in Plane-Maker, and
set the elevator deflection in the "CONTROLS" screen.
SO WHAT IS IN X-PLANE 8.01?
TONS.
MORE THAN WE HAVE EVER HAD IN ONE NEW VERSION BEFORE.
X-Plane 8.01 is the most ambitious and revolutionary update ever.
New scenery engine:
We are designing a completely new scenery format, providing a totally
disordered, adaptive set of polygons to fit any terrain... GONE is the classic
"checkerboard" pattern where the grids must run in regular
"horizontal/vertical" directions... The terrain will now be dynamically
crafted to fit ANY terrain feature, no matter how irregular or oddly-shaped.
Then, countless buildings and other landmarks are overlaid on the terrain using
adaptive algorithms THAT FIT THE BUILDINGS TO ACTUAL STREET-MAPS, resulting in
neighborhoods that actually follow REAL roads, no matter their unusual or
convoluted pattern, since we no longer follow artificial street grids, but
instead use actual road data. The goal here is simple: total freedom to model
any terrain, with any topology, that exists. On Earth OR MARS.
Speed:
WHEN USING THE SAME SCENERY AS VERSION 7.62, 180% of the speed of X-Plane 7.62
on a Macintosh G5.
(You will see varying speed increase on varying computers)
That's right. 80% faster.
When using the SAME (version 7) SCENERY FILES, the frame-rates in X-Plane 8.00
are 80% higher than in X-Plane 7.62.
Most programs get SLOWER with each release.
X-Plane gets FASTER. 80% faster on the this release.
On my Mac G5, MAXIMUM visibility, clear sky, in the 747, I get: 37 fps in
X-Plane 7.62, and 69 fps in X-Plane 8.00.
Full-screen no HUD view, I get: 46 fps in X-Plane 7.62, and 92 fps in X-Plane
8.00.
Is that enough speed for you?
NOTE: WHEN YOU USE THE NEW VERSION-8 SCENERY, WITH HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF
ROAD SEGMENTS AND BUILDINGS, the frame-rate can go down as X-Plane plots every
known mapped road in the USA... a rendering option in the Rendering Options
screen in the Settings menu lets you choose whether you want the fast, simple
Version-7 scenery, or the complex, detailed (but sometimes slower!) Version-8
scenery.
X-Plane 8.00 can run either version just fine!
New aircraft format:
We have many more parts and wings, with the ability to attach any part of the
airplane texture to any part of the plane for total customization, and to
attach any of the many bodies of the airplane to any of the moving flight
controls, either directly or at some movement fraction, all designed to get the
airplane moving parts and countless other details just right.
The goal here is simple: TOTAL FREEDOM TO DESIGN ANY AIRPLANE, TO FLY IN ANY
WORLD, YOU LIKE.
Here are the specifics:
->Total aircraft-texturing freedom: Use any part of either texture for either
side of any body and either surface of any wing... with no limits.
->20 misc. wings.
->20 misc. bodies.
->10 landing gear, including a new gear type: 3 across for the C-17
GlobeMaster.
->20 landing gear doors.
->10 flap deflections.
->Slat deployment schedules to match the slats to the flaps as you like.
->4 customizeable speedbrakes at any angle
->2 rudder types so you can get vertical stabs with strakes built PROPERLY with
perfect-chord rudder.
->2 flap types so you can get different inner and outer flaps across the wing.
Now, what would you do with 20 misc. bodies?
Attach any of the 20 misc. bodies to any aircraft part you like, and any
control surface you like, with a ratio to indicate the fraction of control
deflection that the body moves. This makes flap-track movement perfect.
You can build a 3-D cockpit: While flying with the JOYSTICK (not mouse) click
on the center of the windshield with the mouse and move the mouse around to
look around... with the cockpit in 3-D now of course! This 3-D "virtual
cockpit" has the exact same resolution, controls, movement, and detail of the
2-D cockpit. While other sims have had virtual cockpits, this virtual cockpit
has the exact same resolution and clarity as the 2-D one! You can fly
instruments on it just like with the 2-D panel!
As well, custom cockpits will have the option to use a "COCKPIT TEXTURE" (in
addition to the texture they use now) where the "COCKPIT TEXTURE" is simply the
current cockpit, with all the moving instruments, handles, etc. (every single
pixel, including moving ones) in place... so mapping the 2-D cockpit we have
now (with all detail and quality) to a 3-D object is a snap.. just use the
"COCKPIT TEXTURE"! See the KSBD Sample Object for an example... it will show
you how to do this near the end... it is just a special polygon type is all.
If you are flying a plane that does not have a 3-D cockpit made for it, then
X-Plane 8.00 Beta (not publicly avail yet) now makes a 3-D cockpit on-the-fly
for you at up to 1024x1024 res... it is EXACTLY LIKE THE 2-D COCKPIT but in
3-D... You cannot even tell a single pixel difference in quality between the
2-D standard panel and 3-D moving one... the 3-D one just moves in 3-D as you
move your view around
Now for some flying:
The runways now flatten to the terrain... so runways can now be (strongly)
sloped and hilly! Just put a runway on a hill to see it! Taking off and
landing airliners on hilly runways is quite a challenge... Sitting at KSBD I
looked down the runway in X-Plane to see the runway dropping down just a little
in the middle and sloping up slightly at the far end... it looked just like a
real runway, which is never really perfectly flat! I forgot I was looking at a
SIMULATED runway for a moment!
New View Options:
Straight down view: ctrl-o... kind of cool!
S-key now goes through 3 levels of lookdown... 5, 10, and 15 degrees down...
equivalent to adjusting your seat however you like.
Zoom way in on your plane in map view while at an airport... and see the
runway right down to the skidmarks, and your plane right down to the paint!
New "viewer-only" option that you can set in the "Special" menu to just use
X-Plane as a VIEWER to move your viewpoint around... useful for checking out
your scenery projects, etc., without having to fly to them, if you so choose.
ALL the maps can go into 3-d mode... kind of cool to see a 3-D sectional chart
with your path plotted on it in 3-D! The maps now plot MUCH, MUCH, MUCH FASTER
as well.
New Engine Instrument Options:
New engine instruments: PIE. (in the ECAM folder) as used in Boeings.
Also the Engine RPM, Prop RPM, N1, N2, Manifold Pressure, EPR, torque,
fuel-flow, ITT, EGT, and CHT are =>ALL<= available for =>ALL<= engine
instrument types.
New system model: Fuel pressure. Set the maximum (engine screen:tab 3), custom
limits for the panels (limits screen:tab 1) and set the gage (panel screen).
New Flight-Model refinements:
"Break-Away thrust" modelling: The plane won't drift slowly on the runway...
you have to get enough thrust or other energy in there to get it to break
friction and start moving.
NEW supersonic flight model! Much better!
It tracks the compression shocks and expansion fans all the way along all the
bodies, from nose to tail, measuring the pressure on each "facet" of the
fuselage, and applying the resulting force in the right direction!
Cool new speedbrakes and landing gear doors!
Check out the speed-brakes tab in the controls windows in Plane-Maker... enter
the brake and door locations, angles, deflections, part of the texture each
ones uses, etc.
Enter the body drag coefficient per part! Cool! Get that (subsonic) drag just
right!
New option: joy button to toggle steering between locked and free-castor!
This may seem minor, but it is kind of fun to toggle the nosewheel steering
during taxi and see how the plane handles with differential braking rather than
a steerable nosewheel.
For even more fun, get into the 747 and go to an external view right by the
nosewheel and watch what happens with various steering inputs with and without
nosewheel steering... a minor thing, for sure, but fun to play with!
Auto-brakes don't come on until the NOSEWHEEL TOUCHES DOWN, as in real planes
Various Features:
Go to the "About" menu... the "About" box now gives you your current version of
X-Plane AND THE LATEST VERSION AVAILABLE AT WWW.X-PLANE.COM.
Joystick axis assignments for all TRIMS are now available.
No more turbulence in the overcast layers unless you crank up some turbulence
manually or fly into some really active weather.
FMS improvements: Auto-init to current location, better init when you change
modes, more user-friendly refusal to take data until you enter a destination
TYPE to go to, etc.
Plane-Maker: Copy gear doors and speedbrake from other slot!
Smarter autopilot.
Easier free-turbine engine-starts.
Specify the ANCHOR location now for seaplanes.
Specify the VACUUM gage angles in the custom limits screen of Plane-Maker
Plane-Maker: Weapon import into misc. body!
In the body-edit in Plane-Maker, just hit the import WEAPON button right next
to the import BODY option, and voila! The weapon geometry is brought into the
misc. body... this is the beauty of the new acf structure... it is so modular
that I can easily let you mix-and-match various parts and weapons, copying
between them as you desire... nice!
Check out the "expert" menu in Plane-Maker: There is a visual texture-edit in
plane-maker now... apply any part of any textures to any part of any plane
visually... fun and easy!
New Plane-Maker option: Output the aircraft as an OBJ.
This lets you design the new 3-D custom cockpits with a reference OBJ for the
aircraft, and scatter aircraft OBJs around the airports..
APU! It's basic, but functional. See the switch in the "buttons" folder.
Much better HITS (highway in the sky) rendering.
In Plane-Maker you now have a jettisonable load location when you check if the
payload is water... this is obviously where the water comes out in your
water-bombers.
Awesome orbital graphics and what goes on behind the scenes to make it happen:
Incredible detail in the orbital views... just amazing.... 648 times more
resolution (not a typo) in orbit than X-Plane 7.62!
The Japanese Anime is a good way to get up there... as well as choosing the
circling view and arrowing to straight above the plane and then zooming out...
or taking SpaceShip-One up to 300,000 feet, of course, and seeing the view from
space!
Here are some interesting numbers for you:
Since scenery in X-Plane can currently go out to 25 miles, but the view from
orbit can be 3,000 miles, we cannot draw terrain geometry to do the Earth from
orbit. So we take a shortcut: draw satellite-image textures of the Earth
draped over a round globe. X-Plane 7 used a nice PAIR of textures (1024x1024
each, at 3.14 meg per texture, total 6.28 meg) to draw the planet.
The fact that it takes 6.28 meg means that 6.28 meg of VRAM was needed to draw
the Earth at "Extreme Res" in X-Plane) Modern video cards come with anywhere
from 16 to 128 meg of VRAM. So this took a decent, but not unreasonable, chunk
of VRAM.
This looked good from orbit, but was terribly blurry when close in, as in low
Earth orbit and shuttle re-entries. 1024x1024 for half the planet was just not
enough to give a good, detailed terrain from 100,000 feet up.
So Sergio provided me with 466 textures of the Earth, each covering 10x10
degrees of altitude and longitude, for X-Plane 8.00, each 1024x1024. (There are
actually 648 such "patches" of Earth, but Sergio need not provide me with ones
that are all water) Now, when a 1024x1024 texture (which takes 3.14 meg) covers
10x10 degrees, and it takes 648 of these textures to cover the Earth, how much
RAM is this?
2,034.72 meg of VRAM.
Some people get all excited about a 256-meg card, but you need 2,034 meg to
draw the Earth at this level of detail. Upon figuring these numbers, and
crashing my G5 just trying to LOAD them all at once, I almost gave up on
Sergio's hi-res orbital textures.
So the system requirements for X-Plane 8.00 will be 2,034 meg of VRAM, right?
Of course not.
We have 3 tricks to play:
1: Have you ever seen the ENTIRE PLANET AT ONCE? Unless your head is bigger
than the planet Earth, with your eyes sticking out in 4000-mile-long stalks so
that you can see both sides of the planet at once, then the answer is "no".
2: If you are at 100,000 feet, seeing hi-res imagery for the So-Cal region
because you are Mike Melville in Space-Ship-One, do you need hi-res imagery for
Florida as well, which is out of sight? Or Colorado, which is so low on the
horizon that you only see a hazy blur in the fog, not any clear detail? Of
course not.
3: Do you have to run at "Extreme Res" on a low-end machine? Of course not.
SO, X-Plane 8.00 is smart: it only draws the 9 REGIONS CLOSEST TO YOU IN HI-RES
MODE... at 3.14 meg per region, that is 27 meg of VRAM dedicated to orbital
rendering... just a bout right for 128 or 256-meg video card if you are
somewhat serious about allocating RAM to Orbital rendering... and we still get
Sergio's awesome textures. NICE!
Tech Notes:
New landing gear texturing... see the landing gear section in Plane-Maker, and
the "Paint Reference.bmp" in the instructions folder for an example: We now
paint the wheel in the lower-left of the texture by default, and wrap the tread
around.
EGT, CHT, OIL T should always be degrees F, as entered in Plane-Maker engine
screen ITT should always be degrees C, as entered in Plane-Maker engine screen
If you want different units, then simply do a custom gauge with appropriate
labels, or enter the appropriate offsets in the LIMITS screen in Plane-Maker.
this specification of the temp units is needed to get all cooling effects from
air-cooling correct. (Including ambient temperature and air-cooling)
New organization for custom object textures: See the San Bernardino example:
the custom textures are now stored in the same folder as the objects... simpler
that way! the old format is still supported though for reverse-compatibility.
NOTE FOR CUSTOM 3-D COCKPIT BUILDERS:
NOTE: JUST ADD AN "_INN" TO THE END OF THE COCKPIT FILENAME
IF YOU WANT THE COCKPIT TO ONLY BE VISIBLE FROM THE VIEWS THAT ARE INSIDE THE
AIRPLANE.
NOTE: JUST ADD AN "_OUT" TO THE END OF THE COCKPIT FILENAME
IF YOU WANT THE COCKPIT TO ONLY BE VISIBLE FROM THE VIEWS THAT ARE OUTSIDE THE
AIRPLANE.
This way, you can have 3-D cockpits that are only visible from inside the
plane, or only visible from outside the plane, or a different cockpit for each
of those two possibilities.
Why do this? Because in the INSIDE cockpit model you might not want your little
man flying the plane since his little arms and legs might get in the way of the
controls... not a problem when looking from the OUTSIDE.
I have changed a number of filenames for clarity and consistency:
Add "_LIT" to the filename for the lit objects textures, not "LIT" like we used
to. The old convention is still supported, but move to the new,
consistent-with-aircraft convention for long-term support.
New custom-cockpit instrument lite names:
"but_nav_light"
"but_strobe_light"
Note the "_" in the filename... chosen for better consistency.
As well, I had to change the name of some of the art horizons... if you have a
custom cockpit with a custom art horiz you will need to change the name of the
file a bit... see the cockpit folder for the proper naming convention... this
is needed to specify whether the horizon is vacuum or electric powered.
SEE THE EXAMPLE PLANE THAT COMES WITH X-PLANE 8 FOR AN EXAMPLE OF THIS.
Reverse-Compatibility:
We will support:
Airplanes back through version 7.00.
Scenery back through version 6.51.
Object-files back through version 7.00.
Airfoils back through version 3.63. (not a typo)
