This week we’ve seen an increase in questions from new users, potential customers (both in the consumer and professional spaces) and third party developers. So before I start blogging about the guts of 930 and all of the new features and changes, here is some background.
I am the lead scenery developer for X-Plane; my main work area is the default scenery, the scenery tools and file formats, and the rendering engine. I also work on modeling issues because the same rendering code draws airplane models and scenery models. I don’t work on the flight model or physics – that and about a billion other things are all Austin – heck, I don’t even know what makes an airplane fly.*
My professional background is programming; I came very close to becoming an Air Traffic Controller – I went through a CTI program in California, but by the time the FAA called me for the next step of the process, over a year had gone by; I was deep in X-Plane already and the FAA was experiencing personnel turbulence. I think I really would have really enjoyed being an ATC, but my personality is definitely better suited for a small company like Laminar Research than for a big government agency.
This blog is primarily targeted at authors who create scenery and airplanes for X-Plane, and also for users who want to know more about the “guts” of the sim. It is not tech support; I will not answer tech support questions posted in the comments sectio — sorry. Please contact X-Plane tech support – they are there to help!
There are a few website resources for third parties that provide reference:
- The X-Plane scenery website – contains all the file format specs and LR’s tools and code.
- The X-Plane Wiki – contains information on authoring planes, scenery and modeling.
- The X-Plane Plugin System has its own wiki.
- Robin manages our airport data – see his web page for downloads and file format specs.
- The X-Plane user’s manual is available on the contact page, just in case the version you have from your DVDs is not as recent, or you are trying to use Plane-Maker in the demo.
There are also a number of mailing lists – the scenery and plugin pages list the appropriate mailing lists for those audiences. I definitely recommend the mailing lists for developers and authors – traffic isn’t too bad and there are a lot of knowledgeable users!
I can be reached by email via bsupnik at xsquawkbox dot net, but I must warn you: my in-box is on the verge of complete structural failure! I try to answer everybody, but if your message gets lost, you may need to try again.
* This is actually not true – when I was in ground school, our instructor told us the real force that keeps an airplane in the air: money!
> my in-box is on the verge
> of complete structural failure!
> I try to answer everybody, but
> if your message gets lost, you
> may need to try again.
that's actually a bad excuse 😛 maybe all the try-agains are the reason for your messed inbox 🙂
So how long should I wait before trying again Ben? I have a couple messages I posted to the scenery forum earlier this week and I haven’t heard a response yet. Maybe I should resend them? 😉
Seriously though, good luck with keeping up with the influx of questions, and while I’d like a reply sooner than later, you work your ass off trying to keep-up and I appreciate that, so I’ll try to be patient. 🙂
Who Am I?
I ask myself this question every morning…
Benjamin,
I would be great if X-Plane would generate some kind of default scenery for airports. Even just a tower would be great. It gets boring landing at airports with nothing but a runway.
I know I can find buildings for some airports that users have made, but these are sparse, and a hassle. I would love to see a company offer a comprehensive package of buildings laid out for airports.
It would even be great if Laminar Research offered this as a separate purchase! I would buy it for sure, and I think others would as well.
Another option would be to cooperate with x-plane.org on a standard way of storing and retrieving airport scenery from their site, then provide an in-simulator method of downloading them directly. Like airports from your flight plan, or any arbitrary airport for that matter.
While the first option is preferable, I think option 2 would be good also.
Any ideas or plans along these lines? Airport buildings are something definitely lacking in X-Plane.
RD
I second RD. Since (I think) every airport in X-Plane already has a “tower view” location, I think placing a standard control tower should not be too much difficult.
Similarly, there are other things “easy” (maybe?) to add but capable of improving a lot airport look and immersion, e.g. adding fences at airport boundaries, or using very hi-res textures for the airport grass: the area would be very limited (hence no big performance hit) but that is where one spends most time closest to the ground.
Man, with a headline like that, you had me worried. The last thing anyone needs now is for 33% of Laminar's full-time time to lose the plot. :>
Looking forward to the jaw-dropping 9.30…as promised by Austin…
‘Who Am I’ should be pinned somewhere on your blog. I mean, of course, who are ‘you,’ not me.
Glad you didn’t take the controller job. Doesn’t this give you more freedom and less stress? (Rhetorical question.)
vonhinx