Comments on: Scripting: A Line In the Sand https:/2009/02/scripting-a-line-in-the-sand/ Developer resources for the X-Plane flight simulator Tue, 01 Feb 2011 19:01:20 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 By: Anonymous https:/2009/02/scripting-a-line-in-the-sand/#comment-805 Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:41:00 +0000 http://www.x-plane.com/dev_blog/?p=240#comment-805 Seems to be the right direction to go. Glad I read this. If it means we can script landing lights attached to gears to have a cutoff / cut-on when retracted / deployed (provided the switch is on) – or things like that – it’d be a nice improvement that most builders could use.

vonhinx

]]> By: RodgerW https:/2009/02/scripting-a-line-in-the-sand/#comment-806 Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:01:00 +0000 http://www.x-plane.com/dev_blog/?p=240#comment-806 Hi,
I love Ben’s idea. Why? Because I have some interesting aeronautical knowledge, but cant transfer it into X-Plane, just because I am not a computer programmer.
If we had such a “pilote plugin” and with it, a little program with a nice user interface, allowing to write very simply the required scripts, it would be, I guess, a great revolution and would open new doors too for cockpit builder (like I am) returning from MSFS to X-Plane.

]]> By: Benjamin Supnik https:/2009/02/scripting-a-line-in-the-sand/#comment-807 Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.x-plane.com/dev_blog/?p=240#comment-807 Nils – Sandy’s python plugin is great…but…I think it is MORE complex than what I am envisioning. Python is a real computer language, and is thus both more powerful and more complex than what I have in mind. (It also has certain versioning complexities that make distribution more tricky.)

I imagine a scripting system that is significantly LESS powerful and therefore does NOT require installing a run-time, etc.

Re: support, this is my support policy for authoring now (and it’s going to come off as pretty harsh, because it is and it has to be):

Once I know that a part of the sim is debugged, if a user has a “problem” with making third party content, I basically say “I can’t debug your model.” So for example, if a user can’t get his or her key frames right on an animated OBJ, I’m just not going to step in..the tools are there, tons of other people are making them work, and the code hasn’t changed.

I think a scripting system would have to be of similar nature…all you can do is make it simple, make examples, test it so you know it’s not bugs, and then if people can use it, they use it.

At some point the authoring systems cannot become so easy that we have functions like XPLMDoWhateverIWantForMe…creating cutting edge planes will always require some work…so a scripting system should make systems modeling possible and not cumbersome, but it doesn’t have to make it 3-year-old-can-do-it easy.

]]> By: Anonymous https:/2009/02/scripting-a-line-in-the-sand/#comment-808 Sun, 15 Feb 2009 03:48:00 +0000 http://www.x-plane.com/dev_blog/?p=240#comment-808 Re scripting, I think Sandy has pretty much already done this – I use the python interface a lot!

Users who find python too complex will probably have little luck with any scripting I think and I say this as someone with zero “proper” programming knowledge. Python and Sandy’s plugin allows you to do pretty much anything, starting with a simple template and just adding the logic of your custom systems.

The big issue with this scripting systems remains the user support. Every week there’s a bunch of new users who wouldn’t bother to RTFM and therefor forgot to install python, sandys plugin, the script or any combination of those.

A shortcut to a working scripting system could be to integrate Sandy’s plugin with the sim more and add some native checking for correct python versions etc on the user’s computer. That could hopefully get us past some of the newbie installation confusions and nobody needs to re-invent the wheel.

Oh btw, you mention sounds at the top of your post. Just want to say that if Laminar is serious about attracting FSX users and devs, that’s where the next major development has to come imho.

Thanks,
Nils

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