X-Plane on FSDeveloper?

[arno]

There has been some discussion recently about creating a place to discuss X-Plane related topics on FSDeveloper as well. Before we decide to add a sub-forum for this, we would like to know how many people would be interested in this. So please vote in the poll or share your ideas on this.

PS. No discussion on X-Plane vs FSX vs Flight vs FlightGear vs whatever sim in this thread please.

 

[FlyingMasterChef]

You know..it may be a total flop...it may not be... As you stated yourself Arno, you created this as FLIGHT SIM Developer site.. Not MSFSD... As long as the debates (and there will be some) as to who is better is kept in a totally separate section, and it kept light-hearted and fun.. I mean, a "our scenery looks better than your scenery" or "our planes fly better than your planes" is going to pop up... They can be made fun and humorous. No attacking any person or their work...

I think most of us here are over the age of 11 and can behave like adults.. Well, most of the time..

However, to be a success, those that do some work on XP currently will really need to put out the word out..otherwise, as has been stated, you will have a nice place for them to be...and they simply won't be there..

Just my thoughts...

- Greg

 

[ALain152]

As far as discussions remain on technical subjects...

 

[FlyingMasterChef]

No offense at all towards anyone that voted NO...but just out of curiosity...are you all aware that FSD is for ALL flight sim developers for all flight sims? Just curious is you were actually aware that Arno created it for ALL...not just MSFS..

Anyway, just wondered....

- Greg

 

[jdhaenens]

Put me down for a maybe, but I really don't plan to do anything until alpha transparency is supported for scenery objects....some of my best work is with glass and semi-transparent materials.

Jim

 

[lionheart]

I very much wish to convert my planes to X-Plane format, so for me, this would be great.

 

[arno]

Hi Greg,

No offense at all towards anyone that voted NO...but just out of curiosity...are you all aware that FSD is for ALL flight sim developers for all flight sims? Just curious is you were actually aware that Arno created it for ALL...not just MSFS..

We never said FSDeveloper is for MSFS only, but on the other hand it was started by MSFS scenery designers. So you can say that most of our users will come from that background. So not targeted at MSFS only, but it is the de-facto standard here.

But I am sure there are more similarities between the different platforms than we are aware of. So why not learn from and inspire each other?

And sorry for this slightly off-topic reply. Let's keep this thread on topic .

 

[mmann]

If you do put up a X-Plane section I hope you have better luck than the other flight sim sites that have one. I looked at four sites that support X-Plane as well as MSFS and X-Plane users are either very few in numbers or very uninterested in posting. Even CFS and Flight get more activity than X-Plane.

Regards, Mike Mann

 

[hcornea]

Unfortunately ... many of the sites that feature both degenerate into "my sim is better than yours". Completely unproductive.

It would no doubt be helpful to people wanting to develop for both platforms.

The current X-plane forum does have a scenery development section, but having little interest in it, my only foray has been when people are converting FS scenery to XPlane.

FWIW ... I selected "I don't care", but maybe "Vaguely curious" might have been closer the mark.

On the face of it, what strikes me is that there is little similarity between the tools and techniques (short of wholesale conversion)

 

[rhumbaflappy]

This would be a good time for an X-Plane developer to speak up, and volunteer to help the noobies learn scenery or aircraft development.

( sound of crickets )

Hello?

( more crickets )

My point is of about 150,000 posts, less than 80 concern X-Plane here. And those that concern developers are mostly about conversion to and from X-Plane and FSX of already created content. As hcornea stated above, mostly the posts will be concerned with converting scenery and aircraft from FSX or FS9 to X-Plane... many times NOT by the original creator.

Some well-known forums condone this type of plagiarism. If we include X-Plane scenery and aircraft sub-forums, I hope we restrict their discussions to original content creation. And for that, we need some X-Plane developers to step up and show some interest. Otherwise we'll be dealing with posts that want help converting AlphaSim planes or Ultimate Terrain scenery to work in X-Plane.

Just my narrow opinion.

Dick

 

[robystar]

Hi,

Just voted 'no' but I have second thoughts already because I have not the faintest whether we can either learn something extra or else get more confused still .

 

[FlyingMasterChef]

Not sure at all why you, Arno, thought that was an off topic reply.. I referenced something you mentioned in another thread about why this site was created.. And since we are talking about a new section, it was completely on-topic.

As I read some of the replies... I find myself hoping that a group of Designers...people who create from nothing... people who take an idea...something new..and make it into something amazing.....are not closing down their minds to new ideas, new ways, new things....

Before you reply...just think about that for a second... I wasn't going to post this...because I can already see the replies in my head from some of you... And FTR, I will probably NEVER design anything for XP...and like I stated before...I don't even like the XP section in my flight mags... But, maybe that is because I don't use the program, so I don't care... But here, honestly, I would love to read what designers (if there are any) are working on, see their projects, and possibly learn something new....

Just my .04 cents...

- Greg

 

[empeck]

My point is of about 150,000 posts, less than 80 concern X-Plane here. And those that concern developers are mostly about conversion to and from X-Plane and FSX of already created content. As hcornea stated above, mostly the posts will be concerned with converting scenery and aircraft from FSX or FS9 to X-Plane... many times NOT by the original creator.

Some well-known forums condone this type of plagiarism. If we include X-Plane scenery and aircraft sub-forums, I hope we restrict their discussions to original content creation. And for that, we need some X-Plane developers to step up and show some interest. Otherwise we'll be dealing with posts that want help converting AlphaSim planes or Ultimate Terrain scenery to work in X-Plane.

Just my narrow opinion.

Dick

I agree. If we'll support XPlane here we need a strict rules. New content, or conversion by original developer only.

I voted for 'Maybe, it could be interesting to read, but I won't participate'. I like to read how things were done, beside FSX I've been working on several game engines, and it's always good to learn something new.

XP10 is looking interesting, and I may buy it, but not as a developer, but as an user only.

 

[lionheart]

This would be a good time for an X-Plane developer to speak up, and volunteer to help the noobies learn scenery or aircraft development.

( sound of crickets )

Hello?

( more crickets )



Dick

Hey Dick, he spoke up earlier. Check back a few.



I am an XP enthusiast if that counts as well.

I have a business venture in this, being that I do this for a living, and I have XP people (sim drivers of XP9) emailing me, asking me to convert my MDL files to XP9 so they can fly in there, as they have issues flying in FS. I am a service. I provide product lines to people. My specialty is aircraft models in a virtual sim, but it FS9 or FSX. I get razzed because I still work in FS9 (which I think is more refined and easier to work in then FSX, but others will bite into flesh on me with that statement, but mainly scenery people, and hey, thats their freedom to say what they want.

I want to learn how to convert my models to XP9. People are asking me for this. I need to learn how its done. What better place then 'us' who work in Max/gMax and can 'see' how from 'here' what must be done to actually and successfully convert a model to XP9 format and have it work 'perfect' in their sim.



Bill

 

[lionheart]

Mind you, I can see bigger groups, far bigger then me, doing this, following this path, as the market is now demanding it, in greater numbers. Carenado is, and doing great. I can see A2A doing this, as well as other big groups. I just wish I could come in fast behind Carenado in providing models for these people.

 

[lionheart]

I would like to also say... Just 2 months ago, it was impossible to export from Gmax an FS9 model that had over 65,000 polys and have them 'immaculate' in shape/form with no deformation from auto-weld, which was originally intended for ouside models only, but was put in interior VC models instead in the compilers.


We can now export Gmax models fine in this way, with almost unlimited mesh amounts.



It would be nice to now find a way to export these models into XP9 and then XP-10.



XP-10 models will have bump mapping, by the way.

 

[decapod]

XP-10 models will have bump mapping, by the way.

Recent versions of XP9 have this too

 

[arno]

I thought so already, I found it in the OBJ specification.

 

[darren s]

Though I think it is a good idea for the X-Plane community, but looking at the other side of things, when word gets around that one of thee or THEE biggest FS Developer sites now has a section for X-Plane...I think that this will draw (obviously) alot of people from the X-Plane community and somewhere along the line I think there will be constant comparisons and argument of which community and/or simulation is better...which then leads to hate, criticism, verbal abuse, trolling...which then can lead to other things such as which country is better, which country has the best aircraft/army/navy/air force.

Personally myself, I voted Yes to have the X-plane sub-forum into here for the sakes of the maturer people of the X-Plane community wanting to share there ideas and thoughts and ask questions and/or seek help for their development projects but I do think it is not a very good idea.

 

[Geoff_D]

Though I think it is a good idea for the X-Plane community, but looking at the other side of things, when word gets around that one of thee or THEE biggest FS Developer sites now has a section for X-Plane...I think that this will draw (obviously) alot of people from the X-Plane community and somewhere along the line I think there will be constant comparisons and argument of which community and/or simulation is better...which then leads to hate, criticism, verbal abuse, trolling...which then can lead to other things such as which country is better, which country has the best aircraft/army/navy/air force.

Personally myself, I voted Yes to have the X-plane sub-forum into here for the sakes of the maturer people of the X-Plane community wanting to share there ideas and thoughts and ask questions and/or seek help for their development projects but I do think it is not a very good idea.

+1

A would welcome an X-Plane forum, along the lines of FS-Developer, but I would prefer to see it as a completly seperate forum , ie XPLANE-Developer.

Mixing the two forums/products into one would get very confusing, and would invite a lot of unnecessary Comparisons, and One-up type posts.

IN an idea world, two seperate forums, and the feedom to post on either, WITHIN Topic.

Geoff