Lawrence Manning <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > > First post to this list... been playing with fg for a few weeks now and I > have to say I'm very impressed. It runs super on my 2ghz AMD linux box > with Geforce 4 gfx and the Nvidia drivers.
Thanks for the good words! > First of all, are there any plans to implement shadows? A shadow of the > aircraft over the ground would obviously make judging the height visually > much easier, and add to the realism. Of course, the ultimate is to make > it so mountains and the scenery itself can cast shadows, even into the > cockpit of the 'plane! But a good start would be aircraft shadows. I > haven't a clue how feasable this is, and the question has probably been > asked many times before, but here's me asking anyway. This has been discussed, but not developed yet. It probably wouldn't be difficult to do an aircraft shadow. > The second question is to ask if anyone can recommend a good joystick for > flightgear use? The only thing it will be used for is fg. Not after > anything too flashy; just needs the additional rudder and throttle > controls. A friend recommened one of the Microsoft sticks, so I'm > inclined to go for that (say all you like about MS, but they make good > hardware! I love my MS optical mouse). I haven't bought a joystick since > they used 9 pin D-type connectors and did 4 digital directions and a > firebutton, so any guidance anyone can give would be great. > The more expensive Microsoft sidewinders (Precision 2) are quite good. One caveate: for some people (including myself) there have been some problems with static electricity buildup with the Precision 2 USB. Microsoft has been aware of the issue, but perhaps it hasn't been frequent enough to require a redesign. Last I checked (4 months ago) the problem was still there. The symptom is that the stick will no longer be recognized. The cure from MS tech support is a somewhat abusive sounding process that involved repeatedly plugging and unplugging the stick into your computer's USB ports. Eventually the stick becomes damaged and won't recover using that procedure. If you want to risk it, you might fall into the majority of people that don't experience the problem. It seems to have something to do with the computer you plug it into (I tried three of the same model stick), but Microsoft doesn't offer any guidelines as which motherboards/USB ports have the problem. Currently I'm using a Saitek X45 and find it to be very nice. I also think Saitek's Cyborg's are supposed to be pretty good and a little less expensive. If you have a game port you might even want to pickup a Microsoft Precision Pro. It's older technology but they are very good quality and seem to last forever. "New" ones have been selling on ebay for $5-10. As far as MS hardware being good, I'm not sure about that one way or the other, at least in a general sense. Their more recent keyboards, for example, are lighter and don't seem to hold up as well as the older ones. Just the same, there is no doubt that they have made some good quality products. Best, Jim _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
