On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 10:50 AM, R. van Steenbergen wrote:
> I can say for one thing: The cockpits are pretty much a no-go. Most
> aircraft in FS9/FSX have gauges which consist of (platform and
> API-specific) code which make up the gauge graphics. Converting XML
> gauges from the Microsoft format may be entirely possible, but you can
> forget about using .GAU files (these are basically DLL's). In addition,
> most decent (payware) aircraft have modules which integrate with FS200x
> on a game engine level, to simulate anything from aircraft systems to
> world interaction.
>
> With the cancellation of the Flight Simulator franchise, however,
> developers may actually switch over to FlightGear for developing payware
> aircraft. This is where MSFS got big, the default stuff in MSFS isn't
> really that impressive but the number of add-ons you can get for the
> series is tremendous. But then again, GPL may be a threshold for
> proprietary developers.
It is certainly true that any MSFS developer coming to look at FlightGear
for the first time will have to learn and find a way to fit into an entirely
new culture.
I like analogies, so imagine someone switching from doing their email in
outlook to doing their email in google (online.) There are major paradigm
differences, and the person is going to start out a little bewildered, not
be able to find how to do things in ways they expect, and be faced with a
number of new features that don't make sense or don't seem to have any real
use. But then as you push forward and figure things out more and more, you
discover new ways to do things, you begin to forget about some of the old
features you used to think were critical, and start critically depending on
some of the new features you used to not understand or not care about.
Some people will handle the transtiion better than others.
I think there should be some weight on the incoming MSFS developers to
investigate flightgear strutures and mechanism and do some of the work to
develop tools to migrate their work into our way of doing things. It can't
be a one-way street where FlightGear has to do all the work up front. It
should be a partnership where we help build the bridge from our side, and
they help build the bridge from their side, and we meet in the middle. And
then once the bridge is connected, both sides get to enjoy the benefits of
the other side.
Regards,
Curt.
--
Curtis Olson: http://baron.flightgear.org/~curt/
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