Hi there,
I'm sure you've all seen the news recently of Microsoft closing the ACES
Studio and throwing doubt on the future of the Flight Simulator franchise.
I'm a member of VATSIM's Board of Governors; my official position is VP of
Web Services but I work pretty closely with our VP of Development, Ross
Carlson, who I chatted with before sending this message.
The news about ACES has drummed up renewed interest in VATSIM for
alternative pilot client solutions; as you're probably aware we have a quite
successful implementation with X-Plane. There are some limitations due to
our network protocol (FSD)'s lackings (of which a newer version has been
under development for awhile now) but on the whole it really functions quite
well.
I know there have been many concerns raised in the past in the FG community
about working with a closed-source, NDA-requiring entity. I'd like to throw
a little fuel on the fire, if I may, and also put forth a couple ideas I had
of how we can work together.
First, you should know that neither Ross or I nor most of VATSIM view our
current closed-source/NDA arrangement as ideal, and we are working our way
(albeit quite slowly) to a future version that will be fully open.
Second, you should know that while VATSIM does at the moment require
developer NDA to gain access to the FSD specifications, I did have a couple
thoughts on how FG & VATSIM could potentially coexist.
One model that has been proposed before is the proxy server model; that
would certainly be a possibility.
Another model that occurred to me is by creating a stand-alone application
that is closed-source and serves as the FlightGear/VATSIM client. By
remaining closed-source it would fulfill VATSIM's requirements. How, then,
would it communicate with FG? This you guys will know better than I as I'm
not familiar with all the interprocess communication options you have
available, but one thought is that you could open a TCP/IP socket and pass
messages back and forth with the standalone client.
Certainly I understand that you as developers of FG will work on features
that you find interesting first (VATSIM, as an all-volunteer organization,
is much the same way), and for some the mere concept of signing a NDA and/or
working on a closed-source project is unacceptable. That's fine; we have no
problems with that viewpoint and I don't need reminding of why you feel that
way. I am an active open-source developer myself on several projects and
completely understand the reasonings of those who might feel this way.
However, if there are developers within the FG community who would be
interested in working on a project like this, we at VATSIM would be quite
keen to participate and I think that you would see a greatly increased
visibility for your project as we would be able to heavily promote
FlightGear within VATSIM. Participating in VATSIM is always completely free
of charge, and indeed it is possible to act as a controller without anything
except a computer and internet connection, but as a pilot you must purchase
a commercial flightsim. If a client was created for FlightGear, we (and you)
could and would promote it as the completely no-cost way to enjoy online
flying with real people providing air traffic control via real world
procedures.
I'd be happy to answer any questions or concerns you might have, on- or
off-list, as best as I can.
Tim Krajcar
t.kraj...@vatsim.net
VATSIM VP Web Services
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