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9/27/2007 Look Ma' ... Winglets!
Fresh from the announcement at NBAA, the Citation X prototype retrofitted with elliptical winglets from Winglet Technology LLC made its maiden flight on Tuesday, September 25th. For more information, check out this press release. (Image courtesy Cessna). Blind Date - a short story by Bill Womack
Bill Womack is a Jack of many trades. In addition to authoring some spectacular scenery designs, Bill is an accomplished writer. Did you know that he is currently authoring a novel? Bill has been writing reviews for SimFlight for some time now. Recently he decided to "color outside the lines" a bit when he started writing his reviews in a short story format beginning with Joy Ride, a story centered around the Shockwave Productions B-17. Blind Date is his latest short story review of the Eaglesoft FSX Columbia 400. Screenshot artist Nick Churchill's imagery brings the action of the story to life with his carefully chosen screen captures of the eventful flight. Check it out and let me know what you think of Bill's new spin on review writing. Twin Comanche on pace for beta We're getting very close to beta on this project. Years of hard work are finally going to be realized when this bird sees the light of day...hopefully within a month! I am really liking how this panel is looking at night. Click on the picture to see the full panel in all of its glory. Roy came by the other day to check out what we had of his virtual plane, and he said that the panel looks perfect, day or night. Now if we can just get rid of some lingering bugs, we'll be in ship-shape.9/26/2007 New ACES blogger! There is a new ACES team member in the blogosphere, and he's gotten off to a great start! Please welcome Mike Porter a.k.a. Portergraphics to the scene. Mike is a former FASA Interactive team member (you know, the guys responsible for games such as MechCommander and ShadowRun) and joined ACES two months ago as a Lead Vehicle Artist. Mike has 13 years of game development under his belt and brings much to the table. In fact, he is using his blog as a "tip of the day" resource for anyone interested in game development. You will quickly find out that he is big on "non-destructive" development of game assets (models, textures, etc.) and I expect more tutorials from him to center on that topic. His post today on "non-destructive Photoshop techniques" is excellent! 9/24/2007 Emma Field X Emma Field will live again in FSX! My good friend and scenery designer extraordinaire Bill Womack is teaming up with another accomplished scenery designer Holger Sandmann for its return. Be sure to keep an eye on Bill's blog for development updates as they reconstruct ole Emma from the ground up.Big news out of Cessna It seems that Cessna has been making a lot of news lately. I hear through the grapevine that Cessna will have an announcement regarding the Citation X this week at NBAA. They have already made news with the introduction of a G1000-equipped Caravan. And I just learned that Cessna has signed a letter of intent to purchase now bankrupt Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing. The acquisition of CAM by Cessna is not set in stone, though. Bidding procedures are being drawn up to allow other interested parties to submit offers in an auction to be held sometime in November. I find it quite interesting that the very manufacturer's aircraft that graces the cover of the October AOPA Pilot magazine has declared bankruptcy. Hopefully Cessna will help Columbia rise from the ashes and become competitive once again!2007 SimFlight Awards underway The 2007 SimFlight Award nominees have been announced and voting has begun. I was happy to see that the Eaglesoft Cessna Citation CJ1 for FSX was in the General Aviation category, though we are up against some really great packages. I like the "open" voting by FS enthusiasts - the way these awards should really be done. There is no better voice than the consumer! Be sure to get your vote in by September 30th. May the best enhancements win! 9/19/2007 Twin Comanche update
I revised and added something new to the Twin Comanche VC screenshots in my photo album today. Pictured are a 95% complete panel (all that remains is an SL 30 radio being built), a close-up of some of the avionics, and a capture taken at night! These are all still very much work-in-progress, but were worth sharing here. Night lighting is still being sorted from a switch standpoint. I've got faith in my colleague Bill Leaming to help figure it all out. Oh, and Bobby should be sending revised exterior master bitmaps soon - I cannot wait to see what he has done first hand! 9/18/2007 Colin McRae 1968-2007 RIP I was deeply saddened by the news I stumbled upon this evening about the tragic helicopter accident that claimed the life of Colin McRae and 3 others on-board, including his 5-yr-old son. I have been a fan of the Codemasters' series of rally games named after Colin since the very first version that I had to buy as an import from the UK in 1998. I have owned every version since as I have always enjoyed the virtual rally experience of driving. I was surprised that Codemasters dropped Colin's name from the product with the latest version of their rally software called DiRT. Did they know something we didn't?My condolences to the McRae family in this time of shock. Colin was instrumental in introducing the world to the WRC and bringing the Subaru Impreza into the spotlight as a competitive platform for the WRC, which it remains to this day. Rest in peace Colin. 9/17/2007 4th Edition of Performance Art published
Adrian then touches on how using too many bones or skinned animations can be a huge performance hit if not careful. I have to admit that I have yet to explore using bones extensively. I hope to one day have a go at using them in a project as I can appreciate the benefits and ultra-cool results they produce. Since I mostly deal with smaller aircraft, wing flex just does not make sense to use. Pilot animation, on the other hand, can utilize this technique. I just need to sit down and learn it. But then again, the time factor always comes up! Why the use of a "Neon Brown" logo? Well, in addition to being a very talented 3-D developer at ACES, Adrian is an accomplished musician. He and his brother Andrew play several times a month in the Seattle area, and even have a few CDs produced. Check out their MySpace page to hear a few of their songs. 9/14/2007 BruceAir, LLC joins the spaces blogosphere Please welcome Bruce Williams' BruceAir, LLC to the Live Spaces blogosphere! Make sure to check out the videos that he has uploaded to his Skydrive account. Bruce has published a great book entitled Microsoft Flight Simulator as a Training Aid: A Guide for Pilots, Instructors, and Virtual Aviators that I highly recommend reading if you are interested in expanding your virtual aviation experiences into the real world. Hopefully Bruce will use his blog as a vehicle for more tips, techniques, and sample flights.9/12/2007 FSX Acceleration launch event starts today!
Paul briefly mentions how they're having two different displays set-up; one like the booth at Oshkosh with 8 kiosks, and special for this show, they have a multi-player environment in the pits. Brandon is hoping to have some real Reno racers give Acceleration a go for the ultimate litmus test. How much you want to bet some crash and burn on their first go? Yeah, FS isn't as easy as it looks especially now there is added "realism" going on in Acceleration. 9/10/2007 Twin Comanche progess on my end...
I uploaded a few images of the Twin Comanche's virtual cockpit to my photo gallery the other day (in case you didn't notice). I did this for two reasons: 1) I wanted to try out the new "enhanced for photo printing" capabilities, which allows much larger photos to be uploaded and 2) I thought that it would be nice to show the VC with almost everything accurately depicted. (Warning! Technical development talk follows...) The Twin Comanche project has been going on for several years now, and I'm excited that it is finally becoming a reality. I appreciate Roy's patience through the project as he has poked and prodded me about its progress ... well, Roy, the day is very near! 9/7/2007 Brand-New Saitek Pro Flight Yoke System
All of this for $149 USD. This sure puts some perspective on the CH Products' USB Yoke which also retails for $149 USD. I own the CH Products USB Yoke, but I have never liked the plastic components and the tension spring never really has ever "felt" right. I guess that is why it remains under my desk collecting dust. The new Saitek yoke on the other hand is very appealing, especially since it uses a stainless steel shaft and ball bearings for movement. 9/6/2007 Twin Comanche update over at Bob's blogWhile I have been busy working on a project that I cannot disclose (at this time), Bobby has posted a quick update on the work that has been going on behind the scenes regarding Roy's Twin Comanche. Bobby has been combing over my original textures and tweaking them here and there to give them a final polish. Gauge work is continuing as well from the looks of the panel screen capture. Keep up the great work guys! 9/1/2007 Sim Pilot reviews the Columbia 400! Just released today, Sim Pilot has reviewed the FSX Columbia 400 in their 2nd issue. This review was done in conjunction with Sky Blue Radio, and was handled by their news guy Larry. He liked the aircraft so much, it was awarded with a gold medal! Thanks guys! Make sure to give it a read and if you are not a member, join Sim Pilot so you'll receive their free newsletter. They are always adding new content via their blog feature and the newsletter keeps you in tune with other interesting things they are cooking up with the flight simmer in mind. |
I love my Saitek |
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