2020 LTS Keflavik news post draft

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Revision as of 14:17, 29 October 2020 by Vs (talk | contribs) (cleanup)
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This is the draft for a (potential!) news post announcing Keflavik as the default airport with screenshots. Similar to the 2018.3 LTS Honolulu announcement post. A more detailed overview of features with associated screenshots could be done as a later post.

Since Thorsten is busy this one can be crowdsourced a bit :).

The points are the most important things, someone can go through and reword the language later. Just click edit and type using plain text. Wikimarkup knowledge isn't needed :).

Screenshots: feel free to upload to the wiki, or just add the imgur link for now.

  • This is a collection of existing /vaguely/ high settings screenshots made since 2017 already available on the wiki.
  • There may be some suitable screenshots added recent SOTM

Update 1: The part focusing on the LTS, default airport, and Iceland improvements has been split off into a tour post here.

A preview of new features in the 2020.3 LTS "Keflavik"

Volcanic plume and Alouette III screenshot by Thorsten

Current release philosophy

As of 2018.3 LTS, Flightgear has transitioned two release types:

  1. Long Term Stable (LTS) releases suitable for most users with a new featured airport
  2. Development preview releases

There will be point releases containing bugfixes and minor updates for both release types. For example, 2018.3.6 was the 6th bugfix point release for the 2018.3 LTS - it was released in August 2020.

LTS releases will have bugfixes ported and the build maintained for longer. Development preview builds will be less stable, receive less testing, and are a bit more of a construction site where large structural changes are made to lay the foundations for the future. Some aircraft may not work on development releases. Power users can run multiple installs of Flightgear in parallel.

There are minor improvements planned to the launcher UI in 2020.3 point releases. There are a lot of big changes already underway and planned after 2020.3 LTS, so if you are curious keep an eye on future development previews leading to the next LTS.


Intro?

Possible things to mention:

  • mention lots updates over the last 2 years?
  • the new release format? Done
  • mention the person who normally does the updates got busy and a lot of progress missed receiving updates?
  • project status with areas of ongoing core work? Maybe more appropriate in another post later

Welcome to Keflavik and Iceland

FG's 2020 LTS will move to the world's newest country, geologically speaking, Iceland. Keflavík International Airport (BIKF) is the featured airport for the LTS. Buildings, roads, and objects such as pylons are available as a separate download [and will/may be added to Terrasync later?].

A land of fire, smoke, and ice Flightgear models several volcanoes with multiple levels of activity: Eyjafjallajökull which disrupted aviation in 2010, Surtsey, and the brooding, powerful, Katla. There are new regional definitions for Iceland - try turning overlays on to see very high resolution ground detail.

There is a lot to discover. You can try the C172p, J3Cub (with G1000), or Twin Otter which include float variants to explore the fjords of the north west, ski variants to land on one of the many ice caps in the south west, or bush tire variants in your adventures.

Possible screenshots (also needed for the article focusing on LTS, default airport announcement, Iceland improvements):
[Screenshot of shuttle landing here, preferably with current keep]
[Kelfavik art installation screenshot, Iceland OSM2City pictures]
[Screenshot of Surtsey, screenshot of Aurora in Iceland]
[Screenshot of a volcano with no eruption?]
[Screenshots: this one of Iceland terrain, maybe screenshot of overlays with transparency AA turned up high like this ]
[Screenshots of varying environment sliders in Iceland]
[at least one screenshot of weather in Iceland: red ice crystal halo at sunset like
this]


To do:

- Mention a few major improvements and the space shuttle from the changelog (backed by high settings screenshots).

- Mention at the end that a more detailed article about features mentioned in the changelog is planned?