FlightGear Newsletter February 2010

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The February 2010 edition of the FlightGear Newsletter.

Big news this month is that preparations are under way for the next FlightGear release, popularly called Version 2.0.0. Plans indicate that it will be released around this month, or maybe next month. Only when it is ready.

What's new in CVS

Finally: Bug Tracking

As of February 2010, fellow FlightGear developers and users are encouraged [1] [2] to file bug reports using http://code.google.com/p/flightgear-bugs/issues/list

Please note that this tracker is at the moment purely meant to be used for bug tracking purposes [3], i.e. bugs directly related to FlightGear and not for feature requests (there are plans being discussed to eventually set up a separate tracker for these [4]).

At the moment, this tracker is being used for both, FlightGear core, as well as the base package (aircraft, scenery etc) - this may however change at a later time once the tracker is being used more widely to help developers differentiate between core coding related issues and those that are related to base package contributions such as individual aircraft [5].

In the hangar

Scenery Corner

New Wiki Articles

Creating Textures for 3D Clouds

As of February 2010, the FlightGear wiki now provides a fairly comprehensive introduction about creating custom and new 3D cloud textures for use in FlightGear, this will enable community members to start modifying and improving existing FlightGear cloud textures, or even create textures for completely new cloud types so that the visual FlightGear experience may become more appealing soon. Please see Howto: Modelling Clouds for details.


Community News

TransGear Airways holds its largest gathering yet

TransGear Airways is a cross between a virtual airline and a monthly multiplayer event organized by Rob Shearman (aka "MD-Terp"). It was founded last summer as a means to bring together pilots who are interested in flying passenger transports in a simulated environment containing a moderately busy controlled airspace. It began by utilizing typed multiplayer chat messages to issue Air Traffic Control directives, but thanks to further development of FGCom, the event has moved exclusively to voice-to-voice communication.

Starting with modest origins, the monthly events have steadily grown in popularity. This past month's event featured a total of eighteen participants (fourteen pilots and four Air Traffic Controllers) with operations spanning the entire continental United States. Currently two hubs each serving nine cities are in operation; a third hub based in Europe is currently in the planning stages.

No membership is required to participate, and beginners are always welcome. The events have been praised as a great learning ground for people interested in flying jet transports, and particularly for learning about the interaction between pilots and controllers. Some have even credited the increase in popularity in the events as a significant driving force behind FGCom's revival in the FlightGear community.

TransGear's events are held on the second Saturday of each month. For more information, visit its website.

Virtual Airline News

After the failure and underpopulations of former virtual airlines, the majority of major FlightGear Forum members teamed up to start discussing terms of a new, merged superairline. The superairline is still under structure at the time of writing.

Addons

Useful links

And finally....