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{{newsletter}}
{{newsletter}}


This is the draft of the next edition of the [[FlightGear]] Newsletter. Please feel free to edit and add your contribution.
Welcome to the January 2010 edition of the [[FlightGear]] Newsletter. The newsletter is going from strength to strength, with the October edition having over 11,000 views in just 3 months. It is very gratifying to see such interest, and really shows the increasing size of the FlightGear community.


==What's new in CVS==
====So where's the new Release?====
 
In the last edition, I expressed the hope that the new FlightGear release would be available by the time the newsletter was published. Well, that didn't quite happen due to a combination of factors. So, I'm writing this edition in the same hope! I know that there are lots of people running v1.9.1 looking forward to the new release, and I can promise that it will be worth the wait. To whet your appetite, Durk has produced some very nice screenshots [http://www.xs4all.nl/~dtalsma/fgfs2.0/ here].
 
Even though I personally run the CVS version of FlightGear, I'm particularly looking forward to the new release so I can point some of my friends at it. Just after the new year I had a couple of friends staying over. None of them are gamers, and certainly not flight-sim enthusiasts, just normal well-adjusted people. One of them used to fly when they were at university, and expressed an interest in seeing what FlightGear was about. So, I loaded up a Cessna at the local airport (Edinburgh - EGPH), and let them have a fly around. They were amazed at the level of detail and had a great time flying around recognizing landmarks. So, once v2.0 is released, I'll be sending them an email pointing them at the download.


==In the hangar==
==In the hangar==
===Liveries===
===Liveries===
For over a year, realistic (meaning: they have to exist, have existed, or will exist on the corresponding aircraft with the corresponding airline) FlightGear liveries have been available from [http://flightgear.oxyhost.com this website]. Due to the increasing amount of visitors and liveries, the website is moved to a new server, resulting in much faster downloads. The serverswitch was a good oppurtunity to re-design the website and its internal structure. It used to be a simple list, now it exists of a fully functional database, improving the use- and maintainablity significantly. The database can be searched by aircraft, airline or author.
For over a year, realistically (meaning: they exist, have existed, or will exist on the corresponding aircraft with the corresponding airline) FlightGear liveries have been available from [http://flightgear.oxyhost.com this website]. Due to the increasing amount of visitors and liveries, the website has moved to a new server, resulting in much faster downloads. The server switch was a good oppurtunity to re-design the website and its internal structure. It used to be a simple list, now it is as a fully functional database, improving the use and maintainablity significantly. The database can be searched by aircraft, airline or author.


Everyone is free to upload his/her liveries. What to do is explained at this page.
Everyone is free to upload his/her liveries, which can be done through [http://liveries.flightgear.org/contribute.php this page].


Visit the new livery database (link to come)
[http://liveries.flightgear.org Visit the new livery database]


===Aircraft===
===Aircraft===
Line 19: Line 23:
[[File:Airport2.png|thumb|270px|767-300 Exterior view with open cargo and front passenger doors, displaying its passenger stairways]]
[[File:Airport2.png|thumb|270px|767-300 Exterior view with open cargo and front passenger doors, displaying its passenger stairways]]
[[File:Arkefly.jpg|thumb|270px|767-300 Exterior view with gear up]]
[[File:Arkefly.jpg|thumb|270px|767-300 Exterior view with gear up]]
For a while the 767-300 has been a slow moving project, due to Isaías V. Preste temporarily leaving the forum and all FlightGear works. Liam has yet continued on from where Prestes left off, given a complete overhall to the old FDM, added plenty of new features and started animations. Thanks to the whole FlightGear community for providing some nice liveries, sounds, and other assistance to questions, With luck it should be submitted to CVS before the next release of FlightGear, with some new features not yet seen on many other Aircraft in FlightGear. This is a truly promising project!
For a while the 767-300 has been a slow moving project, due to Isaías V. Preste temporarily leaving the forum and all FlightGear works. Liam has yet continued on from where Prestes left off, given a complete overhall to the old FDM, added plenty of new features and started animations. Thanks to the whole FlightGear community for providing some nice liveries, sounds, and other assistance to questions. Since the initial writing of this article, it has now been submitted to CVS before the next release of FlightGear, with some new features not yet seen on many other Aircraft in FlightGear. This is a truly promising project, and deserves its place in the downloads page at long last!


====Boeing 737-100 updates====
====Boeing 737-100 updates====
Line 50: Line 54:
==Scenery Corner==
==Scenery Corner==
===Manila===
===Manila===
The Airport of Manila, Philippines (RPLL) has been improved. Beside the Terminals 1 and 2, Terminal 3 is now built. The Tower is redesigned to be closer to the original. Many shared models on the ground has been added and like always all buildings are [[Howto:_Illuminate_faces|illuminated]] at night and [[Howto:_Add_smooth_("Ambient_Occlusion")_shadows_in_Blender|ambient occlusion]] is added to all new textures..
The Airport of Manila, Philippines (RPLL) has been improved. Besides Terminals 1 and 2, Terminal 3 has now been added. The Tower has also been redesigned to more accurately reflect the original. Many shared models on the ground have been added and as always all buildings are [[Howto:|illuminated]] at night and [[Howto:_Add_smooth_("Ambient_Occlusion")_shadows_in_Blender|ambient occlusion]] has been added to all new textures.


===San Francisco International Airport===
===San Francisco International Airport===
[[File:KSFO.jpg|thumb|270px|Overview of the SFO airport.]]
{{Main article|San Francisco International Airport}}
{{Main article|San Francisco International Airport}}
With the upcoming release in mind, FlightGear's main airport has been populated with more buildings than ever before. Also, the terrain has been refined, especially the bay area. These changes will be available with the next scenery release. Dock your plane at one of the many gates, follow the airtrain as it moves from station to station, land your helicopter in the famous parkingarea hole or simply enjoy the visuals on final.
With the upcoming release in mind, FlightGear's main airport has been populated with more buildings than ever before. Dock your plane at one of the many gates, follow the airtrain as it moves from station to station, land your helicopter in the famous parkingarea hole or simply enjoy the visuals on final. In addition to this, the terrain has been refined, especially the bay area. These changes will be available with the next scenery release.


==Community News==
==Community News==
===FlightGear Wiki===
===FlightGear Wiki===
On 4 January 2010, the 900th article was added to the wiki! Back in May 2009, the 700th article was welcomed, which means an average of 1 article is created each day. A big "thank you" to all those who helped to extend and improve the wiki over the past years!
On 4 January 2010, the 900th article was added to the wiki! Back in May 2009, the 700th article was welcomed, which means an average of 1 article is created each day. A big "thank you" to all those who helped to extend and improve the wiki over the past years!
Line 63: Line 67:
* More wiki stats can be found [[Special:Statistics|here]]
* More wiki stats can be found [[Special:Statistics|here]]
* Read the article at [[Howto: Add details to your airport‎‎]].
* Read the article at [[Howto: Add details to your airport‎‎]].
===New multiplayer server===
Thanks to Dutch FlightGear user Rob, we now have 12 multiplayer servers! The new server is located in the Netherlands and can be connected through mpserver12.flightgear.org.
We would like to emphasize the importancy of picking "the correct server". Doing so will decrease the individual server load, resulting in faster servers, which is nice for everyone. Check [[Howto: Multiplayer|the howto]] to learn what the best server is for you.
* [[Howto: Multiplayer|See the complete list of servers]]


===Virtual Airline News===
===Virtual Airline News===
The [http://www.flightgear.org/forums/index.php Forums] have been the site of some quite heated [http://www.flightgear.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6784 debate] about the future of the FlightGear VAs, discussing the question of whether there are simply too many VAs given the FlightGear user population.
Not being an heavy metal sim-pilot (I spend far too long being self-loading freight IRL), your correspondent is not qualified to comment. Like the early days of air-transport, there are a large number of airlines in existance. Time will tell whether this is sustainable or not.
Those interested in MP flying with active ATC are as always encouraged to take part in one of the [http://transgear.treborlogic.com/ TransGear Airways] events. These are run monthly, and are a great way to fly with other people in a fairly realistic environment.


==Addons==
==Addons==
===FGComGui, an interface to FGCOM===
[[FGCOM]] is an external program which works hands in hands with FlightGear to provide radio communication, in particular for multiplayer users.
The feedback on various forums and [[IRC]] shows that a lot of people, who are not specially at ease with command line usage, find it difficult to setup and launch FGCom. This is where a new little piece of code comes to rescue.
Tuxklok created [http://code.google.com/p/fgcomgui FGComGui], a simple graphical user interace front end to fgcom, which aims on making FGCOM easy and friendly in use.
The FGComGui is currently developed and tested under Windows and Linux environments, but it seems a Mac version is to be expected.
[[File:fgcomgui.png|thumb|left|200px]]
Once installed, the FGComGui does just what you would expect. Using your mouse and a few clicks, you can drive FGCOM painless, from initial setup, testing, to normal usage. You can even set a few options with nice menus, notably the audio volumes and the port used to talk to fgcom.
FgcomGui docks as a tray icon (see the screenshot on the left), making it possible to monitor its status while flying, and easily stop it or restart it if needed.
So if you feel FGCOM is a bit difficult to use from command line, or you are just willing an easier FG pilot life, do not wait anymore and [http://code.google.com/p/fgcomgui try it]! Installation is described on the author's [http://code.google.com/p/fgcomgui/ Google Code page], but it can be worth mentionning that so far the linux build is only optimized for Ubuntu users. Other distribution users can take a look at [http://www.flightgear.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5746&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&sid=24ffbc024ff4c0379fb8b0515aaa4a00&start=135 this forum] for some hints about how to build in their environment.


==Useful links==
Hopefully this will be a step towards a more generalized use of radio communications in networked flight, which are a great improvement for simulation realism.


==And finally....==
==And finally....==
FlightGear 1.9.1 has been voted "best free game" of 2009 by [http://en.softonic.com/awards2009 Softonic]. While we might not agree with some of the comments in the review, it is another sign that FlightGear is becoming more and more visible.


[[Category:FlightGear Newsletter|2010 01]]
[[Category:FlightGear Newsletter|2010 01]]

Latest revision as of 12:47, 1 February 2010

Magagazine.png
Welcome to the FlightGear Newsletter!
Please help us write the next edition!
Enjoy reading the latest edition!


Welcome to the January 2010 edition of the FlightGear Newsletter. The newsletter is going from strength to strength, with the October edition having over 11,000 views in just 3 months. It is very gratifying to see such interest, and really shows the increasing size of the FlightGear community.

So where's the new Release?

In the last edition, I expressed the hope that the new FlightGear release would be available by the time the newsletter was published. Well, that didn't quite happen due to a combination of factors. So, I'm writing this edition in the same hope! I know that there are lots of people running v1.9.1 looking forward to the new release, and I can promise that it will be worth the wait. To whet your appetite, Durk has produced some very nice screenshots here.

Even though I personally run the CVS version of FlightGear, I'm particularly looking forward to the new release so I can point some of my friends at it. Just after the new year I had a couple of friends staying over. None of them are gamers, and certainly not flight-sim enthusiasts, just normal well-adjusted people. One of them used to fly when they were at university, and expressed an interest in seeing what FlightGear was about. So, I loaded up a Cessna at the local airport (Edinburgh - EGPH), and let them have a fly around. They were amazed at the level of detail and had a great time flying around recognizing landmarks. So, once v2.0 is released, I'll be sending them an email pointing them at the download.

In the hangar

Liveries

For over a year, realistically (meaning: they exist, have existed, or will exist on the corresponding aircraft with the corresponding airline) FlightGear liveries have been available from this website. Due to the increasing amount of visitors and liveries, the website has moved to a new server, resulting in much faster downloads. The server switch was a good oppurtunity to re-design the website and its internal structure. It used to be a simple list, now it is as a fully functional database, improving the use and maintainablity significantly. The database can be searched by aircraft, airline or author.

Everyone is free to upload his/her liveries, which can be done through this page.

Visit the new livery database

Aircraft

Boeing 767-300 near its primary release

1rightarrow.png See Boeing 767-300 for the main article about this subject.

767-300 Exterior view with open cargo and front passenger doors, displaying its passenger stairways
767-300 Exterior view with gear up

For a while the 767-300 has been a slow moving project, due to Isaías V. Preste temporarily leaving the forum and all FlightGear works. Liam has yet continued on from where Prestes left off, given a complete overhall to the old FDM, added plenty of new features and started animations. Thanks to the whole FlightGear community for providing some nice liveries, sounds, and other assistance to questions. Since the initial writing of this article, it has now been submitted to CVS before the next release of FlightGear, with some new features not yet seen on many other Aircraft in FlightGear. This is a truly promising project, and deserves its place in the downloads page at long last!

Boeing 737-100 updates

1rightarrow.png See Boeing 737-100 for the main article about this subject.

737-100 Outside view with open doors
737-100 Cockpit view from pilot seat

Since October we have had the 737-100 by helijah in CVS. The aircraft has now been further improved. Mike (aka D-SKY1) is building the autopilot, updating the 3D models, and the following changes were implemented:

  • FDM refined
  • Working instruments in front panel
  • Doors (front and back) open with the keys D and Shift-D
  • Front door also extends stairs
  • Detailed overhead panel (not yet wired)
  • Detailed pedestal (not yet wired)
  • Autopilot incl. ILS approach (partly wired) (actual screenshot of the glareshield)
  • Several liveries available via menu:
    • Lufthansa
    • Canadian
    • Continental
    • Qatar
    • Swiss Air
    • Air France
    • Alitalia
    • KLM
    • Kuwait Airways
    • Boeing Prototype-Livery

Scenery Corner

Manila

The Airport of Manila, Philippines (RPLL) has been improved. Besides Terminals 1 and 2, Terminal 3 has now been added. The Tower has also been redesigned to more accurately reflect the original. Many shared models on the ground have been added and as always all buildings are [[Howto:|illuminated]] at night and ambient occlusion has been added to all new textures.

San Francisco International Airport

Overview of the SFO airport.

1rightarrow.png See San Francisco International Airport for the main article about this subject.

With the upcoming release in mind, FlightGear's main airport has been populated with more buildings than ever before. Dock your plane at one of the many gates, follow the airtrain as it moves from station to station, land your helicopter in the famous parkingarea hole or simply enjoy the visuals on final. In addition to this, the terrain has been refined, especially the bay area. These changes will be available with the next scenery release.

Community News

FlightGear Wiki

On 4 January 2010, the 900th article was added to the wiki! Back in May 2009, the 700th article was welcomed, which means an average of 1 article is created each day. A big "thank you" to all those who helped to extend and improve the wiki over the past years!

New multiplayer server

Thanks to Dutch FlightGear user Rob, we now have 12 multiplayer servers! The new server is located in the Netherlands and can be connected through mpserver12.flightgear.org.

We would like to emphasize the importancy of picking "the correct server". Doing so will decrease the individual server load, resulting in faster servers, which is nice for everyone. Check the howto to learn what the best server is for you.

Virtual Airline News

The Forums have been the site of some quite heated debate about the future of the FlightGear VAs, discussing the question of whether there are simply too many VAs given the FlightGear user population.

Not being an heavy metal sim-pilot (I spend far too long being self-loading freight IRL), your correspondent is not qualified to comment. Like the early days of air-transport, there are a large number of airlines in existance. Time will tell whether this is sustainable or not.

Those interested in MP flying with active ATC are as always encouraged to take part in one of the TransGear Airways events. These are run monthly, and are a great way to fly with other people in a fairly realistic environment.

Addons

FGComGui, an interface to FGCOM

FGCOM is an external program which works hands in hands with FlightGear to provide radio communication, in particular for multiplayer users. The feedback on various forums and IRC shows that a lot of people, who are not specially at ease with command line usage, find it difficult to setup and launch FGCom. This is where a new little piece of code comes to rescue.

Tuxklok created FGComGui, a simple graphical user interace front end to fgcom, which aims on making FGCOM easy and friendly in use.

The FGComGui is currently developed and tested under Windows and Linux environments, but it seems a Mac version is to be expected.

Fgcomgui.png

Once installed, the FGComGui does just what you would expect. Using your mouse and a few clicks, you can drive FGCOM painless, from initial setup, testing, to normal usage. You can even set a few options with nice menus, notably the audio volumes and the port used to talk to fgcom.

FgcomGui docks as a tray icon (see the screenshot on the left), making it possible to monitor its status while flying, and easily stop it or restart it if needed.

So if you feel FGCOM is a bit difficult to use from command line, or you are just willing an easier FG pilot life, do not wait anymore and try it! Installation is described on the author's Google Code page, but it can be worth mentionning that so far the linux build is only optimized for Ubuntu users. Other distribution users can take a look at this forum for some hints about how to build in their environment.

Hopefully this will be a step towards a more generalized use of radio communications in networked flight, which are a great improvement for simulation realism.

And finally....

FlightGear 1.9.1 has been voted "best free game" of 2009 by Softonic. While we might not agree with some of the comments in the review, it is another sign that FlightGear is becoming more and more visible.