FlightGear Newsletter February 2016

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February 2016

Development news
FlightGear v2016.1 released
In the hangar
Pottier P.130UL Coccinelle
Cessna 182S Skylane
Space Shuttle

Scenery Corner
New regional textures
Community News
New FlightGear website prototype
Announcing Thai translations

Contributing
Translators required
FlightGear logos
Screenshots
Screenshot of the Month

Development news

FlightGear v2016.1 released

On February 17, the FlightGear development team published the v2016.1 "San Francisco" release of FlightGear, the free, open-source flight simulator. This new version contains many exciting new features, enhancements and bugfixes. Highlights in this release include an integrated launcher that includes the ability to download aircraft, a reduction in the installation package size, performance improvements and many rendering improvements.

A list of major changes can be found at Changelog 2016.1. FlightGear 2016.1 is available for a variety of operating systems from http://www.flightgear.org/download/

In the hangar

Pottier P.130UL Coccinelle

Splash for the Pottier P.130UL Coccinelle.

There is a new aircraft in the ultralight field! The Pottier P.130UL Coccinelle was converted from X-Plane to FlightGear. It can be found in FGAddon and at http://www.github.com/legoboyvdlp/P130UL.

Note  The URL of the private development repository will change, so if you want to keep it up-to-date via Git, please use FGAddon.


Cessna 182S Skylane

The Cessna 182S Skylane project aims to develop a very high quality Cessna 182S Skylane for FlightGear. It can be downloaded from https://github.com/HHS81/c182. See also the forum thread.

Space Shuttle

The avionics of the Space Shuttle are continuously being expanded. A fairly sophisticated electrical system as well as the corresponding management software has been added. Also, some of the more modern glass cockpit instruments, such as the APU/HYD. the engine monitor and the surface position indicator display are now available in the development version.

OMS/MPS MEDS display screen of the Space Shuttle SPI MEDS display of the Space Shuttle APU/HYD MEDS display of the Space Shuttle

In the mean time, work continues on animating the various switches and indicators in the 3d cockpit. So far, the electrical power generation and distribution panel is fully functional and allows, for example, switching off a damaged fuel cell and tying the buses to restore power flow throughout the Shuttle, or taking the AC power generation off the internal DC power grid.

Scenery corner

New regional textures

More development has been made to the New Regional Textures project. The new additions include:

  • New textures and definitions for the airport keep
  • High resolution textures for the airport keep
  • Runway shoulders now match airport keep all over the world

They can be downloaded from https://github.com/gilbertohasnofb/new-regional-textures. See also the forum thread.

Community news

New FlightGear website prototype

Parnikkapore has started making a prototype for a new FlightGear website. This is a work in progress, and is being actively worked on.

You can see the website here. You can also follow the development on the forum thread.

Announcing Thai translations

Parnikkapore has started translating wiki articles to Thai. Because most Thai flight simulator users are already familiar with FSX, he will concentrate on articles helping users to make the switch.

The first page being translated is Th/New to FlightGear.

Please note that even the page above is a work in progress. Contributions are welcome!

Contributing

Translators required

En.gif The FlightGear Wiki still needs help for translating it into various languages. If you are interested in making the FlightGear Wiki multilingual, start at Help:Translate.
Fr.gif Le wiki de FlightGear a toujours besoin d'aide pour être traduit en différentes langues. Si vous êtes intéressé par le rendre multilingue, commencez par lire Help:Traduire.
De.gif Das FlightGear Wiki benötigt immer noch Hilfe bei der Übersetzung in verschiedene Sprachen. Wenn Du Interesse daran hast, das FlightGear Wiki Mehrsprachig zu machen, dann fang doch mit Help:Übersetzen an.
Nl.gif De FlightGear Wiki kan nog steed hulp gebruiken bij het vertalen van artikelen. Als je interesse hebt om de wiki meertalig te maken, raden we je aan om een kijkje te nemen bij Help:Vertalen.
Es.gif La wiki de FlightGear todavía necesita ayuda para traducirla a varios lenguajes. Si estás interesado en hacer la FlightGear wiki multilingüe, entonces comienza en Help:Traducir.
Cat.gif La wiki de FlightGear encara necessita ajuda per traduir-la a diverses llengües. Si esteu interessat en fer la wiki de FlightGear multilingüe, llavors comenceu a Help:Traduir.
Pt.gif A wiki de FlightGear ainda necessita de ajuda para traduzi-la em vários idiomas. Se estás interessado em tornar a wiki de FlightGear multi-lingual, por favor começa em Help:Traduzir.

FlightGear logos

If you want some graphic elements for your FlightGear-related site (such as a hangar or YouTube channel), please feel free to visit FlightGear logos for a repository of logos. And if you have some art skills, please don't hesitate to contribute with your own design creations.

Screenshots

The FlightGear project always needs screenshots, which show features that were added since the last release. These should be of good quality, especially in content and technical image properties. It is therefore recommended to use the best viable filter settings (anti-aliasing, texture sharpening, etc.). More info at Howto:Make nice screenshots.

Screenshot of the Month

FlightGear's Screenshot of the Month February 2016 is Flying the Hump Route by tonghuix.

Flying the Hump Route by tonghuix