I spent this weekend flying in our cockpit simulator SUL35. You can read about it here (unfortunately only in Swedish). Except for having fun I also managed to find the main problems with implementing multiplayer support for FSW and conceptionally solve them. While it is far from anything working, I feel that MP is very much possible and will be even better than I first imagined. Still there is a lot to do before I can confirm that my ideas really works.
Some of you might wonder why there hasn't been any updates for a very long time. The simple answer is that I've quit my job, I'm looking for a new one, I've sold my car, I'm trying to sell my apartment and I'm moving right across the country to Stockholm. Why? Well, what don't you do for love ;)
So except for the obvious reason that I have very limited time to spend on FSW, I've also very limited access to my computer as it has been moved to my new home while I'm still in Gothenburg. Anyway, I've actually been able to so some work on a software that was first only intended as a test program for the interface of FSW. Stuff like reload weapons, fire weapon, set target and so on. This was something I could do on my laptop without access to FSX.
However it soon grew to something larger than what was first intended. A GoogleEarth view was added and I started to plot the objects in the FSX-world. And soon I was manipulating stuff in the simulator, such as placing targets where I wanted them, changing weather and visibility and so on. I also found a bug in FSW this way. It turns out that FSX do not destroy my weapons when they go outside the "bubble" as it does with all the AI objects. When the simulator had been turned on for a long time, I discovered the missiles I fired the day before was plotted in the GE view somewhere over the northpole. And half a day later they where somewhere over South America. that bug would have been hard to discover without this program.
Here is a film showing the program used together with our Draken cockpit simulator:
Just got back from the beautiful Loire valley in France. Lots of châteaus and lots of wine tasting. So not much have been done on FSW for a few weeks. I'm quitting my job and moving to Stockholm so I don't know how much time I will have this week either. But I will post here as soon as I have anything to post.
Since my last update I've got a lot of questions about FSW. I hope you understand that I can't answer all of them. Partly because lots of things are still to be determined, but also for commercial reasons.
First I'd like to reiterate. this module will NOT destroy your civilian simulator experience. You will not be forced to install it and no one will be able to shoot you down in multi-player unless you have it installed and have actively chosen to use it.
This brings me to the first question: multi-player.
I don't want to reveal much about multi-player at this moment. All I can say is that I have identified problems and pitfalls, and they are conceptually solved, but the current version do not support MP. Part of the solution is to have a client-server solution parallel to the MP-functionality in FSX. So yes, MP is very much possible, and it will be supported, but it might not be in the first released version.
Second question: How will FSW be licensed?
At the moment I'm working with the idea of licensing the module to payware add-ons on a per copy basis. That means for you as a costumer that you will not have to purchase FSW. It will be free to download but will only work with licensed aircrafts. Weapon enabled aircrafts might cost slightly more than other ones due to the license fee. But that is entirely up to the company that is selling the aircraft.
At the moment I'm not going to make it work with freeware and other non commercial add-ons. Why? Because this project is taking a lot of my spare time and resources to develop, so I need to get something back from my "investment" to make it worthwhile. Hopefully that will help me develop FSW further and add more features in the future and make it work even better. But it's also a matter of ensuring that FSW is implementing with the add-on correctly, and in a way that is user friendly. Though I'm not totally closing the door to making it free for non commercial add-ons, very much like the license for FSUIPC works.
Will FSW be able to have multiple active pylons?
Yes and no. To make a long story short. FSW will eventually support AMRAAM and other modern weapons. But multiple target following is more a matter of the add-on aircraft systems than anything special FSW has to do. FSW will be released in new versions continuously. Which means that if a feature is missing in the first release, it might be added in the second, or the third and so on.
Will FSW be extendable with a DLL for more weapons?
No, not initially at least, and probably never. I want to keep a high quality and ensure that the add-on is stable. When multi-player is added it is also important to keep the integrity of the module. Further more, there is no reason for it really, since I will continuously add new weapons and features.
Finally I would like to repeat that FSW is developed iteratively, which means it will be release as soon as possible with a minimum of functions, and then continuously evolve into a increasingly complex program.
Since I released the film showing FSW in action I've got a lot of response. In some forums I was expecting more "You bastard, you've destroyed my civilian simulator". But except one or two comments about being shot down online by some random kid, most comments have been very positive or even downright ecstatic.
The number of visits to this blog has risen enormously, so I feel some responsibility to post more regular updates. I would like to start by explaining what I am doing right now.
At the moment FSW is in a stage were it might be called a technology demonstrator rather than anything close to a product. So the most important thing now is to clean up the code and address the flexibility issue. The final product will implement any type of weapons, air to air, air to surface, and even surface to air. New weapons is supposed to be easy for me to add, but that requires that I have a structure in the program to handle it. The version used in the first released film has a very hard connection to the sidewinder. My internal simulation of the weapon environment and connection to the simulator is directly connected to one sidewinder object. Once it is released and placed in the queue for released weapon another ready sidewinder object is created, hence giving the shooter an unlimited supply of sidewinders, and sidewinders only.
What I'm doing now is to create a structure with virtual pylons that can hold any type of weapon and handles the communication with the weapon. It will also keep track on what pylon is the active one. Further more, I will take some of the code from the sidewinder class and distribute it to more general classes that the weapons can inherit from. Rocket propulsion in one class, guidance in another, calculations of impact in yet another one and so on. This will make it easy to put together new weapons by inherit the proper base classes and then glue it all together with some code specific to that weapon.
While all this is very important for the stability and expandability of the program, it doesn't really give me anything to show. So you'll have to wait some time before I'll post any new films showing something being shot at.
That is all for this update. If there is anything specific you want me to write about next time, please leave a comment.
Will we ever seen someone make guided weapons in Microsoft Flightsim?
Yes, it has been done some time ago. I've been working on a general weapon module for FSX for a while (remember this?), and I feel it's time to reveal some of my result. At the moment I have only implemented a simple AIM-9B but the main focus is on the modularity of this addon. It is done so that any weapon can be added without too much programming. There is still very much left to do before this is even near a beta, but it looks promising so far. Don't you agree?
I've been working hard on implementing some very interesting stuff in the radar simulation for SUL35. I've achieved a fairly good visual simulation of a CRT radar screen with the appropriate fade. Target plotting is also implemented and several different modes are all but finished. Soon I will start working on target lock on. I also have another neat feature for FSX I conjunction with this that will reveal at a later point. Stand by for a nice surprise in the near future.
Here is a film showing some of the new features in the radar.
