More FSW

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.

FSWeapons update

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.