Tuesday, June 16, 2009

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.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi mate

Sounds great,
Wil you be able to buy the FSW for payware aircraft that have all ready been bought if not would you be able to make so you can buy them in a aircraft update
cheers
Chris Moncaster

Daniel Berlin said...

Yes, it should be possible to ad them as an aircraft update to already released aircrafts. However it is a matter of what kind of agreement I can make with the manufactures of the aircraft.

Still there is a long way to go before any release is comming.