Preview of Taieri for XP12
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2024 1:18 pmWhen I shut down the business I mentioned that I'm working on this for Otago Helis, who have recently switched their training simulator from MSFS to XP11. The choice of XP11 is out of their control, as their new simulator is an Entrol H145 simulator developed and maintained in Spain.
It took me a long time to figure out the basics of X-plane scenery, and I still find it bloody difficult and restrictive, but I'm plowing through. This month I'll let them have a 'working' version for XP11, which they'll send to Entrol for some compatibility tweaks. I don't mean a finished scenery, as there's a lot of things which I won't figure out before the deadline. I may not release the XP11 version, though.
However I may release an XP12 version, provided I can solve a few more issues. Developing for XP is a bit like stepping back 20 years, although XP12 is more like 15 years. I'm continually thinking "What??!!! You can't do that in X-plane?" but I guess that most things can be solved. Or else it'll just be released without me having to reinvent autogen etc. Maybe this will be my first scenery which uses a third-party library, as I don't have the interest to build all the little bits and pieces.
One thing which I've gained from the experience is that I can now look at Taieri in MSFS and see it as a very nice addon, rather than a collection of bugs and things I didn't get around to including. MSFS shines in comparison to XP12.
Here's some shots from XP12. Note that this is built on a very early (FSX) scenery automatic conversion done 10 years ago, so although I've replaced a lot of the models with the new versions built for MSFS, some legacy stuff still shows up here -- the trees, for instance, are VLC cross-plain trees, which don't work well in XP, but I'll figure that out.
Yes, I know not all my buildings are sitting on the ground, but I have fixed this since taking the screenshots this morning.
It took me a long time to figure out the basics of X-plane scenery, and I still find it bloody difficult and restrictive, but I'm plowing through. This month I'll let them have a 'working' version for XP11, which they'll send to Entrol for some compatibility tweaks. I don't mean a finished scenery, as there's a lot of things which I won't figure out before the deadline. I may not release the XP11 version, though.
However I may release an XP12 version, provided I can solve a few more issues. Developing for XP is a bit like stepping back 20 years, although XP12 is more like 15 years. I'm continually thinking "What??!!! You can't do that in X-plane?" but I guess that most things can be solved. Or else it'll just be released without me having to reinvent autogen etc. Maybe this will be my first scenery which uses a third-party library, as I don't have the interest to build all the little bits and pieces.
One thing which I've gained from the experience is that I can now look at Taieri in MSFS and see it as a very nice addon, rather than a collection of bugs and things I didn't get around to including. MSFS shines in comparison to XP12.
Here's some shots from XP12. Note that this is built on a very early (FSX) scenery automatic conversion done 10 years ago, so although I've replaced a lot of the models with the new versions built for MSFS, some legacy stuff still shows up here -- the trees, for instance, are VLC cross-plain trees, which don't work well in XP, but I'll figure that out.
Yes, I know not all my buildings are sitting on the ground, but I have fixed this since taking the screenshots this morning.
