[simpits-tech] Interesting "big sim" tidbit............

[dabigboy at cox.net]

---- geneb <geneb at deltasoft.com> wrote: 
> On Thu, 1 Nov 2012, dabigboy at cox.net wrote:
> 
> > Having been 100% Linux-based on my sim since its initial design phase, I 
> > can tell you it makes a wonderfully simple, stable, and flexible 
> > platform for doing a serious, multi-computer/networked flight simulator. 
> > It's also an ideal programming/development platform, if you're rolling 
> > your own code.
> 
> The only problem I have with using Linux is that the video drivers are 
> WAAAY behind current releases for Windows.  Additionally, the only sim 
> choices you have are FlightGear (Free!) and X-Plane.  You can't leverage 
> the huge amount of tech and goodies built for MSFS.

Nvidia has excellent support for Linux, although it's a closed source/proprietary driver (more an idealistic issue than a practical one). I have long since given up ATI in Linux....actually I have long since given up ATI period, far too many bugs and problems. Anyways, what cards have you tried? Perhaps if I were on the latest video card technology I would see an issue (running a 9800 GT right now), although like I said, Nvidia is pretty great about supporting Linux, at least for their video drivers. Are there features you are seeing in Windows video drivers that the Linux counterparts lack?

> You're using FlightGear, right?

Nope, X-Plane all the way.....while I love the concept, FlightGear has always felt a little too immature for me (although I know the flight model is very advanced and extensible at this point). One huge factor is that the graphics seem rougher, and the various parts of a scene seem less well-integrated than X-Plane. X-Plane has always had extremely solid, believable graphics (albeit simpler in the older days). And with version 10, it's just getting crazy. As far as MSFS, I have seen some sims running MSFS and I have come to the `conclusion that even X-Plane 9 has actually outpaced MSFS in terms of graphics quality, even when detail is not as dense. Now with X-Plane 10, it would appear that Austin has pretty much blown MSFS away.

As far as hardware and software options, I would have to agree that COTS hardware support for MSFS is more abundant than for X-Plane. But that is changing as more vendors recognize X-Plane's rising status (and the relative death of MSFS as an evolving platform, at least for now). The software situation is a little better, with lots of people making all sorts of interesting things with the X-Plane SDK (which seems to be a better development platform than FSUIPC, which never really got official MS support AFAIK, and was most certainly not developed in-house like the X-Plane SDK was). A great example is Pilot Edge, which Justin just pointed me to a few days ago: http://www.pilotedge.net/  It was not made by the X-Plane community, but has full X-Plane support.

But, for my sim at least, most of the stuff I'm doing is better with non-"off the shelf" solutions anyway. Most of the flight sim-specific hardware on the market (like OpenCockpits boards) aren't exactly what I need, and are far more expensive than what I can roll on my own with Arduino, generic joystick controllers, even Phidgets (sometimes), and some custom code and simple custom circuits. Example: my "real" weather radar cost me only about $105 ($50 for the scrapped Bendix radar display, $15 for a heck-of-a-package-deal on the Arduino Uno clone, and $40 for the PS1 LCD screen). The display software took one afternoon and an evening to write, and the Arduino code was an easy after-work project one day. Add in a few more hours getting everything mounted into the Bendix unit....I learned stuff, and I had fun. Nothing like this even exists on the market, and the only products even close to it (CDUs, GPSs, etc) are upwards of $500.

Finally, I can't say enough about the X-Plane SDK. It is a really friendly, stable, easy system to work within, and is VERY powerful. I could not do 75% of what I'm doing now without the SDK and my own custom software.

With all that said, I do realize changing the simulator software on an operational sim is an enormous task, so I don't expect MSFS to go away anytime soon. Just curious Gene, what sort of MSFS-specific hardware and software solutions are you using on your sim? It seems like you fabricate/design/code/ShopBot a whole lot of your gear. :)

Matt