IPACS - Please consider adding an Instant Down feature in a future release

  • Ray, we made a note of this, you are the first asking this. Keep in mind that we have to add a safety height here for this function to make sense.

    Thanks. Yes, a reasonable safety cushion above ground level. I guess similar to the Autopilot inop height close to the ground. Maybe just a fixed number AGL to lock it out would be straight forward logic. Sure would be a nice feature though.

    Regards,
    Ray

  • I would even recommend going further by adding a SLEW mode like in FSX.
    It's actually a very, very useful tool when it comes to developing scenery.
    Then you can really go and inspect straight anywhere you need without having to bother flying your aircraft, it really makes the difference.

    Cheers
    Antoine

    Config : i7 6900K - 20MB currently set at 3.20GHz, Cooling Noctua NH-U14S, Motherboard ASUS Rampage V Extreme U3.1, RAM HyperX Savage Black Edition 16GB DDR4 3000 MHz, Graphic Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB, Power supply Corsair RM Series 850W, Windows 10 64 bit.

  • Hi Antoine, we already have a developer camera for that purpose. It even saves its position in the world as far as I know, so you can fly to the position that you would like to inspect, close the sim, make changes, open it again and you are right where you left off.

    And for the instant down: Press Esc (main menu), go to Location, use slider on the right, press Esc (main menu), press Enter (fly), that should work,... loads clean config though and changes the speed.

  • Hi Antoine, we already have a developer camera for that purpose. It even saves its position in the world as far as I know, so you can fly to the position that you would like to inspect, close the sim, make changes, open it again and you are right where you left off.

    And for the instant down: Press Esc (main menu), go to Location, use slider on the right, press Esc (main menu), press Enter (fly), that should work,... loads clean config though and changes the speed.

    This method is more like starting over. All AP info is lost.

    As far as the protection from the ground, it is already figured out somewhere in the code. When selecting the altitude with the vertical scale at the Location screen, you can't go too low.

    Regards,

    Ray

  • I would even recommend going further by adding a SLEW mode like in FSX.
    It's actually a very, very useful tool when it comes to developing scenery.
    Then you can really go and inspect straight anywhere you need without having to bother flying your aircraft, it really makes the difference.

    Cheers
    Antoine

    I use a really useful little program called Slew Assist that was written in the real early FSX days but it only works in FSX, I miss it terribly when flying in P3D. The developer says it should work in P3D but that really doesn't make me feel any better. You can place the airplane anyplace and it is so easy to use.

    Ray

  • +1 on SLEW mode - best way to inspect scenery development. I also use it for performance checking. I set up a constant banked turn (yaw rate is nonzero) and let it do a few circles to see how the sim performs as various scenery is paged in. I would call it essential for developers not just a nice to have.

  • +1 on SLEW mode - best way to inspect scenery development. I also use it for performance checking. I set up a constant banked turn (yaw rate is nonzero) and let it do a few circles to see how the sim performs as various scenery is paged in. I would call it essential for developers not just a nice to have.

    Exactly. The cam-reload feature mentioned by Jan is sure nice for correcting 1 specific bug or working on a tiny area. But it cannot replace the slew mode.

    That's also what Austin M. unfortunately never wanted to understand for XPLANE, stating that one just has to fly at Mach 2 and stop, no need for a slew mode...

    The slew mode is the most efficient way so far to systematically check your work while developing sceneries - nothing to do with "flying to the place"...

    Cheers
    Antoine

    Config : i7 6900K - 20MB currently set at 3.20GHz, Cooling Noctua NH-U14S, Motherboard ASUS Rampage V Extreme U3.1, RAM HyperX Savage Black Edition 16GB DDR4 3000 MHz, Graphic Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB, Power supply Corsair RM Series 850W, Windows 10 64 bit.

  • Yeah but the dev cam can do that. You can even fly fastern than Mach 5 if you are high enough.
    I can't see any benefit from a slew mode, if I want to set my airplane onto the hold short line, there should be an option, if I want to place it in final approach there already is an option...

    What exactly do you want to achieve with a slew mode? Have a 3D camera and exactly place yourself where you want to be, too look at scenery only or also to start flying from there?


  • What exactly do you want to achieve with a slew mode? Have a 3D camera and exactly place yourself where you want to be, too look at scenery only or also to start flying from there?

    Hi Jan,
    The slew mode allows you to move free and both very fast or very slowly in all 6 DOF and stop instantly without having to pause or fly or whatever (no flight physics).

    When designing sceneries, you sure want to reload specific situations, but you need to move freely and fast in any direction to check your work from any angle, or quickly translate in all directions (check large areas, check load/unload behaviour, search for artefacts, etc.) without wasting your time having to fly.

    If you're more familiar with aircraft design, imagine you're designing the 3D visual model of your aircraft. You need to rotate and move and zoom free around the 3D model.
    If your tool forces you to move with the physics of a human walking around the aircraft, having to bend on his knees to check the undercarriage and hardly able to reach some places, it just makes the work difficult without any advantage.

    The slew mode is an easy feature to program and a most scenery designers will consider it a must have. Those who don't need it should not prevent others from having it...

    Cheers
    Antoine

    Config : i7 6900K - 20MB currently set at 3.20GHz, Cooling Noctua NH-U14S, Motherboard ASUS Rampage V Extreme U3.1, RAM HyperX Savage Black Edition 16GB DDR4 3000 MHz, Graphic Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB, Power supply Corsair RM Series 850W, Windows 10 64 bit.

  • Yes I got that, thanks :D
    But why would you want to move the aircraft to check out the scenery? You should be able to zip around in a developer camera, that can be done more or less by now already. I don't know how you can activate the camera, because, as you said, I'm more of the aircraft guy :D But you need the developer option in the main.mcf file for sure. I've just seen the camera in action and it looked quite usable to me. Thats why I think we don't need a slew mode but maybe you can convince me.
    Cheers,
    Jan

  • Ok, if a camera can do that, move freely and fast in all 6 DOF proportional with the joystick all over the world, displaying the heading, LON/LAT coordinates and altitude, then it's pretty much the slew
    mode we'll need.

    In FS we do it with an aircraft, which allows to reproduce actual scenery load situations while the graphical engine gets easily overwhelmed and the memory management is troublesome.

    Cheers
    Antoine

    Config : i7 6900K - 20MB currently set at 3.20GHz, Cooling Noctua NH-U14S, Motherboard ASUS Rampage V Extreme U3.1, RAM HyperX Savage Black Edition 16GB DDR4 3000 MHz, Graphic Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB, Power supply Corsair RM Series 850W, Windows 10 64 bit.