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MAIW MSFS conversion

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Kulbit
First Lieutenant
First Lieutenant
Posts: 160
Joined: 29 Nov 2011, 16:57
Version: MSFS
Location: LIPX

MAIW MSFS conversion

Post by Kulbit »

At what point is the state of the works, to bring the MAIW packages to MSFS ?
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John Young
MAIW Developer
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Posts: 4206
Joined: 12 Jul 2008, 15:15

Re: MAIW MSFS conversion

Post by John Young »

Technically, we are coming to the end of the "Proof of Concept" phase. Conversion certainly looks possible and I only have a couple of visibility bugs to resolve and I will have completed 14 of my F-35A's that I now have flying at Lakenheath. It's taken me 6 months and 200-300 hours of work to get to that stage thanks to a similar number of hours that Pete has put in teaching the process.

That process, including PBR texturing and xml coding, is quite involved, but like many things, practice makes it easier each time. If there is an expectation that the packages that were converted from FS9 to FSX will somehow get converted for MSFS en-mass, then I am not optimistic that will happen. Apart from any permissions issues, the work involved would be phenomenal. That's in part because the workings of MSFS are very complicated to navigate, often for no logical reason. Even a minor parameter in MCX takes 15 minutes to change, compile and test each time, 25 minutes if it's in the landing phase. It is not possible to save the conversion work in progress after a certain stage and there is no undo facility.

I think I am the only one who has progressed through to the PBR, multi-serials stage and I don't know if anyone wants to follow suit. That said, I just love MSFS and the end result. It's encouraging me to do more with other of my AI aircraft, more so if anyone wants to work with the associated scenery for MSFS. That will be on a specimen basis, not a production line.

John
Kulbit
First Lieutenant
First Lieutenant
Posts: 160
Joined: 29 Nov 2011, 16:57
Version: MSFS
Location: LIPX

Re: MAIW MSFS conversion

Post by Kulbit »

John all my admiration for the outstanding work you are doing.
I hope your efforts will be rewarded in the near future.
We owe a lot to you, and to all the other maiw developers.
Many thanks for your kind reply.
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Woogey
First Lieutenant
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Posts: 186
Joined: 04 Jul 2012, 18:23
Version: MSFS
Location: Seattle/Victorville

Re: MAIW MSFS conversion

Post by Woogey »

John thank you! This is exactly what I was hoping to hear. I had gone to your sub-forum thinking if anyone associated with MAIW would be up for the latest work flow, that it would be you. Between You and Ian we have hope for a very promising future in Flightsim. The subjects that you choose to do, and the Air bases that Ian does perfectly align with my own interests, and I can not thank you two enough. With that said, of the high quality sceneries currently available, F-35's, F-15's, A-10's, Typhoon's, H-60's and Osprey's have homes on the ready. We are truly lucky to be living in a new golden age of Flight Simulation where things have never looked better, and the future is bright indeed!

In your experimentation, are the flight plan files different in the new sim? Is AiFP still a viable option for creating schedules and routes?



Thank you again, -Preston
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John Young
MAIW Developer
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Posts: 4206
Joined: 12 Jul 2008, 15:15

Re: MAIW MSFS conversion

Post by John Young »

Yes indeed, the flight plans are in FSX format and I used AIFP to produce the test set for the MSFS F-35A's at Lakenheath.

For the tests, they are IFR circuit plans. The pukka package ones might well be more sophisticated than that, provided there are destination AFCADs to fly to and/or waypoints, assuming the latter still work (not my area).

John
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