• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

My wishlist for AFCADX

Messages
214
Country
australia
My wishlist for AFCADX :p

I know some things will be a bit different in FX from these Fs9 tools

AFCAD with copy and paste
FLATTEN and the ability to make minor changes to the mesh for ditches ,underpasses etc
PHOTOSCENERY MAKER
EXCLUDE with the ability to remove or move default objects

Be able to move the new road system to line up with the photoscenery
And see all of these changes. Comprehensive Undo/Redo. Autosave.
Layers with Hide , Lock. All this would be fine in 2d.

etc etc:cool:
 
Last edited:

scruffyduck

Administrator
Staff member
FSDevConf team
Resource contributor
Messages
34,853
Country
unitedkingdom
OK we will see what we can do :)
 
Messages
203
Country
ca-britishcolumbia
Hi Scruff

Are you starting AFCADX from scratch? I know Lee released the TTools source
code did he also release the AFCAD2 source code?

AFCAD2 and TTools sure got a workout on my PC's and so will AFCADX. :)

CK
 

scruffyduck

Administrator
Staff member
FSDevConf team
Resource contributor
Messages
34,853
Country
unitedkingdom
To the best of my knowledge Lee has not released the source code of AFCAD2. So any new software won't be based on the code from that program.
 
Messages
268
Country
netherlands
Hi Scruff

Are you starting AFCADX from scratch? I know Lee released the TTools source
code did he also release the AFCAD2 source code?

AFCAD2 and TTools sure got a workout on my PC's and so will AFCADX. :)

CK

Yes, we are beginning from Scratch. I have not seen the AFCAD source, and even if it was available Lee programmed in C/C++, which pretty much render his source code obsolete (yes, I know some people think this is not the case, but that is their problem). Next to this we have requirements that extends further than AFCAD, so we probably need a different data structure.
 

scruffyduck

Administrator
Staff member
FSDevConf team
Resource contributor
Messages
34,853
Country
unitedkingdom
....Lee programmed in C/C++, which pretty much render his source code obsolete.....

Based on our poll of what language developers use (and the fact that much of FSX is developed in C++) I think that reports of it's demise are much exaggerated :)
 
Messages
268
Country
netherlands
Based on our poll of what language developers use (and the fact that much of FSX is developed in C++) I think that reports of it's demise are much exaggerated :)

I do not question C/C++ is still being used.... I question if the users really know what they are doing (unless of course they make device drivers etc).
 
Messages
214
Country
australia
ability in AFCADX to delete/hide runway/taxiway textures

Hi ScruffyDuck

And as in another post I just did the ability in AFCADX to delete/hide Runway/Taxiway textures if happy with the 7 cm photoscenery runway/taxiway textures. :cool:

Steve
 
Messages
317
Country
unitedkingdom
I do not question C/C++ is still being used.... I question if the users really know what they are doing (unless of course they make device drivers etc).

That's a bit insulting isn't it? From my viewpoint it's really the users of higher level languages which don't actually know what they are really doing, it is all hidden from them, and even more so with so-called "managed" languages. If they could actually see the horrendous and inefficient torments they put the system and the processor through when they program in their innocence they might agree, but I suppose they wouldn't understand that level in any case.

I am basically an assembler language programmer of 43 years practice, and C (not even C++) is about as far away from what is really happening as I want to get. At least I can still understand what the program is doing beneath the statements I write, and follow the minor convolutions the compiler goes through, even in optimisation. I still occasionally resort to assembly code, not to make device drivers, but to get those inner loops really efficient. (That's a good book by the way -- "Inner Loops" by Rick Booth).

The higher level languages are good for prototyping a user interface, and, if used efficiently, are probably good for actually implementing predominantly user-interacting programs where speed and efficiency are not such a consequence and bloatware has become the acceptable norm, but I will fight for my right to produce fast, small and efficient programs without all the complexity and flab that those languages impose.

Best Regards

Pete
 

scruffyduck

Administrator
Staff member
FSDevConf team
Resource contributor
Messages
34,853
Country
unitedkingdom
OK I think that is the 'right of reply' for C/C++ Programmers :)

For the avoidance of doubt that means that we will not need to discuss the relative merits of different programs any further in this Forum.

Truth is that programmers tend to know what they are doing in their language(s) of choice. If it works for them then it is not for us to decide which is best or worst. Whether it is managed or not C++ or C#, VB6 or Delphi is irrelevant provided that you are happy and comfortable with what your are doing and the results meet your expectations and those of the guys who use the stuff :D
 
Last edited:
Messages
268
Country
netherlands
Luckily I have experience from creating complex programs in C/C++ (with assembler optimizations) as well as C#, so I can base my decission on actual knowledge in both areas.

Just to be clear: A program like FSUIPC is indeed one of the few programs where I would consider C to be the best choice for now - but hopefully this will change in the future as FS evolves.
 
Last edited:
Messages
150
Country
portugal
Why do I feel that is not a language question but how good the programmer is? Sometimes I feel that the good programming is not questioned enough. Personally, I believe that my background as and electronic Engineer doesn't make me a good programmer in C# but reasonable C programmer since I'm too attached to the push pop and mov :cool: Of course when I feel nostalgic just remember those long hours burning EPROMS

José
 

scruffyduck

Administrator
Staff member
FSDevConf team
Resource contributor
Messages
34,853
Country
unitedkingdom
I think that is a very good point Jose, skill and familiarity with a particular tool may be more important than the tool itself.
 
Messages
19
Country
yugoslavia
Greetings to all and sorry for interupting! :)

As you can see, I'm new guy here (and in the scenery design as well).

I just want to say that I really admire your work and that I'm really sorry cause I cannot help you with the tools developement (as I am not coder).

However, in very short time (about a month these days) I learned much about scenery design and never dreamed about to "speak" with the people who make tools for us, mortals :)

Concerning new design tool you're going to create, I'll feel free to say what I would like to see in the box...

- using custom textures in APT facility (aprons, rwys, taxiways...). In example, MS didn't menage to allow creating custom runway markings. As this is not going to be the case with the FSX, too - custom textures could do the job for the specific runways like grass (markings of the real grass runways, reminds on white coloured, lateral laid curbs on every 50 meters or so).
- compatibility for all kind of present object formats
- ability to import older sceneries in order to convert it into a new, FSX format
- ability to easily place trees and other plants into the scenery
- ability for automatic flatten area under the runway and level it, no matter up or down (in corelation of desired airport altitude)
-ability to change MDL objects textures.
-ability to convert AI aircrafts to static ones
-ability to load other tools files and BGL as well (as the old AFCAD does)

And, the one of most important - ability to make I snapshot of the current FS top-down view, which is aligned to the coordinates as in AFCADX, so I can see the right point of each object comparing to the autogen scenery and all other objects in FS.

I hope that this is not going to make you angry :(
These are just "boy's wishes", nothing more. I'm not thankless about what you do for all of us.

Sincerely, I can rembember a lot more of potential improvements, as long as you don't kick me out of forum, because of my avarice. :)

Best regards and good luck!
Dragan Stanojevic
 

scruffyduck

Administrator
Staff member
FSDevConf team
Resource contributor
Messages
34,853
Country
unitedkingdom
Hi Dragen

Thanks you very much for your suggestions - they are much appreciated and there are a lot of good ideas therre - many of them are already on the list for SDSX :)
 
Top