FlyJSim’s Dellanie Byron has shared the group’s 1st quarter update regarding both of their ongoing projects, as well as a word on COVID-19 and Vulkan/Metal.
Byron is happy to report that none of FlyJSim’s operations have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, though the whole team shared this message aimed at their customers – “Nevertheless, we all hope you are keeping yourselves safe and treating respective lock-downs with the utmost importance.”
Next on the agenda for the international X-Plane brand, addressing the latest update to their chosen simulator: 11.50 and the addition of Vulkan/Metal rendering options.
The update reads: “we’ve already overhauled the 732 and 727 to SASL 3 in anticipation for Vulkan compatibility. The first reports we’ve had from members seem to suggest that this has paid off, with a mostly trouble free experience.”
“The slightly bad news is, 3D drawing related plugins will not work in Vulkan. Items like librain will cease to work in Vulkan, and you will need to run X-Plane in OpenGL mode to utilize this feature. It is our hope that we can revisit this issue post-beta.”
The Facebook post affirms that both aircraft will be monitored over the coming weeks for any issues that may arise.
May 2019 marked the announcement of FlyJSim’s newest project, Shared Flight, a shared-cockpit addon which has been lurking in the shadows ever since. Today, the developer has revealed that the plugin has entered internal alpha testing, with larger-scale beta testing due soon.
Items such as refining the addon’s user interface and rectifying server issues had initially delayed entry into the alpha stage, though now they’re out of the way, FlyJSim are expecting a shorter private beta stage as a result.
Lastly and most anticipated of all, comes the Q4XP. The Dash 8 Q400 rendition, announced back in December 2018 has progressed to such a stage that systems programming takes centre stage, where the team say that they don’t have a lot to reveal at the present moment. Once this process is closer to completion, systems will be more topical on FlyJSim’s social media feeds, according to Byron.
That’s not to say there’s nothing to show at all, with a selection of new screenshots being made available ranging from early, close up images of the flight management system to a look at the cockpit as a whole.
To finish, a word was also put in regarding accessibility – “We’re also taking the time to listen to your user feedback. All displays are available as pop-outs (useful for off screen information or cockpit builders). The EFB will be designed as a replacement for menus in our previous aircraft, and will be made accessible enough for use in VR, with an intuitive and manipulative design. In addition, for the purists, the EFB is hide-able.”
See the first-ever previews of the Q4XP’s textured cockpit in a previous article from Threshold.