February 25, 2006
Mic Healey
mic@planetmic.com
www.planetmic.com


Hi Dave,

Here are a few first thoughts on FLY.324

1. Kudos on finding and fixing that bloody path supply issue!!!!
My test WRL file is now producing A/C quite properly on an
inventory supplied via the PATH to a Depot connection!  Cool.
And,  and very big - Thank You!!!

2. Brick VTOL. Great Idea. However, my testing revealed some
odd behavior.  When piloting a brick, on the ground with zero
throttle selected, applying max. Increase in Angle of Thrust
(CTRL+END) - then powering up, provided backward movement via 
the added throttle (a.k.a like a Thrust Inverter!)

In the air, starting from a zero movement position: selecting max.
Angle of thrust with no power selected started a slow decent.
I thought perhaps it would work correctly for VTOL take off with a
mid-point setting (this seemed to have no effect). 

So, I would say, this option needed to be looked at.


3. Removal of Mouse support from Selection Menu.
No more mouse support for Menu.  Ouch!  I do not have a problem with
this - as I am used to this sort of thing with older programs.  However,
I can definately say, the majority of users who download FST programs
will not be able to navigate in this fashion without on screen prompts
added to the menu screens like (F2) on the second tab, etc. Also, an 
ability to use the horizontal arrow keys to hightlight the desired action
button might be more intuitive than selecting the first letter of it.
For this reason alone - I think I would pass on using FLY.324 in another
release of Ep2. 

Again, this is totally no big deal for someone like me, but I think
most users will be quite frustrated with the interface without some
built in "On Menu" keyboard prompts.

Would it be possible to have the "keyboard only control for menus"
as an option (rather than mandatory), so users with video card problems
could try shutting off the menu mouse support w/o affecting the rest of us?

Ep2 has been downloaded hundreds of times now, between two and four download
a day is the average.  To date, I have only got one Video Card problem.


4. Ground Steering.
I am not sure how ground steering was altered. But I will offer my "two cents
here on this issue".

I think it fun to be able to taxi around properly on the runways, look at the
scenery, etc. This means having a tight turning radius.  This is also important
when moving around a terrain tile when "landed rough". I like to be able to turn 
around on a dime, now  you can only make very wide gradual turns. Most A/C can turn
pretty darn sharp. We should be about to as well...

5. Joystick Issues.
I thought I had solved my Joystick problems with the use of a USB to 15 pin gameport
converter.  Strangely, the problems have returned. I have pretty much given up on the
stick and fly with the mouse most of the time.  This pertains ONLY to the WIN98 platform,
joystick under XP is much more stable.

6. Polygon Display Issues.
There is definately something still strange in the polygon display engine, as it does
not render polygon surfaces that meet each other cleanly.  There are always little tags
and extra lines which move over into the neighboring polygons. The applies to all objects,
but not terrain, of course. This issue presented itself with FLY.301 and has been with us
ever since. Though bleed-thru is much more an issue in FLY.147, it has none of this stange
polygon "stitching" behavior that comes with the new engine.  Still, with FLY.3**'s superior handling of most shapes regarding less bleed-thru, its remains a worthwhile trade-off.


7. Here is a little something I thought might appeal to you... What about adding a 
small feature to the autopilot where it could be "slaved" to a VOR Radial or NDB. This would
definately help with scenarios, as you could have the users select the waypoint and let
auto-pilot take him to the target.  Also, great for getting lost and coming home.
I have always been a fan of sims that had lots of auto, whatever features.  Talon's AIRBUS
320 is a wonderful sim that has many such features.. and is still quite fun to use
(even has auto slave to ILS - just like the real A320) If I am not mistake, I think 
SVGA Harrier had this waypoint feature as well - so it much just well be in there already...
Just a thought!




In summary, I think I would vote for a "3.25" w/menu mouse support back in,
leave the fix on the paths of course, and nix anything else for now.

Kind Regards,

Mic








