Matching Faces to Avatars

"We're in Jail," I thought I heard the voice on the phone say, "come on up and meet us tonight... say around six?"

I looked at my watch... "Oh god, what have the Canadians done this time?" I thought to myself. "I'm sorry, where'd you say you were?"

"Yale," the voice repeated, "We're in Yale."

I breathed a sigh of relief that the first time I met my friend and co-developer Holger Sandmann, I probably wouldn't have to bring along my checkbook to post bail. One of the odd ancillary effects of the digital age is the ability to get to know someone and even launch a business venture with them, without ever meeting face to face. It's usually a little awkward for those first few moments, the attempts to match the face with the endless stream of instant messages and emails. Then there's the realization that while you may have intimate knowledge of how the other person designs 3D models or creates artwork, you have no idea whether they have kids, or pets, or like to dress in women's clothing...

That's usually how it works, anyway. Somehow we managed to skip most of that when Holger and I, along with his lovely wife Julie and my own better half Linda met last night. We had a lovely chat over some surprisingly good food at a roadside watering hole in middle-of-nowhere Washington. We relaxed, we enjoyed one another's company, we talked of many things. But unless you were slinging hash at Jack's restaurant last night or have a signed NDA on file, you'll just have to wait to hear the details ;-)

Welcome to Portland Oregon, Ladies and Gentlemen.

As a commercial scenery developer, it's not often that I feel moved to ramble on about the works of another designer. However, today is something special. Stepháne LePage, better known to the FS world as Vauchez, and his brother Patrice have at long last released their FlightZone 02: Portland scenery for Flight Simulator 2004.

This is a stunningly beautifully done piece of work, made all the more special to me by virtue of the fact that it models my home city and its environs. In addition to Portland Int'l Airport, you get fully detailed versions of Hillsboro (KHIO) and Pearson (KVUO) airports, and a very well-done reworking of Portland Troutdale (KTTD), my home airport.

If you're looking for a realistically rendered and insanely detailed bit of virtual scenery, you owe it to yourself to try this out. Heavy iron drivers and GA propheads alike will find a lot to enjoy. I'm excited that so many virtual flyers will have a chance to explore an area that I consider to be one of most beautiful in the U.S.

Then again, I might be a little biased. Find out more and purchase at their site, http://www.flightscenery.com/

Argh.

Nick made it sound so innocent... "I'm going to go have a fly at FZ01 Rhode Island, I think."

"Ooh," think I, "haven't had a good multiplayer flight in ages. Yes, it's the middle of the workday, but what's the point of being self-employed if you can't slip off and do a little MP flying with chums across the pond now and then?"

What's the point, indeed. Here I sit, back at work an hour later, never once having connected to the MP server. I could see it fine, but some quirk of my firewall or router disallowed any actual contact. Think toasters, people! Plug it in, flip the switch and fly. How wonderful would that be?

Maybe it's time to start thinking seriously about FS on XBox.

That Certain Something

Flight Simulators have taken enormous strides in the last few years towards the holy grail of immersion, that point where your brain can trick you into thinking you're actually piloting a real aircraft. One of the the cul-de-sacs that the realism conversation can become mired in is the simulation of night lighting in the virtual cockpit.

I had the opportunity to take my first ever night flight a couple of days ago, and I came away from the experience with a newfound respect for after-hours aviating. My in-cockpit nighttime adventure featured one aspect I'd never encountered in a simulated aircraft -- no night lighting at all! We thumped and jiggled on the various dome and instrument light switches during the preflight, and managed to get a weak glow to emanate from a couple of the instrument faces, but it was purely token lighting, and not particularly helpful.

Seeing as how we had the required exterior lighting, my instructor and I decided to go for it and do the flight anyway. Having another soul in the front office is a big help in this sort of situation, as she could work the penlight, shining it on the instruments while I did my best to keep us airborne and on course. You've not truly experienced a night landing until you've done one in a gusty unpredictable crosswind, yelling "airspeed, airspeed" to the person sitting next to you, who has become fixated on the threshold and let her flashlight arm droop.

Curiously, the more I fly, the more forgiving I am of simulated aircraft and their quirks. I've begun to understand that any aircraft over five years old seems to have its own personality, nasty habits included. Any oddness in the flight model (within reason) or lack of a feature, like, say, cockpit lighting, is more apt to be considered "just part of the plane's charm" for me at this point. It's all just part of that certain 'something' that brings the simulated world an inch or two closer to reality.

Missing in action

Sorry, I've been a little remiss lately with my postings. I blame it all on FSX. Now that big brother has released we happy few, we band of beta testers to squawk to the world that we're on the team, I guess it's okay to say it. It's been an interesting ride. This version of the sim is a great leap forward in several areas, and I've been enjoying my latest flights around the new and improved digital world.

A truly round Earth, flights as high as one million feet, sexy reflective water, and much higher res ground textures are some of my fave features so far. But far and away the element that most interests me are the missions. If you've not heard yet, they have implemented a new system that allows for more purpose-driven flying in FS. Sure, it introduces a gaming aspect to our precious simulator, but it also gives us control over things we never dreamed of before, like triggering bird strikes or keeping track of which airport we land at, even controlling not only AI aircraft around us, but also ground vehicles and even animals! The narrative possibilities are endless.

One of my other pursuits, besides banging my head against FS scenery development, is fiction writing. I'm currently working on a draft of my first novel, The Big Spin, which I'm hoping to complete this year. I've had meetings with agents already about the premise, and got some positive feedback, so fingers crossed! Now with FSX, I'm seeing the chance to meld my love of creating digital environments with my lust for storylines. I'm in the early stages of planning, but watch this space... it could get interesting!