Wed, 04 Apr 2007 20:44:19 GMT

GMax..Change is Good

Some things are certain. Getting my taxes done last week is one of them. Another is technology constantly changing, and in this industry, it involves a daily effort to keep up. As developers, this means ... an enormous amount of reading, learning, trial and error, and communication with others in the industry who are banging their heads as well. Walk away from it for a few days and you've really gotta claw your way out of the abyss.

I was a scenery designer and texture artist when we started Eaglesoft. Almost overnight I had to learn how to model an aircraft that would be acceptable at the payware level. Using Flight Simulator Design Studio, (FSDS), was my immediate answer...I was at home in that environment, and time was of the essence. After creating the Premier I for our first project release I was ready to take what I had learned about modeling to the next level.

Enter Citation X. When I was modeling that jet I was 'at one' with the 3D world of FSDS. Minus the tools GMax makes available, it was necessary to hand carve each shape of such a complex aircraft, (like the complex wing structure designed by NASA), from a lump of clay...one vertex at a time...one polygon at a time. With a relentless determination in accuracy and quality, it was quite time consuming. Pounding that jet into shape while also juggling a full time career, I rarely saw the light of day. Thank God for my Diane...not many others would have been as supportive and understanding, (her claim to fame is her place in the FS community as the passenger of the Citation X...she enjoys the fame and the occasional 'who is that lady?'). There was a huge benefit with me doing the modeling and texturing of every part on the jet. I was able to use 3views to create almost every part and custom texture each one, after having taken hundreds of photos of several Citation X's here at the Orlando Cessna Citation Service Center at Orlando Int'l.

The next challenge became the Columbia 400. Mmmm, I've never modeled single prop GA before, shouldn't be that difficult...right? After six months I had an entire aircraft, external and VC, modeled and textured and ready for panels and gauges. While waiting on those, and on the heels of the FSX release, I went to the heart Doc....I felt I needed to check into some things. Modeling a smaller aircraft proved to be much more difficult using the tools at hand and while spending any and every waking minute, away from the 'other job', to be completely immersed into the monitor's glow wee hours of the night...only making fine motor movements with my mouse hand for hours upon hours. Consumed by the determination to make every lump, bump, curve and dip exactly as it should be. Thank God for Diane again. The Columbia looks great, I was exhausted.

Enter FSX. I'm very thankful for my good friend Owen Hewitt. Besides being a simply wonderful human being, he is my bridge. With his skills, (and very little help from me), we managed to get current FSDS products successfully integrated into 3DSmax/Gmax and into FSX. Thankfully FSDS3 added the ability to export as .X file...and quite cleanly according to Owen. Textures and all parts accounted for although he needed to reinsert the animations...and make improvements to the model itself...wow. Owen is now polishing the Columbia for FSX and has made tremendous progress on the upcoming Citation X 2.0, a complete revamp of or FS9 FSDS model. From texture remapping to 'HyperGauge' technology, the Citation X will be born again with a huge list of enhancements and improvements.

Next on my list? I'm now back in home school, it's time to get with the times. I'll always be a huge fan of FSDS, it really is a brillant tool and it's author and friend, Louis Sinclair, have been nothing less than fantastic. As my friend Bill Leaming would say, our Citation X is an example of what the 'right tool in the right hands can actually do'. It's time to evolve, I'm studying 3Dsmax and Gmax to become my new development home. I've caught on quickly with sincere appreciation for the tools made available for modeling that I've never had available before..wow, I'll be able to work at twice the speed cutting project development in half! We'll see. I'll be picking this software to pieces and examining every part of it like an insect....I do that, I'm not obsessed with super high quality hyper sonic perfection....but close.

I'm looking forward to visiting Owen at his home soon where I'll get some one on one tutoring and Gmax polish from my modeling hero. So look out, once he and I get our 'bob'sled greased....we're gonna be dangerous! ;)

EagleSoft and Flight Simulation

Sat, 31 Mar 2007 15:20:33 GMT

Eaglesoft Development Group is a software developer of high quality, and accurately recreated, add-on aircraft for Microsoft's Flight Simulator. Flight Simulator (FS) is the world's leader in home flight simulation software for anyone with an interest in flight and aviation. Everyday more and more real world pilots, aspiring pilots, and home 'arm-chair' pilots are discovering this amazing software experience. Out the box Flight Simulator offers an entire virtual world to explore with a wide range of aircraft. Start the experience with the included lessons or jump in and head right to your favorite airport destinations and enjoy real world weather, seasons, beautiful scenery, realistic aircraft, missions and more. Take your experience to another level and explore the ever growing flight simulation community on the internet where you can find a wide range of downloadable add-on software to enhance your flight simulation experience. You will also find many others to share your experience with by flying online, discuss your interests with others in many available FS forums, and even build a 'home cockpit' with amazing controllers, multiple monitors, and much much more.

At Eaglesoft Development Group (ESDG) we specialize in creating downloadable high quality aircraft add-on software for beginners and the serious hardcore flight sim hobbyist. Our primary focus is to design aircraft that are as accurate as possible to the real life aircraft. This requires an enormous amount of research into each real life aircraft which is applied into every phase of the aircraft's development to insure the aircraft looks, feels, flies and functions like the real thing. We employ a number of highly skilled craftsmen who are dedicated to quality workmanship every step of the way. It doesn't end there, we are live and available at our site with a widespread reputation for our excellent customer support after the sale. We're available to answer questions or solve problems, or you can simply hangout in our forums and share your experiences through chat, or the screenshot forum while we continue to work on upcoming releases.

We are growing. We personally attend many real world aviation and web-viation events and activities. We personally involve ourselves with other FS developers, artists, programmers, and real world aviation companies. Our goal is to increase the inevitable marriage between the flight simulation world and real world aviation communities. Some examples include our Cirrus aircraft is used in Seattle's Museum of Flight learning center, where students apply what they've learned using a number of Cirrus replica flight simulators. Our partner, the Avidyne Corp., sets up demos of their Integra Avionics system on the road using our Avidyne Integra avionics simulation.

As we grow, we remain focused on the future by continual research on ways to improve on our product, and our customer satisfaction, whether it be developing exclusive 'hyper-gauge' technology, maintaining compatibility as FS changes occur, good communication with our Flight Simulation community and, of course, our friends at Microsoft's ACES Studios.

So if your looking to enhance your flight simulation experience by taking the controls of a Cessna Citation X, or zipping around in the sleek Columbia 400, and maybe even the ever popular Cirrus SR22, be sure to visit our forums at www.Eaglesoftdg.com and look around, you'll be glad you did!

Welcome!: Hobbies

GMax..Change is Good

EagleSoft and Flight Simulation