Moving Targets

Creating an arrestor for moving carriers is proving to be a frustrating exercise. One strategy to solve the problem was discarded today after some tests. Don't despair however, we have another strategy which is much more complex, but on paper seems to be solid. So one door closes, but another opens!

More testing

A bit more testing completed today, with a few problems fixed and others found! Hopefully in this version we can offer customisable keys. Previously I used Shift-F9 which caused some issues with other addons (mainly FSNavigator). Ill have to see how things turn out.

Managing made easy

One of the new features of the FSX version of 3wire is a total management program that allows you to easily add, remove and edit data for everything 3wire. In previous versions adding zone data was a case of using the Zone Assistant to create the zone (which was still much easier than manually collecting the data) then pasting the data into the xml file manually. This time we are taking it once step further, providing a full GUI to make it even easier. When you see the amount of data now needed for 3wire it's easy to see why we've done it!

Moving Carriers

Well this is the best thing since sliced bread for carrier fans! Of course, 3wire will be supporting this, if fact this where almost all of the effort is.

The first thing we have done is make it possible to place carriers in FSX. Anyone can do this in the mission editor, but we have created a test application that creates carriers anwhere in the world in general flight. Whats even better is that the carriers are placed using an xml file that contains the details of each carrier and the path the carrier is to follow. So users can create their own carriers wherever they want and make them move along their own path.

So thats pretty neat, but there are a few quirks with moving carriers in FSX. The number one issue is that when a carrier gets to a waypoint it will stop, rotate to the new heading and then continue to the next waypoint. Obviously the last thing you want is to have the carrier stop when you are about to catch a wire!

So whilst there are the obvious benefits of moving carriers, there are also a truck load of problems that need to be solved.

So whats new?

Here's a little bit of an idea of whats new with 3wire for FSX. To start with it's a complete rewrite from scratch, and for two reasons: we are using the new SimConnect interface and the programming language has changed to C++. Another thing we have done is split the program into two parts, the main program that controls the aircraft in FSX, and a management application that will make setting up FSX a breeze. The management program will be written using C# so you will still need .Net v2.0, but that shouldn't be an issue for those who used the original versions of 3wire.

Kicking Off

So I've started a development blog for 3wire! Hopefully I'll keep it updated with progress on 3wire and after its released, news about updates.

Those who are familiar with the old versions for FS9 will hopefully enjoy the new version, we have lots of plans to create the best carrier addon.