[nicolas]

With the recent release of X-Plane version 9, I spent some time for an interview with Austin Meyer, the man behind X-Plane.

Austin, can you describe briefly the new features of X-Plane version 9?

Austin Meyer: Well, the really cool ones are the no-pause for scenery load (using the second processor) and the reflective water and volumetric fog.
Finally we are really starting to get to a realistic, no-pause virtual world.
THIS is is where stuff is really starting to get interesting.

What is different in the new scenery?

Austin: Well, the CODE is better as described above.
The scenery FILES themselves (the DSF files) have 25% more polygons, to give better terrain definition.
We have some new objects and stuff as well (nice trains on the tracks, for example.. turn on the 'draw cars on roads' option in the rendering options screen)...
We also do a MUCH better job of handling terrain elevation of the airports... we get the REALISTIC contours of the terrain (AWESOME!) but there should be no absurd jumps in the terrain.
MS Flite Sim is NOT this smart... they just flatten the whole airport to a SINGLE elevation... so you cannot get the terrain contours that are so relevant to normal flight operations in the real world.

X-Plane v9 introduces many new features on the graphical side, can you tell us what was the thought process when deciding on the graphics of version 9?

Austin: Very little thought process... people just asked for stuff and we thought it would be cool so we did it.
So maybe 5% of the effort goes into deciding WHAT we want, and 20% of the effort goes into DOING it.
Then, the remaining 75% of the effort goes into trying to work around the million-and-one driver BUGS that ATI and NVIDIA drivers are RIDDLED with, so that the cool new effects actually work on everyone's computers. This involves countless betas and sending test builds to people, playing with settings until we get something that WORKS. We have seen absurdities like video cards not working right until we AVOID certain functions that are SUPPOSED to work, making calls to the cards that are not SUPPOSED to be required, and (my favorite) not allowing any BLANK LINES IN THE CODE for some pixel shaders to work.

X-Plane 9 has a new default airport (Innsbruck, Austria) and a new default plane, Cirrus Jet. How did you decide on this location and who built the scenery?

Austin: Sergio Santagada built the scenery. The area is more picturesque than KSBD.
The cirrus jet is just plain cool.

When did you start to work on version 9?

Austin: About 5 minutes after 8.60, i guess... you may know better than i!!
maybe 6 months ago?

Besides yourself, who else was involved in the development of X-Plane 9?

Austin: Sergio Santagada did tons of artowk (LOWI airport).
Massimo Durando did the cirrus jet, avanti, cessna, glider
Ben Supnik did the cool effects mentioned above, and the algos to generate the new higher-res scenery
i did the rest of the code

X-Plane 9 beta is currently available for MAC/PC, will you make a Linux version, just like for version 8?

Austin: This is PLANNED, but not 100% certain. We have actually done 85% of the work.. but we re not clear on what will be involved in that last 15%

What are the advantages of X-Plane 9 over Microsoft Flight Simulator?

Austin: I think everyone already knows the answer to this question.
better flight model
higher framerates
more free upgrades
more flexibility
better customer support
wider range of aircraft
and now, in many but not all cases, better scenery

Any idea when X-Plane 9 will become final (it's currently in beta version)?

Austin: January maybe.

What are your favorite planes to fly in X-Plane?

Austin: Cirrus jet! (i am depositor #48 on the real thing)

Can X-Plane be used as a training tool for student pilots? Is there any FAA approved versions of X-Plane ?

Austin: Yes, it is a special 'variant' of x-plane i made for pfc
there are almost no changes... really we just removed the space-flight operations, put in a frame-rate self-test, and made a bunch of general aviation planes with big old panels.

see flypfc.com and flightmotion.com

Is there any famous people/organization using X-Plane?

Austin: More than i can count!

Nasa, Boeing, Lockheed-martin, Carter Copter, Scaled composites, Dave Rose... The list goes on and on and on.

Nasa was seeing what it was like to have a glider re-enter the Martian atmosphere.
A subcontractor for Nasa put X-Plane in the windshield of a (REAL) king-air, and hooked it to gyros and a gps. Then, they flew the plane around looking at the x-plane scenery instead of looking out the window!!!!!!!

How many copies of X-Plane have been sold so far?

Austin: dunno! a few hundred thousand, more or less, over all the years.


Where do you see X-Plane in 3 years from now?

Austin: Well, i guess version 10 may be in beta then!
Dunno what will be in there at that point.
if nvidia, ATI, Microsoft, and Apple can actually write video drivers that work according to the documented spec, there is very little limit to what we can accomplish!

We've heard that your personal plane was destroyed earlier this year, do you currently own a plane? If not any plan on a future purchase?

Austin: NOT destroyed! just damaged!
will be fixed!
repair still in progress.
see here:
http://www.x-plane.com/adventures/hangar_down.html

Right now, I don't fly anything. I'm just waiting while I work super hard on v9!

What are your favorite planes to fly in real life?

Austin: Lancair Columbia 400
That's it. Nothing else comes close
see here: http://www.x-plane.com/adventures/33%20CirrusTurbo.html

When did you get started on X-Plane, what year?

Austin: Around 1995

What is a typical day of Austin Meyer, coding X-Plane?

Austin: get up at 11
coding by noon
work until 4 am
repeat.

One last thing. Any show you will attend this year where users can meet you?

Austin: Oshkosh, as always
we have a booth there


Thank you Austin.

[Soren]

Thanks so much for doing this interview and posting it. There was a lot that I didn't know about X-Plane and the development until I read the interview. I highly recommend it.

[TBomBM3789]

What is a typical day of Austin Meyer, coding X-Plane?

Austin: get up at 11
coding by noon
work until 4 am
repeat.

My brother is learning computer programming at RIT in NY. I would never have the patience for it. 14 hours of typing endless code on a computer every day. I can't imagine how he does it

[HoHun]

Hi Tbom,

>My brother is learning computer programming at RIT in NY. I would never have the patience for it. 14 hours of typing endless code on a computer every day. I can't imagine how he does it

If you're actually doing it for something that's completely your own project, it's not endless code but the implementation of a vision.

However, as you can tell from Austin's criticism of the state of the art of graphics drivers, he had some less-fulfulling work to do too.

That's doubly bad as it's not just endless code, but actually someone else clueslessly interfering with your vision.

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

[t0ny]

What is a typical day of Austin Meyer, coding X-Plane?

Austin: get up at 11
coding by noon
work until 4 am
repeat.

I was doing about 2 or 3 hours a day coding for phone and now I have really bad carpal tunnel or something like that. Now I can't get it to go away. :/

Keep up the great work Austin!

[flightvector]

Hmm, it's going to take me some time to get used to calling it the Cessna 400.

[HPM]

Yeah - just seems plain wrong to me. Cessna = boring middle-aged family car

[dad]

Yeah - just seems plain wrong to me. Cessna = boring middle-aged family car

which, if you look at the downloads, is what most people want.



BTW noon to 4am is 16 hours, not 14, and when Austin takes a break from coding he does seem to get away from it all.

[Reattivo]

I've translated it into Russian

[ecama]

I really hope that there will be a linux version...