IXEG Share New Engine Model Refinements

April 24, 2020
nobody, apparently.
X-Plane
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DCS

Tom Kyler of the elusive International X-Plane Engineering Group, or IXEG, has surfaced once again today to share new screenshots of an update to their 737 Classic.

In a post titled "Version 1.3 update tidbits", Kyler explained that the group had recently moved to a new 3D toolchain allowing for a more modern approach to modelling the 737-300 to X-Plane 11's current standards, something that could explain the relative silence in regards to new previews, despite semi-regular appearances on the X-Pilot Forums.

Instead, the focus of those updates were on the conversion of sounds to using FMOD software and improvements to the flight management system.

Progress using the new toolchain.

The refreshed toolchain was first spoken of in January 2020, using the work of Laminar Research's Ted Greene to convert the model from IXEG's old methods which were rendered incompatible with X-Plane as, according to Kyler, they were "so far ahead of the game back when we started, we came up with our own solutions.....that were not quite compatible with the way X-Plane moved with regards to developer tools."

The "lifeline" from Laminar allows IXEG to convert their patchwork 737 to modern methods, according to earlier reporting from Threshold.

From an earlier post - a list of converted objects.

This links in to today's posting, where the team have now linked the conversion tool to X-Plane 11, allowing for "reasonably quick" 3D updates as they run the objects through the process.

"This is a screenshot showing a typical mesh refinement before/after", showcasing the 737 Classic's CFM56-3 in an all new light. "Whereas when we started the 737 10 years ago, we had to be conscious of our polygon count, its not as bad as it was and X-Plane and modern hardware can support more detail."

"So as we move forward with our updates, we will be making these kinds of refinements around the airplane... moreso out of the cockpit than in, because the cockpit was done pretty darn well the first time [in my opinion]."

Before and after using the new 3D toolchain.

In an earlier post, the developer made sure to assert that, while they were simply converting old objects, detailing and general detailing improvements are also being made post-conversion.

Recapping the two previous posts from Kyler in a separate thread, the aforementioned FMOD and FMS systems take centre stage. Conversion from the OpenAL of old to FMOD was stressed to be a major sticking point in progress, with over 1400 lines of code covering sound alone and all of them needing auditing then porting, the latest information indicating the team were pondering whether to scratch-build a new codebase specially for FMOD.

In terms of the flight management system, Kyler says that he has been able to dig in to this system full time as COVID-19 halts work on his full time job. One of the most recent developments being to the company routing area, which can now accept six different formats: X-Plane 10/11 (*.fms), PMDG and Quality Wings (*.rte), X-FMC (*.fpl), FSX (*.pln) and AirbusX (*.flp).

Route editing work will continue going forward, eventually extending to holding and "in-air" changes to VNAV.

See Threshold's previous reporting on IXEG in an update published in February 2020.

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