The ScruffyDuck Blog

We sold our house this week (subject to the usual contract negotiations etc etc) and have started looking for a new home. So my time on ADE will be limited for a while longer.

It has been a little while since we released version 1.45. We have been working behind the scenes (see below on Development Tools) but work did stop for a month or so. My wife and I are planning to move house this year and that has to take precendence over such mundane things as Flight Sim!

Anyway we are working on it again now. However it is subject to the needs of getting our house sold and finding an new one! Perhaps one day ADE will be 'finished' but it does seem a long way off at the moment.

If/when development stops again I will let y'all know

Every now and again someone starts a thread on a forum about the future of Microsoft Flight Sim that tends towards some theory or other about why development was stopped and about what the future holds. It seems that the starter of such a thread is usually someone new to FS, and someone who has not read the previous threads on the subject. They go off in all sorts of interesting and sometimes obscure directions and can be difficult to deal with.

Seems to me that the only people who know what is happening are Microsoft - and quite right to. Other people with any insight are certainly under a Non Disclosure Agreement with Microsoft and will not say anything either. So generally we end up in a most unproductive exchange. I find myself saying that those who may know something are certainly not going to say and those who do say something almost certainly do not know.

It would be wrong to stop such threads but they do seem rather counter productive to me.

A while back I posted on Software Development Performance Monitors. We are currently making major internal changes to ADE in an attempt to improve overall performance. At the same we are taking the opportunity to improve the code. Writing a complex program involves lots of code and lots of opportunity to mess up! There are a number of tools available to help developers when writing code. This make it easier to write the code and also to do something called Re-factoring. This means find ways to make the code simpler, easier to use and easier to maintain. For several years now I have used a program called ReSharper from JetBrains. This is an add-in for Microsoft Visual Studio and I have become very dependent on it. It provides lots of ways to manage the development of code and re-factor it to improve performance and so on.

I am paranoid about losing my code! As a result it is backed up and saved as I go. I use a program called History Explorer by Exendo. This monitors my source code files all the time and saves changed files on the fly. Since a lot of files can be changed a lot of times this is a life saver.

Perhaps equally important to me is the need to be able to get back to a previous version. Sometimes I get carried away hacking at some piece of code and then find that it does not work. I want to go back to an earlier version. Usually I cannot remember all the changes - a function of age I suppose. So here comes version control. I use TortoiseSVN which is free and also have it save onto the internet so that the code is protected against PC failure (I hope!). This makes it easy for me to store a version at regular intervals (usually daily). It also lets me see the differences between two version which is really handy when I forget what I changed.

Well enough of development tools for now and back to Microsoft Flight Simulator

We have just released 1.47.02 via the on-line update. This is primarily a bug fix release. However it contains some changes in functionality. We hope this will be the last bug fix release before 1.50.

We have just put version 1.46.07 on the online updater. This provides a plugin architecture and a couple of free plugins - Project Statistics and Available Add-ins. These plugins can be accessed from the Tools Menu.

Everyone needs to go to this release as it is the base release for future development including plugins.

Help > Check for Updates will deliver it provided you have version 1.46.02 or later. If you have 1.45 then please get 1.46.02 either from AVSIM or www.downloadcenter.scruffyduck.org.uk. Then check for updates to get this release.

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This post is also to give y'all an introduction to some changes we are making to the way ADE is developed and delivered. Some of these changes are already visible and some will appear shortly.

Development
Up until now ADE has been developed as a single application. This means that each time it is updated we need to package the whole main application and whatever libraries have been updated.

We have now added a 'plugin' or 'addon' model to ADE. This means that some new functionality will be delivered as modules which when added to the Plugin Folder in ADE will add the functions they contain to ADE. These will usually be presented in one of the menus (Tools Menu at the moment). If you do not have these (and they will not be core to running ADE) then the functions they contain will not be available. It also provides the possibility for other developers to add plugins to ADE.

Delivery
We have already changed the online update check and delivery mechanism (since version 1.46.02). This is a simpler delivery mechanism than the 'in house' developed one we have used to date. It provides for the simple update of folders and files in ADE. It will be used to deliver patches and minor upgrades. Major new builds are still expected to be delivered by separate installer.

Pricing Model
ADE has always been free and the core functionality will remain so. So much of what is in the program comes from the knowledge of the community. So far we have asked for donations and have been gratified at the number of people who have donated. However the truth is that the costs associated with the time and tools needed to develop ADE are significant. We are therefore looking at providing some addon functionality (see above) as payware. This would mean that probably most users will be able to continue to use ADE on a free basis but those who want to use new or extended (Pro) functionality will be asked to pay for the modules that contain it. We have not finalized the model yet. We are testing license management code and that seems to work fine. We will need to decide whether to license the Pro modules separately or provide a single license that will cover any Pro modules we release. In any case we do not expect the unit cost to be very high

We hope that this will both provide a sufficient income stream to cover development costs and also an acceptable way for the community to acquire some of the new functions that we have in mind.

We have just released a small update to ADE9X. This is version 1.46.02. It addresses a number of fixes and introduces a new update mechanism. It is a mandatory update. This can only be used for version 1.45 and will be offered by the update checker. The release notes are reproduced below for information.

ADE Version 1.46.02 Release Notes
This is a mandatory update since it includes the new updater mechanism. The old mechanism will no longer be used.


Changed:
• Online update mechanism. This version includes a new update mechanism accessed via Help > Check For Updates. The automatic check on startup has been removed and there is now only a manual option.
• ADE should now load faster and airports should also load faster
• Objects should now be located accurately in the ADE display. ADE no longer uses the center of the footprint as the reference point but uses the point of origin of the model
• Model names can now be edited and comments added
• Editing/Moving of route waypoints is no longer allowed

Fixed:
• Changing multiple gate details now changes information for any associated jet ways.
• Position markers can now be deleted from list
• Dimensioning of model footprints now works correctly
• NDB frequencies are no longer truncated to integers when compiled
• De-compiler can now handle airports with more than 2048 taxi points
• Single objects can now be deleted in the Library Object Manager
• Guidelines in approach mode no longer show magnetic heading greater than 360 degrees
• Several out of memory error situations should now be resolved – ADE uses less memory. Some instances do still occur and this remains under investigation
• ADE should no longer CTD when deleting parking spots from right click menu
• ADE will now generate GUIDs for FS9 models when added to a project


New Updater:
Manual update check via Help > Check For Updates. ADE uses a new mechanism to deliver updates. This will now be the method of choice for intermediate versions. Full version will still be delivered via stand alone installer packages.

Accurate Object Placement:
ADE should now position objects in the display accurately as they will appear in FS. This required saving additional information about the objects. This information is provided in updated modelList.dat files for stock objects in FS9 and FSX. For user added object libraries you will need to delete each library from the Library Object Manager and then re-import them. During this process ADE will gather the extra information that is needed to position them accurately.

We have spent the last couple of weeks looking at how to improve the download center. We have now made the change to new software. We think the new look provides better access to our different files with categories and files being laid out more clearly. It is accessible via the existing URL - www.downloadcenter.scruffyduck.org.uk. Some things are rather different. To get more information about a file click the blue information button in the right hand column. The information button will give you access to some other functions like a zip dive.

Generally clicking on a file name will download it. However it it is a text file or similar then it may open for you in a new browser tab.

ScruffyDuck Software and the ADE Development Team are delighted to announce the release of ADE9X. This is the first version of Airport Design Editor to support both FS9 and FSX. The new functionality means that FS9 airport developers now have access to most of the functionality that has been available to FSX designers for some time. This includes the Approach Designer and all the other tools that allow users to work with buildings, signs etc. The only area currently not supported for FS9 is terrain elements such as land class, roads and so on. We have spent a lot of time working on making the importation of AFCAD files into ADE as easy as possible.

Whilst this version is mostly about providing support for FS9, our FSX users should also update as they will find many fixes and a number of enhancements including much better handling of stock navaids, user defined colors for taxi links and an improved and more stable interface with the Sim.

We would like to take this opportunity of thanking all those in our development and beta teams as well as all those users who have tried out the release candidate and given us valuable feedback. You can find out more about ADE9X by visiting www.airportdesigneditor.co.uk or downloading the package direct from www.downloadcenter.scruffyduck.org.uk.

....I just wanted to talk about development tools. I guess there are many people out there like me who dabble in programming and so on. Airport Design Editor (and here is the link!) is developed using Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition. It is developed as an application for Windows using C#. Visual Studio is a major development tool and has a lot of capabilities but there always seems to be something extra needed. The need to understand performance is one of these. Generally I start a new function in ADE not worrying about the performance or memory impacts of what I am doing. However as soon as I do get something working I need to know if it is doing things efficiently or not. I am fortunate in having two tools to help me with this. One is ANTS 5 from Redgate and the other is dotTrace from JetBrains. You may wonder why two? Well each displays things slightly differently and being the suspicious sort I like to get a second opinion in most things. Which is best - well I can't say, I like them both very much and they have both helped me in understanding where the bottle necks in my code are. Of course they cost money and not everyone can manage that.

A free alternative is EQATEC Profiler. Does not have memory profiling but it does a good job in performance profiling. I also use this from time to time along side the two tools above.

Well this is my first 'tools of the trade' post and I will do some more over the coming weeks. Thanks for reading!

We have just put this onto the Download Center (www.downloadcenter.scruffyduck.org.uk).

Those currently working with 1.42 should download this version. It contains a number of changes and fixes.

ADE9X is the first version of ADE to support both FS9 and FSX.

For FS9 users it brings most of the functionality of ADE for FSX to FS9. for FSX users there are a number of bug fixes and improvements to the program. It provides better handling of imported files (particularly from AFCAD2) and deals better with stock navaids and ILS.

We welcome your feedback on this version as we prepare for final release.

Please do read the included release notes and remember that this is still a beta product

We released the first public beta of ADE that supports both FS9 and FSX today. Details of the release and the download link can be found in the Airport Design Editor Support Forum at http://www.fsdeveloper.com

We have just received a report of the ADE uninstaller removing non ADE related files. This should not happen but it appears that it can. In the instance concerned it seems ADE was installed into the FSX directory.

We will make sure that the next installer version does not allow either user defined installation into the FSX folder structure or deleting non ADE installed files.

In the meantime please DO NOT install ADE into the FSX directory. It comes with a default folder that should be fine for most users. Second if you are deleting ADE and wish to save your user defined files then please copy them to another location to avoid them being deleted.

I was very pleased to find out today that I have been awarded MVP status for another year.

Alpha India Group Ground is a team of enthusiastic developers creating airports (Afcads) for FS2004 and FSX. We develop for both default airports and for add on sceneries. Now we are looking for a further developer to join the team with prime focus on FSX airports.

Set up in 2008 as the first organised Afcad development team since PAI, AIG Ground team has released 55 airports since January – with a firm belief in quality over quantity. Everything we release goes through a rigorous beta test process Alpha India Group also applies to flightplans, models and repaints. AIG Ground is lucky to benefit from having Jim Vile, Reggie Fields, Jon Masterson and Jan Martin as advisors.

As a whole, AIG firmly believes in real world lives before FS and being part of the group involves a lot of fun. All we look for is:

1. Some reasonable experience in developing airports for FSX, preferably using ADE
2. An open mind about developing to our standards – with equal input as to what those standards are
3. Enthusiasm and appreciation of the time needed – each airport takes many hours of development, testing and enhancement to ensure the quality we aim for

Interested in joining us ? Please visit Alpha India Group forums at www.alpha-india.net/forums/index.php and PM or e-mail me from there.

Matthew Brooks
Aka. Hornets Nest