Month: October 2013
FlightGauge for 7 inch tablets released to testers
I have finished up the final 2 gauges and updated all of the 7 inch layouts to support them. The gauges are working really well and the animations are proving to be very smooth. I’ve pushed this version to my testers and I am beginning on the design work for the 10 inch tablets. Due to the amount of space available I may separate the gauges into individual ones. That’s what I’m thinking right now at least 🙂
I’m really excited about this app. It’s coming along really well and I can’t wait to release it. Getting close now.
The first version of FlightGauge is designed for single and dual engine GA aircraft and supports the following indicators:
– Automatic Airspeed Indicator Selection for: 100, 200, 360, 450, 540, 900 knots
– Artificial Horizon Indicator
– Altitude Indicator
– Turn and Bank Indicator
– Heading Indicator
– Vertical speed Indicator
– Left/Right Fuel Indicators
– Manifold Pressure Indicator
– Fuel Flow Indicator
– Oil Temperature Indicator
– Oil Pressure Indicator
– Suction Pressure Indicator
– Electrical Amp Indicator
– Prop RPM Indicator
I have not determined what the price will be for FlightGauge but, like FlightMap, I will be releasing a free 5 minute trial version.
FlightGauge Update
I’ve made some really good progress on FlightGauge and wanted to post a quick update. I’ve got 3 of the 5 new gauges complete and functional. I’ve modified them to be more generic and support more aircraft. I will be supporting dual engine aircraft via 2 needles on the rpm, oil, and fuel flow gauges. It’s been a lot of trial and error to get these 3 gauges complete so I’m hoping the next 2 go quicker. I’m pretty much settled on my 7 inch tablet design. I’ve not yet settled on one for the 10 inch tablets. There is a lot more space on them 🙂
FlightMap 2.6.1 Trial Released to Play Store
I have just updated the 5 minute trial version of FlightMap to the latest version. The trial is a fully functional version of FlightMap that will stop receiving updates from FlightConnect after 5 minutes of usage. This update includes all of the FlightMap updates including the Flight Instrument support for smaller tablets as well as the automatic air speed gauge selection.
You can find the 5 minute trial version of FlightMap on the Play Store here:
FlightMap 2.6.1 Released to the Play Store
There were some reports of FlightMap crashing if the “gps” button was selected when FlightConnect does not have the complete flight plan from the simulator. This can happen if FlightConnect is not running when the flight plan is loaded. This issue is now fixed. If users want to see the full flight plan mapped in FlightMap, FlightConnect must be running when it is loaded. FlightConnect is written to function as a service so it can remain running at all times. It uses very little memory.
I had already started work on new features when this issue came up. Because of that a new feature did get released with this update. FlightMap now no longer requires the user to select between GA or regular Air Speed Indicators. FlightMap will automatically select the best indicator based on the aircraft that is loaded in the simulator. Because of this I have added a number of new air speed gauges. These include 100, 200, 360, 450, 540, and 900 knot variants. FlightMap will select the best one so the selection on the launch screen has been removed.
FlightMap is available for purchase on the Android Play Store here:
FlightMap 2.6 Release to the Play Store
FlightMap 2.6 has been released with Gauge support for smaller tablets. Just pull down or tap the top of the screen to show/hide them. This version also includes much better graphics and layouts for all tablet sizes. It was a complete rewrite of the layout code. There are also improvements to the FSX/P3D flight plan support for Approach vectors as well as 10 more airplanes to choose from for a total of 28. Lots of great changes in this version. I hope you all enjoy it.
FlightMap is available for purchase on the Android Play Store here:
FlightGauge Update
With all of the work on FlightMap lately I realized I have not been posting updates about FlightGauge. I am continuing to work on the app and I believe I am getting close to the design for 7 inch tablets. The layout of first version is targeting single engine aircraft for the secondary gauges. While the layout won’t be configurable in the first version when I detect a two engine or more aircraft I will add a second needle to the gauges that require it in a different color.
At this point the 6 main gauges are fully functional and I’m working to complete the secondary gauges now. Once the 7 inch version is complete I’ll start work on the 10 inch tablet layout.
FlightMap 2.6 Nearing Release
The final beta is about to go out to my test team. This is a really big update so here’s what has changed:
- Gauges are now available for 7 inch tablets via a sliding window at the top of the screen
- All new graphics and layouts for all supported screens with improved display on most devices
- Added support for 9.7 inch Android tablets with iPad Retina resolution.
- Better support for approach vectors when enabled in FSX or Prepar3d
- Added 10 more aircraft selections
- Simplified and improved the initial communication with FlightConnect on start
- Various performance enhancements and improved airport loading
FlightMap Beta Update
I’m still working on finalizing the new Gauge drop down. My beta testers don’t like how much space it eats up when it is down so I’ve been playing with different ideas to resolve it like sliding the map down, using transparencies, tilting the map, etc. None of the changes worked very well due to such a small amount of area for the map view when the gauges are visible. Below is a screen grab of how it currently looks. One of my beta testers has a really good idea that I’m going to try tho. Will see how that works out. Over all the beta tests are going really well and as soon as I work out the design for the gauge drop down I should be releasing the update.
The next release is a huge release from a bug fix and device support standpoint. I have completely rewritten all of the networking code from the launch page. I finally have it a way that I like and it should be much more user friendly. It should also resolve some of the confusion that some of the dialogs have caused.
The biggest change to the app though has to do with screen layouts. I have completely redone from scratch every single screen layout that FlightMap supports. This was a huge undertaking and is taking a while to test but this change will make FlightMap far more resilient to custom roms and different device hardware. It really is amazing how many configurations there are out there for android tablets. This change should also make it much easier for me to add support for more unique tablets should they come up. Instead of being unusable now they should be mostly usable with minor layout issues.
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