Ideal Flight Accessibility phase 2

[Steve Waite]

Remember that part of the remit of Ideal Flight is to test the system very thoroughly in all aspects of the simulation. It's used to check that a system is good to go. Generally those issues that arise on particular systems or aircraft are showing that there's likely an issue with that system or addon.

As example: Ideal Flight always starts the flight from a saved file but without Ideal Flight we go into the scenario builder and select a plane and go into the simulation. Those are very different situations, the start from file is way more thorough and can fail with undercooked addons.

Remember also that simulators don't all work the same. With P3D v4 that can't restart the autopilot from a saved file if the sim is not running and the saved file is passed in to the command line to start the simulator. With P3D v5 this issue has been fixed. I got a lot of mail from that situation but it was a fault in Prepar3D. For some that's hard to believe. In Ideal Flight there's some other test procedures called Startup Behaviour, on the startup page popup menu, those can start the sim from cold and have the autopilot running as well. But those behaviours are more for development and testing addon aircraft. Again I had mail pertaining to those behaviours apparently "not working", but it was a situation arising from an undercooked addon. Ideal Flight was simply doing its job of go/no-go gauge.

[Orinks]

I did a new flight after that one and everything worked as usual.

I just hooked up a flight yoke, and for whatever reason, on the flight where I had the issue, I went to pick up my phone to use it and accidentally bumped the yoke with it while in flight. Despite the autopilot/Autothrottle being on, doing that for some reason switched the engine ignitions off.

So my engines went off, and I had to do my best to restart them in the air. I did eventually restart them and AP just continued as normal as all that really happened was a gradual slowdown due to no power.

I'm hoping this workaround solves the issue on the rare instance it comes up. If it does we probably won't notice anything now.

[Steve Waite]

Yes, with FSX through Prepar3D v5 this can happen after starting the simulator from cold and the first touch of the joystick can disengage things.

What you do is, as soon as you are in the simulator, wobble a joystick before commencing a flight. That should prevent it from happening.

[Steve Waite]

12/June/2020:

Latest IF versions include screen reader support and in-sim voice callouts by codelegend.com

Preview 21:

Ideal Flight Professional P3D v4/5
Ideal Flight 10 Professional P3D v2/3
Ideal Flight 10 Special Edition
Ideal Flight 10 Original

I have included in Other Settings checkbox page to move fuel section to the top of the briefing quick section.

I have included in the help system for the Assist and the Voice functions - Index page for links.

I have included guitar plucks and whistle tones indicating directions - Voice Help in Flight help page.

Assist window parking locations only show available parking. Occupied parking places are not shown.

[Steve Waite]

I just noticed something happened to the magnetic bearing callouts again, can now be showing in the thousands of degrees. Hopefully I can fix that setting once and for all next update - sorry for the problem.

[Steve Waite]

...It is just a space missing between the actual heading and the magnetic so that the voice makes the heading as thousands.

[Steve Waite]

Just a note to say that the help system with regards to the Voice settings and Assistance is to be improved somewhat yet. For example the selection of Voice presets and how that works specifically can be improved.

Also the way the plucks represent the direction we are heading works but does not take into account the winds yet - winds pushing us left would have the Autopilot fly into those winds to stay on course and hence we hear the plucks.

regarding the throttle manager, we can hear that change the throttle as we fly over up and down draughts. So as we fly over a hot place, and just downwind of that, we are actually falling more so the throttle will back off slightly - it is not hunting, but rather it is maintain airspeed. We can test with still airmass with no Ideal Flight thermals engine running and zero winds.

More to come...

[Orinks]

Hi Steve,

You know, I was thinking it'd be fun if you set up a Twitch for yourself and did periotic livestreams. Development streams testing features etc.

Especially now that Ideal Flight keeps growing with all these new features that are primarily for accessibility, but perhaps others might get some use out of them, you never know. Especially the throttle manager.

[Steve Waite]

Agreed, however I just don't seem to get enough time or I would do more stuff like that. Maybe later.

The accessibility features are being used in general including the Voice and Assistance items, so it's all been positive. Thanks to you and the other group members for suggesting the improvements and keeping me busy.

[Steve Waite]

So regarding the plucks I have improved that now: When following a route the plucks indicate in which direction you are headed off route. With the AP and GPS NAV no plucks when on the line. With AP and Heading bug set no plucks when on the line. With AP off and Heading bug set we get plucks when heading off the line. That's all with a strong sidewind, with AP on or off and the heading bug, the triangulation of the windspeed on the actual heading is now taken into account.