Ladies and Gentlemen,
In case you haven’t seen it yet, the Lockheed Vega is now available for purchase in Early-Access! As you can imagine, the previous weeks have been crazy for us but I feel very confident that we released a product that is very solid, despite it being Early-Access. My biggest fear going into Early-Access has always been that customers feel like they’re not getting their moneys worth, which was the main reason for various delays of beforehand. But so far I had zero support requests regarding the aircraft and everybody seem to be happy with it.
Below you’ll find my current to-do-list as you’d see it on my whiteboard in the office. These are the things I consider to be the priority for the next Update of the Lockheed Vega 5. I figure it would further the transparency and trust if you’d be kept in the loop as to what I am working on right now, since all of you have been very generous and forthcoming in your support of this project.
TO-DO list for version 0.4
- Heat exchange module – this will be a core-component of the Vega’s physics simulation and an integral part in the engine’s wear&tear simulation.
- Skinned mesh animations – there’s some skinned mesh parts that need a bit of love. I.e. the stick cover, the pilot and the wiring in the fuse-box (there’s some minor clipping issues)
- Clean up lubrication module – there’s an issue (that doesn’t affect the operation right now!) in the guts of the oil system were the pressure can rise to ridiculous levels so that the double variable can’t hold it anymore and it switches to “NaN” (not a number). I need to set some boundary conditions in the pressure calculations to prevent that. In the future this high pressure will cause failures though – broken seals etc.
- Fuel dump valve – My research (that’s what I call my “looking at pictures”) shows that the early Lockheeds all seem to have had a fuel dump valve installed just under the wobble pump. I’ll implement that in the next update.
- Overhaul vacuum system – I was called out on YouTube for my inadequate representation of the vacuum system. Specifically my assumption that the prop-wash would generate enough laminar flow to generate enough pressure differential in the venturi tube to operate three instruments. I was wrong and I’ll correct this. As it turns out, the venturi was only hooked up to the turn & bank indicator as a backup in case the engine-driven vacuum pump failed. The bad news is that this also means I have to change the plumbing diagram in the manuals… meh.
- Handheld radio – ok, ok. I concede your point. Your posts here in the forum weren’t the first to point out that a radio would really, really be useful. While I still hate the idea of introducing modern technology into the aircraft, I think I will include the option of installing a little 2d-handheld radio. Are you happy now?
- SECRET – there are some other points on the list that I either don’t want to disclose, because I’m not sure if I’ll finish with them on time, or I’d like to surprise you.