New Version of the Transponder on the beta test page!
The latest version is up for download. I haven't had a chance to change the actual page but the file is there and ready to be tested. I recommend that all pilots take a look at it because it will be the release verision as soon as I have a couple feature implemented. Check out the new section on the message board for the up to date documentation as well as a place to request features and post problems.
Please take the new version of transponder and beat it to death. I want to know when it breaks. In other words run as many races as you can on it without turning it off. Use the reset button. Try out all the options. And when it does break report what happened in the message board so I can see if I can prevent it from happening again.
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
VARO News week of April 26 2004
Well another week another VARO news. Racing was excellent on Saturday as five
of VARO's best battled it out at KDVT. I for one can say that all races were
very close but in the end Jimi came out on top with his first career Gold
victory. After the victory and due to the absence of Awolf from the race the
F1 point standings were shaken up a bit. Sryth is now in the lead with two
gold race finishes under his belt and Jimi and Maple One are not far behind.
This Saturday we will see the Unlimiteds take to the KDVT course. There
are a lot of pilots gunning for the top unlimited spot should make for some
excellent racing.
Important News
All this week I am going to conducting tests of new voice communication
software. During scheduled practices. I have all the candidates installed and
ready to test we just need to try them out. The candidates are:
BattleCom
http://www.battlecom.org/
Comm Center
http://www.randomsoftware.com/ccenter/index-en.html
Roger Wilco
http://rogerwilco.gamespy.com/
Another possibility is to stick with TS and simply log out when racing. It
seems to be working aside from the occassional lag we are seeing solid laps
from everyone including pilots on dial-up.
Scheduling news
I have been working out the fall season and it looks like we can have a total
of 3 seasons a year.
Spring:
April,May,June,
Fall:
August,September,October
Winter:
December,January,Febuary
This will give pilots 3 months a year off from racing as well as offer year
round racing. Also each season will have to have a minimum of 5 pilots in
order for the season to start. I also plan to add courses into the VARO
system and rotate them each season.
Development News
Transponder OPTIONAL beta should be up very soon. I am in the process of
coding in as much error traping as I possible can to prevent the "crash to
desktop" problems. The goal is to catch any errors that will cause a major
crash and handle them internally so that pilots are not forced to leave FS to
fix the problem. Once I have this code in place I will release the new
OPTIONAL Beta. Note, the current version will still be usable but will not be
available for download once I release the newer version.
VARO Racer Vol2 "Legends
Pond Racer is heading over to Maple One's shop today to have start the flight
model process. If anyone had any information on Pond Racer please forward the
information on to Maple One so that we can get a accurate flight model as a
basis for the Unlimited Flight Model.
Courses
Looks like we are going "down under" as least for a couple races. I have
started scouting some airports in Australia. Jimi has been kind enough to give
me a list of some good spots to go racing. If anyone one has any other
suggestions for courses I am always open. I am especially looking for courses
outside the US. Just make sure there is enough open area on one side of the
airport to put pylons down. It doens't have to be realistic but I don't want
to be flying to close to a large city
Boards
Lots of action on the VARO boards lately special in the Race Committee
section. Committee members stay posted. Proposals will turning into polls very
soon.
VARO Promotion
A very good idea was posted to the Race Committee. So I am going to implement
it. Here is the plan:
For every "original post" to a new flight sim or air racing related forum that
pilot will recieve 2 bonus points. By the word original I mean that the first
VARO pilot to post in that particular forum will get the points.
For every new pilot that results from the post the posting pilot will recieve
5 bonus points.
A link to each forum post must be put into the VARO Message Board so that I
can check it out. All points will be added toward the overall championship.
VARO Awards
Very soon the roster page will be filling up with color from the awards I am
working on. Each award will be represented by a graphic and will have a
description attached. Below is a list of awards that are planned
Fastest Lap
1 for each course, WIll be held until the lap is bested
Gold
Each gold participant will recieve this award
Silver
Each gold participant will recieve this award
Bronze
Each gold participant will recieve this award(when necessary)
Unlimited Champion
Winner of the Unlimited Series
F1 Champion
Winner of the F1 Series
Over All Champion
Winner of the Combined Class Points
Manufacturer
Goes to pilot flying with that Manufacturer
Rookie of the Year
Goes to the best pilot in there first VARO season
Most Valuable Pilot
Goes to pilot the best represents the vision and goal of VARO
Spring 2004 Badge
Goes to all participants of the Spring 2004 series
VARO Race Committee
Goes to all member of VARO race committee
Air Boss
Goes to any airboss certified pilot
Certified Pilot
Goes to every pilot that is a Certified VARO Pilot
VARO Staff
Goes to members of the VARO Staff
Below each name in the Roster will be kind of like a medal board, these awards
will go there.
Well another week another VARO news. Racing was excellent on Saturday as five
of VARO's best battled it out at KDVT. I for one can say that all races were
very close but in the end Jimi came out on top with his first career Gold
victory. After the victory and due to the absence of Awolf from the race the
F1 point standings were shaken up a bit. Sryth is now in the lead with two
gold race finishes under his belt and Jimi and Maple One are not far behind.
This Saturday we will see the Unlimiteds take to the KDVT course. There
are a lot of pilots gunning for the top unlimited spot should make for some
excellent racing.
Important News
All this week I am going to conducting tests of new voice communication
software. During scheduled practices. I have all the candidates installed and
ready to test we just need to try them out. The candidates are:
BattleCom
http://www.battlecom.org/
Comm Center
http://www.randomsoftware.com/ccenter/index-en.html
Roger Wilco
http://rogerwilco.gamespy.com/
Another possibility is to stick with TS and simply log out when racing. It
seems to be working aside from the occassional lag we are seeing solid laps
from everyone including pilots on dial-up.
Scheduling news
I have been working out the fall season and it looks like we can have a total
of 3 seasons a year.
Spring:
April,May,June,
Fall:
August,September,October
Winter:
December,January,Febuary
This will give pilots 3 months a year off from racing as well as offer year
round racing. Also each season will have to have a minimum of 5 pilots in
order for the season to start. I also plan to add courses into the VARO
system and rotate them each season.
Development News
Transponder OPTIONAL beta should be up very soon. I am in the process of
coding in as much error traping as I possible can to prevent the "crash to
desktop" problems. The goal is to catch any errors that will cause a major
crash and handle them internally so that pilots are not forced to leave FS to
fix the problem. Once I have this code in place I will release the new
OPTIONAL Beta. Note, the current version will still be usable but will not be
available for download once I release the newer version.
VARO Racer Vol2 "Legends
Pond Racer is heading over to Maple One's shop today to have start the flight
model process. If anyone had any information on Pond Racer please forward the
information on to Maple One so that we can get a accurate flight model as a
basis for the Unlimited Flight Model.
Courses
Looks like we are going "down under" as least for a couple races. I have
started scouting some airports in Australia. Jimi has been kind enough to give
me a list of some good spots to go racing. If anyone one has any other
suggestions for courses I am always open. I am especially looking for courses
outside the US. Just make sure there is enough open area on one side of the
airport to put pylons down. It doens't have to be realistic but I don't want
to be flying to close to a large city
Boards
Lots of action on the VARO boards lately special in the Race Committee
section. Committee members stay posted. Proposals will turning into polls very
soon.
VARO Promotion
A very good idea was posted to the Race Committee. So I am going to implement
it. Here is the plan:
For every "original post" to a new flight sim or air racing related forum that
pilot will recieve 2 bonus points. By the word original I mean that the first
VARO pilot to post in that particular forum will get the points.
For every new pilot that results from the post the posting pilot will recieve
5 bonus points.
A link to each forum post must be put into the VARO Message Board so that I
can check it out. All points will be added toward the overall championship.
VARO Awards
Very soon the roster page will be filling up with color from the awards I am
working on. Each award will be represented by a graphic and will have a
description attached. Below is a list of awards that are planned
Fastest Lap
1 for each course, WIll be held until the lap is bested
Gold
Each gold participant will recieve this award
Silver
Each gold participant will recieve this award
Bronze
Each gold participant will recieve this award(when necessary)
Unlimited Champion
Winner of the Unlimited Series
F1 Champion
Winner of the F1 Series
Over All Champion
Winner of the Combined Class Points
Manufacturer
Goes to pilot flying with that Manufacturer
Rookie of the Year
Goes to the best pilot in there first VARO season
Most Valuable Pilot
Goes to pilot the best represents the vision and goal of VARO
Spring 2004 Badge
Goes to all participants of the Spring 2004 series
VARO Race Committee
Goes to all member of VARO race committee
Air Boss
Goes to any airboss certified pilot
Certified Pilot
Goes to every pilot that is a Certified VARO Pilot
VARO Staff
Goes to members of the VARO Staff
Below each name in the Roster will be kind of like a medal board, these awards
will go there.
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
VARO News Week of 041904
I would give a race recap but I was so miffed at myself for having for running out of gas in the third heat race after smoking he competition. I have forgotten what else happened the rest of the evening. If you are looking for race results please visit the webpage all results are posted and are up to date.
Important News
Teamspeak is out! Yea we finally tracked down the lag and its in my prized Teamspeak, I know I defended Teamspeak and it is a superior product to most but when used with FlightSIm to race online it shows its tendency to hog bandwidth and as close and fast as we fly our aircraft it becomes an issues and Flightsim runs out of bandwidth. So what now, well last week we experimented with logging out of TS while a race was going on and then loggin back in after we had all landed. This seemed to work well with a couple exceptions. Maple One has also pointed me to a shareware product that may meet out needs be we need to test it. The last option which I dread is going back to Roger Wilco, I know its tried and true it works but the lack of options and the quality is suspect. I will keep everyone posted on what happens.
Other News
KDVT Files our out. I have an updated course out there along with the transponder file. If anyone has problems with the file please let me KNOW ASAP. So that means test the program before you come to race on saturday. We have been using the transponder a lot lately to verify close finishes or finishes where lag may have been an issue.
Development News
Transponder release version is rolling along, I do regret to say without some major coding I am NOT going to be able to put the file into the kneeboard at least in fs2002, Fs2004 uses an .html base so I may be able to get something working there but no luck in 2002 even after we played with the aircraft.cfg files. SO what does this mean well I am going to be building a pop up window that will have all the important info preformated to copy and past right into the flight sim chat window. As soon as I get this feature coded I will be releasing an OPTIONAL beta of the new interface. It works just like the old one when it comes to lap timing and counting the main difference is a slimmed down interface and hopefully it will be more memory efficent.
VARO Racer Vol 2 "Legends"
Well work as been slow since the season started but now that we are up and running and I know what the work load is going to be(I can put together a course in about a week now) I can get back to work on VOL 2 which will be release this summer for the Fall racing season. I currently have the Pond Racer pretty much ready to have its flight model built and then off to the paint shop. Tsunami has been settin gon my harddrive for a while all I have to do is add the gear and send it off to get painted and its flight model build. Red Barron is going to be a bit more difficult, since I don't have anything started on it it will probably take me a few weeks to get it around. So good news for the VARO Racer.
Courses
I am currently looking into building a couple more courses and add them to the schedule for our Fall season. I have the option to either extending the season or replacing a couple of existing courses. I will post a poll in the forum to get everyones decision.
Polls
I have started a new poll in the forum about online practices. Polls are kinda new to VARO but what I and the Race Committee are going to make decisions for VARO based on these polls. VARO is going to be run by the pilots as much as possible however be warned these polls are not official they are just a guide to help the Committee make decisions. For those of you in the committee I am going to be posting polls in the committee board that will be official rulings for the next racing season. Only committee members will have access to these polls and they will lead to definent changes in VARO. Expect those polls to start showing up soon. and VARO committee members if you do not know the access password to the forum please let me know and I will get that to you.
Well thats about it, hope to see everyone at KDVT this saturday for Round 2 of VARO Air Racing.
I would give a race recap but I was so miffed at myself for having for running out of gas in the third heat race after smoking he competition. I have forgotten what else happened the rest of the evening. If you are looking for race results please visit the webpage all results are posted and are up to date.
Important News
Teamspeak is out! Yea we finally tracked down the lag and its in my prized Teamspeak, I know I defended Teamspeak and it is a superior product to most but when used with FlightSIm to race online it shows its tendency to hog bandwidth and as close and fast as we fly our aircraft it becomes an issues and Flightsim runs out of bandwidth. So what now, well last week we experimented with logging out of TS while a race was going on and then loggin back in after we had all landed. This seemed to work well with a couple exceptions. Maple One has also pointed me to a shareware product that may meet out needs be we need to test it. The last option which I dread is going back to Roger Wilco, I know its tried and true it works but the lack of options and the quality is suspect. I will keep everyone posted on what happens.
Other News
KDVT Files our out. I have an updated course out there along with the transponder file. If anyone has problems with the file please let me KNOW ASAP. So that means test the program before you come to race on saturday. We have been using the transponder a lot lately to verify close finishes or finishes where lag may have been an issue.
Development News
Transponder release version is rolling along, I do regret to say without some major coding I am NOT going to be able to put the file into the kneeboard at least in fs2002, Fs2004 uses an .html base so I may be able to get something working there but no luck in 2002 even after we played with the aircraft.cfg files. SO what does this mean well I am going to be building a pop up window that will have all the important info preformated to copy and past right into the flight sim chat window. As soon as I get this feature coded I will be releasing an OPTIONAL beta of the new interface. It works just like the old one when it comes to lap timing and counting the main difference is a slimmed down interface and hopefully it will be more memory efficent.
VARO Racer Vol 2 "Legends"
Well work as been slow since the season started but now that we are up and running and I know what the work load is going to be(I can put together a course in about a week now) I can get back to work on VOL 2 which will be release this summer for the Fall racing season. I currently have the Pond Racer pretty much ready to have its flight model built and then off to the paint shop. Tsunami has been settin gon my harddrive for a while all I have to do is add the gear and send it off to get painted and its flight model build. Red Barron is going to be a bit more difficult, since I don't have anything started on it it will probably take me a few weeks to get it around. So good news for the VARO Racer.
Courses
I am currently looking into building a couple more courses and add them to the schedule for our Fall season. I have the option to either extending the season or replacing a couple of existing courses. I will post a poll in the forum to get everyones decision.
Polls
I have started a new poll in the forum about online practices. Polls are kinda new to VARO but what I and the Race Committee are going to make decisions for VARO based on these polls. VARO is going to be run by the pilots as much as possible however be warned these polls are not official they are just a guide to help the Committee make decisions. For those of you in the committee I am going to be posting polls in the committee board that will be official rulings for the next racing season. Only committee members will have access to these polls and they will lead to definent changes in VARO. Expect those polls to start showing up soon. and VARO committee members if you do not know the access password to the forum please let me know and I will get that to you.
Well thats about it, hope to see everyone at KDVT this saturday for Round 2 of VARO Air Racing.
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
VARO News Week of 040504
Well the season is almost here and things are starting to fall into place. I would like to thank the VARO staff in advance for there dedication to getting VARO off the ground and back in the air.
I am going to be releasing a scenery patch for KMHV prior to Saturday. This patch will have the gate pylons as well as a moved starting grid and hangars. Patches for the other courses will come out during the F1 racing week at each course. I will also add the patches to the main download so that it will be easy to get all of them if you need to.
VARO Racer Volume 1: Skin package addon
I am going to be gathering up all the skins that have been made for the VARO Racer. If you have a skin and want it to be included please send the .bmp file to Sryth(reply to this e-mail), be sure to include your name and the aircraft the skin is for since all skins originate for nearly the same templates. Do understand that if a pilot does submit a skin he will recieve credit for the skin but the skin may be released with other versions of the VARO Racer Volume 1 package without notice. Also pilots must be considered "Certified" pilots in order to use their skins while flying in VARO Races, the right to use skins must be earned, also probationary pilots should use the pre-painted VARO Aircraft help to point out the "Rookie" pilots to the veteran pilots. Finally numbers on aircraft must not be numbers already in use and they must be positioned on the aircraft so they may be seen from the control tower during a race(look at the current skins for reference). Numbers already in use start at 1 and go to 30 for the time being. If a pilot would like to use a number that is already taken they may but a letter by there number(b,c,d, etc).
VARO F1
I know I have been saying for weeks now that it is coming ok now it is. I will be releasing an updated VARO F1 with a modified flight model(no more engine stalling).
Big announcement
VARO Racer Volume 2 "Legends"
3 aircraft that changed the face of air racing as we know it today. These aircraft were innovative in the design and implementaion. These aircraft are a tribute to their teams and the pilots that were lost with them.
The aircraft
Red Barron
A counter-rotating prop mustang that was far more than a normal mustang
Tsunami
2/3rd the size of a regular mustang completely homebuilt for speed.
Pond Racer
Probably the most radical designs to race in an Unlimited Race. The real Pond Racer used Nissan Automotive engines but they never put out the horsepower need to push the all composite built racer to the gold.
As usual these aircraft will have top notch flight models and well as the VARO "Raibow of Colors" skins. As well as having VARO Racing visual models.
Final Notice to all pilots
If you are a member of VARO and have NOT completed Pylon School you will not be allowed to race in the season until you have done so. In addition if you are a member and have not either posted the the message board or be in an online session you will be removed from the roster at the begining of the Season. If anyone needs to go through Pylon School and get checked out please reply to this e-mail and let me know when a good time is to complete your pylon school. Pylon school can be completed in aprox 20-30 minutes depending on the Pilots skill.
Final thanks
Big thanks go out to Maple One he has been doing a great job hosting TeamSpeak and occasionally the Flight Session. He has also done a top notch job on the VARO Racer Volume One flight model. Another big thanks to the pilots that show up every practice session you guys will end up leading this thing in the end.
Well the season is almost here and things are starting to fall into place. I would like to thank the VARO staff in advance for there dedication to getting VARO off the ground and back in the air.
I am going to be releasing a scenery patch for KMHV prior to Saturday. This patch will have the gate pylons as well as a moved starting grid and hangars. Patches for the other courses will come out during the F1 racing week at each course. I will also add the patches to the main download so that it will be easy to get all of them if you need to.
VARO Racer Volume 1: Skin package addon
I am going to be gathering up all the skins that have been made for the VARO Racer. If you have a skin and want it to be included please send the .bmp file to Sryth(reply to this e-mail), be sure to include your name and the aircraft the skin is for since all skins originate for nearly the same templates. Do understand that if a pilot does submit a skin he will recieve credit for the skin but the skin may be released with other versions of the VARO Racer Volume 1 package without notice. Also pilots must be considered "Certified" pilots in order to use their skins while flying in VARO Races, the right to use skins must be earned, also probationary pilots should use the pre-painted VARO Aircraft help to point out the "Rookie" pilots to the veteran pilots. Finally numbers on aircraft must not be numbers already in use and they must be positioned on the aircraft so they may be seen from the control tower during a race(look at the current skins for reference). Numbers already in use start at 1 and go to 30 for the time being. If a pilot would like to use a number that is already taken they may but a letter by there number(b,c,d, etc).
VARO F1
I know I have been saying for weeks now that it is coming ok now it is. I will be releasing an updated VARO F1 with a modified flight model(no more engine stalling).
Big announcement
VARO Racer Volume 2 "Legends"
3 aircraft that changed the face of air racing as we know it today. These aircraft were innovative in the design and implementaion. These aircraft are a tribute to their teams and the pilots that were lost with them.
The aircraft
Red Barron
A counter-rotating prop mustang that was far more than a normal mustang
Tsunami
2/3rd the size of a regular mustang completely homebuilt for speed.
Pond Racer
Probably the most radical designs to race in an Unlimited Race. The real Pond Racer used Nissan Automotive engines but they never put out the horsepower need to push the all composite built racer to the gold.
As usual these aircraft will have top notch flight models and well as the VARO "Raibow of Colors" skins. As well as having VARO Racing visual models.
Final Notice to all pilots
If you are a member of VARO and have NOT completed Pylon School you will not be allowed to race in the season until you have done so. In addition if you are a member and have not either posted the the message board or be in an online session you will be removed from the roster at the begining of the Season. If anyone needs to go through Pylon School and get checked out please reply to this e-mail and let me know when a good time is to complete your pylon school. Pylon school can be completed in aprox 20-30 minutes depending on the Pilots skill.
Final thanks
Big thanks go out to Maple One he has been doing a great job hosting TeamSpeak and occasionally the Flight Session. He has also done a top notch job on the VARO Racer Volume One flight model. Another big thanks to the pilots that show up every practice session you guys will end up leading this thing in the end.
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