Posted on

Stingray in beta testing

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQVthNe7Qt4]

It’s official. Today the Terra Stingray enters final beta testing, in which a crack team of testers puts the plane through its paces and uncovers those little bugs that I missed in development. Since I last blogged about the Stingray, I added five more paint schemes, a selection of tail decals, a passenger seat, a glowy heads-up display, as well as a few other less visible details.

I don’t think I’ll release Stingray this weekend, since this weekend is the annual SL Relay for Life event. The folks at SLRFL are raising hundreds of thousands for The American Cancer Society (that’s US dollars, too!), so keep an eye on the official Linden blog and the SLRFL site for info about that event.

Posted on

Terra Combat System is now open source

What’s the single most common question that aircraft makers ask me about the Terra Combat System? “Does it do bombs and missiles?”

The answer is, not yet. But now is your chance to do something about that. As of today, I’m releasing the TCS source to the public under a CC license. This means that you can take TCS — the long-established sensor-based combat standard — and make it better. Adapt it to your bombs, missiles, mines, exploding penguins… whatever.

In return, all you have to do is share your updates with everyone. (I’ll provide a link to a place to do that shortly.)

Let’s work together to make TCS even better, and establish a single sensor-based combat system that we can all share.

Get the full-permission TCS 2.5.4 at Abbotts Aerodrome or at Xstreet SL (click here).

Posted on

Taking the new paint for a spin

Unlike real life paint, virtual paint doesn’t get all over your clothes and stain your hands for days. And I very much appreciate that because for the past couple of days I have been slathering the paint onto the soon-to-be completed Stingray amphibious jet. It’s funny how a new paint job can make a plane feel faster.

Incidentally, a great place to test marine vehicles, like ampibious planes, boat, and submarines, is Gulliver Airport in Zatzai. Not only does it have a runway and boat launch, but it’s also part of the of Second Life’s sailing sims — a truly ginormous body of water that’s dotted with attractive islands.

Posted on

Early preview: a quick demo of the Stingray’s abilities

Even though the design of the Stingray amphibious plane is still in its early stages, I am already working on things like automating transitions between air, ground, and water. My goal is to make the transition so effortless that it will seem like the plane anticipates which mode you want.

In this short video, I demonstrate several of these transitions: runway takeoff, boat ramp launch, submerging, diving, water takeoff, and runway landing. Because the Stingray model isn’t finished, I’m using a plywood stand-in for development and testing.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gCNPvkZErk]