As some of you may have guessed by my lack of posts, the Mac client has basically been stalled. My real-world job has been absolutely crazy, summer means all sorts of kids' activities and I've picked up additional responsibilities at VATSIM.
I have no intentions of abandoning the project though. In fact, I'm considering adding some additional team members to help speed things up. Things I'd likely farm out would be the things that can be easily compartmentalized like alias and POF file handling, flight strips, etc.
I haven't made a final decision yet, but if you know Objective-C and want to help, let me know.
Showing posts with label ATC Client. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ATC Client. Show all posts
Friday, June 25, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Some network goodness
More & more pieces are coming into place in the Mac client. This week I wrote an Objective-C wrapper around the VVL network code. Good chance by the end of next week I'll be able to login and start testing sending and receiving text messages on the network.
Additionally, it won't be difficult to wrap the voice code either, so it may not be too much of a stretch to get voice working before much longer as well. The Mac voice code all needs to be rewritten as it's still VERY old SoundManager code (yech) which frankly I'm surprised still works. However, it does work, so I'll probably start off with just using it as is at first, so we can get something out the door without having to wait on me to rewrite the code with CoreAudio.
Additionally, it won't be difficult to wrap the voice code either, so it may not be too much of a stretch to get voice working before much longer as well. The Mac voice code all needs to be rewritten as it's still VERY old SoundManager code (yech) which frankly I'm surprised still works. However, it does work, so I'll probably start off with just using it as is at first, so we can get something out the door without having to wait on me to rewrite the code with CoreAudio.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Things are looking up
With the heavy snow (well heavy by our standards) snow in Nashville, the family hasn't been able to get out of the house, so I've had a little more time to sit and program rather than running all over creation.
I've gotten a not completely insignificant portion of the interface wired up with Interface Builder and have moved on to start working on the text windows. This part is going to be a bit challenging since I'm trying to integrate traditional Cocoa controls on top of an OpenGL view. It can be done, but not having attempted it before, it's going to take some playing with.
I've gotten a not completely insignificant portion of the interface wired up with Interface Builder and have moved on to start working on the text windows. This part is going to be a bit challenging since I'm trying to integrate traditional Cocoa controls on top of an OpenGL view. It can be done, but not having attempted it before, it's going to take some playing with.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Some more progress
Nothing too exciting to report, but given the extra time over the holidays, I have been making more progress than I normally can. I've started hooking up some of the user interface items and am working on the preferences dialog.
Still tons to do, but bit by bit it's starting to look like an application rather than just random code.
Still tons to do, but bit by bit it's starting to look like an application rather than just random code.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Time...never enough
I realize it's been a while since I've posted, so I wanted to post something.
Things are going more slowly than I'd like. There's really no technical reason; work has been killing me lately, and with two eight-year-olds around, there's an activity nearly every evening. Most of my development time has been coming in 30-45 minute spurts, and as developer will tell you, it's difficult to work like that. You barely can get your mind focused on where you were when you left off and suddenly it's time to quit.
The good news is the transition of the drawing code to Vertex Buffer Objects (VBO's) is complete. While not necessary for performance, it allows me to avoid a rewrite should the rumored removal of Immediate Mode in OpenGL 3.0 come true.
I'm currently working on figuring out how to set all the colors for all the objects. My hope is to be able to set colors on individual line segments, rather than just a whole class of objects. While perhaps not the most mind-blowing feature, I'm sure people would enjoy the extra level of customization.
Things are going more slowly than I'd like. There's really no technical reason; work has been killing me lately, and with two eight-year-olds around, there's an activity nearly every evening. Most of my development time has been coming in 30-45 minute spurts, and as developer will tell you, it's difficult to work like that. You barely can get your mind focused on where you were when you left off and suddenly it's time to quit.
The good news is the transition of the drawing code to Vertex Buffer Objects (VBO's) is complete. While not necessary for performance, it allows me to avoid a rewrite should the rumored removal of Immediate Mode in OpenGL 3.0 come true.
I'm currently working on figuring out how to set all the colors for all the objects. My hope is to be able to set colors on individual line segments, rather than just a whole class of objects. While perhaps not the most mind-blowing feature, I'm sure people would enjoy the extra level of customization.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Latest on the ATC Client
Not much to report on the ATC client. I've been working on a new version of XSB and meeting some deadlines for my other project (Targetware), so that's consumed the majority of my time.
I did switch from using an NSOpenGLView to a GLView subclass. This gives a lot more flexibility. The OpenGL context can be on multiple screens, it can have Cocoa controls on top, etc.
Right now I'm in the process of moving the drawing code from Immediate mode to Vertex Buffer Objects. It's an optimization that's completely unnecessary given the trivial requirements of a radar client, but Immediate Mode is slated to go away at some point, so better to change things to use the "right" way now.
I should get some more time near the end of the month to work on the client, and should have good things to report then.
I did switch from using an NSOpenGLView to a GLView subclass. This gives a lot more flexibility. The OpenGL context can be on multiple screens, it can have Cocoa controls on top, etc.
Right now I'm in the process of moving the drawing code from Immediate mode to Vertex Buffer Objects. It's an optimization that's completely unnecessary given the trivial requirements of a radar client, but Immediate Mode is slated to go away at some point, so better to change things to use the "right" way now.
I should get some more time near the end of the month to work on the client, and should have good things to report then.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Some work on the Mac ATC client
After many months of having no time to devote to the Mac radar client, I had a little bit of time over the weekend.
To properly set expectations on where things stand, right now it's just loading the sector file and drawing it. I had been having problems with zooming and panning that were bugging me, but those have been resolved.
However, despite my warnings of the rudimentary state at which we're at, I can't resist a small teaser:
That boys and girls, is KLAX from the ZLA sector file. (Only airports, runways and geo's are being drawn in this example.) The colors no doubt need adjusting, but any ZLA controller will certainly feel at home looking at that diagram.
So what's up next?
Before I get too far, I need to optimize the drawing routines, so that's probably next. Then I'll start wiring up the interface to allow the enabling / disabling of drawing of all the various sector file elements without having to change code. After that I'll start working on the text system (chat windows and such). Once all that is done, we'll be ready to start delving into networking and making planes move.
To properly set expectations on where things stand, right now it's just loading the sector file and drawing it. I had been having problems with zooming and panning that were bugging me, but those have been resolved.
However, despite my warnings of the rudimentary state at which we're at, I can't resist a small teaser:
That boys and girls, is KLAX from the ZLA sector file. (Only airports, runways and geo's are being drawn in this example.) The colors no doubt need adjusting, but any ZLA controller will certainly feel at home looking at that diagram.
So what's up next?
Before I get too far, I need to optimize the drawing routines, so that's probably next. Then I'll start wiring up the interface to allow the enabling / disabling of drawing of all the various sector file elements without having to change code. After that I'll start working on the text system (chat windows and such). Once all that is done, we'll be ready to start delving into networking and making planes move.
Friday, May 15, 2009
One known fact about the future VATSIM Mac radar client
I announced a few weeks ago on the VATSIM forums that I do have a Mac radar client for VATSIM in development.
In still in the early stages and I don't know whether it will take 3 months, 6 months, a year, or two to finish. There's always the possibility that I never finish it. Now, before I depress you too much, I do think there's a very good chance I will finish it and probably sooner rather than later.
One thing I do know is when published, it will require OS X 10.5 or later. I originally started the project targeting 10.4, but there's just too much nice stuff in 10.5 of which I think I'm going to be able to take advantage - if not in the first version, than in a later version. Things like CoreData for persistent data storage (such as aircraft details), CoreAnimation for creating various layers, fast enumeration and probably garbage collection.
So I want to go ahead and get the word out now, rather than later. Let me say it again - 10.5 will be the minimum.
If you don't have 10.5, you don't have to run out and buy it right now. In fact, I wouldn't. I'd wait and buy 10.6 when it comes out.
But heads up now - requests to make the radar client run on 10.4 and 10.3 will fall on deaf ears.
In still in the early stages and I don't know whether it will take 3 months, 6 months, a year, or two to finish. There's always the possibility that I never finish it. Now, before I depress you too much, I do think there's a very good chance I will finish it and probably sooner rather than later.
One thing I do know is when published, it will require OS X 10.5 or later. I originally started the project targeting 10.4, but there's just too much nice stuff in 10.5 of which I think I'm going to be able to take advantage - if not in the first version, than in a later version. Things like CoreData for persistent data storage (such as aircraft details), CoreAnimation for creating various layers, fast enumeration and probably garbage collection.
So I want to go ahead and get the word out now, rather than later. Let me say it again - 10.5 will be the minimum.
If you don't have 10.5, you don't have to run out and buy it right now. In fact, I wouldn't. I'd wait and buy 10.6 when it comes out.
But heads up now - requests to make the radar client run on 10.4 and 10.3 will fall on deaf ears.
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