Fellow Pilots,
We’re about to ship Infinite Flight 18.1, our first update of 2018 and we wanted to talk about what’s coming in this latest release, and what isn’t.
Changelist
• New liveries for the A321, 737-800, 747-8
• New ATC Messaging Interface
• ATC voices are now configurable
• ATIS is now available
• Added support for Visual Approach requests to ATC
• Flight info is now available when selecting planes in map view (Expert Server only for now)
• Online Flights Logbook with Ghostings/Violation information
• Aviation and Airport Data can now be updated without app updates
• Various bug fixes and performance improvements
You may have noticed that there is no mention of the CRJ in that list. There’s a very good reason for that. We once again significantly increased the complexity and quality of our aircraft to the point that it negatively affect performance, especially in multiplayer mode.
We’ve decided to delay the release of the CRJ to have more time to experiment with a new aircraft and terrain rendering system we have been working on. This work should help us reach new heights in terms of quality while ensuring the best possible experience, especially with many aircraft on screen (and even allow more that currently possible).
We understand that it may disappoint some pilots out there, but they should find some comfort in the fact that this work should allow us to render more airplanes with better quality at once (along with many other new features it will enable). We will keep you updated on the progress once we can share more about this development.
Bear in mind the fact that our 3D modelling team is already hard at work on the next couple aircraft, so once we solve this performance hurdle, we’ll be able to ship those in a shorter amount of time.
Now about what’s coming…
Liveries
A320: Alaska Airlines (2018)
A321: Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Spirit
737-800: Aerolinas Argentinas, GOL (2018 Livery), Qantas, SAS
747-8: Lufthansa (2018), Seattle SeaHawks
ATIS
We’re adding a new option for ATC Controllers to open an ATIS frequency. It will allow them to broadcast weather, active runways and general airport information to arriving and departing airplanes. Tyler and Mark have prepared videos to explain how to use this new feature as both pilot and ATC.
Note that ATIS is only available on the Expert Server for the time being.
ATC Voices
We have added the ability for pilots to select custom voices. The voice settings are sent with messages and played across the network if receiving devices also have those voices installed. Note that this will not work across platforms. Messages sent on iOS and received on Android will play with the default voice set on users devices.
If you want diversity, make sure you visit your device Text To Speech settings to install new voice packs. Note that some of the voice packs can take a substantial amount of device storage space.
Visual Approaches
ATC now supports visual approach requests in addition to ILS and GPS. This allows pilots to fly visually to the runway when they have the airport in sight instead of being guided on a localizer by ATC. Make sure you check our youtube channel for videos explaining how to use this new feature.
Flight Info
Infinite Flight now has the ability to show a flight path by selecting airplanes on the map. The information panel will show the flight plan, time flown and ETE to destination. This is only available on the Expert Server for now.
Online Logbook
We have added a new logbook tab that shows Online Flights with Ghostings & Violations summary.
Aviation Data Updates
The aviation database has been updated and will now be updateable over the air without requiring an app update. This means that we are able to push a new cycle of the database whenever we need, regardless of the app release schedule.
If you would like more information about our airport and navigation database, please visit the airport editing team website.
New ATC Interface
We have reworked the interface for sending ATC messages. It is now shown in boxes instead of rows to make it easier to hit commands under busy situations.
Also new in this update are two features to help with speedy ATC communications.
The acknowledgements or default responses are now shown in a separate list that is visible at the bottom of the ATC comms page so it’s easy to quickly reply.
Another way to rapidly respond to messages is to hold the ATC button when a response is pending until the default message is sent. This is very convenient in extremely busy situations, no need to open the ATC window to respond to take off or landing requests for example.
We expect this update to roll out in the next few days. Stay tuned for more news about what’s coming next in Infinite Flight and thanks everyone for your continued support!
Happy Landings!
This will sort out KLAX