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Interview: Robert Richardson When did you start developing for flight simulator? Being a long time fan of the AlphaSim models (now Virtavia) I became very impatient for an FSX upgrade to their superb De Havilland Sea Venom so I thought I would have a shot at it myself. After a torturous learning curve and a couple of visits to the Duxford Air Museum for some photos and as much information as I could gather, I managed to produce something that looked a bit, to me anyway, like the aircraft I was after. That was about three years ago. Tell us the nature of your designs and what you do I am of a "certain age" and remember vividly as a schoolboy being taken for my first visit to the Farnborough Air Show; long before it became an international event. In those days, every year you would see a whole range of new, weird and wonderful aircraft designs, most of which have now long been forgotten. It is inevitable that the influences for my flight sim models should come from my memories of those old British aircraft. Living, as I do in the UK, we are blessed with a great many aircraft museums (quite a few of these within driving distance of my home) full of these old aircraft, and I intend spending my retirement visiting as many of them as possible, looking for inspiration for the next model. What do you consider your best or most popular work? I suppose my first completed model will always have a special place in my heart, mainly because of all the technical and artistic hurdles; the questions on the forums asking for help; coming to grips with all the software involved and then unravelling the gobbledegook that is xml coding. Just to arrive at a functioning and flyable model must be an achievement in itself, but having said that I think my best work was on the Fairy Gannet AEW 3, modelled on the example residing at the Newark Air Museum. This aircraft was modified for service in the Falklands conflict but in the event was never used for that purpose. The staff there, as always, were most helpful with photographs and information. If ever you are in the Newark area, a visit to this wonderland of old aircraft is an absolute must. The homemade fruitcake available in the teashop is some of the best in middle England and worth a visit for that alone! What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of a project? The insane complexity of aircraft, even those of the era I'm interested in, is something that always astonishes me, and to capture even a small percentage of that complexity and turn it into a functioning and realistic computer model is only ever going to be achievable by the top guys. In my case I have to consider what I am capable of and how much I can leave out and still maintain a modicum of realism. Getting the information to build a virtual cockpit will inevitably be somewhat frustrating. Though most museums are willing to let me have a look at the cockpit, it is frequently the case that anything useful has been robbed from the aircraft or the canopy has been closed for so long that it is stuck fast! A lot of guesswork is involved at this point. What software packages and tools do you use? When it comes to computers and software I'm a complete junkie! Amazon just loves me, they are my best friends...well according to them that is. Like most people who have a go at flight sim models, I started off using Gmax but then discovered FSDS Pro. That is when things really came to life for me because in my mind, FSDS Pro is a beautiful, intuitive program ideal for creating those fine lines and curves. It is only when you reach the final stages of a project that its shortcomings become evident, at which point "FSDSxTweak" comes to the rescue. PaintShop Pro X6 accomplishes everything needed for my purposes at a price that won't break the bank as it's easy and a real pleasure to use. DXTBmp by Martin Wright is one of those small freeware programs I just couldn't live without, as amongst other things, it converts any file type into any other type. Gimp 2.8 is quite a nice program and open source. I like the airbrush tool and I also use it for bump maps. Aircraft Airfile Manager is a must, as is "ShowMarkers". I use FS Sound Studio for, wait for it, sound files. I'm using the latest P3D SDK and compiling into Prepar3D, then copying the model back into FSX. I do this because, since ORBX brought out their England and Wales packages I have returned to using FSX as my sim of choice, only using P3D for developing. This might seem like a strange way of working but I'm sticking with P3D to develop with the future in mind. I have it installed with no add-ons for quick loading. I mustn't forget to mention my trusty Fuji HS20 for the masses of aircraft photos I take. Believe me when I say "I'm no photographer" but this camera just has to be pointing in the general direction of a subject to capture an image that's usually recognisable. What have been your favorite projects? That's a difficult question to answer. Usually with each project there is a great deal of time, effort and travel involved in gathering enough information to start a new project, so when I was in the process of researching the F-106 Delta Dart I was amazed at the abundance of data available on the web. To be able to find as much information as I did, without getting out of my computer chair was a real bonus. In my mind this incredible aircraft is one of the most beautiful ever produced and its achievements are legendary, as it was in front line service for decades and still holds the single engine speed record of over 1500 mph, and that was with a standard squadron aircraft. You can find out all about it here. I was way out of my comfort zone with this model, but the above link, plus other sites, made it so much easier to recreate. Who would you consider to be your mentors or inspiration? I've been interested in flight simulators since the 1990's, the first one for me being "Flight Unlimited" but Microsoft soon showed us how it should be done, and over the years there have been just a handful of models that could be said to be truly a step forward at the time. I'm talking freeware here, and this is just my opinion you understand. The first to move the bar to a higher level was the Folland Gnat by Brian Franklin. This aircraft sticks in my mind because of the realistic flight sim model. Rick Piper's Meteor is another that broke new ground and the incredible Hunters from Dave Garwood are the flight sim aircraft that every other simulated aircraft wants to be! Naturally I am biased toward British aircraft but I used to look forward with anticipation to the latest Tim Conrad models; his Taccano and the Skyraider are sublime creations. Do you develop payware/freeware or both? Money is just not a motivating force in my life, much to the disgust of my wife! If I were a payware developer I would still be working on my first model. I build them because I love the subject matter and enjoy model making; I then release them for anyone who appreciates them. This has the added bonus that I can do absolutely nothing on the days when I'm stricken with laziness! How many people work with you or your team? Following on from the last question really, I don't work to any deadlines, I just do what I enjoy, so the need to work with anyone does not exist. Part of the pleasure of working by oneself is overcoming the multitude of problems that arise. I do pick the brains of some clever people though and have been helped on many occasions with problems I was unable to sort out for myself. The list of names is quite long so to avoid sounding like an Oscar acceptance speech I won't name them. What started your interest in aviation? In my youth I lived quite close to RAF North Weald, a wartime fighter station. I remember when I would cycle out there to watch the Meteor 8's. There were so many of them by today's standards, the sky would be full of them, or so it seemed to me. Large formations of Meteors, a dozen or more, making that characteristic "Derwent" whine, would fly over my house. Then the Hunters arrived, they were nothing like as impressive as the Meteor, much smaller and not so noisy but much quicker of course. How could anyone living there at that time fail to be interested in aircraft! Any memorable flights in real life? I realise this is not what you mean by a memorable flight but I'm going to tell you anyway. I once spent 28 hours on an old Garuda Indonesia 747 (since banned from overflying British airspace). The seats in the row next to me were not bolted down, they moved and rattled loudly for the whole flight. The vibration on takeoff was so intense that luggage fell out of the overhead lockers; thankfully the vibration stopped when the flaps were retracted, only to start again when lowered for landing! Not all the toilets were working, and to top it all off the plane was full. Unknown to me (as I hadn't heard of them before) their safety record was one of the worst in the world. Had I known this before my flight, I would not have flown with them. I know the name now though! What other hobbies or things do you do for enjoyment? I'm retired from work but the days are never long enough for me as I have so many interests and hobbies. I generally get up quite early and spend three of four hours on the computer, fuelled by coffee and toast. That leaves a good part of the day free for another passion of mine which is cycling. I also play in the worst rock/pop band in the eastern counties! People come from miles around just to have a good laugh. We have about 30 songs in our repertoire and one of these days I'm going to learn one or two of them. How do you choose your next new design or project? I would think every aviation enthusiast has in their mind a list of favourite aircraft and I am no exception, but I don't really choose my next project, it seems to just happen. After finishing one model I might think to myself, I can now have a bit of a rest, fix the shed roof or ride my bike, but it's not long before I get an idea in my head about another aircraft I may have read about recently or seen pictures of, and that's it, I've got to do it. What sims do you design for now and plan to in the future? Over the years I've had a great deal of fun with the Microsoft Flight Simulator series. FS98 was the first for me and at the time was good. Then a few years later, FS2000 was released, which again was good, but had low frame rates on my computer. Moving on, FS2002 was a major improvement, as the wheels on the aircraft went round, and the scenery looked fairly realistic; there was also (is) lots of freeware and cheap payware for it. FS2004 Century of Flight was the only version I never really got on with (it's hard to believe that it's still with us and doing very well), but it was with the arrival of FSX that I finally had a flight simulator that I really liked, and since its release, I have never looked back. True I had to build a new computer to realise its full potential but with the Acceleration update it opened up a new world of enjoyment for me. Up until the coming of P3D I have only ever built FSX Acceleration models. I now use the P3D SDK and compile into that sim, and for a while it was all I had on my system. Slowly though, little problems with FSX began to annoy me. For example, with VFR photo scenery, UK 2000 airports, plus trees installed, it was taking 5 minutes to load, even after I upgraded my system to SSD's; it was a real pain! Then ORBX England and Wales came along and I decided to re-install FSX and to see if it was any better. It was, and it really is superb as it loads quickly and looks a million dollars with little or no hit on frame rates. I also run it in DX10 preview mode and have no problems. There is a lot of life left in FSX yet! It remains to be seen what P3D2 will give us but I can't see it ever going mainstream, especially if it turns out to be totally incompatible with FSX; I'll keep an open mind on that one. In what ways do you see development changing in the future? Ah! If only I had that crystal ball I could give you a really good answer. I think in some ways, the writing is already on the wall, as we're seeing ever more complex models being made by specialist teams. These teams serve up such incredible quality, but with the inevitable hefty price tags to match. I can only plod along, and try to improve on what I'm doing, and as long as I am enjoying it, then I'll continue. There will always be room for freeware modellers, so long as they are not picked on and criticised for failing to live up to the top payware offerings. What can sites like FlightSim.Com do to support you and the hobby? I don't know how many hits you get each day on this site but I'm sure it's an awful lot and being able to reach out to a huge audience makes you very influential in the flight simming world. But it's only a hobby after all, and not to be taken too seriously...what am I saying! We all take it far too seriously, and spend far to much money on our beloved pastime! So what we need from sites like FlightSim.Com is for you to use your massive clout and get us simmers some good discounts on Flight Simulator products! How do you feel about the future of flight simulation in general? As long as there is a body of interest in flight simulation, and there sure is at the moment, there will always be cause for hope. The interest in FS2004 is still very much alive, with many new models still being produced for that sim (I'm sure many of those diehard FS2004 users will eventually move over to FSX however). FSX, although it's getting a bit long in the tooth is, realistically, the sim we should be concentrating on, as there are so many new products being released, and some by very talented individuals. Is the future P3D? I really don't know, I can't see it ever being sold "en masse" and the download time alone is enough to put off most people, unless of course you have a fibre optic broadband connection; something we small town folk can only dream about! If it turns out to be completely different to FSX will developers want to invest time and money on smaller returns? Who knows. It might be that any current DX10 compatible model will be OK and if turns out to be in 64 bit form, then it will be the best flight simulator yet! Let's hope so! The return of Microsoft to the flight sim market can also be never totally ruled out. What are some of the things a site or community can do for developers? Just give us a voice to air our concerns and grievances. Gone are the days when we simmers would buy any thing that was offered to us, as expectations are now so much higher and generally there has been, recently, a vast improvement in quality; unfortunately accompanied by a vast increase in price! But considering the expertise required to produce a top line Flight Simulator model, this is not surprising. What would you like people to know about your work? British aircraft of the 40's, 50's and 60's will always be the motivation behind my flight simulator exploits. There might be the odd excursion into uncharted foreign waters but only if I really like an aircraft enough to invest the time and effort it takes to produce, or if I find I need a certain type for my own hangar that is not readily available. It's got to be for FSX acceleration and also DX10/11. Robert Richardson robcarrich@gmail.com Robs Aero Files: www.robertjamesrichardson.co.uk -
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