Posted on the MSFS forum, I thought it might make sense to bring the conversation here as well. I’ll quote in full, for those who haven’t already read:
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/black-square-commander-114/768510/70
Folks, here are some words direct from Nick at Black Square. Read on, you’ll find this interesting and exciting too…
”Hi, everyone. I wanted to let you know that I spent the week developing a new state saving system for the Twin Commanders based on the JavaScript state saving technique instead of the L:Var one. I had enough confidence in this being a significant improvement that I extended the state saving to nearly every parameter in the aircraft. For the Twin Commanders, that’s 435 variables, including failures. So far, it has been much more consistent on my hardware, albeit with the occasional missing data, I’m hoping caused by hard reloads in developer mode.
Since this seems to be working so well in the Twin Commanders, I have made the necessary changes to add this feature to the 114 as well, which features 210 saved parameters.
If you don’t mind, I will share how it works here, so that you might provide any last minute thoughts on how to make it as user-friendly as possible. For more direct communication, you already know that the Just Flight Community Forums is the best place to find me.
There are now three toggle switches on the options page of the tablet interface. They are labeled: “Non-Essentials”, “Flight Critical”, and “Avionics”. All three options may be selected independently of each other.
With no options selected, only critical options are saved, like the radio configuration, damage, failures, and tablet options. Payload and fuel state are always saved/loaded.
“Non-Essentials” includes anything that does not affect the operation of the aircraft, like interior lights, air conditioning switches, and cabin aesthetics.
“Flight Critical” includes all other switches/controls, which may adversely affect the aircraft if set incorrectly, such as electrical, environmental, trim, flaps, deicing, etc.
“Avionics” includes all custom avionics states, frequencies, modes, heading/course/barometer selection, etc.
The system monitors your phase of flight, so that inappropriate states will not be restored (starting a flight on the runway will not immediately shut down your engines). This means that a flight terminated prematurely will result in sensible defaults the next time the aircraft is loaded, while retaining the rest of your state. Each parameter has a default, which accounts for the phase of flight, and even the time of day, when necessary. With all state saving options de-selected, the aircraft will load in the same default state, appropriate to the phase of flight, just as in Black Square aircraft.
Since this is a significant feature from a programming and usability perspective, I suspect there will be further improvements to come, based on feedback.
Thanks again, everyone, and I hope you’re looking forward to trying this with the 114 very soon!"
Can I just say, that this sounds absolutely amazing! Not only for the amount of saved parameters, but also for making them optional, for different categories, and accounting for edge cases. (Wouldn’t be fun to abort mid flight, only to spawn on the runway with the gears still up, for example.) It will add tremendously to that “ownership” feeling, and it will also make checklists more important.
I immediately start to wonder how deep it can go. Remembering the frequencies set, is very welcomed; if I flew to this aiport in my previous flight, it makes sense that the frequencies are already set for my next. But what about third party avionics? I don’t know how the real world units behave, but can the Garmins also be made to remember the frequencies? Flightplans? If you forget to turn off the battery, will it be depleted the next time you spawn? There’s a lot to consider, I think.
Looking forward to seeing this in action, Black Square taking things to the next level.
