vasFMC
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| developer | Alex Wemmer, Martin Böhme, Uwe Buchholz, Jörg Hermann, Philipp Münzel, Klaus Hörcher |
| Current version | 2.1 (April 12, 2011) |
| operating system | Linux , Windows , macOS |
| category | Flight simulator |
| License | Creative Commons cc by-nc-sa |
| German speaking | No |
vasFMC is software (initially open source software, in the current version under Creative Commons license) that realistically uses a flight management computer (FMC) based on the Thales system in a modern Airbus aircraft for use in a PC flight simulator . The development of the software has not been continued since October 2011.
development
vasFMC has been developed since 2005, back then under the name simpleFMC . The aim was to be able to fly routes in Microsoft Flight Simulator according to current aeronautical maps, as they are used in real flight operations. This was mostly only possible with the FMCs of add-on aircraft. The FMC is so deeply integrated into these aircraft, which are mostly offered as payware , that use with other (for example freeware ) aircraft is not possible. simpleFMC, on the other hand, was not tied to a specific aircraft and enabled navigation along real routes and with current AIRAC data. simpleFMC made it possible to enter the routes as a sequence of airways and waypoints ( ICAO format) via a simple GUI and then displayed them on a "Navigational Display (ND)" modeled on the Airbus.
Version 2
With version 2, in addition to pure navigation, the aspect of the realistic " look and feel " came to the fore. It is no longer operated via a normal GUI , but via an operating console that is directly modeled on the Airbus A320 , the Multipurpose Control and Display Unit (MCDU). In addition, further displays of the A320 cockpit are now shown, in addition to the revised Navigational Display, a "Primary Flight Display", which depicts the artificial horizon , for example , and the upper ECAM display, on which various engine parameters are shown. A "Flight Control Unit" (FCU) enables the operation of the internal autopilot , which emulates the logic present in the A320 and maps it onto the generic logic of the Microsoft Flight Simulator. In addition, a sound module is installed that emits various warning tones and pilot announcements and can read out checklists.
X-Plane
With version 2.0alpha9, vasFMC now also supports X-Plane in addition to Microsoft Flight Simulator . vasFMC can be operated on all platforms supported by X-Plane, i.e. on Linux , Windows and macOS . vasFMC is fully network-compatible with X-Plane and can, for example, provide independent displays for the captain and copilot on two separate computers.
Version 2.1 and end of project
In October 2011, project founder Alex Wemmer stated that the Virtual Aviation Suite project (and thus the vasFMC software) would no longer be continued. The reasons for this are varied, the main reason he names his lost interest in the flight simulator. In contrast to previous versions, the current version 2.1 was published under a Creative Commons license, which makes the software freely accessible, but for the first time does not include the source code as freely accessible. Together with the project homepage, the support forum and downloads have also been deactivated.
Further developments
After Alex Wemmer's old team gave up further development, the development of various forks based on the open source version 2.09 began. There is a project called xVasFMC on GitHub with the aim of being able to integrate vasFMC directly into X-Plane (without a network interface). There is also a fork on sourceforge by members of VATSIM Germany with the aim of recreating as much functionality as possible from version 2.10.
hardware
vasFMC can be operated with various home cockpit hardware, which replace the software input modules with appropriate hardware. For example, vasFMC supports the IOCP protocol for connecting an MCDU.
Technical
vasFMC is written in C ++ using the Qt library and uses openGL to display the cockpit displays. The sound is output under Windows with FMOD , under Linux with openAL . The connection with X-Plane takes place via the CANaerospace protocol, which establishes the connection with the CANaerospace interface running in X-Plane via UDP (CANoverIP). This interface is also open source.