Introducing iBlueYonder.com!

As promised last week, this blog is getting a bit of a facelift and an upgrade. I’m pleased to announce that the new iBlueYonder.com is open for business. From now on, please direct your browsers to http://iblueyonder.com/ for blog updates, info on my scenery products, my freeware downloads, and more. If you subscribe to this blog, be sure and read the introductory post on the new site for info on updating your subscription link.

Onward and upward, my friends!

Coming Soon: iBlueYonder.com!

Hey, look at that! It’s Saturday, and I’ve got no post for you (cue sad trombone). There’s a silver lining this time, though. I’m smack in the middle of moving this blog from WordPress.com onto its own server, with a new domain name: iblueyonder.com. This blog will continue there, with all the previous posts intact, but there will be new content as well, including one consolidated place you can go for info on my FS projects and products, payware and freeware.

Keep an eye out. I’m working on the site design and structure this weekend, so hopefully I can get it live sometime this coming week.

First Look at Bear Gulch X Buildings

Mea culpa. I meant to post a review of EZDok Camera 1.15 this weekend, but I got caught up in a bunch of work and family stuff and had to let it slip. Part of the busy was working on Emma Field – specifically, the new Bear Gulch buildings that will be included in the package. Lest you think I’ve forgotten about you, here’s this weekend’s work…

Orbx Extends “May Madness” Sale to PNW Products

In case you aren’t on the Flight Sim Store’s email list, here’s a little surprise: Orbx just extended their May Madness sale to include all downloadable products. That means that for this month, you can get NA Blue, Stark’s Twin Oaks, and Darrington Municipal for 30% off the normal list price. Already got these three? Tell your friends! More info at the FSS website.

FS Utilities: the Unseen & Unsung Heroes – Part 2

If you read last week’s Part 1 installment, you know that I’m having a look at my favorite behind-the-scenes utilities for flight simulator. These are the workhorses of ‘simming; programs that work their magic in the background and make every flight you take just a little bit better. This week, two more that I consider indispensable:

FS Utilities: the Unseen & Unsung Heroes – Part 1

There are so many sexy add-ons for FS – planes, scenery, environment packs, and so forth – that some of the more useful bedrock utilities sometimes get overlooked or taken for granted. I just added a new one to my list of  must-haves this week, and it got me to thinking about which of the behind-the-scenes players I wouldn’t want to fly without.

Fanboy Friday Whacked by Poor Documentation

I think I may have to move this feature to Saturday. This is the umpteenth Friday morning when I’ve gotten up, ready to blog, only to be hit in the face by some unforeseen roadblock. The frustration du jour is the documentation for EZDock Camera 1.15 (EZCA). It looks to be a nifty little camera/head latency application – now with full TrackIR support – and I wanted to write about it. I say looks to be, because an hour into reading the manual, I’m still not sure of how to get started. This is either a case of a well-documented but deep and complex program, or a fairly straightforward program with incredibly labyrinthine instructions. Either way, it’s not a “jump in and go” type of situation.

My life is currently configured such that if I don’t have the FF post already in the bag by Friday morning (which is rare) or have something fairly simple to talk about, it takes half the day to put it together. Friday being a work day, taking a half-day to do non-paying work is becoming a bit of a strain.

Short story shorter: I’m going to need to move this feature to a weekend day so I can actually do a little research before writing. Look at it this way; you’re not losing a Friday, you’re gaining a Saturday. Or Sunday. Whichever it is, keep an eye out. I’ll be back with you soon.

A New Video Starring Twin Oaks

A fellow Twitterer (Tweeter?) posted this link a couple of days ago, and I’m just now getting around to passing it on to my blog crowd. Sim-based videos are popping up like dandelions in spring, but this one really stands out. It’s called “Slowdown – Indian Summer at Stark’s Twin Oaks”. Life got you stressed? This will take the edge off, I promise. Great work, Andreas!

(Mouse over the vid and click the full-screen icon to the left of “Vimeo” for best viewing.)

No Layered Paint Kit? No problem!

Here’s a little tutorial I cobbled together for some fellow repainters who were working on the Carenado C185. Carenado doesn’t release layered paint kits, so the video shows my work-around that delivers layered results using the flattened blank textures.

To see more detail, be sure to visit the video page on YouTube and view it in 720 HD.

Sim Saturday!

Work from home, they said. Be your own boss! Set your own hours! Sounds good, doesn’t it? Only I’ve been doing the freelance thing full-time for six years now, and the promise of freedom is a whole lot sweeter than the reality. On a typical day, I’m up early, racing around from project to project, working way harder than I ever did as a salaried employee. Sometimes, when I’m feeling burned out, I have to remind myself that one of the supposed benefits of being self-employed is not having a jackass for a boss. So, I let myself punch the alarm, roll over, and go back to sleep yesterday. All of which is a long way of saying that Fanboy Friday has become Sim Saturday for one week only.

So what’s being going on in the FS universe this week?