Finally HeadShake enters its beta period. I personally hope the test won’t be too long.
I’m really excited about this new project. I’ve worked on it in the last weeks and I think it’s just what I’ve designed in my mind some time ago.
A little bit of history
I started HeadShake just because I wanted a plugin like that. I didn’t even know that PilotView does something really similar.
So I started writing it in python. It’s really easy to write and run a python plugin using the Python Interface because you don’t have to setup the entire building environment.
After few days I’ve then decided to move to C++, basically because of its better performance when it goes down to FlightLoopCallBacks and processing speed.
For the devs curiosity: HeadShake is built using gcc/mingw 4.7.
Why a beta?
There are still some answers to find. The first is about the Mac build.
I’m a linux hog and I don’t own a Mac. Luckily, a friend of mine has a Macbook and he let me do the builds when I need to. What kills me is the fact that I cannot test the build itself as he doesn’t allow me to install X-Plane on his Macbook.
Now it’s up to you, Mac users and X-Plane flyers, to download and run HeadShake on your Mac.
You know…professor Murphy is totally sure that it won’t work at first.
The second question is about the plugin performance.
Let’s say that, HeadShake is built for speed. Mainly because I don’t own a super-computer.
Generally speaking, I’ve used the plugin on Linux and Windows lately and I must admit (while self-shaking my own hands) that it’s really stable and smooth. It runs with no fps loss.
How to report a bug
If you find a bug in HeadShake, please write to info[-at-]simcoders[-dot-]com specifying your X-Plane version and operating system.
A look to the future
I have so many ideas about new features to add to HeadShake, like the vibrations of the guns or the per-airplane settings.
Anyway, as soon as HeadShake is confirmed stable, I’ll start working on a new plugin which really excites me. I’m sure you know the addons made by A2A Simulations for MS Flight Simulator. Well…I know about them too, but I’m an X-Plane user. 😉