Useful Links

Essential Links:

• X-Plane Main Website - for general information, purchase and download of the X-Plane Flight Simulator

• X-Plane Forums - for a wealth of user-provided information and for purchasing and downloading add-ons for X-Plane

• Saitek Driver Downloads - To download drivers for Saitek hardware and the all-important X-Plane plug in (which is essential if you want to make use of anything in this blog)

Editing Software:

• Notepad++ - Fully featured text editor for editing XML files

• VIM - My preferred text editor (again for editing XML files) - this is the editor I actually use, but it's not as user friendly as Notepad++, so unless you (like me) are coming from a Unix/Linux background you'll probably want to use Notepad++ instead

• GNU Image Manipulation Program - Open source image editing software. You may prefer photoshop - personally I have yet to find a single thing photoshop does that GIMP doesn't, but then again I'm not a graphic artist. Either way GIMP is free and Photoshop is not. You can resort to using MS Paint (which comes with Windows) if you like, but it lacks editing tools which will probably make life more difficult for you.

Reference Material

• Tom Tsui's FSXTimes - This was somewhat my inspiration for doing this blog really; obviously talented, this guy has got the whole process nailed for FSX and P3D. Unfortunately (again) it seems a lot is missing from the X-Plane implementation, and a lot of the tips and tricks he's kindly shared don't seem to work for the X-Plane Saitek implementation.
• Creating Custom Gauges (for FSX) - This page is somewhat useful, although it is regarding Flight Simulator X rather than X-Plane; it seems the Saitek driver/plugin are either based upon or directly linked to this API, so the "XML Gauge Reference" was very helpful in decrypting the XML files - don't get too excited though because it seems only a very tiny portion of the full API seems to be implemented; trying most of the things listed in this reference directly will result in blank FIPs and possibly a need to reboot.

My Gauges

• I am uploading my gauges here - nothing there yet but I'll be adding my HSI gauge here by the end of this week, and will continue to upload gauges as I complete them until I decide to stop and do something else with my time :)

Miscellaneous & Unrelated Links

• VATsim - Brilliant online network of sim pilots and air traffic controllers; well worth a look if you're looking for that extra stage of realism. Unlike other ATC networks, VATsim require that all their controllers pass an "exam" of sorts, so you really do get a very realistic ATC experience. Note that you don't need to pass such an exam as a pilot, just an ATC. 
• FlightGear - Excellent, free (as in free beer), open source flight simulator with an impressive feature set