FSweekend came and went by. The event was over before I even realized it. Although I was initially skeptical as to whether we would be able to top last year's presentation, we did so, by quite a large margin. Main attractions this year were our Thomas-Krenn sponsored server, driving 10 monitors, and our near continuous use of anaglyphic 3D. Although I had considered it to be a neat gadget, running flightgear in 3D analglyphic mode turned out to be a brilliant move. Not only did it draw a lot of people to our booth who wanted to check it out, handing out 3D glasses also worked as an extremely good vehicle to start a conversation with them.
Some assorted highlights include:
- Our Thomas-Krenn AG machine has been running for 8 hours straight, on both days, without a single glitch. At one point Torsten ran out of fuel, because he hadn't realized that FlightGear had been running for so long continuously. The machine ran in three 3D mode most of the time, and the way the screens were set up gave the impression that the were just holes in a wall though which you could see a (virtual) reality known as FlightGear. Very nicely done.
- Very positive comments on the Lockheed Constellation's artwork, particularly because that model is really shining when presented in 3D (probably the best cockpit we have for a 3D demo).
- Also very postive comments on the advance copy of the 737NG (800) that Innis Cunningham sent me. Also in particular due to the fact that the switches on the overhead panel look very real in 3D.
- Booth members Gijs and Jorg trying to outperform each other in terms of their helicopter flying skills (trying to land it on a chimney, once they found the helipad to easy).
- A number of people claiming that our booth was the best one at FSWeekend this year.
- Our aerotowing demo involving all of our major demonstration machines (my machine as the glider, Jorg's computer as the tow plane, and our sponsor's machine as a joint (3D) model viewer.
- Some people just not believing that a single machine could drive 10 monitors and actively checking where all the monitor cables actually went to.
- Another opportunity to meet FlightGear developers (one expected encounter: Geoff McLane, and one totally unexpected meeting with Thorsten Brehm). Thanks guys for showing up!
- The end challenge of all our booth members trying to distract me while performing an aircraft carrier landing, using the f-14b (I'll leave it up to your own assesment as to whether I failed or whether they failed.
And last, but not least, everybody involved in getting this year's booth organized. It's been a lot of fun.