Introducing the new Fenix Installer, and an A320 update

Posted July 26, 2024

Hi all,

Today we're pushing an update to the A320 that sets the groundwork for the A319 & A321 Expansion Pack. This update will also include the usual selection of bug fixes, improvements, and a couple of new additions too. A lot of the work we've been doing over the last several months, beyond the A319 & A321, has been reworking the core development workflows. Our current process for source and version control, compiling, building, and installing was hastily put together back in mid-2021 to enable testing to begin, and was absolutely never meant to be in practice for more than a few months. But as any software developer will tell you: there's nothing more permanent than a temporary fix. Previously, bringing all the aspects of the project together to form a new Fenix version would be a bit of a manual task, with a lot of room for human error. Our temporary-turned-permanent dev workflow was also preventing us from attacking some very core architecture issues with the aircraft itself.

Rather than just try to 'patch' the process, we ended up taking the difficult, but ultimately extremely worthwhile, route of starting from scratch with future products and developments in mind. However, the result is we're now able to work with a lot more efficiency, from development through to testing, and public releases. We've already seen the fruits of this work in the later stages of the A319 & A321 development by actually keeping to our dev schedule for the first time in uh, time, and suffice to say we're extremely pleased with that.

Now, the big news is our new installer is finally here, which our CTO Ben will go over in more detail below.

Fenix Installer

Hey everyone. I'm Ben. Although a relatively new addition to the Fenix team (mid 2023), I’ve been in the professional Flight Sim development space since the early 2010s, and a Fenix user since the first alpha builds of the A320. My major focus since joining Fenix has not just been the aircraft systems, but also the software and infrastructure around the product (cabin announcements, remote MCDU and the installer to name a few recent examples).

In addition to work on the A320 V2, we’ve invested significantly in improving both our internal development processes, as well as the way we deliver our products to you. One of the milestone improvements is the Fenix Installer. Not only does it make our release process faster and more robust, but also results in quicker, smaller, updates for you.

At the core of the Fenix Installer is a system that efficiently breaks files into parts, so that when a file changes, you can just download the parts of the file that have changed (plus a small buffer on each side).

Throughout the beta period, we’ve collected installation logs from our testers, giving us some good insight into how long each install and update will take for our customers. Keep in mind these speeds are mostly dependent on the speed of your internet connection, and storage disk.

  • Clean Install: the fastest was 35 seconds, and the median was 71 seconds.
  • Update: the fastest was 7 seconds, and the median was 11 seconds.
  • Old Installer: 2 minutes and 14 seconds total, consisting of 40 seconds to download and 1 minute 34 seconds to install.

Of course, as you can see above, the real benefit of this installer comes with updates. You will no longer be downloading and installing files that rarely change just for a simple update.

In the future, we plan to consolidate some of our other tools into the Fenix Installer, such as the Livery Manager.

We’re releasing this now, separately from the A319 and A321, as a test of this new installation infrastructure allowing us to resolve any issues before the release of our first expansion. That said, if you do encounter any issues, please let us know by submitting a ticket, or in our dedicated Discord forum topic.

To get started, download the new Fenix Installer.

Now, over to Dave to talk at you about some sound improvements in the latest update (you can ignore him, he usually goes away if you don’t make direct eye contact for a few minutes).

Sounds

Hi my name is Dave and I’m lead acoustic at Fenix.

One area of the art to receive quite some improvements is the soundscape. Firstly, an overhaul of the cockpit wind was in order - I was lucky enough to get some new recordings using a binaural microphone setup on an A320 captain's headset during a full flight, allowing me to balance and adjust the volume levels of the cockpit sound environment, and include the new recordings from the binaural setup. We used ADS-B data of the flight matched to the recording time to cross-reference altitude and speed to ensure we're definitely getting a realistic result in all phases of flight. The result is a much more natural experience and full soundscape.

Another aspect I wanted to improve was the over and behind wing experience. On the CFM56, this includes all new N1 bearing recordings, airflow recordings, behind-intake buzzsaw and N2 recordings. On the IAE further sound-balancing has been done, along with new airflow recordings, buzzsaw improvements and on all variants a new window-vibration/rattle at high power settings.

On the subject of engines, I've further refined our atmospheric sound model, demonstrated below is the subtle difference ambient conditions have on the sound of the engines, in this case the CFM56 at takeoff power. You'll be able to hear the difference between a takeoff in the cold and dry, versus hot and humid.

Although there are too many smaller refinements, fixes, and improvements to mention here, one new feature I'm sure the real A320 nerds amongst us will appreciate: Vickers and Parker electric hydraulic pump options. The A320 can be fitted with either, and they sound subtly different, as demonstrated below.

Vickers

Parker

Systems and FM

Hi my name is Aamir and I don’t know why I felt the need to begin that way, but everyone else did. Pretty light on systems and FM updates because the majority of our resources right now are working on the expansion, but a couple of interesting things to note that have made their way into this update -

We’ve improved the ADIRU wind simulation, and by improved, I mean we’ve added one - prior to this it would just grab data from the sim and throw it onto your ND. Now, it’s pulled in by sensors on the aircraft, processed and output. What’s the difference? Well, quite minute - but pretty cool. On a takeoff run above 100 kts, the wind data comes “alive” on your ND, and it will now show mostly headwind or tailwind (since track is almost identical to heading). After rotation, the wind data will swing and start coming “good” as the aircraft weathervanes into the wind. Also, when you give the rudder a good kicking in flight, you’ll now see some variation in the wind vector thanks to how the aircraft processes and displays the wind vector data. Teeny tiny details, really, but I feel it’s nice to look at something like the wind data on your ND and know that there’s something going on behind it all.

Furthermore, we’ve made some very small adjustments to the FBW to make it slightly smoother in pitch while retaining precision, and a couple of fixes to the ground > air blend to make it, as Dave regrettably called it, “creamy”.

Other than that, the usual selection of crash fixes and other bugfixes from our side on this one, with more improvements coming to the whole A32X family later on!

Fenix A320 Base Pack V2.2.0.232

To download this version, please use the Fenix Installer as detailed above.

IMPORTANT: if you use GSX, you will need to uncheck and recheck the box next to “Fenix A320 B2” in the GSX configuration window. If you don’t do this, you will see minor visual and functional issues, such as doors not opening properly. The GSX team have been notified and are working with us on a solution.

See our Knowledge Base article for more information.

Avionics and Systems

  • Added rudder trim dashed LVar (B_FC_RUDDER_TRIM_DASHED)
  • Added electrical bus state LVars (B_ELEC_BUS_POWER_*)
  • Added configuration for the presence of Tire Pressure Indicating System (TPIS). fnx_tpis_enabled in livery cfg’s
  • Reworked ADIRU 2/3 standby power supply
  • Changed FMGC EPE and NAVAID tuning during IRS ATT mode
  • GSX passenger count LVAR is no longer reset when a GSX restart is detected
  • Updated default navdata to 2303
  • Improved robustness of displays and Display Sync
  • Improved ADIRU wind simulation
  • Improved FBW C* feed forward gain
  • Improved FBW pitch during takeoff
  • Fixed scratchpad clearing if error message received
  • Fixed sound playback not playing the higher priority alert
  • Fixed CLB activating during a single engine go around
  • Fixed EXPED not disconnecting when speed is pulled
  • Fixed smoke detector fault after engine shutdown
  • Fixed POS DISAGREE when in ATT mode
  • Fixed heading info not showing in ND modes when IRS is in ATT mode and heading is available
  • Fixed a potential crash when playing aural warnings
  • Tweaked elevator authority during ground law
  • Fixed aural warnings replaying continuously
  • Fixed A/THR not disengaging when both thrust levers are above A/THR threshold
  • Fixed any thrust lever being above MCT not being considered as above the A/THR threshold
  • Fixed constraint circles not appearing on the ND when CSTR option is disabled
  • Fixed several race conditions, improving stability
  • Fixed CRZ ALT allowing inputs above max certified altitude
  • Fixed LD ND display for non-tuned ILS
  • Fixed ILS display for non-tuned radio
  • Fixed spurious centre tank low pressure ECAM messages during engine start
  • Fixed missing R AVIONICS DOOR ECAM
  • Fixed autoland flashing below 200 ft RA when autopilot was manually disengaged

Art and Sound

  • Added new recordings of Vickers and Parker elec hyd. pump selectable via aircraft.cfg for now (fnx_electric_hydraulic_pump_type=0 Vickers, 1 for Parker)
  • Added N2 caution decal on wing
  • Added click and hold support to knobs
  • Improved CFM soundset
  • Improved IAE soundset
  • Improved reverse thrust sounds and associated logic
  • Improvements to general soundscape
  • Improved FCU underside not being reflective enough
  • Improved LCD simulation, allowing for extended brightness range for better readability during daytime flying
  • Improvements to flap animation, positions and wing details
  • Fixed cabin visibility toggle not working
  • Fixed cabin lights not appearing on the external
  • Fixed flap lever position not being settable via mouse wheel
  • Fixed sunshade clipping EFB
  • Fixed reflection mask on windows throughout all aircraft
  • Fixed stitching on FO seat not moving when the seat is moved
  • Fixed parking light not retracting when the gear is retracted
  • Fixed retard callout loop still being partially broken
  • Fixed grey GPU cable
  • Fixed misc art bugs in cargo bay
  • Fixed ice detection light not behaving properly
  • Fixed CFM N1 fan backface being invisible
  • Fixed FWD Cargo Smoke AGENT 2 guard and switch unable to be operated
  • Fixed EFB flashing from exterior view
  • Fixed missing TCAS callouts
  • Fixed missing cab fans in IAE cabin
  • Fixed THS ACTR ELSD breaker decal
  • Fixed cargo door lock indicators not displaying properly
  • Fixed EMER ELEC PWR MAN ON guard doesn't open/close

EFB

  • Added support for separate departure and arrival ATIS
  • Added ability to toggle the remote MCDU keys by tapping on the screen
  • Improved support for remote MCDU on older devices
  • Improved contrast of location arrow
  • Improved error message when trying to set the background to a non-supported image type
  • Improved flap selection in certain conditions
  • Fixed loadsheets showing months in other languages
  • Fixed GPU auto-connecting on arrival when the option is disabled
  • Fixed minimum Vspeeds not being applied in WET conditions
  • Fixed back button on charts page being too small
  • Fixed Navigraph map showing aircraft pointing in the wrong direction when first loading in
  • Fixed performance drop when updating planned weights
  • Fixed performance drop when on mass and balance page
  • Fixed “CABIN READY” option not saving
  • Fixed incorrect preliminary loadsheet weights when using LBS
  • Fixed fast and real-time loading with 0 cargo not working
  • Removed ‘Memo’ cabin ready option as it requires further work on the systems side

To get started, download the new Fenix Installer.

And finally, an interesting stat that came up during review of this last dev cycle: Since version .407, the previous public build, we have run over 130 development builds, with an average of a new build every 18 hours since the release of .407.

We’ll be back soon with some more exciting goodies!