X-flight, Please read if you use or sell this script.

Hello,

It has been far too long since I've been in SL. Work, and RL and that. Of course this does NOT mean I am back in SL. But I would like to tour around a bit.

In regards to X-flight, I have been getting numerous questions about it. And I have also been informed that is being widely distributed and used by numerous people. Which of course goes stricly against the comments I wrote explicitly into the script itself. So I would like to say a few things.

- Please stop distributing it. The script is outdated. There are far better flight enhancers now, the script was based on the physics engine pre-1.2. It was also buggy for its time, much less now. There are far better options available.

- This includes modifying it or selling modified versions of it.

- If you are or continue to sell an item or give an item away that has the X-flight script in any form, please contact me for permission and send the lesser of 20000 L$, or 100 L$ per item sold or given away.

If you have any questions on this or would liek to make arrangements, please let me know.

If you have and are currently using an object with the X-flight script, I would suggest looking at other options. From what I understand there are a number of other options available. Personally, I impressed by Huns Valen's approach.

Also, please post here if you have or currently use X-flight, I would be interested to get some feedback on it since it is so widespread. I'm not concerned with those using the script, but with does distributing and selling the script without permission.

Sincerely,
Goodwill Epoch

Thanks for clearing that up. I've been concerned about the provenance of X-Flight since I first opened up a copy and saw your comments, and I've been urging people to use something else ever since, simply because it seemed so likely that it was being distributed against the will of the original author(s). Needless to say I haven't used it myself either...

I have spent some time working on my own open source flight script to replace it, one that uses no X-Flight code. You can get the latest version of Cyberflight at Skyhook Station, above Avalon Lagoon in LostFurest dAlliez. The source is freely redistributable under the BSD license, and can be used in closed-source products provided it's acknowledged in the documentation.

Cyberflight is not a replacement for all of X-Flight's functionality. It's less aggressive, and as smooth and natural as I can make it, and all it does is provide just enough boost to keep you flying beyond the normal "ground effect" layer without being obvious about it. It doesn't make you fly super-fast, or include many options or commands... in fact the only command is the one to toggle the plain text heads-up display through three settings: OFF, ON, and ALWAYS-ON. And you do that by clicking on its icon in your HUD.

There's a token L$1 fee for Cyberflight, simply because I'm interested in knowing who's getting it. You're free to give the flight feather, or just the script, to anyone, or to include it in your own freebies, or use it in any kind of scripted object for free or for fee... it's open source, after all.

And if you want a speed booster, buy one from the folks who specialise in such things. I'm not going to add that functionality... if anything I may be putting code into Cyberflight to slow down the initial acceleration in flight to make it easier to negotiate close quarters at low speed...

Actually, I think the X-Flight script works quite well. Precision landing is hard due to the high speed, but it's very useful. I'll gladly send $100 next week, even though I don't distribute it, because I think I got it as a freebie. I'd consider a replacement if it had variable speed, but I'm more interested in full-size vehicles at the moment.

lol, you can set the speed by using the command interface. "X speed nnn" where N is the speed you want of course. usually 5-10 for low speed travel, 500 for high.

I got this X-Flight thing in a freebie box. I think it might have been in a box of random stuff in the junkyard, so that might be a place to look for it.
It was definitely too fast for me, so the replacement I was told to get was the EZ-Flight gadget. It's $100L and seems easier to use, with all the same features, and doesn't have that really weird problem where you keep floating upwards if you are trying to just float still.