Chudoba Design has recently taken to Discord to update us on the situation they are currently facing, their stance on X-Plane, and their plans for the foreseeable future.
Situation at Chudoba Design
Firstly, Chudoba Design presented an update on their current situation, where not just Filip, the CEO of Chudoba Design, but also the entire team has now found a daily job, which then creates a lack of time. He also mentions that even though the development of sceneries is fun, it is not as profitable as it was in the pre-Covid era. Hence, the development of sceneries has now become more of a hobby than a full-time job for the team.
Chudoba Design’s stance at X-Plane
Filip also mentioned that, almost a year after X-Plane 12 was released, we have not seen much progress from Laminar Research in the field of scenery development or graphical improvements that would bring the community back to the X-Plane ecosystem.
Chudoba Design is monitoring the progress regarding scenery development support and graphical improvements. Chudoba Design is willing to support Laminar Research in adapting sceneries to any new technologies that they release, but the X-Plane team is currently focused on improving flight models instead, Filip said.
Project People put on hold
Secondly, Filip updated us on the biggest and most revolutionary project that they had announced: Project People.
According to him, Chudoba Design has been able to implement moving people in this simulator using the X-Plane Object Model (X-OBJ), which is very simple to work with but does not use any compression. A single model of a movable person would be at least 150 MB in size with textures.
In comparison, FBX, which is an object model for 3D programs, is generally about 3 MB in size with animations and textures. Because of all the above-faced issues, they have kept the current development on hold and are monitoring any updates released from Laminar Research’s side.
Prague Airport scenery
Thirdly, Filip updated us on Chudoba Design’s biggest scenery, the Prague Airport scenery for X-Plane. For the last couple of months, they have primarily focused on the scenery and everything revolving around it. They are working with Python to bring new systems that should work with virtual networks. He also hinted about how they are also planning to bring new models into the scenery.
If you’re considering getting the Prague Airport scenery for X-Plane from Chudoba Desing, make sure to check out our review of it by clicking here.
Chudoba Design’s future plans
Filip’s first idea talks about the development of small VFR (Visual Flight Rules) airport sceneries around the Czech Republic, which would include some buildings around, and if they have ground polygons, then they would be included as well. The estimated price for the above sceneries would be between 5 and 10€ each.
His second idea was called “Scenery Lite,” where they plan to redevelop the pre-existing sceneries found on the X-Plane gateway by removing the objects and replacing them with handcrafted models by Chudoba Design. These sceneries wouldn’t be meant as accurate renditions, but rather as improvements to default sceneries. Filip mentioned that these could be sold for 5-10€ each, or in bundles for 15€.
Filip also mentioned that he’s considering giving flight simulation a break and focusing on indie game development.
