Air Childs Cabincrew

Georg Suchanek

Georg Suchanek

Beta Team
Users Local time
Today 9:21 AM
Dear fellow pilots,

as some of you might know, I've been a member of Air Child for quite a while now. Back in 2012 I decided to request another take-off clearance for myself, as flying offline became more and more routine, and I really looked for a way "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before". OK, somebody watched too much Star Trek while writing this post, but I hope you get the idea.;)

When visiting Air Child, I felt like I just reached another step, achieving my goal to fly "as real as it gets", because a professional career in this sector is simply impossible to realize in my situation.

Other than flying for a virtual airline, I always loved the idea of having to manage a cabin crew during cruise, so by the time "FS Passengers" was released another dream of mine came true.

Time and technology advanced, and so did the tools I used: Suddenly I saw myself facing an old question again: "How do I get this thing into a civilization?"

A short while ago, I saw a few videos introducing a tool, that could be seen as a reboot of “FS Passengers” (at leased from my point of view) called "
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". So, I decided to give the "Early Access Version" a try.

Well let’s just say it worked, and as a result, I thought it would be a great idea to say "thank you" for an amazing community" by creating Air Childs own Cabin crew voice pack to be used with “Self Loadig Cargo” in the first place.

To get you guys started on how to work with your new cabin crew, I've created a detailed

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as well as the

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Please note, that using SelfLoading Cargo is meant to be seen as a suggestion from my side, so it's not mandatory while flying for Air Child.

Also keep in mind, that this should be a community-based project (as explained in the manual). So, if you have any questions, bugs, or are willing to post your own announcements for Air Child, please reach out via the Air Child Forum or by email at g.suchanek@air-child.com.

I'll post regular updates bellow, so you can keep track on possible newer versions.

Best regards and always happy landings!

Georg
 
SLC-Soundpack

Release Notes:

2023-27-08: V 1.0

- initial release


2023-23-09: V 1.1

- the soundpack now supports the A320 NEO model.

- an "intercom effect“ has been added on each sound file to make them sound even more realistic.


2023-01-10: V 1.2

- a "prepare for landing and duty-free announcement" has been added.
- general volume adjustment, so the announcements should now be a bit louder in some phases of the flight (engine start or pushback for example).

Roadmap (version 2023-22-10)

- see post #6


Fenix Soundpack

Release Notes

2024-19-03: V 1.0

- initial release
 
Reason: release of the Fenix Soundpack and new dev update posted
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As promised a few days back, I've taken my time to move our soundpack to the next -and first- updated build. Please see the changelog in post #2 for further details, as the files should be uploaded soon with many thanks to @Christopher Bennett . Also, I've decided to add a roadmap, so that future changes should become more transparent to all of you!
 
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Todays federal holiday in Germany gave me some time to continue my work on our soundpack, and include some -hopefully long awaited- features, which brings us to build 1.2!


For more details see post #2.
 
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With many thanks to @Christopher Bennett I'm happy to announce that version 1.2 of our Self-Loading-Cargo soundpack is now available for the entire community.

As mentioned before, further details can be found in post #2 although I'd like to hear about your thoughts on how to continue regarding the ongoing project development:


Should I focus on creating multilingual announcements, which will than be included in the next update, or would you prioritize different airframes to fly with? Let me know by replying to this topic, but don’t forget to include your favorite airframe or language!
 
since my last "dev update" already seems to have a little bit dust on it, I thought its simply time for a new one -although the general questions from the previous post still remain the same :cool::

In relation to the release of SLC's version "1.6.1-pre5 release patch", dated 24th October 2023, I saw myself confronted with the urgent need of rethinking the whole "how should I create our soundpack" aspect, as further adjustments-and possibilities- regarding the creation itself have been, and will be introduced in due course.

After a long chat with Steve, who happens to be the man behind SLC I got a very deep dive into the wireds and wonders on how to get the crew to work like an employer expects them to.

Long story short, let’s just say I might need to convert into a "voice" instead of a "cabin" pack to allow myself the implementation of further "extensions" down the line, so stay tuned for more, and don't forget to let me know about what to do next.
 
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Alright, so I believe I'm slowly getting the hang of writing these things :cool:

Here's another bedtime story from Germany to let you all know how I've been spending my weekend up to now:

As mentioned earlier, I've had several conversations with Steve and decided that switching from a cabin to a voice pack would be the best idea. This change will allow me to utilize more in-depth features when it comes to the creative process.

I won't give away all the surprises, but after almost 12 hours of working overtime this weekend, I identified a bug (and fortunately, I'm not the only one who has extensively discussed it) that is preventing me from continuous testing. It is essential for the announcements to function correctly.

I'm pleased to announce that I'm already working on an "alternative extra build," so stay tuned for the next update!
 
OK, so I'm at the end of a very busy day now, but I thought you guys would be up for a very small development update, so here it is:

I had another long talk with Steve today in which we discussed the 'bug' I mentioned earlier. We've managed to narrow down the cause, and it will be fixed within the next patch. I will write a more detailed description this weekend.
 
Yes, I know – if I had to stick to an airline-scheduled update timeline, I'd probably be unemployed by now due to my terrible sense of time tracking.

But here it is, a fresh dev update :):

As mentioned earlier, I recently had another chat with Steve where we delved into the issues I've been facing while testing our updated soundpack. I touched on the general problem a few weeks ago, so I won't dive too deep into the details now – it's just 8:45 p.m. local time on my end, and we don't want another bedtime story just now.

In a nutshell, I can continue testing, bringing some hopefully exciting news for you:

The delay in this dev update is tied to a new perspective that emerged during our weekend discussion. We explored the integrated TTS system provided by SLC itself. This opens the door to adding more and partly automated announcements, allowing the program to announce the arrival airport on its own, for instance, without needing to be specified within the sound file. But, as promising as it sounds, I'm still on a very long-haul flight when it comes to this topic.

To be precise, I took my first steps this weekend, but I'm not satisfied with my knowledge yet to publish a complete TTS-based sound pack. One major consideration is the "voice" itself. I want to suggest an option for you that guarantees fully immersive experiences. The default Windows TTS just sounds too robotic, and others still need work on pronouncing certain phrases.

I want to give a shoutout to @Christopher Bennett for going all out teaching me the basics of the wired and wonderful world of TTS.

Let me clarify one thing:

This doesn't mean that creating a TTS pack is abandoned from my to-do list; I just feel it's not the right move at this point in time.

So, is this the end of development then? Of course not! Since Steve and I also discussed my progress in relation to the soundpack for Air Child, I've worked out an alternate approach, continuing development with the aim of releasing version 1.3.

Now, without ruining all the fun, let's talk about a few changes I'll implement:

Firstly, the next release will feature a new voice as it offers a more realistic feeling than the free one currently used. This doesn’t mean I'm abandoning the previous one or the SLC manual for Air Child's creation (which took countless hours to write, by the way), I just want to ensure we can still use the latest technological achievements for an 'as real as it gets' perspective.

Secondly and lastly: As mentioned before, a special thanks to Chris for the continuous support of uploading new builds every time there is one and for planting these wired but wonderful ideas in my head during long weekend conversations. With his given permission, I'd like to discuss one final thought:

When I started this topic, I mentioned that I don't and won't charge any money from the community while developing this sound pack. I feel profoundly grateful being a part of this virtual airline. But if you feel like supporting my work anyway, you can buy me a coffee or join me on my Discord and Twitch channel. All links will be added to my signature shortly, (if you want to support my work via Paypal, just PM me).

As mentioned before, there’s absolutely no need to do so, but it would be appreciated, as developing for this community takes tremendous time, effort, and a huge dose of humor sometimes.

Anyway, I just felt the need to express my gratitude to the whole community. See you guys in the next development update!
 
Okay, so if anyone's wondering how I spent my vacation besides pondering why another year has already come to an end, here's the answer: Another, and perhaps the last, development update for this year.

As mentioned earlier, I've decided to convert our soundpack into a voicepack, which, as you probably guessed, leads to a massive amount of additional work.

To give you an example:

Air Child is currently flying to 732 airports. To maximize our crew's potential, I have to create a single sound file for every airport plus every time of day, so 732*3 = 2,196 sound files just for the 'welcome to xxx announcement.'

Considering that I'm still working in the public service sector, it might take me a bit of time to release a new version, but I wanted to let you know that I'm still working on it.

Also, it's maybe worth mentioning that the current version 1.2 is still functional, as these are 'automated announcements,' although you'd have to be aware of the bug I mentioned earlier, as it hasn't been fixed yet.

Hope you guys had a wonderful Christmas, and wishing you an early happy new year!

See you in 2024!
 
If I remember one of my last posts correctly, I mentioned that I might have a terrible sense of perfect timing, so I guess I've already proven myself worthy to continue this tradition;).

I had intended to get back to you guys 'a little' earlier, but given the fact that the new year is already three months old and it's nearly 11:00 p.m. again, I think I'll better start explaining my bad habit ;):

Firstly, Self Loading Cargo just got updated to version 1.6.3, which - among some other main features - now includes the first bits that are essential to continue the development of our company-branded soundpack.

An audio manager. This little software within Self Loading Cargo is used to check if I, as the developer, made any mistakes while creating the file structure that SLC needs to work as it should.

In a second step, Steve plans to add even more development tools that should hopefully reduce the need for working endless - but happy - night shifts, but I won't go into too much detail on this topic just now...

Secondly, and I'm sure you're going to read the following paragraphs twice, Fenix Simulation released its "long-awaited Block 2, Version 2" update, which will work together with SLC. If I remember Air Child's story correctly, "we want to provide a great variety of software to all our members." Bottom line: I'm going to evaluate the creation of an SLC independent soundpack for those of you who don't own the software as well and report back with more details in future development updates.

Let me clarify one thing here:

This doesn't mean that I'll cancel the development of SLC; it's still my first priority; just want to give you all the possibility to choose how you'd like to fly, especially since SLC got an option with the latest patch that lets you play only the announcements, so you don't have to mess around with anything but the announcements themselves.

So with that being said, stay tuned for the next probably further delayed development update!
 
Are you ready for a Fenix rising from the ashes? :cool:

If so, see the attachment, and stay tuned for a new dev update in the next couple of days!
 

Attachments

  • 2024-03-09 22-56-28.mp4
    20.4 MB
Alright, let's kick off this new dev update with a nod to Heath Ledger's "Joker" in The Dark Knight regarding my last teaser: "And I thought my jokes were bad" 😉

But seriously, there was no joke at all. As some of you may have already noticed, we've managed to hire a brand new cabin crew that will be serving drinks and snacks on board all your Air Child Fenix aircraft from now on!

I've decided to add the "Fenix Roadmap" to the 2nd post so you guys can keep track of everything that's happening in due course.

You can find the pack itself by visiting the download section on Air Child's website or by following
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separate link (just in case you want to continue reading for a little longer 😎), as there's a bit more to tell.

Regarding the development update of Self Loading Cargo, I want to point out that I'm still actively participating in ongoing discussions with Steve and supporting other users with the mentioned 'issues' at the beginning of this topic.

So stay tuned for the next post!
 
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