Interview : Beti-x Lead Developer... Peter Kubek

[Joe]

Interview: Beti-x Lead Developer, Peter Kubek  

This is an interview that I had with Peter Kubek, the lead developer at Beti-x. 

 

XPR: Who are the people behind Beti-x?

 

What are their roles in the team? We have a core team of four members, a tree skilled specialist and one superb programmer! We're also currently working on mobile and casual games. Now after Stewart we can also be called an addon developer! 

 

 XPR: How did the team join together with an ambition to create amazing scenery? As a game developer and artist I wondered how all of those nice sceneries were created, and of course what can be done better.

 

That was only a small step to start work on our own scenery. The idea of creating scenery for x-plane 10 was growing longer, the team were excited about it, so we decided to go ahead with it very fast. But as we needed to work mainly on other projects CZST - Stewart was done with my collegue in our spare time.

 

XPR: Why did you choose to develop for X-Plane 10 and not FSX? 

 

We made that decision for several reasons. The x-plane community creates very good free sceneries, but i personally felt a lack of high quality and detailed sceneries that exist for FSX. After reading various flightsim forums we felt an opportunity to bring a scenery package of what x-plane users want. Other FSX scenery developers don't show any interest to bring something special to x-plane users. Last but not least we felt the big potential of X-plane 10. 

  

 

XPR: Where is the Beti-x office situated? 

 

The Beti-x office is situated in Prague, Czech Republic.  

 

XPR: What is the ultimate goal of Beti-x?

 

 Definitely full time development for X-Plane 10. Speed up development time and therefore release at least 3-5 sceneries a year. Unfortunately the X-Plane 10 market is still so small that sales didn't even cover the development costs. perhaps with time the situation will change.

 

 

 

XPR: How long did it take you and the team to develop CZST Stewart? 

 

To get familiar with the system of development for XP-10 we started on NZQN - Queenstown. When we discovered enough about how it works we started on CZST - Stewart. As I mentioned before, two people worked for 6 months during weekends and spare time.

 

 

 

XPR: How were you expecting the release of CZST to go, did you get more press than anticipated?

 

 To be honest I was surprised with the positive feedback and all reaction from the users and public. I received plenty of very nice emails, this gave us huge satisfaction and reward for our hard work. We're proud of all reviews and really happy with that. I want to thank all who supported us. 

 

XPR: What inspired you to create CZST? What do you love most about the scenery?

 

 That spectacular view on the mighty mountains surrounding airport and the reflection on the water of portland canal is scenic. View on Stewart is not boring even after many months of development. Near Stewart are located many interesting airports that could be created in the future. 

 

XPR: Have you or any of the team actually ever visited Stewart? if so are you pleased with how Beti-x's version relates to the real one?

 

 Unfortunately nobody from the team wasn't in Stewart personally. But I hope we will visit Stewart in the future. We've done research through plenty of pictures on the internet and other materials. I would say our airport and town are true copy of the reality.

 

XPR: How is it possible to get remarkable ground textures?

 

 Thanks for the compliment We spent many hours on the ground textures. We tried to do our best and I hope we were successful.

 

 

XPR: What are your future plans regarding x-plane? Do you (and the team) intend to make more scenery in the local area of Stewart?  

 

Plans are great, but as I mentioned all depends if we will be able to dedicate more time to development for XP-10. These days we have two other sceneries in progress in the area of Stewart. But we would love to work also on the other parts of world. We want to bring more life to the sceneries, such as animations of the airport staff, ground traffic, trees animations, support of World Traffic etc.In future scenery builds do you intend to cover a larger area than Stewart? I like the idea of sceneries with larger coverage, similar to ORBX. Various POI, geographical anchor points, regionalization of the XP-10. But on tasks like these must be engaged much bigger team and it's not possible to fund it yet. Possibilities are great, we'll see what future bring. 

 

 

XPR: What interesting sceneries or airports can we expect in 2014?

 

We have two sceneries in development and both are located in BC. Same detail like Stewart, not only the airport but the town and surrounding area. I'll see how will go the schedule on these airports, but we'd love to make one bigger airport from the different part of world.

 

XPR: Will Beti-x ever develop Aircraft as well as scenery?

 

Within the XP-10 community there are plenty of high quality airplane developers, so we want to stick with sceneries. 

 

 I would like to thank Peter for taking the time to have this interview. 

 

 If you would like to find out more about CZST - Stewart on the x-plane.org store then go here: CZST Stewart  

 

To visit the Beti-x Developer website click here

 

 To read an extensive review of CZST - Stewart then go here: 

 

Interview by Joe  Copyright©2014 : X-Plane Reviews 

 

[Guest Mark Brown]

Thanks for a great interview - and Peter I really hope things work out in xplane for you - CZST is just the best thing in xplane right now thanks for all the work you have done. I would also like to say thanks for the superb level of support and responses to silly questions - really makes for a great package. can't wait for the next realese.

[Guest 9SL9]

This is a great scenery. I'm curious if your 6 months worth of work is giving you the financial return you expected? I'm sure there are many out there wondering if the investment in the xplane community pays off?