This is an annotated sample bug report. Use it as a guide when filling out your own bug reoprt.
| Your email: | joe_smith@supertech.com |
| Summary: | Sky becomes green above 20,000 feet. |
| Product: | X-Plane |
| Version: | 8.20 Beta 3 |
| Description: | When flying on earth above 20,000 feet, the sky changes color from blue or grey to green. This happens on all weather conditions on Earth. |
| Steps to Reproduce: | 1. Take off in the 747 from KSBD runway
6, default weather conditions. 2. Fly straight and climb past 20,000 feet. Expected results: blue sky above 20,000 feet. Actual result: green sky upon passing through 20,000 feet. |
| Attachments: | Screenshot 5.png |
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The summary should be a one-line description of the bug. Please be sure to describe exactly what's wrong. "Sky turns green" is more useful than "Sky is the wrong color", which is more useful than "Sky draws wrong", which is more useful than "problem when flying". The more precise you can be, the faster we can find the bug.
Please indicate which program (X-Plane, WorldMaker, the installer, etc.) has this bug.
Which version of the product caused the bug. We only list the most recent sim version and the most recent beta; if the bug is in an older version, please update first using our free update program. This way the bug report you file will match the version we are working on.
This should be a detailed description of the bug. Please provide all of the details about the bug that you can think of. Of particular value is "regression" information - that is, anything that controls whether the bug happens. For example, if the bug happens in this version but not in another version, please tell us! If the bug only happens on a certain platform, with a certain graphics card, after updating the OS, etc. please let us know.
Whenever possible, use the default settings of X-Plane. For example, you can delete your preferences (found in the Resources folder in the preferences subfolder) and then try the bug. If the bug still happens, you can tell us that you used the "default rendering and weather settings". This helps us eliminate differences in preferences. We get a number of bugs that we cannot reproduce because of configuration differences.
If you have third party add-ons, please remove them and try to reproduce the bug. If a third party add-on causes a bug but worked normally in a previous version, you can report this to us. Generally it is better to report the bug to the third party first.
This is the most important part of the bug report! We need exact, simple, detailed steps on how to reproduce the bug. If the steps will not cause the bug every time, please let us know. For example, if a bug requires you to fly west, please tell us the airport, the exact speed, the exct heading, the airplane, etc. Do not assume we know anything about how to reproduce your bug! We get a lot of bug reports where the steps to reproduce are not specific enough for us to see the bug too.
With the steps to reproduce, please tell us both the expected result and the actual result. Please be detailed for both. This will tell us what we are looking for. We also get bug reports that are actually features.
(For example, real-world runway lights are very dim at night when viewed from the side. This is sometimes reported as a bug in the sim, but it is actually a reproduction of real life. If the bug report says "expected result: runway lights stay bright when viewed on side. Actual result: runway lights become dim." then we can tell instantly what the issue is. Without this info it is not clear exactly what the bug is.)
For clarity, attach screenshots when needed. (See below.)
You can attach files to your bug report. Please attach the log.txt file from your X-System folder to the bug report. This file contains a lot of information about your computer, add-ons installed in X-Plane, and often what went wrong. Sending a lot.txt saves us a lot of time. We do not collect any personally-identifying information from your computer.
If the bug causes a visual problem, please take a screenshot. Please send the actual PNG file X-Plane creates; do not convert it to JPG or resize it. If you have a paint program, consider circling the problem area in "red pen". This will make it completely clear to us what is wrong with the screenshot. (It is not always obvious, particularly if a screenshot shows two bugs -- which one are you reporting?)
You can attach up to four files (up to 4 MB each) in your bug reports. If you need to attach an archive, please use ZIP, not StuffIt or RAR.