I just did my first flight-for-fun with Vancouver+ and FSX SP1 beta3. From Vancouver Harbour (CYHC) I flew East across Burnaby, New Westminster and to Pitt Meadows before heading back to the city. Then I flew over Grouse Mountain, and over to Howe Sound. Over to Stawamus Chief, then back to the Harbour. After landing in the Beaver at CYHC, I drifted towards Canada Place.
For the VFR flyer, greenhouses are a familiar site in the Fraser Valley where CYNJ is located. One very large one , more than 200m x 200m, is close to the flight path. Here’s some screenshots.
Soundings has a few gigs upcoming:
Sunday, April 29, 7:30 PM, Victoria Folk Club (short notice!)
Sunday, May 6, 2:00 PM, Gabriola United Church, Gabriola Island (part of Dancing Man music festival)
Saturday, June 2, 8:00 PM, Fairfield United Church, Victoria, BC
Sunday, June 3, 7:00 PM, Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC
Visit the website for more details. And no, we aren’t a choir, although we keep getting billed that way! Join us for a mix of Dowland, Beatles, James Taylor, gospel, blues and some wonderful locally-written/arranged pieces.
Phil Taylor reports on a new beta version posted for the testers, and tells a bit more about what’s happening.
Owen Hewitt reports from Phil Taylor that FSX SP1 won’t be available April 30, as part of a rather silly tempest-in-a-teapot thread about AI performance impact in FSX and other sundries. Owen provides a good summary, I suggest you read no further than that.
To ensure your expecations for performance are properly set, here’s some of the settings used for screenshots. Your performance may be better or worse. The only shots where I would say (with my rig) performance is such that it’s not very flyable are with reflective water settings, and excessive default GA AI (used for testing).
I can’t reveal the FPS I am getting until SP1 is released.
Today’s adventure was recreating Adrian’s restaurant. Here’s some shots.
I’ve completed the model and day textures for the CYNJ tower, just a couple of minor touches to add (like controllers!)
Here’s an odd one: our newly constructed model of the Lion’s Gate Bridge accurately represents the real-world clearance of 200 feet (61 metres), per the Engineering drawings. (See also this reference.) The published height of the Island Princess (cruise ship kindly provided by Mitsuya ‘Hama’ Hamaguchi) is 204 feet (62 metres). So how does the ship get to and from the Vancouver terminal? I’m guessing, like US Navy carriers, it can only transit First Narrows at low tide. So how do we represent this in the sim, which shows mean sea level? Right now the top of the superstructure collides with the bridge!
CYNJ (Langley Regional Airport) work has largely consisted of working on the airport facility specification (AFCAD) and related information. Aprons, runways, taxiways, taxiway signs, fencing, parking and other details are done. As well Holger has re-projected the airphoto for the area, and I’ve adjusted it to match surrounding textures. Major building work will start next week. Here’s some screenshots, with many aircraft for testing purposes.
Inspired by Kevin Herlihy (who contacted me over a year ago), we’ve been working on adding a new detailed airport to Vancouver+ for FSX: CYNJ, Langley Regional Airport. Airport manager George Miller has allowed Kevin excellent access to the site for photography, and we are in process of purchasing high-resolution airphoto data from the Township of Langley. We will provide photoreal models of major buildings and objects, and photoreal display of the airport area. Runways and other maneouvering surfaces will be FSX standard textures.
The facility is currently adding new hangers, and turf runway 07/25 is temporarily closed during construction, and will be shifted in position slightly when re-opened. We may be able to squeeze these changes into the release.
Home to 300 aircraft, I’m very pleased that we’ll be able to add this busy field to Vancouver+.
Phil Taylor has announced the release of beta 2 to the team. Downloading now.
To correct some of the chatter out there, Phil Taylor has been clear in this post that FSX DX10 support will be in a separate release sometime after SP1.
Holger’s been busy taking advantage of the new ability in FSX to attach sounds to effects. So we know have waterfalls that roar, traffic noise on the bridges, and my favourite, seagulls and ocean sounds. It’s surprising how much this adds to the immersion.
Paul Lange has a useful post on how to customize Shift+Z information in FSX. This function is used to display text information during flight. You will need to modify your fsx.CFG file with a text editor, so be sure to first back up your old copy in case of error. You can find in:
<drive letter>\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\FSX\fsx.CFG
Note: I use RSSReader and it strips out some of the information in the pathname above: open in a browser to see the path properly.
Be assured that Vancouver+ development is continuing during FSX SP1. We can’t screenshot until SP1 is released, but the team over the last 10 days has:
With the Cone of Silence still firmly in place on betatesters, Phil Taylor has been good enough to release some hard info on multi-core usage in SP1. He tells us that the software is designed to handle 2, 4 or more cores via a config setting, and explains some technical details, including the fact that hyperthreaded machines are treated differently than multi-cores.
He also notes that April 30 is still a possibility for release (the target was April), but there could be a delay. He reveals that the 2nd beta drop of SP1 hasn’t yet occured.
Well, Frank reminds me as we approach Easter that I never did reveal the Vancouver+ Easter Eggs. The unannounced feature was animated birds at these locations. Can you find them all?
<!– Point Atkinson –>
<!– Downtown Vancouver adjacent to CYHC docks –>
<!– Stanley Park - Lost Lagoon –>
<!– CAM9 - Harbour Air –>
<!– CAM9 - Seair –>
<!– CAJ8 Pitt Meadows –>
<!– Steveston (near the fishing docks) –>
<!– CAE5 - Whistler –>
<!– CAE7 - Harrison –>
<!– CYHE - Hope –>
<!– Reifel Sanctuary (very large flock here, nearly 100 birds, but close to ground and hard to find: this was the one I hinted at –>
