Central hangers done at CYNJ

The detailed hangers I plan to do are done, the rest will be less detailed.  The only detailed building to add is the Helijet terminal at the North End.  These shots are taken at 30cm ground res, with frame rates in the 22-24 range as I flew around.

Playing with the look of CYNJ

We’re considering reducing the amount of AFCAD generic tarmac and having more photoscenery.  The photoscenery isn’t as hi-res, but it’s pretty.  I experimented with running at 30cm ground resolution, and flew from CYPK to CYNJ average 18-20 fps.  If we go this route, I will retouch and remove all the painted aircraft on the ground ….

 Back-end of some of the hangers …

Work continues on CYNJ

CYNJ Langley Regional Airport is getting new buildings every day as the test team works on the rest of the scenery.  Here’s some screenshots.

Miscellaneous goodies: more SP1 tips/tweaks and a Vancouver+ beta report

Great post by Phil Taylor on how to get the most out of SP1.

Early beta test report on Vancouver+ for FSX: the testers have been hammering it now for a few days, and we’ll give them til at least Sunday before we have another version.  They’re finding lots of little ways  we can improve and fix things, and overall the product seems robust.  We are gathering data on performance impacts.  Certainly as Phil noted in his post above, you can’t be running FSX with sliders to the right on current machines.  With an additional addon, that’s even more true.  We’ll do our best to come up with recommended settings for various systems.  We’re also testing systems that I would not normally recommend to run FSX to find if there are settings that’ll work.  Certainly if you don’t have more than 1Gb of RAM, you’ll be limited: 1.5Gb is a reasonable minimum.  And 128Mb video cards are very limiting; no news there.

Vancouver+ released to beta team

Beta version 2.0.03-03 has been released to the team for the first round of testing.  Thanks to Scot Fraser for burning the midnight (and later!) oil to put together a sweet installer/configurator.

Volendam leaving Vancouver

Now, I can post screenshots, and let you know performance at the same time.  Water reflections greatly lower my framerates.  On my moderate system, this shot is at 12.5 FPS.  Goes up to about 16 without water reflections.  EDIT: that seemed low, so i started up again with weather at “Low” rather than “High” and am getting mid-20s over downtown.  Funnily enough these numbers are very close to how Vancouver+ in FS9 ran on my previous machine.

Vancouver+ for FSX status and test plan overview

Holger, Scot and I are currently testing/refining the configurator/installer.  Once we are satisfied with it, we will release the first beta to the test team in the next few days.  Testers have been chosen, the testing forum is set up, test plan written, and test allocations done.  Testers have signed up to check the product by geographic sector, and by functional area.  While the team is testing, I’ll finish off the CYNJ buildings and some other loose ends.

Our approach is to provide the beta team with a fairly well tested release.  We’ll fine out how it works on different platforms, including some older machines that we’ve included in the test group.  We will minimize the number of beta drops (test releases) by running a set of regression tests prior to each drop.

For those interested in a deeper view into our testing procedure, here’s our simple test plan.  Note that is directed to the beta team only, and is provided here should it be useful for other developers.

Vancouver + FSX – Test Plan and Sector Map

Because of the large scope of this project, both in terms of geographic area and features, we will be asking folks to sign up to do specific types of testing. This way we will help ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

There will be 7 geographic test regions, Alpha through Golf, and several non-geographic functional tests.

We also will be doing a simple form of regression testing: when we specify a new beta release is an RT beta, all tests must be run again. This minimizes the chances that fixes and enhancements do not cause collateral damage. We will of course work to minimize the number of complete test runs we do. For those who are interested, I have a document available entitled, “Regression Testing for Flight Simulator Addons”.

Of course, we still encourage mucking about, flying at will, and just having fun. That may find problems we haven’t thought of.

Here are the geographic test sectors (see below):

Some notes on reporting:

• please use screenshots with coordinates enabled (ctl-z), limited to 125kb, 6 per post (though multiple posts are possible), and (please!) max. width of 800 pixels. If you don’t want to hand-edit your screenshot use something like Grab-Clip-Save http://www.simviation.com/fsutilities_gen3.htm
• please report in the appropriate sectional threads (see below) and avoid starting new threads unless it’s a very general (or very specific) issue
• report time of day/season
• for AI traffic monitoring, for those of who have FSX Deluxe, use the Traffic Toolbox
• please ensure you have looked over existing bug reports carefully

Reference Material

• maps for British Columbia: http://toporama.cits.rncan.gc.ca/toporama_en.html or here http://webmap.em.gov.bc.ca/mapplace/minpot/general.cfm (the second link requires a free plug-in for the interactive map). http://maps.gov.bc.ca/ and click on “Land and Resource Data Warehouse Catalog”
• googleEarth http://earth.google.com/
• VanMap, for detailed downtown airphotos: http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/vanmap/o/orthophotos.htm
• Burnaby, for detailed Burnaby airphotos: http://webmap.city.burnaby.bc.ca/publicmap/viewer.htm
• Richmond GIS for detailed Richmond airphotos: http://map.city.richmond.bc.ca/website/gis/viewer.htm
• Photos: http://www.webshots.com/search?new=1&source=mdocsheader&words=
• Other photos: search at http://www.google.com/imghp
• Oblique air photos: http://www.globalairphotos.com/
• Buildings: http://www.skyscraperpage.com/ and http://www.emporis.com/en/

Known Issues – please don’t report unless noted below:
• List coming

Test Section Overview

Notes on Test sections:

• Please report issues in the thread provided
• Delta and Echo areas have many features, it is suggested that if you sign up for one of these, you don’t sign up for other areas
• you can report issues outside your chosen area, but please use the correct thread

Sign up by section:

• Section 1a – Geographic Area Alpha
• Section 1b – Geographic Area Bravo
• Section 1c – Geographic Area Charlie
• Section 1d – Geographic Area Delta
• Section 1e – Geographic Area Echo
• Section 1f – Geographic Area Foxtrot
• Section 1g – Geographic Area Golf
• Section 2 – AI
• Section 3a – Airports – land-based
• Section 3b – Airports – Seaplane bases
• Section 3c – Airports – Heliports
• Section 4 – Third party compatibility

Everybody will do:

• Section 5 – Performance
• Section 6 – Installer/Configurator

Test Section Descriptions and What to Look for

All Sections

Please report any crashes and shutdowns with as much detail as possible so that others can try to recreate the situation.

Please check for and report major frame rate drops and increased loading times.

Suspension of disbelief: Holger’s own measure of success is to fly around and not come across places where the environment looks or feels “wrong”. For example, are specific textures (rocks, forests, water) strange or of the wrong color? Do the shorelines look off? Are the settlements placed well? Anything that makes you go “hmmm…” or “ouch!”

Section 1 – Geographic Tests – by regions (Alpha – Golf)
Sign up by geographic area – See test regions above.

Objects (Buildings, dams, marinas, bridges, other structures) – look for flickering, incomplete or inaccurate textures, blend with context, misplacement

Photoscenery – look for blend with context, edges

Lake elevations and river placement and elevations – look for plateaus, pits, breaks
mistakes in vector line designations – look for roads as streams and vice versa
Roads and railroads – look for misplacement, breaks, river/lake crossings
Shorelines – look for missing, incursions: river meets or leaves lake
Utility Cuts – look for how lovely they look
Landclass – look for mistakes in landclass (eg desert instead of forest)
Autogen building encroachment – look for buildings on steep mountainsides or other inappropriate places

Testing:
- for your chosen region(s) fly a pattern and check the above in detail
- fly a coarse pattern over the region in each season (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall) and each time of day (Dawn, Day, Dusk, Night)
- report by lat/long with screenshot with coordinate display turned on (ctrl-z)
- you may be asked more than once to repeat the full test before final release

Section 2 – AI
Seaplanes – look for smooth departure from dock or ramp, and smooth docking or parking. Smooth traffic flow at runways and taxiways.
Small boats – look for collisions in paths, crossing land, etc.
Cruise ships – look for collisions in paths, crossing land, etc.
Helicopters – look for collisions with buildings, land
Testing: use Traffic Explorer to monitor takeoffs, landings and progress.

Section 3 – Airports
Testing: Check ATC, runway designations, parking,

Section 4 – Third party compatibility
Test with any third party addons you have and report anomalies

Section 5 – Performance
We will provide some test flight scenarios and required settings to create some benchmarks.

Section 6 – Installer/Configurator
Install and uninstall, reinstall, repair.

Appendix – Test Regions (see map above)

Test Region (TR) Boundary
Alpha (Howe Sound) 50° 37.50’N 123° 45’W x 49° 30’N 122° 58’W
Bravo (Garibaldi) 50° 37.50’N 122° 58’W x 49° 30’N 121° 55’W
Charlie (Fraser Canyon) 50° 37.50’N 121° 55’W x 49° 30’N 120° 56.25’W
Delta (Vancouver) 49° 30’N 123° 45’W x 49° 11’N 122 °58’W
Echo (Golden Ears) 49° 30’N 122° 58’W x 49° 11’N 121 °55’W
Foxtrot (Hope) 49° 30’N 121° 55’W x 48° 52.03’N 120 °56.25’W
(includes part of US, test that too)
Golf (Fraser Valley) 49° 11’N 123° 14’W x 48° 52.03’N 121 °55’W
(includes part of US, test that too)

Some good reading on FSX SP1

Here’s some notable links on SP1.

Phil’s posts:

• Preparing to Install
• Aircraft and Scenery Fixes
• Missions, Multi-player and Misc Fixes
• SDK, SimConnect and 3rd Party Fixes
• Performance Work
• New Tweaks
• Direct download links for the .exe

Other links:

• Updates to the Software Development Kit in SP1A
• Summary from Owen Hewitt
• New: membership now offered at FSInsider
• AVSIM FSX technical issue thread
• AVSIM FSX SP1 Feedback thread
• Simflight FSX forum

Announcements by bloggers:

• A Reality of My own
• ABWAIN
• Adrian Woods
• Arno Gerretsen
• Bill Womack
• Bob Arnson
• Brian G.
• Francois Dumas
• Freesky (Korean)
• FS coastal pilot
• Hiro (Japanese)
• Mike Zyskowsky
• Moyshe Ufnik
• Nick Whittome
• Sebby
• Phil Taylor

Looking for a solution to an SP1 issue

FSX SP1 has many improvements, and in at least one case, what appears to be a major step backwards:  in cockpit view (so-called 2D panel) mode it is no longer possible to get a clear view anywhere except straight ahead.  I’m surprised by how much this diminishes my flying experience.  The only workaround I’ve come up with so far is to fly the ultralight, as it doesn’t have much in the way.

Perhaps MS did this to minimize the amount of autogen that has to be referenced in memory, but without a workaround, I am bummed.

Suggestions?

EDIT: See the comments for one workaround from Dick.  It’s a big help, and I hope MS will fix this with proper fix at some point.  EDIT: Some drawbacks: you hear the engine noise as if you were 10′ below the aircraft, quite the racket. You can’t access panels or instruments.  MS please bring back the old way!

EDIT: another option from Bernie: http://www.wideview.it/fsx_sp1.htm

SP1 vs FSX – performance results

Many feel that smoothness or lack of stutters is the best measure of performance in the sim, but this is difficult to measure.  I certainly find SP1 to be much smoother, and a greatly improved simming experience.  That said, here’s my static frame rate comparison. Overall you can see I’ve seen a 40% jump in framerates, pretty evenly spaced over different settings.  Performance increase varied at the test airports from 33 to 50%.  Well done ACES!

My system:  AMD 4200+ X2 (dual core), 2 Gb RAM, 7900GT (256mb) GPU, 800 Gb SATA-II Raid-0 drive array, Asus A8N-SLI motherboard.  FSX now takes full advantage of my dual core system, and is claimed to take advantage of more cores as well.

Results by airport:

• EDDF: 21.4 to 29.3, +37%
• CYYZ: 20.5 to 27.3, +33%
• KLAX: 18.0 to 24.5, +36%
• KORD: 19.2 to 27.8, +45%
• KSEA: 18.8 to 28.2, +50%

Results by settings:

• high settings: 9.8 to 13.4, +37%
• no autogen, no traffic: 15.4 to 22.3, +44%
• no autogen, no traffic, water low: 26.8 to 38.4, +43%
• no autogen, no traffic, water low, fullscreen: 26.2 to 35.5, +35%

FSX SP1 released!

Available here as well as the new version of the SDK.  More info coming …. Phil has posted a series of detailed articles with more info.

Catching up on a few things

I’ve been focused on development and over the past few weeks, there’s a few items I haven’t noted:

• New look for fsinsider site
• News on the new Phenom™ processor from AMD and comments from the ACES (and in this post Phil indicates SP1 is on target for release later this week)
• Library Creator XML 2.0.1 released
• It’s Your Plane released
• Bear Gulch goes FSX
• New MS Knowledge Base articles on FSX (use the RSS feed http://support.microsoft.com/common/rss.aspx?rssid=11941&ln=en-us to keep up on these) including a fix for 2nd monitor usage in Vista

Seabus screenshot

Tweaks and tips – the next generation

Once FSX SP1 is released there will be a new wave of tips and tweaks to optimize performance.  Phil repeats one that was posted on AVSIM.

Beta updates

Phil Taylor reports that FSX SP1 is in final test, and release is close.  Which means that the start of the Vancouver+ beta is very close as well.  It will start shortly after folks have installed SP1.  Holger and I did our first manual build of the Vancouver+ alpha last night, and are testing today in prep for Scot integrating the installer/configurator.

Work on downtown Vancouver

Downtown Vancouver gets a facelift in Vancouver+ for FSX: new buildings and more detail including:

• Custom models for hotels in front of Canada Place
• Cathedral Place
• more detail at the heliport, CBC7
• more detail at the floatplane terminal, CYHC
• detailed shoreline object with higher resolution texture
• placement of FSX default objects
• Seabus terminal and working Seabus vessels (courtesy of Larry Silsbee)

Here’s some screenshots.  Despite any improvement in SP1, many folks still won’t be able to have reflective water active in FSX with older machines.  So I’ve taken some shots without.  Another variable will be the density of buildings in downtown: lots of people will not be able to use Extremely Dense, and may use normal or dense.  That won’t change the custom objects, but will change the number of autogen buildings and trees.  More detail when SP1 comes out.

In the following screenshots, the cranes represent the new Convention Centre, under construction.

FSX SP1 beta4

Owen Hewitt posts about FSX SP1 beta4: this drop is now available to testers.