Building RC2

Tonight we’re building Release Candidate 2 for Vancouver+ for FSX.  The team will have 48 hours to test.  Changes from RC1 are quite minor, but we needed to confirm that one minor glitch didn’t have bigger implications.  Which it didn’t.  Here’s what we changed from RC1 to RC2.  Several of this items were actually in the queue for a future update, but we decided to put them in now.  I’m pleased we waited to clean up this issues, and that our diligent testers uncovered them…

- CAJ8: removed crash box at dock (with crash detection on, you couldn’t have your wing over the dock)
- CYNJ: moved apron edge lights (some were offset from the apron)
- CYNJ: removed static J-3 Cub in playground (it’s been removed and the area made a playground)
- updated effects_Woodfibre_Mill_FSX.BGL (great haze layer effect in Howe Sound)
- added flatten to South End of Mission Bridge (makes the terrain line up with the bridge)
- CYPK: fixed sign on building M14 (bad texture on back side)
- CYPK: fixed gap between buildings
- removed shadows from log rafts
- CYPK: removed shadows from fence
- CYPK: adjusted position of building M1 to meet fence
- CYPK: adjusted fence to meet up with building M6
- fixed land texture in Iona settling ponds (should have been and now is water)
- removed waves from Iona settling ponds (so the poo can settle)
- removed tree in bridge: N49 23.10 W121 19.13 (annoyed drivers)
- fixed bridge texture offset: N49 9.49 W121 53.79 hdg 64 (annoyed pilots)
- corrected scale of generic airport building #5 (used in a number of places, this model was oversized!)
- removed redundant generic hanger models from individual bgls (affects CBD2, CYHE, CYPS, Abbottsford, Surrey, White Rock) (rationalized library access of hanger models)
- added Swangard Stadium in Central Park, Burnaby
- added Nat Bailey Stadium near Queen Elizabeth Park (looks cool)
- finalized manual (same version as you can now download)
- CYDC: added leading zero runway designaton
- changed landclass at UBC (was residential, now has lots of big buildings + residential in the right areas)
- changed polygon type at Mission drag strip to parking (was unpopulated industrial, looked odd)
- Configurator: restore default settings checkbox so it doesn’t persist after selecting  (worked ok, but was rather ambiguous)

Support forum info now up

The Vancouver+ for FSX support forum text is now in place, although it’ll still be a few days until the product is ready.

More Vancouver+ links coming online

Francois has got the product page up, which has links to screenshots.

You can also download the manual.

Details on Vancouver+ for FSX pricing

François has set the Vancouver+ pricing as follows, prices in Euros:

Base Price

New customers: €34.00 (+ €6.46 for EU customers, total €40.46)

For owners of Vancouver+ for FS9: €27.20 (+ €5.17 for EU customers, total €32.37)

Introductory price (for 30 days after release)

New customers: €30.00 (+ €5.70 for EU customers, total €35.70)

For owners of Vancouver+ for FS9: €24.00 (+ €4.56 for EU customers, total €28.56)

 

So keep on eye on Simflight or this blog for the announcement that the product is ready. It will be a few days yet.

Great news on Vancouver+ for FSX pricing…

Francois, our PUBLISHER, has announced that Vancouver+ will be offered at a special introductory price for 30 days only, once the product is released.  Owners of Vancouver+ for FS9 can add in a 20% discount for a further deal.  Stand by for more details … distributor will once again be Simmarket.com .

Psychedelic aircraft! And other things…

Owen Hewitt is making great progress on the Twin Comanche for FSX.  He’s got some cool video that show the color change varying with viewpoint (“ChromaLusion”)…

And while we’re talking about aircraft, which I so rarely do, here’s some other recent goodies from other bloggers:

AlphaSim releases Valkyrie.

Project Airbus releases A320 V2.

In general Mark Avery keeps more up to date on releases than I do…

And for those who have Vista/DX10 capability, or are planning to, Phil Taylor has started to blog publicly about DX10 progress.

Coming closer …

We decided to fix a few minor glitches with Vancouver+, and while we fix that up the manual and screenshots and other goodies are being completed…

Next step …

With development for Vancouver+ for FSX complete, Scot Fraser integrated a changed fileset into the configurator/installer Tuesday night, and I spent most of Wednesday regression testing.  This included evaluation of 79 flight scenarios (including all facilities, and Time-of-Day and seasonal checks), and 38 other test parameters.  A few minor glitches were found, and we rebuilt last night.  I ran the basic regression test on this build this morning, and released it to the test team.  All is complete now except for the manual, and Francois is busy writing about the adventures of old friend Chuck Merriweather.

Meanwhile screenshot artist extraordinaire Nick Churchill is clicking away for promotional and manual pics.  The Welcome sticky, Reporting Guidelines, FAQ, and known issue list have been drafted for the support website, and will go live before too long.

The team will have until 2300z on Sunday to find anything I’ve missed, then once the manual is complete, the product can be released to the publisher.

Vancouver+ development complete

I added the last bits and pieces today: no portapotty at CYNJ, but I did add the weather pole and picnic shelter, including the memorial plaque there.  It’s off to the programmer to create the wrapper, then we’ll spend time regression testing the whole package before releasing to the distributor, FSAddon.  The testers have done a great job, so we don’t expect any surprises, but nobody’s stating a date until we’re sure it’s clean.

It was fairly obvious where the testers names were in FS9 version, and those are repeated in the FSX version.  But lurking somewhere in the 30,000 sq km are the names of everyone who has tested 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 over the last couple of years.  No hints on this one.

I’m very happy with the performance: we provide suggested settings and the configurator defaults to higher performance options.   A new feature in FSX, you can load a complete set of display/traffic settings from the settings screen.  We provide two options: 30cm and 1m ground resolution.

Other new features in the FSX version:

AI

• Replacement seaplane and Heli AI models

• New AI ferry: Seabus running between Vancouver and North Vancouver

• AI flightplans converted to use FSX models where needed

Ambience

• Animated hawks at Brackendale (adjacent to CYSE) and in Stanley Park

• Custom road traffic, both light and heavy traffic options

• Ambient sounds: bridge traffic, ocean sounds, seagulls, waterfalls

Facilities

• New detailed airport: CYNJ, Langley Regional with custom buildings and and 4-season 30 cm photoscenery for surrounding area

• 4-season 30 cm photoscenery at CYPK

• New unlisted strip for ultralights: White Rock Intergalactic

• Additional adjusted default airfields: 7WA3 – West Wind/Everson, CAR3 – Lillooet, CAZ5 – Cache Creek  

• Enhancements to several airfields: apron adjustments, fence, additional objects

• Leading zero runway markings

• Adjusted parking sizes at all facilities for correct wingspan parking of AI

• Detailed animated windsock model, lighted and unlighted models

Objects

• All custom models reprocessed with FSX exporter/compiler

• New custom object: Canada Place

• New custom object: Lion’s Gate Bridge

• New custom object: Pattullo Bridge

• Improved cabling on Alex Fraser Bridge and SkyBridge

• Peace Arch monument at Hwy 99/I-5 US/Canada border crossing

• Improved concrete textures on bridges

• Addition of US bridges in US overlap area

• Virtually all textures converted to .DDS format

Terrain

• Improved Vancouver Harbour shoreline,  including new buildings and hi-res photoscenery

• Recompiled 19m mesh and buffer meshes for the entire area using FSX techniques

• Extended coverage to the north includes detailed water bodies and road/railroad network for the Lillooet, Seton Lake, Carpenter Lake, and Cache Creek areas

• Custom seasons file for accurate, elevation dependent seasonal cahnges

• New forestry cutblock/clearcut texture at 1m resolution with custom autogen

• Hi-resolution custom industrial textures with autogen

• Choice between using standard FSX ground textures or a local re-combined set that enhances texture content, seasonality and blending

• Optional “freezing” of lakes higher than 600m, during winter months

• New photoreal shoreline textures for rivers, lakes and oceans

… and a myriad of little improvements, and the new level of detail that FSX permits.

Dillingham getting close

Check out these screenshots of Bill Womack’s new Dillingham scenery, upcoming from Aerosoft.  Great work, Bill!

Jon

Substantial completion of CYNJ

All major work at CYNJ is now complete.  Only a few minor bits and pieces left to fill in: picnic shelter, portapotty, perhaps the weather pole, stuff like that.

Overall in Vancouver+ for FSX in addition to CYNJ, there’s only a couple of minor bugs to fixed, some flight scenarios to create, and the manual to finish off.  We’ll create a release candidate for the testers in a few days. 

 

Playing with MyTrafficX

I’ve dabbled a bit with MyTrafficX over the past few days.  On the main forums, like AVSIM,  you’ll find a lot more intelligent analysis of it, and  feature comparisons to other products.  Suffice it to say, it’s not a black and white decision, each has it’s advantages.  For example, Ultimate Traffic has real-world schedules (which I prefer), but MyTrafficX has many more schedules, aircraft and adds military traffic.    MyTrafficX is truly an FSX product, with FSX schedules and aircraft, and as noted earlier, Ultimate Traffic has yet to catch up in this area.

I found the MyTrafficX installation more complex than Ultimate Traffic: this gives the user more flexibility, but for the MyTrafficX newbie (like me) was confusing.

There are other AI traffic addons for MSFS, such as Just Flight’s “Traffic”, but I haven’t dabbled with them.

Vancouver+ comparison screenshots

Holger has posted a great presentation that shows FSX before and after Vancouver+.  You can move the mouse back and forth over the edge of many of the shots for a great comparison.  Check it out!

RAZBAM screenshot competition

Ron makes some stunning aircraft, and some nice little AI aircraft for us as well.  Check out the screenshot competition for a great gallery of his work and a chance to win a Banshee Pack.

Vancouver Downtown – night

Vancouver+ for FSX: improved harbour textures….

More tips from Phil, and Ultimate Traffic for FSX released.

Phil posts about TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT and BUFFERPOOLS.  I found the TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT significantly reduced my stutters.  Right now I’m very happy with my performance (getting 20-35 fps around CYNJ as I develop it), so I’m going to leave well enough alone. But another tip applies to us all: don’t set AI traffic (I think Phil is referring to GA and Airline traffic) above 80% at any time.

I was pleased to see the release of Ultimate Traffic for FSX the other day.  Ultimate Traffic is one of my all time favourite addons for FS9.  And for UTraffic FS9 users, it was only US$10.  I was quickly bummed when I tried it out and found it to be the FS9 version adapted to work in FSX.  It’s a “Classic” version intended to “bridge the gap” until a true FSX product is released.  What’s this mean to the average user?  The traffic uses FS8/9 style files, which means any newer FSX-standard traffic will be disabled.  Doesn’t matter much for FSX default air traffic, as the intent of UTraffic–to replace it.  But it also disables all FSX ship and ferry traffic world-wide, and disables any other FSX-style traffic that other addons have. 

(EDIT: corrected “boat and ship” to “ferry and ship”)

It’s a tough choice for users: a number of addons use FS9 traffic files, which will kill all FSX-style traffic.  I encourage developers to move to FSX traffic ASAP so we don’t leave users in the lurch.

To help with this, Peter van der Veen is working on an excellent conversion utility that will allow developers to easily convert their FS9-input files to FSX traffic files.  In Vancouver+ the configurator will give the user the choice of FS9 or FSX traffic, but wags a finger and crinkles the brow if FS9 is chosen.

UTraffic also uses some older models in which the textures don’t render properly at a distance, and the aircraft show as black.  For the informed user for which these issues are not important, UTraffic adds a world of life to FSX with very little performance hit compared to FSX default AI.

In the next few days I hope to test MyTrafficX with Vancouver+.  It’s a true FSX traffic addon, as I understand it.

Finishing up CYNJ…

I’m working on the last group of hangers at CYNJ, and adding some detail to the field.  My wife insisted that I put the flagpoles in …

 New Harbour Air terminal: amphib service to Victoria…

 West hangers: still have a few more to do:

Strangest hanger at CYNJ

… the ground texture isn’t retouched yet in this shot …

South and Central hangers done at CYNJ

More shots of Langley Regional Airport in Vancouver+ for FSX:

More tweaks, Adrenaline becomes Prince, Vancouver+ progress …

Phil Taylor posts about more tweaks for FSX.  Haven’t tried these myself yet.  I’m pretty happy with my performance at this point, although I note that after flying for a while FPS can drop a lot.  Saving the flight, closing the sim and restarting it can double my framerates.  So FSX is not releasing some type of resource properly.

Paul Lange gives us an update on the FSX expansion-pack-formerly-known-as-Adrenaline, due out this fall.   The name “Adrenaline” is gone, but the replacement is not announced as yet, so we can call it the EPFKAA, or Prince, for short, until MS better informs us.  Looks a like a lot of the new missions will be heli scenarios, which for that smaller market segment will be a lot of fun.  Seems likely moving aircraft carrier missions will be in the mix, if that would be what Paul calls, “large moving aquatic objects,” and maybe (he says) “something to land on it with”.  Hmm, wonder what that could be?  Another ultralight?  Of course, racing is an important part of this product.

The Vancouver+ beta team has the 2nd of 3 planned beta drops, the final drop will be a release candidate (RC) in the next week or two.  The team is providing a wealth of great feedback helping us to refine the product., between the 1st and 2nd drop we had nearly 100 changes, fixes and improvements.  And don’t be reading a release date into the fact the RC date is coming close; it has to go through testing, then we jump through the hoops of the distribution release process.  But it is time to make sure your credit cards don’t expire soon …