Difficult conversations: turning challenge into opportunity

Attending ProjectWorld/Business Analysis World at Canada Place in Vancouver next week?  Drop by Room 16 at 1:45PM, Tuesday, November 6 to hear Mike Ray and I speak on Difficult Conversations.

A simple act to save lives

Joel Solomon, a Vancouver social entrepreneur, sends along the following note:

I am receiving a kidney from living donor, Shivon Robinsong, on November 14, 2007. This surgery will hopefully solve what is a lifelong genetic condition that has meant slow kidney function deterioration over decades. 95% success likelihood. Nevertheless, very major and serious. Dana and I can barely express the depth of meaning that this gift of love and an organ means to us, our family, and our work in the world.        

My long time business partner and friend, Martha Burton, faces an even more challenging circumstance around organ donation. Her wonderful husband Robert, is in a late state of lung disease and is high on the waiting list for a lung transplant that must come from a recently deceased person. It must be a person who has signed legal donation of their organs. Robert is otherwise super healthy and one of the finest human beings on the planet. We are all distraught and praying that a minor miracle will occur and he will hear the good news that someone has signed the forms making their lungs available.        

The point of this letter is to emphasize both the general and specific importance of all of us making the effort to sign up so that our organs may be used after our death, by others for whom they can be the gift of life. And for the extra courageous and hearty, there are organ and bodily donations that can happen while we are alive. Many people wait on lists desperately hoping for this miracle, and any of us may find ourselves or a close loved one in need at some point in our lives.        

The specific circumstance requires me to ask your understanding as I speak more poignantly about Robert’s situation. Should a freak accident occur to me in the coming weeks, I would want my lungs made available to Robert or someone else with the right blood and other match, who could use them after Im gone. Wouldnt most of us want that to happen?        

The sad fact is that a small fraction of the population has signed up to make such donations possible. At least by the laws in BC, without that few moments of paperwork, our body parts will simply go to the grave or crematorium.        

If you are a British Columbia resident, please go to the web site link that follows and sign up ASAP. If you live in another jurisdiction, take a few minutes and find out how you can do the same.
www.transplant.bc.ca

604 877 2240
For Robert, a lung might come from anywhere in Canada. He is at or near the top of the waiting list.        

Robert, Martha, Dana, myself, and our families and friends appeal to you to help in any way you can.

Joel

Vancouver+ screenshots

Jamie has posted some very pretty Vancouver+ screenshots …

More screenshots of Vancouver+ in FSX Acceleration

Mango has published a series of shots showing off DX10 in Vancouver+…

Victoria+ released to beta team

Beta 1 of Victoria+ has been released to the beta team.  Development is complete, but there are a number of minor glitches.  We’ll now get feedback from the team and add that to list.

FSX DX10 Video

Jun Kazama makes stunning flightsim videos.  Here’s a DX10 FSX video.

FSX SP2 release info

Phil Taylor explains why SP2 and FSX Acceleration are two different releases at different times, even though Acceleration includes SP2.

More notes on XPack – FSX Acceleration

I ran my framerate benchmark on XPack today.  Now the thrust of the product is the amazing array of new missions and some cool new aircraft, but some work has been done on performance optimization.

I found an increase of about 11% in frame rates with high autogen and water settings, and a decrease of about the same with those settings set low.  So for those who want the eye candy, they may see a slight improvement.  Note that these tests all had bloom disabled.

There are also some backward compatibility issues in DX9 which affect third party aircraft and scenery compiled using FS9 tools.  These problems can arise when an “alpha” channel is used for transparency or semi-transparency. 

We restricted ourselves in Vancouver+ and Victoria+ to only using FS9 compilations when we needed a function not available in FSX, such as seasonal tree textures.  We’re looking at how to deal with this. 

 We’ve not yet thoroughly tested under DX10, and Phil Taylor has made clear that the DX10 “preview” is not necessarily backward compatable.  Two old FS8/9 features were model conditions (for such things as seasonal textures), and the ground polygons so important to detailed airports: these may be at risk.  DX10 may show some performance improvements.  Phil does say in his blog post that MS understands that they need to look closely at making it easier for developers to provide they features they could under previous versions by providing alternative techniques.

Only a couple of more weeks until it hits the shelves … for those keen on experiencing new missions, it’s a great product.  If missions are not important to you and/or you want to be sure all your addon scenery products will work for you as they do under SP1, you may want to consider putting that money towards Battlestar Galactica, out a week earlier.

Ultimate Terrain X Canada for FSX released

Flight1 is now selling this excellent product from Scenery Solutions.  You can now fill in all those missing rivers and lakes in Canada and get roads, moving traffic, shorelines, coastlines, rivers, streams, many detailed textures, landclass, waterclass, railroads, night lighting, custom ground textures, corrected object locations, and a nifty setup tool.  A great complement to more detailed local sceneries like Vancouver+ and Victoria+, we’ve worked with Scenery Solutions to ensure a virtually seamless flying experience.

I recommend it.

EH-101 at Camel Point

Now pulling Victoria+ and the new FSX product together, here’s a shot of the new EH-101 in FSX Acceleration landing at the Camel Point heliport, CBF7.  This is DX9.

And in between mucking about …

… with FSX Acceleration, Don, Holger and I have been busy with Victoria+.  Holger just received word that excellent free hydrology data is now available for most of BC, and he’s added streams in the Vic+ coverage area.  Other stuff we’ve been doing:

• completed road traffic vectors
• integrated Don’s CYYJ
• used Holger’s cool new blending textures on unlisted fields
• many detailed revisions to the Victoria area landclass
• thanks to Industry Canada, we received a detailed database of the nearly 10,000 radio transmitters in the area, we’ve chosen a couple of dozen on the prominent ones to include
• added in road bridges
• added trestle bridges to the E&N railroad
• added new improved objects/textures to heliports
• adjusted ferry dock objects in the Gulf Islands and San Juans
• finished adding nearly 300 marine lights
• received and tested the FSX version of the Asuka cruise ship from hama
• finished testing the AI at the US floatplane bases
• completed the addition of many static objects: marinas, warships at CFB Esquimalt, boats, and other goodies

Here’s the detail on facilities.  * denotes airfields with sloped runways

Land-based airports – Canada 

Name	ICAO	Location	Elev.(feet)	Runway Length(feet)
Victoria International Airport	CYYJ	N48° 38.816′ W123° 25.550′	603	09/27 – 7000’13/31 – 5003’02/20 – 5026’
Butler Field, Central Saanich		N48° 33.699’ W123° 25.652’	335*	1050’
Gaines Strip, Saturna Island		N48° 47.611’ W123° 6.883’	85*	492’
Hastings Strip, North Pender Island		N48° 46.942’ W123° 17.046’	114*	1580’
Hudson Island		N48° 57.842′ W123° 40.638′	56*	1923’
James Island		N48° 36.687’ W123° 21.719’	79*	2690’
Thomas Strip, Salt Spring Island		N48° 51.796’ W123° 31.459’	106*	1735’
Village Bay, Mayne Island		N48° 50.363’ W123° 18.498’	144*	3018’
Raven Field, Quamichan Lake, Duncan	CML2	N48° 48.717′ W123° 39.042′	148*	1575’
Saltspring Field (Closed)		N48° 46.274 W123° 28.250’	75*	2025’
Sidney Island		N48° 36.507’ W123° 18.092’	79*	2887’
Whiskey Point, Mill Bay		N48° 39.838’ W123° 32.584’	216*	1050’

 Land-based airports – United States 

Name	ICAO	Location	Elev.(feet)	Runway Length(feet)
Blakely Island	38WA	N48° 34.767′ W122° 49.424′	66	2200’
Burden Field-(Rabbit Run), San Juan Island	61WA	N48° 28.368′ W123° 0.865′	50	2270’
Center Island	78WA	N48° 29.412′ W122° 49.899′	115	1600’
Clam Harbor, Orcas Island	WA35	N48° 37.339′ W122° 56.827′	213	1411’
Crane Island		N48° 35.866’ W122° 49.869’	100*	1350’
Decatur Shores, Decatur Island	WN07	N48° 29.990′ W122° 48.827′	20	2550’
Decatur-Jones, Decatur Island	WA18	N48° 30.606′ W122° 48.177′	125	1500’
East Sound-Waldronaire, Waldron	90WA	N48° 42.706′ W123° 1.095′	140	2700’
Eastsound – Orcas Island	KORS	N48° 42.490′ W122° 54.628′	31	2898’
Friday Harbour, San Juan  Island	KFHR	N48° 31.318′ W123° 1.462′	113	3340’
Friday West, San Juan	1WA9	N48° 32.145′ W123° 2.649	150	2100’
Lopez Island	S31	N48° 29.034′ W122° 56.261′	171	2903’
Pile Point		N48° 29.223′ W 123° 5.381’	67*	2500’
Roche Harbor, San Juan Island	WA09	N48° 36.680′ W123° 8.256′	112	4300’
Shaw Island		N48° 34.578’ W122° 58.557’	264*	1581’1912’
Stuart Island Airpark, Stuart Island	7WA5	N48° 40.404′ W123° 10.522′	16	2000’
Stuart Island West, Stuart Island	2WA3	N48° 41.040′ W123° 13.401′	184	1560’
Wilding Farm – Shaw Island	6WA5	N48° 34.494 W122° 56.641′	60	1000’
Windsock – Lopez Island	4WA4	N48° 33.057′ W122° 53.176′	36	1850’

 Floatplane Facilities 

Name	ICAO	Location
Bedwell Harbour, South Pender Island	CAB3	N48° 45.213′  W123° 14.505′
Victoria International Seaplane Base	CAP5	N48° 39.345’ W123°  27.025’
Port Washington, North Pender Island Port Washington, North Pender Island	CAP8	N48° 48.775′  W123° 19.346′
Mayne Island	CAW7	N48° 51.218′ W123° 18.095′
Ganges Harbour, Salt Spring Island	CAX6	N48° 51.213′ W123° 29.505′
Maple Bay, Duncan (CMAP unofficial ICAO)		N48° 49.017′ W123° 36.000′
Shawnigan Lake	CAV8	N48° 37.923′  W123° 38.233′ Elev. 388.0’
Victoria Harbour	CYWH	N48° 25.493’ W123° 23.256’
Friday Harbour, San Juan Island	W33	N48° 32.490′ W123° 0.803′
Fisherman’s Bay, Lopez Island	WA81	N48° 30.695′ W122° 55.144′
Rosario, Orcas Island	W49	N48° 38.740′ W122° 52.078′
Roche Harbor, San Juan Island	W39	N48° 36.728′ W123° 9.444′
Westsound, Orcas Island	WA83	N48° 37.006′ W122° 57.783′

  Heliports 

Name	ICAO	Location	Elev.(feet)
Ganges Hospital	CAL7	N48° 51.7520′ W123° 30.5193′	158
Mayne Island Medical	CBF5	N48° 50.7946′ W123° 17.0472′	193
Camel Point Public Heliport	CBF7	N48° 25.0776’ W123° 23.2810’	8
Jubilee Hospital	CBK8	N48° 26.0591′ W123° 19.5094′	64
Victoria General Hospital	CBW7	N48° 28.0841′ W123° 25.9676′	65
Madrona Bay, Salt Spring Island	CBW9	N48° 51.3402′ W123° 29.1375′	16
Shoal Point, Victoria	CBZ7	N48° 25.3846′ W123° 23.2465′	8
Mount Belcher, Salt Spring Island	CMBH	N48° 50.0001′ W123° 30.2700′	1032

Vancouver+ in FSX – DX10 screenshots

Courtesy of our good friend Jun Kazama, here are some shots of Vancouver+ with DX10.  Note that I’m delaying posting my findings with Acceleration as I’m finding some backward compatibility issues with FS9 objects that use transparency, under DX9.  Stil working on confirming these issues.

Acceleration DX10 screenshots

Well, am I in a pickle.  Today I plan to post thoughts on the retail version of Acceleration, but, no, I don’t have a DX10 video card so I won’t be taking any screenshots!  But here’s a link, and I’ll post more as they become available:

http://www.flightsimworld.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=128136&pid=1580806&st=0&#entry1580806

http://z8.invisionfree.com/Canadian_Pilots/index.php?showtopic=8420

FSX Acceleration coming closer…

As of now the beta team is downloading the final version of FSX Acceleration/XPack.  It’ll hit the streets (boxed version only) on October 23, word is.

The beta team is permitted to talk about the final version (not interim betas or the beta process) and publish screenshots once we have it installed, which I will do by tomorrow.  Most of my comments will be around enhancements offered in this release, and other implications, not the missions itself.  There are 30 missions in this release, making it great value for anyone who enjoys adventure and challenges.  Since 99% of my sim time is on development, there are other folks who will do a much better job than I commenting on those.

I suspect there will be confusion, too, which Phil has worked hard to clear up on his blog post.  XPack will include a DX10 “preview”, a set of DX10 enhancements that may not be compatible with some elements of addon sceneries.  The user can turn these features, as a set, on or off.  XPack will cost money.  Service Pack 2, will also inlcude these DX10 enhancements and some DX9 fixes, and will be out before Christmas.  SP2 will be a no-charge download. 

The word on Acceleration and FSX SP2

Phil Taylor has posted details on schedule and technical content on Microsoft’s new addon for FSX, Acceleration Pack (aka XPack), and Service Pack 2 (SP2) for FSX.  There’s lots of information there: here are some highlights:

1. XPack will be available late October
2. SP2 will be available after XPack and before Christmas
3. The DX10 aspect of these products will not match the expectations set by the artist’s renditions of a year ago
4. Releases with DX10 capability, now and going forward do not promise backward compatibility with earlier versions of FS
5. Because of these issues, the DX10 capability (although cool) is marketed as a “preview” and is not considered the primary product
6. Phil lists a set of fixes in SP2: 8-core bug, 3G enabling (3Gb RAM usage enabling), exterior shadow quality improvements, blurry fixes, autogen batching, 737/A321 night/taxi light fix, 2D cockpit raindrops, Vista speaker/headphone audio fix, internationalization fixes, saving undocked panels, flight list is now alpha sortable (yay!!!), multiplayer compatibility between SP2 and XPack, FSX remembers last IP used, COM1 shared cockpit sync.
7. He points out that the “w” key bug (which restricts side views in cockpit mode to showing the interior of the aircraft with limited visibility out the window, bug introduced in SP1) and autogen fading (rather than having autogen “pop” in and out of view, feature of FS9 dropped in FSX) are not included in these releases
8. Phil details the DX10 features that will be included: VC shadows, HDR bloom, water enhancements and efficiency improvements.

Once we’re released from NDA I can talk more about my impressions of the products.

Acceleration is done…

Paul Lange reports that FSX Acceleration is now complete, and they are in the process of regionalization (languages for specific regions).

Once it’s released, I’ll give a run-down.