Christmas break

I’ll be offline from later today until Jan 2.  Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas with magic!

My son and granddaughter star in this amazing demonstration of magic.

How not to catch a thief

In Canada, if you buy a blank CD, it is presumed that you are going to steal music.  A levy of 21 cents is added to every blank CD purchased and 24 cents for every blank cassette more than 40 minutes in length.  These funds are distributed to the music industry.

Proposed legislation will compound this: the Canadian Private Copying Collective, a non-profit agency created by the music industry wants to collect up to $75 for each MP3 player sold, and 29 cents for every blank CD and Mini disc.  Futher all memory sticks would be tariffed, up to $10 per card.  Details here.  Looking at the financial report, the motivation may be the drop in revenue from CD tariffs since 2004, probably the result of the use of alternative media.   It’d be interesting to see how these revenue numbers might jump with the proposed tariffs.

Canadian music industry proponents would argue the funds will go towards fostering Canadian artists and music.  Futher artists don’t have the protection against file sharing that they do in the US: we have no equivalent to the Digital Millenium Act. 

Personally I purchase all music (and software) I download or copy.  So the presumption that I am stealing music and must be penalized is at best disappointing, at worst, theft.  I want my support of Canadian artists to be by choice, not legislation.  It makes a lot more sense to me to modify our copyright laws to protect against people who steal music, than to penalize all music lovers.  How this legislation will deter thieves is not clear.  You can contact your Member of Parliament if you agree.

How do simmers wish each other a Merry Christmas?

http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=121&topic_id=428775&mode=full

CYVR for FSX

Bill Womack and I have decided not to proceed with CYVR, Vancouver International Airport for FSX, for a variety of reasons.  In my case, I want to focus on smaller projects, as well as other non-FS work.  Bill gives his view in this post.  Bill will keep working on Tongass Fjords, Emma X and other eagerly awaited goodies, while I’ll be heads down for the next few months on Misty Fjords for FSX.

Somewhere in 2008, the Glacier Bay team, led by Holger, will also upgrade that product for FSX.

Airing laundry

Should you have a spare week, browse through this thread on SP2/Acceleration AVSim.  Although I don’t agree with all that is said, it seems that many users and developers used the opportunity to vent on FSX/SP1/SP2, and I’m hoping that with that done, the focus will be on how we can all work together productively.

Outside of that thread, Francois posted some of his own thoughts.

Buried in AVSIM thread is an important statement from Phil Taylor: “I meant it when I stated that this was a precursor of things to come, back compat is about to undergo serious changes. In the future it will very likely no longer be possible to resell old content for the new platform. At all, as in the platform will refuse to load it. “

Developers take note.  And I don’t see this, with the right support from Aces, as a bad thing.

Now back to Misty Fjords …

FSX Videos

Jun Kazama does the most beautiful FSX/DX10 videos I’ve seen.  Here’s a couple more:

Bella Coola (110 Mb)

Seasons Greetings (Vancouver+) (295Mb)

FSX SP2 SDK released

The Software Development Kit for FSX SP2 has been released.  Find it here

Note: your SDK version must match your FSX version: if you want to stick with SP1 you’ll need the SP1 SDK

A diamond in the rough

SP2 install fix

Bob Arnson posts a fix to the “Microsoft Flight Simulator X Service Pack 2 requires the English version of Flight Simulator X.” error.

Call for photos and data: Misty Fjords FSX

The long conversion and upgrade process for Microsoft Flight Simulator addons continues, as we convert to FSX and enhance products in the process.  I will be assisting Holger with Misty Fjords: my task is to re-create the following airfields:

• CYPR - Prince Rupert (we’ll likely do a bit of the cruise ship docks as well)
• CZST - Stewart
• PANT - Annette Island
• PAKT - Ketchikan (likely include cruise ship terminal as well)

If you have any photos of these fields, or data, we may be able to use this information.  Even better if you live in one of those areas, and can take photos at our direction, that would be awesome.

Release date for this product is not set, and is certainly some time away.

Notes on FSX SP2

SP2 has the same functionality as Acceleration, (without of course the additional aircraft and missions) according to Phil’s post.  The big tickets items are fixes to Multiplayer functionality and DX10 support, in a “Preview” mode.  Here’s some unofficial ups and downs for SP2.  Note that I have not confirmed all these issues myself, and I’ll add to the list as I recall, or am made aware of more issues.

Fixes (most of which are taken from this post of Phil’s)

• DX10 support, “Preview” mode: legacy scenery may not work properly (Details here)
• Some users report signifiantly improved performance, mine was about the same
• flight list is alphabetized (yay!)
• Com1 radio sync fixed in Shared Cockpit
• Transponder Code update info now sent from inc/dec transponders (now reported as not fixed)
• “random” spawn-in air problem fixed
• direct connect now remembers last IP address
• autogen batching is tweaked, resulting for some in increased performance.  This will help in areas where a lot of custom objects of the same material are authored and complements the SP1 batching work.
• some non-textured materials for FS9 objects are now fixed, in particular FS9 AI aircraft that turned black at a distance will no longer do so
• 8-core bug fix
• 3G enabling FSX and Autogen memory use (see this thread)
•  optimization
• Exterior shadow quality improvements
• optimization of terrain input/output for photo-scenery and “scenery load out of the zone” fixes to help reduce blurries
• 737 and A321 night/taxi light fix with new models
• raindrops in 2D cockpit
• audio fix for sound card/USB to speakers/headphones on Vista
• various internationalization fixes
• saving undocked panels
• multiplayer compatibility with Acceleration for free-flight

What doesn’t work as well as SP1:

• FS9 objects with transparency may not display properly
• Memory usage is increased, resulting in increased likelihood of out-of-memory errors (the dreaded OOMs)
• Users report greatly increased incidence of flashing clouds.  See this fix from “Mike”:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=121&topic_id=434059&mesg_id=434059&page=

  Just be aware that after some further testing I’ve discovered two minor issues with it, which I’m still working on. Some global scenery objects refuse to respect their LODs and come in as max lod only, so fps can take a bit of a dive in places like seattle with all the port cranes. The other is that multiple layers of cumulus clouds don’t sort quite as well as before, not that they ever did haha.

• See this thread on Acceleration/SP2 incompatibilities, particularly legacy aircraft

So some users may choose to stay with SP1.  Give it a shot, though. 

Note:

• Ensure you have SP1 installed first before installing SP2.
• Users of Acceleration already have everything that’s in SP2.  SP2 will not install on your system.
• Users who may have made alterations to scenery and/or textures files (you may notice missing buildings or textures in default objects) should refresh their scenery library: from the Main Menu, choose Settings -> Scenery Library, then click OK.
• Users of Vancouver+, Ultimate Terrain, Megascenery, VisualFlightUK and other addons which modify the terrain.cfg must run their respective repair/configuration functions after installing SP2.

Specific instructions :

• Vancouver+ users click here
• Victoria+ users click here
• Ultimate Terrain users click here

FSX SP2 available for download

Here’s the link.  Note:

• SP2, unlike SP1 is not a must-have for everyone.  Some folks will appreciate some fixes, but some things that worked in SP1 are broken in SP2.  See this post.
• Ut’s harmless to give it a try, and revert to SP1 if necessary. 
• SP1 is necessary prior to installing SP2.  
• SP2 should not be installed if you already have the Acceleration expansion pack.

Wow, this looks like fun!

Another single file download source for Victoria+ for FSX

Ian Salter has kindly made available this single file link.

Exercising: a program that worked

Like everybody, I know that physical exercise is good for me.  And like many, I’ve tried jogging (shin splints), the gym (too much time), walking (hard on the knees and not complete enough), Tai Chi (too mild), Yoga (not vigorous enough), and lots of other stuff.

In July though I started  working out with an exercise ball.  I’d tried the ball before, but hadn’t stuck to it.  What was different this time was a program in a book called, “Weights on the Ball Workbook” by Steven Stiefel (Ulysses Press), and I’ve stuck with it.  Here’s why I think I’ve persisted:

• Time: I can do it at home, no travel time
• Equipment: cheap: set of freeweights and an exercise ball.  You only need a couple of weight sets to start.  By Christmas I’ll have 3, 5, 8, 12 and 15 lb weights.
• Variety: there are close to 60 different exercises listed, each with 3 or 4 variants
• Programs: There are 9 different programs, with suggested exercises, schedule, number of reps/sets, etc.
• Presentation: In the program listing for each exercise a pretty little picture of the starting stance serves as an easy reminder.  No flipping to page 78 to figure out what a triceps extension is.  And if you want more detail the page number is listed for each exercise.
• Scope: since most exercises are done balancing on the ball, I’m working a lot more than the targetted muscle group, stabilizers and core muscles aplenty are getting worked.

So for the program I’m doing, I work out 4 times per week (MTThF) for 30-40 minutes.  Add to that a simple aerobic warm-up (fast 10 minute walk).  Each day has a different set of exercises, so I end up  with 25 different exercises per week.  Nice variety.  Other programs repeat exercises more, this one has a long rest period as it works the muscles hard and recovery time is needed.  So I look as scrawny, er wiry, as ever.  But I feel better after working out, and that scrawn is all muscle.

Interesting FSX benchmark

Check out Gary’s results on AVSIM.