Virtual cockpit rain fix for FS9 addon aircraft

Backwards compatibility of FS9 addons in FSX has been an issue.  One problem that bugged many was that virtual cockpit windows in some FS9 addon aircraft may become opaque when it rains.  Two solutions are offered:

Solution 1: Microsoft outlines a procedure to utilize FS9 textures in FSX

Solution 2: Flight1 provides a free tool to implement their own replacement textures. 

Insight into ACES studio organization

Phil outlines the growth of the studio and how challenges are being addressed.  Fascinating reading for those into organizational development.  Some of the topics:

• Studio growth from 50-60 to 100+ people
• Expansion from just Flight Simulator to add Trains2 and ESP
• Product team organization and use of SCRUM
• Moving space
• Scoping back to do fewer things at a higher quality
• Phil’s role

Changes afoot at ACES Studio

Phil Taylor tells us changes are upcoming at the Studio, which develops MS flight Simulator.  He outlines some of the changes (which we mostly were aware of), and promises more info.

… later that same day!  Phil posts some job openings with the Studio.

Playing with catapults

FSX includes added features for carrier operations.  Paul Lange provides some of the missing clues for developers to implement catapult launches and arrestor cable landings.

A most interesting challenge

One of the more interesting challenges in upgrading Misty Fjords to FSX (at least for me!) is going to be modelling Ketchikan International Airport (PAKT).  It has sloping runways and taxiways, which are not supported by FSX.  So we’ll have to figure out how to fudge or approximate it.  I can guarantee right now that the representation won’t be perfect.  Courtesy of Sidney Schwartz, here’s what we’re up against.  Yes indeed, the runway level is at the top of the tower, with  the taxiways ramping up to the runway.

AVSIM reviews Vancouver+ for FSX

Jeff Shyluk, AVSIM senior staff reviewer spent a lot of time up close and personal with Vancouver+ for FSX, and has written this detailed review.  Thanks, Jeff!

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

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.

Another single file download source for Victoria+ for FSX

Ian Salter has kindly made available this single file link.

Interesting FSX benchmark

Check out Gary’s results on AVSIM.

Installing Acceleration? SP1? SP2? Land where there should be water?

The biggest confusion for folks installing FSX Acceleration (or patching to SP1 or SP2 when it comes out) is that it modifies an essential file (terrain.cfg) that can cause problems with certain addons, such as Victoria+, Vancouver+, Ultimate Terrain, Megascenery and VisualFlight UK products.

In all cases it’s easy to fix.  First close FSX.

For Victoria+:  Start ->(All) Programs->FSaddon->Victoria+ FSX->Repair Victoria+ FSX

For Vancouver+:  Start ->(All) Programs->FSaddon->Vancouver+ FSX->Uninstall Victoria+ FSX then select “Repair”

(some version of Vancouver+ will have the Repair option like Victoria+)

When you select repair, if you get a “file not found” error, please uninstall the product and reinstall.  That’ll only take a few minutes.

For other products, consult their support folks.

Single file download link for Victoria+

For those downunder or in Asia, or wanting a single link for the download of Victoria+, the Jay Kae and the good folks at VOZ provide this link:

http://fsfiles.org/PA/index.php?act=view&id=25

Thanks guys!

A bit more info on Victoria+ for FSX

You can visit my website for some more info, or download the manual here.