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 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.

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.