Impressions about the Flight1 Meridian

[kjackson 0]

I almost forgot to mention Dave Scofield's wonderful adventures for the Meridian. Really top notch. Here's the web address:http://users.adelphia.net/~dscofieldThanks Dave,

[Tabs 2,790]

This plane is a masterpiece. I just flew the best handflown ILS I think I've ever done in FS into KPHX Rwy 26. The gauge smoothness is absolutely astonishing - I had no trouble whatsoever keeping it the localizer and glidslope indicators centered because they're so precise. It doesn't look like normal FS gauges where they almost seem to be quantized to move in small little intervals - these Reality XP ones look analog in their movement - totally smooth and continuous. It seems like (gasp!) a real plane.Framerates are lower than with other aircraft I have but I didn't change any of my detail settings, FSGenesis 35m terrain etc... This is no ordinary plane, it's a total leap forward in FS fidelity and design and I would expect it as such to be more taxing on the system. I have an aging Athlon 1.4Ghz, 512MB, and a GeForce 3 64MB and it's most definitely flyable. The gauge smoothness really doesn't appear to be affected by the framerate, which is great.Gonna have lots of fun with this one for sure. Can't wait to get my new system in a few months and crank everything to the max with it!Ryan

[michal 44]

>XP ones look analog in their movement This is indeed a very fitting phrase to describe it !Michael J.

[Guest]

The Meridian flies very smoothly on my AMD1800+, 512 ram, Ti4200. Not sure why there seems to be such a fps difference on some of the user's systems. I'm currently half way through the tutorial flight.....it's been great so far! As a new GNS530 user (although I had scanned the manual), getting everything set up takes some time and effort, but that's a big part of the enjoyment of a new aircraft! The Meridian certainly raises the bar in a number of areas for GA aircraft. I have no fps problems, it's very smooth, and I think it is a steal at $30 for all that is offered--I'm looking forward to many hours of enjoyment with this aircraft.SteveJonesKHEF

[Guest Staalplaat]

Fantastic plane indeed. Just bought it 5 mins. ago and only took her for a spin. Seems like a fine flightmodel with me, very precise, a dream to land. Very smooth. The panel is incredible, one of the best ever seen in both 2D and 3D! The Garmin unit itself is worth buying the complete packedge for, amazing functionality.A few (minor) flaws though:- very poor gauge update and refreshment in 3D cockpit. will try other settings later.-there is no flaplever and flap indicator doesn't "indicate" in 3D cockpit!-rather heavy on the framerate, both outside and inside. Can be compared to the Flight1 C-421 although cockpitview is even heavier.A amazing product, the bar has raised quite a few notches! Looks like my favorite top-three has changed! (1. PIC 767 2. Meridian 3. Pushback 747-100)Specs:amd xp1800>xp2000asus a7v333Gf ti 4200 64 Mb oc'ed 300/550512 Mb PC2100 cas 2

[OHN 1]

I agree its a fantastic plane, but the framerates are just terrible and im on highend system, im getting from 3-20 fps and that is simply not good enough for me. And turning down the sliders is not and option for me, i like to see whats going on outside the windows.P4 2.8TI46001 gig of ram

[Geofa 108]

Strange-no frame rate problems here-athlon 2100, gforce ti-4200.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/Geofdog2.jpg

[Guest]

I love this plane but I find the frame rate hit is almost too much to bear. Not quite as bad as 747-200 Pushback but very close. Much worse than the 421 or Seneca on my system, even with the config set on the lowest setting and several of the VC instruments disabled (G530 and the overhead panel). Perhaps it is better in 2D but I only use the 3D VC mode. I also use multiple monitors with the Meggitt instruments available on the second monitor along with the Garmin. Closing those windows though doesn't seem to have any effect.DavidP4 2ghz, 1024DDR, GEForce4 Ti4600 (1st and 2nd monitor), GEForce3 for third monitor, DirectX 9, NVidia drivers 40.82 (I think!), already turned AI and some other things down.

[Guest Franken]

I like this plane a lot too but, as others have mentioned, it is very heavy on the frames.. Up and down all the time from one digits to 19 (which I have the FPS locked at). I think the G530 is the main reason for this, but I'm not sure. 2D cockpit has very smooth updates but the VC (though it looks good) updates is the usual FS2002 choppy stuff. Overall a very nice plane, but unfortunately I'm not having the smooth ride I was hoping for yet. I have a P4 2.53Ghz, ASUS P4PE MB, 640Mb DDR Ram, GeForce4 Ti4400 (1st and 2nd Monitor), GeForce2 MX for third monitor, DX9, Nvidia 40.41 running at 1600x1200 32bit 2xAA.

[Guest JeanLuc_]

Hi Franken,One place you could start to find information about the frame rates is from this thread:http://www.simforums.com/forums/display_to...&PagePosition=1What is also important to notice is that the panel configuration for the Meridian features 9 True Display XP gauges (PFD+EHSI) and 4 GNS when including the gauges instances in both the 2D panels and the VC. This requires, because of some FS2002 linitations in dealing with graphics and the video card memory bus to refresh all of them eventhough they are not diplayed.A good example to explain what happens in the system (PC wise) is the bath tub tap. Should you have a tap which flows 2 gallons a minute, and so far you have been using cold water only (FS2002 or regular "bitmap based" gauges) you may have adjusted the settings to have a fluid flow, right up to your likings which may be 1.9 gallons a minute (anything above and the sim stutters or the FPS decreases drastically). Now you want to had hot water (The Meridian) and it pulls .2 more gallons a minute from the tap flow... you are over the threshold your system permits, and the system, PC wise, stalls. So lowering some of the FS2002 settings may allow the sum of both the cold and the hot water flow to be readjusted right under the 2.0 gallons minute mark, and experience a fluid flght like some other users with P4 1.6 GeForce4 are experiencing with the Meridian.The most affecting factors are the one which requires to load back and forth many textures. So when increasing to excessive amount the terrain detail texture radius, setting the AI traffic to 100% or having landclass sceneries with a lot of different textures for a square mile, you forces the sim to fetch back and forth a lot of bitmap data, hence raising the cold water flow from the example above. The thread above provides some ideas about this.Hope this helps!

[Guest]

I use updated landclass data but my understanding was that that didn't change the "resolution" of the terrain texture, it just made sure the right textures were in the right places. I didn't have and frame rate hit when I added them. Do I have that wrong?David

[Guest sbdwag]

Jean-LucI kinda see what you are saying. For a small compromise in texture loading via atc and terrain distance you get a non linear increase in the fluidity and quality of the Meridian Display. They might explain way some of us are getting good frames rates because we have already turned down some of the settings for other addons before we purchased the MeridianThank you for your wonderful product ;)Dennis

[Guest JeanLuc_]

The pleasure is mine! The Meridian is first and before all a wonderful team work led by one of the most extraordinary guy I've ever met: Jim Rhoads. Let alone a wonderfull team of beta testers which spent countless hours to ensure your first experience will be the most extraordinary one!

[Guest]

$15 = Maybe $30 = Definatly NOT

[michal 44]

Yes, the resolution is not changed in Landclass however there is more I/O activity (disk, video card, etc.) to deliver the data since textures are swapped much more frequently. Nothing is free in this world - including the Landclass scenery ;-)Michael J.