Tom Kyler interview- scenery for xp10

[strider1 575]

Does anybody know if the clouds cast shadows in XP-10 ?

[Simmo W 24]

Easy, yes as they do in 9

[strider1 575]

Easy, yes as they do in 9

Very Kewl !

[Janov 2,383]

Does anybody know if the clouds cast shadows in XP-10 ?

No, they tried that in XP9 and it looked too realistic, scaring away too many users that were not used to that. Jan

[alainneedle1 97]

Here what you can do with photoscenery in XP-9 using Osm2xp generated scenery.... can you imagine using DX-10....look for the cloud shadowsPart 1

Part 2

[GoranM 3,762]

Very informative. I do have a question though about a comment that Tom made regarding lights. Tom stated that the new lights in XP10 do not cast shadows, however, in this screen capture, I think I see a shadow of the doorknob on the left. Just wondering about that. By the way, this title looks great from what I have seen and I really appreciate the development teams effots.

IIRC, Only the sun will cast shadows in x plane 10. The door knob casts a shadow because the shadow has been "baked" on to the texture from a "non-sun" light. Seeing as this lamp in the sim doesn't move, it doesn't reduce any kind of immersion. If it was daylight, then the sun would cast the shadow and the shadow would move in relation to the sun movement.

[MikeT707 1,181]

IIRC, Only the sun will cast shadows in x plane 10. The door knob casts a shadow because the shadow has been "baked" on to the texture from a "non-sun" light. Seeing as this lamp in the sim doesn't move, it doesn't reduce any kind of immersion. If it was daylight, then the sun would cast the shadow and the shadow would move in relation to the sun movement.

Nice technique. Thanks for the explanation.

[tkyler 88]

I guess I'm more confused then ever. So are the shots of the lego brick airport models that are so impressive, etc. just hypothetical pieces that 3rd party developers can use?They won't be used in how the base sims builds default airports?

I'll explain a bit more. A few people have been disappointed in this facet and I can understand their view; however, as Austin mentioned in the Computer Pilot interview, we set out to build the best sim we can the way we want to build it and basically folks who like the way we do things can come along for the ride. This is a different philosophy, we're not trying to "measure up to MSFS", we're trying to do things the way we like to do them making things that are important to us....we ARE sim customers ourselves, just customers of our own work.We have made some "lego bricks" because 1.) folks LIKE playing with lego bricks to build scenery and 2.) The results are 10x better than autogen, at the cost of the user having to do minimal work....er play ( see point 1.) BUT...I will say we are working at auto-populating as many airports as we can just the same because we know other folks want it. X-Plane does NOT stop developing at a major release like some other flight sims we won't' name have in the past and that is one very cool thing about plane..it's like getting news features all the time. ...IF you think like us.So what will happen is a few people will be disappointed and perhaps they should hold out a bit longer, but in the not too distant future, this population of airports by the community (and laminar) will start to catch up and soon, xplane will have quite the contingent of populated airports...and with relatively high quality pieces non the less. In the end, we expect to sit back and go.."ah, that's better" and at that time, we will be satisfied with the approach we took.

[Janov 2,383]

Here is the link for the changelog in the latest official XP9 scenery database. Just look at how many people contributed to adding and modifying airports. I think most/all if not more than these people will dive headfirst into recreating some airports close to their homes and hearts. With a decent system in place to manage these inputs and to avoid duplication we will have a planet full of populated airports real quick...http://data.x-plane.com/log.htmlJan

[Bugor 0]

Hi,I'm wondering how those new airports developed by users as freeware will get to other users sim?Does it mean that for example if I want to fly from airport XXXX to YYYY, I will first go and search Internet for those airports scenery hoping that someone would already make them.Or will it be some other more convinient mechanism for distribution new airports?Thanks,Dmitry.

[Janov 2,383]

The way it works now (no buildings, but updates to taxiway, runway and navaid layout) is that users submit theire changes to Robin Peel and he adds them into the official database. That one is included every time X-Plane gets a new update. This happens between every few weeks and every few months. It is as of yet unknown (at least outside Laminar) how it will work with XP10.Jan

[MikeT707 1,181]

The way it works now (no buildings, but updates to taxiway, runway and navaid layout) is that users submit theire changes to Robin Peel and he adds them into the official database. That one is included every time X-Plane gets a new update. This happens between every few weeks and every few months.It is as of yet unknown (at least outside Laminar) how it will work with XP10.Jan

A person could look at this in a positive way or a negative way. I am going to choose to look at this in a positive way in that as updates occur new airports will be available to explore, and I am hoping that they will be done very well by people who are knowledgeable of the airports putting them together with the airport assets (lego bricks). These people should be able to create some very nice looking airports. Also, as this process continues and the airport asset library expands, I can vision some extremely high quality airports being put together by the community. To add to the positive, creating scenery seems like something that can really add to the hobby for those who would like to try their hand at it, and I would be one of those that would have a high interest in something like this. I just think this sounds like fun.

[tkyler 88]

well here's a bit of good news I guess. Austin and I spoke about what's next "for me" in xplane 10 work. On the laminar side, I will begin adding airport scenery and probably some landmarks....so as stated earlier, we are beginning work on populating airports immediately. what is unknown is how accurate I'll do airports. Making 1000 custom terminals isn't a practical reality, I am still working with texture constraints...so I'll have to sit and give some thoughts about how I want to approach the prospect....but suffice to say we will get something down. I think the custom stuff will have to be 3rd party..free or pay.-Tom Kyler

[Simmo W 24]

I heard your talk was very popular and well received, Onya Tom. You must have enjoyed seeing your creations being so well received.'There's only so much one person can do. I think there will be a resurgence of scenery development by 3rd parties.