Very good news !

So starting this week I am going to try to dedicate one day a week to some kind of third-party-only activity, whether it is getting out the docs on the new v10 authoring features, getting out scenery tools, etc. We have a lot of “almost ready things” and I don’t want to keep authors waiting.

http://www.x-plane.com/01/rip-beta-8/

Edited January 6, 201214 yr by MdMax

What I believe to be another important aspect with scenery. I remember in my (too brief) flying days we used golf courses, race tracks etc; as visual fixes. It would be nice when we get the new WED if it includes maybe some polygon golf courses, horse race tracks (or car) etc.

Hello !There's something new about ATC Taxi Layouts:http://developer.x-plane.com/2012/01/atc-taxi-layouts/

Hi,I come a little late in this discussion but I completely agree with GreggermI bought XP10 Global as a new customer coming from MSFS world (like many did actualy) and I did not know that XP10 is lacking important unfinished content.Yes unfinished not inaccurate!!!!!I am not satisfied with the default world of XP10 that should be usable as is, straight out of the 8 dual layers DVDs.So I think I simply paid 90$ Canadian for a beta software advertised as the competitor of FSX that Laminar preached in an overconfident way inviting FS users to convert after the closer of ACES...The topic is not about a missing lake or a land class in a region that is not accurate or any detail like that...The issue is simple, Laminar is trying to deliver a default package similar to FSX world (not matter what technology they try to introduce to generate land distribution and "autogen" etc) yet it is failing to deliver a basic complete package!Here is what is missing on the 8 DVDs dual layers (3 hours to install) that an "FSX immigrant" like me did not know before buying:

• I will begin with the weirdest: No seasonal varitions (no Fall or Spring or Winter). If Laminar in 2012 wants to deliver a competitive FLight Sim World on 8 DVDs that took 3 hours to install and if they want to compete with default FSX, then at least they should be able to include the basic immersive element present in any virtual flight sim world (THE SEASONS!)... What's the use of real weather if the simulation of a snow storm in Montreal is hapening on a summer green land????? This is a major flaw... I searched and learned that XP9 had a plugin or add-on for winter however it can only be triggered manualy... Duh!
• 8 DVDs with bare world airports, only taxiways and runways, no plain buildings like in FSX and No parking areas assigned for A.I or Player...
• ATC is not fully functional, vectoring is missing major bits and pieces...
• The Plausible world is great as a concept but does not succeed to work well when applied in a way to give at least the illusion of a specific region... Not accuracy, but plausibility is not there...
• Not mentioning that the A.I concept is bizarre; The concept itself is not home PC friendly... Perhaps for monster multi CPU machines in a professional training center but not for home PCs, not even the most powerful ones...
• ETC ETC....

Greggerm has a point that I share, the default world of FSX or even the older FS2004 or FS2002 was usable straight out of the DVDs/CDs, for a user who do not want to buy any add-on or download any freeware, he/she could at least have a basic comprehensive package that is usable as a whole... Again NOT accurate but USABLE...XP10 on the other hand is missing MAJOR things that do not make the 90$ 8 DVDs world deliver a competitive immersive experience as per the hype and propaganda, yet as a flight sim, unusable as is...It is awkward to pay for a simulator that is claiming being superior to anything similar yet one must pay the same price like the competition, to have an incomplete almost beta version and then count on update 10.X that no one know when to be delivered or even a plugin coming once upon the future to add for example 1 more season trigered manualy?!?!?!? What the use of extra fancy technologies if the basic feature for a comprehensive immersive simulation is not delivered???The followers of XP still mention that it is a flight dynamics / airfoil simulator, well I am sorry no it is not, Laminar is trying to sell it as a similar to FSX type of simulator... Otherwise it could have been a flight dynamics previewer or a 1 region simulator for aerodynamics fundamentalists or even engineers etc... But to compete with FS, they need to deliver what they pretend being able to deliver...So Gregerm you are not alone, there is even an XP long time user and fan who agreed with me on XP forum and explained in a wise way to the emotional defenders of XP that XP is "advertised as the next best thing after sliced bread" yet the new customers coming from FS will certainly be frustrated to find XP10 a beta they bought for 90$ lacking all what they had in FS.. He added that Laminar seems as selling a beta to be tested all through the updates... Bizarre....And there is NO guarantee that any update or add-on will make XP10 complete before XP11...I work in a software developement company and I can say from a professional eye that XP10 is unfinished and fails to deliver what it pretends being able to deliver...If Laminar wants to be a serious professional commercial software company, it must abandon the overconfident advertisment methods, almost childish at times and focus on delivering what it can really deliver... Otherwise, advertise your product differently or more honestly...Cheers

Edited January 26, 201214 yr by Claviateur

I work in a software developement company and I can say from a professional eye that XP10 is unfinished and fails to delivers what it pretends being able to deliver...Cheers

Indeed. The same can also be said of every flightsim released to date. Didn't you check out the demo and join in the discussions going around before you bought? By the way the DVD installations also are optional. For example I myself only installed Australia and a couple other areas I'm interested in. I could go on and address several other points you mention but I don't really see the point in going further.Stick around if you want to see things develop.PS No program is ever finished until the programmer says he/she is not doing anymore.

Indeed. The same can also be said of every flightsim released to date. Didn't you check out the demo and join in the discussions going around before you bought? By the way the DVD installations also are optional. For example I myself only installed Australia and a couple other areas I'm interested in. I could go on and address several other points you mention but I don't really see the point in going further.Stick around if you want to see things develop.PS No program is ever finished until the programmer says he/she is not doing anymore.

Forums and discussions should not be counted on to reflect a product's reality, the company's advertisment, press releases is responsible for that communication and customers rely on them... They are not to run around forums and dig for discussions to evaluate the features of a product...My complaint is not about the installation of the whole world, it is about the basic content of the whole world that one can use in the simulation experience vs the propaganda Laminar did about XP against FS...Ok so you installed Australia, I presume for what you payed for, you do not really care that airports miss plain and basic 3D elements or parking assignements for ATC vectoring / ground clearance etc etc?You do not care about the seasons variations for an immersive experience in the best PC simulator around? Is it not part of any basic world wide flight simulation (no matter what region you choose to install?!?)You do not care about incomplete ATC?You are in Australia, lucky you :) because snow storms are not on your seasonal menus... So it does not affect your usability of the simulator...But for those who want to use the best PC simulator (XP) to live a flying experience in a stormy Canadian winter, can simply not do it...So I see sincerely no solid argument in what you say as per installing 1 region compared to my points as a customer coming from FSX and buying for the same price an unfinished software... I know it is hard to admit for a faithful fan of XP...So Intalling 1 region does not make the missing immersive features less important...Sticking around to see more things develop is an option for old XP fans... I first want to have on my bought disks what Laminar claimed being able de develop in a superior way compared to FS ! :-)Cheers

Forums and discussions should not be counted on to reflect a product's reality, the company's advertisment, press releases is responsible for that communication and customers rely on them... They are not to run around forums and dig for discussions to evaluate the features of a product...

Sorry, but I disagree. And just about everyone here would agree I'm not in the catagory of being a ######.If you buy a product simply by the marketing hype, then you deserve any disappointment that you encounter. If "New and Improved" is what you buy into, good for you. A lot of places you go in the World Wide Web you'll find tons of people who are "victims" of slick advertising. Wait a few days and there will be yet another posting about how someone bought Flight Gear and later found out that it's available for free download. Yes, they were duped, but they share responsibility for that duping as the information is out there and a little effort would have gotten them to that information.Same with X-Plane. There's a ton of information out there as to what it is and isn't. Searching would have found out about the lack of seasonal textures, airport buildings and a lot more. You would have also found that this is how X-Plane works, that they don't apologize for it and yet there are plenty of happy customers.Has your $$ gone to waste? Only you are able to be the judge of that. To place 100% blame on the developer's marketing hype is unfair. You could have seen the forest, but you let the trees get in the way...

I am an FSX user who has tried (and still tries) X-Plane 10. There's a lot to like about it, but the omission of seasons and the empty airports as well as the mindless usage of the same buildings all over the world ruin an otherwise excellent sim.And oh, btw, OSM2XP is useless right now, as it isn't displayed properly in XPX (sunken houses, ruined roof textures and so on).

.PS No program is ever finished until the programmer says he/she is not doing anymore.

Do you really believe this .. I am likely older than you and have never seen a programmer communicate that they are finished. I can not remember ever waiting for a programmer's input to tell me if the software is finished.

HiThat is exactly the point I was getting at. Maybe I didn't get it down clear enough.PS 65yo and looking forward to many more years of activity ;)

No where I work it does not function this way... We decide that a set of features will be implemented in a new version and we go through sprints etc.. the PO decides in this process ... But the process focuses on delivering a completed area of usability and not bits and pieces here and there...I think Austin (because I believe he is the PO of XP) made some mistakes in deciding about XP10 features... The result is a technological bit here, another bit there and that does not make a software have solid and professional integrity...When I learn about the previous versions and what they were lacking, I can easily immagine for XP10 a logical set of features to complete what was missing in the previous versions...If I was Austin I would have clearly chose to complete the world/earth features instead of making half earth and half A.I and half ATC etc... Clouds where just fine in XP9 and they could have waited for a later update or V11He could have chosen to put on the ice the puff clouds system and deliver an immersive world experience in V10...He could have experimented to create for example a dynamic seasonal changing mechanism using real time image calibration methods (hue/saturation/braightness/contrast) to manipulate One set of ground textures depending on the week/month of the year... Same can be done for the "Autogen" textures in the plausible world, they can also be manipulated to create seasonal variations...This will make the seasons shift gradualy from one week to another while going from one season to the other...This example is basicaly done in some 3D real time engines and could have been a great addition to the plausible worldThen they could have focused on applying the plausible world effectively and generate the 3D buildings for airports along with parking areas... All in all, the earth in XP10 could have been the focus of this version... And if time permits another area could have had more finishing touches... Finishing important parts of a software is very useful for the integrity and usability. But Laminar seems doing a bit here another there and it sounds more like implementing what experimentations give as working results and not caring about finalizing a specific area of the simulation...All this to say XP10 claimed as a superior simulator in 2012, without adressing basic immersive elements like seasonal variations is very lame in my opinion.Cheers

Edited January 27, 201214 yr by Claviateur

I agree ..ps, whats a PO?

I agree ..ps, whats a PO?

Project Owner :)

Rouen (France): Happy flying ! :(

Visiting the OSM2XP augmented Island of Oahu with the Raytheon Beechcraft T-6A Texan II. Happy flying !