December 10, 201114 yr Just for the sake of continuous improvements made to the most wonderful simulation ever, I would like to suggest a couple of graphic enhancements that I suppose PMDG could easily implement, since I did experience those in other less sophisticated simulations:1. Rain/snow drops on the wind shield during that weather conditions. I have seen this with the FeelThere 737CL, where they have provided a list of image files to be put somewhere inside the airplane folder, which would give finally a very beautiful view of running rain drops along the wind shield during rainy weather in the VC.2. More magnificent airplane exterior lights that resemble those of the iFly 737NG. On another hand, and these are problems that I have never seen it solved in any simulation:3. If we are flying through cloudy skies, and we switch the view into the left or right over-wing passenger view, the wing is always always above the passing clouds, i.e. clouds never ever come between the window (camera position) and any part of the wing or the winglets. I think that if it can be managed to have some of the clouds come to cover a part of the wing, it would greatly enhance the realistic view and feel of the airplane. This happens very well by the way when we are climbing through clouds in the VC, and everything turns gradually white. But of the course in the VC, there is no part of the airplane that appears outside and needs to be covered by clouds.4. Turning the dome light inside the VC on or off does not have any effect on the airplane external view. I guess it would be very beautiful to see the cockpit light from outside the airplane through the cockpit windows and wind shield.
December 10, 201114 yr I believe most of those are a result of pmdg having hit the animation limit in fsx. The windshield rain/snow definitely falls in that category. Kenneth Weir My Saitek yoke mod i7 2600k @ 4.7 8GB Gskill CAS7 2x GTX580 SLI Surround + GT520 Accessory Win7x64
December 10, 201114 yr 1. I think as said above PMDG/NGX/FSX has hit it's limitation and as well with the JS41 some had issues with the ice and rain within the VC.2. I find PMDG's lights better but don't own iFly one, only seen YouTube vids.3. Not possible in FSX as the clouds are textures and not volumetric.4. Totally agree! Also would like to see this in SP2. -Raven HarrisIntel i7 980X @ 4.43GHz | ASUS Rampage III | Corsair 6GB DDR3 2000MHz | 3 EVGA GTX280 | Corsair 1200 Watt | Intel 510 SSD (RAID 0)PMDG - 747-400/8iF | MD11/F | BAe J41 | 737NG 6/7/8/9 Hope ER/BBJ|777LR/FFlight1- Cessna Mustang
December 10, 201114 yr Author Thanks for dragging my attention to the FSX limit issue.. didn't know that one before.
December 10, 201114 yr Almost every customizable equipment option requires animations, at minimum one to make it appear when enabled and another to disappear when disabled. Given the amount of visible equipment options, it's easier to see how they reached the limit. Kenneth Weir My Saitek yoke mod i7 2600k @ 4.7 8GB Gskill CAS7 2x GTX580 SLI Surround + GT520 Accessory Win7x64
December 10, 201114 yr Commercial Member 1. Can't do it, takes too many animations.2. I think those type of giant beam lights look pretty unrealistic, especially in the day. Those are also normal FSX effect based lights, not the 3D volumetric kind we used. You'd have to have a ton of particulate matter (smoke, dust etc) in the air to see an effect like that in real life.3. Clouds in FSX are made using 2D sprites, not 3D volumetric objects (you think performance is bad now, you have no idea what would happen with actual particle-based clouds...)4. Not possible sorry, the way we do the dome light is tied to the VC model and can't be in the external one. Ryan MaziarzFor fastest support, please submit a ticket at http://support.precisionmanuals.com
December 10, 201114 yr Pressing "i" turns on some misterious dome lights that will show up in external views.
December 10, 201114 yr Author 1. Can't do it, takes too many animations.2. I think those type of giant beam lights look pretty unrealistic, especially in the day. Those are also normal FSX effect based lights, not the 3D volumetric kind we used. You'd have to have a ton of particulate matter (smoke, dust etc) in the air to see an effect like that in real life.3. Clouds in FSX are made using 2D sprites, not 3D volumetric objects (you think performance is bad now, you have no idea what would happen with actual particle-based clouds...)4. Not possible sorry, the way we do the dome light is tied to the VC model and can't be in the external one.Thanks Ryan for your response. I am couraged to discuss more potential enhancements actually. The nearest to my mind would be that question:If PMDG decided to release a 737NGX-Special Edition, in which all of the 2D panels are deleted (which might be harmless to most users), would this give enough room to add much more animations and capabilities?
December 10, 201114 yr Commercial Member No, 2D panels don't use animations. I'm talking about animations on the VC and visual models. Regardless we're not going to be doing this, it's not worth the time when we could be making the 777 instead. Ryan MaziarzFor fastest support, please submit a ticket at http://support.precisionmanuals.com
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