OrbX Steward Airport..... where does it stop

[Manny 1,293]

We need full disclosure from Orbx about the configruation of the PC they ran that on. What CPU, What MB, memory...what they did to OC that thing..what cooler they used.

 

Now, that would be very useful!

 

:)

[ZachLW 37]

We need full disclosure from Orbx about the configruation of the PC they ran that on. What CPU, What MB, memory...what they did to OC that thing..what cooler they used.

 

Now, that would be very useful!

 

:)

 

Why? Just go to the hardware forums here at Avsim. You can't get any better than a Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge system right now.

[felixthreeone 0]

I agree with Zach 100% here. I have read the forum posts from the developers. I wonder how everyone keeps missing the fact that the Orbx developers don't (for the most part) even use the high-end PC's...mostly middle of the road stuff. I even got scolded a bit over there when I posted about PC configuration and settings lol. One thing that seems to have been overlooked by many people is that Orbx has stated this scenery was designed with a totally new design structure...one that not only allows extreme detail, but also good framerates....It is in their best interests to develop sceneries that people can actually use, or else they lose customers. I say, lets wait and see what happens when it is released. Maybe we will all be really surprised at the performance? Time will tell. But to write it off before it has even hit the market simply because it looks fantastic is a bit of an over-reaction...

[CFIJose 5,485]

Don't under estimate the value of a quality video card. I see shimmers in that video that can be reduced with Sparse Grid AA. The gtx 580 is the card that I would recommend but my gtx 480 does a great job as long as I don't use heavy clouds. Incidentally, I'm playing with my 2 gtx 480s in SLI. 4x Sparse grid has met its match in FSX.

[Ben Cap 89]

The gtx 580 is the card that I would recommend

 

+1 :Big Grin:

[1st fltsimguy 466]

Getting super smooth frames while recording HD video with all the goodies turned on is going to be pretty hard on any system. Encoding video is resource heavy and on average will shave 10-15FPS out of gameplay and that's any game. Add to that the constant write nature of recording video it will hamper down your HDD seek times also.

 

I actually didn't mean my comment about micro stutters to be critical, just something I noticed. I actually run a home video conversion from 8mm, super 8 to digital compiliation business using a variety of software and I know probably more than most the challenges to compile movies flawlessly and know that its hard to get good products without knowing a few tricks, the video compiled and edited by Orbx is great, number of nice cuts, pans and angles on their clips. It is imperative to shut off as many background process as possible, shut down all screen savers, power savers, antivirus automatic and scheduled actions and not have email running.

 

Generally I haven't worried about computer specs for Orbx software but I have noticed that last few new airports have a heavy drain on performance especially when using planes like Carenado PT46 which is heavy on computer resources.

 

Interestingly the best thing that happened to me a couple of weeks back was a c: drive failure, which required the obligatory reinstall of WIn7, and tons of software AND of course FSX. While I used my backup copy of FSX and I purchased a good and large capacity new HD I run FSX on another drive. For some reason though my FSX is now running, I would hazard a guess at 25%-50% better. I have every feature turned on Orbx airports and on the really loaded ones I can still get fluid performance. I wondered if my Win7 was corrupted somewhat or if the new HD had better performance characteristics that I am not familiar with.....regardless, my FSX experience has greatly increased.

[Bill Womack 7]

I actually didn't mean my comment about micro stutters to be critical, just something I noticed. I actually run a home video conversion from 8mm, super 8 to digital compiliation business using a variety of software and I know probably more than most the challenges to compile movies flawlessly and know that its hard to get good products without knowing a few tricks, the video compiled and edited by Orbx is great, number of nice cuts, pans and angles on their clips. It is imperative to shut off as many background process as possible, shut down all screen savers, power savers, antivirus automatic and scheduled actions and not have email running.

 

Generally I haven't worried about computer specs for Orbx software but I have noticed that last few new airports have a heavy drain on performance especially when using planes like Carenado PT46 which is heavy on computer resources.

 

Interestingly the best thing that happened to me a couple of weeks back was a c: drive failure, which required the obligatory reinstall of WIn7, and tons of software AND of course FSX. While I used my backup copy of FSX and I purchased a good and large capacity new HD I run FSX on another drive. For some reason though my FSX is now running, I would hazard a guess at 25%-50% better. I have every feature turned on Orbx airports and on the really loaded ones I can still get fluid performance. I wondered if my Win7 was corrupted somewhat or if the new HD had better performance characteristics that I am not familiar with.....regardless, my FSX experience has greatly increased.

 

I've got a roll of Super8 film from when I was a kid lying on my dresser. I keep meaning to have it converted to digital. Do you take order from south of the border? Buying local is good, but supporting a fellow 'simmer is better!

[1st fltsimguy 466]

LOL...Hi Bill, your situation is exactly why I started doing this work (fun). There are a lot of folks that have inherited parents old films and such and do not have the projectors or equipment to view them.

 

I don't want to highjack this tread on Orbx Stewart airport but will offer this info. A lot depends on your desires, there are two major types of conversions, one being real time and the other being frame-by-frame. Real time is cheapest, frame-by-frame can get expensive. The former is what I do, capture the video using some projection tricks and reproducing into a digital format like "avi", or "mpeg" whatever a client might want. Real time uses the old style projectors (I have three) and the film is run in real time and captured by a new digital camcorder, then downloaded and converted to whatever format is desired. There are a few tricks required to get rid of film flicker, get a sharp and bright image. The frame-by-frame required some specialized setup to advance and capture each individual frame of the film, it is time consuming and can be quite expensive. The trade off is that the real time many not be as good a quality capture as the frame-by-frame (FBF), but a lot depends on the original film quality.

 

A FBF setup can cost $6000 - $50,000 for the equipment alone so you will not likely find someone in your neighbourhood that does that sort of thing.

 

Film reel size is also a factor in cost, ie 3", 5", 6", and 7" sizes are common. The base size if 3" and is 50' length running 4 minutes duration playback. Larger reel sizes mean the film is spliced together in 50' increments. When working with old spliced films sometimes the splices break requiring a repair job - I also have the equipment to repair splices.

 

A straight capture and conversion usually runs $8-$10 per 3" reel - cheap really. Of course that means the reel is delivered and picked up by the client, shipping mailing etc. will add to cost. Its not much money to ensure your childhood memories are saved for you, your family or relatives.

 

Often, folks have no idea what is on the reels, this is where the fun is in converting, one can find some interesting surprises.

 

My recommendation is to do a real time conversion first to determine what is on the reel and assess the quality of the original. There is no point in spending lot of money when the original may be useless or of no interest to a person. People movies are the one's of most value, of family, kids, relatives etc. A movie of a mountain goat in the Rockies could be anywhere and of no real history value.

 

I usually recommend a straight conversion, send the digital file to the client and then let the client determine if they want you to do some enhancments, editing etc.

I can often, cut, trim out out of focus stuff, reverse order film event chronology because it was originally spliced out of order, lighten, darken, sharpen, apply various filters to improve the products. I use several commecially available software packages, Sony Vegas, Corel Videostudio, Roxio MyDVD, Pinnacle Studio are all useful.

 

PM me if you would like some questions answered. Of course I could run your film but try a google search for 8mm to DVD or super8 to DVD limited to your geographic area, you might find someone who does this sort of thing locally.

 

My dad was a prolific 8mm movie taker in the 1950's and I spent 3 years converting all his old movies to DVD's with menu's --- they are priceless! My kids and grandkids get a real laught when they see grandpa Wallis when he was 6-10 years old.

[Boeing or not going 578]

Looking good. Finally a somewhat bigger airport in the region. Hope they do more in the next few months. Bush flying just isn't my thing for more than a few flights of fun.

[Bill Womack 7]

Thanks for the reply! I'll do a little Googling and see what turns up for 8mm to digital conversion here in Portland.

 

And just to pull the thread back on track (sorry about that), Stewart is the most amazing texture job I've ever seen on an FSX airport, bar none. The thing we're surprised to discover as devs is how many polys and textures FSX can soak up without breaking a sweat on a modern computer. I'm seriously looking forward to trying this one out once it's in beta!