Bill,

You misunderstood the Beta system, the latest is 10.6. When the 10.0 beta is done, there will be most likely 11.0 1, 2, 3,... 12.0, 1, 2, 3... so on and so forth.

Bill,

You misunderstood the Beta system, the latest is 10.6. When the 10.0 beta is done, there will be most likely 11.0 1, 2, 3,... 12.0, 1, 2, 3... so on and so forth.

 

The latest is 10.6 ? That's new to me.

 

Look: http://wiki.x-plane.com/Beta

you are close to finishing up X-Plane 10 and will be moving to X-Plane 11? Am I reading that correctly?

 

I think if history is anything to go by, Xplane versions 9.0 .... 9.4 were major updates. Then 9.5 ... 9.7 were more incremental. I think it was around version 9.5 that Austin broke the news on the version 10 feature set.

 

I'm guessing the xplane 10 revision cycle will follow a similar pattern of revisions.

Hi Bill,

 

1) I bought X 10 because I had read that Austin would finally populate the airfields with buildings?

 

We have a system in development to promote this, called "crowd sourcing", which hasn't quite taken off yet due to some "currently not done" facets of the system, but that we will get to in a few months. We are really convinced that once all facets are in place, that is to say the "submission process" and training / documentation, this will result in the highest quality default scenery added at the fastest rate and also introduce and element of community participation that we think will be quite enjoyable to many.

 

2) I also read there would be a conversion to 64-bit, is that 10.20?

I can't say for sure, but 10.20 or shortly thereafter is the plan.

 

3) So what remaining features do you all plan to add to X-10 before moving on to X-11?

X-Plane always has "ongoing" components that really progress no matter of the version...but for V10, the big "additions" left are the move to 64 bit and an upgrading of our default aircraft fleet to "modern standards". Autogen quality is also being worked on aggressively to have a better representation of buildings across more diverse areas. Above and beyond that, I think that during this V10 run, we'll see the default cenery grow quite significantly with the aforementioned crowd-sourced scenery in place. Though some may doubt this scenery "movement", I am quite confident it will spawn nice results.

 

4) I assume we will have to purchase X-11?

That is correct, but history indicates each major run to be around 3 years...and in the case of V9, I think it was 4. V10 was a huge leap technologically though so I'm not sure how long it will be till the next release...there was a lot of technological "foundation building" in V10.

 

5) HDR doesn't seem to work well on my system as the frame rate drops off significantly. Are the developers still working on HDR to finalize how the "pipeline" is going to work?

 

Without a doubt, HDR is the "next big thing". It's a pixel-shader based mode....we call it "deferred rendering" and is the tech that allows all the cool effects. Beyond exhaust blur and ligthing, it could probably do fire effects, better rain and in the future, real time ambient occlusion and WAY out in the future, real time reflections. The tech is there but the hardware needs to catch up. Certainly Ben Supnik, lead programmer is always tweaking the HDR performance, but in general, it is a tech that is best suited for mid to high end video cards. I do development on an i3 macintosh with built in 512 VRAM and I don't even bother to run HDR unless my x-plane window is shurnk to 1024...which is about useless....while a buddy of mine has an i7 based imac with a 2GB video card and he can run with all the goodies on just fine. It is hard to tell just how efficient HDR will get, but it's probably a broad heuristic to say that if your video card isn't at least 1GB and a model available in the last year or so, your mileage will vary.

 

 

I'm guessing the xplane 10 revision cycle will follow a similar pattern of revisions.

Most likely yes. X-Plane generally starts "public beta" at the "point zero" version..that is 10.0. Then we chase bugs, improve stuff and when the sim is running stable...it's usually around the " point 2 zero" region...i.e. 10.20 where we quit calling it a public beta and refer to it as "final"....but final doesn't mean we quit working on it, only that the "beta period" is final. Confusing? perhaps, but after 10 versions, we're kind of used to it. From there, XP will continually progress, usually with new features, maybe new aircraft here and there, requests from users, improvements and such and generally an x-plane version run ends around the "point 7" version if history is any indication....so maybe around "10.70" will be the end of the version 10 run..and as said, could be 2-3 years out.

 

 

Tom Kyler

Laminar / IXEG

www.ixeg.net

Although I have the full version of XP10, I don't have it installed at the moment. However it's nice to see steady progress being made in some aspects of the sim.

 

Last time I ran it I remember being a little frustrated by the "plane on a string" physics when I used real weather (with default and payware planes) with relativiely little wind.

As I used real weather exclusively this became a bit of a pain so I hope this has been fixed or being looked at.

 

I also remember not being able to make out any cloud shadows; has this been addressed or has it officially been dropped as a feature of XP10?

 

If Mr Meyer's intention is to make XP the no°1 flight sim, he will need to win over the FS faithful. He should (IMHO) be looking at what FS has and XP doesn't such as introducing seasonal textures, creating a more comprehensive and reliable ATC system, and redoing the AI from the ground up so that MyTraffic/UT style schedules and AI planes can be easily integrated.

 

Sorry if I sound like a complainer but I sincerely wish XP all the best for the future. If those fancy night visuals can be backed up by a strong overall FS-beating package, then XP may one day hold the crown.

 

Regards

David

I also remember not being able to make out any cloud shadows; has this been addressed or has it officially been dropped as a feature of XP10?

 

Cloud shadows have been a feature in X Plane since the beginning of V9 about 4 years ago.

 

If Mr Meyer's intention is to make XP the no°1 flight sim, he will need to win over the FS faithful. He should (IMHO) be looking at what FS has and XP doesn't such as introducing seasonal textures, creating a more comprehensive and reliable ATC system, and redoing the AI from the ground up so that MyTraffic/UT style schedules and AI planes can be easily integrated.

 

AI and ATC have only JUST been introduced. Give it a bit of time. X Plane does have features that FSX lacks. Just like FSX has features that X Plane lacks. It's all about personal preference. You just might need to explore more.

 

 

Sorry if I sound like a complainer but I sincerely wish XP all the best for the future. If those fancy night visuals can be backed up by a strong overall FS-beating package, then XP may one day hold the crown.

 

Regards

David

 

In the opinions of some, X Plane has improved enough to trump FSX. I switched about 4 years ago and have never looked back. In the opinions of some others, it still has a ways to go. For the cynics, it'll never be better than FSX. For the open minded, all they have to do is give it a fair go.

In the opinions of some, X Plane has improved enough to trump FSX. I switched about 4 years ago and have never looked back. In the opinions of some others, it still has a ways to go. For the cynics, it'll never be better than FSX. For the open minded, all they have to do is give it a fair go.

 

I have a better explanation.........

 

It's the "closed minded", that choose to stick with only one sim............at this point in time. You'll never really know, what you might be missing, even if you think you will.

 

L.Adamson

I have a better explanation.........

 

It's the "closed minded", that choose to stick with only one sim............at this point in time. You'll never really know, what you might be missing, even if you think you will.

 

L.Adamson

I guess I'm as open minded as it gets. I've tried both. Have praised both for their various strengths. After trying both, I now prefer one. Just because I prefer one after trying both, doesn't mean I'm closed minded.

Thanks guys. I like to think of myself as open-minded as I do like to dabble, so I may reinstall XP10 tonight and see what the latest beta has to offer. ;)

I have a better explanation.........

 

It's the "closed minded", that choose to stick with only one sim............at this point in time. You'll never really know, what you might be missing, even if you think you will.

 

L.Adamson

 

 

Yep, I agree. I have really enjoyed XP's night flying although the sky's are not very crowded at the moment. After spending some time it does have it's positive attributes as well as it's negatives. I think many who slam XP, (including myself at times), just do so out of disappointment because they want it to be that sim that satisfies whatever might be missing in their eyes. I fly FSX 80% of the time simply because it has all of the pieces so to speak. XP still has many missing pieces that really should be there IMO, in order to truly classify it as a flight sim.

 

Bob

Hi Tom,

 

Thanks much for you excellent response, it is most appreciated.

 

First of all, I'm an avid FSX user, particularly the PMDG 737 NGX and FS2 Crew, and Orbx scenery, as well as other sims such as DCS A-10, IL-2 1946, Falcon 4.0, etc. I do it all, which keeps me busy, but I am retired, which helps.

 

However, I currently have both Xplane 9 and 10 installed on my dedicated flight sim system. So far, I have really been impressed with X-plane 10, it has come a long ways in terms of its graphics and other attributes. Out of the box, some parts XP10 scenery is really impressive, much better than default FSX. I love the freeways with road signs and bridges, and the terrain is well done (deserts and mountains). The houses and building are well done. The quality of the AI cars, trucks, busses, and even railroad cars are great. I hope they get trains to run as well. It has the potential to become the mainstream general aviation simulator of choice if Austen can pull it off.

 

If this crowd sourcing thing works, then great, but airports without buildings and other fixtures are really disappointing. So I will keep my fingers crossed on this one. I like the fact more third party developers are moving to or investigating the possibility of developing for XP. Even PMDG is supposidly looking into XP as well. It is important to note, it could get really expensive to buy a lot of airport scenery if you like to fly to many different places. I have a ton of money invested in FSX, so it will be a wait and see exercise for me before I get out my credit card for XP10!

 

I can't wait for 64 bit to see what that brings to the table.

 

As to HDR, my system is a PC based system with an overclocked i7 quad core running at 4.0 GHz. My graphics card is a pretty high end Nvidia 480 GTX that has 1500 Gbytes of highspeed RAM, and I still can't get the performance needed. There are probably some settings I can adjust to improve performance, but I haven't found the sweet spot yet.

 

XP10 needs to be a successful product, especially with Microsoft out of the game. There is potential for Prepare 3D, especially if they could complete version 2.0 to bring the better DX 10 or 11 graphics to the table, but we will have to wait and see on that as well.

 

I look forward to new Beta releases,

 

Thanks again,

Bill Clark

 

 

 

Hi Bill,

 

 

 

We have a system in development to promote this, called "crowd sourcing", which hasn't quite taken off yet due to some "currently not done" facets of the system, but that we will get to in a few months. We are really convinced that once all facets are in place, that is to say the "submission process" and training / documentation, this will result in the highest quality default scenery added at the fastest rate and also introduce and element of community participation that we think will be quite enjoyable to many.

 

 

I can't say for sure, but 10.20 or shortly thereafter is the plan.

 

 

X-Plane always has "ongoing" components that really progress no matter of the version...but for V10, the big "additions" left are the move to 64 bit and an upgrading of our default aircraft fleet to "modern standards". Autogen quality is also being worked on aggressively to have a better representation of buildings across more diverse areas. Above and beyond that, I think that during this V10 run, we'll see the default cenery grow quite significantly with the aforementioned crowd-sourced scenery in place. Though some may doubt this scenery "movement", I am quite confident it will spawn nice results.

 

 

That is correct, but history indicates each major run to be around 3 years...and in the case of V9, I think it was 4. V10 was a huge leap technologically though so I'm not sure how long it will be till the next release...there was a lot of technological "foundation building" in V10.

 

 

 

Without a doubt, HDR is the "next big thing". It's a pixel-shader based mode....we call it "deferred rendering" and is the tech that allows all the cool effects. Beyond exhaust blur and ligthing, it could probably do fire effects, better rain and in the future, real time ambient occlusion and WAY out in the future, real time reflections. The tech is there but the hardware needs to catch up. Certainly Ben Supnik, lead programmer is always tweaking the HDR performance, but in general, it is a tech that is best suited for mid to high end video cards. I do development on an i3 macintosh with built in 512 VRAM and I don't even bother to run HDR unless my x-plane window is shurnk to 1024...which is about useless....while a buddy of mine has an i7 based imac with a 2GB video card and he can run with all the goodies on just fine. It is hard to tell just how efficient HDR will get, but it's probably a broad heuristic to say that if your video card isn't at least 1GB and a model available in the last year or so, your mileage will vary.

 

 

 

Most likely yes. X-Plane generally starts "public beta" at the "point zero" version..that is 10.0. Then we chase bugs, improve stuff and when the sim is running stable...it's usually around the " point 2 zero" region...i.e. 10.20 where we quit calling it a public beta and refer to it as "final"....but final doesn't mean we quit working on it, only that the "beta period" is final. Confusing? perhaps, but after 10 versions, we're kind of used to it. From there, XP will continually progress, usually with new features, maybe new aircraft here and there, requests from users, improvements and such and generally an x-plane version run ends around the "point 7" version if history is any indication....so maybe around "10.70" will be the end of the version 10 run..and as said, could be 2-3 years out.

 

 

Tom Kyler

Laminar / IXEG

www.ixeg.net

So LR have put their eggs in to the crowd sourcing model and TK says once the tools are there it should progress 'at the fastest rate'.

 

I like populated airports, it's one of the worst aspects for me at the moment. I wonder if LR would care to guess when we would have good crowd sourced airports. This year, next, in five years? I assume they have some idea if it will be the fastest way possible.

 

Yes, I am being a bit flippant about this but it's a very much wanted feature by a lot of people and I think the reality is that crowd sourcing will not fill up airports all that quickly.

 

I think some people are using crowd sourcing to great effect, like osm2xp but I see that as something that each user can use to enhance the sim. At this point not something that the developer should rely on as providing a world of content.

I guess I'm as open minded as it gets. I've tried both. Have praised both for their various strengths. After trying both, I now prefer one. Just because I prefer one after trying both, doesn't mean I'm closed minded.

 

Then permit me..............to make another "open minded" statement....

 

As a pilot, and the fact that I had the privelage of owning an aircraft, parked in a hangar next door.............and could fly all I wanted...

 

I'd be a "fool" to limit myself to one flight sim! Afterall, at this point, no one flight sim even gets close to recreating all that I've enjoyed with real world flight. And that means aircraft, scenery, electronics, etc. Why on earth, would I want to wait for either sim, to play catch up. I don't have any "financial" gain for either sim..........so that certainly doesn't matter! Just enjoy the newest & best, and don't worry about what sim it's created for. 'Cause if you limit yourself to one sim...........you WILL miss out! And that's my motto....

 

BTW--- that's just a little re-buttle to your statement on that other forum...

 

L.Adamson

So I guess you practise all religions (Why limit yourself to just one. All of them offer something). You can speak multiple languages (Think of how far you could get in the world). You're bi-sexual (Experience BOTH sides of the fence).

 

I couldn't go back to FSX now if I tried. Everything is different. I gave it a go a few times, but I'm pressing X Plane keys.

Give it a rest, Larry.

Not realistic compares imho.

 

The religion of only one sim is also imho part of the problem in the sim world.

 

One should be using them all, comparing, and encouraging the good and mentioning the bad so the hobby can move forward-in all platforms.

 

imho...