I used to do autolands if the wx is very bad.

And on the 777... EFB with performance calculator. Tail/taxi cameras. Plenty of things to eat away at that FSX hard limit of anamatable VC bits.

 

Just like that Virtual Addressing space limit, FSX (and/or 32 bit coding in general) has limits that won't bend, so it becomes a compromise. Besides the FSX rain on windscreen animated thing isn't all that good looking. That said if it was possible to do everything then I'd say put it in, because at least there's something there to edit for a video without having to start from scratch. (Which is why my JS4100 video on youtube was done in the rain.... well mostly because it was actually raining on that day during the vatsim event it depicts.)

Come on Peter, I didn't say the HGS was THE part that ate up animations.  I said they had reached the limit on animations so adding the HGS meant something else had to go.  I'm sure Ryan said something like that when the subject of VC rain came up not being included in the NGX came up.  He also mentioned it took up frame time.

 

Of course the HGS is preferable to rain on the window, but a good rain effect which obscures vision but is cleared by the wipers would also be a good feature for realism.  In the J41 there was also a good effect for misting up the windows when the ventilation was off.  Such things add a lot to immersion.

 

I fully agree, the missing effects of rain on the windshield in v/c is one of the things I really miss in the NGX. It just feels so very wrong when you're sitting by the gate on a rainy day before departure and not a single drop is seen on the windshield.

I brought up doing rain effects with the team - it's not happening, sorry. We're very very close to the animation limit again with the 777 VC. (there's some neat things that explain why that you'll see soon) Also, rain caused a lot of problems with the J41 - it overloads certain customers' systems and causes flashing artifacts all over the VC - that's going to preclude any future attempts at doing rain for us because it just creates a support headache where the only possible solution is to remove the feature from the product.

Too bad but thanks for letting us know.

I agree the rain is difficult to make. Don't know how is done in FSX. I did for the first time in Xplane in 3D. You can see an example here:

 

 

The basic idea is to duplicate the 3D windshield and divide it in little squares. Then pick some of those squares and make groups. Up to 8 or so. Then make the hide/show of those squares in a looping variable in motion that goes from 0-1.

Then to give them more smooth sensation, just animate the self illumination texture in another varible from 0 to 1 and back to 0 asincronous.

And in the middle a rectangle with an drop texture animated in vertical slipering through the windshield with another 0 to 1 animation but back to 0 again suddently (that is when it moves back to the start position).

 

To clean the water (was fixed the wipper back motion after this video) Just made a mask object with the shape of the wiper clean zone, transparent, that moved before the drops.. In xplane there is a hack to make things transparent that way (make the HUD for example to colimate.. etc...

 

Well I don't know if those things can be done in FSX. I guess yes because you colimate your HUD and I think you use the same technique.

Don't know if the rain is possible or not to do.. but for sure it is very important in simulation. It let your see or not.

I saw how an fsx helicopter made the rain with a fogged texture with not moving drops that didn't let you see correctly through it. Once you put the wippers you have the wipper zone cleaned. That is less than nothing... but demostrated that imagination is a tool and you can use it. Maybe you could do something similar to that. Something like this I made for the mist windshields in another plane I made:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=UnHILLDpvuo#t=165s

 

For sure there is a good solution that don't cost animations to the plane!

FSX can't do animated textures like that - FS9 could but they removed it in FSX. Anything you do like this has to be based on actual polygons animating and hiding/showing.

Yes, the main trick in my rain is hide and show. Well.. It is all needed, so maybe is possible also for FSX...

Maybe an "basic rain effect" can be done and given to the community as an

"unofficial not supported feature". Here it is, try it , it may cause problems but you won't get support for it as it is just for fun.

If a problem appears just deactivate the effect like in the J41.

 

Here it is, try it , it may cause problems but you won't get support for it as it is just for fun

 

But that's the problem...

 

Take a gander at the TURBOPROPS section of the forum and see the vitriol that gets tossed about because of what Ryan is mentioning.  When people say "just disable the icing effects," the people asking for help still get upset.

 

Unfortunately when it comes to providing products, if you're not going to support a feature, it's best not to include it.  Even if you tell people that its use is unsupported, you'll still get a ton of forum posts about it, and even more help desk tickets about it not working.

 

...heck, even things in the NGX that worked as they were supposed to were mentioned here as "not working correctly."  If a lot of those items' quirks are discussed in the intro manual, what makes you think people will pay attention to "here it is, but you won't get support for it"?

 

I'm not attacking - I'm just providing a counter point.

But that's the problem...

 

Take a gander at the TURBOPROPS section of the forum and see the vitriol that gets tossed about because of what Ryan is mentioning.  When people say "just disable the icing effects," the people asking for help still get upset.

 

Unfortunately when it comes to providing products, if you're not going to support a feature, it's best not to include it.  Even if you tell people that its use is unsupported, you'll still get a ton of forum posts about it, and even more help desk tickets about it not working.

 

...heck, even things in the NGX that worked as they were supposed to were mentioned here as "not working correctly."  If a lot of those items' quirks are discussed in the intro manual, what makes you think people will pay attention to "here it is, but you won't get support for it"?

 

I'm not attacking - I'm just providing a counter point.

 

I actually thought about something available through the library on avsim or other flightsim related sites, not directly related to PMDG. Just a gift for the fans. No direct support. A basic effect,  not as shiny as on the J41.

I just pan down to keep an eye on the airspeed

+1

all that green spoils the view too..

+1

all that green spoils the view too..

But its not going anywhere, so just disable it for now, problems solved!

If you don't like the hud simply disable it through the airline options, problem solved.

If you don't like the hud simply disable it through the airline options, problem solved.

I'd use it if they made it available in the right seat! (-;