DX10 Fixer released!

[Anxu00 176]

Thank you for restating what I wrote, "increasingly costly"

 

I want every developer to make a living and charge for their work, but we are talking about a patch. If it was sold by Flight1, there would still be an opportunity to try with a refund iif you're not satisfied. At $33 I doubt many simmers would simply just give it a try.

 

Blame my frustrations on all the fine airports recently released by ORBX. :rolleyes:

Interesting you mentioned ORBX.  Each of their Airport cost 33 bucks give or take that you see once and twice on landing and take off.  The fixer does something more fundamental like FTXG and at the same cost as an airport add-on.  I would say that's cheap.  One of the major reasons to go DX-10 is to fix the OOM problem, which will come more often now with all the add-ons.  I have tried DX-10 before and then reverted but I could not let go of the night flying, so I am watching this space.  However to me a 33$ is not that expensive, if it bought the peace of not having to tweak any more.   I now fly the PMDG 777 with sparse autogen, no car traffics, with swath of sceneries disabled just to get the peace of mind that the flight will complete!

[chik 1]

   I have installed the Fixer but I am having an issue in that when I start FSX I get a black screen in free flight. If I proceed to "fly now" the progress bar moves very quickly to 100% but then freezes. I look at task manager and FSX is not responding.

  

  Thanks 

[Guest]

Guys, forgive my ignorance, is this Fixer an all-in-one DX10 switcher, or do I need to go through that loooong DX10 thread again? Is there some latest updated readme on how to switch to/from DX10 really fast? I don't mind the price of the fixer, but all those DX10 tweaks were exhausting.

 

If I get the fixer I'd also need to first check on the current AA/nInspector settings used in DX10 and a safe way to return to DX9 if needed. 

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

 

It's an all-in-one DX10 switcher. That's one of the advantages of buying this: it makes switching to DX10 (and back to DX9 also, to answer your last question) very easy.

 

I bought it today and before I installed it, I reinstalled the default ShadersHLSL folder, just to be sure I would be using the latest version of everything. So you can forget about that long document. However, there are a few options that might require you to have a look at the (included) manual but it's an easy read, a lot easier to follow than the guide (which served it's purporse very well, nevertheless).

 

There is only one thing that confuses me a little (or a lot, actually): FSAA. I already had it working the hard way ^_^ by reading that old guide, setting up Inspector and adding two lines to the FSX.cfg. Right now I haven't changed the option yet in the Fixer because the FSAA I am using (4xS together with 4xSGSS) isn't available in the Fixer's list...! So I am a bit unsure what to do now. I have the impression that when you enable FSAA in the Fixer, you don't have to use Inspector anymore...? It overrides those settings...? Should you even go as far as to reset the Inspector settings to er... something...?

 

I read the manual but it is totally unclear about it. Inspector isn't even mentioned which imho is an omission because 'everyone' uses it and now 'no one' really knows what to do with it.

 

I also wonder if I should keep on using 4xSGSS because it seems the cloud trick (no FSAA on those) only works without SGSS, but... 4xSGSS really helps to make FSX look good on my PC... So I don't really know what to do here...

 

Other than that: installing the Fixer was easy and the various options were mostly self explanatory. I mainly bought it so I would have the Orbx lights in FTXG at night and as a thank you to Steve (although I usually think you shouldn't buy software for that) but I was pleasantly surprised to see the rain has been fixed (although I haven't seen that in the game yet). Afaik that awful umbrella effect has been dealt with now. Being able to set the amount of bloom and some water plus rain options is nice but I left them at default. I did enable slow snow though, which is (hopefully) nice. The cloud shader sounds interesting but as I said above I have no clue if it is actually working on my PC since I use SGSS...

 

Everything else is working as it did, really... No improvement over using the free fixes. All in all it's a very pricey addon, specially when you consider the fact that I mainly bought it to fix the FTX Global lights, but somehow I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to support someone who did a lot of work on fixing things. Imho the price it totally wrong if you want 'the world' to switch to DX10 because I think only people who are really interested in DX10 will buy it: other will probably rather spend that money on a nice plane or scenery. But well, I am in the fortunate situation that I can afford this one so... I bought it.

 

BTW Apart from the software looking very simple, it also looks a bit odd because apparently fonts were used that I don't have so some text in the interface is completely missing, making it look even more 'cheaper'. I have an option called 'DX10 Compatible Lights and'. And I also have a 'Manua'.  ^_^ But well, as long as it works, I don't really care. The 'manua' looks a lot more pro than the interface btw.

 

BTW 2 I would have preferred or adviced the use of 'Disabled' instead of 'Enable'. I think it's more common to see what the setting currently IS instead of showing what a button will DO when you click it. But I may be wrong. That does happen. ^_^

 

EDIT

Did another test comparing with and without 4xSGSS and the difference is staggering. Which is a bummer because reading about better performance with that cloud trick was one of the things that made me buy the fixer... Pity. Maybe I should give the FSAA options in the Fixer a try but I first would like to know what to do with the Inspector settings...!!! (It really amazes me the manual doesn't even mention Inspector...)

[CarlosF 1,243]

Definitely one man's opinion no matter what he says. What's the saying?? "One man's junk is another man's treasure". Value of anything is definitely relative to the person judging said value.

+1

Very well said...and I would add: Who are we to put a price on Steve's work if we weren't even involved in the efforts.

 

On the other hand, I'm an xplane user only (too many issues with fsx/dx9) but when I read about the advantages of dx10 I got interested in fsx again but at $32 though I would just rather wait and spend $49 for the upcoming p3d v2.

[AirborneZed 168]

The cloud shader sounds interesting but as I said above I have no clue if it is actually working on my PC since I use SGSS...

 

 

 

It doesn't work. I have to run it as 4xsgss as well because anything below is a real step back. But flying into clouds is a real pain on the frames. Considering i had no problem with clouds performance until DX10.

[Guest]

It doesn't work. I have to run it as 4xsgss as well because anything below is a real step back. But flying into clouds is a real pain on the frames. Considering i had no problem with clouds performance until DX10.

 

That's a real bummer. As I said in my edit not using 4xSGSS it totally out of the question. It's one shimmering mess in my cockpit without it. That's a disappointment. I'm not saying I wouldn't have bought the fixer if I had known this but it's still disappointing. Maybe I will give the FSAA settings in the Fixer a try and see if one those does wonders. But I still have no clue what to do with the Inspector settings...

 

EDIT

I will start a topic about this in the DX10 forum.

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/421579-confused-about-the-fixer-and-inspector/

[JRBarrett 3,110]

Thanks for the report. It is a real good argument in favor of trying the Fixer.

 

 

Dirk.

 

I personally don't mind the price, but I wonder what are the sane levels and guidelines of pricing here. Some say it's expensive and you assert it is not, why do you think you are correct?

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

 

That's very much an individual interpretation. Having worked in software development in the past, and knowing the kind of effort Steve has expended in unraveling the mysteries of the DX10 implementation in FSX by a massive effort of reverse-engineering, I'd say it is worth every penny he is asking just to compensate him for his work alone. Especially in light of the fact that up to now, Steve has given the hobby his initial DX10 patches for free, despite all the work he put in to creating them - and those initial efforts will continue to be free for anyone who wants them going forward.

 

And keep in mind that at least some of the sale price of the fixer goes back to the distributor. By his own admission, once the fixer was finished, Steve had no idea how to set up his own e-commerce web site to get the product to end users. Partnering with a professional FS software distributor was probably his best option, but that does add to the final cost.

 

But the worth of the payware fixer to any individual flight simmer is another thing entirely. For me, at this point in my life, $35 is no big deal. I've reached a point in my career where I am paid reasonably well, and my living expenses have reduced - my house and car are paid for, my kids are grown and self-supporting. In other words, I have a higher level of disposable income than I did when I was a younger man, and don't feel a "bite" at dropping $35 for a fun and rewarding hobby.

 

I am also a passionate golfer, and will easily spend twice the price of the fixer for a single 4-hour round of golf - and I try to play at least once a week during the summer months here in the northeastern U.S.

 

30 years ago, it would have been a different story. I had a family to raise, with all the food, clothing, medical and educational expenses that go with having children, a monthly mortgage payment, car payments, etc. I made far less money at my main job, being an apprentice just starting my career, not a manager as I am now. There was a time in those days where I had 1 full-time job, and two additional part time jobs just to make ends meet.

 

In those days, I would have had to think long and hard about spending the (inflation adjusted) equivalent of $35 for a mere hobby, when there were far more important things I needed to budget my income for. Back then, I certainly did not play golf on a weekly basis either - and when I did, it would have been at the very cheapest "dirt track" golf course I could find. 

 

I realize that many folks in this hobby are in the same position now, that I was 30 years ago - live-at-home students, or young adults just starting out - where $35 is "real money", not to be spent without good reason.

 

It all comes down to how important the hobby is to you, and how passionate you are about enjoying the significant advantages that DX10 can bring to the overall FS experience. On my system, DX10 works much better then DX9 in terms of frame rates and stability in FSX. So much so, that I would be loathe to go back to DX9. But, other users' computer systems may see just the opposite effect. Having invested significant money in add-on airports that (until now) did not work in DX10 at night, I'd gladly have spent the price for the fixer, even if doing so had a significant impact on my monthly budget. 

[fullmetal02 23]

So Fly Tampa sceneries look perfect during the day in DX10?

 

Still following this thread. I will purchase when I know the impact on all of my addons. I don't want to mess up my very stable tweaked FSX.

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

I will start a topic about this in the DX10 forum.

 

Thanks.  Appreciate that!

 

Best regards,

 

Jim Young

AVSIM Moderator

[odourboy 1,290]

   I have installed the Fixer but I am having an issue in that when I start FSX I get a black screen in free flight. If I proceed to "fly now" the progress bar moves very quickly to 100% but then freezes. I look at task manager and FSX is not responding.

  

  Thanks 

Do you happen to have or ever used ENB? Apparently it is completely incompatible with DX10 and can cause issues like you are describing if you try to use DX10 Preview (nothing to do with the fixer itself)

 

It gets discussed a bit on this thread: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/421396-dx10-fixer-finally-released/page-5#entry2802654

That's a real bummer. As I said in my edit not using 4xSGSS it totally out of the question. It's one shimmering mess in my cockpit without it. That's a disappointment. I'm not saying I wouldn't have bought the fixer if I had known this but it's still disappointing. Maybe I will give the FSAA settings in the Fixer a try and see if one those does wonders. But I still have no clue what to do with the Inspector settings...

 

EDIT

I will start a topic about this in the DX10 forum.

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/421579-confused-about-the-fixer-and-inspector/

 

+1. I was initially ecstatic over the AA cloud bypassing until I tried a few aircraft and realized I could not do without some form of SGSS on the instruments. sigh.

[odourboy 1,290]

The VC shadows are indeed fixed by Steve but PMDG did not model them, so there is nothing to see there. If the developer doesn't add it to the model, Steve's fixes can't program them in.

 

So you need an airplane with the VC shadows build in or use the default planes which have them

 

 

I keep reading this but I have yet to have anyone confirm that turning on the VC Shadows flag switch as described on page 58 of the fixer manual (this is to use the DX10 Tool Box that came with fixer, NOT the Fixer application to enable VC Shadows in the MDL file) does not work for the PMDG aircraft.

 

I don't have any PMDG, but I used the tool box feature to enable VC shadowing in several addon aircraft that were delivered with it off. Worked fine in every instance I tried.

[Guest]

Just checked the rain and snow: better! That awful umbrella effect has been fixed indeed!

[Dirk98 354]

No, there isn't enough information. And even if there was, going through 10+ pages of a thread to find the bits and pieces I need to know 

 

I concur, but I'll buy it to try.

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

[Kattz 132]

Can you believe all the hype? If it were $10 I'd just go ahead and get it. But, not for $34.

All us little guys out here who are the ones who could use it are priced out. So sad.

 

 

I agree. At $34 people aren't going to just 'try it out' - which is what is needed for DX10 to become properly supported.

 

 

Indeed.  If this was priced similar to Mogwaisoft's Shade it would sell through the roof.  At this price point, only dedicated DX10'ers will commit.  I'm afraid he may have priced himself out of a wide adoption of DX10 across the majority of the user base which is too bad because that would have put a lot of pressure on other developers to design for DX10.

 

 

Price was $16.00 people may consider it.Not worth it for $32.00 price as I could buy carendo plane or a2a plane. I do need high sertings on all items and the things with limited budget easy one to skip as other ga planes and utilies better value of money.

 

 

I'm tending to agree also. The price point is fine for enthused FSX fans but average Joe or light FSX people will never buy a functionality 'patch' for this much.

 

Look at Steam sales, their figures have proven low price with quantity wins out all the time.

 

 

I'm afraid I have to agree....I had sticker shock'itis....

 

I clicked to open Paul's link, and my jaw actually dropped....

I wish all those that delve in, much success! At the $15.00 asking point, I would have clicked the sold button.  Although, we have to realize that Steve is NOT getting all of that $35.00 ...there are other palms that have to be padded....FlightSim who is hosting the patch,  for one! Perhaps others....

 

$35 bucks is a lot of money?  $25 Euros?  Surely you jest.  Even in the crappy US economy, $35 buys you almost nothing.  ALMOST NOTHING.  A half tank of gas? A dinner without adult beverages for two?  A fifth of liquor?  See a movie with two kids?  That won't even buy enough salt for my fish tank to make 100 gallons, and I go through that very two weeks.  Steve has served the community well for FREE for many years, and if he wants to charge $35 for this, it's well deserved in my opinion.  I've always wanted to run DX10 and can't make it work even with all of the back door fixes out there.  If Steve's fix gives me DX10 ability for a measly $35, then I'm in.  Thumbs up, Steve.

[chik 1]

   Thank you Odourboy for answering.

 

I did remove an old ENBSeries file that I thought had long been removed since I am using SweetFX now. However a secondary step I did was to completely uninstall Steve's Fixer, then replaced the original HLSL folder, reinstalled Steve's Fixer. Now I can run FSX...........but

   I have two screens with TH2G and cannot run it on both screens. Does your sleeve have any more tricks up there?

 

Thanks