Here's a story about a man named Jed;

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Yesterday, I had installed (well...could only imagine it had installed.....) SkyMaxx Pro v1.0 into Xplane 10:25.

 

After the installation routine went about its business, and then said that it had finished with no errors, excitedly, I fired up XPX.

 

What I saw on the initial and then subsequent SkyMaxx Pro installations (done in abject frustration) was nothing over and above the cotton puffs and their texture quality of stock clouds. I also found that no matter what setting in the SkyMaxx config screen I set things to, it seemed to make no world of difference at all!  I thought to myself...what the heck?

 

I then vented my frustration back in this forum and boy....​was I frustrated and disappointed in SkyMaxx Pro!

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Well, it was not SkyMaxx Pro itself that was the problem. It turned out to be (not sure which one...deleted them all....) and I suppose,...a conflict within my Plugin Folder, with an entry already there, and installed prior to installing SkyMaxx Pro.

 

I just kept thinking overnight, what could be wrong?  That something was wrong, was very self evident with the tanked FPS I was experiencing post install...

 

So this morning, I deleted all of my other plugins; Sea Traffic, Airport Navigator, etc (took them out of the folder and placed them for safe keeping on the Desktop) and then went back to the XPX disk and updated XPX to the full release XPX:25.

 

Then, I (after also cleaning the Registry of any latent  SkyMaxx Pro keys, etc...) re-installed once more another shot at SkyMaxx Pro...and crossing my fingers, fired up XPX:25.

 

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Holy #*#**#*!  Does atmospherics REALLY LOOK GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   John...you pulled another one off!

 

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My system normally can take on anything and everything max'ed within any sim platform and now, once more XPX:25 (with a WORKING and RENDERING SkyMaxx Pro) this is the fact and case:

 

With SkyMax at 3/4 rendering power, I am popping off a rock solid 30 FPS, as I always had before the initial installation.  The atmospherics are fabulous!   God Rays are lighting up the sky, and the clouds (compared to death-dredge and cotton puff-ball of stock) is a thousand percent improvement.   John....alongside UrbanMaxx, I'll now say that SkyMaxx Pro has the 'winner' stamp also upon it.

 

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So, the bottom line is, do you think you REALLY have a fully stable and performing SkyMaxx Pro installation?  You just might not....    Please remember, there was no 'problem' with the first and initial installation, but SkyMaxx on my system clearly was not running or performing if at all.   I believe that another program in the Plugin Folder was conflicting with SkyMaxx Pro, and there was a huge 'fight' going on between them for resources, hence my enormous drop of performance to 6 FPS when trying to adjust and run with SkyMaxx Pro. There must have been a massive memory leakage, or whatever going on. You the reader, might have a partial conflict going on that was not as drastic and noticeable as mine was, to hint there might be a plug-in conflict if at all. But...there might just be... You might not be getting all the full FPS performance of your system with a post install SkyMaxx (because of this unidentified and possible add-on conflict).Do I know at this point which program seems incompatible with both SkyMaxx and 'the program' both occupying the Plugin Folder real estate?  No...for I deleted about three of them before this now successful SMP insstallation.   For all of you...I would suggest, you remove every other add-on you have in your Plugin folder, and then run the sim.  You might find (or not...perhaps not...) that your sim performance has just greatly improved. There might be a partial, or total incompatibility/conflict between add-ons as XPX is being run.

 

So John, I fully retract my NOT HAPPY! and frustration of yesterday (post first install), to Most Mitch Happy!  I thought that I had flushed $40.00 down the toilet.  No...after trying different solutions, I have ADDED a working and beautiful sky, with great cloudscape, variety, and no hit to performance (at least now on my system).  

 

Cheers!

 

Mitch

Dude Mitch I remembered how excited you were and my heart sank a little when I saw your frustration man.

 

I am so glad you got it sorted and you are starting to enjoy SkyMAXX Pro.....

 

You just brought a smile to my face

Dude Mitch I remembered how excited you were and my heart sank a little when I saw your frustration man.

 

I am so glad you got it sorted and you are starting to enjoy SkyMAXX Pro.....

 

You just brought a smile to my face

John, you are a TOP Notch  Xplane developer. Your asking and posted prices for your products offered, are the most reasonable I have ever seen, and bang-for-the-buck, is first rate!  Your two add-ons that I have purchased, have totally transformed my XPX experience, and I must tell you, your UrbanMaxx 2 3D  and the PPP texture file was the life saver for this guy. It has made XPX, the premier and first-go-to flight sim upon my system,  I, at this point have no real miles logged with SkyMaxx Pro,  I just know that it now works, and I'm about to coffee up and take to the new skies!   Just know that as long as you keep producing your metrics, and price structure, you have a patron!  Keep up the good work, stay with XPlane, for I (after the P3D launch) so totally now believe that Laminar is where (hardware and coding) it's going to lead.  

 

Again, a most happy customer

 

Mitch

As I am in a once-again flight simming happy place, I would also like to dedicate an enormous THANK YOU to every author contributor freeware, payware, commercial, that has supported XPlane, when others have made known their thoughts that it was a 'fringe' product at this point in time.  It certainly is not. It gives stellar system performance for what it offers the user, and once more, and this in my book, is the crown achievement that no other flight sim endeavor has yet put out for general consumption: What that is, is a stable and OOM-free 64 bit system. Laminar should have KUDOS place upon it, for even the mighty billion dollar force of Lockheed Martin, has not to date accomplished this.

 

Life is good, and XPX with add-ons we have available to it...is superb!

 

Off to fly, in the *working* SkyMaxx sky....

 

Cheers!

 

Ses

Airport Navigator

 

Hey Mitch, I happen to have Airport Navigator too, but every once in a while (more often then while and haven't figure out why) when I call up the plug-in with Ctrl_Shift_M it freezes XP.

 

I have to Ctrl_Alt_Del to get back to my desktop. Have you encounter any problems with it?

 

Just to be clear, this is NOT a SkyMAXX problem as I have had this issue before skymaxx.

Hey Mitch, I happen to have Airport Navigator too, but every once in a while (more often then while and haven't figure out why) when I call up the plug-in with Ctrl_Shift_M it freezes XP.

 

I have to Ctrl_Alt_Del to get back to my desktop. Have you encounter any problems with it?

 

Just to be clear, this is NOT a SkyMAXX problem as I have had this issue before skymaxx.

Carlos, I have had that too, and as you, those freezes, before my successful install of SkyMaxx.  So...I wonder, is there perhaps a problem with A.N. that gets exasperated with installing SkyMaxx and that might be where you or I had those cloud-update freezes/stutters, and in my case, some were at the 20 second mark?  Try removing that plug-in to a desktop folder, and then run without it. Perhaps what you find, will raise eyebrows....?  As stated in my O.P., I also had SeaTraffic and Gizmo 64. I took them out before I re installed SkyMaxx Pro to a truly successful installation.  I'm not putting them back in at the moment. With SeaTraffic, I truly didn't see much of those two tankers around and about, and I can't remember even what that Gizmo 64 was for...duh, huh?

A.N. that gets exasperated with installing SkyMaxx

 

I have had this issue long before SkyMaxx, I think that it may not be fully compatible with 64bit as I didn't have any issues when XP was 32bit only. 

 

Even though AN's author states it is 64bit compatible, it still does have its glitches. I see you have Sea Traffic installed, I have it too, so I may very well disable it an see if there may be some sort of a conflict with AN.

 

If I find the culprit, I will let you know.

and I can't remember even what that Gizmo 64 was for...duh, huh?

For the installation and activation of SkyMaxx Pro?

For the installation and activation of SkyMaxx Pro

It could be, after reading your post, I just checked my Plugin Folder, and it is there again. That could only have been because of the SkyMaxx Pro installation placing it there.  Ok, so that leaves either SeaTraffic or Airport Navigator as the conflict partner with SkyMaxx Pro on at least, my system.  

I have had this issue long before SkyMaxx, I think that it may not be fully compatible with 64bit as I didn't have any issues when XP was 32bit only. 

 

Even though AN's author states it is 64bit compatible, it still does have its glitches. I see you have Sea Traffic installed, I have it too, so I may very well disable it an see if there may be some sort of a conflict with AN.

 

If I find the culprit, I will let you know.

Sound's good. I am not going to install either back at the moment.  Things are running great right now, and I do mostly run with  the 64 bit version.

For SkyMAXX Gizmo64 is used for activation and license management.

 

That's not all Gizmo64 can be used for though. Gizmo is the script engine underneath the entire systems simulation for the LES Saab 340A, IXEG 737 and several other products.

GOOD NEWS ALL--------------->  I just turned on HDR again, and I'm still staying at 30 FPS!!!!  This is with a properly working SkyMaxx giving me great sky.  God Rays set as to default.

 

Take everything out of your Plugin Folder for now, and only leave SkyMaxx Pro. See what change (if any) in FPS performance you have at your favorite settings.  SkyMaxx Pro might like exclusivity, lol.....back to the flight out of (KARB) Ann Arbor....

Pictures please? and has this been released yet?

GOOD NEWS ALL--------------->  I just turned on HDR again, and I'm still staying at 30 FPS!!!!  This is with a properly working SkyMaxx giving me great sky.  God Rays set as to default.

 

Take everything out of your Plugin Folder for now, and only leave SkyMaxx Pro. See what change (if any) in FPS performance you have at your favorite settings.  SkyMaxx Pro might like exclusivity, lol.....back to the flight out of (KARB) Ann Arbor....

:lol:  I'm glad you got it all straightened out.

Pictures please? and has this been released yet?

There are pictures already from the SkyMaxx Pro Released post in this forum. Tons of 'em... You will also find the link to purchase and download it.

:lol:  I'm glad you got it all straightened out.

The 'WOW' factor is huge   I think also that I discovered that Airport Navigator (for 64 bits) might have issues. I have always had that installed, and never took it out.  Well....not only do I have a non-problem any longer with SkyMaxx Pro, but in fact, I have something else to report.  Since I took out SeaTraffic and Airport Navigator from my Plugin Folder, I can not only have HDR on full time, but further, it stays mostly at 29-30 fps, with SkyMaxx doing its heavenly thing.  Also, the sim is running very fluid and smoothly.  I wonder if Airport Navigator for 64 bits was impacting in a constant way behind the scenes XPX?  I'm not going to reinstall it, so really don't have to worry if it does, or it does not. Things are working at top level, and the sky has been transformed....hoooooooyaaaaaaaaaaaah!  With both HDR in play, and SkyMaxx Pro, the sim looks fantastic, viewed either with an upwards or downwards glance, lol.

There are pictures already from the SkyMaxx Pro Released post in this forum. Tons of 'em... You will also find the link to purchase and download it.

The 'WOW' factor is huge   I think also that I discovered that Airport Navigator (for 64 bits) might have issues. I have always had that installed, and never took it out.  Well....not only do I have a non-problem any longer with SkyMaxx Pro, but in fact, I have something else to report.  Since I took out SeaTraffic and Airport Navigator from my Plugin Folder, I can not only have HDR on full time, but further, it stays mostly at 29-30 fps, with SkyMaxx doing its heavenly thing.  Also, the sim is running very fluid and smoothly.  I wonder if Airport Navigator for 64 bits was impacting in a constant way behind the scenes XPX?  I'm not going to reinstall it, so really don't have to worry if it does, or it does not. Things are working at top level, and the sky has been transformed....hoooooooyaaaaaaaaaaaah!  With both HDR in play, and SkyMaxx Pro, the sim looks fantastic, viewed either with an upwards or downwards glance, lol.

And that settles why your frames were below mine. There just had to be something wrong.

Mitch, what card and VRAM do you have?