X-Plane 10.3b2 has been released

[Robert McDonald 167]

If you go into your x-Plane folder and find the x-Plane installer.exe program and run it - be sure the 'beta' tickbox is checked near the bottom of the screen, you will be asked if you want to update you 10.3b1 install.

 

One of the dev's on XPlane site commented that beta1 got out the door with some silly bugs scattered in that should never have been in the public beta release.

So if you're still flying beta release 1 of 10.3 Xplane - be aware there is now a beta 2 for you to try.  I like it.  Still missing the long-awaited horizon view at altitude enhancement (fix), but otherwise it's nifty, and the frames are GREAT. 

[RWFeldman 159]

I started X-Plane 10.30 last night and it asked me to update.

[scotchegg 4,159]

Frames do indeed seem much better with .32, although heavy clouds bring them down.

 

A great thing is in lighter clouds and without OSM autogen 4xfxaa&ssaa doesn't seem to give much more of a hit than 2x, so crank that AA up boys and girls!

[Robert McDonald 167]

hoping that if Skymaxx devs get active and work on 10.3x, we may see an improvement vis-a-vis heavy clouds...

no word on the back channel on that as yet...

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Cool youtube videos Robert - well done

[captain420 3,099]

Robert whats this horizon view at altitude fix that you're mentioning? Can you explain? Thanks.

[strider1 575]

Robert whats this horizon view at altitude fix that you're mentioning? Can you explain? Thanks.

 

http://developer.x-plane.com/2014/03/better-long-range-visiblity-in-x-plane-10-30/

[Robert McDonald 167]

Cool youtube videos Robert - well done

 

Thank you, Richard.  Appreciate the compliment.  I keep meaning to do a segment on programming the FMC - that was something that really perplexed me when I began flying the jets.

 

Robert whats this horizon view at altitude fix that you're mentioning? Can you explain? Thanks.

 

When you're up at FL300 (for example) you cannot see the ground clearly to the horizon.  X-Plane has a built in 'fuzzy' or 'hazy' effect that 'smudges' things.  The good news is that at some point, this will FINALLY be fixed, and when it is, those with a LOT of system ram will see XPlane using all of it, up to 16 or more GB.  Because of this, I have upgraded my three X-Plane rendering PCs to 32gb -each-, which is the maximum ram their motherboard chipsets support.  System ram are the memory sticks you pop  onto your motherboard.  Many of us started out with 4GB or 8GB, and thought 16GB was a ton (that's what I had on my 'main' system before I upgraded).

 

VRAM means 'video ram', and is also very very important in XPlane 10.  Back in the day early video cards had very low amounts of Vram.  512k was common at one time.  Many of today's fastest cards only have 2GB of VRAM.  In XPlane 10, you are much better off with 4GB or even 6GB of Vram to display textures and ortho scenery. A lot of the mid to high-end cards are now available with 4GB, and of course the nvidia GTX Titan and GTX Titan Black both have 6GB on them.

 

My current recommendation is a 4GB nvidia GTX 770 card.  I could be wrong, but the 780 cards seem to only be offered with 2GB of Vram.  You can NOT add more VRAM to an existing video card afaik.  So once you buy one with '2GB', you have a problem if you want to move up to 4 or 6.  You have to really be careful when shopping for video cards, because you can get in a hurry and jump on what seems like a much lower price and wind up with the 2GB variant in lieu of the 4.  I'm a big fan of MSi branded cards, though EVGA has a stellar reputation as well.  I like Msi because of their "FROZR" cooling fin design.  Big dog metal cooling fins and twin fans "the twin frozr" on the GTX 4GB 770 by MSi keep your card cool.

[MikeT707 1,181]

 

 

I could be wrong, but the 780 cards seem to only be offered with 2GB of Vram.

Just wanted to mention that 780's come in 3gb and 6gb flavors.  

[Robert McDonald 167]

Just wanted to mention that 780's come in 3gb and 6gb flavors.  

 

Thanks Mike!  Good to know!!

 

Robert

[MikeT707 1,181]

Thanks Mike!  Good to know!!

 

Robert

You bet.  At the time that I was upgrading my video card I was considering the 770 and the 780.  I chose the 770 4gb over the 780 3gb because I guessed that the extra gb of vram might help, plus the price was much more affordable at that time.

[Robert McDonald 167]

You did the right thing.  In XPlane I consider 4 to be the MINIMUM. I have 6 in center PC and 4 on the wings.  Of course that means I'm really in essence limited to 4.  Sometimes flying into VERY heavy ortho scenery I get a momentary segment where the VRAM is flushing on the wing pcs.  The center screen can plow along but the wings stutter just for a moment... then all is well.

 

This is caused by Ted Winton's XPlane conversion of FSX Downtown San Diego Buildings ortho scenery.  That scenery add all by itself is 2GB.  It's simply so pretty I can't live without it.  If you fly into San Diego I highly recommend at least trying it.

 

Oddly, my Dell XPS 8000 "happy meal" i5 quad-core wing pcs have just enough legroom to fit the 770 card, but the 780 or Titan cards will NOT fit (they are both too long).

[ohsirus 241]

You bet.  At the time that I was upgrading my video card I was considering the 770 and the 780.  I chose the 770 4gb over the 780 3gb because I guessed that the extra gb of vram might help, plus the price was much more affordable at that time.

 

Same here, might go SLI later on.

[Robert McDonald 167]

Same here, might go SLI later on.

 

Sli may help performance if x-Plane supports it- but the VRAM is non-accumlative... meaning that 2 4GB cards in sli do NOT yield 8GB of VRAM for texture loads.  I realize most folks know this, but for the few who don't, I'm including it FYI.

 

I myself originally purchased an EVGA GTX690 card with 4GB of Vram, only to find out AFTER the purchase that the 4GB was 'divided in half' 2GB per each GPU chip.  The dual GPU kepplers on the same circuitboard card with built in SLI was apparently a failure, as it now seems to have reverted to ONE GPU chip per card.  I suspect overheating may have been an issue in the "reference design" that was mandated by nVidia.  Fortunately, EVGA did me a solid and shipped me a GTX Titan in exchange for the 2nd GTX690 that failed under warranty.  Though no one asked me - I was THRILLED to lose a GPU and gain 4 extra GB of VRAM for 6GB 'total'.

 

As I have continually reminded in posts- you CAN NOT add more VRAM to a graphics card.  You are stuck trying to sell the card and then repurchase a different one.  Like autos, used graphics card don't command a whole lot of resale value, because of the inherent fear of damage from overclocking.  Sure, they are worth something.  Just not what you paid.

 

Of course the P3D and FSX crowd aren't a bit worried about VRAM.  Their sims aren't designed to take full advantage of it.  But if a FSX / P3D pilot decides afterwards to move to XPlane and 64-bit flight- it's grand if they had the foresight to get 'max VRAM' when they bought their new vid card.  

 

Sli users know that both cards must match to work in SLI- so if one card has 2GB of Vram and the other has 6- that will NOT work in SLI.  Again this is for the newer enthusiast.  Similarly, a GTX 770 and a GTX 780 cannot be combined in SLI, even if they have the identical amount of VRAM on each card.  You would need a Pair of 770s or 780s or Titans... and both of them need identical VRAM on each card.

 

Additional concerns about motherboard design and power supply requirements, not to mention a very roomy and extremely well-ventilated case all come into consideration when SLI is envisioned.

 

I found in X-Plane that performance is actually better having distinct PCs for each monitor, in lieu of trying to solve frame rate issues across multiple displays via SLI.

Why?  You might have TWO video cards instead of ONE, but you still only have ONE CPU doing all the heavy lifting for your entire sim deck.

 

Three PCs and maybe a 4th for the glass cockpit... is a far more efficient setup in X-Plane.

[ryanbatc 12,775]

I really need a new card..... 1.2GB not cutting it for my GTX570.

 

ARGH