Forget all of the 3rd party AFCADS. They will be deactivated with the next addon manager update. They will be saved in the folder but you will have to hunt them down, reactivate them and delete the new ones that were forced upon you. If only the addon manager gave us the option to update AFCADS or leave them as is...

 

This issue, combined with the lack of AES support are the only reasons I stopped buying FSDT products. 

 

Ok, one more issue: no FSDT airport has an accurate AFCAD out of the box. It doesn't sound like this release is any different.

I just purchased it from their store website... but there is nowhere to download? The link on the main fsdt page goes to jfkv2, and kiah is not listed in the products section... did they pull it?

Still there, I just tested. Refresh your browser ?

I use firefox in windows, the link on the main page that has a picture of kiah goes to products_jfk2.html

 

On my mac laptop, it goes to kiah

 

So I just manually entered the http address and can download. Strange though.

An accurate afcad out of the BOX? I don't think that's possible as it's often outdated as soon as it's created. Everyone's AI setup and needs from an AFCAD are different. FSDT's afcads are often better than most other devs out there. I've always simply added my initials to the end of my edited FSDT afcads so they are never overwritten and removing the newly added "missing" ones is hardly an issue. I've got 9 FSDT airports in both FSX and P3d and it takes me under 30 seconds to "hunt" them down once every month or two.

An accurate afcad out of the BOX? I don't think that's possible as it's often outdated as soon as it's created. Everyone's AI setup and needs from an AFCAD are different. FSDT's afcads are often better than most other devs out there. I've always simply added my initials to the end of my edited FSDT afcads so they are never overwritten and removing the newly added "missing" ones is hardly an issue. I've got 9 FSDT airports in both FSX and P3d and it takes me under 30 seconds to "hunt" them down once every month or two.

Orbx afcads are the worst IMHO. NZSI and NZNI default airports are terrible with broken nodes and ai planes that stop and never move again.

FSDT afcads are generally very good, with only some user adjustments.

I have plenty AI out of the box using VOX ATC with their traffic slider at 50%

 

 

 

And this is CYVR again VOX ATC and WOAI at 50% slider

and the FSDT AFCAD.

 

I think the type of AI program has something to do with it

 

That's always been like this for ALL our sceneries released after 2010. Using the fast FSX native code with shaders on ground, result in losing the progressive taxi function.

 

And why you would need an unrealistic progressive taxi function, when you can use a more lifelike GSX Follow Me, which is free to use at KIAH ?

 

 

You don't, if you set the Mesh Resolution as indicated in the manual. You are not crashing into anything made by the scenery, you are crashing into an underlying mesh which is adding spikes and artifacts if you set the Mesh Resolution too high.

 

 

But if you tried it with a fps heavy add-on airplane, you are NOT testing the KIAH performance, you are testing the performance of your fps heavy add-on airplane on a complex weather.

 

Is your frame rate on a default (comparably large) airport with the same weather, same airplane and same number of surrounding AI, MUCH better than KIAH ? That would be the only comparison that would make sense.

 

 

After breaking all the possible technological achievements in CYVR, which is still unmatched in what it does (*nobody* does dynamic shadows with the correct astronomical calculations behind), and being unfairly smacked because that area was so crowded with other add-ons product that OOMs started to appear because users insisted using CYVR with too high settings, too many add-ons at the same time in the same area, we decided to play a bit safer this time, and release textures in 2048 size.

 

That's because, although we HAVE an easy to use Texture size slider in the Addon Manager, that doesn't even require to restart FSX to apply changes, users seems to feel diminished if they must lower a setting, so this time we release the textures directly in the 2048 size, so they won't use too much memory even if the slider is set at 4096 in the sim.

 

However, the original textures we worked on, were at 4096 size. This would result in a 4x increase in memory usage. We are considering to RELEASE them, as an OPTIONAL download.

 

 

The scenery is already as optimized as hell. Are there other KIAH around with better quality and/or better performances ? That's the only comparison that makes sense, is on the SAME airport.

 

Something you can probably do with a recently released JFK airport for another developer. Performance, quality, memory, etc...

I always purchase your airports within the first week of release. I think CYVR is masterful. It really is an airport with minute detail.

 

However, I shouldn't have to change mesh resolution in effect down scaling it just for FSDT products. I also like/ wantProgressive taxi. It tells me my DX10 addon is working. And other developers have it...

 

I don't have GSX, I may install it, but it's really not on the top of my list for addons right now. Yes, I know it's free.

 

Also this is 2014, your airports should be frame friendly with the NGX and 777 in 2048/4096 heavy weather. That's an expectation now. It should also be an area of continued development as KIAH is not in a scenery dense area.

 

After CYVR you left me hoping for more. That's a good thing. What's your next airport? I'll buy that and be on here asking for more then too!

I agree the mesh resolution has always annoyed me. I like high quality mesh but can't use anything below 5m because of the bumps in all the fsdt airports. I wish they would update all their scenery to allow 1m mesh settings.

great scenery!  the night textures r great. I like how the ground is actual black at night.  FSX and many sceneries seem to lighten the night.  I have not been to many airports or have flown at night a lot but when I do I cant see a darn thing out the window or on the ground.  Thank You FSdreamteam for the great scenery.

Probably worth mentioning that MSE have 50% off today . Dallas Ultra Res city fits nicely as do all of them with FSDT. Its massive area around 18gb I think

I've purchased everything from FSDT for the past 6 years or so and I'm going to buy IAH soon as I get home. I easily get 35fps with Cyvr in the NGX with dx10 n pretty hi setting so I don't know what the problem is with everyone else.

Why then do you not list your system specs in your profile info?

However, I shouldn't have to change mesh resolution in effect down scaling it just for FSDT products.

You are seeing the problem, only because there are some developers that force you to scale UP resolution to use their meshes.

 

This, because how FSX works, it has the side effect that it creates artifacts that results in terrain spikes. You DON'T see them on a terrain area, because they only appear when they interact with an airport flatten command.

 

Just to be more clear: even a flat airport that comes with a flat mesh, WILL show these spikes when you set the Mesh resolution too high AND you have an high resolution 3rd party mesh underneath.

 

If we tried to fight this the hard way, we would need to provide a flat mesh with an higher resolution than the highest resolution 3rd party mesh on the market, in order to "win" against it, since in FSX meshes DO NOT respect the Scenery Library priority system, so the highest mesh will always display on top of everything else, regardless where it's located.

 

And this would be wrong, because that flat mesh will JUST consume precious VAS memory, so we would then start to answer why the scenery might cause OOMs. The slider is there for a reason, so better use it.

 

 

I also like/ wantProgressive taxi. It tells me my DX10 addon is working.

 

That's an assumption that might be valid for other sceneries, but in our case DX10 IS WORKING, without any hacks or tweaks, although without the default progressive taxi function. Other developers sceneries don't really work in DX10, unless you apply the DX10 fixer, which is not needed in our case.

 

 

And other developers have it...

 

But they don't have fast native FSX code without slow and non full-DX10 compatible FS8 polygons on ground, and don't have shaders like specular and/or bump mapping on ground too. The frame rate increase we GAIN using fully native FSX code, can be spent to give you something more useful that an unrealistic progressive taxi feature, like animated jetways, that other developers might not have, because they say "jetways are slow". Yes, they might, if you consumed all your frame rate budget with legacy FS8 ground polygons.

 

 

I don't have GSX, I may install it, but it's really not on the top of my list for addons right now. Yes, I know it's free.

 

I'd say is probably more useful, as a free download for KIAH, than having a progressive taxi. In addition to the Follow Me car, you'll also gain Pushback, Marshallers, Catering, and all the other baggage loading/unloading features.

 

 

Also this is 2014, your airports should be frame friendly with the NGX and 777 in 2048/4096 heavy weather. That's an expectation now. It should also be an area of continued development as KIAH is not in a scenery dense area.

Again, if your frame rate was already low, you just can't expect adding a detailed airport would INCREASE it.

 

Have tried doing the test I've asked ? Take the SAME conditions, same weather, same airplane, same AI number, and turn off KIAH in the Scenery Library to let the default KIAH appear. Is your fps SO MUCH better without KIAH ? Do you think the difference is acceptable, given the difference in quality against default ?

There was a thread in there forum titled "Afcad" and has disappeared overnight. The thread starter's afcad file works great. Parking,

traffic flow, realistic runway arrival and departures. Not sure why it was removed? Maybe he will add it to the library here or put up

the dropbox link to it. 

There was a thread in there forum titled "Afcad" and has disappeared overnight. The thread starter's afcad file works great. Parking,

traffic flow, realistic runway arrival and departures. Not sure why it was removed? Maybe he will add it to the library here or put up

the dropbox link to it.

That same AFCAD is in the library here

 

Look for kiah_aip_fsdt.zip.