Flightsimcon 2016...any news on Austin Meyer's speech?

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

and so P3D default clouds do rotate and spin unrealistically?

No. Maybe back in P3d 2 they did, but that's ancient history. In fact P3d V3 has two modes which govern how the clouds look when facing the viewpoint.

[CarlosF 1,239]

No. Maybe back in P3d 2 they did, but that's ancient history. In fact P3d V3 has two modes which govern how the clouds look when facing the viewpoint.

 

don't have P3D and aren't planning on having it (too many good stuff coming for XP)  but its good to know they have fixed it. 

[mtaxp 666]

Physics Based Rendering is cool but only half the way to real Environment Reflections?

LR should support steamVR. In fact I only wait for them to buy a HTC Vive.

 

 

As I understood from the video... it's not a "half way to real Environemtn Reflections" , it's the hall package.

It gets wayyy beyond what FSX/P3D has to offer in this term.

Although they look great at some situations , FSX/P3D lightning and reflections looks too cartoony at many other situations.

 

Although the screen shots aren't shown at their best quality through the video camera , I can't emphasize how stunned Im by PBR and it behaves EXCATLY how it should in real life , in different time and weather conditions.

2 Of the 737 pictures were on a sunny day , colors are no longer washed-out , it looks like a true sunny day.

Then comes those amazing sunset pictures , not too dark anymore , with colors and reflections are perfect.

The cessna pictures are on a gray cloudy day , and again , it looks awesome , not too dark and washed-out colors.

Evrything looks just..as my eyes expect it to be in real life

 

Graphics-wise , XP with PBR will easily outrun FSX/P3D/DTGFS or any other simulator...

Finally a simulator that looks like modern games!

 

I hope the pictures they showcased will be released to public in full quality.

[Jimmy RFR 406]

Unfortunately, you should not get your hopes up for 10.50; HOWEVER, I am moonlighting for Laminar once again on the scenery library.  I did the original and have now been asked to "add some more" (Not like I didn't know it needed it)...so I am taking note of what folks have been asking for, and T-hangars are indeed on the list (have a picture of something you'd like?).  I can't say what will make it into 10.50 as I haven't been involved until just recently, but I don't think there is anything new as I don't see anything new in the developer files.  It is possible though that the default library could be updated well before V11.  We'll see once I get rolling.

 

-tkyler

 

Well, my hopes weren't super high.  :wink: 

 

Great to hear you're working on it though. I mainly like recreating smaller airports and one of the bigger problems I have in trying to be exact is the size of the small hangers. Many small, old strips here have a combination of old plywood T hangers for which the default small hangers look out of place for, and then new metal hangers, which are on average about twice the size of the small defaults and nowhere close to the default medium hangers.

 

One thing that could help significantly, is a new hanger facade with wide doors & low height (in a few colors). Even though it'd have a flat roof, that would let many orthophotos be matched quite closely and would replace the need of having many different sized .obj's.

 

But.... I also have many, many other obj requests too. I won't overwhelm on this thread, but if you care to have a list, just pm me!

 

(On a side note:  I'm sure many people who might read the above are thinking "Gah, there's more important things for LR to be working on than airport objects".  Well, I am fully behind the Gateway airports for a reason. I do realize that I could crate and release scenery on the .org, using third party libraries that would bring me much closer to matching downloaded orthoimagery. However, I personally feel that X-Plane as a whole is much, much stronger when it ships by default with 3D airports. And more assets to build the Gateway airports with means more people building airports. This benefits everyone - from the newcomer firing up the sim for the first time, to users that don't want to bother downloading individual small airports and keeping track of libraries. Personally, I want to be able to fire up XP that includes, by default, closely matched 3D scenery for my entire home region. And one day, it will get there. :smile: )

[tkyler 88]

Well Jim, your thoughts are duly noted and will be incorporated as I am 100% in agreement with you.  I will say that when I did the first iteration, my boundaries were quite a bit tighter with regards to allowable texture space...and while I don't have an unlimited texture size budget, I do have a bit more freedom.  In addition, new features being developed for V11 will allow me some new design techniques that should allow for quite a number of variations of things to be implemented...quite exciting IMO.  I'll see what I can do about those hangars.

 

-tkyler

[greggerm 312]

 

 

I am moonlighting for Laminar once again on the scenery library. I did the original and have now been asked to "add some more" (Not like I didn't know it needed it)...so I am taking note of what folks have been asking for...

 

I've been out of the X-Plane game for a long time now, but when I was working on some of the original library airports, I found the stock library lacking in the hangar department. I felt the need for more hangars without any ancillary objects associated with them (like driveways, barrels, grassy areas, etc.) - those addon elements made recreating a more corporate feel difficult. I also felt the need to have more colors available to choose from.

 

Although not specifically library related, the airport terminal facades and hangar facades needed some love as well - especially on the hangar side. I don't think the hangar facades respected the height parameters, and they were simply far too large for use at smaller airports - and even some big airports, too.

 

Just some latent thoughts from several years in the queue...

[Paraffin 2,197]

Austin just needs to create a couple more of weather datarefs and, above all, create better, broader hooks for 3pds to create their own weather injectors.

 

I think it needs more than that, to get what some of us are looking for.

 

Realistic discrete, towering CB's with internal wind and temperature dynamics are the test case, because they point out the limitations in the current system. Right now, all we have is a primitive system of 3 horizontal layers for winds and clouds. I don't know how SkyMaxx Pro 3 and the Weather Connector get around this to show discrete weather formations, but whatever it's doing is mainly a visual effect without the shifting direction of upflow and downflow, and drastic temperature changes within the cloud formation. Get all the dynamics within a towering CB right, and we'll have far more realistic weather for all the other weather hazards that affect aviation like icing, wind shear, and all the rest.

 

I'm all for providing hooks for 3rd parties to improve the default sim, but I think X-Plane probably needs a fundamental re-write of the way weather is handled, starting with the elimination of that simplistic 3-layer horizontal model. If it's not done for v11, then we're going to have to wait a very long time for any major improvement. So I hope it's a priority.

[jcomm 5,917]

Parafin, from NOAA Plugin's site:

 

Features:
- Own METAR interpretation engine.
- 8 Layers of Wind data with 0.5x0.5 degree resolution.
- 8 Layers of Turbulence data.
- Selectable METAR source: NOAA, IVAO, VATSIM
- SuperSmoothness™: Interpolation between layers and smooth transitions between data updates.
- Performance tweaks: max visibility limit, max cloud height.

 

Not sure about temperature because I do not have the plugin installed ( all my weather is injected in X-Plane 10 by Aerowinx PSX )

[Longranger 148]

 

 

I'm all for providing hooks for 3rd parties to improve the default sim, but I think X-Plane probably needs a fundamental re-write of the way weather is handled, starting with the elimination of that simplistic 3-layer horizontal model. If it's not done for v11, then we're going to have to wait a very long time for any major improvement.

Well, I would think that the 3 cloud layer limit will probably go, but I don´t really expect any major moves in this depatment. You need a totally different background to solve some of these problems.

I think some  additional opening for 3rd parties are much more reasonable. In fact I think the Real Weather Connector might play a major role in this department. They can already connect with FSGRW. And they have someone with the necessary background. I think in the next version of the Real Weather Connector it will move more and more in the direction of free interpretations of the METAR data. At the moment they still watch a bit to closely on the informations that METAR writes.

 

Since OLaminar currently break their whole rendering engine, they will have to rewrite parts of their cloud system anyway. But I don´t really expect anything totally major in this department. There are too many other open subjects where their help is needed.

[finkelstein 25]

Yea, I have a multi-year history working for Laminar.  I did the initial mobile scenery way back when, some of the mobile aicraft, and for XP V10, I did the Beech Baron, King Air (but both have been improved for v10.50 by Jim Gregory)...the F22, F4 Phantom and airport scenery library.....most of the while working on the 737. About two years ago, I had some other opportunities that I felt necessary to take for the sake of my familiy and did so....but have since finished those endeavors and quite looking forward to working with Laminar again to improve the sim.

 

-tkyler

 

Tom,

 

I recently took the F4 Phantom on a spin when testing some scenery and realized how great of a model it (still) is. Good job! Probably helps that I really like the Phantom too

[sizziano 172]

Parafin, from NOAA Plugin's site:

 

Features:

- Own METAR interpretation engine.

- 8 Layers of Wind data with 0.5x0.5 degree resolution.

- 8 Layers of Turbulence data.

- Selectable METAR source: NOAA, IVAO, VATSIM

- SuperSmoothness™: Interpolation between layers and smooth transitions between data updates.

- Performance tweaks: max visibility limit, max cloud height.

 

Not sure about temperature because I do not have the plugin installed ( all my weather is injected in X-Plane 10 by Aerowinx PSX )

 

Temperature scales smoothly with altitude.

[Paraffin 2,197]

Temperature scales smoothly with altitude.

 

Right, which is not what happens inside a thunderstorm, or crossing an inversion layer.

[sizziano 172]

Right, which is not what happens inside a thunderstorm, or crossing an inversion layer.

 

Sure but I would be surprised to see any of that as a default feature in the sim for a while? Also I'm not sure about how NOAA deals with inversion layers, I assume it simulates it since it just goes off reported temperatures by altitude. How are these issues dealt with in FSX and P3D?

[strider1 575]

Here a nice preview of Aerosoft EGLL in 10.50 !

 

[NZ255 309]

I'm not a graphics expert, is PBR just relying on Specular Maps?

If so FSX has had this from the start, although I'd say most scenery developers don't use it as it'll increase VAS having a spec map for each texture (and be more work)

 

Edit: watched the video a bit more, looks like it might work in conjunction with a speculator map, but perhaps not to the same level as p3d. Things like the reflection based on incident angle are possible in fsx with the right material settings and a fresnal ramp.

Will be interesting to see it side by side with p3dv3