I was a bit disappointed to see no apparant change to the trees and water

 

Me too

 

 

I'd be surprised if weather wasn't an intense focus in the 11.x cycle.

 

I really hope you're right...

 

 

However, we are striving to simulate the "real world" here, and this includes realistic and intricate weather - portrayed in a realist and pleasing way

 

Spot on.

 

From a GA IFR Pilot perspective, a more complete and accurate weather rendition would be immensely useful as it's a very different type of IFR flying vs commercial.  Lower altitudes - Much more between layers and peek and pop around weather - much more weather period actually.

 

All I know is that XPX has been quite insufficient for me in attempting to recreate a past IFR flight or anticipate an upcoming IFR flight, specifically as it relates to "what I see out the window" when flying the actual flights.

That's the area I'd really like to see improvement in.

 

If you just want a complete layer at a decision height for approaches or total IMC in random spots...

Yeah...XPX can do that, but that is basically never what actually happens for me on GA IFR flights, especially around the Pac NW USA.

From the screenshots here - http://en.shop.aeros...anguage=english I was a bit disappointed to see no apparant change to the trees and water. I know they are not major points but given most of the planet is covered by both water and then trees, this would add greatly to the immersion factor (as well as of course weather improvements). I am very grateful for the other changes coming though and hopefully we will see these other things improved in future updates. I just would rather not have to pay for 3rd party add-ons for such basics in a 2016 release in order to have these 'basics'.

 

 

I agree, these trees and general vegetation like brushes that we have now simply kill immersion, could be the lighting creating awful 90 degrees shadow, could be the low res or how they blend with the background scenary, but trees are simply way subpar with other sims. Especially at close range they should look way better.

FSX billboards are much more convincing, even the default one. Since they spent words on weather, water to be revised during XP11 life span I hope they can add vegetation as well.

ANyone know if we can pre-order the DVDs like last time or will it be digital only on release?

ANyone know if we can pre-order the DVDs like last time or will it be digital only on release?

 

I think they may release DD first and DVD's later but hard to say.

 

Lol now simmers you don't like the trees ? I think they look real nice even if they are 2d , the water in my opinion looks very good.

ANyone know if we can pre-order the DVDs like last time or will it be digital only on release?

I'm pretty sure you can through Aerosoft, they are offering 15% off on pre-orders. It looks like it will be released December 1st.

I don't think the trees are that bad and the billboard approach is a good method of getting forests working without killing performance. If you are close enough to actually see how blocky the trees are then you might want to climb up a bit :-). I think the water could be improved though, especially the coastlines.

What is this billboard approach ?

 

One try waltlua for water

I would like to point out something that has been mostly missed out in the discussion so far.

 

It's understandable some disappointment in the X-Plane community for the lack of improvements to weather and seasons, but I think there's something else worth noting.

 

Differently from every previous major release, this time a lot of focus and resources seem to have gone into improving the experience of first-time users. Let's think about it:

 

.) GUI rewritten from scratch and made user friendly

.) all default aircrafts are of high visual quality both externally and internally

.) tutorials added (flight school)

.) all virtual cockpits are usable and IFR ready

 

This is something that X-Plane always lacked, and one of the reasons why it always remained niche, even during the V10 run. This time, the impression is that their number one focus was to have a more polished and user friendly product, especially for new users. In other words, having that kind of product quality that X-Plane always lacked compared to... pretty much every other flight simulator on the market.

 

I think this is a VERY good thing. At the risk of overstating the matter, in the medium-long term this could even be more important than if they "just" improved weather and seasons but left all the rest as it has always been (poor GUI, poor default aircrafts, etc.).

 

The impression is that this time they're really aiming to be a prime actor in the flight simulator market, and this of course means more users, more addons, more resources for further development...

I would like to point out something that has been mostly missed out in the discussion so far.

 

It's understandable some disappointment in the X-Plane community for the lack of improvements to weather and seasons, but I think there's something else worth noting.

 

Differently from every previous major release, this time a lot of focus and resources seem to have gone into improving the experience of first-time users. Let's think about it:

 

.) GUI rewritten from scratch and made user friendly

.) all default aircrafts are of high visual quality both externally and internally

.) tutorials added (flight school)

.) all virtual cockpits are usable and IFR ready

 

This is something that X-Plane always lacked, and one of the reasons why it always remained niche, even during the V10 run. This time, the impression is that their number one focus was to have a more polished and user friendly product, especially for new users. In other words, having that kind of product quality that X-Plane always lacked compared to... pretty much every other flight simulator on the market.

 

I think this is a VERY good thing. At the risk of overstating the matter, in the medium-long term this could even be more important than if they "just" improved weather and seasons but left all the rest as it has always been (poor GUI, poor default aircrafts, etc.).

 

The impression is that this time they're really aiming to be a prime actor in the flight simulator market, and this of course means more users, more addons, more resources for further development...

 

Good point!

I also hope that Laminar updates the trees! 

 

 

I know there are many who see eye candy as completely irrelevant to a flight sim but I am not one of them.

 

Well, since a lot if not most of the major changes have to do with eye candy I don't think you are alone in this. Eye candy is a LOT more important than most people like to say... I never (fully) believe all those I-don't-care-about-eye-candy 'die hard' simmers.

I don't think the trees are that bad and the billboard approach is a good method of getting forests working without killing performance. If you are close enough to actually see how blocky the trees are then you might want to climb up a bit :-). I think the water could be improved though, especially the coastlines.

 

Agreed on both trees and coastlines. The trees don't bother me too much, because I understand the performance trade-offs. It's only really immersion-killing in some areas that should have very dense, continuous forest canopies like the Amazon basin. I've flown over many Tropical forests like that at low level in real life (years ago) and it really does look like a solid sea of green. There are conifer forests almost that dense and interlocked in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and similar areas. But mostly it's okay. I can suspend disbelief better for sparse 2D trees than I can for the weather.

 

The coastlines -- those ugly brown lines at every water/land interface -- really need improvement. They shouldn't be there at all in many areas, like up here in the Pacific Northwest where there is deep water at the interface in most areas. That doesn't appear to be something that would be difficult to tweak so it looks better. Or else give us a user setting for how much "tan beach" we want outlining everything. 

 

I would also love to see the kind of bright turquoise water you'd expect in the shallows in areas like the Florida Keys, Caribbean, South Pacific. But that sounds like a more complex project to generate as autogen with bathymetric data on water depth, clarity, bottom color, and so on. I can wait for that, but it would be nice to get better coastlines.

I would like to point out something that has been mostly missed out in the discussion so far.

 

It's understandable some disappointment in the X-Plane community for the lack of improvements to weather and seasons, but I think there's something else worth noting.

 

Differently from every previous major release, this time a lot of focus and resources seem to have gone into improving the experience of first-time users. Let's think about it:

 

.) GUI rewritten from scratch and made user friendly

.) all default aircrafts are of high visual quality both externally and internally

.) tutorials added (flight school)

.) all virtual cockpits are usable and IFR ready

 

This is something that X-Plane always lacked, and one of the reasons why it always remained niche, even during the V10 run. This time, the impression is that their number one focus was to have a more polished and user friendly product, especially for new users. In other words, having that kind of product quality that X-Plane always lacked compared to... pretty much every other flight simulator on the market.

 

I think this is a VERY good thing. At the risk of overstating the matter, in the medium-long term this could even be more important than if they "just" improved weather and seasons but left all the rest as it has always been (poor GUI, poor default aircrafts, etc.).

 

The impression is that this time they're really aiming to be a prime actor in the flight simulator market, and this of course means more users, more addons, more resources for further development...

 

:Applause: 

Well, since a lot if not most of the major changes have to do with eye candy I don't think you are alone in this. Eye candy is a LOT more important than most people like to say... I never (fully) believe all those I-don't-care-about-eye-candy 'die hard' simmers.

 

Sorry, but people should start to understand that all the things discussed here about "this and that is missing or not looking good" is a matter of PERSONAL preference. I don't give a dang about trees because when I use a simulator it's all about complex aircraft and trying to understand and master complex systems and procedures. I only look out of the window on approach and landing. But I also understand that others like to use the sim for flying around and trying to find their house in the scenery. Not me. But to each his own...

Sorry, but people should start to understand that all the things discussed here about "this and that is missing or not looking good" is a matter of PERSONAL preference. I don't give a dang about trees because when I use a simulator it's all about complex aircraft and trying to understand and master complex systems and procedures. I only look out of the window on approach and landing. But I also understand that others like to use the sim for flying around and trying to find their house in the scenery. Not me. But to each his own...

I wasn't only talking about scenery. I am sure (but correct me if I am wrong) you like to see realistic lighting in the cockpit, reflections on gauges, a 3D overhead, etc, all those kind of things that give you the idea you are actually there. Or wouldn't you mind it if the cockpit was 2D with all flat Windows 98 like pop ups all over the place?

 

Obviously things like this are personal and I understand you don't mind the trees looking bad or not but in the end I do think everyone loves 'eye candy' for some reason or another.