Hi Allcott,I understand where you are coming from. However, it seems to me that when a quality product, which clearly involved considerable time and effort to create, is offered to our community for what amounts to being a token sum we have very little reason or justification for criticizing, complaining or, indeed, applying unwelcome pressure on the developers to "get their finger out" to finish the project. I am certain that such authors are all too aware of the time constraints and may or may not decide to carry on.All I am saying is that in the case of the BEV textures I do hope that the developers will continue until we have a complete set available for FS9. It matters not one jot that FSX, with all that it appears to be promising, is on the still distant horizon. I am enjoying FS9 now and wish to continue enhancing and adding on over the coming months ahead. After all, for many of us, that's partly what this hobby is all about and what gives us so much pleasure.Cheers,Mike

>complete all seasons for all areas quick or else risk losing>the market to competitors -and time. Market/time will tell whether they loose to competitors or not. If I were you I would not worry about them. Some of us customers prefer higher quality products that require more effort and time to complete. Frankly - I know of one upcoming competitor to BEV but I haven't seen anything yet that compares with BEV quality. You may be one of those who favors speed - fine, but that's just a segment of this market.Michael J.http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/pmdg_744F.jpghttp://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6-banner-beta.jpg

Sure thing, Mike. I will be taking the shots around KPUB. I'll try to get some shots later tonight or tomorrow (after Battlestar Galactica is over) :-)

I own both releases, love them, and rave about them at any opportunity. My intention at the moment is to buy any new releases the day they are out, even if this means they eventually become obsolete by FSX (which is far from clear at the moment)--UNLESS they are out of season as the first two releases were. I dislike flying by setting back the date and time. And this is the only way to enjoy the textures. I am trying to teach myself real world weather decision making and flight planning and real time weather is important to me. Since the BEV textures were released I have been using AS6 archives to fly one season behind in order to enjoy them (summer in the fall and now fall in winter). But my patience for this ran out recently and I began flying in real time again--forsaking the BEV textures altogether. If, as it appears now, I won't be able to fly in real time and use the BEV textures until I "catch up" to last summers textures, I suppose I will have to reconsider purchasing future releases in light of the FSX sadly. I really want to see the developer make it, so I hope we hear soon that ground has been gained in releasing both winters.

>>complete all seasons for all areas quick or else risk>losing>>the market to competitors -and time. >>Market/time will tell whether they loose to competitors or>not. If I were you I would not worry about them. Some of us>customers prefer higher quality products that require more>effort and time to complete. Frankly - I know of one upcoming>competitor to BEV but I haven't seen anything yet that>compares with BEV quality. You may be one of those who favors>speed - fine, but that's just a segment of this market.>>Michael J.Why are you trying to turn this into a `quality` issue and lord your own superiority, because you choose `quality`? It isn't, never was, a quality issue. I think that's made perfectly clear.It's a delivery timescale issue. The FSX announcment has shifted the emphasis. FSX screenshots show what is expected (and at this early stage, those shots are the bare minimum we can look forward to in FSX). And if BEV can't deliver the quality in the timescale, then they clearly do have a problem - look at the other posts from other customers (whose opinions are just as valid as yours) and read what we are all saying, not what you THINK we're saying. The impending arrival of another texture competitor in the FS9 market is also likely to impact significantly, because their delivery ethos is different. Not necessarily `better` or `worse` , just different. And may prove to be in better tune with the timescale. That's what we're saying, not that BEV is not good enough. There is already one extra factor, soon to be another. BEV can only fix this by ramping up their release schedules. If they can't or won't it might be better to save the blood sweat and tears because in a commercial environment, it only makes sense to do it if you get paid.Allcott

I agree about the issue being the delivery of the product. I do own the first two, and have until now looked forward to the rest. I just read the thread on the BEV forum. To me, there is a huge problem on the horizon (may be why the question was asked about continuing). Let's say Stephen finishes Winter and Hard Winter. Well, the faithful have now purchased four volumes, meaning the Spring texture set is a freebee for a LARGE share of BEV's client base. And, it is even less likely there would new clients coming on board with FSX even closer. So even if Spring is out before the start of the season, there is minimal cash flow. Next, based on the speed of development, work begins on FSX (unlikely that another FS9 set such as Europe could or would be done in the remaining time). If USA-FSX textures are done, again, a freebee for existing clients, again minimal cash flow. Don't do USA and do say, Europe. That may work, but there is probably a somewhat reduced market for that, and, I would imagine that a large portion of existing clients would be clamoring for their FREE USA upgrade.Not a rosey picture.Joe Lorenc

Allcott has the issue bang on. Time is of the essense in the near run. Over the long haul I think only time will tell :-) It is too early to tell whether and how MS textures will compete with BEV and what the upgrade slope will be. Sometimes, too, these things turn out to be windows of opportunities for nimble groups like BEV (anyone else remember the predicted demise of weather and ATC adds on at the hands of FS9?). BEV has shown that 1. It thinks outside the box, and 2. It is responsive to user feedback. MS is not known for either of these. Thus, my money (and good wishes) is still on BEV and they will get my money as long as they release textures "in season" without compromising their fabulous quality (see my other post). It is a shame that they lost a lot of time screwing around trying to remove .net from the config system in response to a few outspoken and panicked folks.

I'd go for BEV in a heartbeat, but, as said it has been said before, they have to ramp up the release schedule, because we're already in the middle of winter and no sign of the Winter textures. By the time the spring textures will be released all of the BEV textures will most likely have a lifespan of less than a year, because of the release of FSX.Pat

>Why are you trying to turn this into a `quality` issue and>lord your own superiority, because you choose `quality`? It>isn't, never was, a quality issue. I think that's made>perfectly clear.For you it is not. For me it is. As it happens very often in this world better things require more time to develop. You may not care about it but I do, so stop applying your point of view to mine. Michael J.http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/pmdg_744F.jpghttp://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6-banner-beta.jpg

>BEV's slow release schedule suggests a certain disregard for>professional business practices: it's winter now, where are>the winter textures? I have no idea why BEV can't get its act>together. As another poster said, FS Scene is at world>coverage, Ground Environment is around the corner, plus a>sizeable portion of simmers are going to move to FSX as soon>as it comes out...if I were BEV's CEO, I'd be pushing some>serious extra shifts in the office. >>ricardoI'll say this: quality takes time.To do seasons you pretty much have to have summer textures done first. Seasons take *less* time than summer (being based on the latter), but introduce a whole load of new issues that must be dealt with.There's a reason only a few hardy souls have tackled generic terrain texture replacements.Cheers,Jason "I did the default terrain textures for CFS 1, FS 2000, 80% of CFS 2, 80% of FS 2002, 75% of FS 2004, and about 80% of FSX" Waskey

I have the summer textures and they look great, but I've held off on buying the other seasons because I also generally fly based on the real date and nearly all of Canada (where I do pretty much all of my FS flying) was well into winter when the fall textures were out. I don't believe that makes it unprofessional on the developers part though. There is only so much time in a day though, and I'm sure he has other responsibilities that come first (work, family, health etc.) One thing to keep in mind that BEV intends to release the textures in a FS2006 compatible format if at all possible as a free upgrade for owners of the current textures.

For all those reasons, I am always hesitant to buy from a non-professional/semi-professional flightsim addon developer. Who knows whether that outfit is actually going to be around in a year? In the case of BEV, one of their developers jumped ship immediately, releasing his part of the package as freeware. That's not a good sign. I prefer to stick with developers/publishers like Flight1, Aerosoft, etc. ricardo

? Who jumped ship and what happened? Just curious.

K well I did a screenshot session with and without and there is a difference, though very slight. Fall around Pueblo is bland anyway, so that I guess is why I did not notice. Summer, though, makes for a HUGE difference :-)Chris>Hi Christopher,>>"The fall ones look no different in Colorado than the default>(I may be doing something wrong there).">>...can you post a screen capture with the coordinates>displayed and I will have a look and compare with what I am>seeing? >>Cheers,>Mike>

The one who contributed the improved autogen buildings.ricardo