good info. 2 questions for someone like you who has been hands on.#1 - did they fix overcast so that it actually acts and looks like overcast? (hard deck with no holes)#2 - do multiple cloud layers still tank the fps like in fs2004? I'm hoping that the dx9/dx10 improve the performance with a lot of clouds... somehow.Thanks!

>good info. 2 questions for someone like you who has been>hands on.>>#1 - did they fix overcast so that it actually acts and looks>like overcast? (hard deck with no holes)>>#2 - do multiple cloud layers still tank the fps like in>fs2004? I'm hoping that the dx9/dx10 improve the performance>with a lot of clouds... somehow.>>Thanks!#1: I'll have to check it out later today.#2: Beta 2 is not the build to try this on. It's best to wait till MS has optomized the code before assessing these type performance issues.DougDell XPS Gen3 (3.6GHz/800FSB) | 2GB DDR SDRAM | 74GB SATA, 10k RPM (C: ) | 120GB SATA (D: ) | 256MB ATI Radeon X800 XT (Catalyst 5.13) | Audigy 2 ZS Sound | MS Force Feedback 2 | WindowsXP Pro (SP2) | DirectX 9.0c

>Yes, that is within the holiday of 2006 timeline. By October>all the Christmas displays will be up in full force!>>Hope this helps,>Jim>Aren't the Christmas displays in the shops by the end of August! :-lol

What kind of hardware are they using (specs) at Oshkosh to run FSX?RH

FSX was running on 3.4 GHz machines with 1 GB of RAM. I wasn'table to determine the display specs.I did try the "fogged in" weather setting and the first time when I busted through the topside the transition was instant and the layer was horrible and fake looking. But that was some type of bug because the second time I tried it the layer transition was smooth and looked fluffy from on top. It's still a bit transparent but not as "thin" as it appears in FS2004. I believe the new fog layer will be a big improvement over FS2004.Also, not sure if all the readers here already know but the copy protection scheme planned for FSX is online validation aka Windows XP. We will no longer need to keep a disk in the optical drive to run FSX.Well, we're done for this trip. FSX seemed to be a big hit in Hangar B and I expect it'll be a huge succes when it ships in late October.I'll post some pictures later this weekend after I get home.That's all from Oshkosh.DougDell XPS Gen3 (3.6GHz/800FSB) | 2GB DDR SDRAM | 74GB SATA, 10k RPM (C: ) | 120GB SATA (D: ) | 256MB ATI Radeon X800 XT (Catalyst 5.13) | Audigy 2 ZS Sound | MS Force Feedback 2 | WindowsXP Pro (SP2) | DirectX 9.0c

Sounds like overcast got some improvement. Looking forward to the pics. Thanks for the followup.

It has. Plus you can now have multiple visibility layers.

Thanks for the info. Do you know if the CPU was a dual core (Intel or AMD)? What kind of framerates were you seeing in various situations?RH

RH,Sorry, I didn't check frame rates since performance was an obvious issue with Beta 2. No sense checking FPS when I knew it would be a meaningless data point at this stage. I'm confident it'll be just fine when it ships.From what I remember being told the CPUs were dual core Intel. Maybe someone from MS can weigh-in and confirm. DougDell XPS Gen3 (3.6GHz/800FSB) | 2GB DDR SDRAM | 74GB SATA, 10k RPM (C: ) | 120GB SATA (D: ) | 256MB ATI Radeon X800 XT (Catalyst 6.5) | Audigy 2 ZS Sound | MS Force Feedback 2 | WindowsXP Pro (SP2) | DirectX 9.0c

I'm pretty sure they were dual core (what isn't these days) and the logos on the booth should give a clue as to the maker. ;)

July 31, 2006 - 11:15AMThe propeller of a World War II-era warplane sliced into another plane on a runway at an airshow in the US, killing a passenger.The victim, a passenger in a home-built plane, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident at Wittman Regional Airport in the US state of Wisconsin.The pilot was not hurt, said Tom Poberezny, president of the Experimental Aircraft Association, which puts on the annual AirVenture show.Neither of the two people in the World War II-era Grumman TBM Avenger were injured, Poberezny said.The planes were preparing for departure when the Avenger struck the back of the other plane, association spokesman Dick Knapinski said.The fatality was the airport's third since people began arriving for AirVenture. A couple died July 23 when their Europa XS home-built plane crashed on approach.Billed as the world's largest gathering of recreational aviators, AirVenture, a fly-in and convention of the aircraft association, attracts more than 10,000 aircraft and nearly 250,000 aviation enthusiasts from around the world.

Hi Doug,Thanks for the mention - it was great to meet you and I'm glad that you liked what you saw so far of FSX. Back to work... ;)Owen