>Who really cares what the milky way looks like?. Just be>happy that they included it in the first place. Well the team have presented the night sky as a very important part of navigation with FSX so, aligning this bmp to it's correct location is not asking too much. I figure if you are going to place it in the sky at least put it where it belongs................Randy J. Smith................CAUTION! My views represent no one but my own. While I do help companies test products - this in no way means I represent them in ANY fashion.[h4]Evolution is a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations[/h4]

>>> I'm sure it will be fixed by a freeware author <<

>with the only recourse being to remove it this will suit me just fine ;)Michael J.

Hi 'Truthan':If you check in the AVSIM MSFS Scenery Forum there is mention of an updated Martin Wright graphics utility and associated current version of his mwgfx.dll at: http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...32140&mode=fullPerhaps these might be a worthwhile avenue of inquiry for viewing and/or editing?Also, I was curious in passing, if you might be "Ed" Truthan who did the revolutionary "Environmental Water Effects Library" for FS2002 and FS2004, and if so, what you think of the "Living Water" from the FSX demo?GaryGB

Could I pose a question that's only related in a minor way?Why do people refer to that as the Milky Way, when to my knowledge we are IN the Milky Way ourselves?

>Could I pose a question that's only related in a minor way?>>Why do people refer to that as the Milky Way, when to my>knowledge we are IN the Milky Way ourselves?It is the Milky Way, and we are in it. In fact most of the objects visible to the unaided eye at night are part of it too. The part they are referring to is our view of the rest of the "disk" that makes up the Milky Way, heading towards the center. It appears as a just streak across our sky.It's the same as being in a car. We may be in the car, but we can still see the car.

>Could I pose a question that's only related in a minor way?>>Why do people refer to that as the Milky Way, when to my>knowledge we are IN the Milky Way ourselves?Simple, it is because we are so very far from the center region about 26,000 LYs distant (roughly 156,000,000,000,000,000 miles!) on an arm of the Milky Way. From our vantage point we can certainly see the Milky Way stretch across our night sky (albiet the very center is blocked by gas, dust etc.) ...............Randy J. Smith................CAUTION! My views represent no one but my own. While I do help companies test products - this in no way means I represent them in ANY fashion.[h4]Evolution is a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations[/h4]

>We may be in the car, but we>can still see the car.:-xxrotflmao

Hi Gary, Thanks for the post. I have used Martin Wright's DXTBmp and other graphics apps extensively for BMP editing for years. Couldn't have done without them. The issue of the Milky Way PLACEMENT however is not so much a "graphics" problem as it is the BGL that sets it's placement in the sky. There's the rub.And, though off-topic fot this thread, yes, I did author "OceansTX" and "OceansFX" in 2002 and thanks to Johann DeVries who created the "OceanFX" front loaded we had the FX animations in FS8 and FS9. The "OceansFX" animation sets have been retained in FSX it seems, but only on the 1.x settings. Mr. DeVries loader will likely not work though unless it's updated for FSX. You can copy the currently loaded FS9 sets to FSX and they work fine.HOWEVER...the new "2.x" surface effects are much superior in terms of the reflective attributes both at the water surface and from altitude, so it effectively renders the old "OceansFX" animations rather obsolete. There are some observations and concerns I have about the new effects though... which I'm preparing an expanded post about. Hope that answers your questions.

Anyone notice that when someone brings up a crediable problem such as this, it never gets answered by anyone from ACES? They seem to only respond to stuff when someone posts something like, "I am sure it is something to do with your computer". Mike will respond with "yep" and the wink smiley face. I find it very amusing.

Thanks Ed.With your continued input, we'll probably get even better water effects in the future! :-)And here's hoping that the Aces FSX team is still monitoring the forums to pick up on this important fix, as there are many in this FS community who still want things "as real as it gets" for visual enjoyment, and because there are some who may still dabble in aeronautic navigation 'by the stars' as it was done not so long ago.Also, one can almost see the beginnings of FS useability as a virtual world for sailing vessels, and some "FS sailing" enthusiasts may wish to enjoy celestial navigation now that FS is geocorrected and fully mapped out to the poles. I wonder if someone has created a "virtual sextant" utility yet?:-lolGaryGB

>I wonder>if someone has created a "virtual sextant" utility yet?:-lolYes, it was released over a year ago...dc3_bbsx.zip 6th December 2004File Description:As travel by air developed and matured, navigation over long distances also developed and improved. In the early days, however, air navigation essentially used ship navigation techniques adapted for aircraft. Without "landmarks", the navigators used Ded Reckoning (DR) and the stars. Celestial or Astronomical Navigation provides a means of obtaining Lines of Position (LOPs) from the stars. Crossing LOPs will fix a position. It requires a chart, and a planned course on that chart, with waypoints specified by Latitude and Longitude, an assumed time of arrival at each waypoint, and stars (including the Sun, Moon, or planets) in view. In the 1940s, extensive tables of star positions were made available to air navigators to be used with sextants to obtain these LOPs. In the tables, all times involved are GMT. This data is available from the Internet in "ready to use" form. This gauge simulates the sextant, and the process by which one obtains a LOP, or crossing LOPs to obtain a position, or fix. Can be used with any FS2004 aircraft. Includes comprehensive browser-based manual and references.

The bug has been noted but I can't guarantee it will be fixed.

>The bug has been noted but I can't guarantee it will be>fixed.Thanks!. Also please do not "hardcode" the Milky Way into the SKY so it can be easily yanked out.Michael J.

Thanks for the reply Mike. I assumed with the thread length you guys had noticed, but it's nice to know anyway. I think I speak for most simmer's out here when I say regardless of the "perfection" of the release we're all very appreciative of your hard work and innovation. Thanks again.