April 2020 update: P3D5, XP11.50, Forum

[RXP 2,338]

Hi,

First, I do hope you're all doing well and are safe from the virus.

I'm confined at home like most of you and we're all affected with this situation because RXP operations are definitely not running at their usual 100%. We've the chance to be able to work anywhere as long as we have a computer and internet (while at it, preferably on a shinny and sandy beach my wife would say). But we're not used having a whole family around 24/7 especially during work time...

On top of that, our main production computers (2) just failed a couple days apart. We are restoring new systems, nothing is lost, but this sudden and unexpected event took the best of my time and support capabilities for a week. It is much more difficult to get things done when dealing with computer hardware issues nowadays. Hopefully our operations are getting back steadily.

As for simulation, the recent announcement and short time release of P3D5 is taking a lot of you, and us, a little bit by surprise. We didn't expect it this soon neither.

Before you ask: we haven't been participating the P3D5 beta and we'll discover the new simulator and its SDK when it is released. It is too soon to comment for now but I'll make sure to keep everyone posted as soon as we have anything new to share!

However, we've been involved with XP11.50 beta and our products were running fine in Vulkan mode with the latest private build just before public beta release. We havent had the chance to try the new ones (see above) but we'll do ASAP.

I hope you will all pass through the current situation and will enjoy flying with us for a long time!

[christb 27]

Thank you for the heads up and the well wishes.

Hope working through your present difficulties is not too challenging.

Stay safe and stay well.

 

[gregmorin 199]

Thanks for the update Jean-Luc

Greg

 

[por930 51]

@Jean-LucHi Jean-Luc, Sorry to hear about your 2 main production machines both going off line within a few days. By the sounds of it, you had adequate back ups of data and your time spend rebuilding. Though, usually, there is a bright side to rebuilds, you get a chance to clean up and re-organise folders etc. and improve layouts.

And, yes, like most people, we are confined at home and restricting our food gathering to once per week, and walking the dog every night for our exercise. I never knew there were so many dogs in my neighbourhood., as many people now walk at night with their hounds.

Eventually, with social distancing, and hand washing etc, we will come through it ..Got to...waiting for FS2020. I will give P3D5 a miss, until I see what FS2020 is like.

[RXP 2,338]

Hi,

I'm officially announcing we're offering: Free update to Prepar3D v5* !

We're working to get the release online by tomorrow, but this may be delayed a little more because we're also finalizing the implementation of a modern e-commerce solution for our products and there are a couple things we'd like to test hard prior releasing.

*for all customers of the Reality XP GTN 750/650 Touch (FltSim) and Reality XP GNS 530/430 V2 (FltSim).

[RXP 2,338]

@por930 This is the first time not only a computer, but two, are failing on us so abruptly. 

We do have backups but the challenges have been:

1. While at it, shop specs to 'level up' the computer systems we are replacing.
2. Get the computers in a short time (not easy because you can't just enter a shop, they're closed).
3. During the interim, try repurposing other computers to give a hand.
4. While at it, revisit the file/folders/processes organization on these systems (you can spend quite a lot of time on this because you don't want to mess things up).
5. Add a grain of a certain number of different simulator beta (number omitted to comply with NDAs) taking a certain amount of time.
6. Add a teenager disturbing you when he is gaming and talking with his friends...

Note: maybe the easiest was #3 at least for emails and business because I'm working on macOs for these, and if there is at least 1 thing they're doing really well is the capability to boot a Mac from an external full HD backup. This allows booting your failed system backup disk on a new Mac as-is, as if you're on the failed system. No installation, no challenges, it just works (just slower because well, on external hard drive...). Of course, with everybody home, it was harder to borrow a Mac for a few days.

Edited April 16, 2020 by RXP

[por930 51]

@Jean-Luc Did you determine what caused both of your computers to fail? Were they in rigged in a series routine, they both shared the load, or were they independent and 'one of those things' as both quite old and maybe using spinning drive. With many people at home now, I wonder if you got some sort of voltage spike due to power usage being compromised? Certainly brings it home, especially for developers like your self,  that regular backups to an off system/ offsite medium are essential.

Agree, that the timing was terrible for you. All well and good...just replace them etc...but these days, finding a store that is open, with stock and staff to rebuild or source components and configure and then transport..it goes on. It could have been worse, customer wise, some systems rely on a link between users and home base. 

Anyway, hope you manage to get things settled down with as little stress as possible in the current circumstances.

[RXP 2,338]

Actually I'm yet to determine the causes but at least on one of the computer, an iMac, I believe it is just accumulated dust causing thermal overload. Or it might be dried up thermal paste because this system was able to run 2 days straight after it powered off in an instant the first time. But thereafter it was running sometimes for 2hours, then 10 minutes, etc... After 7 years running nearly 24/7 it has been a good investment.

All systems are all on voltage regulated UPS, powerful enough to sustain the load. I can't work without an UPS anymore unless I'm on a notebook!

 

[Jack_Sawyer 4,600]

Hi Jean-Luc, will a version 5 announcement be made here?  Many thanks and I LOVE your GTN 750.

[RXP 2,338]

@Jack_Sawyer Hi, do you mean: have we release a P3D5 compatible version of the GTN and the GNS V2?

Absolutely YES since April 18...

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by RXP

[Jack_Sawyer 4,600]

9 minutes ago, RXP said:

@Jack_Sawyer Hi, do you mean: have we release a P3D5 compatible version of the GTN and the GNS V2?

Absolutely YES since April 18...

 

Fantastic, thanks!  I didn’t know, there’s so much hunting down of files and forums to go to that it’s difficult to keep track of.

[RXP 2,338]

If you enable "auto-update notifications" when you install a Reality XP product, you won't have to chase the info, it will come to you whenever there are new updates available!

[Jack_Sawyer 4,600]

21 minutes ago, RXP said:

If you enable "auto-update notifications" when you install a Reality XP product, you won't have to chase the info, it will come to you whenever there are new updates available!

Thanks 

[Real2Sim 3]

Hi Jean-Luc, any news on the G500-G500H-G600 Series ?

[RXP 2,338]

@Real2Sim Hi, it is long overdue and I admit there are so many simulator beta versions we're involved with, and so many changes with P3D and XP11 nowadays, in addition to the 'at-home' situation, we have little time left every day for this particular project. We're still working on it as hard we can.