Sometimes, more is actually less. The 'new' NZAA is simply awful, for example. There's a much older and far better version of it (NZAA Auckland 1.6, made in 2018) available on the org forum.

1 hour ago, Brian Mackie said:

There's a much older and far better version of it (NZAA Auckland 1.6, made in 2018) available on the org forum.

Hi Brian,

you are comparing a "default" (global) airport to a full custom airport. That is comparing apples with oranges. Since there is a very limited set of art assets to use when making airports for the Scenery Gateway (default airports) they can not look as good as an airport that is using custom art assets and/or an object library (like OpenSceneryX).

Cheers, Jan

 

I cannot complete a flight with this beta.  When I am descending into the destination it crashes to desktop.  Lost device error.  Does anyone know the workaround?

@Greg073 With a total lack of information, no we cant help you. If you look at your log.txt in xplane folder. it may help, even drop it on here so we can look.

43 minutes ago, Greg073 said:

I cannot complete a flight with this beta.  When I am descending into the destination it crashes to desktop.  Lost device error.  Does anyone know the workaround?

You are the prime candidate to help fix this!

Read here for how to: https://developer.x-plane.com/2020/12/help-us-find-those-devices/

Point taken, Janov. Nevertheless, I mildly question the value of adding more and more unrealistic airports to the gateway. There are issues with bespoke free offerings, too. For example, you can fly around the whole of New Zealand and rarely sight another aircraft, even with LiveTraffic. But land at a certain custom-built NZWN and you are very likely to crash into the manic ground traffic introduced by its author (who evidently has a Monty Python-style sense of humour). It resembles the M25 London orbital motorway, but without the road code.

Seems we are stuck between a rock and hard place - enthusiasts trying to produce something better than the defaults for free (which is much appreciated) and an unwillingness of professional designers to get involved because the XP marketplace (and the business model) is thought to be unprofitable.

7 hours ago, Greg073 said:

I cannot complete a flight with this beta.  When I am descending into the destination it crashes to desktop.  Lost device error.  Does anyone know the workaround?

There is no workaround, it's one of many Vulkan bugs that are still outstanding, and will probably be also by next Xmas.

33 minutes ago, Greazer said:

There is no workaround, it's one of many Vulkan bugs that are still outstanding, and will probably be also by next Xmas.

not doing the specific thing that causes it is a pretty simple and effective work around imho.

like around september I had one if I would do a lh circuit out of lybe which was fixed pretty quick.

there is also one still in planemaker related to changing to fullscreen while its loading the 3d panel.

So I just dont do that.

Edited December 13, 20205 yr by mSparks

1 hour ago, Brian Mackie said:

, I mildly question the value of adding more and more unrealistic airports to the gateway

Why do they need to be realistic, how much time do you spend at an airport as a pilot, sitting in cockpit preparing plane for flight, I havnt bought any and except maybe for some nice bush ones, probably never will, We fly planes, its a flight sim, not an airport sim. Yes I do wish they would give us some better hangers and towers, upgrade all the polys, tar doesnt look like tar and we dong have gravel. But as long as it resembles the real thing, whats the issue, its the reason why we make them for free,

@Greg073

I'm guessing you have overclocked your CPU, GPU or both.  This is a common problem with vulkan and overclocked hardware.

Edited December 14, 20205 yr by GoranM

4 hours ago, Brian Mackie said:

land at a certain custom-built NZWN and you are very likely to crash into the manic ground traffic introduced by its author (who evidently has a Monty Python-style sense of humour). It resembles the M25 London orbital motorway, but without the road code.

Now here comes the beautiful part about the system: Fire up WED, import the airport in question, remove 80% of the ground vehicles, and upload it again. Won´t take more than an hour, really - and everyone benefits! You can even make a comment when you upload, as the previous author is likely to read what you changed...and he might take the hint that not everyone likes "ground vehicle gridlock" 🙂

It is a learning process - some of my earlier airports have a bit too much ground traffic, too, I feel nowadays. This is the realm of Gateway contributor exercising artistic liberty. Yet you will see that most want their airports to be "liked" (after all thats the main motivation) and a gentle hint will make most of us reconsider!

Cheers, Jan

 

14 hours ago, Brian Mackie said:

I mildly question the value of adding more and more unrealistic airports to the gateway.

You can still lobby Laminar to hire you as a default art asset creator to provide Gateway authors with more variety in objects and facades.

4 hours ago, Bjoern said:

You can still lobby Laminar to hire you as a default art asset creator to provide Gateway authors with more variety in objects and facades.

Yes, they would probably even consider this if your offer is good.

I think it can safely be said that the Gateway system is one of THE greater achievements of X-Plane and one of the things that is giving XP a leg up on MSFS.

I know the quality of Gateway airports varies, but I can assure you that pretty much 99.5% of them are better than the default airports we had until XP9.

Cheers, Jan

 

21 hours ago, mSparks said:

there is also one still in planemaker related to changing to fullscreen while its loading the 3d panel.

If the CTD issue is repeatable in plane maker, it should be identified and patched for good, and released with 24 hours. So far this has been months and the saga goes on and on.

Dear mjrhealth, my hope for airports in XP that look roughly like the ones I use in real time are clearly of less interest to a bush pilot. After all, one bush looks much like another. But I like arriving at reasonably familiar, simulated airports that don’t look just like the concrete blockhouses I departed from. Sometimes I spend a lot of time at airport aprons, with pre-flight checks and so on.

And who needs gratuitous, sarcastic advice to become an airport designer from the likes of Bjoern?

As for GoranM’s comment about overclocking in relation to an airport, what on earth was that about?

Instead, Janov makes a measured and positive suggestion: that I or others edit use WED to enhance airports. That, alas, is beyond my current skill set, although I promise to try. I bought XP to help improve my realtime recreational flying, not to design scenery.

Edited December 14, 20205 yr by Brian Mackie