Hello all, I was surprised to note the absence of vector autogen in the first demo and I see it's still missing in the new demo.Does anyone know if it will be in the final release, or has Microsoft dropped this feature?If FSX has no vector autogen then I think I see a gap in the market. AutoAsm can currently automatically create 'vector autogen' e.g. trees, buildings, light poles, telegraph poles running along roads - and moving road traffic. If FSX has no vector autogen then I'll probably look at updating AutoAsm to provide an equivalent.Best regards, ChrisAutoStar for FSX: http://www.kline.demon.co.uk/AutoStarX.zip

Hi Chris,I noticed that too, particularly the missing powerline towers. When I inquired about that I was told by ACES that vector autogen is not activated in the Beta and Demo versions. It will be re-activated in the final version of FSX but only powerline towers will be used with the default data. The reason given was that the new detailed road data includes many parallel vectors (e.g., opposing lanes), with variable distances between vectors, which meant that signs and light poles often ended up on roads or too far away from them.That being said, I'm sure there's a "market" for providing new options for vector autogen, static or dynamic, and I'm looking forward to the FSX version of AutoAsm.Cheers, Holger

Thanks for the info, Holger!When placing 'vector' objects, AutoAsm gives extra options (e.g. to the right or to the left, offset distance) so it is probably more flexible than standard autogen.Hmmm - looks like I have work to do.... Best regards, Chris

Chris,For me AutoASM will have usefulness in FSX. The shorelines of waterbodies appears to be at the same poor level as FS2004. There may be some difference in BGL layout but I hope to use AutoASM to make the same fixes I needed in FS2004.Thanks for a great utility....Dick Boley near airport 5G8

Hi Dick, Very glad to hear you still find it useful! I've made a version for Far Cry but still not yet released. When I have FSX, and assuming the SDK gives enough information, I'll certainly start work on the new version. Best regards, Chris

Thanks for the autostar update too! That's an underrated gem!

Hi Scott, Glad you like it! The new FSX star system finally made realistic comets and nebulae possible. I've got an update in the works which I should release in a few weeks. The planet brightness can change automatically according to distance and phase angle. Also the program can now import the SAO star catalog which goes down to magnitude 9 (a bit like RealStars on steroids!) FSX by default has the same number of stars as Real Stars. Using SAO may be a little academic as you would never see the fainter stars, but displaying magnitude 9 stars might be of interest to astronomers!Finally, when importing SAO or the default stars file, you can select the dynamic range. On one extreme you could select zero dynamic range, in which case the stars would all be of the same brightness. On the other extreme you could select a high dynamic range so that bright stars are very bright and faint stars are very faint. You can choose to get a star display that's right for you.I've also increased the star brightness dynamic range by allowing bright stars to be displayed by a group of up to 16 stars, the same trick I originally used for the planets. Now Sirius can look almost as bright as the planets, which is as it should be.I hope to release it in a couple of weeks. Best regards, Chris

Great news! Can't wait - let me know if you need any help. Feel free to email directly.

Hey Chris, thanks for realstars! i have a question about the FSX version, When I open up the program, I just see check boxes with "show" "show" etc and they are not named, so I dont know what Im activating! Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Alex, glad you like AutoStar. Unfortunately it looks like the labels are being cut off. It's fine on my system because I run Windows at 1280*1024 with slightly increased text size. You're probably using a different Windows display size. Could you let me know your Windows display resolution and font size?Meanwhile, I'll be releasing an update in a couple of weeks and I'll fix this problem. The update allows the planet brightness to change automatically and also you can import the SAO star catalog which allows many more stars (far more than RealStars!)These are the tick box labels:Show namesShow imageShow circles (Detailed circles just to the right and below)Show cometUser objectsUse current dateAuto run I'll update the new version and upload it. I'll let you know.Meanwhile here's a shot of the new (and very strange looking!) Comet Swan created with AutoStar:http://www.kline.demon.co.uk/as11.jpgBest regards, Chris

Alex, I uploaded a new version of the standard exe file. Get it here: http://www.kline.demon.co.uk/AutoStarX.exe Just rename the existing AutoStarX.exe (just in case) and replace with this one. I increased the text slot sizes for the labels so hopefully it should fix the problem. Best regards, Chris