Holger

Hi guys, actually, those changes in the .cfg files do nothing for the speed of the moving road traffic outside of airports and missions because that's regulated in a different file; see this thread from 2007(!) http://forum.avsim.net/topic/64263-is-there-anyway-to-slow-down-road-traffic/ and the more recent discussion here: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/383963-fsx-highway-traffic-speed/ Cheers, Holger

Hi guys, just for clarification, there are two different types of AI vehicles. Those with separate .cfg files are used at airports and in missions only while the maximum speed of the general highway traffic is determined by settings in the Living World .cfg file, LWcfg.sbp, which is compressed by default and needs to be decompiled to xml format first in order to make the changes. See http://forum.avsim.net/topic/64263-is-there-anyway-to-slow-down-road-traffic/ The Orbx utility reduces the speed of both types of traffic. Cheers, Holger

Hi all, many thanks to the AVSIM team for the award and the community for your votes; much appreciated! Given the typical short shelf life of software I find it amazing that people are still enjoying contributions of mine -- and many others -- from ten years ago. Similarly, from a (landscape) developer's perspective, it's quite astounding that the terrain engine, despite all its quirks, remains a very capable base on which to create add-ons, and not just "cookie-cutter" add-ons but stuff that includes more and innovative detail in each new round. IMO the real genius lay within the ACES team that designed and implemented such an open and clever platform for FS8, and its evolutionary refinements for FS9 and FSX. The major change from previous FS versions is that in order to complete large projects at the level of detail and accuracy FSX allows, one needs half an anthill full of co-conspirators, and I'm hugely grateful to have found a whole bunch of highly talented and dependable colleagues that keep our collective creative juices flowing. One question though: who was Albert Einstein and what did he ever do for us flightsimmers??? B) Cheers, Holger

Hi guys, same here. I got several alerts with Avast (commercial version) though its analysis was inconclusive in regards to Malware; it recommended sandboxing. However, with each Avsim access a new 209 KB (214,528 bytes) .exe file was deposited in C:\Users\Holger\AppData\Local\Temp, with suspicious names like "Skype.exe", "conhost.exe", and "windowsupdate.exe". Cheers, Holger

Hi Ray, not 100% sure but the way the peak sticks out looks a lot like Mount Hesperus to me, the tallest mountain in the Revelation Range http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Hesperus_%28Alaska%29 or http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_tUBHdjmvoj0/TJ5OpjaZXqI/AAAAAAAAAu4/HN4CaGLSexY/s1600/DSC_2663.JPG Go to about N61.9107° W154.388° and face southeast (heading 127); the view is across the North Fork Big River. Or fly about 40 miles SSW from PAFW (Farewell). Cheers, Holger

Hi Daniel,funny, the first thirty seconds or so, plus other bits and pieces later on, were filmed in and around my old hometown, Marburg an der Lahn, about an hour's drive north of Frankfurt. Interesting perspective for sure ;-)Cheers, Holger

Hi guys,interesting find! I recognize the location as Kodiak Island - http://binged.it/xS3CY5 - and the airport is PADQ: http://www.airnav.com/airport/ADQ Cheers, Holger

Hi guys,actually, it's only the main portal that appears to be affected. Here are the links to the public and support portals, respectively:http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/forum/3-public/http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/forum/5-orbx-support-forums/Cheers, Holger

Hi guys,make sure that your virus checker is set to not scan any FS files each time the sim is run (typically called "exclusions" in the scanner's settings); it'll slow down initial loading times and also lead to blurries and micro-stutters.Cheers, Holger

Hi Bob,what ORBX region are you talking about? All of the North America regions come with their own water "colors" meaning only changes to the reflection and dynamic wave settings of water textures will make a difference. In contrast, only parts of the inland and coastal water bodies of the Australian regions have custom water files so in those areas you'd see a difference.Cheers, Holger

Hi guys,for the record, the 100 or so FSX default mesh files weigh in at less than 1.3GB in total, including CDED-based terrain mesh for Canada, and those terrain mesh files were quite decent for most parts of the world.Cheers, Holger

Hi guys, don't forget to install the PNW service packs if you haven't done so (we've just released SP4). With each SP we've tried to tweak the urban areas a bit more to help with performance. Cheers, Holger

Hi guys,I've encountered the same issue recently but discovered that it was happening due to changes in Avast's scan exclusions options. Previously, in the Settings page, any exclusions added would work for both scheduled and real-time scanning. In the new version this got split so now one needs to specify exclusions also in the Real-Time Shields > File System Shield > Expert Settings > Exclusions page to prevent repeated file scans while FS is loading.Cheers, Holger

Hi guys,might want to keep an eye on Lennart's blog: http://lennartshangar.bloggsida.se/Cheers, Holger

Hi Wayne,the authorization code is written in the same installer window where it asks for the code. At least that's how it was for me. Just copy what it states on top into the window below.Cheers, Holger

Hi David, LOL, that's a good one, where to start? First you'd need very high resolution orthocorrected airphotos, which aren't available for most places (Canada currently offers exactly zero in the public domain) and the 1-ft or 2-ft imagery available for some US urban areas are not good enough to directly use for runways and taxiways, just for the grass skirtings like we did with Paine Field in PNW. You'd then need to adjust the default ADE file to exactly match the photoreal base so that AI aircraft move correctly, taxiway signs sit properly, etc.Assuming you did have high-res and current imagery you'd need to remove all of the aircraft and other airside objects imprinted on them, make the imagery fit in tone and brightness to the surrounding areas, create seasonal variants plus a night variant, and cope with the fact that the resulting .bgl will add yet another GB to your final installer size. And then you're still stuck with moving around generic objects on top of the pretty base, which won't align with the building imprints in the imagery.Since the ORBX NA regions blur the old delineation between landscape enhancements (mesh, roads, water, land class, etc.) and local scenery packages it's easy to see how those in the "glass half-empty" camp now expect custom modeling of airport grounds and structures. We always try to add a few custom models and our own object libraries keep growing too but the primary purpose of an add-on like NRM remains the landscape in between the airports. Having said that, Neil's tireless adjustments of default airports are nothing to sneeze at and have evolved into a key feature of ORBX regions. Grab a copy of ADE and Instant Scenery and try a couple airport enhancements yourself, and then multiply that by 400 or so. And don't forget to add those sloped flattens around them to prevent plateaus and trenches ;-)Cheers, Holger

Hi guys,the point of the video is to show the animations not where the people are walking or that they would be placed like this on a tarmac. I suppose Russ should have stuck them on a parking lot or in an empty hanger for this tech demo :( Cheers, Holger

Hi Georg, It certainly shouldn't take minutes to load the highest LODs on a quad core system so something is amiss. In any case for slewing around the easiest fix is to assign a key combination to the "Refresh Scenery" command in FSX. I use Ctrl-Shift-S but any unused keystroke combo is possible. Just open the key controls setup menu and scroll to the "Refresh Scenery" entry.One caveat: if you force a scenery refresh with AI active you'll also spawn a new set of AI each time around, thus it's best to deactivate AI and reactivate it once you're done with slewing.Cheers, Holger

Hi Drew,first off, I think it's a great idea to establish a repository for these kinds of airport corrections and I'm sure it has lots of potential.However, my suggestion would be to not tie yourself to a specific third-party vendor regardless of what you personally use. If your approach to airport corrections and enhancements is based on the real-world airfields and their layout in MSE then they should also be easy to adapt to any other current or future photoreal add-on of the same area, freeware or payware. Moreover, they could possibly even be used without any photoreal base. In other words, your efforts could be much more "generic" and thus avoid the issues with the MSE title and/or potential competitors.Cheers, Holger

Hi Mark,if you like the current "grass" texture you can leave it as is and just check/uncheck "land detail textures" during a flight as desired. It doesn't require a scenery refresh so the change is instantaneous.Reverting to default would require to hunt down the original "detail1.bmp", which might be in \Scenery\World\texture as a backup (.OFF, .BAK, etc.) or stored somewhere else. The FSX original is dated 7/26/2006.A third option is to look for other "grass" texture replacements in the online file libraries and try to find one that doesn't darken the area around the user aircraft as much.Cheers, Holger

Hi guys,throwing my hat into the ring too with a bet it's a replacement detail1.bmp, the infamous semi-transparent "grass" texture overlay. If the issue goes away by unchecking "Land Detail Textures" in the FSX Settings Display menu I win :( Cheers, Holger

Hi there, Thanks for posting that video because it nicely demonstrates the issue with losing PNW content. The video shows plenty of houses (though some footprints remain visible, which shouldn't happen with full autogen) but there's almost no tree in sight and none of the light poles that make up the 3D night lighting. You've taken at least half of the PNW autogen away and thus it's no wonder there's an improvement in fps and fluidity.Like John said in the ORBX thread, we'll have a closer look at your findings but there doesn't appear to be a free lunch once again ;-)Cheers, Holger

Hi there,not an issue on your side as those are the default blending masks that create this "fractal" effect. You can reduce the odd patterns by setting your texture resolution slider to 1m or 2m but then you'll lose detail in the vector textures, like shorelines and roads. The only remedy is to use an add-on that includes more appropriate versions of the blending masks; ORBX does, as well as GEX to some extent, and there may be others.Cheers, Holger

Hi there,check the Terrain SDK's section on Resample.exe regarding the LOD parameter. Looks like your maxLOD is set too low, which leads to this effect. Of course, your texture resolution slider section also influences this.Cheers, Holger

Hi there,it does appear to be an issue with the transparent bits of the GG textures and some of the usual culprits for that are a non-SP1/SP2 FSX installation or using DX10 preview mode or having done some bulk edits of texture formats in the name of fps improvements.Cheers, Holger