rich135

That is the behavior I have seen so far through all XP10 betas thus far, before and after the changes to the cloud sliders. Clouds are mosly opaque near and in the layers, but transparent when well above. This may be for performance reasons. Hoping we can get solid overcast at some point with no peaking through.

As many of you, I purchased previous versions of X-plane with great hope, only to quickly abandon. X-plane 10 has finally won me over. It is far from perfect, but it has so many things I really like.Clouds, night lighting, IFR = AWESOME. Very immersive.One texture size = no blurries.Frame rates 30-50 on a decent rig. Very few stutters. Leverages GPU and cores.Great plugin model and SDK.Very stable.Continuous software updates and fixes.Default airplanes are lacking. Good 3rd party airplanes available. x737 + XHSI + UFMC + Goflight = Great.Daytime, VFR, airports, and scenery are lacking. However, the fundamental approach has so much potential. I am glad they released it now so 3rd parties can start working. I think within a year, it could be very nice.I am pulling for Austin and team. They are passionate and committed... unlike the other guys who are in, then out, then back in.For $80, I am very pleased.RichPP-ASEL-IA

Thanks for the feedback Nick and Dirk. Indeed, I see a slight increase of jaggies and shimmer with this adjustment... so definitely a trade-off.Regards,Rich

>>> My experience is identical to Nick's. At 4096, performance can drop to 6-10 FPS on a high-end optimized system under heavy weather. I am using GEX as well, but usually see 30 FPS locked outside of these weather conditions.UPDATE: I was using nHancer to set AA and AS in the nVidia driver. After defaulting back to "application control" and setting AA + AS in FSX, I no longer see the perf hit; I went from 6 FPS to 30 FPS in same weather scenario. I suspect setting application controlled in the driver allows FSX to apply AA and/or AS to certain objects, whereas setting in driver forces the GPU to process AA and/or AS on all objects (confirm?). In any event, this made a huge difference for me.Regards,Rich

>>> I haven't noticed anyone else reporting a performance hit and I'm certainly not getting any additional stutters or issues.My experience is identical to Nick's. At 4096, performance can drop to 6-10 FPS on a high-end optimized system under heavy weather. I am using GEX as well, but usually see 30 FPS locked outside of these weather conditions.Regards,Rich

Hi Clayton,Thanks for asking. Unfortunately developments in my day job have slowed the project to a crawl.Regards,Rich

>> Even with Phil and staff's expertise, they have to get re-tooled to the latest Game technology development tools. It is time to retire C++.Is that so?

Hear Hear. Anybody who has been in Phil's position understands EXACTLY where he is coming from.

<<>>Exactly right Bill!

<<>>A valid point. System requirements on the box...XP/SP2 - 256MB RAMVista - 512MB RAMProcessor 1.0 GHzVideo Card - Direct X 9.0 with 32MB of RAM and support for hardware transform and lighting.Hard to imagine any enjoyment from this system.

My son (age 9) has been flying with me since age 5, both sim and real life. In the sim he has far surpassed me in air races and aerobatics. Just got him the RealAir SF260 for a good report card; he is loving it.

Waiting to see what the FEX and REX weather engines bring to the table. And waiting...

Its a bug in the GPS map code. Same happens with GPS 500.

Please disregard reply.

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement Chris.<>Yes. There is no requirement to connect to a SIM to generate flight plans. A connection is made only if you switch to GPS mode.<<>>Dragging the route line to add waypoints, as in FS9 and FSX, is the primary way to add waypoints in this software.<<>>Yes, both input methods will be available. Auto routing might not be there in the first round, but you will be able to see the airways on the map.FS9 flight planning will be supported. In the early releases, you may have have to use a third party BGL decompiler to import data from FS9. FSX data import will be available in the first round. Moving map for FS9 would come later, as I would backtrack and support FSUIPC.<<>>Me too. I am a private pilot/instrument rated, but have been grounded due to the skyrocketing fuel prices. To stay in the game, I am slowly creating an RJ cockpit in my spare time. The underlying technology in the planner had to perform well enough to be a panel in the overall RJ flight deck software I am building (see link below). Eventually it has to have all the features of an FMS; not necessarily in the same application.RJ personal project: http://picasaweb.google.com/rich.lucas.maps/RJCockpit