anthony31

Did you have "advanced animations" switched off in the FSX options? This needs to be on as the landing lights use a skinned mesh which requires advanced animations to be on to work. The low resolution is probably due to the ground textures in whatever scenery you have. Ground textures can either be a day texture which is darkened (which is how the default runway textures work) or a day and night texture combination (during the day the day texture is shown, at dawn and dusk the night texture is blended in until at night only the night texture is shown). If the scenery is using a night texture then this will have a very low resolution as the night texture will need to be mostly black. Night textures are used by some sceneries to provide the illusion of apron lighting. The way the PMDG lights work they can only work with the underlying ground textures, if the ground texture is low res then there is nought that can be done to make it any higher res. The landing lights work best on a normal day texture which has been darkened at night by FSX itself (such as the default runway textures). Try the aircraft on a default airport and see if you still have the low res problem. signed as per PMDG rules : Anthony Lynch

Mighty impressive interior. There looks like a heck of a lot of polygons in there so I hope it won't kill fps. I visited the wdsims website after reading the first page here and thought the name Russ White was familiar. And Craig's post at the top of the second page on the forum reminded me Russ used to do work for ORBX. Wander why he's set out on his own? (I can guess though ). You should be able to get an A320 or B737 down on that runway. My local airport only has a 6000' runway and takes both types every day.

After Barry's testing I guess one would have to try the simconnect method of determining cloud density rather than the (A:AMBIENT IN CLOUD,bool) variable. That ups the complexity level by about 53 times though.

Congratulations and well done on landing the aircraft without any injury to yourself, your student or anyone on the ground. Now give me your instructors license so I can cut it up because you really shouldn't have taken off in that plane without properly checking the fuel and replacing the fuel cap.

Well, here is a gauge that checks if you are in cloud and if so it will turn on the smoke system. When you are out of cloud it will turn it off. Haven't tested it so it may not work. Also don't know how well the AMBIENT IN CLOUD variable reports actually being in cloud. Copy the text and put it into a new xml file (say "cloudsinsmoke.xml") and save it to the gauges folder and then add the appropriate lines to your panel.cfg to your partcular aircraft to have it run. <Gauge Name="Cloud via smokesystem" Version="1.0"> <Element> <Select> <Value> (A:AMBIENT IN CLOUD,bool) if{ <!-- We are in cloud, next step check if smoke is OFF and turn it on if it is off --> (A:SMOKE ENABLE,bool) ! if{ (>K:SMOKE_TOGGLE) } } els{ <!-- We are NOT in cloud, next step check if smoke is ON and turn it off if it is on --> (A:SMOKE ENABLE,bool) if{ (>K:SMOKE_TOGGLE) } } </Value> </Select> </Element> </Gauge>

The interesting thing here is that this thread from 2002 is in the fsx forum.

Thanks for the info Jeremy. Sounds like a pretty wacky system if you ask me. I mean, what does the airline gain by having such a weird way of assigning seats?

Why do you want to be first to board on an airliner anyway? The less time I spend in those nasty little cramped seats the better. I always try to be the last onboard. Its not like the plane is going to get to the destination any faster just because you're first in line to get onboard.

Never used this myself but I imagine it would be as good as place as any to start your research. From the FSX SDK , Simconnect: SimConnect_WeatherRequestCloudState The SimConnect_WeatherRequestCloudState function requests cloud density information on a given area. Syntax HRESULT SimConnect_WeatherRequestCloudState( HANDLE hSimConnect, SIMCONNECT_DATA_REQUEST_ID RequestID, float minLat, float minLon, float minAlt, float maxLat, float maxLon, float maxAlt, DWORD dwFlags = 0 ); Parameters hSimConnect [in] Handle to a SimConnect object. RequestID [in] Specifies the client-defined request ID. minLat [in] Specifies the minimum latitude of the required area. This should simply be the lower of the two latitude numbers. minLon [in] Specifies the minimum longitude of the required area. This should simply be the lower of the two longitude numbers. minAlt [in] Specifies the minimum altitude of the required area, in feet. maxLat [in] Specifies the maximum latitude of the required area. maxLon [in] Specifies the maximum longitude of the required area. maxAlt [in] Specifies the maximum altitude of the required area, in feet. dwFlags [in, optional] Double word containing any flags. Reserved for future use. Return Values The function returns an HRESULT. Possible values include, but are not limited to, those in the following table. Return value Description S_OK The function succeeded. E_FAIL The function failed. Remarks The main purpose of this function is to enable weather radar. If the call is successful, the cloud state information will be returned in a SIMCONNECT_RECV_CLOUD_STATE structure. This structure will contain a two dimensional array of byte data. The array will be 64 x 64 bytes in size, and each byte will contain a value indicating the cloud density for each cell. A value of zero would mean no clouds, to a maximum of 255. The area defined in this call is divided into 64 by 64 cells, so the size of each cell will be determined by the values given for the parameters above. Note that the entire World's weather is not simulated all the time, but only a region around the user aircraft, with a radius of approximately 128 kilometers, is modeled at any one time. A request for cloud data outside this region will simply return zeros. The defined area can cross the Equator or the Greenwich Meridian, but it cannot cross the Poles or the International Date Line. See Also Or you can use the var A:Ambient in clouds,book which will return true if the aircraft is in a cloud (according to the SDK)

I got one of those emails. I thought they had disappeared. Didn't click on the link.

And in Australia we always snigger when americans say they are "rooting" for their team. Now, that means something completely different down here.

And in oz some restaurants will do Christmas in July. Really, the main reason we don't have Christmas in the middle of the year is because it is drop bear mating season then and we dare not go outdoors during that time.

Yeah, I've also had the odd crash when closing P3D (using the little X in the top right of the windowed screen to close it). Impossible to replicate the problem. Sometimes it closes OK, sometimes it crashes. I think LM must have put in a random crash generator :)

On the question of upscaling or downscaling textures. FSX does not do either of these things. What is important though are mipmaps. And whether the texture has them or not. For those that don't know mipmaps are prerendered downscale images that are included in the DDS texture file. In a 1024x1024 pixel texture with mipmaps there will be included, along with the full size 1024x1024 texture, a 512x512 version of the texture, and a 256x256 version, and a 128x128 version and so on all the way down to an itty bitty 1x1 version. The reason for this is that it is a lot faster to draw a far away object which may only be 10 pixels on screen with a 16x16 texture rather than a 1024x1024 texture. So mipmapped textures are most commonly used in scenery objects as it definitely improves your framerates. As aircraft are usually seen up close most aircraft textures will not have mipmapping. Although with AI aircraft mipmapping would be desirable. A 1024x1024 DXT5 texture without mipmaps will come in at 1025kb in file size. While the same texture with mipmaps is 1366kb. However, if a texture does not have any mipmaps then FSX must render the texture at it's full resolution regardless of the TML setting. Otherwise, what else would FSX draw? Here is a handy guide to how TML setting and mipmapping will affect each other. TML = 4096: Mipmapped and non-mipmapped textures will be rendered as expected at their full resolution. TML = 1024: Mipmapped textures of 2048 or 4096 will revert to the 1024 mipmap (as shown in tf51d pictures of his 2048 runway textures, you are only seeing the 1024 mipmap when TML is set to 1024). Non-mipmapped textures will be rendered using the full texture (ie a 4096 non-mipmapped texture will still render as a 4096 texture even with TML of 1024 because that is the only texture available to be rendered).

Bit of a watermark on this one: http://www.airteamimages.com/boeing-777_ET-APS_ethiopian-airlines-cargo_160840_large.html Click on the download link (lower right) for 3008x2000 pixel image. There are a couple of other in the photoset: https://www.flickr.com/photos/flightblogger/3884687685/in/set-72157622230724796/ The 737 FMCs I found look a lot like the 777 ones (only difference I can notice is the BRT switch used on the 777 compared to a small knob on the 737) so it may be useful to use a 737 image (which seem to be more common) and then just edit it a bit to make it like the 777.

Where's the Pizza option??? I had to put in duck sandwich.

Have you installed the SDK correctly? This is a bit tricky because if you install the SDK that comes on the disks with FSX you need to install the SP1 SDK and then the SP2 SDK. Unfortunately you can't just install the SP2 SDK, you have to install the RTM versions first followed by both the SP1 and SP2 SDK's. Here is a link to how to do it: http://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=SDK_Installation_%28FSX%29 The links for the SDK's may no longer be valid though as MS has discontinued support of FSX. You should be able to search the AVSIM file library and find SP1 SDK and SP2 SDK.

All the SDK documentation is in the fsxsdk.chm file. When you open that ignore the CONTENTS tab in the left hand side and instead click on INDEX tab. You can then have a look at SIMCONNECT and C GAUGES. There are other sections which you will need (eg SIMULATION VARIABLES) but this are usually hyperlinked. The INDEX tab is much more useful than the CONTENTS tab. The SEARCH tab is also really handy. The SimConnect SDK (which contains the examples) is found in the Core Utilities Kit while the C gauges stuff is found in the SimObject Creation Kit/Panels and Gauges SDK.

Then you say you "I humbly disagree" . Apparently that is the adult way.

Nice. Found an article that suggests the actual date may be 28 Oct (this came from Amazon putting up a placeholder page for GTA5 with that date, so it could be the actual date or it might not be)

For more info about Mr Plod and his adventures with FSXGenius visit: https://www.facebook.com/Frooglesim I sure hope the people who lost money will be able to get some back.

When you have the model in MCX you select the EXPORT option and when the SAVE AS screen appears you click on the SAVE AS TYPE and select FS2004 object X file. You then use makemdl.exe (do you have this program? it is vital that you do) from the FS9 Make Mdl SDK and load the FS2004 x file you have created into that and hey presto! You have a FS9 MDL file. Here is one place where you can get the FS9 sdk packs: http://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/2798/microsoft-flight-simulator-2004-sdk-pack-all-kits/ You then use Library Creator to make a mdl library for use in FS9. Note: That when converting from FSX to FS9 (or vice versa) the main issue to look out for is the different way textures are handled. Especially transparencies (as used in trees, fences, glass etc).

You have a couple of options on how to get your addon working. You can create a .gau (which is really a .dll but renamed) but this needs to be added to each aircraft via the panel.cfg. The other option (which is what you are talking about ) is either as an exe or dll. This needs to be added to the exe.xml or dll.xml files to be recognised by FSX. FSUIPC is an example of a dll , EZdok camera is an example of an exe. Most of these seem to use a windows that is external to FSX so I'm not sure if you can use a dll or exe to draw directly in FSX (that is beyond my level of experience) although Instant Scenery does this so I guess it must be possible somehow. You need to have a look at the fsxdk.chm in the SDK folder. Under Index look for Simconnect. This section will show you how to add a simconnect addon. There are a number of examples which you can try (although a couple of them have bugs in them so they don't work out of the box but there are fixes on the internet for them). A couple of them show how to create a dialog box and menu items which you may find of use. Simconnect is used to communicate with FSX. You may find that creating a simconnect addon is actually a fair bit easier than creating a C++ gauge which requires a fair bit of coding just to get it working with FSX. Get one of those simconnect samples up and running and you will be well on your way to starting to building your own addon.

Yep, and the problem was sweetfx. After removing all traces of it from the FSX folder that fixed the problem. Not saying that is the cause of your problem but it is one thing you could investigate.

If only there was a way to harness all the time that some people seemed to waste trying to rig the rating system (ie up/down posting, multiple logins etc etc) and redirect it toward building FS11 we would be there by now.