coastaldriver

well given mSparks little test video - I am impressed! May not have the complete vortex look of the real thing but hey pretty impressive! Weather or cloud and lighting gets a tick from me - real weather west of Tamworth NSW today about 1700 LST. Looked like that out the window! Still continue to be impressed with the intertia management or control responses now.

It is clear that there are a lot more changes to this version upgrading it or changing the way it works for me. B3 now gives me the zink connector back and a significant improvement in FPS in fact FPS is very healthy nearly 90 in some places depends on the model even heavy weather and complex model I was getting 40-50 FPS. No stutters. Weather handling is pretty accurate and well cloud and light fits the bill. Lighting or brightness this we will have to live with that depends on whether you look into or away from or down or up sun! So you can see what it is doing and correctly changing the overall light ambience dependant on the direction and you and the sun! Noted that there is a change in the behaviour or perceived responses of various models to the size and mass of the aircraft - that is C172 feels like a C172 and a MD-80 feels like an MD-80 would - its not just a perception thing but clear from the VC to the exterior visuals. No ideas what changes were involved but just say seems good and I have not had a need to spend time setting and resetting control sensitivities for different models. Night lighting is properly scaled and luminescent! Stars still need a little oomph! and so does the milky way! Turbulence - hard to compare there are changes to the way a model responds to turbulence and while reasonable it is still not that good. Roll pitch and ROC changes were better managed but until they can manage mass v up/down then a way to go - i mean mod to heavy turb in a C172 would be a light chop in a B737. Seem to have had some mesh interpretation changes snuck in and some places the auto gen is now very different. Yorke Island in the Torres Straight now has palm trees and small houses and the large water collection reservoir tank, no more street lights on the road to the airport and a properly fenced apron area, the runway now has undulations in it that were not there before, they are incorrect - Yorke Islands is as flat as they get! Bunch of tools and some things have needed a fix or update, like ground equipment stuff, some orthos for sceneries (if you use them) - SimHeaven will remain out for me except for Asia. X-Roads no longer works and has to be removed. Some bugs now with Marine Traffic. Live Traffic is functioning fine and as I have only SGE as a lua cannot say about any other scripts. 90% of my payware has been updated via the Skunkcraft process - and that remains a pain for many then requiring reactivation via the keycode route, while others do not - still time consuming and a nuisance especially as 12.1 now has had 3 updates to B3. No issues for me except on one payware jet that will not play the game and even thought XP12 certified - will just not connect the electrics and hence do anything in my sim - just hangs the whole sim program - go figure!

Just to clarify - have the MD80 enhanced and the MD90 modded version both are excellent but perhaps not 100% cockpit switching and systems functionality. What does not work is mostly minor anyway. I have had the Rotate MD80 for two months now and have yet to get it's electrical systems to function in XP12.1 so while I would love to give you an honest comparison I can not. Why do I persevere? well I love the old DC-9 30 in FSX and P3D and this is as close as once will get for the time being. More than happy with the improved version and the modded MD-90 version as well. At least I can get them started and flying!

True - I only use this one now as I cannot get Rotates MD 80 to play on my system (switching failures etc and to date no sane response from Rotate on fixing it or even to give me a fresh activation code)

Two very different simulation runs. Feedback is simple. 1 GA daytime country VFR. 2 Heavy Jet Transport Intercontinental night IFR. Apart from a drop in frame rates at big city spots and general loss that has no effect on the sims screen performance to my eye. Lights and shadows are good and weather renditions acceptable and realistic. Wind seems correct and rain in IMC was normal for night with lights on! Weather downloads were done correctly. Neither aircraft simulated model exhibited any quirks or errors! Apart from the changes to objects the additional big shift is lighting or light management- hard to tell but to my eye perhaps slightly overdone in brightness. Night lighting is good. ATC is still useless. At least in FSX and P3D you could lodge a plan on the fly, get a clearance and get a reasonable vector to an ILS. I cannot even achieve taxying to the departure runways without it giving useless and unrealistic instructions! Seems a lot of the airport AI has stopped having collisions with aeroplanes and each other thats good. Happy to see a line of trucks etc finally hold while pushback was excuted and tow disconnected then then resumed. Neat! So it seems to me there have been a lot of tweaking done in the AI area. Sim handled my LiveTraffic connections and traffic representation very nicely without issues. Again AI flow was a lot smoother and realistic. I am not sure why but control sensitivity seems to be matched to the model or aircraft type a lot better, so the C337 gave feedback in motion and response to what I would expect a 337 to be like on the controls and the same with the Boeing, gave a response that was a lot stiffer, heavier and as a result impression of a large aircraft and speed. Sim ran constantly on the international flight for over 4 hours, no lags no stops and fluid throughout. Side note - no issues with memory and could easily multitask into different Win programs as the Pacific Ocean was traversed in the sim - switch back and forth and no errors or stops in the sim.

mjrhealth - noted yes it is Laminar's gui. Have given a better workout using area I know well that had some poor weather today (CB's etc) Now I look at it I noted the sim has more little things in it - objects such as parked planes, tractors etc a fair few really that has added to the ambience of the stock airport (A mid size rural in Australia). FPS held good for a flight to another town at about 45 FPS. Same at the next sport more stuff just a touch but has taken off a bare look I guess. Otherwise noted AI outside is about and moving and better relational speed - suprised to see a freight train on the go where they normally operate as well. Road traffic seemed to be moving at a more real pace!. A payware twin (Thranda C337) worked flawlessly thought you can only put the ATIS on COM2 bug remains. Cloud shaping and shadow was pretty good but also being able to compare with a real view out the window makes for a valid comparison a little less cumuluform curves than I was expecting even if bulk is good and shadowing from thick cloud realistic - visibility was well managed no precipitation encountered. Others may have different views but this is a step up again in fidelity!

The option to have no zink as in a Win system is provided to improve framerates. Unticked Zink framerates more stable still in high density external environment - big city big airport dense traffic getting throttled to about 30 FPS. Go fly and once you pass about 10000 ft the frame rate ramps up to 40 for me and maybe a little more. Stable. Lights - gone at last the ghastly light balls of ramp lights that could be seen 30 nm at night. Whew! Rest seem fine to me! Undid SimHeaven addons for time being, They and the ORBX forests need to be aligned with new autogen that has come in as well. What I would like to see - with the light sorted the little tool sunglasses works a treat as a quick filter - like to see some ability to redo this filter same as sunglasses do polarised or broad spectrum shading. Weather renditions seems ok real time but again limits there are the real time data sources - apart from local metars the remainder is spaced over hours - they are a forecast - inflight met reports could be injected I suppose like the transition to metar conditions. Have absolutely no complaints at all. Works as a simulator for me. Play machine - if you want!

Ok we are now on 12.1,02 (beta). Two immediate issues for my system (Intel 5090 and RTX 2070 Super) - Light glare in full or strong light conditions sun seems over done, In external view if I use the sunglasses option, it tones it down and cleans up the clarity but if you return to the cockpit you need to take them off again. No issues with dark cockpits and for most models AA is fine in fact a huge improvement. Clouds and weather dynamics unable to say still chasing down real time weather where I can really assess this, superficially seems good. The big issue for me and it is reported at the Org is a significant drop in performance (FPS) in high density landscapes or airports (Major cities and large airports) I am seeing the system struggle to get above 25-30 fps. I tried a number of different locals and sim models and on my system the average drop is about 30 fps on all situations everywhere. Sim flow is smooth but no stutters. I used to easily get 60 -80 FPS with previous versions but this one is a real memory hog. I also noted I am getting ground texture blurries which suggests a VRAM issue has developed as well (bottleneck?) and had to wind back all the various loads on the graphics sliders to get some clarity back. I also noted that there is a new tool to basically give you camera style focal control of the visual picture (F stops) and change of focus (depth of field) - interesting but what is the point unless I want to take a special screenshot? Seems there may be additional issues for addons impacting performance negatively now - like ORBX forests and not sure where this all goes in terms of some changes to stock buildings etc with SimHeaven and some issues there as well. As it is Beta - none of the above are bad or showstoppers but the performance bust is a big surprise!

Good tip!

Nicely done and picks up the MD80 very nicely. I just updated the Laminar version and did not bother creating a new model as suggested. The only downside is XP updates will want to put back all the old files. Otherwise is good!

So cloud drift in front of the moon - XP12.09 - it does it! Yes this is insanely realistic! and dawn in the New Mexico Area

Does one presume 12.1 refers to a release date December the 1st? Seems that is the schedule. Not that I am overly concerned - the program achieves its objective already - to provide a acceptable representation of the real world and aviation. Scenery is not bad just needs tidying up, default in most places is accurate and realistically plausible - thats fine its not the real world. Flight modelling - goes with the aircraft concerned - so good as you want bad as you want. I know it has a rich development culture and well there must be a dollar or two because we have more high level aircraft to engage with than they do at MSFS - simple fact! All the Boeings, Airbuses, Embraers, Bombadiers, McDonnell Douglas, Beech, Cessna, Piper and so onto General Aviation. I am actually spoilt for choice and selection of very high quality simulator models and renditions of a variety of aircraft from the early years of flight until today! So yeah I can wait until December for some overhaul,

Natorden - sorry no cloud brightness at night is a function of the way light is produced, represented and manipulated in the sim. Whether or not V6 does this any better I cannot say as I have moved away from P3D for good and now only use XP12. XP12 does a much better job of light control and cloud representation without the need for any form of addon to manipulate the look.

Sounds like a job for this guy

OFT - this one used to live at Hoxton Park and then later Camden. Flew once or twice IRL myself. As for XP12 this is an XP11 model yet to be upgraded to functionality in XP12 . That is XP's greatest issue to my mind! That and the need to revamp the drag/weight couple (the lift calcs are fine but there is no corresponding drag curve, so as to get inertia response correct for all aircraft so the flight model is very very good but still a WIP (That would be a whole thread on its own).

Well it was an impressive screenshot of XP12. Model, Sky and Scenery almost picture perfect and the light-shading balanced and correct. Yep Alas a bit longer for some still a curates egg - good in parts bad in others! So no super screen gloss for me yet or have not found it overall more like this for me. Goran would appreciate this one he's been there!

Well curious to see how it goes. Not such a big fan of the Dash8 Q400 either. Still waiting for promised XP12 updates for some of their other wares - so till they are done it is a hold for me! That's all I can about support!

Me too interested how you go with it. Be aware we all struggle with control sensitivity and hence hardware-software connectivity with this sim. So is it realistic yes but getting the right 'feel' especially with yaw and hence rudder is difficult in this sim, there are some built in tricks re differential braking and rudder as well which make life challenging with a tail drager. In RL Rudder does not do much except move and really work as a control until it gets a good amount of airflow over it compounded now by slipstream effect. Of course it provides lateral directional balance as lifiting surface in its own right! I find it rudder overly sensitive with only a stick controller with a yaw twist ring! and very difficult to tune down so basically do nothing and then a little bit and maybe more when on the ground and not dance about once the tail comes up for flight! Same old same old though dont slam the throttle open on take off and expect to stay straight - you wont' gotta balance it it smoothly. Trickier in a cross wind too!

It is an honest replica (more right rudder?) Bonus lot of nice paints about for it as well

Yep there are a few about. The default Piper Cub is ok but there is a mod about to give it small wheels not tundras - flies realistically and well built default model as well. Default wise there is also the Stinson (bit of a truck on the ground and in the air really). I get into the Piper Cub a lot just for the fun of it simple aeroplane, good taildragger and well no AP so you have to hand fly it - no dramas. There is a freeware Cessna 170 that is very nicely done as well. Nice moderate size taildragger. Few biplanes about as well, mostly old Bellancas, There is a Citabria Decathalon as a freeware not bad either. Might even be Sukhoi aerobatic about as well not seen the Pitts Special or similar. If your into the oldies there is the AWX Tiger Moth which is first class, no brakes and skids on the ground (be warned) even seen some WW1 types like the Sopwith Camel. If you want STOL there is a very good Fiesler Storch as freeware, not to mention the RV10s etc which are about and well done as well. And of the course the veteran DHC-2 Beaver, free ware and payware for XP12 both are great. So all up really quite a few and all are fine in XPlane12. Reasonable amount of heavier metal available to, such as the Lockheed L10, the DC-3 and C-47.

That seems to happen frequently with XPlane - modellers or artists. Seen quite a few (MetroLiner or the L188 Electra are two other examples not the only ones) that have just stopped altogether or no more updates or fixes or whatever. I can understand to a point - but if you put it out there as a public offering, then you have to expect someone else will have a suggestion to do something better or make an improvement. I recall being remonstrated against for suggestion that some data on something was inaccurate and the change was minimal which offset a diatribe of lessons from history about people taking over projects etc etc etc. Another temperamental one I guess!

So you get - 720 and the 720B The paints are numerous at XPlane.org

There was a little interest after some recent screenshots in xplane n me (now in the screehshots slot. So why this aeroplane or xplane model? what is fascinating is that it is freeware available to the XPlane user community. It was built for XP12 so has transistioned along to 12.09 without issues. It has all the XP12 features - rain etc. Yet - this is a very high quality simulation model. High. The systems are all modelled and controllable via the 3D Flight Engineers panel and controls. Radio navaids are representative of the era - VOR ADF ILS. A neatly hidden subpanel gives you access to ground systems, doors etc. The reproduction of the handling, feel and control of this large 4 engined aeroplane is accurate. Engine starts can be tricky! No explanations for the fuel or electrical systems - need some Boeing guff for that! Takeoff and climb is smooth and it climbs well on high power . Handles smoothly and responds nicely. Aerodynamic stability of the swept wing and empennage is accurate. The model executes a very gentle slow dutch roll oscillation in the cruise. So did the real thing! Speed reduction for approach and landing is per the book and descent profile required. Speed brakes (spoilers) work well as do flap extensions and gear deployment. Reverse capable and handles nicely on the ground. Just remarkable this came from a complete unknown and it seems singular piece of work for XP12. Any thoughts or suggestions on the mods appreciated.

This model arrived without fanfare in XPlane 12 over a year ago. It seems to be a singular effort perhaps by Shensee (Japan?), he appears to have not done anything else. It is a carefully crafted rendition of the B720 and B720B not the 707 so it is very much the same as a Boeing 707-138 series (short body - big engines). There were a couple of mods and improvements that are available - namely a PBR package, some Navitab additions and a mod to put in a basic INS/GPS on the pedestal. The AP is reasonable and there is an improved FMOD package also done for this. It is remarkably good, flight characteristics, textures etc and a lot of work went into the lighting cockpit and cabin that gives this model a very immersive touch. So the base model by Shensee is very good but the PBR mods etc take it to payware level. So if you want a 707 this would be it for XPlane. The only other 707 was done by Mike Wilson for XP11, 707 300 and 420 and they have since been withdrawn from sale nor was ever updated for XP12 (It appears Mr Wilson may have sadly passed on!).

If your wondering about the front end where it all works all the lighting is ajustable, dimmable and can be set to suit your tastes this was pre-departure: