Aaren

Hello John Venema, It's difficult to reply to your message if you have that thread deleted 5 mins after posting your message to me? Your team has had ample time to fix DX10 issues and using someone's vacation as an excuse for not yet having addressed these issues is beyond lame! The mere fact that I'm able to fix the static aircraft black box shadow issue in less than 30 mins as a non-developer shows just how little Orbx cares to help the DX10 community. Your whole library system is a total mess and from what I could see, your individual developers just add their static aircraft models willy-nilly, there is absolutely no consistency in how shadowing is handled in the 256 individual models the static aircraft library file contains. Tomorrow I'll be looking at static airport objects, another library BGL file that you still haven't addressed. And as soon as I have fixed it, i will be posting it all over the Internet. It's time to step up your game John Venema, how embarrassing to have guys like me fix Orbx DX10 issues for free because some of your developers are on holiday............right? Best wishes, Andreas Aarens

Then that's 3 years to make a product that will appeal to.....hmmm.....maybe someone living in Canberra? Instead of creating airports, development money and time is spent on an area that has a minimal market appeal, just crazy for such a long development cycle. In my opinion it would have been a better decision to create a fully seasonal Queenstown airport scenery instead. Andreas Aarens

I just fixed it: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/424177-orbx-dx10-static-aircraft-black-box-shadows-now-fixed/ The issue isn't really that deep, Orbx has no consistency in how they model their static aircraft shadows, that is why some work and some don't. The Orbx library file is a complete mess and I was quite shocked when I went through the 256 different objects in it. Until they address this problem in a professional and customer-friendly manner, this fix is a temporary work-around that deletes the horrible black box shadows. Andreas Aarens

Hi Harry, This is the exact same problem as with the boat shadows in Skiathos X. From what I can see, the ground polygons attached to the object are not setup properly and for some reason the alpha channel designed to cast the object's shadow is faulty. Sloppy work by Orbx and they seem too lazy to fix this. I will have a look at this at PAJN now and if I can fix it, I will report back here on any progress. Best wishes, Andreas Aarens

Thank you for all your comments. While I guess my mention of cows is funny, it at the same time shows the lack of focus. This is about flight simulation and you would think more emphasis would be put on making sure the approach and runway lighting system is done correctly and realistically, but instead bird chirps, butterflies and moving cows are allocated precious development time. I cannot ever remember thinking about butterflies or hearing birds chirping while in a cockpit with the engine running. I find it quite disturbing to be in a 737 cockpit with all the windows closed and still hearing birds. For anybody having problems with the above download link, which I think only works well with Chrome. I've uploaded the file here as well now: http://www.multiupload.nl/P56XV2U7A0 This now gives you 8 different download options to choose from. Andreas Aarens

I have been reading this thread with some amusement. When Orbx setup Sim720 to create their FTX England scenery, they did so by choosing to use a development team with very little experience, in John Venema's own words: Apart from Greg Jones, this team had zero FS development experience so Orbx spent quite some time and investment into training them and skills transfer, and this culminated in the release of FTX EU England late in 2012. Rather than hiring skilled developers, John Venema chose the cheaper route, as skilled developers would have been much more expensive. The old philosophy, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys, is very valid here and the FS community's disappointment in FTX England is proof of that. If Orbx had created a company-wide structure to support and uphold a certain level of quality, by creating an in-house scenery creation bible for instance, then there wouldn't be such a huge difference in quality between individual developments. It seems clear that Orbx's focus has been too oriented towards short-term revenue. Key players within the company have not succeeded in letting the highest skill-set trickle down to improve the skills of less experienced staff. The airports that Sim720 have recently released on their own show this lack of quality and skill with agonising clarity. Andreas Aarens

Thank you too for your encouraging words Paul. Yes, it's very frustrating to have spent so much money on add-ons and only see a small minority of developers actually actively support these in DX10. A friend of mine contacted LH Simulations and Taxi2Gate by email to ask about their support for Steve's DX10 fixer, and they didn't even bother to reply, totally disgraceful support in my opinion. I would like to see FSDG fix their Kastellorizo scenery, 29Palms fix Mykonos, Skiathos and Southhampton, LH Simulations to make their LHBP night textures DX10 compatible, and Orbx to work on their product issues, the list goes on... I don't think Orbx have the skills to manage running their development in such a professional manner. They have too many independent developers guarding their own special scenery creation techniques from what I've seen, and rather than creating their own in-house scenery creation bible, they waste precious development know-how to make things like cows move. Andreas Aarens

Hi all, I have been watching with delight and dismay in how the different developers have reacted to the release of Steve's amazing DX10 Scenery Fixer. Top prize goes to FlyTampa for their immediately available fixes and solutions, as well as their newly released St. Maarten gem. I have to say that I am bitterly disappointed at how some of the most well known and respected developers such as Orbx and 29Palms have handled the DX10 Scenery Fixer release. Many Orbx airports have numerous unsolved DX10 issues, and simple fixes for the grass at Cardiff (EGFF) and Siletz Bay (S45) have still not been given to the community. 29Palms created a wonderful Skiathos X add-on, but this is plagued with shadow problems of some boats and vehicles. Since I am so very tired of waiting for 29Palms to fix one of my favourite sceneries, I spent a few hours today trying to find a solution and have managed to get rid of the boat and vehicle shadows. The fixed files are available here: https://mega.co.nz/#!6VRnTbrR!RwolsU7nWci06R6-YlgcPUGzyc5u2Wtv5WwZXS4aemA The above file is zipped and contains 4 fixed BGL files and the original ones, in case you overwrite them without having a backup. I am a complete novice and it took me all of 3 hours to do this. Shame on you 29Palms for lettings us all down and not taking this into your own hands! Aaren