[A Collection of shots from my last couple of flights]

As the title says "A Collection of shots from my last couple of flights".

 

After years of FSX and FSX-SE and the earlier versions of P3D I've finally come together with a nice enough level of hardware and tuned system for smooth vsync'd flying, and totally enjoying it. Yeah I've only a 1070ti and would like a 3080ti but I'd also like a new Corvette and like a 3080ti, that is not going to happen anytime soon :-(

 

A2A B35V in retro polished finish.

 

Turbo Commander 690B, parked at Boulder airport USA.

 

Same Turbo Commander 690B, differnt livery.

 

I like to park outside of my stately manor (McMansion ??) :-)

 

P51 after blowing the engine.

 

Lancair Legacy @ 2B2 Plumb Island Airport

 

Same Lancair Legacy on flight from 2B2

 

 

 

The A2A Commanche climbing between cloud layers.

 

The migrated Beaver.

 

Autogen density.

 

A closer look at some of those Orbx HD buildings.

 

Cheers

[Terra Flora v2 package issues ??]

Hi, @Greg Jones

 

Is there any update regarding my problem at this point in time?

 

Cheers

[Experimenting with Beaver and Clouds]

On 1/11/2022 at 3:56 AM, wain71 said:

nice shots, stunning clouds on that last one...

 

Hi Folks,

 

Thanks for the comments of support.

 

And yes I'm finding the clouds are really great being dynamically lit by the sun, that said the shader uses ~20% additional GPU resources and my lowly 1070ti is overloaded when it comes to over about 50% coverage, still it's great for partly cloudy days.

 

Cheers

[Experimenting with Beaver and Clouds]

A few pics while having fun experimenting with the Beaver which I've migrated from FSX-SE to P3D v4.5.

 

Also trialing out cloud shader mods for lighting orientated clouds.

 

The Beaver, migrated and configured with McCoy water FX and A2A shockwave lighting.

 

 

Now that the Beaver is installed time to trial both Beaver and cloud shaders.

 

The cloud shader changes the lighting and look of clouds.

 

 

Found some beached shipping while flight testing, I guess the AI is not expecting a group of islands ?

 

 

Last one after takeoff @ 11S, highlights the cloud shader and the quite dramatic look it can generate.

 

Cheers

[Terra Flora v2 package issues ??]

On 1/4/2022 at 9:28 AM, Greg Jones said:

Hi,

 

The .off and .off.off is the correct naming of the files - for a number of reasons this was the way we were able to get the system working as intended.

 

As far as any missing textures are concerned, I need to know what your current control panel settings are in order to verify what textures should be being loaded at the time. 

 

It's always possible that we've overlooked a texture file though I'd be surprised if it's only becoming apparent this long after the product was released. Are you seeing a visual anomaly (ie black textures or lack of vegetation)? The textures your error msgs refer to constitute the bulk of the broadleaf vegetation in the Dark setting (as I recall) this would mean that in areas such as NE US where there's an abundance of broadleaf species, you won't be seeing much at all in summer. Best place to check would be around KMHT.

 

Regarding the number of textures per season; there is intended to be an variance in the volume of textures for each season and the numbers you're seeing look about right to me.

 

Greg

 

Hi Greg,

 

Details provided.

 

Cheers

[Terra Flora v2 package issues ??]

Hi Greg,

 

Thanks for reviewing this issue.

 

As per your suggestion I created a test flight for KMHT, set to summer with a date of 21/06/2019, then flew around a bit and found an area that looked a little devoid of trees.

 

A check of the ContentErrors.txt logging showed the following.

• error=Texture VEG_BROADLEAF_CHESTNUTMAPLE_SU_TF_D.DDS failed to load (FE_REQUEST_STATUS==13)
• error=Texture VEG_BROADLEAF_OAKSYCAMORE_SU_TF_D.DDS failed to load (FE_REQUEST_STATUS==13)
• error=Texture VEG_BROADLEAF_THIN_SU_TF_D.DDS failed to load (FE_REQUEST_STATUS==13)
• error=Texture VEG_BROADLEAF_MESQUITEOLIVE_SU_TF_D.DDS failed to load (FE_REQUEST_STATUS==13)

At this point I took  4 x copies of one of the palm tree textures and renamed as the above four files to act as easily identifiable test textures.

 

Result with missing textures recorded in logging:

 

Result using palm tree testing textures to replace the missing textures:

 

Looks pretty clear cut.

 

The Config I'm using is as per:

Spoiler

H:\Addons_P3D\04.Scenery\Orbx\Global\p3dv4\Global TerraFlora v2\scenery\global\scenery

off         TF_Common_Orig.BGL.off
off         TF_FA_Orig.BGL.off
off         TF_SP_Orig.BGL.off
off         TF_SU_Orig.BGL.off
off         TF_WI_Orig.BGL.off
off         TF2_Common_Default.BGL.off
off         TF2_Common_Default.BGL.off.off
bgl         TF2_Common_Desat.BGL
off         TF2_Common_FTX.BGL.off
off         TF2_FA_default.BGL.off.off
bgl         TF2_FA_FTX.BGL
off         TF2_FA_Vibrant.BGL.off
off         TF2_HW_default.BGL.off
off         TF2_HW_default.BGL.off.off
off         TF2_HW_Light.BGL.off
bgl         TF2_HW_Orig.BGL
off         TF2_SP_Default.BGL.off
off         TF2_SP_Default.BGL.off.off
bgl         TF2_SP_Desat.BGL
off         TF2_SP_FTX.BGL.off
off         TF2_SU_Default.BGL.off
off         TF2_SU_Default.BGL.off.off
bgl         TF2_SU_Desat.BGL
off         TF2_SU_FTX.BGL.off
off         TF2_WI_default.BGL.off
off         TF2_WI_default.BGL.off.off
bgl         TF2_WI_Desat.BGL
off         TF2_WI_FTX.BGL.off

 

I await Orbx's further advice.

 

Cheers

[Terra Flora v2 package issues ??]

Hi John,

 

Yes logging is typically used when developing and in tracking down and resolving bugs as well as in customer issues, however I'm not about to be burying my head in the sand...

 

I use logging extensively when tracking down customer reported issues and during development in web, client and server related issues, and I am aware software dev is not an exact science hence why there is QA and there is the availablity of logging.

 

The way I see it there are 2 x possiblities.

 

1), The files are actually missing, this would be a bug. I see this in the QA of R&D releases where dependancies and various files are missed, the old adage "it works on my machine" but when packaged things are missed.

 

2), The files are not intended to be released in the package, however given the scenery is requesting non-existant files that would be a bug.

 

And I gather there would be holes in the vegetation display given files are requested but are unable to be loaded.

 

Still there is the issue of the config being regenerated as .off and .off.off what's that all about ? because it seems like enablement is not a possiblity at all.

 

Cheers

 

 

 

 

[Terra Flora v2 package issues ??]

More items.

 

error=Texture VEG_BROADLEAF_THIN_SU_TF_D.DDS failed to load (FE_REQUEST_STATUS==13)

error=Texture VEG_BROADLEAF_MESQUITEOLIVE_SU_TF_D.DDS failed to load (FE_REQUEST_STATUS==13)

 

Has all the looks of a regression issue to myself (I do work for a software R&D company and reguarly QA releases from the dev crews).

 

Cheers

[Australia V2 Compatibility with Ayers Rock]

I have it in P3D v4.5 and there were a bunch of things I had to do for nicer compatability.

 

One item that was annoying were Pine Trees surrounding the area, which is simply not the case and is why I've switched off some of the AP files.

 

The AP itself is an FSDG creation.

 

There are some replacement textures available on the Aerosoft support forum and I downloaded a replacment AFCAD from the below location.

 

Urmel’s AFCAD’S for Payware Airports (Prepar3d v4+v5)

https://jcai.dk/
https://www.alpha-india.net/forums/index.php?topic=26287.0

 

And disabled the following files via .off

• AFX_YAYE.bgl.off
• LC_8240.bgl.disabled in favour of Orbx
• LC_8241.bgl.disabled in favour of Orbx
• RS_KataTjuta.bgl.off
• Uluru_Mesh_V1.bgl.off
• YAYE_BGLLights_New_FS9.off

Fits in relatively nicely with Australia v2.

 

There is also an OZx YAYE, which is quite different, though both have aspects of pros and cons and while ultimately both are an improvement over nothing, neither are anything to write home about.

 

In reality both are quite long in the tooth and origionaly released for FSX.

 

I'd really like a new release of YAYE, one the encompases the entire area as HQ photoreal, would be great for sightseeing flights and for the jet airliner crew, would really showcase that part of Australia.

 

I'm surprised Orbx hasn't considered such an airport and surrounding area, it's not as though there are loads of complex buildings etc. and it is a showcase area of Australia, e.g. jet to from Alice Springs to YAYE and GA sightseeing flights around the rocks.

 

Anyway... here are a few pics.

 

 

Cheers

[Terra Flora v2 package issues ??]

Hey Folks,

 

I was hoping if someone @ Orbx can confirm if there is an issue with the TF2 package.

 

I ask because, while developing and testing gauge programing I noticed the errors below popping into the ContentErrors.log, quite a few in repeating runs flying from 11S.

 

error=Texture VEG_BROADLEAF_OAKSYCAMORE_SU_TF_D.DDS failed to load (FE_REQUEST_STATUS==13)

error=Texture VEG_BROADLEAF_CHESTNUTMAPLE_SU_TF_D.DDS failed to load (FE_REQUEST_STATUS==13

 

A review of the TF2 files shows sure enough I don't have them, infact there are only 7 SU (Summer I assume) textures compared to,

21 x Winter

24 x Hard winter

21 x Spring

58 x Fall

7  x Summer

 

I did perform a verify and no changes to the file count.

 

There are also a few entries in the orbx_cpl_TF2.xml that don't have the look of being quite right.

The majority are,

            <onpath>TF_Common_Orig.BGL</onpath>
            <offpath>TF_Common_Orig.BGL.off</offpath>

 

But there are a few that look like the below.

            <onpath>TF2_Common_Default.BGL.off</onpath>
            <offpath>TF2_Common_Default.BGL.off.off</offpath>

 

Is there something going on ?

 

Cheers

[New Zealand North Island up the East Coast]

13 hours ago, Orbxtreme said:

Nice colours and shadows in your set. Great idea to find an improvized place to land with your C-208B.

 

Tomato and Reshade to thank for such tuning.

 

Actually the airstrip is not improvised, it's listed as N713 and can easily be found by installing the NZ NI unlisted airports pack.

 

I landed @ N713 and taxied up to the buildings to have a gander so to speak.

 

Cheers

 

 

[New Zealand North Island up the East Coast]

27 minutes ago, TerribleT said:

I'm guessing these lovely shots were taken in P3D?

 

Thanks everyone and yes, they were taken in P3D using an historical date (Spring) and weather of September 2019.

 

I origionally purchased the NZ Islands back in my FSX days which was a huge improvement over the default FSX scenery.

 

I remember those FSX days, a 2 core workstation with a NVidia 760 I bought second hand from a work collegue, the machine could barely keep up and I'd have to keep pausing and wait for the scenery to catch up.

 

Now my OC Ryzen 3800x with OC 1070Ti manages to keep up with a very fluid 30 Hz vsync, although looking at updating the GFX card to a 3080Ti in a couple of weeks once I get my second vaxx out of the way.

 

Cheers

[New Zealand North Island up the East Coast]

After resolving my wierd North Island coastal irregularities, I'm taking a flight up the coast checking to see if there are any other issues that might bite.

 

 

And so far all looking pretty good :-)

 

Take off from Waihi Beach (NZWV) in my modded PBR Carenado C208B Caravan.

 

 

 

Waihi Beach (NZWV) in the left background.

 

 

North(ish) bound.

 

 

Up the coast and left turn.

 

 

Heading to Cascade Bridge (N713) 

 

Taking at break @ Cascade Bridge (N713), bit of a tough place to land.

 

Tuning into NZAA

 

 

Getting closer.

 

 

Lining up for NZAA with a jet coming in behind me.

 

 

Next will be back over to the East coast to Pauanui Beach (NZUN) then North to Matarangi Beach (NZAG), Springhill (NZSL) and finishing @ Whangarei (NZWR).

 

Fingers crossed no wierdness pops out.

 

Cheers

 

[New Zealand North Island coast line irregularities]

Just an update to this issue.

 

I traced the prob to when I installed Flightbeam's NZAA.

 

Flightbeam have their own managment tool for configuring their airports with a troubleshooter where it makes recommendations to disable selected Orbx NZNI items and provides a slider to do so.

 

The slider simply adds or removes a .off to the target file.

 

Upon review of the xml used to configure the airport I found the following items.

 

  <Troubleshooting>
    <Keyword>*NZAA*</Keyword>
    <Keyword>*4_mesh_multiLOD4-12_FTX-NZNI_section2*</Keyword>
    <Keyword>*0_excl_FTX_NZNI_GUID_all*</Keyword>
    <Keyword>*cvx_FTX_NZNI_water_9445_summer*</Keyword>
    <Keyword>*2_FTX_NZNI_orthoimage_NZNI_LINZ_ManukauHarbour_2m*</Keyword>
  </Troubleshooting>

 

The "*4_mesh_multiLOD4-12_FTX-NZNI_section2*" section was origionally duplicated in the list above and I thought that might be the issue, however a test showed not so.

 

The problem is introduced when "*0_excl_FTX_NZNI_GUID_all*" is disabled (via .off).

 

I'm not aware of the file's design intention however if it is disabled it certainly results in those weird North Island coastline issues, assuming vector is installed.

 

An easy fix via the Flightbeam Management tool by just sliding file's on/off switch to the left.

 

However I also had to first navigate to the files directly and remove the duplicates created by running the Orbx Central verify files option.

 

Just in case anyone else comes across the same or similar issue.

 

Anyway onto NZAA to check if anything else is affected.

 

Cheers

[New Zealand North Island coast line irregularities]

Hi Nick,

 

Thanks for the confirmation.

 

I cannot think of any 3rd party item that would be affecting coastlines, I do have a few Orbx and other 3rd party NZ airports though, and the orders of Orbx sceneries are as applied by Orbx Central with 3rd party above Orbx.

 

The above said I did find a screen shot of Ohiwa harbour dated September 2020 where the coastline irregularities did not exist, and guess something between then and now has altered NZNI. Cannot recall of any specifics though.

 

A verify of NZNI found 55 files needed replacing.

 

2021-11-13T22:13:47.760Z [DEBUG] [Central::SaturnDispatcherService] - Requesting download and install for product nzni from Saturn.

~

2021-11-13T22:14:03.347Z [INFO] [Saturn] - [INFO] Required files: 55
2021-11-13T22:14:03.347Z [INFO] [Saturn] - [INFO] Required chunks: 5

 

And all good again, although I guess I'll likely find some of my Orbx and other NZNI airports will now need the same process applied.

 

I'll make my next major flight an around NZ, landing at the various payware airports and keep an eye open for any changes now that I've a marker on the issue.

 

Cheers

 

NZNI coastline issues resolved.

[New Zealand North Island coast line irregularities]

It's Ohiwa Harbour about 8 nm West of NZOP

[New Zealand North Island coast line irregularities]

Hi Team,

 

Can anyone advise on why I might have these New Zealand North Island coastline irregularities ?

 

And just as importantly... how to resolve ?

 

I do have NZ North and South Island and Vector but haven't noticed the coastlines being out of whack until recently.

 

I did run the Vector Airport elevation tool prior to noticing but otherwise the Vector and NZ NI & SI remain in their order locations of when they were installed (NZ NI & SI and vector are installed into the sim root).

 

Cheers

 

[YMBD _ Murry Bridge Elevation]

For ordering I have a marker folder to mark the top of the P3D entries.

 

Orbx airports and regions go below the marker and Global openLC go below the Orbx airports and regions.

 

Above the marker are sceneries and addons from other companies.

 

I also have a mix of the Orbx sceneries installed into the sim root and as xml addons and use the Lorby Addon Manager to exclusively manage the scenery and addons as I've found the P3D xml addon manager to be totally buggy once things get complex (I have 211 xml packages and 25 autodiscovery xml locations configured).

 

 

If using the OZx YMBD the following two Orbx files files should be set to .off

• FTX_AUS_YMBD_objects.bgl
• ADE_FTX_AUS_YMBD.bgl

I do have Australia v2 installed into the sim root which means the region is added to the scenery.cfg rather than the add-ons.cfg

 

And I do recommend the Lorby Addon Manager as it is more reliable than P3D's addon manager, plus has helped myself track down ordering issues causing similar types of issues.

 

The above said maybe there is something left over from Australia V1 ? assuming it was previosuly installed.

 

If you cannot solve the Orbx support crew might want you to upload copies of the scenery.cfg and add-ons.cfg for review.

 

Cheers

[YMBD _ Murry Bridge Elevation]

Order of scenery maybe ?

 

What version of P3D v4 is being run ?

 

I ask because LM made changes to the way airport elevation is handled in 4.5 HF2 I believe, I'm running 4.5 HF3 or version 4.5.14.

 

I can say I have both the AusV2 Orbx default and the OZx version and both are displaying correctly (as in if I enable one or the other), although I prefer the OZx one.

 

I use Little Nav Map to display the airport bgls  for easy ID as to which files are used to create the airport.

 

Orbx YMBD

 

OZx YMBD

 

Little Nav Map - showing the bgls in use (LHS just above the flight plan altitude display)

 

One last pic of flying over the town, I actually did some work for MurryBridge Council a few years ago where I installed their EDRMS (Electronic Documents and Records Management System), never been there though, all the work was performed remotely.

[Avatars improvement?]

Wow, when you see those avatars they just scream next gen GFX.

 

The good old Orbx originals back from the FSX days just no longer cut it, but you do have to take into account the software and hardware capablities of the day.

 

However it also highlights the issue of a lack of ongoing improvement due to the original platform of FSX being essentually stuck in time, thus a product was always a bake once, release (with a few bug fixes along the way) then forget. Good for profitability but stuck in time.

 

It also brings the problem of product compatablity (with P3D) where compatable does not nessecarily mean improved.

 

I guess what with the base GFX bar now having been set quite high and with MSFS being continuosly improved, so too will developers need to also start investing in continous improvement of products.

 

The software developement company I work for has a %25 yearly premium for support and maintenance which helps fund ongoing improvements and new developement, plus subscriptions are another method also in use to keep steady funding flowing.

 

Now for the horror BBQ I would never like to be stuck at.... :-)

 

But then again there are some quite detailed scenes in older Orbx scenery.

 

Cheers

 

[Voting for the September 2021 Screenshot Contest.]

Mine is for ikbenik

 

[September 2021 Screenshot contest! Prize? Any Orbx product of your choice!]

 

REPUBLIC F-84 F THUNDERSTREAK over Orbx Florida True Earth

 

I'd taken off from the Space Shuttle landing airport.

 

Cheers

 

[Resolution from far]

Giday,

 

You're not flying too fast for the scenery to keep up perhaps?

 

If the sim is paused does the scenery catch up eventually ?

 

2560x1440 is what I use for a DSR screen mode and my 1070ti manages the resolution Ok, provided I don't exceed a GPU load of about 97%

 

A FFTF value only functions when the sim internal limiter is not set to "Unlimited" (I always run Unlimited and use FFTF Dynamic).

 

You could try an affinity mask to set P3D running on the cores only of the first... say 4 processing cores (and running on both the cores and threads for the remaining) and see how it goes.

 

Another thing I have is a highly optomised Sim/Orbx install on an NMVe drive rated at a read rate of ~3500 MB per second.

Additionally the Orbx libraries live on a Ram Disk for maximum speed of loading.

Everything happens really quick.

 

Sorry my p3d config file itself is v4.5, that said the link below is a thread covering a selection of settings I use that you can trial out and see what suits.

 

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/604850-textures-appearing-black/

 

Cheers

 

P.S. came across some good mil jet freebees.

 

Flying over Florida True Earth @ 345 Knots,

[Resolution from far]

11 hours ago, Beiram said:

I run on a i9-11900k with an rtx 2080 super. both are overclocked

 

Certainly adequate hardware, mine's a Ryzen 3800X and a 1070ti, and yes both are overclocked too. 4.5 Ghz base for the CPU and 2 Ghz for the GPU.

 

What are your's clocked at ?

 

11 hours ago, Beiram said:

i limit my fps to 30 via nvidia as well

 

30 fps shoud leave lots of headroom for GFX slider ramp ups.

 

What's the screen resolution ?

 

I have 1080 x 1920 and use DSR (Dynamic Super Resolution) to fly at one step down from 4k, cannot go any higher in general use as it overloads the GPU (need a 3080ti - if only they were not so expensive...)

 

Trialled disabling HT ? I have SMT disabled on my CPU (AMD's version of HT) as I found P3D performed much better, and my CPU ran a lot cooler, or you could trial using an Affinity Mask to place P3D on cores only, I did trial that too but found SMT off was the better performer.

 

There's a thread on AVSIM - https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/606021-affinity-mask-word-not-alloweds-guide/

 

I do use FFTF Dynamic to manage the scenery loading when the frame rate in sim is set to unlimited. FFTF Dynamic basicaly controls the P3D FFTF value in a dynamic way, either by height range or FPS range. It sounded like snake oil when I first came across it, however I had a saved scenario where the scenery was always blurry at a particular point and FFTF Dynamic prevented the scenery becoming blurry, so yeah it works for myself.

 

I also have a number of prepar3d.cfg options applied to tune the configuration to my usage.

You know, stop building textures unloading and loading, an affinity mask, smoother cockpit shadows, higher lods for vegetation, and maxing out the autogen.

All  are settings outside of the UI options.

 

I'd be interested to hear how you go with some trials.

 

 

11 hours ago, Beiram said:

your sim here looks incredible

 

Well thanks, more pics at Screenshots and Prepar3D, and some vids Oz Sim Pilot.

 

Cheers

[Just two Warbirds]

6 hours ago, Aussieflyer38 said:

B24 leaving YBBN for Amberley Air Force Base YAMB.

 

Where is the B24 from ?

 

Cheers