Project A

[teecee]

Whoops, just realised that you are talking Aerofly..oh well, this might help you to decide to stay with FSX or whatever sim you use.

JV has said elsewhere (can't find it right off the bat) That Aus will be updated  next year, for FSX/Prepar3d, but as an Aussie I can tell you that the continent (the first to be "Orbx'd" many years ago) is not too bad..I assume that you have the latest update done a couple of years ago. Did you fly the current Tassie yet? it really is good, and I know this because I lived there for over twenty years.. Patience my friend, with Orbx everything comes to he who waits..Teecee.

 

PS: Get  over to Ozx http://aussiex.org/forum/, they have a heap of Aussie addons (freeware)..Well worth a visit, and of course there are heaps of payware stuff here, plus many freeware.

 

 

[HiFlyer]

EA4.24 Update

 

Most of you may have noticed a small update today. This update was just a small performance tweak that reduced some CPU computing. You may see a very small FPS increase but nothing of note this time around.

[HiFlyer]

A gratuitous Aerofly picture while we wait for Innsbruck: 

 

[HiFlyer]

Small Update EA4.28 Released Today

There was another small update that improved performance when looking into the sun as well as added VKBsim Joystick support with a default assignment.

[HiFlyer]

Autopilot fix and tree variations in UPDATE EA4.32 (Public_Beta)

 

An update has been pushed to the public beta channel that should fix the autopilot bug. In addition to the bug fix, a few more tree variations have been introduced as well. Please report if you still have some issues with autopilot following this update.

 

[HiFlyer]

With Innsbruck a month away, I'm still (also) curious about information on Meigs Field as well as the actual mechanics of how Aerofly scenery will be sold (if I understand correctly) through Orbx Direct.

 

How will this integrate with Steam, etc.

[Christopher Low]

If Meigs Field is being released for AeroFly FS2, I assume this means that the Chicago regional package is also going to be released? An airport without surrounding scenery would be rather pointless.

[NoLonger]

40 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

If Meigs Field is being released for AeroFly FS2, I assume this means that the Chicago regional package is also going to be released? An airport without surrounding scenery would be rather pointless.

 

LOWI also has no real surrounding scenery. Switzerland is close but close isn't good enough for me. It would be nice if IPACS would add a few hundreds or thousands of square kilometers of high res scenery around the new addons. Without that things it would be nice but indeed slightly pointless. Unless they also add a trike to check out these airports.  A trike is slow enough to keep you entertained for quite a while around LOWI.

[TigerTigerM]

On 5/12/2017 at 8:20 PM, HiFlyer said:

Autopilot fix and tree variations in UPDATE EA4.32 (Public_Beta)

 

An update has been pushed to the public beta channel that should fix the autopilot bug. In addition to the bug fix, a few more tree variations have been introduced as well. Please report if you still have some issues with autopilot following this update.

 

How do you get hold of that update?

Signed into AFS2, but no mention of an update.

Does AFS2 have the equivalent of FTX Central?

TTM

[John Venema]

2 hours ago, J van E said:

 

LOWI also has no real surrounding scenery. Switzerland is close but close isn't good enough for me. It would be nice if IPACS would add a few hundreds or thousands of square kilometers of high res scenery around the new addons. Without that things it would be nice but indeed slightly pointless. Unless they also add a trike to check out these airports.  A trike is slow enough to keep you entertained for quite a while around LOWI.

 

LOWI has 2500 km2 of photoreal scenery around it, fully annotated using the brand new autogen system including housing and trees we co-developed with IPACS.

 

Likewise we are at this moment determining the size of the HD photoreal area around KCGX Meigs Field which will also use the new autogen system.

 

So it's slightly unfair to suggest there is no scenery around these airports.

[HiFlyer]

3 hours ago, TigerTigerM said:

How do you get hold of that update?

Signed into AFS2, but no mention of an update.

Does AFS2 have the equivalent of FTX Central?

TTM

 

If you have auto updates enabled in Steam, it will update as soon as you hit "play"

 

To check what version of the sim you are on, just Start AF and click "about"

[NoLonger]

5 hours ago, John Venema said:

 

LOWI has 2500 km2 of photoreal scenery around it, fully annotated using the brand new autogen system including housing and trees we co-developed with IPACS.

 

Likewise we are at this moment determining the size of the HD photoreal area around KCGX Meigs Field which will also use the new autogen system.

 

So it's slightly unfair to suggest there is no scenery around these airports.

 

Ah, yes, 2500 km2 is quite something indeed. You are right. I was thinking about the default Aerofly scenery around the LOWI addon but forgot the addon itself has indeed quite a large area of photoreal! Thanks for correcting me on this.

[HiFlyer]

16 minutes ago, J van E said:

Ah, yes, 2500 km2 is quite something indeed. You are right. I was thinking about the default Aerofly scenery around the LOWI addon but forgot the addon itself has indeed quite a large area of photoreal! Thanks for correcting me on this.

 

You will find that the new tree types added in the most recent updates increase the feel of realism in the Lowi scenery area quite a bit. Now if they can just bring some of that new Autogen to Switzerland.........

 

I think the next logical scenery in the area might be something like Orbx Germany. (if they are interested in expanding in that part of the world to that extent, anytime soon)

[TigerTigerM]

3 hours ago, HiFlyer said:

 

If you have auto updates enabled in Steam, it will update as soon as you hit "play"

 

To check what version of the sim you are on, just Start AF and click "about"

ok, thanks.

Need to check Steam settings.

TTM

[HiFlyer]

2 minutes ago, TigerTigerM said:

ok, thanks.

Need to check Steam settings.

TTM

 

Also, make sure you are on the Aerofly beta channel!

[NoLonger]

56 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

I think the next logical scenery in the area might be something like Orbx Germany.

 

I remember reading regions are further away in the future than airports. I suppose most of the existing airports scenery can be converted somehow to Aerofly (clearly not everything, like the new autogen) making the process achievable without having to create everything all over again. But a region needs new ground textures all over the place because Aerofly FS 2 is photoreal only and current FTX regions are only partially photoreal (maybe around 5% or so...?). So this will take a lot more work and I also presume any upcoming FTX regions for Aerofly will be smaller than the current FSX/P3D ones.

 

Lot of guesswork in the above but maybe that will trigger a response from someone with more knowledge. Because I would LOVE to see FTX regions (with photoreal) in Aerofly!

[HiFlyer]

Ipacs have said the next sdk update is supposed to make it easy for just about anyone to create a photoreal area.........

 

If it then also allows people to even semi-easily create autogen........

 

Excerpt from a Steam post:

Quote

Take a look on the store page, you will see DLC telling you which areas are currently available. In general California, Switzerland, New York, Utah, Nevada, and surrounding areas are in the game with more coming. There will also be an improved SDK that will make it easy for users to add regions to this.

 

[HiFlyer]

42 minutes ago, J van E said:

But a region needs new ground textures all over the place because Aerofly FS 2 is photoreal only and current FTX regions are only partially photoreal (maybe around 5% or so...?). So this will take a lot more work and I also presume any upcoming FTX regions for Aerofly will be smaller than the current FSX/P3D ones.

 

I'm not sure that's true. trying to look at it from a scenery designers point of view, the current half-photo/half landclass approach must almost by definition encompass an enormous amount of stitching and blending to make the two different things merge realistically.

 

With all photo scenery (or mostly photoscenery) then a lot of widescale stitching and merging might be gone, leaving designers to simply work with what's actually there.

 

If Ipacs really does then have a viable way of creating accurate autogen over wide photoscenery areas, then that's yet another bit of (possible) work reduction, with results conceivably more realistic than anything we have seen before short of google earth.......

 

Possabilities.......

[NoLonger]

1 hour ago, HiFlyer said:

 

I'm not sure that's true. trying to look at it from a scenery designers point of view, the current half-photo/half landclass approach must almost by definition encompass an enormous amount of stitching and blending to make the two different things merge realistically.

 

With all photo scenery (or mostly photoscenery) then a lot of widescale stitching and merging might be gone, leaving designers to simply work with what's actually there.

 

If Ipacs really does then have a viable way of creating accurate autogen over wide photoscenery areas, then that's yet another bit of (possible) work reduction, with results conceivably more realistic than anything we have seen before short of google earth.......

 

Possabilities.......

 

Haha, well, it depends on how you look at this. Photoreal has its own problems: where to get good quality files?!  Take a look at Google Maps and you will pretty soon see that colors often are completely wrong: without any smooth transition an area might suddenly look purple instead of brown. Some area's look sunny, some don't, some have cloud shadows... the list of problems is almost endless. Good photoreal source data may also cost a lot. For landclass however you only need a few files to cover an entire region! Low costs. And concerning the stitching and merging: a lot of people don't like landclass scenery because you always have abrupt and sudden change of textures with houses being cut off etc.: only within a tile you may need to stick and merge but when the landclass changes there is no stitching and merging needed. 

 

So in my view photoreal is a lot harder to do well. With landclass you only need to work on a specific amount of files to fill an entire region, with photoreal every square meter is different and needs to be looked at.

 

And btw current regions aren't half photoreal/half landclass. I don't know the exact numbers, maybe Orbx can share that info, but it seems to me regions are 90% landclass, so with repeated generic textures and 10% photoreal. Might even be 5 versus 90. Or less.

 

Anyway, regions are harder to convert to Aerofly than airports which already are 100% photoreal.

[alcliff]

John Venema, in April you stated: 

"LOWI and KCGX will be available to purchase from 15th June 2017 on the OrbxDirect.com web store and will be managed by Orbx's FTX Central application for automatic updates. Likewise, for existing IPACS customers who prefer Steam LOWI and KCGX will also be available to purchase from the Steam store as DLC."

 

Could you provide more information about the advantages or disadvantages of using Orbx's FTX Central vs Steam store as DLC? 

Will LOWI and KCGX for Aerofly 2 share space with FSX/P3D inside Orbx's FTX Central?

[HiFlyer]

12 minutes ago, J van E said:

 

Haha, well, it depends on how you look at this. Photoreal has its own problems: where to get good quality files?!  Take a look at Google Maps and you will pretty soon see that colors often are completely wrong: without any smooth transition an area might suddenly look purple instead of brown. Some area's look sunny, some don't, some have cloud shadows... the list of problems is almost endless. Good photoreal source data may also cost a lot. For landclass however you only need a few files to cover an entire region! Low costs. And concerning the stitching and merging: a lot of people don't like landclass scenery because you always have abrupt and sudden change of textures with houses being cut off etc.: only within a tile you may need to stick and merge but when the landclass changes there is no stitching and merging needed. 

 

So in my view photoreal is a lot harder to do well. With landclass you only need to work on a specific amount of files to fill an entire region, with photoreal every square meter is different and needs to be looked at.

 

You have to remember though, how much photoreal is already out there and waiting to be converted as just short of shovelware....... 

 

For instance, any of the good stuff from Megascenery and especially the hi-res city areas.

 

I bet Flugwerks Austria professional HD would plug nearly seamlessly into Orbx Innsbruck & Ipacs Switzerland, which would probably meld fairly easily with Orbx germany.....

 

Popular Bluesky sceneries.....

 

Drzewiecki design.....

 

It goes on and on.

 

I would imagine it would go like:

 

Nice base photoscenery.

 

Numerous custom built/designed local landmarks

 

Copious amounts of Ipacs Autogen.

 

Start pumping out regional airports like theres no tomorrow.

 

Rinse and repeat.

 

 

[FalconAF]

Pardon me if I'm confused about this whole photoreal vs texture/landclass ground scenery debate, but....

 

Where has anybody at ORBX ever said they were planning on developing "full fat" regions for AF2 to begin with?  Seems to me AF2 is exactly what ORBX said (a long time ago) the main focus of ORBX was...develop a scenery base (a "region") that they could focus on making AIRPORTS to sell.  Well, they don't NEED to develop any "full fat" regions for AF2.  They can just use the photoreal scenery base with the (new and improved?) autogen placement IPACS has developed, and then sell AIRPORTS for the photreal base layer in AF2 (and include any wide(r) airport surroundings they may want to include with it, like the "LOWI has 2500 km2 of photoreal scenery around it" JV said above). 

 

ORBX (and JV) have said they will be supporting BOTH AF2 and P3D 64-bit (when it is released).  Continuing to make "full fat" regions for P3D may be something ORBX will do in the future, but doing it for AF2 wouldn't be necessary at all. 

 

Why are some people trying to turn AF2...an obviously photoreal-based ground product where GOOD quality photoreal scenery IS available...into a "full fat texture/landclass" scenery product?  FTX Global Base can (and if I understand, will) be used for the "rest of the world" where good quality photoreal scenery may not be available.  And that will work just fine.  And people who DO like photoreal scenery as their base scenery will like AF2, especially if it does have a quality autogen placement ability for those photoreal areas.  And people who don't like photoreal as their base scenery will have the new and improved 64-bit P3D, with FTX Global Base and "full fat" regions so they don't have to "complain" about photoreal scenery (which I can never understand to begin with, because many of the same people who complain about photoreal scenery sing the praises of ORBX airports like LOWI that have (quote) "2500 km2 of photoreal scenery around it".

 

Can't everybody just be happy we WILL have choices in what our different flight simulators can provide us?  And quit trying to make ALL our flight simulator product choices do the exact same things?  If you don't like photoreal, use P3D.  If you like photoreal, use AF2.  If you will still insist on using FSX, that's your choice also. 

 

I think HiFlyer is pretty darn close to how AF2 is designed to be in his post above.  Unless JV or someone at ORBX comes out and actually says ORBX is planning to make "full fat texture/landclass regions" for AF2.  If I missed anybody saying that in the past, my sincere apologies.  But why would ORBX WANT to produce a "full fat texture/landclass" region that would REPLACE a quality photreal area the sizes of which are already in AF2 (like SOCAL and NORCAL)?  Heck, if I'm gonna do that with AF2, I might as well not even buy AF2 to begin with and just keep using P3D's "full fat texture/landcalss regions" with FTX Global Base.

 

PS - I'm currently using both AF2 and P3D.  And yes, I plan on continuing to use both of them for the different types of flight simming they provide.  But if AF2 just becomes a "clone" of P3D with texture/landclass base scenery, there will be no reason for me to keep using both products.  As a minimum, I wouldn't be buying any ORBX "full fat texture/landclass regions" for AF2 because I'm using AF2 FOR the photoreal base scenery it uses.  I'll buy quality ORBX AIRPORTS that work with AF2's photoreal scenery, but I'm not going to spend money to turn AF2 into "P3D the Sequel".

 

[HiFlyer]

Hmmmm,...... seems I'm not the first to think of it. Dang!!!!! 

 

Also: at last a scenery video where the poster doesn't feel the need to give us 20 minutes of their startup prowess and button pushing technique, rather than actually showcasing the scenery. 

 

 

[NoLonger]

10 hours ago, FalconAF said:

Why are some people trying to turn AF2...an obviously photoreal-based ground product where GOOD quality photoreal scenery IS available...into a "full fat texture/landclass" scenery product?

 

I don't know who is trying to do that but it is certainly not me. I absolutely don't want to see any landclass based scenery with generic textures in Aerofly FS 2. The reason why I would like to see Orbx creating regions, with photoreal only, is that IPACS probably won't cover the entire world with high res textures and even if they did, the amount of detail when it comes to autogen and 3D objects, probably will be (very) low. FTX regions shine when it comes to details: default Aerofly scenery is very empty and flat. 

 

In short: 1. Orbx could create regions for parts of the world IPACS isn't planning to do anything and 2. Orbx is known for adding great detail everywhere, something IPACS doesn't do. But whatever happens, please no generic landclass scenery in AFS2! 

[NoLonger]

6 hours ago, HiFlyer said:

Also: at last a scenery video where the poster doesn't feel the need to give us 20 minutes of their startup prowess and button pushing technique, rather than actually showcasing the scenery. 

 

Nice. And then imagine this with Aerofly's superb graphics engine and lighting system...! It will look at least twice as better and more real.

[MZee1960]

On 2017-04-04 at 1:39 AM, lixfeldt said:

When this SIM gets life traffic weather etc....its going to be very good .. right now its a little like the twilight zone

+ 1

I have had the 'original'  Aerofly FS for years on my system .......

.... runs beautifully,  but I get very lonely very fast ......  

[John Hargreaves]

Wow, if that was in FSX, I can't wait to see it in FS2. Love the window cleaner at the airport.

[HiFlyer]

 

[HiFlyer]

Small Update for owners of the Switzerland DLC - Added Airport- Speck-Fehraltorf

For owners of the Switzerland DLC a new airport is heading your way shortly: Speck-Fehraltorf Airport

ENJOY!

[windquest]

My biggest concern is that it is on steam and that screams GAME not simulator.  The visuals are amazing and just have to try it but, like all others, until there is wide spread scenery and GA airplanes, it will in the background.  But with p3dv4 out now and this announcement just 15days later speaks volumes about where Orbx thinks the future of flight simulators is heading

 

henry

[sightseer]

On ‎5‎/‎6‎/‎2017 at 10:09 PM, HiFlyer said:

A gratuitous Aerofly picture while we wait for Innsbruck: 

 

 

when did they update the sky and clouds?  this looks different than what I last remember seeing.  looks much better EDIT: I've decreased the red rive on my monitor so maybe things haven't actually changed...yet...I understand they have plans in this area though

 

Can AFS2 be completely loaded and run to/from an external USB (3.x) hard drive?  will it run well?  I just cant afford the prices Im seeing for internal drives.

 

 

and on a different topic - a speculative topic...concerning the problems inherent in photoreal...and Im thinking about the new technologies that obviously do now exist - the facial recognition approach to pulling out tree and building location data from satellite photos...

if it can tell trees from buildings, it can also tell one type of grass from another and one type of sand from another and one type of concrete from another, etc etc...so...

 

digitizing old analog music - it clears it up.  the analog is infinite possible choices and the digital has a finite set.  The 'facial recognition technology' - the 'tree and building recognition' technology could actually clean up photoreal by first determining WHAT is there and then rebuilding the photoreal with a new set of clean well defined choices.  If different photos show the same texture element but in different colors due to the source materials then the technoilogy able to pull out trees from buildings should also be able to just replace all miscolored texture elemnts with one known good element.  hopefully.

 

in my opinion.

[HiFlyer]

27 minutes ago, sightseer said:

Can AFS2 be completely loaded and run to/from an external USB (3.x) hard drive?  will it run well?  I just cant afford the prices Im seeing for internal drives.

 

Not a usb stick, but I can't see a reason it wouldn't run from a usb drive.

[sightseer]

1 hour ago, HiFlyer said:

 

Not a usb stick, but I can't see a reason it wouldn't run from a usb drive.

 

I was hoping you might have personal experience with it.  Theres a guy at avsim who talks about running his addon Ortho scenery for XPlane on four external drives and he apparently doesn't have loading issues that one might expect so I wondered if AFS2 could be installed an run from an external drive like that.  

[HiFlyer]

15 minutes ago, sightseer said:

 

I was hoping you might have personal experience with it.  Theres a guy at avsim who talks about running his addon Ortho scenery for XPlane on four external drives and he apparently doesn't have loading issues that one might expect so I wondered if AFS2 could be installed an run from an external drive like that.  

 

Nope, no personal experience, but I just can't see any technical reasons it wouldn't work. Anyone else, feel free to speak up!

[olderndirt]

A question about purchasing.  My LOWI purchase for FSX is on FTXCentral which would handle the previous purchase discount but my Aerofly FS2 is on Steam.  All my FS2 addons are DLC so will Steam recognize my previous purchase when I DLC LOWI?  If not how will a FTXCentral  purchase/install migrate to Steam?

[Phil Hulme]

6 hours ago, HiFlyer said:

 

Nope, no personal experience, but I just can't see any technical reasons it wouldn't work. Anyone else, feel free to speak up!

 

The distinction between internal and external hard drives is much less significant these days as long as you are using a USB 3.x port/drive. If you have that then go for it, as Steam give no quibble refunds within 2 hours usage anyway, so nothing to lose.

[John Venema]

6 hours ago, olderndirt said:

A question about purchasing.  My LOWI purchase for FSX is on FTXCentral which would handle the previous purchase discount but my Aerofly FS2 is on Steam.  All my FS2 addons are DLC so will Steam recognize my previous purchase when I DLC LOWI?  If not how will a FTXCentral  purchase/install migrate to Steam?

 

The 40% discount is only available if you purchase LOWI or KCGX from OrbxDirect. Steam will not recognise your previous purchases.

[Ville19912]

13 hours ago, windquest said:

My biggest concern is that it is on steam and that screams GAME not simulator.  The visuals are amazing and just have to try it but, like all others, until there is wide spread scenery and GA airplanes, it will in the background.  But with p3dv4 out now and this announcement just 15days later speaks volumes about where Orbx thinks the future of flight simulators is heading

 

henry

3

What about X-Plane 11? It's on the Steam. Is it a Game then? Or FSX, is it a game too? Or DCS World. They all are available on the Steam

[Benny]

5 hours ago, John Venema said:

 

The 40% discount is only available if you purchase LOWI or KCGX from OrbxDirect. Steam will not recognise your previous purchases.

 

JV, how will this work, I mean you guys are the first third party company for AF2.

I mean... I own LOWI (of course) so will we buy this AF2 version on the  ORBX store or on Steam to get the 40% discount?

 

Thanks

Ben

[pmb]

6 minutes ago, Benny said:

 

JV, how will this work, I mean you guys are the first third party company for AF2.

I mean... I own LOWI (of course) so will we buy this AF2 version on the  ORBX store or on Steam to get the 40% discount?

 

I thought this is clear. You'll get the discount when buying via the ORBX store and that's what I will do.

 

Steam doesn't even know you own the Prepar3d version.

 

Kind regards, Michael