Welcome to a New Era: Presenting FTX Innsbruck for Aerofly FS2 Flight Simulator!

[andy1252]

As I would expect of ORBX, this looks absolutely stunning. I have Aerofly FS & FS2, but have never been a fan of photoreal. I will definitely be buying the ORBX products to put in to FS2 though, as that will transform it for me. And I really appreciate the discount for cross-sim use, which is the other thing we've all come to value from ORBX - these guys really care about both quality AND customer care.

 

So - bring it on! I'm not going to get into the "my sim vs your sim" thing, it's all good, and getting better all the time, as a certain band said (scarily, fifty years ago now. How did that happen?)

[Blackrat]

This is most excellent.

 

I've just purchased LOWI for P3D and I'm loving it for tube liners on a UHD monitor.

However it'll also be great in AFS2 on VR flying VFR.

 

Tube liners - P3D

VFR - AFS2 & Rift

 

Well done Orbx, keep pushing that envelope.

[FalconAF]

21 hours ago, Blackrat said:

Tube liners - P3D

VFR - AFS2 & Rift

 

That's the type of assessment, or personal preference remark, that can be a disservice to a new flight sim community user.

 

VR (Rift and Vive) AND complex "tube liner" aircraft work fine using P3D even with ORBX products.  The only consideration is that the user will most likely have to turn down some of the eye candy settings.  And if someone really, seriously, thinks about it, they are NOT "watering down" anything graphically in the P3D environment (or ORBX scenery) when they do this when using a Rift or Vive.  Why?  The Rift and Vive current resolution is not conducive to seeing anything "in the far distance" CLEARLY to begin with.  So turning down the LOD from Ultra to "just High", and turning down the autogen buildings to "Normal" from "Dense" really doesn't reduce your visual experience in P3D and ORBX with a Rift or Vive.  And it CAN make plenty of room to then run a complex aircraft using the Rift or Vive then too.

 

VR is for the IMMERSION experience.  And that can be for flying around in CAVU sunshiny scenery to look at out the windows.  But it can also be for a full COCKPIT immersion experience with a complex airplane like a PMDG.  I routinely use my Rift with P3D and ORBX products, AND a PMDG complex aircraft (all 3 of them...the 737NGX, 747 QOTS, and the 777) without experiencing OOM's.  It can be done while still having a very good "scenery" experience and NOT experiencing any OOM's.  You just can't do it with all the "scenery sliders" maxed out, a ton of AI aircraft, and a plethora of other addons using ultra-HD textures (4096 clouds, etc).  And that is simply because of the still existing 32-bit/4 GB limit causing OOM's.  That is what will change with a 64-bit P3D. 

 

What is REALLY going to be the "dividing line" between the flight sims when P3D 64-bit comes out will be this......

 

The "line" will be drawn between P3D/X-Plane/AFS2...and FSX (in whatever form you have it...boxed or Steam).

 

That line really ALREADY exists.  I know I'm not going to make any friends with this, but if you are still using FSX, you are already behind the power curve.  And if you have "old" computer hardware, you are also behind the power curve.

 

Technology advances.  I can understand how some people may not be able to afford to upgrade their computer and flight sims every 2-3ish years.  But if you are still using 5-year old computer hardware, flying a 10-year old flight simulator, you shouldn't really expect ANY developer to keep trying to solve your "performance problems", whatever they might be.

 

 

[Jarrad Marshall]

Thanks very much guys, I've been enjoying catching up on the discussion both here and elsewhere, great to see such a diversity of opinions and inputs. I'll touch on a few of the questions posed: 

 

On 4/28/2017 at 11:31 PM, TigerTigerM said:

The weather & haze in your shots - are they coming from AeroflyFS2, or another program?

& for non VR use - could AeroflyFS2 be run off a good internal HD, or must it have an SSD?

 

TTM

 

G'day TTM, everything you see is out-of-the-box. No tweaks, no cfg changes, no alternate sky/weather textures or shaders. Simply AF2 and FTX LOWI, that's it

I personally run AF2 on two computers, on my old desktop (specs in signature) I have it installed on my internal HD, and I've yet to see any performance/lag/loading issues. There will be of course differences in initial loading time depending on SSD or HD, but really, both are light years ahead of P3D/FSX. 

 

On 4/28/2017 at 5:48 PM, NZ255 said:

How does the sloping runway work? Does it rely on a HD mesh or is it a 3d model?

Can we see a ground level shot of the runway or is it not that pronounced at Innsbruck?

 

I didn't think to take a low-down shot of the runway just yet. The IPACS team have devised a very clever system for integrating the sloped runways from a 2D ground poly, with the height data derived from the source elevation model, and smoothed out to avoid bumps and small-scale anomolies. If you are interested in more technical aspects of how it is implemented, have a read over the AF2 SDK - it really is very cool. In terms of Innsbruck, the real-life runway only has a very slight slope, so you won't notice too much. But it's also worth checking out some of the default airports where it makes a difference - Monterey in California is a particularly good example. 

 

On 4/28/2017 at 7:13 PM, jjaycee1 said:

I also note the mention of Autogen. Is this just the autogen covered in the LOWI scenery or is there to be autogen in all the AF2 DLCs with the input thereof by Orbx?

 

On 4/28/2017 at 7:18 PM, J van E said:

I was thinking (and hoping) the same. I'd also LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE to see Orbx's HD Trees in Aerofly! (And also some manual replacement of the rather crappy placed default trees, please. )

 

The vegetation system has been greatly improved by the IPACS team over the existing version, including adding more variety and adding very, very nice new artwork for the trees themselves (see the shot below which shows off a few of the types - sorry for the dark lighting). The building autogen system is entirely new, being built from the ground up by IPACS in preparation of LOWI. The core infrastructure is now ready and being improved all the time - but at the end of the day the placement of buildings/vegetation relies solely on the quality of the source material. Automated methods are at the mercy of commercially available data sets; this varies wildly across the world. One of the hallmarks of ORBX HD airports are the carefully placed dense autogen coverage; even with automated data, this is still augmented by hundreds or thousands of hours of hand-placed individual additions and corrections. That said, we're continually looking at ways to improve our workflow efficiency in this regard, but hand-placing an entire country like Switzerland is still beyond the realms of possibility at this point. 

 

 

On 4/28/2017 at 7:41 PM, TigerTigerM said:

Well.

This puts the cat among the pigeons.

1 question though.

Is this only suited to VR?

TTM

 

Not at all, I personally don't own an OR at the moment (I blew my budget on a much-needed new desktop instead!), the sim is perfectly suited to VFR flying with a monitor in the same manner as FSX/P3D etc. 

 

On 4/28/2017 at 10:00 PM, Mark Abdey said:

What is the Autogen draw distance on this platform?... it looks to be pretty insane from these pics, even with the zoomed-in ones. For me this is P3D's weakest aspect.

 

G'day Mark, the short answer is, the draw distance is insanely far  This is potentially a WIP component, as tweaks are still being made to balance performance with visuals, but in the current build, this is what I'm seeing: 

 

 

On 4/29/2017 at 8:02 AM, raymar99 said:

Any chance of seeing the full AF2 LOWI scenery coverage area screenshot?

 

G'day Ray, I haven't made a custom map yet, but the coverage area is the same as the FSX PR area. Note that only two of the heliports (Innsbruck Rescue & the Hospital helipad) will be included in the initial release of FTX LOWI for AF2. 

 

 

On 4/29/2017 at 5:25 AM, jlund said:

I'm sure we all agree that AF2 is fantastic in regards to loading times and fps, and I for one would like to see ai, ATC, advanced aircraft systems, whole regions or world covered in photoreal, BUT not having that is most definetly the reason for how fast AF2 is.

 

On 4/29/2017 at 7:10 AM, HiFlyer said:

I hear that from time to time, but have not (to date) seen any evidence at all to support it.

 

Hi guys, whilst obviously performance will be changing as IPACS introduce new features such as ATC etc, it is not true to presume that this is solely the reason for better performance. Having spent a week with the IPACS team, and spending quite a bit of time discussing exactly this topic, it is clearly evident that these guys have given the absolute top priority to the performance and optimisation of the engine. So yes, whilst it's impossible to predict what will happen as new features are introduced, it is very safe to say that best performance is the absolute top priority of these guys. It's not a co-incidence that visually and FPS-wise, the terrain engine performs so well, and looks so good.

 

On 4/29/2017 at 9:39 AM, yanlaoge said:

 Is it possible to have a photoreal Austria as the extension of photoreal Switzerland which already exists for Aerofly FS2? 

 

On 4/29/2017 at 11:01 PM, raymar99 said:

Even though there is not an Austria DLC does the 275 km East/West extended area for LOWI butt up against the Switzerland DLC?  Enabling flights from Zurich and Geneva to LOWI.

 

Hi guys, the coverage area for LOWI will be the same as the FSX/P3D version. The edge of the Swiss DLC area is very close to the edge of FTX LOWI, and the gap is covered by the default photoreal map and mesh that ships with AF2. I find this perfectly adequate for overflying, but not for exploring down low. 

 

 

You may even notice the default PR peaking out beyond the main coverage area in some of my initial shots, including these few: 

 

 

 

On 4/29/2017 at 11:49 AM, Kilstorm said:

There was mention that the crash detection is better in AF2 and that with all sliders max we still have a smooth sim (I concur now that I got my new 7700K/1080Ti/M.2 rig) so with this new headroom and set of tools, is there anything else that either you JV or Jarrad are excited about adding to the toolbox that you now get that might not be available in FSX/P3D?

One thing that is not mentioned when talking about those mountains to those who dont have AF2 is that they there is no mesh correcting or popping, what you see stays just like that whole time its insight, something that is nice to see when in mountainous terrain.

 

G'day Kilstorm, proper crash detection adds some interesting new scenarios that will no doubt be explored as we go along. All surfaces are hardened by default, and without the heavy performance penalty that you get in FSX/P3D, so from a purely nonsense point of view this adds elements like landing on the curving freeware ramps, etc. It also adds a great deal to low-and-slow flying, as much more attention needs to be paid to avoiding small obstacles such as aerials, powerlines/cables, overhanging trees etc. Obviously this will really reach it's potential once helicopters are introduced to the sim. 

 

On 4/30/2017 at 0:42 AM, HiFlyer said:

My question is that first, knowing the FPS and geometry overhead Orbx now has available with Aerofly, and having seen mention of animation and Peopleflow, will we eventually be seeing any of the other "flows?"

 

Natureflow and Animalflow, etc?

 

G'day HiFlyer, it's certainly feasible to see many of our existing "Flows" incorporated into upcoming airport releases. PeopleFlow, StaticFlow, some components of NatureFlow, VehicleFlow will all be making appearances in this version. Time-sensitive and season-sensitive dynamic content is something we'll be looking at further down the track. Also to note, whilst animated Natureflow is certainly possible currently, for aesthetic and performance reasons I haven't personally used these components in my airports for quite a long time. This would be more suited to smaller grass strips where the performance budget overheads have a little more space to play with.

 

On 4/30/2017 at 0:17 PM, Rodneyprice said:

Looks great , I Purchased AF2 a while ago , played for a while and returned to FSX , just hope now that ORBX are on board which lifts the standards for AF2 that AF2 developers add more functionality to the sim , such as more cockpit interaction , more weather options and ATC, Is ORBX going to continue with FSX as well as AF2?

 

Oh for sure, FSX and P3D will continue to remain my primary development focus. For me as an airport developer, FSX and P3D will remain my core work, whilst AF2 will be the icing on the cake for VFR simming and VR experience, and will be the best visual platform to show exactly how I intend my HD airports to look like. It's exciting times, and there is much to look forward to, that's for sure

 

Cheers,

Jarrad

[Jon Clarke]

Many thanks Jarrad for your comprehensive response to many of the questions offered up in this topic.

Just to clarify regarding Autogen buildings in particular, are you saying that a detailed accurate placement of buildings is unrealistic?

Or are you also confirming that some form of generic (if that is the correct terminology)placement of autogen buildings is something that is being worked on. I know that the FTX Regions autogen is " representative" autogen buildings with the exception of certain POI's etc.

You say IPACS is developing autogen but is this for wide coverage or are they just creating autogen for LOWI, which I thought was already included in your version? Not quite understanding the degree of autogen buildings development due to your statement

"The building autogen system is entirely new, being built from the ground up by IPACS in preparation of LOWI". 

[yanlaoge]

3 hours ago, Jarrad Marshall said:

The vegetation system has been greatly improved by the IPACS team over the existing version, including adding more variety and adding very, very nice new artwork for the trees themselves (see the shot below which shows off a few of the types - sorry for the dark lighting).

 

Thank you Jarrad for your detailed explanation. Do you mean the new vegetation system including trees will go beyond LOWI and cover all other Aerofly DLS as well? 

[PDX Flyer]

Here is my vote for your next complete coverage area in FS2.  PNW.  Yes I am somewhat biased, but the PNW has sort of been your bread-and-butter for USA areas.  I will keep my fingers crossed and hope I am right.  Please, please, please.  

[Kilstorm]

Jarrad, I really hope KPSP and KSEZ is high on your list for early adaption to AFS2. Reasons being are that these are two areas void of water so no photo-real water painted on below, you've covered the area immensely already so the objects of buildings and vegetation are mostly there and once outside the coverage area its mostly bare so a smooth visual transitioning beyond the coverage area and lastly these areas are inside the PilotEdge coverage area which might help bring more focus to adapting AFS2 into PE.

KSEZ has a nice sloped runway (domed shaped) as well so an added perk.

[Jordan King]

On 4/29/2017 at 6:29 PM, walterg74 said:

 

 

What a ridiculous way to limit oneself...

 

Limiting oneself is putting on a headset that you have to produce 75fps to even remotely enjoy. In the future when other platforms prove that they are able to deliver a competent VR experience, I will happily use them. But for now, Flyinside, or any other gimmick to make FSX/P3D a VR platform is simply inferior to the experience of using Aerofly. I am sure if you tried VR like I have on all the platforms, you would agree. 

[walterg74]

4 hours ago, Jordan King said:

 

Limiting oneself is putting on a headset that you have to produce 75fps to even remotely enjoy. In the future when other platforms prove that they are able to deliver a competent VR experience, I will happily use them. But for now, Flyinside, or any other gimmick to make FSX/P3D a VR platform is simply inferior to the experience of using Aerofly. I am sure if you tried VR like I have on all the platforms, you would agree. 

 

You most obviously have not tried it fully at all... there is nothing wrong with P3D's native (still limited) support, not even with flyinside, not with DCS World, nor with the many other non-flight sim titles available to have a blast, without ridiculously limiting oneself...

and that is the whole point you are missing...this is not about what is "the best", it's about limiting yourself from having fun and enjoying other experiences, due to some arbitrary nonsense. But hey, whatever makes you happy...

[Blackrat]

19 hours ago, FalconAF said:

 

That's the type of assessment, or personal preference remark, that can be a disservice to a new flight sim community user.

 

 

That's a bit harsh.

I'm so sorry for breathing in your air space.

I was just praising the Orbx team for doing such a fine job and remarking on how well it will fit into the way I use flight sims.

Next time I want to share a personal flight sim preference I'll keep it to myself.

Oh hang on.

No.

No I won't.

But please don't let me stop you giving your much sought after views.

Far be it from me to comment on another users thoughts in an insulting manner like you are so good at.

 

You little tease, you.

Carry on.

 

[Jarrad Marshall]

Hi guys, if we can please keep the discussion on topic and not revert to personal retorts, that'd be great, cheers

 

18 hours ago, jjaycee1 said:

Many thanks Jarrad for your comprehensive response to many of the questions offered up in this topic.

Just to clarify regarding Autogen buildings in particular, are you saying that a detailed accurate placement of buildings is unrealistic?

Or are you also confirming that some form of generic (if that is the correct terminology)placement of autogen buildings is something that is being worked on. I know that the FTX Regions autogen is " representative" autogen buildings with the exception of certain POI's etc.

You say IPACS is developing autogen but is this for wide coverage or are they just creating autogen for LOWI, which I thought was already included in your version? Not quite understanding the degree of autogen buildings development due to your statement

"The building autogen system is entirely new, being built from the ground up by IPACS in preparation of LOWI". 

 

15 hours ago, yanlaoge said:

 

Thank you Jarrad for your detailed explanation. Do you mean the new vegetation system including trees will go beyond LOWI and cover all other Aerofly DLS as well? 

 

Hi guys, to explain further; IPACS have been working on the generic vegetation and (new) building system, and ORBX have been utilising this new system to create detailed autogen at LOWI. The core system from IPACS is not the final output content, ie don't expect ultra-HD quality building placements to appear around the entire AF2 world with this update, but rather it is the ability for developers such as myself to create that final content. To use an analogy; IPACS have just invented lego bricks, it's now up to developers to build houses with them. I can't speak for any intentions IPACS has for integrating this new tech into their own DLC; I can only speak of the plans ORBX has in relation to our content for the sim. The ability to create generic autogen buildings and different types of vegetation has not been possibly in AF2 until now - this is a major new feature for the core engine and bodes well for future content from the ORBX side. 

 

18 hours ago, jjaycee1 said:

Just to clarify regarding Autogen buildings in particular, are you saying that a detailed accurate placement of buildings is unrealistic?

 

No, I'm saying that it would be unrealistic to expect ORBX-quality autogen building placement to rolled out for the entire world in a timely manner. Hand-placing autogen to the standard seen in ORBX airport products such as LOWI, NSTU, KPSP etc is extraordinarily time intensive work. Some parts of the world have source data than can semi-automate some of this process, but many parts of the world do not. Even with high-quality source data, it takes hundreds of man-hours to complete an area the size of LOWI, without quality source data this can blow out by 3x or 4x that amount. So I'm just tempering expectations; don't expect an entire photoreal country with LOWI-quality autogen placement to be rolled out overnight, that's all

 

Cheers,

Jarrad

[Jon Clarke]

Thanks Jarrad. Now I understand. By "source data" I assume you refer to the, in AF2's case the photo scenery which is HiRes and of good quality with the visual quality able to show buildings quite clearly. Taking PNW for example which is a representation of the Pacific Northwest versus actual photo graphic. I assume therefore that to place buildings in a generic fashion would not be as good looking as Orbx have managed in the PNW "representative" version because Orbx have created the original PNW "canvas" themselves. True to life HiRes photoscenery therefore is a different "canvas" and to place autogen buildings where they should be, based on the accurate photo is what you are describing as time consuming?

I initially was thinking in terms of how Switzerland Pro was done and how Revolution X was done for Gen X as being examples of where autogen can be placed over photoscenery. Neither may be of the quality and detail that we see in LOWI for example as far as accuracy etc is concerned, but in my view is somewhat better than just flat scenery, except for trees, however detailed resolution-wise, when doing the low & slow flights.

So autogen could be introduced to the current available HiRes DLC's that are available in AF2 rather than for the rest of the world. In other words  generic autogen could be an additional option to download to cover existing DLC's for those that want it, or not downloaded for those to whom feel it is unnecessary.

Finally, I gather then that the LOWI buildings for AF2 version are not the originals as presented in the FSX/P3D version, but made with the new system by you for the AF2 version specifically?

[NoLonger]

36 minutes ago, jjaycee1 said:

By "source data" I assume you refer to the, in AF2's case the photo scenery which is HiRes and of good quality with the visual quality able to show buildings quite clearly.

 

No, the source data is some sort of database, could be for instance OSM, that has information on where (specific) buildings are, where streets are, where trees are, etc. The photo scenery is just photoscenery: if you want to place autogen only using photo scenery as a 'source' you will have to place each and very single tree and building by hand... and that takes ages! 

The source data Jarrad is talking about can be used to automatically place buildings and trees in the sim's world. However, this way of working isn't always very precise: the trees in the current AFS2 US regions are placed using such a database but as everyone can see they sometimes look almost randomly placed: this is because the database doesn't have the EXACT location of every tree, it usually tells where trees should be and due to this a group of trees can be 20 meters or more away from the exact location: this is why a lot of trees in AFS2 are in places where you can see houses or roads in the photo real scenery. I think that the data for houses is more precise (because in XP11 you can use OSM yourself to place autogen houses in (almost) the exact location.

 

[Jon Clarke]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge J Van E. I am now more educated in this matter.

[Rodeo]

Hi,

 

if I understand this topic correctly, autogen placement is now introduced into the core of aerofly FS2 with the support of OrbX, and OrbX is the very first company using this function for their upcoming aerofly sceneries.

I expect, that a new SDK package will allow to use this function as well, so the community can add this to specific areas.
We have to know where to get data, which kind of data, how to define the autogen process. This is a great new task for developers.

I suppose this is not a problem for OrbX with their outstanding quality of scenery work. It will hopefully enlarge the base of aerofly users and this should be a positive fact for both IPACS and OrbX.

 

Rodeo

[yanlaoge]

2 hours ago, Jarrad Marshall said:

Hi guys, to explain further; IPACS have been working on the generic vegetation and (new) building system, and ORBX have been utilising this new system to create detailed autogen at LOWI. The core system from IPACS is not the final output content, ie don't expect ultra-HD quality building placements to appear around the entire AF2 world with this update, but rather it is the ability for developers such as myself to create that final content. To use an analogy; IPACS have just invented lego bricks, it's now up to developers to build houses with them. I can't speak for any intentions IPACS has for integrating this new tech into their own DLC; I can only speak of the plans ORBX has in relation to our content for the sim. The ability to create generic autogen buildings and different types of vegetation has not been possibly in AF2 until now - this is a major new feature for the core engine and bodes well for future content from the ORBX side. 

 

Thank you Jarrad! Now I completely got it. That's even more exciting than I have imagined. The ambition of IPACS is bigger than I have imagined!

[raymar99]

Hello Jarrad,

 

Thanks so very much for spending the time providing your detailed knowledge of AF2.  Obviously we are thirsty for this level of detail.  IPACS is almost non-existent when seeking any details on this subject.

Could you explain the improvements we will see in the "Extended Area" for LOWI.  This is that 275 km area surrounding the airport proper and the city.  Will the roads be more detailed?  How about animated traffic in this large area?  Will the small towns and communities have any detail added?

 

Is the Options Control Panel complete enough to show here?

 

Regards,

Ray

[Metthos]

Am I alone to think that AF2 is not much off a simulator?
I think AF2 lacks depth in the simulation.
A lot of eye candy, more like a game and less like a simulation.

 

[EuRo42]

1 hour ago, Metthos said:

Am I alone to think that AF2 is not much off a simulator?
I think AF2 lacks depth in the simulation.
A lot of eye candy, more like a game and less like a simulation.

 

That's exactly what I fear. Maybe wrong. There's definitely a market for it. Low Budget High Definition Flight Sim for VFR and mostly fun - adressed to the younger ones I think. 
I have tons of questions about it and will probably "google" the answers. I've time until the release of P3DV4. Then I will decide how to continue.
Until then I'm still happy with my FSX, ORBX, REX4, AS2016 and so on...
Nevertheless: Great screenies at all, you can sell as greeting cards from Innsbruck. 

[Mark Abdey]

On 5/1/2017 at 10:18 AM, Jarrad Marshall said:

G'day Mark, the short answer is, the draw distance is insanely far  This is potentially a WIP component, as tweaks are still being made to balance performance with visuals, but in the current build, this is what I'm seeing: 

 

Cheers Jarad... Amazing stuff!!!. Seeing 3D object that far away makes such a difference.

 

Fantastic artistry at work here sir.

[BrianV]

Truly amazing work. Wish all of our flightsim software could be this sharp from the near to far. Looking forward to try when I also get my Oculus Rift. What a year 2017 is already proving to be in flightsim. 

[NoLonger]

3 hours ago, Metthos said:

Am I alone to think that AF2 is not much off a simulator?
I think AF2 lacks depth in the simulation.
A lot of eye candy, more like a game and less like a simulation.

 

 

You are not alone but it depends on what kind of simulator you want.  Simply flying around in a plane above nice scenery is still simulation of flight. Specially of the flight model is good. Yes, AFS2 is still lacking a lot but it is being worked on. Each and every knob in all default planes can be made to work but the they are still working on the systems behind it so they disabled a lot of them for now by default. The fact that they do work shows they are thinking ahead though. Already announcements have been made regarding ATC, AI, weather, but well, it takes time. So yes, in certain regards the sim is lacking depth right now but in other regards it shines: if the sim is good for someone right now or not simply depends on ones preferences. But the lack of specific system depth doesn't mean this isn't a sim. At most it isn't your kind of sim.

 

Concerning eye candy... tell me what Orbx is all about...? Yes, eye candy. In FSX and P3D. Even Lockheed Martin is all about eye candy because 99% of what they did with the core FSX engine has to do with improving the eye candy. Something wrong with eye candy? Apparently not. If a sim looks good, it doesn't mean it is just a game.

 

But again, yes, AFS2 lacks depth right now, no question about it. Orbx developing addons for it is a major step forward though. Hopefully more developers will follow and take advantage of the extremely well performing and modern engine.

[sightseer]

 

It looks good, Jarrad.

 

For the autogen I think you need facial recognition software but for trees that can study satellite imagery and produce a database from that.  I wonder if that exists?

 

[HiFlyer]

1 hour ago, sightseer said:

 

It looks good, Jarrad.

 

For the autogen I think you need facial recognition software but for trees that can study satellite imagery and produce a database from that.  I wonder if that exists?

 

 

I think they might be using things like ShapeFiles... https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Housing-Development/Shapefiles-and-base-map/2k7f-6s2k

[EuRo42]

11 hours ago, J van E said:

But again, yes, AFS2 lacks depth right now, no question about it. Orbx developing addons for it is a major step forward though. Hopefully more developers will follow and take advantage of the extremely well performing and modern engine.

 

Full ack. I began in 1983 with MSFS V1 and kept faithful up to now with FSX. Thank god that there is a competition between P3D, XP and AF today. We all will win in the end.

[John Hargreaves]

Don't forget FS2 is still early access, not a finished boxed product. If you want a fully finished title, save your money and wait for the full version release. All the work going on that we can see is a game/sim in development, hardly fair to compare it to more mature titles IMO.

[sightseer]

On ‎5‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 3:34 PM, HiFlyer said:

 

I think they might be using things like ShapeFiles... https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Housing-Development/Shapefiles-and-base-map/2k7f-6s2k

 

I'm definitely not an expert on scenery design but I think shapefiles are what are used now and those are just polygons that say "trees here" and then programs like XP11 and AFS2 will randomly fill those polygons.  Its the randomness that makes things look bad in my opinion.  Orbx comes along and adds creative flair to it.

 

I had made a post a while back about having much higher definition landclass and what I was thinking at the time was that it may be possible to have software that is similar to facial recognition software designed specifically to look for things like trees or buildings or whatever you might want to identify in any given satellite image and from that you could produce a database that would more closely match reality.  I don't know how the usgs produces landclass data.  maybe they already do what Im saying.

 

But if there is software available, it may help speed up the process of covering an entire country (or the world) in more believable autogen.

 

[HiFlyer]

1 hour ago, sightseer said:

But if there is software available, it may help speed up the process of covering an entire country (or the world) in more believable autogen.

 

Photoscenery with accurate building placement has kind of always been the holy grail. Tonywob has done good work on X-plane with that, but having this as an integral capability available to 3rd parties in a sim is going to be a really exciting new thing. I think Orbx and eventually others are going to run with it. 

[NoLonger]

9 hours ago, John Hargreaves said:

Don't forget FS2 is still early access, not a finished boxed product. If you want a fully finished title, save your money and wait for the full version release. All the work going on that we can see is a game/sim in development, hardly fair to compare it to more mature titles IMO.

 

Well, I know what you mean but honestly, I have yet to see a flightsim that is a finished product... All main sims (P3D, XP, AFS2, the upcoming DTG one and even FSX) are works in (constant) progress and never finished. Imho that 'early access' option on Steam should be renamed to 'work in progress' because it seldom is early access as you would expect it to be. Anyway, obviously AFS2 is in a far more premature state than XP or P3D and a LOT of things still have to be added but I wouldn't wait for a full version release because nowadays full version releases are nothing but the next beta.

[Rodeo]

Hi,

 

I completely agree with J van E. And I even think, it is a critical point when to leave the early access attribute.

Will it be done after LOWI release by ORbX? So people complain about missing ATC, AI, weather.
Will it be after all this? So this may take another year and people still will complain about anything else missing.

But in fact the development goes further on whatever the Steam status says.

 

I don't want aerofly becoming just a 64bit copy of FSX..., there are different flight sim user groups out there.

If you enjoy the current features of aerofly, take part of the coming develoment.

As long as you expect your accustomed system depth, stay with your current flight sim product right now and wait for future evolutions.

 

Regards

Rodeo

 

 

[caaront]

This will be a great birthday for JV and myself, June 15 rocks!

[John Hargreaves]

On ‎04‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 8:49 AM, J van E said:

 

Well, I know what you mean but honestly, I have yet to see a flightsim that is a finished product... All main sims (P3D, XP, AFS2, the upcoming DTG one and even FSX) are works in (constant) progress and never finished. Imho that 'early access' option on Steam should be renamed to 'work in progress' because it seldom is early access as you would expect it to be. Anyway, obviously AFS2 is in a far more premature state than XP or P3D and a LOT of things still have to be added but I wouldn't wait for a full version release because nowadays full version releases are nothing but the next beta.

You're absolutely right, and for me that's part of the enjoyment. I like seeing these titles mature and add new features, and I'm happy to give constructive feedback where I can. By allowing access to a work in progress, devs can get some cashflow going, which helps the longer term viability of the project, which is better for all of us. Some users (not you btw, I've seen your constructive feedback) sometimes don't realise what wip means though, and I think unfairly criticise the lack of features. For those guys, they maybe ought not to get into early access and stick to full releases.

For me, my current favourite is XP 11, but it's terrible in VR, worse than FSX on my system, so once we get OrbX and FS2, I'll be straight over to Austria

[HiFlyer]

On 4/28/2017 at 7:26 AM, John Venema said:

We have some night time previews coming next week.

 

 

 

Whatever did happen to these? I waited eagerly all week.

[JWxTreme]

Simply amazing graphics. F2 is something on my radar for the near future but I feel there needs to be further development with add-ons. I will wait another year or two and revisit to see how things progress with Aerofly FS 2. I don't have a VR system and I could see where those who do would want to try this out now.

[Aeroflux]

Aerofly FS2 is great and am using VR for a while with my CV1.

However,there  are  problems with the shadows, some sort of stereoscopic distorsion. Has been reported various times and not fixed so far.  Hope the new add-on will improve matters!

[HiFlyer]

5 hours ago, Aeroflux said:

Aerofly FS2 is great and am using VR for a while with my CV1.

However,there  are  problems with the shadows, some sort of stereoscopic distorsion. Has been reported various times and not fixed so far.  Hope the new add-on will improve matters!

 

Have you tried with the "Insane" shadow setting?

[Amortalist]

Hello,
I'm very interested in your three aircrafts and I would like to ask if you have any plans to bring them to Aerofly FS2 as well? I'm specially interested in the Lancair.
Thank you.

[edpatino]

On 28/4/2017 at 8:37 AM, John Venema said:

And please don't disregard P3D; these sims serve very different purposes. P3D is the premiere platform for simming today with all the sophistication included to allow deep system airliners, AI, ATC, a myriad of weather and texture options, thousands of addons, aircraft and much more. AFS2 is the smooth, fluid 'quick fix' sim which is suited to VFR flying and having a briefer session versus P3D.

 

Couldn't agree more!.

Anyway, I recently purchased AFS2 and it's an excellent sim, I strongly recommend it, and with the upcoming ORBX sceneries it will be even better.

Cheers, Ed

[Vora]

On 1.5.2017 at 11:18 AM, Jarrad Marshall said:

...

G'day HiFlyer, it's certainly feasible to see many of our existing "Flows" incorporated into upcoming airport releases. PeopleFlow, StaticFlow, some components of NatureFlow, VehicleFlow will all be making appearances in this version. Time-sensitive and season-sensitive dynamic content is something we'll be looking at further down the track. Also to note, whilst animated Natureflow is certainly possible currently, for aesthetic and performance reasons I haven't personally used these components in my airports for quite a long time. This would be more suited to smaller grass strips where the performance budget overheads have a little more space to play with.

...

 

 

So I read out of this that the AFS2 engine does not incorporate conditional object/animation control. Does that mean that on June 15th we will see a toned-down 64bit version of ObjectFlow? This ofc bears another question: is there already a full-feature ObjectFlow for the FS successors P3D4 or FSW?