YBBN support issues in context

[Sir Ash]

You certainly have done your best. Sorry if I was quite a hard one to tackle.   But in the end, I can run it quite well, still looks great, and the solution even helps other FTX airports slightly as well.

[JusJ]

The support given by Russ and the other team members has been excellent.  Unfortunately, the performance of the product has not. 

I'm still disappointed about this.  Since getting YBBN, I have also bought Flytampa LOWW and FSDreamteam LSZH.  Both were signficantly cheaper than YBBN, look great (LOWW in particular is a stunner), and have much better performance.  I've flown to YBBN twice (spent more time tweaking the Control Panel and bgl files), and to/from LOWW and LSZH at least 10 times each since I bought them.  I just don't enjoy YBBN as much because of its poor performance.  I can't help but be discouraged about Orbx products after YMML and YBBN...

[flyhalf]

Have a look at the posts from people using the EVGA GTX 480 Video card. that seems to make FSX alot better too and I think it maybe the last video card people will ever need.

Big call! I remember I thought that when the "Voodoo 2" came out 

[John Venema]

FSX is not going to improve baseline performance until CPU clock speeds go up. Right now 4.2Ghz seems to be the top-end for stable overclocks, although we've seen lab videos of speeds up to 6.0Ghz and above. When the mainstream CPUs get closer to 5+Ghz you will see improvements in FSX. The GTX480 is a monster card, but purely in terms of it's texture handling and throughput, which are still CPU fed.

[Bruceb]

My concern is how long are we going to wait before we see 5ghz processors?  CPU clock speeds have hardly changed at all in recent years. Instead what we have got is 2 cores, then 4 cores and now 6 cores but little change in clock speed.  This reality creates a major dilemma for users considering the purchase of high end FSX addons that need a CPU clock speed of 5ghz plus to perform well.  Is there a road map somewhere of projected CPU development that would point towards 5ghz CPUs?  YBBN looks like a significant technological achievement but if you can only use it as a GA airport I don't see the point.

Bruceb

[Casioalpha]

Hello Orbx Team,

Been a long time, but I thought I might post an honest feedback.  I pretty much stopped purchasing Orbx after YMML, I personally purchased all your products to support an Australian company, but after awhile I felt a pattern was emerging, with each release the constant solution to performance issues I felt were, purchase new hardware or detune the scenery or remove other add-ons.  A system to run YMML back then would be considered mid spec for YBBN now - and the cycle appears to start again; so I stopped purchasing because of what appeared to be an infinite loop cycle.

I think the Scenery and products you produce are amazing, just wish it didnt come with this type of cycle

Not meant to be said in anger, but an honest feedback

Regards

[GrahamP]

Hi Deano,

In a word, it's called "progress".  Just think where we'd be without it

It's only because of the dedicated efforts of innovative developers like Orbx that flight simming has been advanced to a hobby that is now so much more immersive and enjoyable than it would otherwise be.  Newer hardware extends the boundaries of what can be achieved, so surely it would be foolish not to take advantage of that?  If they did not, the flight simming community would be the losers.

At the same time, I think it is important to note that Orbx have already recognised and taken into consideration the position of people such as yourself and they are trying to cater for a range of systems. They provide advice in the manuals and in ongoing on-line support on how to run the more detailed airports on older and less capable systems.  And there is evidence on the forum that the more detailed airports can still be enjoyed at lower settings on less capable systems.  Orbx are also working on patches to reduce the demands of these airports on less capable systems. 

The bottom line is that they are already trying to accommodate people in your position but it is not appropriate for them to limit devlopment to that level.  Whether you buy or not is your choice but I think it is clear that the overwhelming majority welcome what Orbx are doing and the way they do it.

Regards

Graham

[Sniper31]

Hi Deano,

In a word, it's called "progress".  Just think where we'd be without it

It's only because of the dedicated efforts of innovative developers like Orbx that flight simming has been advanced to a hobby that is now so much more immersive and enjoyable than it would otherwise be.  Newer hardware extends the boundaries of what can be achieved, so surely it would be foolish not to take advantage of that?  If they did not, the flight simming community would be the losers.

At the same time, I think it is important to note that Orbx have already recognised and taken into consideration the position of people such as yourself and they are trying to cater for a range of systems. They provide advice in the manuals and in ongoing on-line support on how to run the more detailed airports on older and less capable systems.  And there is evidence on the forum that the more detailed airports can still be enjoyed at lower settings on less capable systems.  Orbx are also working on patches to reduce the demands of these airports on less capable systems. 

The bottom line is that they are already trying to accommodate people in your position but it is not appropriate for them to limit devlopment to that level.  Whether you buy or not is your choice but I think it is clear that the overwhelming majority welcome what Orbx are doing and the way they do it.

Regards

Graham

Absolutely well said Graham, and I could not agree more! And to add to that, it has been pointed out many times in the past that several folks on the development team have lower to mid-range PC's, and are thus keenly aware of how thier products run across a range of systems. And to that end, the support they provide to customers with systems in the mid to lower range is top notch. 

[Blitzer]

I just got YBBN due to it now being offered under the current sale, I had decided to wait, but hey it's on offer so why not. I expected a simiar experience to that I get with YMML, and TBH on the whole I was close, albeit YBBN appears to have more detail with very slightly better performance on my system. To be totally fair I was not expecting to get great performance simply because like YMML, YBBN is situated in a fairly large flat area close to a city so there's plenty of autogen to take into consideration as well as a highly detailed and busy airport.

I fully believe John and the team have a very healthy approach to the development and design of the scenery they provide. They could limit the detail and quality to run at high performance levels on average hardware or they could opt to go for detail and quality that will only run on current high-end hardware. They do neither and try to provide a balance between both for a wide range of users by having a control panel allowing us to turn features on/off to strike a balance for our indivdual hardware. My only real query on this point is what is regarded as low, mid and high-end when it comes to hardware?

Personally I don't really want to be changing my settings depending on where I'm flying (at least not too frequently) and much rather to "set and forget" where possible. It should be noted that I also run REX weather engine because I like the real-weather experience it provides and likewise I use Ultimate Traffic2 at it's default air traffic settings (100% commercial/70% GA) again because I like the realism it brings to the FSX experience.

Bottom line is, I think YBBN and all the Orbx airports and scenery are extremely good. In some cases I find the performance less than I would like without compromising my settings to the point where I think the benefits of the scenery have be reduced to the point where they look like they have been compromised in order to regain performance. Quite simply I really need to upgrade my hardware to reach to achieve this, and would rather wait to fly at YMML and YBBN at the performance/detail levels I'd like.

The quality and support Orbx provide is second to none IMHO - keep it up. I really want better hadware though! 

[chumley]

Hello

Earlier in this thread I bemoaned my inability to get YBBN to work with any of my third party add on aircraft.

Yesterday evening I tripped over a thread in another place that mentioned  this change "BCDEDIT.EXE /Set IncreaseUserVa 3072" and that it had resolved OOM problems for a user with a Win 7 32 bit OS. I thought I had nothing to lose so I tried it out and the outcome was amazing. I can now play at YBBN without any OOM problems and may even try the [bufferpools] amendment to see if that helps (having this caused OOM problems frequently).

To celebrate I'm going to FSS this evening to buy some more add ons.

I'm now one happy camper but I'll still move over to Win 64, get a bit more RAM and upgarde the processor/mobo combination to an i7 in the near future.

Thanks

Andy b

[Russ White]

Excellent result Andy.

It still amazes me how each PC system responds so differently to the same tweak or config?

Russ.

[Guest steved]

have you tried to fly London or New york add on scenery with sliders maxed out??

My 2c worth is i5, after market cooling and overclock overclock overclock

It still amazes me how each PC system responds so differently to the same tweak or config?

Russ.

Aint that the truth. Same goes for pc specs. I wonder how much background programmes influence things like virus checkers etc Give them to the other cores i say maybe even all the addons like rex

[aviator49]

Hello John,

I have no complaints here. YBBN is by far the most amazing detailed airport to date. My computer specs and not spectacular, but they are just right for YBBN. Yes, we have to spend a little more for better performance, but to run this on a low spec computer will surely have a dramatic affect on performance. All of my ORBX products are installed on my computer with no issues. Except I cannot stop flying. LOL. Thankyou ORBX for making this a magical experience, and for giving us simmers a better FSX.

Regards

Sam

[Russ White]

Thanks for the nice feedback Sam.

Russ.

[cyclone]

hi Russ and Marty

Enjoying the new ybbn very much.... being a lacal, excellent work.

do you have any plans rgarding the night lighting for the control tower in the future upgrade?

was having a bit of a tour and just missed flying into it.

from Noel

cheers

[Russ White]

Hi Noel,

The tower does indeed have 4 red aircraft warning lights on it. There are 3 around the main tower column about half way up, and one on an arial at the very top above the roof!

Russ.