Melbourne

[Binkles]

As much as I love the look of the new YMML that's going to be released, I just wonder what it's going to run like on an older machine.  My computer runs FSX ok, but by the looks of the new scenery, I doubt I would get much more than a slide show.

I'm wondering will a 'lite' Melbourne be done for the Freeware stuff that is going around?  I realise that this may be a problem with taking sales away from the Melbourne (and believe me if my computer could run it, I would buy it), but I can't get it past the minister of finance if it won't run on my machine.

[John Venema]

Yep, there's a "Lite" version going to be released at the very same time

Here's how to run the YMML Lite version:

1. Your scenery and autogen settings:

2. Your Airline traffic settings:

And bingo - now you're getting 35 FPS and it still looks amazing

[Bandit]

John,

Does the "Mesh resolution" and "Texture resolution" inpact FPS much? (I see you have them set at 10m & 15cm respectively).

[John Venema]

Nope. And you'll need your texture res set to 15cm to see YMML in its native format. No impact on FPS. And with the tech that is going into AU GREEN, we're going to be recommending 10m as the minimum mesh setting moving forward as well.

Another thing worth noting: the entire main terminal building (excluding the concourses) is only made from 900 polygons. There are some freeware hangars out there that have about 4,000 polys for little more than 4 walls and a few eaves and downpipes. We're actually finding performance is improving dramatically as we finalise textures and models. Marty is getting a consistent 22-25FPS with a LOT of airline traffic and ground vehicles turned on, and his PC is lower spec than my laptop.

The key to performance is using simple model shapes and very very good texturing. That's what Orbx is famous for