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Please let FTX Global be DX10 compatible!

cvearl

By cvearl
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cvearl Life Member

cvearl

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For the love of all that is holy. Please please let FTX Global be DX10 Friendly. It's is 95% patched to perfect. We need to get behind this thing. Only minor problems persist and Steve is working on another patch to further make DX10 the answer to everything FSX. One problem in ORBX land still remains. Night flying. The lights turn on and off in large clumps. There has to be a fix for that too. But I hope that FTX global does not ship with that problem. I will be unlikely to buy it if that is the case as, once Steve releases the next patch for DX10, I will be on it more than DX9. 

 

Had ACES had another 6 months, they would have fixed the little things. Steve has picked it up and done most of the patching ACES never completed. We all sit around in DX9 Shader 2.0 tweaking till the wee hours trying to make things smooth and look nice and get the best out of the sim. The whole time a "fxied" DX 10 was the answer and now it is here.

 

The coolest part is.... Super Sample AA and vsync work for both nVidia and ATI now and the feel of flight is so buttery smooth it will knock your socks off. As if that was not enough along comes Steve. His DX10 Shader patch V3.2.2 contains a set of shader fixes for DX10 Preview mode and The patch should not effect DX9 in any way. It addresses the following bugs in the DX10 preview:

1) Flashing runways/taxiways
2) Yellow/white runway markings transparency
3) Opaque chain fences
4) Progressive Taxi markings missing
5) Missing night scenery/semi-transparent dusk scenery (often misdescribed as missing night textures)
6) Some addon cars with black headlights
7) Softer VC shadow
8) Eliminates false sun on VC roof and side wall

 

http://stevesfsxanalysis.wordpress.com/

 

Basically all the things that sent us all running away in terror. And more fixes to come!!!

 

Only outstanding issues I see now are some default AI planes and payware planes that use FS9 textures display white. Wow. I mean. How hard could it be to recompile new versions of those?

 

Some payware scenery apparently has missing textures. Well fix em! There are tools for us to do it ourselves and Steve is working on a solution to give us that ability to convert to DX10 compatible. But if WE can do it, so can devs for crying out loud.

 

As for ORBX...Please make sure the lighting in FTX Global works right. In default ORBX regions the night lighting turns on and off constantly while you fly. There has to be a fix for this.

 

Well... Here's hoping.

 

PS - I have installed and uninstalled this patch 3 times to see how stable the patch is. No problem. The readme is short and simple and to the point. Just DONT have FSX running when you do it and when switching between 9 and 10 and back, make sure you flush the shader cache. google that if you are confused.

 

Secondly, to have AA work in DX10 you have to have it ENABLED within FSX. Set Supersample mode in your driver and you will have Supersample AA. Amazing. Enable Ansio as well. If still confused check AVSIM DX10 support forum. With ATI you can force vsync with Radeonpro with nVidia it's with Inspector.

 

One guy I talked into this had to delete FSX.CFG to let it build a new one. He was not getting good visuals somehow. Not sure at all how a new FSX.CFG would fix it but now he's a convert. He'll never go back. DX10 mode needs no other tweaks besides HIGHMEMFIX and WIDEVIEWASPECT=TRUE. So simplistic.

 

C.

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cvearl Life Member

cvearl

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I think JV said no DX10  to bad :-[

 

Sadly I might give it a pass which sucks. Damn. All that is needed is a fix to the occasional missing texture which I have not really even seen one in NA ORBX regions. All they need to fix there seems to be lights at night. hmmm.... And the light poles at some of the ORBX payware airports flicker and sparkle white. I think they need a texture there. But nearly impossible to find fault in DX10 mode now.

 

Well see. Waiting on the next patch from Steve but I doubt he's going to touch ORBX 3D lights. What a shame. Truely. Pixel perfect and smooth as glass FSX is just sitting right there under everyones noses. Just like a modern game. And yet, it is being ignored. But we can keep ontweaking our brains out and living with stutters I guess. ROFLMAO.

 

C.

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Kilstorm Life Member

Kilstorm

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To me, DX10preview is the bridge between FSX and P3d v2.0.  While we have been told that LM is working on a v2.0 for P3D that is the future and DX10 with the shader fixes is the present. It sounds like a new patch fix is in the testing phase by Steve which might make even less work for coders to have to model around where the fixes will work the magic instead which would be a win win for everyone.


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Andrew 737 Life Member

Andrew 737

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Sadly I might give it a pass which sucks. Damn. All that is needed is a fix to the occasional missing texture which I have not really even seen one in NA ORBX regions. All they need to fix there seems to be lights at night. hmmm.... And the light poles at some of the ORBX payware airports flicker and sparkle white. I think they need a texture there. But nearly impossible to find fault in DX10 mode now.

 

Well see. Waiting on the next patch from Steve but I doubt he's going to touch ORBX 3D lights. What a shame. Truely. Pixel perfect and smooth as glass FSX is just sitting right there under everyones noses. Just like a modern game. And yet, it is being ignored. But we can keep ontweaking our brains out and living with stutters I guess. ROFLMAO.

 

C.

Right under our noses hey?

I think it's high time I actually experimented with this - thanks for the detailed post :)

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cvearl Life Member

cvearl

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so if all Lockheed is doing is fixing some textures we already get that with DirectX 10 and the work that Steve is doing. what we really need from Lockheed Martin is updated navigational data and approach plates for FSX. They can pretty up FSX all they want and it's still not going to have updated navigational data. what exactly can they fix. Anybody who has successfully applied the DirectX 10 patch has seen that it is glass smooth and error-free. The actual bugs that remain are compatibility with non modern add ons or addons that need a slight tweak to use the new shaders.

if some effort was put in by the community and developers alike in getting behind Steve and this directx10 initiative this would all be solved.

just as an example if someone like Orbx made sure all their library objects had the correct textures for DirectX 10 and ensure that the lights would not turn on off at night that would be most of our flight to me experience wrapped up right there. they're North American region sceneries don't seem to have any problems with DirectX 10 it's just those lights turning on/off it's bothering most people. shouldn't be that hard to fix.

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cvearl Life Member

cvearl

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Right under our noses hey?

I think it's high time I actually experimented with this - thanks for the detailed post :)

detailed instructions to follow. but I tell you in advance it does not affect directx9 at all. it patches DirectX 10 preview. The remaining bugs you might see a related to the add-ons themselves and not DirectX 10. it's not the developers fault. I mean hey they have to develop for the masses and the masses have been using DirectX 9. with that said you may notice some AI aircraft having no paint jobs. Even a few of your pay where aircraft maybe white and have no paint. some Payware airports like those from FSDT have problems at night with some of their textures in there scenery objects just disappear or are invisible. Thise not willing to wait for their favorite add on maker 2 patch their scenery for DirectX 10 can get a product called converter X. I believe that's what it's called. What it does is recompile scenery objects to be DirectX 10 compatible. Rumor is that Steve next patch may include a tool to do just the same thing.

Do not be alarmed when you first go into DirectX 10 mode the preview plane in the free flight screen will not have anti aliasing applied no matter what you do but it will be there when you fly.

I will follow up with some instructions for people who don't want to be experimental and run this patch themselves although all it is is a batch file that you run that applies this fix followed by flushing your shader cache for you. what I did to make sure I wasn't interfering with the performance of the patch was I took out all my crazy tweaks from the fsx config. Well actually I only commented them out with a semi colon. so to start off with all I had was the highmemfix and the wideviewaspect line.

To force super simple AA in DirectX 10 make sure its enabled in your driver through nvidia inspector or Radeon Pro for ATI. same goes for the sink and lock your frames at 30. For more powerful cards you can likely get away with locking at 40 that's what I'm doing on my 7970. And when I say lock your frame rates, use inspector or radeonPro and leave FSX set 2 unlimited.

but your best bet is to read the Read Me file it comes with the patch its in plain English and very simple to follow it tells you the little changes that it makes so you know exactly what it's doing in the background and exactly what to expect as far as removing it if you decided to.

have fun .

C.

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cvearl Life Member

cvearl

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Just go here http://forum.avsim.net/forum/569-dx-10-discussions-hints-and-help/

 

and dowload the How To doc

 

The how to is a great place to read about some of the "ya we know lights turn on and off in ORBX regions" type comments as well as compatibility notes for some add-ons. Great reference. For the more adventurous, here's the Coles notes to install the patch along with best practice. Mainly from the readme...

 

Download patch here - http://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=DX10+shader&CatID=root

Before Installation

===================

Please try and use Preview DX10 and check that it works (with the problems listed above) before applying this modification.

If you dont see the option to select DX10 then either your OS or hardware doesnt support it.

Its important that you try this out first to avoid a situation where the patch gets the blame!

 

What the Setup.bat does

=======================

It searches for your FSX location (in some cases this may take several minutes - please let it finish!)

It copies the three patch files into your FSX installation folder in the directory "ShadersHLSL\General"

It creates a copy of the General10.fx shader in the same folder naming it General10.fx.ORIG

It edits the General10.fx shader making three changes

It then asks you if you would like it to delete the shaders10 directory found here ---> "C:\Users\<your user>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\FSX" (your drive might not be C:)

SAY YES and this will cause FSX to recompile the shaders the next time it is run.

Installation Instructions

=========================

0)  Unzip the installation package somewhere.

1)  run setup.bat    - you should do this as the user who owns the FSX installation - you should NOT normally need to run as administrator to do this

2)  Confirm the location of FSX if asked

3)  Agree to let it delete the Shaders10 directory

4)  run FSX

 

May I add....

 

5) Start FSX and choose DX10 Preview and then FSX asks you to restart FSX. Do that.

6) Start FSX again and fix the resolution if it is wrong. Enable Antialiasing and Aniso.

 

Uninstalling

===========

You would need to copy the General10.fx.ORIG  to General10.fx and rebuild the shaders

 

 

Now...

 

To get Antialiasing and vSync in FSX

 

ATI users? Just make sure Super Sample is the AA method enabled in your driver in CCC.

 

NVidia users? Here's a shot of my buddy's NVidia Inspector for his DX10 experience.

 

First he said...

 

Add the following to your FSX.CFG after you have applied the patch.

 

[GRAPHICS]

MultisamplesPerPixel=4

MultisamplesQuality=8

 

Then setup NVidia Inspector like this. Sorry I wish I had a better shot.

 

He has a GTX680 so he us using a really high SGSS setting. He is using 8xSGSS here under the transparency section. I would suggest 4xSGSS for most people with less than a GTX680.

 

7O1Go.jpg

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ShawnG Life Member

ShawnG

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Add me to the list of the Dx10 converted.  I set it up over the weekend and now have silky smooth flights and have ditched ENB for SweetFx (ENB does not work in Dx10, pity, I like it better than Sweet fx)  on the plus/minus comparison:


 


DX10 Good:


silky smooth.  ( I was locked in very comforatably at 60 fps in rural areas,  around 30 in built up areas)


MOAR autogen!!!! (it allows more autogen for the same slider settings, and can handle it!)


crucially for me: I haven't had any OOM's since switching and I was getting them all the time with complex scenery in dx9


 


DX10 Bad:


my old portover aircraft have no textures (fixable with a $20 app: addon converter x)


ORBX lights flash on and off in clumps at night (they dim in DX9 in the same fashion, so the problem is there even in DX9 but it's worse in DX10)


Other third party scenery issues at night.


apparently the aircraft shadows at some orbx airports are bad, I run with shadows off, so not a big deal for me


 


there is apparently a comprehensive "fix" being worked on that apparently resolves 99% of remaining issues.  been watching avsim like a hawk.


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cvearl Life Member

cvearl

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@cvearl: 

 

A bit over the top calling this a completely remade or fixed FSX DX10 IMO.

 

It´s a hack, nothing else, and there could be all kind of problems with it.

 

Be informed, by the best in the business!

 

http://www.simforums.com/forums/have-i-missed-something-re-dx10_topic44811.html

 

First of all, I respect and admire Nick as I am a fan of his work even though I never use GEX anymore as I fly mainly ORBX regions. His old guides from back in the day were once required reading for sure and most of todays updated guides grew from his original work. But let's be clear. Steve never called it a patch. I did. He called it a MOD. Although I am inclined to feel that it is a patch by my own defenition of a patch. But hey. You are entitled to your opinion and I respect that. And I am entitled to mine.

 

Lets remember we are talking about FSX here. And in THIS world, when someone registers a company name and charges for thier HACK, we call it an add on. If someone does it for free we call it a Mod. But if you want to get dirty we call it a hack. Just so happens that nVidia Inspector for GTX cards is a hack. Does not make it any less cool. SGSS AA is also a hack. Freaking good one if you ask me. Best hack to happen to FSX scenery in many years? ORBX regions. ;)

 

But even Nick realised that perhaps Hack was a strong word.

 

QUOTE - "Perhaps I should reword my statement... It is not a Microsoft sanctioned continuation of FSX DX10 and unless Aces produced and released such fixes, or, released patches that were tested in-house, then it would be considered a hack of their files, just like the freeware FSWC hacks the original DX9 shader files. User developed 'fixes' outside of the original developers in-house engineering and testing are not patches and although the results could produce desired effects, they can also produce side effects or may not be able to completely fix a problem since there is no access to the base code itself."

 

Anyway. You are free to use it or not. Whatever floats your boat. But I still say it's a patch. ACES would have eventually done the same thing to get it working. I for one am excited to see if Steve can smoothen out the last few issues.

 

Oh and Add on's that DONT work in DX10 are not DX10's fault. They just were not coded for it. So what. Does not mean DX10 is bugged. Just means the Add On itself is not tested to work in DX10. Period. But that does not mean the dev can't recompile a shader or two. If they care enough to. But whatever. DX10 does NOT change the core of ESP... I mean FSX... I mean P3D. LOL. Meaning flight dynamics, weather, physics, sound, mechanics, behaviour ect.... ect... It's just a more modern Shader language that happens to be more efficient than SM 2.0 in DX9. It is the dev's perogative to use DX10 compatible shaders or not when "texturing" thier models. That is all were talking about here.

 

C.

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