[FSX Multiplayer]

Hi Jeroen:

I hope all works out for the best with your family crisis.

Kind Regards,

GaryGB

[Visiting Emma (FSX)..The Day After !]

Hi All:

I will have my copy of FSX on this coming Tuesday, and if all goes well with restoring data back onto my new 0.8 Terabyte 4-drive 7200 RPM PATA/133 RAID 0 array, I'll be able to delve into the matter myself and share my results here. :roll:

Although I believe we'll all want to see and buy an "Emma Field for FSX" as soon as we can, I suspect with some scenery layer adjustment, some tweaked AFCAD 2.x files, and use of Steve Greenwood's 30 meter freeware terrain mesh we'll be better prepared to tweak the static scenery into place for some ongoing fun and screenies without sound and animations while awaiting a new or updated Emma Field. :idea:

Perhaps "Bill & Phil" and even Richard Goldstein could share some insights with us on this FSX 'initial placeholder' project too?

Steve Greenwood's excellent 30 meter freeware Seattle and Emma area terrain mesh is at AVSIM:

Emma: http://library.avsim.net/search.php?Sea&Go=Search

Seattle: http://library.avsim.net/search.php?Sea&Go=Search

Simply install it in a *\scenery subfolder without any need for an associated \texture folder as one would in FS9...

(ex: [FS2004 or FSX path]\Addon Scenery\FST_Free_Mesh\Scenery\fst-30m10-wa-ef.bgl = Emma Mesh)

and

(ex: [FS2004 or FSX path]\Addon Scenery\FST_Free_Mesh\Scenery\fst-47122.bgl = Seattle Mesh).

Then create a link to this location in the FSX Scenery Library as done in FS9, and position it above the default FSX terrain mesh files (this places it in a higher priority for 'visible' display in FS). This is in case the newer default FSX mesh files have internally detected information based on their scalability which might otherwise have caused them to be used by FSX before the legacy format (but presumably compatible) freeware 30 meter LOD 10 mesh, even though the sliders in FSX > Settings > Display could actually be set to a lower rendered LOD (Level of Detail) during a given flight.

I have been fortunate to make the personal acquaintance of Steve Greenwood, and from our recent communication I understood that after careful review of the new FSX SDK, he may possibly consider future releases of his FS-Traveler terrain mesh in the new FSX file format, perhaps with additional 'genuinely higher resolution data source' (-emphasis mine) more accurate terrain mesh for special interest areas such as Emma Field and Georender airports etc..

Personally, I would love to see this become available, as I know Steve to be a dedicated simmer and meticulous artisan when he undertakes a project, and I believe he would once again deliver a fine quality product well worth having. My personal experience of using his terrain mesh and visually comparing it with screenshots of terrain using FS-Genesis (FSG) has in most cases given me the impression that in FSG mesh, the edges of terrain vertices have been "blunted" as if it were induced by a purposeful smoothing process (or incidental to a spike elimination routine). I mean no personal disrespect to Justin Tyme nor do I wish to cast any aspersions on the FSG product line for those who are satisfied with its use over the years; I merely have come to prefer the FS-Traveler FS terrain mesh which I have used for years, as it seems to have a more realistic appearance to me in the areas I have flown when compared with the real world.

Perhaps in the days of less powerful computers running FS2000 or FS2002, smoothing of vertices might have been beneficial to maximizing FS framerates; to my personal perception this 'blunted edge' effect appears to result in a loss of rendered sharp vertex terrain detail which detracts from my preferred level of realism in the FS scenery, and it is not essential for framerates or visually desirable given the higher performance potential of most flight simmers current computers.

In my experience, there are perceptible differences in terrain mesh products "as rendered" even when derived from the same source data and processed through the same SDK resample tool which appear as a result of how the source data was pre-processed by the developer.

However, until such time as that type of product may be available to us, I anticipate (without confirmation from Steve Greenwood or my own personal testing... yet!) that the existing more accurate freeware mesh may work such that we can all be literally on the same level if we do any FSX compatibility tweaking or new add-ons, rather than dealing with what I understand to be the less precise space shuttle derived SRTM default FSX mesh which (as I presently understand it) can be dynamically "adjusted" with a slider beyond the included multiple resolution mesh levels to render in the sim at an artificially exaggerated 'higher or lower detail' level.

Well, I'll be better prepared to post some more on this soon after I have my FSX Deluxe Edition! 8)

Happy Flying!

GaryGB

[Visiting Emma (FSX)..The Day After !]

Hi Canuck:

Did you actually install Emma Field for FS2004 prior to looking for it in FSX? :roll:

If not, I'd greatly appreciate it if you or another adventurous soul who already has the retail FSX could add an entry to the FSX Scenery Library for your existing FS9 Emma Field installation location ( for example the default C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\Lago\Emma Field ) and then recon the area, as I'd be very interested in knowing if the Lago Emma 2004 default install static scenery library layering has any incompatibilities with FSX. :D

I'm rather surprised that we haven't heard anything on this possibility from others here at EFFC Forum so far, but I'm guessing on Oct 17th more of us here will finally have a copy of FSX, and then some of us could try adding their FS9 Emma Field scenery component paths into the FSX scenery library.

If Emma Field is to be installed directly into FSX, I speculate that in regedit we could export a copy of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator\9.0 and in yet another copy, edit the Value name: "EXE Path" to the same as the install location of FSX to try and get Emma to install.

Also with Emma Field installed directly into FSX, in regedit the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\LAGO\EMMA2004 Value name: "FSPath" which contains the FS2004 install location ( for example the default C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9 ) may need to be changed to the install path for FSX ( for example, what I would assume to be the default C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator X ).

We could then try using an edited copy of Lago's exported registry entries containing the edited FSX path as *.reg file(s) to be double clicked into the registry to try Emma out in FSX to see if it works; then the backed up (original and unedited) FSX, FS9, and Lago *.reg file(s) could be double clicked to return the parameters back to normal independent use of FS9 and FSX, and if necessary the added Lago/Emma entries in the FSX Scenry Library could be unchecked to de-activate them.

ViMa "Modules" for animation and sound located in the FS2004 Modules folder are not required for Emma, are unlikely to work in FSX, and apparently have no direct equivalent folder location in FSX anyway as this subsystem has been changed in the new sim, so remember this would be only an experiment to try and get the Emma Field static scenery to work.

Well, here's hoping for some Emma joy in FSX while we await further word from Francois and Richard Goldstein regarding a possible "Emma FSX". :wink:

GaryGB

[Started something new.......]

Hey Guys:

Any possibility of using a brighter red color on the "new" logo?

It's kinda' hard to see the words "Flying Club" with the rest of the logo when they are emblazoned on top of black leather items (and we know how popular those things can be to some consumers!). :roll:

Besides, if we ever get tdragger to join in the fun at EFFC, we'd want to be sure the logo would show up in its full glory next to the 'X-Box' icon on the side of the "Black Helicopter" he jokingly mentioned being used to "visit" FSX critics in one of his posts over at AVSIM! :lol: ( see: http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=&mode=full )

Hey Simon or Chris: Any way we can get a shiny 'black' repaint of the default FSX helicopters for some future mischief? :wink:

GaryGB

[Started something new.......]

Hi All:

Pups, in his continuing role as as designated marketing consultant to the Emma Emporium, is once again pleased to announce the availability of new items in the onsite store to complement those in Francois' online store. :!:

Inspired by the "Aviant-Garde" ideas from Timmissartok aka don l. and bearing the new alternate EFFC logo, we now have the 'EFFC Chez Fritz Leather BBQ Apron' available in the onsite store. :P

( see: http://forum.simflight.com/viewtopic.ph2&start=30 )

Because it is leather, 'slavering' over a hot BBQ grill may compel being "clothed in the sky" beneath your apron especially in hot, muggy weather such as we have had recently at Emma Field. :shock:

(...And what you do with it in the privacy of your own Lilliwaup "No-Tell Motel" room is your business.) :twisted:

Items ordered through the online store will be shipped via the usual free delivery by "Elite Airways" Air Freight.

(Note: as a courtesy to purchasers of this particular item, it will arrive in a 'plain brown wrapper' with no return address.) :wink:

Standard EFFC Emporium Disclaimer:

< Not responsible for condition of goods at delivery due to failed parachute deployment; beware of falling bottles! > :mrgreen:

GaryGB

[EFFC is YOURS............]

Hi Don:

Welcome Back! :D

Its good to see you here again... your unique style and insights on matters of the FS universe have been sorely missed! :roll:

I hope all is well with you, and that we'll be seeing more of you around here during the "FSX Paradigm Shift".

BTW Don, I don't know if you have noticed, but with all the exciting developments and stressful changes around here over the last 9 months or so Fritz has been wearing even more hats than usual, and was having some recurrence of his Multiple Persona/Flashback/Doppelganger phenomena complete with hat and wardrobe changes.

I was wondering what you thought of one of his more 'colorful' recent "Flashback" episodes? :?:

( see: http://forum.simflight.com/viewtopic.ph3&start=30 )

PS: Don't miss this one! :wink: http://forum.simflight.com/viewtopic.ph1&start=15

GaryGB

[FSX out now.....]

Hi Deftl:

Each of the issues you mentioned have recently been addressed in various threads at the AVSIM "Flight Simulator General Discussion Forum": http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=&forum=121

You can use their advanced search ( see: http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=ct_forum=0 ) using FSX as one of your keywords or browse through the MANY threads which usually have a pertinent subject title. Try not to get discouraged by the numerous negative comments in some forum threads, because there is a lot of excellent information and resources there being discussed by some very positive and helpful people too. :roll:

Although ACES put us through some initial anxiety by allowing us to worry that we could not get adequate FSX performance on our current computers (because it was designed to still provide a robust simming experience even on computers that might not be available for another 2-3 years!), this could have been avoided by either including more adjustable display control sliders and/or disclosing earlier some of the additional available tweaks we could use to reduce the autogen to levels more in keeping with our particular computer's capability. But thankfully (under duress?) at least now they are releasing more helpful information as the official Oct. 17th USA release date approaches, and the fsinsider web page is developing an interesting performance guide which looks very promising!. :P

:idea: Also look for the several performance fixes using FSX.cfg file tweaks, edited autogen settings to reduce autogen density, and reduced size/resolution texture bitmaps to more manageable levels more like that of FS9 to get reasonable framerates; these have reportedly produced good results for FSX useability now. Matt Fox has done some extensive work with this

( see: http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=&mode=full )

and he has conveniently summarized his fixes as well as those of several others on his website: http://www.fox-fam.com/wordpress/?page_id=41.

I don't have a copy of FSX Deluxe yet to test these fixes, so I hope these findings will get you up and running better soon! :D

Happy Flying!

GaryGB

[Talk to Puppy... About recycling]

you're recycling Seattle?

Thought that city was classed a biohazard? :shock:

Hi Jeroen:

Based on initial reports about FSX those who fly closer than 70 miles to Seattle will feel a significant hit, while especially those on the tarmac at SeaTac may be at risk for a slideshow, and therefore we might actually wish to "RECYCLE SEATTLE"! :lol:

Since there have been rumors of an additional FS9 patch beyond 9.1 being considered by ACES, I wonder if it is programatically possible at this time for them to further modify the autogen factoring in the rendering engine which I believe with the FS9.1 patch now releases the (cached?) data for an airport or city after one flys beyond a certain altitude in a certain direction without looking back for more than a specified time threshold.

In a (newer?) patched approach to this scenario, in theory one could now allow the rendering engine to shift its attention to dynamically increasing the complexity of the displayed autogen in the viewing radius around the aircraft as one departs from a complex airport and/or city (not just keeping a 'fixed' autogen complexity display setting for all areas of the sim), then dynamically decreasing the complexity when one is on approach to an airport and/or city "pre-rated" for its default and add-in complexity with a numeric score.

The airport and city complexity could be reindexed either manually on a periodic basis or automatically each FSX load (along with the scenery library' terrain cfg. etc.) so that autogen rendering adjusts for the capability of ones computer configuration.

Probably another task to make an ACES programmer have nightmares, but I was curious what you thought about this? :roll:

GaryGB

[Talk to Puppy... About recycling]

Hi Pups:

That was very funny!:lol:

Rebuilding the computer for the last month taking its toll at home by now? :roll:

Kinda' reminds me of the cinematic portrayal of the painting of the Sistine Chapel...

Pope: "When will you be done?!!!"

Michelangelo: "When I'm FINISHED!!!" :twisted:

But really... hang in there Pups, you're making good progress all things considered, and eventually you will be able to heave a sigh of relief and give more undivided time and attention to your spouse! :D

Maybe we should have a survey here on how much everyone has spent for FS add-ins since FS2002, and see who wins the award for the most complex and expensive FS installation! :P

Based on what I've read previously, Francois, LouP and yourself will probably be in the running for first prize! :shock:

GaryGB

[Talk to Puppy... About FSX]

Thanks Pups! :D

GaryGB

[More from the fly in]

Of course the day just wouldn't be complete without seeing the Wabbit take his first Solo Flight! :mrgreen:

GaryGB

[More from the fly in]

Although he was a bit late, even "Elite Cadet" Shamir had a chance to join in (see bottom left) :wink:

GaryGB

[More from the fly in]

The Wabbit helps out at the Fall 2006 EFFC Fly-In on behalf of GaryGB who had prior commitments. :D

GaryGB sends over a free "FSX Deluxe" for all the Fly-In participants to congratulate them for an outstanding performance! :mrgreen:

PS: Notice the window broken when the low pass inverted mass formation flew by! :lol:

GaryGB

[Fly in so far]

Hi Chris:

Looks like great fun! :lol:

I hope to join in sometime at a future event; too over committed right now, but thanks for the invite and kind PM tutorial offer.

PS: Some mighty fine stunt flying there! :shock:

GaryGB

[Hilarious "FS and Marriage Math" thread]

Hi All:

I ran across this hilarious "FS and Marriage Math" thread which is so true for many of us flight simmers; a must read! :lol:

http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=&mode=full

PS: Keep an eye on the threads in their parent forum list and those in the forums at FS2004.com too, as there are tweaks under investigation which will allow better FSX framerates which we will be able to try out soon! :wink:

GaryGB

[Talk to Puppy... About FSX]

Hi Pups:

Thanks... I'll look forward to seeing them when you get a chance; (wouldn't want you to miss an opportunity to give your undivided attention to your beloved wife over the weekend while you both have time to be together (one of the best parts of real world vs. virtual world!). :D

If Monday works better, that's fine too... I appreciate the kind offer. :roll:

GaryGB (building way too many computers at once in Chicagoland)

[Talk to Puppy... About FSX]

Hi Pups:

Some screenies around Lake Wisconsin and the Door County Peninsula where I have done most of my real world flying adventures would be greatly appreciated. :D

Since the stores around here are adamant about not selling FSX until the 17th, even though they freely admit having "lots" of copies on hand in the back storerooms, but don't want to incur a reported $ 10,000 fine from Microsoft for breaking their sales promotion agreement, I'll likely have to wait 2 more weeks for my own copy. :?

One guy at Best Buy jokingly said he could sell it to me, but he'd have to charge $10,000 for it! (probably worth it too!) :shock:

How's about a sample shot around 11WN, 9WN5, 91C, KDLL, 30WI, and 3D2 ?

And last, but not least... my home airport KDPA!

At the risk of being too particular, could I prevail upon you to set the date to mid-August and the time to around 6:30 P.M. while you take these shots (that's when we usually would fly in and put on a 15 minute air/water show doing amphibious "Touch-and-Gos" for the folks out on the deck of the restaurant and lounge next door to my colleague's condo before mooring the plane 50 feet below in view of the rear deck of his unit. It's sort of our take on being like Jimmy Buffet (who used to fly a Lake Amphibian years ago before he stepped up to a Grumman Albatross... or was it a Mallard?); we draw the crowds of boats over to shore (after buzzing them in preparation for landing with asynchronous strobes and the landing light flashing of course) and the restaurant gets more business in appreciation for their taller chimney hosting our wind sock (which my colleague had custom emblazoned with their name: "Hillcrest"!).

After dropping and settling the landing gear then tieing off the nose cleat to a tree onshore (we also sometimes use an anchor believe it or not!), we climb the 63 steps up to the condo, stow our gear, and go over for fanfare, drinks, and the finest prime rib and crablegs outside Madison, WI. :lol:

Then we collapse in front of the 40 inch LCD HDTV with surround sound for a while until we pass out from being ruthlessly overserved (anybody seen Ruth lately?). The next morning we get up early to do some fishing at the inlets off the main channel from the 52 mph capable fishing / cruising boat, and get back to the restaurant next door or we navigate down river to the Lake Wisconsin Golf and Country Club in time for Sunday brunch.

After another semi-comatose hour or so, we usually call and check in with our girl friends (yup, usually an active bachelor's weekend!) and then decide on more fishing, mischief on the waverunner, or impromptu bantering over 'light refreshments' with the wacky flight attendant next door and her equally wacky coterie of flight attendant friends she's known since she was a kid. Incidentally, once after they'd been out sunning themselves on the Lake with a few beverages, blaring rock music on their boat's stereo for a couple of hours they were 'not entirely adverse' to "flashing" back at our flashing aircraft lights when we necessarily buzzed low over them on approach to our water landing on a relatively low boat-traffic late afternoon!) :twisted:

Just thought I'd share a glimpse of the challenging weekends I sometimes spend deciding between recreational activities around my beloved Lake Wisconsin vacation area. 8)

BTW, I'd love a picture of the 500+ foot post-glacial bluffs at Devil's Lake between 91C and KDLL where we'd fly in for fuel, to pick up the car kept there for year-round local transportation, and where we'd park in the winter (smooth flying in cool air!)

Thanks for any pix you could post (or e-mail me) on these so I can share the info with my flying colleague and occasional Flight Simmer. :roll:

In return, I'll start working on scanning (now that I finally got a newer scanner) and posting some of the select pix and stories of our real world adventures flying in the Lake Amphibian LA4-200 EP that I referred to previously! :wink:

I'll also find a way to make a Sony Hi-8 and Digital 8 derived video montage as well, and I'll make it accessible somewhere. :)

Thanks for your consideration! :P

GaryGB

[Talk to Puppy... About FSX]

Congratulations Pups! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Now I gotta' ask you for a few screenies of my favorite flying area; hmmm... let me compile a set of coordinates for you later. :P

Have Fun! :D

PS: You may receive a PM from me very soon! :wink:

GaryGB (feeling a wee bit jealous in Chicagoland)

[Fritz is 'gone' again for a bit]

...And we promise to not get into "too much" mischief (can one ever have 'enough' mischief?) :mrgreen:

GaryGB

[Vingt-et-un]

Wow... very cool Chris! :shock:

I got even more of a feeling of being at a real airshow at an even more real Emma Field (Don Smith would be proud)! :D

Glad to hear you're faring well with the re-install; I may just get inspired enough to tackle the same task on my own machine (I'm grappling with a re-build/upgrade of several machines right now and got somewhat delayed on my own FS machine).

I wish I could get freed up in time to learn how to participate in the fly-in you've been promoting (...bummer when real world exigencies preempt virtual adventures sometimes!). :roll:

But it is great fun seeing your shared discoveries unfold; keep up the outstanding work! :P

GaryGB

[The new kid in town....]

Fritz will make Chris clean all the RWY dust by all low passing

Well, if all maintenance work could be as fun as doing low passes flying inverted in a cool aircraft, then sign me up for a job as janitor at Emma Field! :lol:

GaryGB

[The new kid in town....]

Hi Shamir:

I think Chris will fly it and enjoy it, but repainting is a special skill and creative hobby for him. :D

We all have different approaches to getting the most fun out of FS, don't we? :wink:

That being said, who want's to bet on how long it will be until we see some really cool DO-27 repaints in Chris' very first screenshots flying stunts at the controls of the "new kid in town"? :lol: :lol: :lol:

GaryGB

[EFFC is YOURS............]

I second that motion! :P

Assuming Lago wanted too much for a small business/joint venture to fund on its own, and if a commercial small business loan was too tough to swing, maybe the 1,000+ EFFC members could each put up some cash to get a bigger down payment to help push the bank loan through? I don't know how that would best work, probably like a pre-order with pre-pay (and I'd have no doubt in my mind that Francois and Richard Goldstein would ultimately follow through in full!). :idea:

Perhaps they could also set up a properly structured entity which could accept donations and/or investment money above and beyond the pre-purchase concept (Emma Field Flying Foundation? Emma Field.ORG?) :lol:

I have seen various software companies do the pre-purchase thing over the years (including Symantec and ScanSoft/Nuance taking upgrade orders 3 to 4 months in advance of availability!), the most recent being "Auto Assault", which eventually was delivered to the marketplace without letting down the "zero-interest loan venture capitalists" who each paid as little as $10.00 in stores for a "voucher" nearly 3/4 of a year in advance (not that I'd want to wait that long to see my beloved Emma Field running in FSX!).

But unlike the above "$ 10.00 USD partial payment" example scenario, I would actually be willing to pay the full Emma Field scenery package price in advance to facilitate the project getting off the ground. :wink:

As I see it, either Lago wakes up and recognizes this as an opportunity to revitalize what I believe was one of the most successful FS packages for them and the FS add-in industry in general, or they should sell it and get out of the business. They could also either sell it to a Richard Goldstein/FS-Addon joint venture entity (best scenario for funding and mutual input?) or farm out the development to Richard and Francois as independent contractors to get it done right while keeping their copyright options intact as they test the waters for the future of FSX add-in business in the future when they (Lago) presumably get their act together. :roll:

Abacus and Aerosoft manage to get good projects successfully completed by using independent contractors now and then over the years; perhaps Lago goofed by trying to do things with direct employees in the past (payroll and associated tax headaches can be a killer cost factor for any business!). If they won't simply sell the rights, perhaps they can do an outside development deal (properly) this time.

And please, everyone: Plan on paying for it this time so it won't die on the drawing board or be horribly delayed!

I believe that right about now would be a good time for us all to speak up and declare whether we'd be willing to prepay either in full or in part for development of an FSX compatible Emma Field! :D

Regardless, I hope we'll soon see a shiny new fully-functional Emma Field in FSX; with or without new features... I'll buy it! :mrgreen:

GaryGB

[Kudo's for Tongass Fjord]

Hi Bill:

Time for an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) battery backup as well as a surge protector perhaps? :roll:

I sometimes find the smaller units on sale as a ridiculously cheap closeout item at WalMart, Target or other General Merchandise stores as most consumers don't seem to know what they are for, therefore they don't sell (and subsequently become a bargain find for me!)

I never really plan for my computer to run for more than 5 minutes on a UPS in the event of a major power outage, I just use then to prevent the minor glitches like you described where there is a brief lapse or brownout (Hmmm... 'brownout' also describes our 'visceral' response when we have a power glitch in the midst of an important computer project!) :shock: :oops:

UPSs usually work quite well, but Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) our electrical supplier (who is running expensive TV ads about the need for a rate increase) has been sending some nasty spikes lately which have prompted total gaps in power to my computers that haven't been smoothed out and compensated for by my UPS. One might wonder if they are trying to alert consumers to their purported need to upgrade their aging infrastructure (or their executives lifestyle!) :?

BTW, good luck on the scenery project, and glad you didn't have to completely start over! :D

GaryGB

[Talk to Puppy… About DOS]

Gawd Pups, that was hilarious! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Just what we all needed... some comedy relief! :D

Actually, I believe there was a free modified command.com which responded to (and with) profanity in its syntax list out on various "Bulletin Board Systems" (BBSs) years ago. Maybe I have one for you on one of my old computers from the 1980's! :twisted:

I'm glad to see your sense of humor and creative energies are still intact after your recent 'techno-gauntlet' ordeal. :P

GaryGB