jsperl

On 5/5/2018 at 10:03 PM, Stephen said:

 

I'm sure I disabled that one? to stop the menu options showing all the time? I'll double check, Thanks

It worked for me in the past...I hope the option is still there in the update.

Hi Stephen,

Have you happened to try the AFL 172 in 11.20 yet? After updating to 11.20 there is a pronounced jerking/kicking motion that occurs every few seconds that wasn't there before and in any wind conditions...just wondering if there is something in the new update not jiving well with the current AFL version. This does not happen with the default 172.

This has been one of my favorites since I bought it nearly a year ago and it is indeed a masterclass showcasing how well custom scenery and autogen should mesh together. I really hope the availability of entire city areas continues to grow, as I'm getting more and more reluctant to lay down money for amazing airport scenery that is in the middle of nowhere scenery-wise.

Hi Stephen,

In their promo video (at about 0:23), I couldn't help but notice what appears to be a specular reflection of the sun on the rock surface, as if it were made of shiny plastic. Did you notice this in the sim, and if so was it distracting?

p.s. tried to attach an image (74k jpeg) but got the error "There was a problem processing the uploaded file. Please contact us for assistance."

2 minutes ago, Stephen said:

That is the tradeoff. The orthos have to be lower-res or you will get a graphic card buster (see TNCM), and as the X-Plane native roads which are more exact to the correct co-ords then the traffic is out as well, in a few years with more processing power and even bigger or say 20GB Graphic Cards we may finally get total nirvana, but we are getting there .

Totally agree. And don't get me wrong...I am ecstatic and thoroughly enjoying the state of things as they are now! As I do look forward to continued improvements, I consider them icing on the cake at this point.

This scenery is very impressive. All these next-level sceneries (i.e. this, ORBX, KTTF, etc) is making me want to get my helicopter skills up to par to fully enjoy them. What really stands out to me here is how good the tree coverage looks in most places. Probably the best tree work I've seen so far. And the framerate is exceptionally good for the level of detail and the high settings I'm using. A couple of minor niggles:

• The ortho quality definitely has room for improvement, but only a problem if you're flying at altitudes that are probably illegal anyway
• The roads are missing overlays (see attached image). What's interesting is that some sections have moving traffic right on the orthos, and other sections don't have any moving traffic at all (such as the one pictured here).

Overall though, it's  a gorgeous flying experience that's a bargain at $26. Personally I hope this (and the ORBX) sell really well to encourage them to keep 'em coming to X-Plane.

Great review, Stephen...I'm very excited about these moves from ORBX and FlyTampa I bought the ORBX release (and love it) and I'm getting this first thing when I get home. One reviewer noted the lack of static aircraft but to me that's a plus as a WT3 user.

22 minutes ago, Stephen said:

No stick with xEnviro...  you can adjust cloud brightness via the settings, but it is very good and it will be hard to go back to the native scenery once you are used to it. New highly revised version v1.08 is due soon and fixes most of the earlier issues, but xEnviro can be very slow in putting out updates. SD

Well, having dropped $70 I'm not giving up that easily...just my first impression, and your advice sounds good...thanks, Stephen!

Just bought this, in part thanks to your excellent (and so far accurate) review...and I have to agree it is addictive...this in combination with the AFL c172 is a  pure joy to fly.  Definitely a must-have as you have said.

My only concern is that it is dependent on Fly with Lua which leads me to the first real BUMMER of this fact: I had to remove my beloved Kamimari script (all those who ENJOY constantly having to adjust the gyro in-flight raise your hand) in order for XPRealistic to not crash LUA. Now whether this situation is XPR's fault or negligent programming of Kamimari, I don't know - but it really makes me hope that RK will some day repackage this as a proper plugin. Kamimari was the ONLY other LUA script I was running BTW...so I hope it doesn't mean that I have to keep my scripts folder clear of all others in order for XPR to work.

Just bought this and so far, I have to be honest - I'm not impressed...just look at these clouds...looks like some really bad photoshop copy & paste...wonder if I'm doing something wrong?

Do you happen to have any knowledge of Tom Curtis' status? His last activity on the x-plane.org is September, 2016...and seems to have not responded (or not been able to...?) to any support requests (incl. my own) since then.

2 minutes ago, Stephen said:

Yes the "Position Situations" is in fact brilliant, saves me simply hours of work in resetting up the aircraft, I was cautious at  first in that most "Situation" saves don't recover well, but this one does actually work...  the native replay is not great? no instruments or flap movements and so on? But there is a space in the TiLiSS menu for a full replay mode to come, so the answer is no not yet but a perfect replay is certainly coming SD 

Damn, I'm probably going to have to get this...just for this feature alone!

Well I'd already purchased the A320U and am completely happy with it, but my, am I envious of that "Position Situations" feature!  I hope more aircraft designers start building this into their products! Does this also mean that replay captures all the data as well?

Thanks, Stephen,

I bought it and so far couldn't be more pleased. It is a magnificent piece of work. Haven't really dug in yet but am enjoying just hand-flying it far more than I expected. And that rain effect! It's mesmerizing. Frame rate is at least as good as most any of my other aircraft  - mostly consistent 30+ (very occasionally dips down to mid 20s) with nearly maxed-out settings but I do have a pretty high-end machine. 

Great review! Looks like FPS is not a huge concern.

Have you encountered any notable bugs? Any showstoppers?

Thank you for this very thorough (as always) review. I just bought it (it's on sale) and have only one disappointment so far: Red Square has no ILS or any landing aids at all for that matter. And what a nightmare of an approach! Also I was hoping the package would include an add-on that gives my c172 a big cup holder for my Stoli. Otherwise the scenery is gorgeous. What a country!

Thanks Stephen. Sounds a little risky and I already have enough $ sunk into craft that won't fly with my system  so I might just wait till I have better hardware.

Thanks for this very thorough review (as always). One thing I didn't catch (if you mentioned it) is how is the framerate performance, compared to let's say, the AFL c172 (which I can only barely run on my meager 2013 MBP)?

I have greatly enjoyed and found your in-depth reviews to be very useful...they have helped unburden me of much filthy lucre over the past year  

Thank you for this report...glad to see that LR is not resting on their laurels. Kind of hard to really evaluate their push for 60fps as it is meaningless without knowing at what settings this will be achieved. I mean, I can easily achieve 60fps right now on my 2013 MBP if I disable enough eye candy. Having said that, the v11 has been a significant improvement in performance for me, if not in actual framerate, at least in how much more realistic the environment looks at the same given framerates as compared to v10. If v11 is any indication, I'm sure they won't disappoint with what's coming next!