FSBreak - The Flight Simulator Podcast

Russ

http://fsim.posterous.com/

- ADDED: Basic Descent Profile Calculation

Brendan: JustPlanes DVD.

Welcome to Tweaker's Heaven! The ULTIMATE FSX Launcher.

Orbx's FSX Go puts your favourite tweaks and saved flights together into a single profile. Setting your tweaks and launching FSX with your saved flight is now done in one simple action.

Ted

say...I always wondered, with Mark's high level of knowledge, what ratings does he have? Commerical, ATPL? Thanks.....hey if you ever need a fill in on the show, let me know. Take Care.

I want to thank you for producing the show, which I look forward to listening to when I am stuck in my car!

Hosted by Eric McClintock, Danton Berube, Mark Stewart, Brendan Farmer.

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Full Article: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25919

Co-founder and managing director Kathie Flood spent about 15 years with Microsoft in various roles, mostly concentrated on Aces and sports titles like Project Gotham Racing 3 and 4; she's joined by co-founder and creative director Rick Selby, who spent half his 10 Microsoft years with Aces, primarily working on Train Simulator, product design and business development.

The team is comprised currently of 15 individuals: "We're a bunch of people very passionate about working on sims that can take us to the next generation," says Flood. "We loved doing that inside Microsoft, and we decided we wanted to keep doing it. It turns out there are a lot of opportunities to do things different, better... as much as we loved doing it inside Microsoft, we're having quite a lot of fun."

Resetting The Genre

Selby sees an opportunity to "step back and do a reset of what sims could be about." The genre has traditionally focused on the same elements; vehicles, for example. "We thought there's a lot more you could really do with this," says Selby.

The hardcore simulation audience is "a very loyal, viable entity for us to pursue," he says. "But I think there are some things we can build into the sim titles to give them more of a broad appeal."

For example, Flight Simulator pleased its hardcore fanbase with its detailed renditions of the nuances and details of flying. "That's all still valid," says Selby. "But what's missing is... if you start thinking about what you could do around those single-player experiences that do simulate some aspect of a life or a location, suddenly you start to see a lot more opportunities."

Flood says that traditional sims have been somewhat "intimidating" to those outside of the genre's fans, and Selby says that simplicity is definitely now a design goal for the team.

"We want stuff to be simple enough that my mom can use it," he says -- and yet it's important to offer the opportunity for a player to grow into the high level of detail traditional sim fans have always desired. "We still want to give the ability to grow into that level of caring, but not eclipse any gameplay opportunities that may exist downstream from there... those complexities can't be a barrier to [other players] enjoying the experience."

Reaching Broader Audiences

Flood envisions "sliders on reality," simulation experiences where players can customize the granularity of realism to a level that's comfortable and interesting to them. "You could turn off or tone down certain elements so that somebody who is less knowledgeable can still enjoy the fantasy of the experience."

And the idea of allowing players to control the complexity of their experience -- having further details open to them as they acclimate into the simulation -- necessarily lends itself to learning experiences, something Selby is excited about.

Another area of focus for the Cascade team is offering high-quality toolsets alongside their projects. Flood notes that traditional simulation fans have enjoyed modifying and working with toolsets to customize their experiences even when those tools aren't very good.

"Certainly, the tools that we will need to build the games ourselves... can be a much more accessible toolset, and extend the audience of people who can participate."

Closing The Gap

The challenge ahead of the Cascade team, then, is making experiences that are compelling and yet approachable -- and therefore bridge a gap Flood sees in the addressable audience.

"There's such a big gap in the game market right now between, say, the big blockbuster first-person shooters and the casual online games. We feel like sims, if done correctly, the design would be multigenerational," she explains, pointing to the broad audience that enjoys television programming on Discovery Channel and National Geographic.

"We want to tap into some of that same magic... a lot of the topics we're thinking of here have a lot of that broad appeal," she says.

Bringing The Past To The Present

To accomplish their goals, the team hopes to combine the best elements of their experience within a large corporation like Microsoft with the agility and creativity of an independent studio.

"There's something very motivating and freeing at the same time you suddenly realize you own your destiny, and you have the ability to make the decisions you need to make," says Selby. "Sometimes that's harder to do inside of a large organization."

"I spent my entire adult life at Microsoft," reflects Flood. "We loved our jobs there, so this has been very fun -- it almost feels like graduating from school."

Flood and Selby aren't ready to discuss what that next project is, but say to expect some announcements soon. In the meanwhile, they feel strongly about their team vision and that Cascade is bringing with it the important lessons from Microsoft combined with new ideas about what the simulation genre can be and who it can reach.

Full list of features here: http://www.carenado.com/ecommerce/buscador.php3?id_producto=78

MyTraffic X Version 5.2b Professional is a giant step forward compared to previous versions and a huge leap towards fully using FSX multitude of new possibilities. All included airports and schedules are in the FSX-format. The majority of the included aircraft types is already in the new, highly optimized FSX Service Pack 2 format, pairing top optical quality with ultimate performance.

It is available as a lower cost incremental upgrade for owners of MyTrafficX, or as a full retail version.

The update is intended for previous customers of the 5.1B, 5.2 or 5.2A boxed versions.

http://secure.simmarket.com/mytraffic-x-incremental-update-from-5.1b-5.2-or-5.2a-to-5.2b-pro.phtml

MyTraffic X is known to be leading AI traffic solution for FSX. What started in 2002 with about 100 repaints of the stock Microsoft AI aircraft and a few licensed models, grew to a giant product with 177 models, 4900 paints, 1600 simulated civil airlines, 2000 modified airports and bunches of tools for all user needs in MyTraffic X 5.2b Professional - with all the options and complexity of such a powerfull tool.

Not all users need this, many users just want it to be simple. Replace the stock airliner traffic on the aiports of their region from the fantasy airlines Microsoft installs to realistic airlines - to watch United and Frontier at Denver, Iberia in Madrid and Lufthansa in Frankfurt. Nothing to worry about, no tools but the traffic density slider that Microsoft supplies, simple install, little framerate hit.

MyTraffic X Lite is the answer to these needs. It contains a selection of 68 airliner or commuter models, 680 paints of 263 airlines. This selction has been chosen to show approximately 90% of all airliners that fly over Europe and North America, and approximately 80% of all commuters in these areas. In addition, some stock GA planes are used to populate the skies.

Since the vast majority of the users fly in these regions, the rest of the world only sees long range traffic from these countries, but no regional traffic - that is the main secret how thousands of paints could be ommitted.

Due to these limitations, it was possible to largely simplify the installation MyTraffic X Lite. Just install it and it will work, and you even can uninstall it without any thoughts once you want to go professional and update to MyTraffic Professional. Users who purchased MyTraffic Lite will get a huge rebate for MyTraffic X professional.

MyTrafficLite includes 68 aircraft models, where as MTX Pro includes 176.

http://secure.simmarket.com/b.-renk-mytraffic-x-lite.phtml

Aerosoft has now opened a subsidiary in the US! Effective immediately, the office will process all American orders, which means faster and lower-cost shipping for our customers. It will also drive new sales efforts and open up new retail channels for our products. This is not only a gain for our loyal direct customers, but also a step to ensure a good and even more intensive relationship with our US and Canadian dealers and stores. Wolfgang Burchhardt will be heading the office. His background is in the gaming industry, having previously being head of development at the famous model train company Märklin. He will carry our FlightSim, TrainSim and other PC simulation product variety.

US Shipping from $6.99.

This package features the complete islands of Ibiza and Formentera with photorealistic ground textures in a sensational resolution of 0.5m/pixel (FSX).

The scenery features exact coastlines, mesh and a completely new designed airport (LEIB). This add-on also includes AESLite, bringing dynamic apron traffic as well as traffic to the surroundings of the airport. In addition it also features marine traffic such as dynamic ship traffic and ferry services between Ibiza and Formentera. Static Yachts and boats can be found in the bays and beaches of Formentera.

A detailed AFCAD for AI traffic makes it a lively and highly realistic airport to fly to. This scenery is of course compatible with AES 2.04 in both FS2004 and FSX!

Link: http://www.aerosoft.com/cgi-local/us/iboshop.cgi?showd,,D11162

Lelystad Airport is located at -12 feet in the heart of one of the main polders of The Netherlands. It is where most Dutch civilian flying schools are located and its a brilliant airport for training. This scenery has been done with great attention to detail according to the most up to date ideas on making scenery for FSX. It is very good looking but it is also extremely framerate friendly.

The Aviodrome, the aviation theme park and biggest aviation museum in the Netherlands is housed on the airport and has a large collection of aircraft, many of which are in flying condition. These are on display outside and you will be able to use the stands of the museum to park your aircraft. If you fly our Catalina for example you can exactly recreate an everyday event at Lelystad! It's the perfect airport to train your traffic circuits!

http://www.aerosoft.com/cgi-local/us/iboshop.cgi?showd,,D11164

This package includes the detailed airports of Luxembourg and the complete country with all relevant landmarks and sightseeing objects. It has detailed mesh and aerial imagery covering the terrain. All buildings on and around the airport of ELLX are photorealistic.

Through the support of the Cargolux simulation department, all ground marks and relevant signs were adopted to reflect reality. The status resembles the date of the inauguration of Terminal A, as of August 2008.

http://www.aerosoft.com/cgi-local/us/iboshop.cgi?showd,,D10989

I’ve been running the blog here at Flight Sim Daily (previously FlightSimX) for around 4 years now. During that time, I’ve added some 3,000 posts and our readership has continued to grow.

In recent times, however, I’ve found I wanted something a little more involved than simply posting news, which is why I created the Flight Simulator Network. The Network has seen tremendous growth over the past few months and it’s very rewarding to be a part of that site. The interaction that takes place between users on the site is fantastic, whereas the number of comments here on the blog has always been pretty low. It’s become a little like working in a vacuum here on Flight Sim Daily. A lot of work goes into it from me, but very little comes back.

http://www.flightsimulatornetwork.com/group/flightsimulatornews

From Mathijs Kok on the Aerosoft Forums:

In the last few weeks there has been one question that I heard most of all as I was attending the Aerosoft stand at three flightsim events. "What is the hardware this is running on?" I understand the question as I always leave the framerate indication on screen and almost never show anything below 40 fps in FSX. I was asked a few times if I could discuss this a bit more...

View the PDF Here: http://www.forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?app=core&module=attach§ion=attach&attach_id=9064

A REALLY great read!

A few fixes and enhancements, update using the X-Plane updater. Full list of fixes:

HD Environment 2010 greatly enhances the overall visual appearance of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 by replacing the default environmental, autogen, airport and runway textures with ultra-sharp, ultra-realistic HD quality textures that drastically improve visual realism with no adverse frame-rate effects whatsoever. HD Environment 2010 uses high definition textures and virtually lossless image compression to deliver an unprecedented balance of quality and performance that is sure to please any flight simmer!

Price: $14.95

More Info: http://www.hdenvironment2010.com/

767-300 Basic Features:

Systems:

Exterior:

Interior:

Misc Features:

Price for 767-300 Base: 40 Euro ~$60 US

767-200 Addon Pack Basic Pack Price: 10 Euro ~$15 US

767F Basic Pack

Price: 10 Euro ~$15 US

Captain Sim also offers the KC-767 refueling aircraft, and E-767 Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft. Each available separately for 10 Euro.

Hey guys, I just got an iphone and was shopping for aviation apps, and came across an interesting and handy app for the IFR pilot. It is called fltplan.com. and it tis free.

If you have an iphone or a capable internet phone you can access approach plates and sids/stars. Only works for USA airports!.

when you select an airport, all the available approach plates can be brought up on the phone's screen, and depending on the phone, can be zoomed in with great detail. It is like having you own mini EFB (electronic flight bag) for the entire US. All plates are current and updated on a regular basis.

Thanks for your time and keep up the great work!

Rick

Danton: X-Plane Application for iPhone/iPod Touch

Brendan: http://www.space-shuttle-mission.com

Eric: Airline Manager Facebook Application

Hosted by Eric McClintock, Danton Berube, Mark Stewart, Brendan Farmer.

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Complete with the same great flight planning and weather tools that come with the FSX version. It also includes great HD 3D clouds, and more.

More screenshots and details here.

It is slightly cheaper than the FSX version, at around $35 US..

More details here.

The Ultimate 757 Collection is the most extensive 757 Package ever created for Microsoft Flight Simulator. There is truly something for everyone. Every 757 ever to come off the line from Boeing has been reproduced for your enjoyment. And with Mid-Level systems programming, we've simplified the simming experience while providing you the look and feel that makes the Boeing 757 such a special airplane to fly.

Flight Deck, one of the world's best sellers has been TOTALLY revised and is now Flight Deck 6. Carrier-based flight is the ULTIMATE challenge in aviation! Climb into the cockpit of these super-detailed, high performance aircraft and put your piloting skills to the test. Flight Deck 6 also works with Flight Simulator 2004. We're taking you back to the basics... New to the Flight Deck series is a brush with Naval training. Not only will you experience the rush of landing on a moving carrier, but you'll get to go through the paces as a Naval cadet learning to fly combat maneuvers in the propeller trainer the T-34C Turbo Mentor. After passing with the T-34C, you will graduate to the T-45 Goshawk jet trainer where you will focus on your landing and more intense maneuvers. Landing on a heaving deck can be a white-knuckle terrifying experience for even the most seasoned Navy pilots. There's a good reason that the flight crew refers to a landing aircraft as a "recovery."

For full details, click here.

Features

Video:

For full features click here!

Eaglesoft Christmas 2009 Discount Coupon may be used with ANY FS9 or FSX Aircraft Purchase! Eaglesoft Christmas 2009 Discount Coupon is now available.

Expires December 31st.

http://www.eaglesoftdg.com/coupons.htm

Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and Microsoft Corp. entered into an intellectual property (IP) licensing agreement that allows Lockheed Martin to further develop the Microsoft ESP PC-based visual simulation software platform to better train warfighters for battle.

The agreement provides Lockheed Martin with access to the ESP technology portfolio enabling the company to build cost-effective simulation solutions for customized training for its worldwide customers. Lockheed Martin’s software development teams will extend the current capabilities of ESP to enable a whole new suite of innovative ESP-based solutions that will evolve beyond flight training to include ground and civil agency applications.

The Microsoft ESP IP licensing agreement builds on the existing Microsoft/Lockheed Martin Strategic Alliance to bring meaningful information technology services and products to market and continue to fuel innovation. It is also an example of Microsoft’s broader efforts to collaborate with industry through IP licensing. Microsoft ESP is a visual simulation software development platform that brings immersive games-based technology to training and decision support for commercial, government and education organizations.

The Grumman G21-A Goose is a commercial amphibian plane designed in the late 30s. The Goose was very successful and many are still flying today.New: pop-up control panels

Pictures Here.

More Details.

The MBB/Kawasaki BK117 is a medium twin engine utility and transport helicopter.

This X-Plane 9.40+ model is one of the most detailed aircraft you will ever find.

More Details.

Video: 

Download everything here!

Eric: KatMouse - Mouse Enhancement

http://ehiti.de/katmouse/

Request: FSX Google Earth tracker. I've tried FSX get, and have heard of FSEarth.

Mark: X-Plane P28 181

Brendan: World of AI

Hosted by Eric McClintock, Danton Berube, Mark Stewart, Brendan Farmer, and Special Guests Scott Gentile and Cody Bergland.

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Join us as we talk to Scott and Cody with A2A Simulations about their history and future, and their Piper J3 Cub with AccuSim, and past and future products from them.

Eric: Plan-G - Free IFR and VFR Flight Planner for FS9 or FSX

http://www.tasoftware.co.uk

Mark: FourFlights

Four flights is a web site that publishes 4 flights a day to find 4 different degrees of weather happening in real world locations.

Danton: Ground Environment X Europe

Ground Environment X Europe represents our new approach in texture design, incorporating high level detail graphics in the default Flight Simulator X 1-meter texture resolution format. This delivers a hi-fidelity image without using excessive disk space or processor power. Our design allows a simulation pilot to enjoy clearly defined visuals from nearly ground level up to higher altitudes.

Brendan: ZurichX airport scenery for FSX and FS9

Zürich Airport is a scenery developed for Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX) and Flight Simulator 2004 ( FS9 ). It's has been created with great attention to visual quality and performance, using the latest available programming techniques, both in FSX and FS9.

The product is sold as 2 Products in One. This means, by buying one version, you will automatically get the other for free, since activation and serial codes are shared between FSX and FS9.

X-Plane and 8 Cores from Ben

My name is Gerry First I want to congratulate you and your team. FSBreak has grown to be a fantastic podcast of the highest quaity. You should be very proud. I have listened to every broadcast and look forward each week to the next one. I've been a flight sim fan since the very beginning and spend a lot of my flying time on Vatsim. It's hard to believe when I look back and think how excited I got flying in a wireframe environment. FS has on gotten better and better since then and I look forward to what the next generation will bring.

This is for Danton, but Eric should also go this route. As one who uses Matrox Triple Head-2-Go, I could never see myself going back to a single monitor. I don't care how large the monitor is, you still only have a narrow field of view. The additioal monitors give you an expanded view that you will not believe. And yes, you can still use your track IR. Go to Matrox web site and look at the examples they provide. Since you are building a fantastic system, you should take another look at this type of setup. You won't be sorry.

Keep up the great work. Many thanks again,

Gerry

I was wondering if you guys could give my new VA a plug, I have Bill Womack as a pilot, and John from FTX, has given us his endorsement! I know you probably don't do this type of thing, but what we have is something unique!

We are the Only VA designed for A2A's J3 Piper Cub! With Hubs and FBOs located in TongassX, FTX Australia, PNG, Plum Island and the Pacific Northwest!

Our Forums are only open to pilots, but I have a few things to look at! Stop by! And give Us a Look & Shout! http://www.backcountryservicesva.com

Thank you for your time and consideration!

Blue Skies! Xflyboy Ed Cleveland

Hosted by Eric McClintock, Danton Berube, Mark Stewart, and special guests Matt Olieman and Vybhav Srinivasan.

Listen Here:

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We talk with Matt and Vybhav from the website MyCockpit.org, here are some links you might find useful!

Click here to download!

Click here to share your results in the FSBreak forum!

Danton: FTX AU 3 Disk Set

Eric: BananaBob's Kodiak PhotorealKodiak Textures Super Pack!

Hi Eric,

Hrm...looking at those Tom's Hardware numbers for MSFS, I can only speculate that:

- Core configuration isn't that important for MSFS because MSFS isn't bound by pixel fill rate.

Remember, core config is telling you that many hands make light work when it comes to filling in pixels on screen. But what if there are no more pixels to fill? Many hands then make many idle workers.

Looking at the Tom's hw numbers, MSFS doesn't go much past 30 fps even when bigger and bigger video cards are thrown in. Other games do see an increase.

This implies that MSFS is bound up on CPU speed or some other separate system bottleneck.

The implication of a CPU bottleneck is that a nicer video card simply won't help you much _at all_, and that money should be spent on better single core CPU performance.

This is, of course, all speculation..I have no idea what goes on inside MSFS. I can tell you for X-Plane that whether we are bound on pixel fill rate (in which case core config of the GPU matters _a lot_) or CPU (in which case throughput of a single CPU core matters) has everything to do with how the user uses the sim. Some features hit one, some hit the other.

cheers ben

Hosted by Eric McClintock, Danton Berube, Brendan Farmer, Mark Stewart, and special guests John Venema, Holger Sandmann, and Bill Womack.

Listen Here:

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The A2A Simulations Piper Cub and Orbx's FTX NA Blue make the ultimate companions!

Listen to the first part of the show for an entire interview with John Venema and Holger Sandmann of Orbx Simulation Systems, creators of FTX AU and the much awaited Pacific Northwest (PNW) scenery. We also talk with Bill Womack about the Pacific Northwest region too!

If you're following this project at all, you're not going to want to miss this episode. Listen to this week's show for several surprises!

Also, Eric wanted to share just a few of his screen shots from the PNW region using FTX NA Blue, check our gallery here. Of course a huge thanks to Orbx for letting us bring this content for you.

Over the past few weeks Aerosoft was nice enough to lend us their user base and offer a free download to anyone who did a repaint of the Carenado Mooney M-20J for the upcoming "Around The World" flight. (Check out our PBY Catalina or Discus Glider X Reviews if you need some ideas for your free download!). The grand winner got an additional two downloads (Three Total) and three runner ups got one additional download (Two total). And here are the results!!

All winners should be contacted shortly.

Here is the original thread!

And here are all of the entries, good work everyone!

First Place:

RedEye (Runner Up):

FourtyFreak (Runner Up):

Guenter (Runner Up):

Other Entries:

Well, we are extending the usual $100 Hamburger updates since it took longer than usual to get the last one up. But Steve has also published a second flight which you can download here to hold you over!

Thanks Steve!

Danton: FSXMark07 & Fraps 2.9.

Set Up of FSBreaks's FSXMark07 Challenge!

Download: Fraps 2.9

1) Download and install FRAPS 2.9.

2) Configure FRAPS FPS options as follows:

A) Disable Overlay Display Hotkey

B) Set Benchmarking Hotkey to P

C) Leave "Only Update Once a Second" off

D) Set benchmark to automatically stop after 300 seconds

E) Check box to save "MinMaxAvg" statistics

3) Download FSXMark07.zip and unzip the contents into your "Documents/Flight Simulator X Files" folder

4) Under Settings in FSX, customize the Graphics settings to:

A) Target Frame Rate: Unlimited (far right)

B) Full Screen Resolution: to 1280 x (800 or 768 or 720, depending on your screen proportions) x 32

C) Advanced Animations: ON

D) Light Bloom: OFF

E) Preview DirectX 10: OFF

F) Lens Flare: ON

G) Global texture resolution: High

I) Anti-Aliasing: ON

J) Filtering: Anisotropic

5) Click OK and at main Settings window, set Aircraft, Scenery, Weather, and Traffic all to Medium High

6) Load FSX and select Free Flight

7) Click "Load", select FSXMark07 in the saved flights, and click "Fly Now"

8) When the game is ready, it will be paused. Hit "P" which will unpause the autopilot flight and start the benchmarking at the same time. Let the autopilot fly the plane!

9) After 5 minutes, the yellow FRAPS frame counter will reappear to show benchmarking is complete

10) Right click the FRAPS icon in your system tray to see your benchmarks

11) Post a screenshot of the results!

Brendan: http://www.protu-154.com/index_e.html Project Tupolev Tu-154M

Eric: Two Picks

First: FSX.cfg modification to make autogen easier to handle (Credit: John from Orbx):

This simple tweak will limit the number of autogen trees being displayed whilst still allowing you to have a high autogen slider setting.

Add the following two lines to your [TERRAIN] section in your fsx.cfg file:

Thanks for the voice mail - Check out that page here!

Are you aware the Microsoft is selling an advanced flightsimulator called Microsoft ESP? See: http://www.microsoft.com/esp/default.htm

There is also an article about it in the Jan/Feb 2009 issue of "Airliners." I will scan and forward you this article for your review.

Perhaps this is something that FS Break listeners may be interested in?

All the best and keep up the great work!

Russ Tillman

Thanks for the tip Russ - We did know about ESP, however ESP was also canned with ACES. From their website:

Microsoft has ceased further development of Microsoft® ESP™, but ESP remains available to customers and partners.  Microsoft is currently exploring 3rd party licensing options for the future of ESP and will announce details at the appropriate time.