Cameron Posted October 22, 2016 Report Posted October 22, 2016 Captains, It is with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement that I get the opportunity to announce SkyMaxx Pro v4.0 to you today! A few people have speculated out there on whether we were announcing the next version soon, or what may be in it, and today we can tell you a whole lot more! Without question, SkyMaxx Pro v4 is going to be our most exciting of the SkyMaxx Pro series to date. The features it brings to the X-Plane experience are pretty awesome, so without further ado, the feature list for SkyMaxx Pro v4 is as follows (a preview video will follow soon): - Double your maximum cloud draw area! Big performance improvements allow clouds to be drawn across an area up to 320 km across surrounding your plane. Go ahead and crank up SMP's cloud draw area setting and achieve fast, realistic scenes at FL300 and above. - Did we mention big performance improvements? SMP4 is faster than ever. - New 3D precipitation system that represents rain, sleet, wet snow, and dry snow - as well as mixed precipitation that responds automatically to the ambient temperature. Precipitation is even lit by your landing lights! And an whole new precipitation control panel lets you tweak its appearance to your own liking. - Precipitation is tied to individual clouds in SMP4. Rain will start and stop realistically as you fly underneath or through the clouds. - All-new "HD Cloud Puffs" overcast representation! Fly through large, thick overcast layers built from real HD cloud photos, without killing your framerate. Overcast clouds have never looked so good from above and below. - Higher-resolution scattered and broken cumulus clouds, with twice the resolution as SMP3. - Cirrus and cirrocumulus clouds now move realistically relative to your plane's motion. - Works better than ever with Real Weather Connector: more accurate representations of ground fog, thunderstorm placement, and stratus/overcast cloud placement when used with RWC. - Adjusts lighting on distant cloud puffs at night ...and a few more unannounced features yet to come! Screenshots (Click to see large view): Showing the new, doubled maximum cloud draw distance (both images above 30,000 ft) with the new overcast! The all-new SkyMaxx Pro Precipitation Settings Window and showing off some SkyMaxx Pro 3D snow getting lit up by aircraft lights! As explained above, SkyMaxx Pro now has 3D rain, sleet, wet & dry snow! Showing the new HD Clouds Some 3D rain effects shown. Precipitation stops if you are not under a cloud! Showing some gorgeous clouds generated by SkyMaxx Pro 4 as we coast into the sunset. We're excited to show you more! Information on upgrade eligibility: SkyMaxx Pro v4 will be a paid upgrade for all current SkyMaxx Pro v3 owners. Those of you who qualify will receive a 50% off ($19.95 instead of $39.95) upgrade discount which will be valid for 60 days from the time SkyMaxx Pro v4 goes on sale. After this, the product will go to full price for all customers. Information on release: SkyMaxx Pro v4 will be released in as short order as possible. We currently have a beta team being assembled and about to go through Release Candidate builds. Once that is done it's on to packaging and release. We will keep everyone updated as we get closer to the release. It would be safe to say you can see SkyMaxx Pro v4 hit the store this USA holiday season! X-Plane 10 & 11: We will support both X-Plane 10 and 11. There will not be a separate cost for these products. If you purchase SkyMaxx Pro v4 you are assured compatibility with both (keep in mind if adjustments need to be made for X-Plane 11 it may not work on day one, but it will be as quickly as possible after as we will have early access copies to work with. Therefore, it is possible we have SkyMaxx Pro working on the first day of release for X-Plane 11 as well should changes really be necessary). Thanks to everyone for their continued support in this amazing product! See you in the skies! 20 1
jatar Posted October 22, 2016 Report Posted October 22, 2016 (edited) Great news!!!! Waiting with the wallet hot. If you could get implement thermal ... Open a door to the GA and gliding Edited October 22, 2016 by jatar 1
beHaind Posted October 22, 2016 Report Posted October 22, 2016 Nice to hear that you keep developing SkyMaxx Pro. However one thing that really needs to be improved imho is the cloud puffing. I use SMP since Version 2 and bought RWC the moment it was launched, yet I still have clouds popping up or dissapearing right before my eye (Weather data is coming from Pilots Global Real Weather). I really wish you could fix that once and for all. 1
Cameron Posted October 22, 2016 Author Report Posted October 22, 2016 1 minute ago, beHaind said: yet I still have clouds popping up or dissapearing right before my eye (Weather data is coming from Pilots Global Real Weather). I really wish you could fix that once and for all. It was already fixed and addressed with the latest version of RWC and the 'Never' option getting added. 1
PTaylor Posted October 22, 2016 Report Posted October 22, 2016 Looks awesome , will it work on Mac Sierra?
Cameron Posted October 22, 2016 Author Report Posted October 22, 2016 5 minutes ago, PTaylor said: Looks awesome , will it work on Mac Sierra? Yes, it will. 1
beHaind Posted October 22, 2016 Report Posted October 22, 2016 21 minutes ago, Cameron said: It was already fixed and addressed with the latest version of RWC and the 'Never' option getting added. Sir, I do have that enabled and still clouds popping (on camera, I record each flight with NVidia Shadowplay). System is set-up according to manual and pretty strong (4.4 GHz Intel i5, 16 GB RAM and NVidia GTX 1080)
Cameron Posted October 22, 2016 Author Report Posted October 22, 2016 Just now, beHaind said: Sir, I do have that enabled and still clouds popping (on camera, I record each flight with NVidia Shadowplay). System is set-up according to manual and pretty strong (4.4 GHz Intel i5, 16 GB RAM and NVidia GTX 1080) This really is not a thread for support, sir. Start one in the RWC forum if you feel the need. 1
PTaylor Posted October 22, 2016 Report Posted October 22, 2016 Thanks Cameron! It looks amazing ! i will be grabbing this Day 1
kjhkent Posted October 22, 2016 Report Posted October 22, 2016 I enjoy using your V3 product. However a recent sale on your V3 followed by an announcement of V4 within days is a bit much. I am not concerned by it as I bought V3 sometime ago. However thats the way to upset your supporters. 1 1
Cameron Posted October 22, 2016 Author Report Posted October 22, 2016 I enjoy using your V3 product. However a recent sale on your V3 followed by an announcement of V4 within days is a bit much. I am not concerned by it as I bought V3 sometime ago. However thats the way to upset your supporters. I'm not sure I follow your logic. Upset supporters how? SkyMaxx Pro is $39.95. People in the sale got 50% off. Those same people will now get 50% off of SkyMaxx Pro 4. That means the price is effectively the same as buying SkyMaxx Pro 4 on release day if you never took advantage of the sale or never had SkyMaxx Pro to begin with. I can't say I find anything upsetting about this at all. 2 1
BriangoUK Posted October 22, 2016 Report Posted October 22, 2016 Looking forward to the release of V4 very much, but I am missing not being able to use SMP/Sierra at the moment and I guess nothing is going to happen to fix the current problem with SMP and Sierra in the meantime ?
jfim88 Posted October 22, 2016 Report Posted October 22, 2016 Wow! Finally HD clouds in XP! Thanks you! Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk Pro
kjhkent Posted October 22, 2016 Report Posted October 22, 2016 42 minutes ago, Cameron said: I'm not sure I follow your logic. Upset supporters how? SkyMaxx Pro is $39.95. People in the sale got 50% off. Those same people will now get 50% off of SkyMaxx Pro 4. That means the price is effectively the same as buying SkyMaxx Pro 4 on release day if you never took advantage of the sale or never had SkyMaxx Pro to begin with. I can't say I find anything upsetting about this at all. Its a forum Cameron and people are entitled to express an opinion. Thanks for explaining your pricing arrangements. Its good to know that people will be able to take advantage of them. It will be great to see the reviews of the new product after its release. In the meantime I will continue to enjoy V3. It certainly adds to Xplane.
MercuryMat Posted October 22, 2016 Report Posted October 22, 2016 (edited) I was never really able to use SMP 3 with decent performances-appearance balance, especially with mid to heavy cloud coverage. So SMP3 for me was mostly a waste of money (cause i had to remove it completely to be able to enjoy the sim) even if I bought with offer. You should give some clear performance comparison between the products, considering no-top-of-the-line PC and MAC, cause appearance could be nice, but performances are what makes the difference. The price is fair if the specification are reflected in real day use, even if in practical you are charging users with 20$ per year, for a product never perfectly working in many situations. There will ever be a way to test the product before buying it? Or may be a way to give money back if not completely satisfied? At least the first option should be considered. May be an open beta could be a good way to proceed. Edited October 22, 2016 by Mad Mat missing thought 1
Ben Russell Posted October 22, 2016 Report Posted October 22, 2016 (edited) 18 minutes ago, Mad Mat said: I was never really able to use SMP 3 with decent performances-appearance balance, especially with mid to heavy cloud coverage. So SMP3 for me was mostly a waste of money (cause i had to remove it completely to be able to enjoy the sim) even if I bought with offer. You should give some clear performance comparison between the products, considering no-top-of-the-line PC and MAC, cause appearance could be nice, but performances are what makes the difference. The price is fair if the specification are reflected in real day use, even if in practical you are charging users with 20$ per year, for a product never perfectly working in many situations. There will ever be a way to test the product before buying it? Or may be a way to give money back if not completely satisfied? At least the first option should be considered. May be an open beta could be a good way to proceed. Matt. If I had a dollar for every complaining post you make about these products I'd buy you a copy of SMP 4 for you to try, You're clearly unsatisfied even at the budget breaking cost of $20 / year or 5.47 cents / day. I respectfully suggest you just find another product. br. Edited October 22, 2016 by Ben Russell 5 1
diamonddriller Posted October 22, 2016 Report Posted October 22, 2016 Looks fantastic. I thought v3 was good, so this is going to be remarkable
donoscar Posted October 22, 2016 Report Posted October 22, 2016 4 hours ago, Cameron said: a) (a preview video will follow soon): .... Information on upgrade eligibility: SkyMaxx Pro v4 will be a paid upgrade for all current SkyMaxx Pro v3 owners. Those of you who qualify will receive a 50% off ($19.95 instead of $39.95) upgrade discount which will be valid for 60 days from the time SkyMaxx Pro v4 goes on sale. After this, the product will go to full price for all customers. c) X-Plane 10 & 11: We will support both X-Plane 10 and 11. There will not be a separate cost for these products. If you purchase SkyMaxx Pro v4 you are assured compatibility with both (keep in mind if adjustments need to be made for X-Plane 11 it may not work on day one, but it will be as quickly as possible after as we will have early access copies to work with. Therefore, it is possible we have SkyMaxx Pro working on the first day of release for X-Plane 11 as well should changes really be necessary). a) looking fwd to the video, promised I won't even try resisting if it is as you describe :-) b ) I find this very convenient, but as a little negative side effect, if you add up the cost to have SMP, RWC and FSGRW, the total cost for decent weather is rather undecent :-) c) I find X-Aviation's XP 11 transition policy very customer friendly!
airfrancepilote Posted October 22, 2016 Report Posted October 22, 2016 The update is gon'a be payware... I'm an owner of the V3 and I'm a young student so that's not cool. It's pretty hard to change my pc so if I've to pay 20$ more it's not easy... 5€ or 8€ will be more reasonable. Thanks for understanding 1
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