SkymaxxPro new features request

[arb65912]

 

 

There's a weird disconnect between the physical world and the real world.

 

Hmm, I am lost, Ben.

 

Now seriously, yes , it makes sense, bugs fixes , definite yes but extras , no obligation at all OR paid upgrades  which personally I would not mind but many would disagree of course.

 

I think that the virtue here is to keep a balance between the product price, bug fixing and happy customers. So far X-Aviation was doing well in that area in my opinion.

 

Cheers, AJ 

[zzap_v]

You already payed your money based on what was offered at the time you decided to pay your money.
Anything more beyond bug fixes for things we could not forsee is icing on the cake, we are in no way obligated to provide you with endless free extras, no matter what the price that was asked.

Forgive me sir, but I payed my money to what you advertised and promised.

And the delivered product is far from what you advertised. I payed 40$ for an unfinished project.

You simply made a cosmetic addon to the sim. The weather in X-Plane with your plugin is no longer "weather". No distant clouds, no storms, no rain. Just pretty clouds.

If you just said from the beginig that you are selling pretty clouds you would have no complains

And as mr Mad Mat my money also is important as the situation in my country (Greece) is also very bad, but I supported you.

If you cant handle criticism then you are the one that should look deeper.

 

Thank you

[Ben Russell]

My post was an observation. It is not and was not directed at anyone or any particular product. It is an observation about the general expectation of people when they're online dealing with software.

 

 

We are already working to improve the product in this thread (SkyMAXX Pro) and have been since the day it was released.

 

 

As a side note;

I have seen storms.

I have seen ugly clouds.

I have seen pretty clouds.

I have seen clouds better than anything I've ever seen in X-Plane since 2005.

[zzap_v]

My post was an observation. It is not and was not directed at anyone or any particular product. It is an observation about the general expectation of people when they're online dealing with software.

 

 

We are already working to improve the product in this thread (SkyMAXX Pro) and have been since the day it was released.

 

 

As a side note;

I have seen storms.

I have seen ugly clouds.

I have seen pretty clouds.

I have seen clouds better than anything I've ever seen in X-Plane since 2005.

we are probably flying in different skyes 

[Ben Russell]

If you take the time to review the product page at X-Aviation I think you'll find the product delivers exactly what it says.

 

X-Plane has never had distant clouds, this is a very long standing issue, so we haven't removed anything there.

 

In fact, last time I tested the default clouds, X-Plane couldn't even cope with NEAR clouds that were partially in view, very large chunks of cloud formations pop-in and pop-out as you rotate around the compass. The default effect is laughable.

So laughable that for years I've been flying CAVOK so I can completely avoid the default.

 

Here is the product page for easy access:

http://www.x-aviation.com/catalog/skymaxx-p-101.html

 

 

Take a minute to watch the slideshow, it shows a bunch of different items, including a nice lightning strike.

 

 

Would it be nice to have distant cloud formations? Absolutely.

 

Unfortunately, X-Plane only provides data for the weather that is very localised around the aircraft.

Because of this ALL the plugins that feed X-Plane data from NOAA or METAR files ALSO can only provide localised weather data.

 

There is absolutely no data available to X-Plane about distant weather. NONE. You can use the built in METAR or the NOAA plugin, both of them only care about a very small area of air space.

 

 

SkyMAXX was never advertised as a weather-injector. It's advertised as a visual effects change.

 

Maxx-XP, in co-operation with Sun-Dog Software, and X-Aviation are excited to bring you a game changing experience to the weather rendering in X-Plane 10 as we know it! SkyMaxx Pro is an X-Plane cloud and sky replacement engine boasting all-new technology for X-Plane 10 that it's almost like having an all-new sim!

 

How SkyMaxx Pro works

SkyMaxx Pro is a plug-in that disables X-Plane's cloud and weather rendering engine, then replaces it with the SkyMaxx Pro version of weather. It takes weather data from the already existing X-Plane weather menu that you are used to, so there's nothing new to learn. What you gain are some amazing visual effects at almost no performance hit! In fact, most of our test team showed that when running default X-Plane 10 clouds vs. SkyMaxx Pro clouds, SkyMaxx Pro had better frame rates over the default X-Plane 10 clouds!

[JohnMAXX]

Vag69,

 

I made no false claims as to the what SkyMAXX provides at all,  and what it does offer justifies the price. By no means is this an incomplete product.  Changes being made are directly related to the valuable feedback we gain from the community and by no means are provided because of any deficiencies with the product....  Vag I don't know if you know what I do at Maxx-XP,  but updates and follow ups are always provided because there is always room to improve on a product and I really enjoy X-Plane and I want to help extend the product with my add-ons.  Your claims are not justified one bit and I would appriciate if you refrain from making stupid claims.....

 

Additionally we are working on this product in the background,  if I were on forums posting all the time things wouldn't get done....

 

Keep in mind:

 

We love feedback and it motiviates us to further the X-Plane experience......

 

ALSO!!!

 

If you are having financial problems, consider it my obligation to tell you to not buy SkyMAXX Pro and utilize that money else ware.  I would hate to see any financial difficulties due to you purchasing my fantastic product.... 

[MercuryMat]

Vag69,

I made no false claims as to the what SkyMAXX provides at all, and what it does offer justifies the price. By no means is this an incomplete product. Changes being made are directly related to the valuable feedback we gain from the community and by no means are provided because of any deficiencies with the product.... Vag I don't know if you know what I do at Maxx-XP, but updates and follow ups are always provided because there is always room to improve on a product and I really enjoy X-Plane and I want to help extend the product with my add-ons. Your claims are not justified one bit and I would appriciate if you refrain from making stupid claims.....

Additionally we are working on this product in the background, if I were on forums posting all the time things wouldn't get done....

Keep in mind:

We love feedback and it motiviates us to further the X-Plane experience......

ALSO!!!

If you are having financial problems, consider it my obligation to tell you to not buy SkyMAXX Pro and utilize that money else ware. I would hate to see any financial difficulties due to you purchasing my fantastic product....

We're not talking about financial problems, but only about value. I do not have financial problems, but I started to learn what I can quite easily remove from my consumistic life during those years. X-plane and flight are a passion and I prefer to buy a smaller car than stop to spend my money in x-plane stuff or in less real flights...

In my case I bought the product to "invite" the developers to continue to work on it, and not because I really considered it the right price for what it offered. And so I'm expecting bug fixing and a better implementation of the real weather for example, in future. And I'm confident this will happen.

What seems strange to me is all the people that is simply saying "it's fantastic" "it's perfect"...and so on. This product has room to be improved and I think customers must insist on this point.

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[arb65912]

 

 

What seems strange to me is all the people that is simply saying "it's fantastic" "it's perfect"...and so on. This product has room to be improved and I think customers must insist on this point.

 

I guess I do not belong to that category. For me SkyMaxx Pro IS fantastic but I have never said that it is perfect, two different things IMO. 

 

As for improvements, it was already said that developers will make them based on user input, we just need a little patience, things do not happen overnight.

 

Cheers, AJ 

[JohnMAXX]

I don't mind your feedback at all Mat, as a matter of fact we have added some of your suggestions to the roadmap......

 

Those individuals who are happy with SM, see the value of the product and are enjoying it,  Mat it is OK to be happy.....   

 

What caused me to jump into the mix was the product basically being called incomplete.....  I know we will not make everyone happy but rest assured SM is organic and has a bright future....

[arb65912]

Gentlemen, I am flying in Alaska now, airplane LES Saab 340A, real weather ( on VATSIM).

Could not resist to post the screenshots.

 

If anybody says these clouds are not WAY better than XP default, I will paint my face and prepare for war.       

 

Enjoying SkyMaxx Pro very much and I know it will only get better, excellent product.

 

Cheers, AJ 

 

 

Edited December 21, 2013 by arb65912

[flydav]

What seems strange to me is all the people that is simply saying "it's fantastic" "it's perfect"...and so on. This product has room to be improved and I think customers must insist on this point.

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This is the way Americans like to express themselves they are very appreciative and show a lot of gratitude maybe sometime a bit too much but this is the way they are. We Italians (the majority) are very different we smile less, we show very little gratitude, and try as much as we can to show very little or no enthusiasm at all for somebody else work. I don't want to say we Italians are all like that, and Americans are better then us we are just different, different culture, and show our feelings in a different way. Appreciation is not our forte, but we can improve, look... I had to smooth some angles of my character otherwise they would kick me out of this country (US) already  

Edited December 21, 2013 by flydav

[flydav]

I bought SMP immediately and I LOVE it, I don't think it is perfect but the difference with the standard and/or other custom clouds is huge, just try to go back to the default clouds for one day to see the difference.

The special rays are something revolutionary and the fps has been hugely improved. 

 

Also I want to show you gratitude for listening to people and for continuously improving SMP as I think after all you would like to have a better SMP for yourself too

and I'm confident that all the bugs with the lights are gonna be fixed so that nobody can say this product is not worth $40.

 

If it's true what Mr. Russell says about users asking too much, it is also true that nowadays developers are abusing the users' patience by releasing expensive add ons with little or no testing at all.

It is frustrating to pay for something that doesn't work and this happens all the time.

 

Are we pushing the developers too much sometime? Yes. 

Should they release a product ahead of time because we pushed them to do so? No

 

I'm very happy to write here ( as you can see) because this is the place where developers take 4 years prior to release something (see SAAB) and this makes me extremely happy. This is not a common trend elsewhere and we users are getting really frustrated because we're spending a lot of money and don't want to deal with this bugs non sense all the time.

 

Finally, when I opened this thread I thought about future features just to give some feedback and ideas to the devs, to keep things fresh and alive, and just because I believe that they would like to improve the product for their personal enjoyment too. I was not meaning to complain or trying to get more bang for the buck  

[JohnMAXX]

Not at all flydav and I agree with your position 100%  

 

One thing we dropped the ball on, and a fix came quickly, was the performance of SMP on the initial release.  That I feel compelled to apologize to the community, but again that is fixed

 

SMP takes add-on development for X-Plane into mostly uncharted territory since environmental upgrades are, for the most part, largely ignored n our hobby.  The tools for us developers to integrate into XPX are still a bit behind.  Most time is spent with aircraft and airports but you are seeing a shift towards a more broad range of possibilities in development for X-Plane. Things like art controls for water are not there yet, but I predict they soon will be

 

I enjoy X-Plane, be it a casual user, and yes you are correct the more we add to our add-ons the more I enjoy XPX.  Mostly though I gain warm feelings knowing I am providing the community with necessary features.....

[Cameron]

Finally, when I opened this thread I thought about future features just to give some feedback and ideas to the devs, to keep things fresh and alive, and just because I believe that they would like to improve the product for their personal enjoyment too. I was not meaning to complain or trying to get more bang for the buck  

 

I think you have slightly misinterpreted Ben.

 

The point he was trying to make was not that people shouldn't make suggestions. This is, after all, how products get better. It's those who come in with a demand rather than suggestion. There are ways to carry yourself, and some people have not done a tremendous job of that.

 

Ben's primary point was also that as developers we are only subject to provide you what we advertised to you and paid for. Bugs, fixes, etc are entitlements to you as a customer. You can and should expect free updates for these things. But, things like a weather injection system, or other items never intended or advertised are simply icing on the cake, free additives, and not entitlements. This is the disconnect Ben is talking about from the real world vs. the digital world. I don't ever expect my tupperware in the cupboard to grow wings the next day. I bought it knowing what I was getting and nothing more.

[flydav]

got ya! 

[pryoski]

SkyMaxx Pro has delivered me what was advertised and then some. I'm not saying that I don't appreciate some folk providing positive criticism ... I do.

 

However, here's my 2 bits. I don't know what voodoo John and Sundog did and how many virginal black cats were sacrificed to do what they did ... but how the flack did this increase my framerate? Because increase it it did ... manifold.

 

If SMP was to be sold purely as an fps increasing plugin ... I would have bought it in a heartbeat ... and I get beautiful skies to boot! Whats not to love? Merry X'Mas y'all.

 

Edit: The planes I fly most (in order of frequency) are the JS32, the C90B and the MU-2 ... with the JS32 and the MU-2 I went from a steady 30fps in rural areas to a whopping 60fps .. that's a 100% increase!

I've never flown the Carenado C90B WITHOUT SMP so I can't compare, but with it I get low 28 high 35; again these are respectable numbers.

The SAAB ... well I'll wait for the patch or bite the bullet and get a hardware upgrade next year sometime ...

Edited December 22, 2013 by Kris Pryo

[Ben Russell]

The Saab upgrade has a significant optimisation of the sound engine code.

 

I will go out on a limb and say that there is a guaranteed FPS gain to be had for every single machine that runs it, regardless of GPU type or RAM installed, or even CPU clock speed.

 

 

On top of that, there is an additional optimisation that has been identified in Gizmo itself; the code that draws fonts for all the CRT display screens. This will come later, probably early in the new year.

[3saul]

 

I could give a tupperware to a cave man and he would understand its utility. You surely can't expect your average customer to understand the intricate details of a complex software system? You have to view our questions, concerns and sometimes misdirected criticism from our perspective and limited understanding of the inner workings of xplane. I had no idea what a weather injector was, but the term was thrown around as if this was common language. Not to me at least.

 

looking forward to the next release of this great add-on  

[arb65912]

I do not want to repeat myself but after Kris's and Ben's responses, here are my two cents.

 

SkyMaxx  Pro did what I was waiting for a long time, no "gray screen of death" which was totally annoying and a beautiful, DYNAMIC clouds along with a nice customization.

Yes, there is a room for improvement at it IS getting done as we have seen already with the "instant" update improving dramatically frame rate and fixing other little bugs.

As John and other developers stated, there is a new upgrade coming with even more things improved.

 

We are all different and I do not mind criticism, it drives the quality up and is healthy so I totally respect input from users pointing out the areas that could be improved and I like the developers response.

 

To summarize SkyMaxx Pro , believe it or not, EVEN if there were no more improvements to be planned , I would still buy it and never regret.

 

Thank you John and the  Team for this superb product, I am very happy about it.

 

Planes I fly are ( the recent order)  LES Saab 340A, C90B and occasionally B752, yes, most of the time last week or two, it is mainly the first two.  

 

 LES Saab 340A has a dark beginning for me, I was very frustrated and pi$$ed by the initial responses in forums here but I realized that the big part of the blame was on my side.

I reinstalled ( fresh installation) XP, copied the scenery and I am able to fly LES Saab 340A at about 21 FPS on an average with SkyMaxx Pro set up on the higher end.

 

Ben, you were the one who suggested the fresh install and I want to apologize again for being so stubborn to finally try it, sorry, you were right.

 

Now , do not get me wrong, LES Saab 340A needs frame rate, memory leak and whatever was pointed out to be addressed and as Ben, Cameron, Goran and Jim ( I did not forget Theo this time, I just did not see too many of his replies here  ) it is been taken care of.

 

I am able to fly Saab at the present stage but when I get these improvements I mentioned above, I will be a very happy XP pilot for a long time.

 

Thank you all LES Team, no regrets for all I purchased at all.

 

Cheers, AJ 

 

Just a super short video, look at these clouds, can it be any better than that?