Xplane 10

[MdMax]

X-Plane 10 Tuesdays: New previews every week !

Hi all !

This is a post from Tyler Young:

Hi everyone!

Beginning today, 21 September, we'll be posting a new round of Version 10 screenshots every Tuesday on our (new) news page, as well as on our page on Facebook.

This week's photos include airports and roads modeled using the X-Plane 10 "plausible world" framework. They're pretty awesome!

Enjoy!

http://x-plane.com/pg_news.html

I like these shots !  8)

[AnonymousUser68]

Wow I had a look at those pics and thy look amazing for default scenery. I hope auto gate gets implemented. 

[dan]

Really exited to see global shadows making it into version 10.0. Just a pity GI lit objects at night don't cast shadows yet...

Anyway, it's looking promising. But have to see a few more before I make up my mind. Regardless it's a step in the right direction

[Simmo W]

ooh yeah, the new shots look great. hopefully they randomize some of those buildings more, a little repetitive already.

[Kesomir]

I hope the whole world doesn't look like a US state!

[Paraffin]

I hope the whole world doesn't look like a US state!

Not even a US state, but more specifically a Midwest or Northeast industrial US state. Miami doesn't look like that, Los Angeles doesn't look like that, let alone New Delhi, Paris, Mexico City, or Rio. I know it's just textures on cubes, and a lot of little bitmap textures will fit on a hard drive. But still, they'd better have a ton of world building textures and vegetation, if this system is going to work outside the USA.

On the other hand, this should work fine for autogen airport buildings, since those tend to be very generic, modernist/functional architecture all over the world. There are a few exceptions like LAX, and those are likely to be available as custom scenery anyway.

[dan]

What we need is to be able to edit the climate files according to regions. It's unrealistic to see the same forest texture on a mountain plateau or peak, a problem that increases the further north or south you travel. The top of the treeline is different in most regions, so being able to edit the climate files according to local knowledge would be a good idea. Winter weather can vary a great deal too at the same latitude, from coastal to inland.

Hopefully some of these v9 limitations are dealt with in the new version!

[garrettm30]

The "plausible world" airport scenery looks really good. Obviously most people would prefer to have the accurate scenery in custom airports, but this is such a huge step up from the completely flat airports of nothing but concrete. I'm really excited about this.

I hope it can help alleviate all those "no airports" complaints we're all the time hearing. But I doubt it. Every time some really exciting news comes out, there is a deluge of complaints about what's not there.

[garrettm30]

Hey, did you notice that big rig is passing on a double solid yellow line? Tsk tsk!  >

[dan]

Garrett, it won't be "auto-gen". Users still have to use WED to create building outlines/blocks of pre-defined X-Plane artwork and scenery objects and submit it for inclusion in the master database. The same way we have to submit airport layouts to Robin Peel. Understandably it'll take some time for users to catch up and a few cycles of data before the most popular airports have been modelled; unless LR decides to include a handful of premade international airports at the release, all we are going to see for a few weeks/months are empty airports.

[MdMax]

Hi all !

More news here today about X-Plane 10:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/xplane-news/message/1655

Happy reading !  8)

[garrettm30]

Thanks for keeping us up to date.

[dan]

A shame he didn't have a better screenshot to demonstrate the new procedural weather system. But it's definitely the way go. Wonder whether or not he's licensing the tech from someone else or if he's builing it from scratch... There's a handful of nice weather engine out there, and if it's anything like those it'll be great!

[iamfallen]

I am hoping this works out. I hated flying from point A to point B in sunny skies with light clouds only to find myself in a sudden instantaneous storm during my approach.

[MdMax]

Hello !

The new pictures this week are looking awesome ! 

http://x-plane.com/pg_news.html

[Simmo W]

Thanks for the tipoff Max!

Never knew the space shuttle could land at LESA, Spain, at only 8282 ft! Or is it to do a suicidal rocket powered takeoff?

[AnonymousUser68]

Its suicidal rocket powered takeoff  ;D

[Dukes]

I read the news about the procedual weather and it looks really promising but I didn't quite understand if the clouds will be real 3D or texture based like Xp9... I noticed that in none of the screen shoots there are visible clouds... what do you think ?

It would be great to have real 3D clouds like these http://www.simul.co.uk/weather/media  :

[dan]

I bet the new weather engine isn't ready for prime time yet... Don't quote me but I believe (my interpretation of the information so far)  that they will be true 3D clouds built using procedural algorithms. No more of those unrealistic 2D cloud billboards!

[AnonymousUser68]

I bet the new weather engine isn't ready for prime time yet... Don't quote me but I believe (my interpretation of the information so far)  that they will be true 3D clouds built using procedural algorithms. No more of those unrealistic 2D cloud billboards!

I agree with Dan but if 3d clouds are not implemented REX will always be there.

[MdMax]

New awesome X-Plane 10 previews here:

http://www.x-plane.com/pg_news.html

[Oliver]

Thanks MD! Was gonna post them, but saw that you beat me to it! Yeah, they sure do look nice! That's why I now love tuesdays.... X-Plane tuesday!  ;D

[dan]

How many more tuesdays will there be?  

I was a bit disappointed that they are reusing most of the old ground textures, but there are so many other improvements including the lighting, detailed aircrafts, scenery objects, shadows, weather and ATC so I think I can manage to live with it for a few more years!  

[-TheoGregory]

I definately won't be. If they don't change the runways and ground, I will most likely change them myself . Don't worry, I'll share 

[dan]

I'm not talking about changing the runway and taxiway textures, that's easy to do with overlays. What I'm referring to is the general terrain and mountain textures. If they are in fact using them I hope they have refined the algorithms deciding where each small texture goes, to give a more natural look...