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Oh hey, here's some INSPIRATION. You might need it, you never know. There you have it. HD taxi signs ! But I'm sure you already have them. Out of caution... I'm so silly I made them available for FREE to the community here : http://forums.x-pilot.com/files/file/509-taxi-hd-enhancement-pack/

Testing, to make sure I don't get burned again.

No coincidence for sure, but it sure puts a smile on my face to see Nicolas and Co. react to something we do.

We've been on an extended downwind for a bit. Now that the Saab is departed, the tower has called our base leg...

Really enjoyed flying the tutorial. I highly recommend doing it. Very enjoyable and gives a lot of tips. Great plane.

Hi, All, Here's a quick livery lineup shot of all the liveries included at no additional charge with the Saab 340A! We have also included this shot in our gallery images, but I figured posting here doesn't hurt either. Enjoy!

Hi, all, As we near closer to the release of our first RealScenery Enhanced product, it's time give some information as to what you can expect and get ready for with the release and how we intend to distribute this spectacular scenery product! First off, we can't tell you just how excited we really are to bring this product to fruition. It has been a very long, painstaking process, as we have built new proprietary software in a few areas to make this product possible. In fact, we originally finished NORCAL nearly a year ago and decided to completely trash it and start over again (Many of the early posts for NORCAL in this forum were the old, trashed version). We felt that NORCAL will be very important to many, and we wanted to do it right! To say the least, seeing true-to-life imagery in beautiful contrast and cars following the roads, as well as the amazing night lighting in sim is definitely something to behold. The screenshots are nice, but flying it in sim will give you a whole other feel and appreciation for the Enhanced line of products to come! So, let's recap on a few things here for those that are relatively new as to what NORCAL and Enhanced sceneries will offer: Cars following all roads in the imagery. This is NOT the roads you're used to in X-Plane, and it has almost NO impact on FPS Night lighting that detects urban vs rural areas, as well as parks, stadiums, parking lots, etc. It's fantastic! Every single airport is aligned with the imagery. This includes runways, taxiways, aprons, etc. Clear of any artifacts in the imagery. You will not find any clouds throughout your flights Enhanced packages will average 1.8 meters per pixel or better vs. previous scenery packs of 5 meters per pixel resolution Smooth color transitions between resolutions and default scenery. As you can see, this package truly stands out compared to anything else we've ever released in the scenery department, and we plan to continue this trend! I don't think any of us can really stress enough how awesome this scenery really is to fly around! Since we have the feature list out of the way, I'd like to announce our new distribution plans for this product. We have received countless e-mails in excitement for the release of this product, so I feel it's very important to give some specifics on size and how we plan to ship... First off, NORCAL comes in at just under 93.4GB installed. Please keep this in mind when you purchase! You will be able to install specific sections rather than the entire product at once to save disk space if you like, but I feel it prudent to let everyone know the size of this package. The download size of this package will come in at just under 40GB. This means the compressed form of the scenery is about half of the fully installed size. In addition to what is said above, we will be introducing a new way to purchase NORCAL. We realize that California is very large, and that some people are not interested in purchasing the entire scenery package just to fly around a small area they may like. As such, we will be starting single DSF tile downloads as an option! Not only is this ultimately cheaper for you if you don't want the entire package, it also saves on download time and bandwidth for you as a customer. It's fair to say that most tiles installed will weigh in at just a little over 3GB per tile. The following image is a map of single tiled areas you will be able to purchase if you choose not to get the entire NORCAL package: To help you better choose specific areas, we'll be giving details on each tile as to what type of flying they offer, as well as screenshot galleries for each tile offered. So, with that said, a re-cap on how you can purchase/obtain the scenery: By purchasing the entire package and downloading your purchase with the http://forums.x-pilot.com/index.php?topic=914.0'>RealScenery Downloader (Click Here) By purchasing a DVD of the entire package and having it shipped to you. You can also purchase DVDs for a small fee extra with downloads. Great for backup! This product will ship as 10 DVDs By purchasing a single tile from a map similar to that above and downloading your purchase with the http://forums.x-pilot.com/index.php?topic=914.0'>RealScenery Downloader (Click Here) With the introduction of Enhanced packages we'll also be introducing installers for the scenery. Our goal is to make the download and install process as simple as possible! We have servers in Europe and the US for RealScenery download products, and Asia is in consideration. This offers high speeds around the globe for those of you that choose the download option. Compatibility: RealScenery NORCAL will work with Mac, Windows, and Linux. It is important to note, however, the download option will not be available to Linux users. You'll need to order a DVD and have it shipped to you. The scenery requires version 9.2 of X-Plane, but we HIGHLY recommend version 9.5 for initial load reasons. One of the more common questions we are asked about is the FPS impact of scenery packages like NORCAL. Because of the method we use to compile these products, your FPS impact is going to be little to none. This is also due in part with the fact we have worked to minimize issues with Laminar, and worked on better texture paging methods specifically for this product. Thanks to everyone for your continued supporting of our products, as well as the amazing response we receive in e-mails day in and day out in anticipation of this product. It's definitely going to be a great time sharing this with you all! Cheers, and Blue Skies! Cameron

I apologised if the post I have made has insulted you. It was meant to be a joke hence the "jks jks".

Pierre, you shouldn't have...

This Day in History for 23rd September ... 1913 - Roland Garros is 1st to fly over Mediterranean Sea . Roland Garros was born in France in 1882. An experienced pilot, Garros was the first Frenchman to cross the Mediterranean by air. On the outbreak of the first wold war, Garros was sent to serve on the western front.. Garros realised that he would have more success in dogfights if he could find a way of firing a machine-guns through the propeller. Working with Raymond Saulnier, a French aircraft manufacturer, Garros, added deflector plates to the blades of the propeller of his Morane-Saulnier These small wedges of toughened steel diverted the passage of those bullets which struck the blades. and today ...... happy birthday Tom Kyler

ha....definitely got a laugh out of that. Thank you much Leglaude! My wife categorizes me today as "officially" over the hill. TomK

Would love to get them too ! Not because I doubt if I will take the plane or not, but to learn the plane in order to wait to save enough for it ... What a pleasure to open a plane and know how it works !

That's because when you're in the cockpit most of the scenery is not visible

Leen De Jager, is the man, he paints many of th great planes. My hat is off to this great guy.

CF-104 over Cold Lake.

Pushing up the throttle today in the stock B2.

<-- Tries not to spill his over priced beer as he gets a glove on while Saab rounds the bases. Ok... guys, you're up.

Two questions: 1. HDR on or off? 2. What screen resolution with that video card? I'm going to discuss this a bit more with Laminar this week, but here's the primary deal, folks: HDR has some neat features (especially the night lighting) but is yet to be optimized still to where Laminar wants it. We've made an add-on that's VERY detailed. I don't mean offense to other products, but in most cases I have yet to see a product as detailed in 3D as this one. It's not about proper or improper modeling habits as much as it is pushing the limits and envelope. As with any add-on, we must learn to adjust. I personally have never had much issues (and I've flown the Saab A LOT), but looking back on it, it's probably because over the various X-Plane versions I have felt that HDR has gotten WORSE and not better. The contrast is just one thing that kills it off, and the way that AA renders in it can either be an eyesore or a slideshow in most instances. As such, more often than not these days I leave HDR off unless doing night flights. As the X-Plane market grows and more detailed add-ons come out (especially scenery) we will start to see these issues become even more obvious. Please realize what you're dealing with here. We're only just getting around that curve where we match what people like MSFS have had for years. They have even services and guides just to learn how to optimize your settings because of stuff like this and how big that market is! For now, regretfully, my suggestion is to keep HDR off. I hate to offer this as a suggestion, because I love it when people enjoy our products how YOU want to enjoy them. That said, there are two sides to ever coin, and that's where we are in this juncture of X-Plane development. Luckily, hardware rapidly gets faster and better year and year (if not faster). P.S.: PLEASE don't waste your own time by trying to re-install the Saab with the lower res version. It will NOT improve your FPS if you have a video card that we deciphered can truly handle the higher res version. The only time anyone would notice change is if they have a low res capable version card but did not answer the installer question truthfully and selected higher res instead.

Also make sure that the chocks are removed - that happened to me . Just go to external view to check... So in summary: 1.) Plane must be started up properly (engines running in right mode to create forward thrust) 2.) Electrical power must be available (to work the brakes) 3.) Parking brake lever must be down (either by mouse manipulation or using V or B keys) 4.) Chocks must be removed (check with outside view, remove them with the "ground equipment" tab on the sidebar) 5.) Just to make sure check the brake dataref with the "display on screen" and you can also check the thrust the engines put out in the same way. If all that fails, you might have parked in a big spill of superglue . Jan

i just finished my first SAAB 340 video,hope u guys like it )

Now, THIS looks EXTREMLY good!

Just a little side note to the liveries. When you select a different livery within X-Plane, any livery that is prefaced with "LDJ" is a livery painted by Leen De Jager. He was generous enough to donate his time to create some fantastic looking repaints and he deserves some recognition for his work.

I also found this product called Skymaxx Pro...in development also jks jks

FIRST!!!!!!!!!! More shots to come!

I try and stay out of it, but that about sums it up...........

Sounds like you're waiting for just the right asset to appear so you can "borrow" it......

Again who knows what the future will bring.....We already have a home run on our hands.....There are a lot of things that need fixing, we are starting off with a very solid base to work with.....

Some more renders of the pilots' panel. Click on the pictures to see them in hugeeeee size! Do you like them? Enjoy!

Sorry to hear that, guys. Nicolas Taureau (who runs the org) is known to do things like that. There are many other pro-consumer communities out there. Participate there instead.

You crack me up John! I may come out as a negative person but inside i am all fuzzy, kinda like a teddybear Purhaps my downfall is that I tend to expect realism when it comes to flight simulation, but that's just what 15 years will do to a geek

Good point! Id hate to see him happy that tells me something is very wrong in the world......

At least he's consistent.

Never seen a rotating sky in my life