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Hello, all, This will serve as a formal forum announcement that we have released the version 3.1 update for SkyMaxx Pro. All customers who have purchased SkyMaxx Pro v3 up till now have been sent an e-mail by X-Aviation with complete instructions on how to obtain your update. We have made this a very simple process! For those that purchase SkyMaxx Pro v3 from today forward, your purchased download will already be updated to version 3.1 for you. What if I didn't get the update e-mail? If you did not receive your update e-mail don't fret! X-Aviation has updated our system to allow all customers to update with ease, regardless of whether you received an e-mail for the update! Here's what to do: 1. Login to your X-Aviation account here: https://www.x-aviati...talog/login.php 2. View your past order history invoice that contains SkyMaxx Pro purchase on it. 3. At the bottom of the invoice you will find a blue highlighted link to your update that says: "SkyMaxx Pro v3". There are some important fixes and requests implemented in this update. The following is a list of additions/fixes included: What's New / Changed: Landing lights now illuminate clouds as you fly through them! Performance enhancements to reduce "stutters" when new cloud conditions are loaded Many overall performance enhancements More variation in cloud shapes More accurate cloud altitudes Visual improvements to solid and broken stratiform clouds Numerical setting values now displayed in the config screen New ability to save and load named configuration sets More tuning of cloud lighting, visibility, and shadow effects Ready for the upcoming Real Weather Connector product "Hi res clouds" option changed to selections for "Fast", "Soft", and "Crisp". "Fast" is the old low-res SMP 1.0 clouds; "Crisp" are the "hi res" clouds of SMP 2+. The new "soft" option is somewhere in between; higher resolution, but more blurry and indistinct. A few new screenshots to showcase v3.1: As always, thanks for being a customer with X-Aviation. We appreciate your feedback and support! Enjoy these latest updates, and stay tuned to the forum as we continually announce the latest happenings.

Because 3-1 = 2

Haha, I actually asked if you guys did something with how clouds are rebaked when transition occurs, becuase I used to get those annoying 1/2 second freezes with 3.0. Now they are completely gone... now clouds just fade away and everything feels and looks very fluid. That's the greatest change I could have hoped for from this update, and you guys more than delivered. Kudos to the entire team!

A quick note on performance - I've been monitoring the forums and social media, and it seems like most people are seeing the same or better framerates with Skymaxx Pro 3.1 compared to 3.0. And people are noticing that "stutters" when new weather conditions are loaded are reduced, which is what we were hoping for! However, that reduction of stutters is done by pre-loading the clouds you might need when SkyMaxx Pro starts up. This means that if your system was already on the edge of running out of memory (video or system RAM,) SkyMaxx Pro 3.1 could push your system over the edge, leading to decreased framerates or even crashes depending on your driver. If this is happening to you, try reducing the "cloud draw area" setting in SkyMaxx Pro - that's the easiest way to lighten up its memory requirements without giving up your custom scenery, and whatever else is eating up your memory. Turning off cloud reflections is also a good way to reclaim some performance if needed. It's surprisingly easy to run out of memory in X-Plane if you're using custom scenery, high rendering option settings, high monitor resolutions, custom aircraft, and/or high settings in SkyMaxx Pro. "I have a good computer" doesn't mean you have enough memory for everything you're asking X-Plane to do, unless you stick to a default setup. And who does that? Hope this helps!

Exploring the French and Swiss Alps at dusk

Peter - the cache doesn't leak or grow unbounded or anything (I spent a LOT of time testing that), but if VRAM is tight the driver can start to struggle with memory management over time. I think that's probably what you're seeing. More VRAM (or fewer clouds) would help, but as a temporary solution, try opening up the SMP configuration when this happens and slightly change a setting like the draw area. That will cause the clouds to get regenerated, which somehow seems to help NVidia's drivers clean up its memory fragmentation in my experience.

Thanks for reporting this. The issue has been fixed and will be in the next update. I cannot recreate this. I started the aircraft (Auto-Start) and then shut down the right engine. The gen lights DID NOT illuminate. Please provide specific steps on how you created this condition. There are several parameters that need to be met in order for the X-Valve to close. For example: The aircraft must be on the ground. One Bleed Valve must be closed. Bleed pressure must be a minimum of 10psi (approx, 40% eng. speed). The Right Main Bus must be powered. Please verify that these parameters were met when you attempted to close the X-Valve. As previously reported, we are looking into this.

No it doesn´t need to be on. Great update with very nice visual effects and a (for me) slightly improved performance. Sadly X-Plane crashed two times when I changed Sky Maxx Pro settings (error name: "large number of errors") It didn´t do that before the update. Is there anybody else experiencing this?

What a great surprise to wake up on a Dreary spring day here in the UK and find 3.1 waiting. I know this will be brilliant. I have to wait an hour before I can test it as I have to do some stuff fro my wife. They just dont understand the importance of these things. All the best Wycliffe Barrett Xplane Dedicated.

No worries! I reset it for you. Thanks for the compliments!

Thank you very much for the release of the v3.1 I don't know how you do it guys but the increase in performance is great. Nice new options, now waiting for the weather connector. Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Thanks for clearing that up, then I can remove the IXEG page bookmark

I'll just add that at the edge of the envelope and *slightly* beyond we have implemented Level D simulator behavior. So e.g. in a stall you will get a similar behavior. Same with extreme controls deflections (rollrates, pitchrates, beta angles on engine out etc.) We also model drag rise and loss of engine efficiency at overspeed. M

Jan, maybe a stupid question, but I was wondering if a professional pilot still can be immersed in a desktop flightsim. Or to rephrase my question, with your hands-on experience on the 737 how do you perceive the model you made? As a "mini-me" of the real thing?

WARNING...Geek talk. The LNAV and VNAV calculations are deterministic, the 'performance database', is of course stochastic. The only way to get a fully deterministic implementation is to have air density and vector info predicted at every point surrounding the plane during the flight.....quite the CFD problem (and then some). For the given database input states to the routing algorithms, the output will be the same every time for the same inputs (numerical round-off notwithstanding).....as the calculations are fully based on Newton's laws. -tkyler

I personally appreciate the amount of time the IXEG team is putting in to ensure the release is as bug-free as possible. Unfortunately I've had to stop visiting this forum as often as the amount of whining about the release date is irritating to read. Please grow up people, it will be released when it's released.

VERY

Ok guy's, lets move on shall we? HEY, didn't PMDG promise to release within 1st quarter 2016? Bastards! (Just kidding ) M

At this point I think it's fairly safe to say that Gizmo has more known bugs than IXEG. We just try to avoid the ones that splatter on your wind screen.

We don't really have a final word on this for now. The only promise for the moment is the NavDataPro from Aerosoft. If things change we would certainly communicate that at the appropriate moment.

Okay!