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A couple of weeks ago @Litjan posted a video on YouTube showing off LNAV and VNAV operation. This was a two series part, and part two has just been posted today. I am linking to both parts 1 and 2 here, but obviously if you've seen the earlier version the second video is the one which will interest you most now.

Jan mentioned that this airport was not in the Aerosoft airport database (because it has no procedures)...and was simply demonstrating that we read the x-plane airport file in addition to the database data... just in case one were to enter a "small airport" as Jan did. The airport runway threshold data is given in lat/lon, which are, of course, very discrete points....so I couldn't say as to what causes the misalignment in this video, its certainly not ubiquitous. We have seen some issues with the magnetic variation and truth be told, there are probably some spots in code I specify true when the database data is magnetic and so we just have to find these one by one....but that should not affect "defined" lat/lon points like runway endpoints, only calculated ones, .....so it is something we'll investigate some time in the future. -tkyler

Very cool. I don't fly any aircraft with a FMC, and never have. I'm an old school pilot that still revels in VOR to VOR with DME equipment. I've looked at the freeware and payware FMC's that are available for XPlane, but they all seem to have some issue or another to contend with, so I've avoided them. After watching these videos for the past few months, this is the bird that is going to drag me kicking and screaming into a modern(ish) FMC cockpit. I can't believe I'm going to be joining the button pusher club ;-] Lastly, I really like the fact this aircraft is a transitional aircraft. One that still harkens back to the steam gauge era cockpit, but hasn't been transformed into a full blown flat screen filled office cubical. Very cool that this is the last preview video before release. I've tried to glean as much operational info from these videos, so I'm really glad you are going to make some tutorial vids after release. I'm usually a wait and see buyer, but this will be a first day purchase for me. Thanks for the effort. It's about to payoff for the team. Tim

Captains, With SkyMaxx Pro 3.1 now out the door and so much positive feedback coming back to us through various channels, we're ready for the next step: Real Weather Connector! We have completed our beta testing phase and the packaging for retail begins now. For those of you hearing about Real Weather Connector for the first time, Real Weather Connector couples with SkyMaxx Pro v3.1 when you have the real weather option selected in X-Plane. Without Real Weather Connector there is a limitation in the X-Plane plugin SDK which makes it impossible for products like SkyMaxx Pro to access real weather data in far out distances. Instead, you would see real weather ONLY for the area your aircraft is flying over, and it would be uniformly set for the entire scene (meaning you can't see overcast ahead if broken clouds are below you; the whole scene would be broken clouds instead). After a ton of work (more programming code than in SkyMaxx Pro v3 itself!), Real Weather Connector now makes this possible reading downloaded weather data from the default X-Plane real weather METAR file format OR a program like FSGRW (note: EFASS and NOAA are not compatible with Real Weather Connector as they do not provide the required data files for Real Weather Connector to be able to work its magic!). We have actually had rather spectacular results with the default real weather download functionality in X-Plane. These third party programs (like FSGRW) are optional, not required! So, again in simpler terms, Real Weather Connector lets you see different weather conditions in the distance, and fly into them smoothly, just like in real life. All of the clouds around you will be in the right place and at the right altitude, and won't just "pop" in as you fly. If you look closely at the screenshots below, you'll see there are many different weather systems and cloud conditions visible in the same view - that wasn't possible before with SkyMaxx Pro v3! Real Weather Connector will be released this coming Friday, April 15, 2016. As a thank you to our current customers, anyone who purchases SkyMaxx Pro v3 prior to April 15, 2016 will receive a discount to be used towards the purchase of this product! We will send out discount codes before the product goes live so you have the opportunity to purchase this product as soon as it's available. Of course, no final announcement is complete without a promotional video (and more screenshots below the video), so we're excited to show you that now! Further to the video above, check out some of these awesome images by @Yidahoo showcasing Real Weather Connector in action. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do! We'll see you in the skies with awesome weather scenes this Friday!

Jan's been a little tired, so I'll cut him a break. We've all been working hard! The lights are not default, and I watched the code go in myself here at the office. Carry on, gentlemen!

No - the light effects are "default X-plane" - adjusted for colouring and intensity. We are not going to add a custom randomized flashing pattern for V1.0. Pretty happy about this complaint, though. If this is the stuff that people are picking at, we have indeed come a long way Now it IS possible that by coincidence you might JUST see the flashing pattern in the video on a real plane, too - but in our plane you will see it like this all the time (I think). Jan

I really enjoy these videos. I learn a lot of real operation.

When people answer with "when it's ready" that means there is no date.

The light pattern can actually vary due to the implementation of the system....switching to LEDs for example, which are generally electronically controlled can/might have differing patterns based on several factors....so its not 100% set in stone as to the exact pattern for any given model as that poster suggested. Tweaking the light pattern is not rocket science....but its not at the top of my todo list. In addition, he insinuates that something like this "keeps us from being PMDG vs. Aerosoft". I quite have to restrain myself from responding to that...but will -tkyler

Hi guys, yeah, sorry about the bad sound levels - guess the noise level in the cockpit is a bit too realistic! I found out that I am hard to hear after finishing the shoot and then had no time to redo it. Jan

Sounds like someone didn't listen to Jan closely enough in this video.

Cameron, Just doing a quick Phoenix to Tucson at 16000ft. It's cloudy and rainy here in AZ. The clouds like 800 times better than before the upgrade. Thank You, Thank You! Andy

That's great Cameron, thanks! That will let me pick and choose between static or updated, depending on real-world conditions. I'm really looking forward to this.

Congratulations! Another one ready to buy! And thanks for the discount! Enviado desde mi Nexus 5 mediante Tapatalk

RATS! RATS! RATS! Got to wait 4 more days, Heck I got my patpal link in my favorites. I'm ready to buy it right now, and got SkyMaxx upgraded to v3.1 and ready to go, its going to be a very long 4 days

LOVE the landing lights reflecting off clouds! A really nice touch.

Excellent videos Jan, really enjoying and learning. Have so many routes to cover when this Bird comes out.....

I really liked the subtle buffeting while descending to the diversion airport. Which would be the cause? Flaps? Since the speedbrakes weren't out on the occasion.

None to give at this time. You can bet all your money if we had a release date you wouldn't be finding out through asking us a question...

The fact that Jan said that this bird is getting ready in DAYS is already amazing! He didn't even mentioned the word "weeks". I'm so happy right now Also he said that this is the last promotion-video. The tutorial videos will be released with the final product? Did I understand that right? (at very end of the video) Again sorry for my bad english Greetings from Cologne, Germany

It won't.

Hiya's, Before darting off to see some glamorous highly finnessed video, just get that notion out of your head lol I only upload stupid items that mean something to me, i am deffo not a YT vid guru, so Osamah/thomas to name a few don't panic you've nothing to fear hehe I just did a quick vid to show what i can get with a load of sceneries/free plane and a somewhat aged gpu Before the link, my rig specs as it stands today W10 Pro x64 Asus rampage v extreme 5820k @ 4.7ghz watercooled R9 290x @ 1267/1354 watercooled 32gb DDR4 3200 @ 3000 Only a very short vid, as said i'm no yt guru, just pause on settings on full screen and you should see them Maybe of help to see what actual lower-scale settings can achieve in this 3.1 version, sure blows my mind hehe Have Fun Tony ps : Lowest fps is approx 25/27 and in open areas maxed at vsync 60, average 30-35 in clouds and scenery on the deck

Thank you Jan. And yes, you guys have come a REALLY long way. FSX and P3D people will be jealous :P. I can tell you I'm getting this bird on day 1. Get some rest and hopefuly that nasty cold is fully gone.

Each day that goes by is always a day closer no matter what.

Someone on a facebook group noticed something about the lights on the 737. " In this video you get strobe/beacon/strobe/beacon/strobe... in perfect order. Now a 737-300 is old, it doesnt have a box synchronising its lights. The strobe will flash out of time with the beacon light" Is this something you guys missed?

sorry i guess i missed that. it could happen being spanish speaking guy

Jan adressed that in the video, it's temporary so testers dont have to wait for long flap animations

Heya, Nice info you've posted :-) I might just do a fresh install myself Cheers Have Fun Tony

Thanks for the pointers Tony but I'm on top of most of that stuff Hopefully the following may help anyone still struggling... I'm not sure what was going on but I decided to do some tests enabling and disabling SMP and various options. I was more worried about the odd look of the "postage stamp" (dinner plate was the wrong expression as it's rectangular, not circular) effect of the overcast when viewed from above. FPS wasn't too bad for me. For anyone struggling this is what I did just now which seems to have sorted multiple issues / niggles... I rebooted gizmo which seemed to improve things a bit. This made me wonder if a full uninstall and re-install of SMP (*not* X-Plane) would help. When upgrading SMP I just used the installer to uninstall the old version so maybe this didn't fully clean everything. It's also entirely possible I used the same method upgrading from v2 --> v3 so there may be who knows what leftovers. I uninstalled SMP and fired up X-Plane just to see what that did (baseline basically) and everything looked much better (wall to wall overcast which was what I was after with the weather I have set for testing) but withough the SMP finesse of course. I then re-installed SMP. Haven't changed anything yet apart from disabling lens flare. (Geek aside - Note that I normally install from a NAS - I noticed when unistalling the NAS paths were being accessed. Before re-installing I copied the SMP installers to the same drive as X-Plane is installed. I'm running X-Plane SE.) Results - fantastic. I now have realistic looking cloud cover at FL410 (not a tiny postage stamp immediately below me). FPS has shot up too. VRAM usage reported by MSI Afterburner has dropped by about 800K. Time to turn things up again Conclusion: If you're having problems, reboot Gizmo uninstall SMP completely. Fire up XP and make sure things look how you expect. Note FPS. Install SMP. Check visuals. Note FPS. Smile hopefully. (X-Plane load times have dramatically reduced too). Only one question / point - I have to assume rebooting Gizmo is *not* something that happens every time X-Plane is restarted! But that's for another day. Guy PS - just sat here in pause mode at FL410 over the Shetland Islands watching the sun come up and light the cloud tops. Stunning Time to go fly!

Guy7, Drop your Min/Max Cloud Size down, slider to far left Check/Tick Fast clouds option, as i see it, Fast is like a minimum for my checking, then Crisp is full on yummy HD (my opinion from fps and eye-candy visual checking Uncheck/Untick Enable Cloud Reflections, these are only over water Shadows in any game are fps droppers, if you want, drop those down to off or bare min The Cirrus layer options i have down to Low and the force Layer ticked Now, from there see what you've got fps-wise Now if the fps is ok at this, start adding your eye-candy, cloud sizes/cloud area covered Now with more distance and sizes to play with, alas it's up to you to dig in n get dirty and find your ideal fps For me i love dshadows, but until i have a better gpu i forego these on high settings and have them on static (in game options) Always when given eye-candy/fps i start at default or low and work up/down For me the cloud rendering distance means i've had to give up some cloud size to balance the fps Just take your time, number each save, after a selection are done, go into some dense fps-lowering airport, check and see and fine tune Also a quick note on your rig cpu/gpu and ram amount might help If you want to overclock a cpu or gpu i don't mind helping, these alone even moderate oc'ing can yield more fps Have Fun Tony

Upgraded from 3.0 to 3.1 and I've noticed this too. It's like flying over a dinner plate of clouds. I've tried adjusting the sq km covered but it doesn't seem to make a huge difference visually. Affects frame rate a lot more. Is there something else I should be adjusting? Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

I did actually, and the sentence "vnav is now usable" made my day! Kudos Jan [emoji106]

Just joined the forum tonight. I've been a long time user of the FSX Hawaii Photoreal scenery; indeed, a 'plus' user. About a year and a half ago, I spent a few months worth of FSX time flying the chain of islands back and forth, many times over. Since then, however, I haven't really been back - partially due to a migration to P3D. However, in that time, I have picked up XP10. I'm very glad that I did, it's been fun to fly in, and definitely a nice counterpart to FSX/P3D. I seem to spend about 90% of my time now developing airports for the Gateway, but developing was about 90% of my time spent in any platform.. Anyhow, having been very pleased to see your efforts to bring the excellent FSX photoreal (as well as George's excellent airports) over to XP, I just thought I should pop in here to thank you for all of your hard work. And yes, I'll be in for the 'plus' versions you're creating!

Yes, there is a bug in the logic. It has been fixed and will be in the next update. This is also a bug and has been fixed. It will also be in the next update. Thanks for reporting these issues. I just did a test. I started the aircraft (Auto-Start), shut off the left bleed valve, switched on the X-Valve, and the X-Valve Open Light came on. Unless you can provide more details, I don't think there is any issue here.