[SkyMaxx Pro 2 will have cloud shadows!]

Where you see entirely new features I see features that were lacking in the original whatever the reasons.

 

This comment basically makes the rest of your post moot.

You shouldn't have bought it in the first place if it didn't have features you were "expecting".

If you were unsure, wait for a review or post around here and ask.

[SkyMaxx Pro 2 will have cloud shadows!]

Personally I think it should be a free update. I have already paid and perhaps unlike some, am not easily parted from my money. Don't get me wrong, I love SMP but would be less than appreciative of being gouged for more money to get the finally finished product.

Couldn't disagree more.

Tons of work here on new features, thus the entirely new version number (2).

 

This sort of attitude is precisely what will keep people from developing for X-Plane.

Software isn't "pay once and get updates forever".

[SkyMaxx Pro 2 will have cloud shadows!]

Will this be a free update?

 

Let me be the first to say "I hope not!!""

This is tons of work I'm sure and I want these guys to get paid for their efforts here!

 

X-plane BADLY needs as much 3rd party dev support as it can get and that requires a thriving ecosystem where money can actually be made....

[SkyMaxx Pro 2 will have cloud shadows!]

Here's a much nicer screenshot one of our beta testers, Emma Bentley, took of SkyMaxx Pro 2.0 beta 8. We're still tweaking the appearance of the clouds for beta 9, but I think it's shaping up pretty nicely.

 

Looking superb!!

[SkyMaxx Pro 2 will have cloud shadows!]

As a customer I am very impressed with the continuing development of the product.  Every release cycle I feel better about purchasing SkyMaxx Pro.  Regards the "eye candy" aspects of flying through beautiful cloudy skies, SkyMaxx is state of the art.  Very much looking forward to the towering cumulous !

 

If I understand correctly Ben/Laminar are currently working "bugs" that cause X-Plane to incorrectly render cloud bases (and tops ?) regarding altitude.  If KXXX airport is reporting a ceiling of 800 agl, X-Plane draws the ceiling at 500 agl and so on.  Do these issues affect SkyMaxx at all, or rather does SkyMaxx have any influence on these issues ?  Or are you, like the rest of us, hoping all these are sorted out in the 10.30 beta run ?

 

Regards IFR flying, two very common scenarios.

 

The first of course is "breaking out" or descending through a solid cloud layer to an MDA or DA while on an instrument approach (breaking out is always associated with a sudden reduction in "pucker factor").  There have been some discussions about the difficulty of simulating a solid layer of opaque clouds with a definite base (to break out of); any work on this in this latest iteration of SkyMaxx ?

 

The second scenario is simply climbing through thick layer(s) on your way up to the flight levels or descending through layer(s) on the way down to the destination airport.  These can be a real icing hazard and offer real challenges to pilots depending on how much anti-ice gear the plane has.  Still dealing with the ability to render a solid layer with some ceiling altitude and some top altitude.

 

How will SMP2 do in "hard IFR" flying ?

 

Thanks for a great product,

 

Terry

 

Superb questions Terry.

This is all stuff I hope the Xplane guys can get right.

 

It sounds like for you, and me, the sims are a true training tool and attention to these sorts of real world details are absolutely critical to be of actual training use.

[SkyMaxx Pro 2 will have cloud shadows!]

Anyone heard if this is something aiming to be released when 10.3 gets officially released? (out of beta I mean)

[SkyMaxx Pro 2 will have cloud shadows!]

Outstanding!  Can not wait!