dpny

Well technically you're both right. Its a 2-core DUO, so as far as I can tell, its two TRUE cores, but split up to effectively equal 4 cores(?) When I open up my system activity monitor, 4-"cores" show up as opposed to the two on my old Mac Mini The processor is hyperthreaded. Essentially, this means duplicating the parts of the CPU which feed information in the parts of the CPU which do the actual calculating. The idea is that, since the calculating parts spend most of their time waiting around for information to be fed into them, the parts which feed the information can take advantage of the idle time to get more work done. We will have to wait until the CRJ ships to see how well the hyperthreading works.

Can you post the docs somewhere? I don't know when then plane will be released, but I'd like to start going through the manual and familiarize myself with the plane.

Nicely done, Phillip.

I assume someone, or some group, stepping in when the original developer left? Good news. Looking forward to this one.

Sorry to pop your bubble, but almost a year ago on the .org. http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?showtopic=44673&st=0

You left the .org over that?

I think we're looking at a summer release: July/August.

It will be interesting when app makers begin to write fot a dual-core chip. The new graphics chip is supposed to be much, much faster as well. As for me, I will finally upgrade my first generation iPod Touch for the next iPhone this summer.

Fly over water with per-pixel on, and then off. You will notice an enormous difference.

Didn't know you were working on Laminar's 747. Please, take your time.

With the CRJ on hold, could you fix lack of an FMS load button on the Javelin?

I believe you hit the nail on the head there, Dave. Couldn't agree more! it's Don. I have some understanding of Austin because my dad's an aerospace engineer. Only, instead of programming flight sims he learns languages.

1) Austin was a multi-millionaire before any app sales; 2) Austin is driven by an engineer's pedantic need to make the best flight sim he can, and I mean that in the best way possible. If no one was buying X-Plane, he'd still be developing it for himself, because that's what he did in all the years when X-Plane's entire install base could've fit in a 747.

Seasonal textures were never mentioned or promised for v10. They're just something some people would like to see.

I have no idea what data they have been able to get: you'd have to email Ben to find out. That said, I'd leave him alone for now, as Laminar is pushing as hard as humanly possible to ship v10.

I think it would also depend on the quality of the data. If the OSM data from a particular locale was sparse or lacking, Laminar might be better off using procedural roads. That's really a question for Ben, tho.

As far as I know, V10's streets are built from OSM data, where available. If Laminar was able to get OSM data for a particular location (which, off the top of my head means, at a minimum, the US, Canada, the UK and western Europe) you won't need OSM.

From Ben's blog: Some users have asked about architecture and localization. I expect we will not ship out of the box with multiple local regions; however, the library system allows us (or any third party) to provide new artwork sets for local, architecturally reasonable buildings.

I didn't say faster; I talked about memory usage. OpenGL keeps a copy of every texture in the application's memory so it can load textures when needed without a delay. Combine this with what I do--fly in NYC, with complex custom airport scenery and a converted copy of Aerosoft's Manhattan scenery--and, running max texture res and no compression, I can run X-Plane out of memory before my GPU runs out of VRAM. I've made X-Plane run into it's 3GB limit more than once, at which time it seg faults out. This won't be an issue for someone who doesn't fly the way I fly, but it's an issue for me.

My personal experiences are: 1) Looks like crap from low altitudes; 2) Color shifts look unsubtle compared to X-Plane's global scenery; 3) 2D pictures of 3D objects look silly when you're flying at low altitudes; 4) It only really looks good if you can run it with max texture res, uncompressed. Because of limitations in the OpenGL driver, this put a limit on how much custom scenery you can run without running X-Plane out of memory.

I must be on the short list of people who don't like Photoscenery.

The scroll wheel is hardwired to the throttle.

There's already a decent DC-3. There isn't a decent F-14. . .

It's also in constant development. I don't think people understand just how much work goes into producing an FMC which attempts to mimic real world ones.

Samen's a college student and is working on the plane during his breaks from school.