mikced

Hej Ola Just terrible what has happened in Norway. I just can't understand how a person can be that cold and calculated. I just read in our Swedish newspaper that the guy might get out after just 14 years in prison, that is unbelievable. Anyway, my thoughts are with our you neighbors Mike Cedergren

Good reply Cameron, should never really have been any dates on the Realscenery page to begin with. I might probably not get NorCal myself but will stay tuned for Socal updates and images in the future to come. In the meantime I will enjoy the last nice bits and moments in X-plane 9. Until then, have a good one Mike

Happy to hear that Cameron :-) that was all I needed to hear, a few words. A short update. So easy, yet so difficult for so many companies for some mysterious reason :-)

Photoscenery takes up much more space than generic landscape tiles so of course it can not cover the globe. Microsoft managed to ship detailed landclass, realistic roads and decent mesh on 2 discs coverng the whole globe with Flight Simulator X and I bet X-plane will come close or even improve over the quality of MSFS in version 10. In fact with default MSFS and an addon terrain product like Ultimate Terrain from Flight1 I would see no reason to get MSFS photoscenery and the some would probably apply for X-plane. Anyway today I would have absolutely needed a better VFR experience but tomorrow, who knows. Mike

Trust me Oliver if this was the time in between X-plane versions I would not worry too much, but with a new X-plane version around the corner that might very well have all the roads data I need, the detailed landclass and the mesh for a realistic VFR flight this might very well make Realscenery somewhat obsolete. Thats what worries me Oliver, nothing more and nothing less. Mike

Yes some more information would be most welcome. I don't know how many times that release date has been pushed. All perfectly fine of course as long as there is good communication. In the end everyone wants a good product so any delay due to additional testing or adding new features or whatever is great. Let me be the first one to admit that! If however the product is on hold due to lack off commitment to complete the installer from this Indi guy, perhaps someone else is more suitable for his job. As I said before why wasn't the installer worked on much earlier in the process if it's so very complicated. X-plane 10 is slowly approaching and for me personally I am starting to question my purchase plan for Norcal since we don't know exactly what the new X-plane version will feature, the compatibility issues and so on. Sorry for the rant. Mike

I really enjoy the Duchess so far but is there a way in X-plane to change the viewpoint in VC to move closer to the instrument and gauges? Several instruments are difficult to read. I fly using the latest iMac 21,5 with a resolution of 1920*1236 in full screen. Mike

Only problem with such a very busy airport as DFW is that about half of us who fly use smaller GA aircraft and bush planes in X-plane so we can't even realistically use an airport like DFW for our GA purposes. I think an ideal airport to make is one that attracts all sorts of X-plane pilots GA and commercial pilots alike. ESSA is a good idea but there are a ton of good ones. Another idea is to start a similar payware project like Orbx for MSFS but for X-plane, a project that has shown very successful. They create smaller airports and grass strips in a local area and do them really really well, man you are so talented Ola and could really pull something like that off for sure. Check them out... In their case it is Pacific Northwest which is a great VFR location. The business side of it of course is that you attract many X-plane GA pilots that will buy all your fields as they become available who collect small detailed airfields to fly from, a more homogeneous group I believe than the typical commercial X-plane pilot. Less buildings also to worry about. Mike

ESSA is the largest international airports in Sweden and nothing I can really swing by and take pictures of unfortunately :-) but ESSA is absolutely a great airport and a great choice and something I would love to have in X-plane. In fact Sweden is so under representative in X-plane in general and its such a beautiful country (..I am no just saying that) :-) and we do have more than IKEA, Volvo, the Bikini team and the meatballs. Mike

Unless they are adding some additional last minute features. A few airport buildings here and there, at least for the major airports would make my day (and month) and would add so much to the experience. Well one can always hope I guess :-) Mike

Been a while since we heard from you regarding the release of NorCal. Just out of curiosity and a very humble and hopefully relevant question. Why wasn't the setup/download tool worked on while the scenery was actually on the drawing board or even later while it was created. That way perhaps it would have been out much quicker. Just a thought. Hope to get my hands on NorCal soon Mike

My vote is for a Swedish airport like Stockholm Arlanda (ESSA) or Bromma (ESSB). I fly out of Bromma airport IRL so pictures would be no problem. I guess Sweden will never happen for you though I mean with all the Norway jokes we throw at you guys, but well worth a vote I guess :-) /Mikael

Its not the fact that there is a GPS on board the Sundowner that is my problem, I love a good GPS unit (Reality XP has a superb 430 for example) but rather the fact that it happens to be the default X-plane unit. It is just so unrealistic this beast :-) But that leads me to a question though. If I purchase the Reality Xp one, is there a way to replace the default one with that from Reality XP? Many thanks Mike

Just a quick question. Is anyone actually using the default Garmin 430 in the Sundowner? Its existence on the panel is actually the one and only reason I still have not purchased this aircraft. This default instrument in its present shape and form in my opinion has no reason for being, and is extremely unrealistic. Why do payware and freeware aircraft developers insist on including this instrument in their panels. Any plans on removing it all together in the update or can it easily be user removed? Cheers Michael

I hear the developer of Final Frontier, Inside Passage etc might be starting a series of Washington state airfields. One is already as you may know out for purchase KPAE. I know you have a Washington state photoscenery but as I understand nothing that compare to your new series of photoscenery for NorCal etc resolutionwise. Any plans on taking up the challenge of a better Washington? Would be sweet to fly a high res photoscenery of yours with Toms planned detailed airports. The lack of good airports and sharp photoreal ground textures is actually the only things that keep me from not deleting MSFS and my bootcamp partition. Sure NorCal and Hawaii will be nice but once you approach any airport without buildings it ultimately reminds you that it aint "As real as it gets" :-) Mike

Hi If I am not mistaken there was talk in the early development stage of NorCal that a Socal scenery would also see the light of day at a later stage after the Norcal release. Is this still true? The latest images from the Reno Nevada area have me a little worried. Any input would be nice. Socal is such a very beautiful area to fly in MSFS with photoscenery, very much miss that in x-plane! Mike

The ADF I really see as needed in a small VFR aircraft like the Cessna 152, but an autopilot?? is that really needed in a Cessna 152? Are there even any autopilots in real world Cessna 152s? If you do add it though, pleeese make it possible to exclude it as I don't want one in my Cessna 152. Autopilots are for big birds not in a trainer :-) Thanks Mike

The aircraft do move to the right though as soon as you add some throttle and start to taxi, very annoying. I have flown hundreds of hours in PA28 aircraft IRL and never does that occur. I tried also to set windspeed to 0 to make sure it is not a wind thing as well as to taxi in various directions just to make sure the wind was not the factor, but still the aircraft moved to the right. Massive yoke correction is needed to stay on path. Still the Cessna is growing to become one of my aircraft of choice, great plane! Mike

I see this as well. I know its a light aircraft but not that light. The behaviors on ground when taxiing must be incorrect. Just releasing the brakes makes the plane move and it moves to the right as soon as you touch down on runway surface or when just taxiing. Mike

I am not too familiar with the Cessna in general as I fly PA28 in real life but should there not be a Tachometer in some shape or form somewhere in the aircraft, cant find it? I know in my flying club at least with the PA28s we use "Tacho time" as flight time when we pay for our flying. Also is there a way to change the aircraft registration number on the panel. I fly in Sweden so a "NXXXXX" is a bit unrealistic. Other than that I love this aircraft except for that useless horrid Garmin 430, but can't blame you for that one :-) wish one day in a galaxy far away us Mac users would have us a good Garmin 430 option. Mike

While waiting for this scenery I have enjoyed the free Bluesky Los Angeles scenery for MSFS which I have converted to x-plane with good results using fs2xplane. However I notice that the Bluesky photoscenery areas with better resolution have a much greater negative impact on performance in x-plane i.e x-plane stutters unlike the Bluesky Los Angeles areas with lower resolution. Is this something I will notice with your high res scenery as well because of the way x-plane 9 handles photoscenery or is this perhaps related to it beeing converted (it may very well be). In other words do you see performance decrease with your high res areas as compared to your low res areas? In progress report before we approach the weekend? :-) Mike

Have you considered some form of night lightning to cities when flying at dusk and dawn? I know the Megascenery team for MSFS photoscenery somehow found a way to do that with photoscenery, of course it was for the MSFS simulator and not X-plane, but anyway would be a nice feature of course. Mike

Thanks for the update.

So when will we see this high res scenery, or any California photoscenery for that matter? Mike

Absolutely beautiful screenshots