greggerm

You don't. Yet. t's not quite ready for primetime. We all need the next version of WED, which will have the facilities needed to create the export package for inclusion in the main database. We also need for Laminar Research and Robin Peel to finalize their process for accepting these submissions, which may still be in process as well. They included Atlanta in the 10.21 beta as a bit of a test. As far as creating airports are concerned, just make sure your airports contain NO 3rd party library objects (like OpenSceneryX items), and they're good to go. All objects and facades must be native to X-Plane only to be included. -Greg

Steven, Thanks - the first link does indeed function in XP10. I appreciate it. I'll need to play around with it, but it might fit the bill. -Greg

I'm looking for a basic Dash-8 400 which is suitable for use in X-Plane 10. I'm not looking for the FlyJSim addon, but something less involved and more hop in and fly, with default basic autopilot services and such - no need for a full FMC and the like - just the basics. There is a Dash-8 400 I've found over at x-plane.org, but it seems as though it was designed for XP8, and while it might work with XP9, it doesn't want to work for XP10. In the MSFS world, I fly the freeware Dreamwings D8, which is an exceptionally basic platform. Anyone have any ideas for me? Success here, and I might just be able to give X-Plane a little more of my FSEconomy business... Cheers! -Greg

Heh... from today's blog entry... ...Matches up nicely with my A. and B. requests... Let's see what happens!

1.) Waaaaay to many items to actually be considered fair towards Laminar Research. But since you asked... a.) REGULAR recuts of default scenery to update for OpenStreetMap water, road, and rail improvements. (Most critical!) b.) Implementation of "crowdsourced" airport process in WED and via R. Peel to finally get some buildings into "stock" X-Plane airports. c.) Urban/Suburban metro area representation improvements. (aka autogen) d.) Scenery textures which change with the seasons... please? e.) More ground scenery textures. f.) More autogen art assets overall. g.) More stock X-Plane scenery library objects (for use in item 1b) h.) Water texturing which is aware of depth/water type (tropical, muddy, ocean, etc. etc.) i.) Hire more full time developers or artists to help them actually meet some of their goals. Told you my list wasn't terribly fair! -Greg

Respectfully, I must disagree strongly with that reason. It seems to me the reason Laminar didn't include all these buildings is because they chose not to pay for the (expensive) data to populate the database, and pay for the development needed to make it happen. Instead, they've made it their policy to depend on users and 3rd party developers to populate these items, as well as develop more realistic airport layouts (taxiways, aprons, etc.) While there are examples of very well done airports in X-Plane which take up hundreds of MB's of space, airports made with default objects and facades will only add 10-20% more space to the total airport data file... going from a 100MB airport file to a "whopping" 120-130MB size. Take a look at some of the Aerosoft offerings in the X-Plane Global edition... a few use default structures and only clock in under 100kb, nevermind megabytes - with the majority of data being the actual runway/taxiway data, not the buildings. As you see, it's not a space issue which drove the decision to omit airport buildings, it was a price and effort decision. Regardless of the reason though, it is what it is at this time. I did my fair share of crying over it when I was first introduced to X-Plane, but I've since joined the WED crew and whipped up a few dozen airfields in my local areas of interest which desperately needed attention. Thankfully, Laminar is working on a system which will allow people who have edited airports (like me!) to submit their work with buildings to the master database which is included with X-Plane. Granted, they won't be custom models and textures, but we will be able to include accurately placed structures and terminals, adding needed life to the otherwise abandoned areas known as X-Plane default airports. Until that's completed, you have places like X-Pilot, X-Plane.Org, and other flightsim websites which host many scenery files for you to find and use. Or, if you're adventurous, take a stab at learning WED and design a few yourself! For me, working in WED is more enjoyable than flying in X-Plane!

Are you launching the 64-bit version of X-Plane with 32-bit plugins installed? Try launching both .exe's to verify... the x-plane.exe (64-bit) and the x-plane-32bit.exe (32-bit). If both are crashing, you might have to start pulling back plugins and addins to see if one is causing an issue. If 32-bit works but 64-bit does not, I'd put money on some sort of 32/64bit plugin incompatibility. Good luck! -Greg

Unfortunately, that means nearly 100% of North America due to the water shortcomings in our area... and if they need suggestions as to where, I can tell them the regions I've added in hundreds if not thousands of square miles of water and smoothed out sawtooth ocean coastlines... I know why they architected it the way they did, I understand the performance benefits it brings, but holy heck is it a royal pain in the pooper to have fresh OSM data sitting right there, with no way for us to get it into X-Plane 10. This is one of those topics that gets my blood boiling (*irrationally, I will admit). I wonder if a diff/delta-based patching engine would be better for X-Plane updates instead of straight file replacements? That way, 90% or more of the data on our systems today would remain, and only the changes would need to be sent down, processed, and new files created as a result. That would VASTLY reduce the amount of bandwidth needed to support global scenery updates... if the file structure was amenable towards it, of course. Even better would be a push-button method for us end-users to do it all ourselves, but that's about as likely as Microsoft developing MSFS 2014.... but wouldn't it be nice? "I just added a new neighborhood into OSM which wasn't there before... clicked a few buttons, and voila... I have a new DSF reflecting this change." Anyway - here's to hoping a global scenery recut is forthcoming, and soon. The X-Plane scenery architecture doesn't allow for 3rd parties to get in there and easily do wholesale replacements, so we're at the mercy of Laminar for the work to get done. -Greg

It was not included in 10.20rc3 - The only place to get it right now is directly from data.x-plane.com The only way to tell the version is to look at the properties of your existing master apt.dat file. If you have 10.11 or 10.20rc3 (final), you're running on the last update which was issued in July 2012. You can fetch the new one from Robin's site linked above, or wait for the next update from Laminar to ship out, which will likely include this airport data update.

Use WED! You'll essentially be creating a custom version of the airport, but all you need to do is drop in some exclusion boxes where the trees are (*and make sure you set the box to actually exclude forests!), and voila - no more trees. There is a disconnect between the airport data found in X-Plane 10 and the ground footprint the airports take up. Airport data essentially only contains the runways and taxiways, but the ground footprint is "baked" into the underlying scenery created by Laminar Research back in mid-2011 and does not take into account any airport updates since then. If someone updates an airport with realistic features and submits it to Laminar Research for inclusion in the master database, AND that update has features which extend outside the original boundaries of the default airport, trees will encroach on the runways, taxiways, and aprons. If and when Laminar re-cuts the base scenery, it will take into account these new airports and should adjust the base footprint accordingly... but until then, the only way to clear the trees is to use an exclusion. -Greg

The "in bed with the .org" statement implies that the developer has made a deliberately nefarious choice to only sell from that one outlet and assumes they are aware of any overall reputations which might be involved. I don't know productive it is to lambaste a developer (directly or indirectly) for selling through the .org if we aren't 100% sure they are aware of the issues that some folks have had. Personally, I've had no issues over there and while I don't have reason to dispute anyone else's claims, perhaps the developer is simply unaware of any problems - just as I would be if I didn't also visit and read the myriad other X-Plane related forums. Have you reached out to the developer in question directly to ask/request that they also sell direct or perhaps through another outlet? Don't rely on the forums (here or elsewhere) to get the word out to the developer - you and others should offer your opinions and reasons to them directly if they are that compelling. I don't think the onus should be on the developer to reach out to you to make this sale if you haven't made your opinions known directly to them already. At least by reaching out, you've put the ball in their court. Throwing peanuts from the gallery... -Greg

That is a very broad question. Running a VA can be quite simple, or quite complex - it all depends on how the management team wants to take their 'business'. If you haven't tried it yet, I'd suggest joining a Virtual Airline (or two) to see how they run. That will give you some insight into how easy or difficult it might be. -Greg

Threadjack! This, this and this! Bounced up to Windows 8 after seeing it on my wife's new laptop. (*Got it for the $15 upgrade deal, so it was a no-brainer purchase - even if it was going to sit on the shelf for a year or two). After a little trepidation about changing to it and the fears of the start menu screen, I jumped in for the heck of it... and for great justice! Pros: * I've never had a computer boot up this fast. EVER. Honestly, I have no need for sleep mode anymore. Bootup (and shutdown) are so absurdly fast, the BIOS check takes longer than the OS boot. It is impressive. It took a day or two for it to get this quick - I think the OS has some logic which learns what it needs to do to speed things up, and once that's set, you're rocketing away. *Overall performance is noticeably better, and that comes from a frequent re-loader of OS's who likes to keep things fresh. You get the feel that this is an improved Windows 7. I'd hasten to say that the change from Win7->Win8 is more dramatic than the change from Vista->Win7. Everything is snappy, quick, and performs quite well. From FSX and X-Plane, to Train Simulator and Team Fortress 2 - entertainment titles all feel smoother. Desktop apps scream. On top of that, for the tinkerer like me, Win8 has the ability to do an almost fresh install (*refresh OS and keep apps/docs), or a fully fresh reinstall (*clear everything) built right into the OS itself. No re-registering/activating. Click - wait - done. *Simple UI tweaks like not having to confirm every delete, and the "fixed" file folder move/overwrite warning messages make things nice. Microsoft listened and finally cleaned up its act on some of the UI annoyances plaguing earlier versions. Delete a file, and it's deleted (to recycle bin) - no more confirming. Move a folder, and it moves with a simple "Do you wish to overwrite" message when appropriate... no more 15 step confirmation process to make it happen. Not using the file explorer's ribbon layout yet, but it seems promising too. *System management is easy. Right-click on the start pop-up icon (lower left corner) and get all the most important control panel items at your immediate disposal. Drivers for most components are inherent to Win8. The multi-monitor capabilities are vastly improved. It's Windows system management the way you always wished it would be. *Ultimately, the start menu launching pad is really secondary to the operation of the system. Do not be afraid that your way of life needs to change. While you will start your computing session every day at the infamous "start screen", simply spend a few minutes after your computer is all reinstalled to tailor it to your needs. I put all my most frequently used apps in a primary location, and I hit one of the icons to launch it on the desktop. I rarely, if ever, return to the start screen during my session. If I do, what I need is right in front of me and it's actually less time consuming than burrowing through a few levels of old start menu trees. I've kept the weather MetroUI live tile front and center on the start screen to get a read on what it's like outside when I turn on the computer in the morning, but I relegated all the rest of the Metro UI style apps to the farthest corner of the start menu - waaaaay down to the right and out of sight. I don't use any of them, you don't have to use any of them, and they're only useful to some types of computer users anyway. You can even uninstall them outright if you want. All the chatter and press about Win8 surrounds this start menu screen and the MetroUI apps. They really are meant for touchscreen and tablets, so simply ignore them and you'll suddenly discover that Windows 8 is a completely viable, completely functional, no compromises operating system for a modern computer. Cons: *MetroUI apps are pretty, but kludgy for mouse users. While stylish, the fullscreen MetroUI apps are really oriented towards touchscreen devices and tablets, and are not intuitive for desktop use. Some of them are quite interesting (the photo browser, readers, etc)... and others are GREAT if you have kids in the house, but for "geeks" like us who prefer the desktop over iPhone-oriented ease of use, the MetroUI is more novelty than functional. Thankfully, you are not at all required to use the MetroUI apps - just stuff them in a corner (or uninstall them entirely) and move on with using your computer as you always have! ...umm, that's it! No more cons! Back on topic - I just took a look at the X-Aviation site on Win8's IE10, and it seemed to work fine. (*I'm a Firefox user by default, so everything works fine under normal circumstances!) -Greg

Even in the MSFS world, there were very few demos of products.... Instead of demos, a sales model adopted by Flight1 is in order. An honest to goodness 30-day money back guarantee on your purchase. Not satisfied? Return it. They revoke your rights to use it, you remove the software under "oath", and you get your money back. I've had to take advantage of this two times - once for a utility package which did not perform at all, and another for an aircraft which despite it's marketing hype, did not live up to my standards or needs. No worries. Few software merchants take this road, as they fear it would be abused... but for those of us with a modicum of honesty, it's one of the greatest things going and has given me the "courage" to purchase many addons which I otherwise would not have because I knew I could reverse gears if needed. -Greg

I did not know that! Not that I mind, but at least here at X-Pilot there's some visibility so you know when your items have gone hot. I don't mind my items getting a once-over (if only superficial) before being opened up for d/l. I'm still quite new to it. -Greg

There's no initial approval process for uploads over at the .org... Submit and it's live. -Greg

One drive in the computer acts as the live, "production" drive.Another drive in the computer as a hot backup for my data, getting daily updates.A third drive (external) which is updated every month or so remains offsite... just in case.I've had hard drives die on me, and I've even lived through an apartment fire (*rat bastard neighbor falling asleep smoking) - haven't lost one bit of important data in a decade. If the data on your computer is truly important to you, a strong backup plan for your home computer data is quite a cheap insurance policy.... especially in this day and age of digital family photos. This is something you don't often think about until it's too late, as Colin is now understanding. Learn from his situation. Back up your data.

The fuselage is fine... the tail is horrid.

Check the "Reasons why" when the warning pops up - see what the date of Google's last scan was versus the last time malware last detected. Their first run-in was back on December 21st or so. It might be a leftover warning from that issue... I've received it more than a few times using Firefox since the actual issue, but not over the past week or so. I think I finally cleared the issue out by fully blowing out my Firefox installation and refreshing it completely (backing up my favs and whatnots ahead of time). I was experimenting with Chrome anyway, so it was no extra work for me.

This may be possible with the use of simlinks/softlinks, but from all I've been given to understand, there is no way to internally tell X-Plane to look anywhere other than the "Custom Scenery" folder for it's scenery needs.

"Well, i had named the scenery zzzzz_HD_mesh so that it would be absolutely last in my custom scenery folder, but for some reason in the scenery_packs.ini it was inserted first, above all addon airports." When the scenery.ini file is created, it will order things alphabetically... but any subsequent scenery additions will be made to the top of the list. This is how it's designed to work right now. You did the right thing by cutting/pasting the info further down the list. Alternatively, you could have deleted the scenery.ini file to have it regenerate itself, in alphabetical order. -Greg

I jumped over on a sandboxed system and didn't see anything amiss (*or detect any issues myself), but I use links straight into their forums themselves. I don't visit the "portal homepage" which is splashed with ads and whatnot. In a thread on their forum, someone posted an AVG screengrab indicating a potential issue in the Shoutbox module, and a few other web-based scan tools did chirp with issues. I'm not yet satisfied that the site is free of issues, but I trust they're working on it. Chances are something got injected in some advertising components. If you MUST visit the site, I'd recommend doing so in a safe/sandbox state (*via a throwaway virtual machine to isolate your browsing from your production system), and if not - at the very least make sure all elements of your system are 100% up-to-date - Windows updates, Adobe Flash updates, Java updates... etc. -Greg

This is also hitting on Firefox for me... ...based on the Google warning.

Well, I've got a few airports that I'm working with which go outside the realm of proper ICAO coding... 6B9, 4B8, etc. etc... I've decided on (TYPE) (COUNTRY) (STATE/REGION) (CITY/TOWN) - ICAO - Airport Name APT US RI Warwick - KPVD - T. F. Green State APT US CT Windsor Locks - KBDL - Bradley International APT US MA Mansfield - 1B9 - Mansfield Muni If I ever get non-airport scenery in the folder, I'll need to come up with a new "type", but the country/state/city code does well to keep things generally organized above and beyond just simple ICAO codes. Thanks for the input - it certainly does sound like it is a case of "whatever works best for you". -Greg

Here's an age old question: How do you organize your "Custom Scenery" folder... or do you? As a fledgeling airport re-designer, I'm already seeing the perils of having even just 10-20 file folders in the "Custom Scenery" folder. As the number of airports I've edited or adjusted grows, the potential for confusion grows along with it. ...and I haven't even downloaded a single addon yet! Do most of you rename a scenery package's folder from what it's shipped as to your own conventions? If so, what convention do you use? How do you handle updates? I'm thinking I want to use something geographically based, but exactly what to do is tough. Thoughts? -Greg