Mr. Burns Posted May 7, 2003 Report Share Posted May 7, 2003 looks like a great game think i might get it ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE MAIN NEW STUFF FOR VERSION 7: THE INSANE STUFF TOTALLY-UNLIMITED numbers of global airports, navaids, airways, fixes, custom objects, number of polygons per custom object, roads, railroads, trails, rivers, taxiways, and powerlines! These things are now limited only by system RAM, with no other limits at all! Version 6.x allowed 100 LOCAL airports now. This is now DOUBLED for version 7.x. Despite the above, VERSION 7 LOADS FASTER, RUNS FASTER, RUNS SMOOTHER, and USES LESS RAM than 6.x. LOWER OVERALL RAM REQUIREMENTS by packaging all the arrays to only allocate the RAM you actually use in any given situation, dynamically allocating as needed rather than pre-allocating large chunks. In other words you get LOWER RAM REQUIREMENTS unless you actually have the planes, airways, intersections, navaids, etc loaded... and there are options NOT to load these things. Heavy frame-rate optimizations FOR HIGHER FRAME-RATE but also... ...workload is now distributed more evenly across each frame for more SMOOTH AND CONTINUOUS flight: no "jerks". Experimental new 3-D, volumetric scattered and broken clouds. This is supposed to be impossible, but It's still done. These clouds are 3-D and volumetric. They absorb and reflect sunlight, are dark underneath, give a sense of speed as you fly through them, and cast accurate shadows for their formation and time of day. Set the time of day to noon... then hit the k/l keys to change the time of day... and watch the shadows of the clouds race across the terrain in hi-speed as the time advances! Go to the RENDERING OPTIONS SCREEN to set up the clouds to max out your machine. Be sure to turn ON the shadows if they are not already. Awesome new weather effects including: Snow, where we track every snowflake near the plane falling in 3-D. Done with high frame-rate and low RAM. Rain, where we track every raindrop near the plane falling in 3-D. Done with high frame-rate and low RAM. Hail, where we track every pellet near the plane falling in 3-D. Done with high frame-rate and low RAM. Hail to damages the windshield, pockmarking it with damage as you fly too close to thunderstormsin the right temperatures. If the plane is covered in ice (Leading-Edge temp between -20 and 0 degrees C, as you can see on the ambient temp data output) then the windshield will cover with ice over so you can hardly see out the front! It is a semi-opaque effect that partially blocks all view out the window! More realistic aircraft icing model that takes the speed of the craft and any associated wingheating from atmospheric friction into account. You see all the little scratches on the windshield when pointed at the sun... This is a serious factor when landing pointing into the sun in reality... The scratches make it hard to fly a final and flare when you can hardly see anything for the glare from the sun and the scratches in the windshield! Cirrus clouds move with the wind. Cool new landing lites that work perfectly in all orientations and locations, lighting up the RUNWAY AND THE TERRAIN. They light everything up smoothly and accurately in all locations and angles, unlike any landing light we have seen in any flight sim, EVER. In Plane-Maker, specify the landing light strength and width to get the feeble lites of light planes or the floodlight power of the heavy metal planes!(...and ditto all this for a taxi light). Have any number of planes in the sky with you up to 10. (AND, if you choose NOT to have any other planes, then the sim will load faster since it will not ever even load any other aircraft!) As with all the new data, X-Plane will only load what it needs to based on your settings in the RENDERING OPTIONS screen. This allows you to run on slower machines with lower ram requirement, and still be able to crank stuff up as much as you like on the newer ones! THE NEW AIRCRAFT FORMAT TOTALLY NEW AND OVERHAULED AIRCRAFT FORMAT... YOU NO LONGER EVEN SPECIFY IF YOUR CRAFT IS AN AIRPLANE, HELO, OR GYRO! YOU JUST ASSEMBLE THE PARTS HOWEVER YOU LIKE AND SEE HOW IT FLIES! AWESOME! And oh yes, X-Plane 7 uses this excellent new acf format but still reads in NEW AND OLD formats no problem! V6 airplanes fly just fine in V7 with NO changes! In the new ACF format, which must is totally reverse-compatible, you get: =>EIGHT MORE WINGS SECTIONS =>EIGHT MORE BODIES =>SIX landing gear (not "just" 5) so you can get the gear on those B-52's just right. =>Variable control surface ratios! If you want the control surface to be really wide at the root, and narrow at the tip, or the other way around, or the same chord for their entire length.This new technology will allow you to get the rudder shaped just right. =>The ability to specify the thrust-vector minimum and maximum vector... we no longer assume 0 to 120... so now you can get it perfect for my plane! =>The ability to specify the thrust vector rotation RATE! Fast on Harriers, slow on Ospreys! =>The ability to specify the N1-prop linkage factor in Plane-Maker to get the Garrets and PT-6s to behave differently from each other. This is the ability to specify how "free" the turbine is from the prop to get the turboprop N1/prop linkages just right for our particular engine. =>The ability to specify the idle throttles as well, for both low and high idle, right along with the max throttle! =>The ability to specify the starter and battery strength ratios in the Systems window in Plane-Maker... and get all the battery anbd starter powers just right for your plane! =>MORE. Dive into Plane-Maker to experiment. THE BIG FLIGHT MODEL STUFF Fusleage lift is now more accurate. We consulted curent research in missile design to get the fuselage to contribute just the right amount of lift. X-Plane now considers the exposed area, so a Boeing 747, for example, will put out more sideforce than lift because of the additional area of the hump as seen from the side only. More acurate moment of inertia calculations, along with actual changing moment of inertia as the fuel is burned. Also the moment of inertia and the weight and the drag of all the weapons on the craft are considered so we now have the weight, drag, and even increased moment of inertia on the craft from carrying weapons... We are not doing actual fighting or firing of the weapons now, but we still want those F-15's accurate for operational flight! X-Plane now uses the new accurate fuselage-lift even for the weapon's bodies so their lift and drag and sideforce on the aircraft are all accurate while they are being carried! ALL computed weapon mass and aero-effects are now computed while they are attached to the airframe, and their forces carry through to properly affect the aircraft to which they are attached. In other words, the weapons flight-model is still done (in addition to the aircraft flight model) and the forces from ALL combine on the total large, heavy body. Improvements in rotor-modelling... in addition to total flexiblity with number of rotors and engines, the transmission drag is more accurate as well. Improvements in flight-modelling for most all planes... the joining of multiple wing sections to make one wing is more accurate. Airfoils now have any linear lift-range you like... Get those thin or slotted foils just right, even if their linear range is not 10 degrees! Reverse the rudder control if you put the vertical stabs on the FRONT of the craft! Experiment with wildly yaw-unstable craft this way! Further prop/engine/clutch physics improvements... the engines should windmill even backwards if conditions warrant! Throttle and reverse thrust failures are more realistic as FAA desires: ->throttle fails to CLOSED, ->thrust reverse fails to CURRENT POSITION, be it on or off. More accurate N1 repsonse from turboprops. More realistic handling of super-low AR cases, as some people use for fairing and strakes and things like that. More realistic supersonic engine performance. New engine and propeller sound system... X-Plane now has seperate the engine and prop sounds! Then those engines and props will be just right even in odd cases like auto-rotation and clutched engines. THE BIG WEATHER STUFF Set Weather Atmosphere: The runway water or ice conditions can now be patchy or uniform! The conditions are calculated FOR THE LOCATION OF EACH WHEEL! (Not just the airplane overall!) This way, the left main gear may be on a slick spot, while the right main gear is getting good traction... the plane will pull to one side for a moment as you go over that part of the runway! Hydroplaning! Your hydroplane speed is determined based on your tire pressure, and if the runway conditions are wet and the hydroplane speed is exceeded, you can forget about any ground friction! This applies to steering AND braking of course. The hydroplane speed is determiend by the tire size and the current weight, so lightly-loaded planes or planes with large tires hydroplane more easily! This happens around 115 kt in airliners, slower in light planes. Needless to say, wet runays and icy runways with patchy ice conditions make things VERY interesting when the wind is gusting! Overcast clouds are now solid... no stars showing through underneath, etc. THE BIG VISUAL STUFF New Object-700 format! This new format contais ALL OPEN-GL primitives! Insaneley easy to learn! But old OBJ-format is still supported for COMPLETE reverse-compatibility! You can easily do objects with points, lines, triangles, quads, quad strips, triangle strips, triangle fans, and n-sided polygons! Objects can have smooth or flat shading...it's specified in the obj file that and can be set for any poly. See the CUSTOM SCENERY folder for the KSB EXAMPLE to see an example of this easy, powerful new format. More efficient objects! Objects now draw faster and use less RAM Autogen objects are now better randomized... not so "patterned". Objects textures to look better from a distance... not "spotted" but instead "smooth". MENU BAR DISSAPEARS WHEN THE MOUSE IS NOT NEAR IT! Just drag the mouse up to the top of the screen to get the menu bar to appear... otherwise, the menu bar DISSAPEARS to give you total immersion. Instrument panels are now BIGGER! (1024x768, not 1024x750) If you have any custom panels from version 6, edit them in a graphics program to be 768 pixels tall... or don't... in which case X-Plane will still let you use them with no modifications. Hit enter for ATC and ATC brings the lights up or down in intensity at your airport! Set the lights to suit yourself, as ATC will often do in the real world! PARACHUTES are now visible... and not just eye-candy! Now you can be sure they are correctly placed and really see them in action! You can see the chutes deploy, and trail accurately with the wind vector. More accurate FOG.. now based on the true distance from you... not just the distance in the z-direction! Textured Lites run faster... turn this option on in the rendering options screen for more realistic lites at nite. Check out the cars parked around the airport fence with someone standing by them watching you and waving to you! (and the cars use their blinkers as they turn) Custom textures can now use alpha! Just use pink! Now you can get little lakes and ponds and rivers and coastlines in there perfectly, even for custom textures! There is a little region near KSBD that shows this... crank up the texture res to see it. NEW SWITCHES AND INSTRUMENTS New switch: taxlilight. New switch: Puffer Power. Turn those reaction jets ("puffers") off when in the atmosphere. New EFIS instruments: DIGITAL OBS. Indicate the exact digital OBS on any EFIS display. New round "flaps indicator" guage. Custom fuel and flaps angles. Another notch of flap-settings to get those airliner flaps just perfect. Carter Copter ECAM updated to track the real prototype as research progresses. New all-in-one DME (requested for FAA certification issues) Better PFC support for FAA and PCATD certification. FAILURES Tail rotor failures are back, as per request. Electrical failure fails the HUD and gear and flaps. Also the electrical system to charges the batteries more accurately... one generator can charge multiple batteries in the event of an engine failure. Manual Reversion: Flight controls move only partway after a hydraulic failure! This is because without hydraulics, you are depending on pilot muscles or manual trim-tabs to control the plane.. which is not much to go on with a rally BIG one! Set up the Manual Reversion ratio in Plane-Maker.. then fail the hydraulics in flight and see if you can still control the plane on partial deflection only! Autopilots now follow the INDICATED artificial horizon and directional gyro... right into the ground if those systems have failed! Remember, the VACUUM horizons and DGs will follow the failure of the VACUUM system, the ELECTRICTAL horizons and DGs will follow the failure of the ELECTRICTAL system (or eventually the alternators if given enough time as the abtteries drain!) SO YOU MUST KNOW IF YOU HAVE A VACUUM OR ELECTRIC DG AND HORIZON (find out by clicking on the instrument in Plane-Maker) so you know what systems will go South after a vacuum or electrical failure... and realize the autopilot will follow that AH and DG right into the ground after those systems have tumbled from lack of vaccuum or power! Know the systems if you want to live. VARIOUS NEW FEATURES AIRWAYS! See the low enroute to see them all. ACTUAL RADIO FREQUENCIES! See them in the approach plates! New apt.dat file that can have SEAPORTS with BOUYS marking the runways... and yes they bob in the waves! (and yes the old apt.dat files will still continue to work). New view: Moving Spot! This travels at the exact velocity-vector of the moment the view is set... then you can fly all around the view! ATC vectors to aircraft carriers and frigates to complement the vector to the tanker! Set the weather to IFR and then get a vector to try to work out the approach! Carrier catapault should shoot you to a good speed for any airplane now. It will always to to put you off the deck at published stall plus 15 kt. AIRCRAFT-OPERATIONAL Autopilot glideslope capture is more realistic. Here is how it works in the real plane: You are on ALT HOLD as you approach the outer marker, the glideslope still above you. Now, hit the VNAV BUTTON. BOTH THE VNAV AND ALT HOLD BUTTONS WILL BE LIT UP. Now, the otto WILL HOLD YOUR CURRENT ALT UNTIL THE GLIDESLOP COMES IN. Then, the auto-pilot will switch to glideslope mode as you interceptthe glideslope automaitcally. This allows you to fly the entire ILS automatically if you just configure the otto in advance of the approach! THIS IS NOW HOW THE AUTOPILOT IN X-PANE WORKS. Autopilot is more agressive on nailing the target, too. New water pickup method. It works like this: Skim the water at 70 knots to pick up a full load of water and thendrop it on forest fires! Specify in Plane-Maker if the payload you have is slung or water. Then skim the water to pick up another load of water! Go into the Weight and Balance screen in Plane-Maker to indicate if the jettisonable load is water on your craft. The multiplayer aircraft are more detailed in their actions... the landing lights are now shown accurately, for example. Send your opponent morse code or attempt to blind him! Or simply turn on your lites so he can see you at night. SIM-OPERATIONAL QUICKTIME MOVIES! This is set up in the Settings menu: Movies! Record your own QUICKTIME movies directly from X-Plane with NO special hardware or software required! Set any resolution and framerate you like! If you have enough CPU and feel like taking the disk space you can record movies at the full 1024x768, 50 frames per second, zero distortion! More realitistically for most computers, make your movies about 400x300, 10 or 20 frames per second... then you have a QUICKTIME movie of your X-Plane flight to email or post on the net! This work on Mac AND Windows! (then, get a copy of IMovie and edit your Quicktime X-Plane movies, adding music as you like! JAMMIN!) Option to turn off airways and fixes will so those files will NOT to be loaded... thus you load faster! Turning this and the other airplanes off cuts the load time in HALF! More joystick support on Mac OS-X... more gamepads and joysticks of all varieties supported. More joystick support on Windows XP... multiple sticks hooked up at once supported. Plane-Maker now shows planes in "orthogonal" view... simply meaning there is no depth perspective, thus no distortion of the plane, so you can get the shape just right without any depth-cues altering the image. All preferences are now stored in resources/prefs folder... easier to delete if you want to restart in default configuration. THIS ALSO MEANS YOU CAN RUN MANY DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF X-PLANE ON ONE COMPUTER WITHOUT THEIR PREFERENCES STEPPING ON EACH OTHER, SINCE THEY ARE EACH STORED IN THEIR OWN X-SYSTEM FOLDER. X-Plane now remembers the startup runway on restart of the sim. "Help-bubbles" are now into text files so they can be localized to any language! Do you you speak Portugese and like X-Plane? Your day has come. Portugese language now available. SO THERE YOU HAVE IT. THE BIGGEST X-PLANE RELEASE EVER. TONS OF NEW FEATURES, ALL WITH COMPLETE REVERSE-COMPATIBILITY. TONS OF NEW POWER, ALL WITH =>LOWER<= RAM AND CPU REQUIREMENTS. THE IMPOSSIBLE: NOW. 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THA_monkey Posted May 7, 2003 Report Share Posted May 7, 2003 Wow...that is alot to read...maybe you could highlight the interesting stuff I liked the bit about [quote]Hail to damages the windshield, pockmarking it with damage as you fly too close to thunderstormsin the right temperatures.[/quote] Sounds cool, but not much fun for me, fs2002 is the limit for realism imho. Anything over that is crazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harry_pothead Posted May 7, 2003 Report Share Posted May 7, 2003 I would love Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tha_Rainman Posted May 7, 2003 Report Share Posted May 7, 2003 [quote]Experimental new 3-D, volumetric scattered and broken clouds. This is supposed to be impossible, but It's still done. These clouds are 3-D and volumetric. They absorb and reflect sunlight, are dark underneath, give a sense of speed as you fly through them, and cast accurate shadows for their formation and time of day. Set the time of day to noon... then hit the k/l keys to change the time of day... and watch the shadows of the clouds race across the terrain in hi-speed as the time advances! Go to the RENDERING OPTIONS SCREEN to set up the clouds to max out your machine. Be sure to turn ON the shadows if they are not already. [/quote] [color=purple][b]* PC-fre@k likes the sound of that Looking at the screenshots on their website it p0Wns FS graphics IMO [/b][/color] Here's one I snagged offa their site... [img]http://www.x-plane-portal.de/modules/My_eGallery/gallery/screen/xp7_03.gif[/img] You can see more screenshots [url="http://www.x-plane-portal.de/modules.php?op=modload&name=My_eGallery&file=index&do=showgall&gid=1"]here[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tha_Rainman Posted May 7, 2003 Report Share Posted May 7, 2003 [url="http://x-plane.com/V7/beta7.html"]http://x-plane.com/V7/beta7.html[/url] You can actually download a beta version there but you can only fly for 6 minutes. Be warned, there is a breathtaking screenshot on this page too!! The clouds look so real! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harry_pothead Posted May 7, 2003 Report Share Posted May 7, 2003 [quote name='Tha_Rainman' date='May 7 2003, 02:18 PM'] p0Wns [/quote] Enough of this. The hall of shame is now getting a thread dedicated to bad 1337. If you go there it will be the most shameful thing that can heppen. Every week the thread will be reset and a 1337=teh no counter will be inserted. If it sounds complicated, dont worry. Its so simple that even eurotrash will be able to operate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Burns Posted May 8, 2003 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2003 [quote name='Tha_Rainman' date='May 7 2003, 02:26 PM'] [url="http://x-plane.com/V7/beta7.html"]http://x-plane.com/V7/beta7.html[/url] You can actually download a beta version there but you can only fly for 6 minutes. Be warned, there is a breathtaking screenshot on this page too!! The clouds look so real! [/quote] rainman.... download it if u want B) what can i say 6 minutes... wow (i can barely take-off) and clouds: try Il-2 Sturmovik or Fly!II or the FSSkyWorldSE for FS2002 (these are much better) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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