New Zealand in FSX

[toprob]

With the lifting of the NDA, I can let you know that I've just done the only NZ-based mission, a helicopter rescue mission off Piha Beach. For those who might think the missions are a backward step, you'd be wrong. This is one immersive experience, taking off from NZAA, finding a capsized yacht, and finally landing on the hospital roof, during some rather nasty weather and poor visibility.
The kiwi accents are a bit of a laugh, but at least they have a fair crack at pronounciation.

[Muppet]

Yes the worldwide forums have been running mad the last few hours with people spilling everything that is present, and not present, in FSX bea to date. An chance you could post a few shots of NZAA please Robin? I noticed it is now one of the 'high detailed' airports for the world by default.

[Charl]

Good show, always nice to have a celebrity on the Forums!
How rigidly defined are the missions?
I imagine you get a flight plan and objective, how does this differ from something you could do in FS9?

[toprob]

An chance you could post a few shots of NZAA please Robin? I noticed it is now one of the 'high detailed' airports for the world by default.

Yes, NZAA is one of the highly detailed airports, no, I can't supply a screenshot simply because of poor performance around these HD airports. Airports are a bit of a trial for my tired old system.

[Zöltuger]

good to see that auckland airport will be well detailed, even better that there's a new zealand mission there

[toprob]

How rigidly defined are the missions?
I imagine you get a flight plan and objective, how does this differ from something you could do in FS9?

This particular mission is pretty much voice-controlled. You take off under voice instruction, and as you fly west you receive instructions from both the radio and your onboard spotter. 'Target's are pinpointed by huge great arrows.

[kismet]

Hang on, whats goin on here...somebody please inform me!!!

[Muppet]

No worries Rob, was worth a try. Just got one of the other guys I know in beta to take a pic for me. Note that all the airline AI is not there by default, its added in just like FS9. Certainly a nice improvement for AKL though:

[Muppet]

So more shots of NZ in FSX on this thread, I'm actually pretty impressed with Queenstown for the default. Having a higher res mesh for the world by default makes a hell of a lot of difference! http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az= ... &mode=full

[Charl]

Many thanks for the pointer, Scott.
It's a huge step for the default scenery isn't it?
But not as good as we are spoiled with in NZ addons...if you look where FS9 started, and where we are now, and extrapolate for FSX, then the ante has been upped a little hasn' t it?
I expect the smell of castor oil around the Sopwith hanger B)

[Muppet]

Yeah definitely a good starting ground/base to develop on. The animated jetways look great, and having them a lot more airports is also cool. Still a bit worried about performance though but apparently there have been more improvements in that department since the latest Beta 3 which still performs a lot better than the demo.

[Charl]

See "Opa" Marshall lists a site in his latest Tips and Tricks, where you can test your computer for Vista compatibility.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/g ... fault.mspx
Might be an indicator of what to expect for FSX too?

[toprob]

Yes, the improvements in the default scenery range from good to breathtaking.

The best things:
Default topo! Roads are great, and they sit so well. I can finally navigate via roads, and end up where I'm aiming for most of the time...
You'll notice from the Queenstown shot that the waterways are high definition as well. All this high def means that they've fixed the location of many misplaced airports.
All this wouldn't be much better if it wasn't for the higher resolution ground textures. This is hard to quantify, and I hope you understand this, but it gives a better scale. Things hold together better as you get closer, which means I can finally land a chopper using the VC. Flying around Banks Peninsula -- which is a good test for me, having done this more than once in real life -- is almost as interesting as real life, you can explore all the bays down low.
Flying around Mt Cook in real weather pretty much blew my mind.
There are some other features which I won't get into here, because they are not NZ-specific, but they fall into the OMG category. Mainly the Shared Skies features, which bring multiplayer to the masses -- including me.

Some things which would get a C+
The landclass is better than default FS9, but not by much. This is one area -- as always -- where I'd like to see a good addon. The changes in the ground textures are hard to get used to, in the city there are photographic city textures -- which include random roads -- overlaid with real roads, which gives a bit of a mish-mash.
Like FS9, the sim is immensely scaleable, which means it'll work on most systems, but on mine it only really works on low settings. Autogen trees are vastly improved, but I can only use the lowest settings. Still, the low settings are pretty much equivalent to the high settings on FS9.

Things that will ensure a healthy future for Christian Stock:
The supplied mesh is based on SRTM data at 75 metres. This would be good, but as anyone who has used a NZ SRTM mesh before will know, it is damaged in parts, especially around Milford Sound. Adding a 20 metre mesh fixes this to some extent, but somehow the topo elevations seem to be locked to the default mesh, so rivers in the area are very strange, and even Milford airstrip sits on a plateau.

Here's a screenshot of Milford Sound at its best, with the 20 metre mesh added. You can just make out the river at the left, sitting on a huge aquaduct, but overall this demonstrates the FSX ability to accurately portray real NZ beauty.

[kiwiarcher]

Robin,

Any indication at this stage how your real scenery is going to fit with FSX, are you able to give the members here, (and I would think many are using your GREAT scenery already), an idea just what the compatibility maybe like.

Rob

[ardypilot]

Ok, I'm a little confused here!

Is Robin a member of the Microsoft FSX beta testing team or something???

How did all the people on AVSIM manage to get screenshots of NZ in FSX? This wasn't included on the demo was it?

Just my 5c worth, IMO the NZ scenery looks really unrealistic compared to FS9! Sure they have included a few hangers and stuff at Auckland, but it looks so artificial that it isn't funny!

[Muppet]

Yes, Robin is on the Beta as I'm sure a few other NZFF members are. The NDA has been lifted by M$ so that's why you are now seeing pictures on AVSIM of the beta version not the demo. There is also a public beta available to members of Fileplanet/Gamespot.

Interesting comments Trolly, just think back to what Queenstown or Auckland etc looks like as default in FS9. Crappy coastlines, flat as a pancake, wrong lake levels etc the list goes on. Yes you might have your FS9 looking better than that now but you have had to add/ pay a bit to get it that way. For out of the box, from the shots I'm seeing FSX looks great and will be an even better base for our scenery developers to expand on.

[toprob]

Robin,

Any indication at this stage how your real scenery is going to fit with FSX, are you able to give the members here, (and I would think many are using your GREAT scenery already), an idea just what the compatibility maybe like.

Rob

I've covered some compatibility issues here:
Towards FSX

The 'educated guesses' I mention are actually based on early beta testing, so these can be thought of a 'very well-educated'.

I'll expand on this when I have time.

[kiwiarcher]

Many thanks Robin for keeping the members up to date with whats happening with FSX

[toprob]

Ok, I'm a little confused here!

Is Robin a member of the Microsoft FSX beta testing team or something???

How did all the people on AVSIM manage to get screenshots of NZ in FSX? This wasn't included on the demo was it?

Just my 5c worth, IMO the NZ scenery looks really unrealistic compared to FS9! Sure they have included a few hangers and stuff at Auckland, but it looks so artificial that it isn't funny!

Yes, MS have decided to go a different route this time around, foregoing the secrecy which always surrounds their betas. This is no doubt designed to saturate the web with FSX promotional material, and I think this is a brilliant idea. I hope that it has the desired effect, bringing a whole new set of users onboard.
Funny, though, I still can't confirm or deny any involvement in the FS9 beta...
Frankly, because of a long-term history with MS (including 4 years as part of the MVP programme) I am finding it hard to come to terms with the lifting of the NDA.

I have purposefully not commented greatly on the airport scenery in NZ, mainly because my performance around large airports is frustratingly poor. However, I will say that there's definitely room for a few talented designers.
The overall theme seems to be grey on grey, with subdued metallics being the only highlights. My Wellington airport looks riotously coloured by comparison.

As I've said before, it took me between 18 months and 2 years to get FS9 looking the way I like it, so you need to think of the default FSX as the starting point only. I look at the default airports with a certain amount of glee, knowing that I have some work to do in the future.

[Zöltuger]

For out of the box, from the shots I'm seeing FSX looks great and will be an even better base for our scenery developers to expand on.

I totally agree- although the houses are in the wrong place, the out of the box NZ airports look very good. I can remember FS98 where auckland was just a strip on some land.

i'm even more excited now