Thanks guys.. we will start showing reserved previews periodically now since we are getting past the initial design stage and are now full on into the build but I won't be showing all the goodies (oh yes, there is much more) for obvious security reasons around our new design and development approach.

We are on track and moving along quite well now but in order to bring you the sim as it should be requires a much larger amount of time invested in design/production and instead of repeating the past we are taking on an entire new approach which as you can see speaks for itself.

This approach will comply to FSX standards and the SDK's and will require no loss in flight or create issues outside the coverage area that may cause you to lose a running flight. It will also complement both the default landclass and payware landclasses, and, it will not interfere with any scenery products which comply CORRECTLY to FSX default design and the FSX SDK's and that you paid good money for and should be able to enjoy without issue. We will also be looking at UTX to upgrade its texture components to blend with GEXnE AFTER the Europe release unless we find time to look at it before and incorporate a patch for UTX right away.

This approach requires a much greater amount of labor to produce correctly but we are now well past the "story board" and initial design phases so things are moving quickly now in terms of production.

Please be patient and know what you are waiting for is a whole new animal as compared to the past. 
 

Just so you understand the work load involved... an analogy is that Anthony is the movie production company and I am ILM. He makes the movie using suggestions from me that I know post production will upgrade, and then I put in all the post production graphic additions and the SFX.. it then goes back to him for tests/changes/editing and then back to me for additions or changes. We are using the same approach as the entertainment industry does in making feature SFX films in which many of the techniques they use for making something bi-dimensional look 3D and real are being incorporated into this...  and with that we are shooting for a blockbuster release.

Thanks Vic

We understand that people spend good money on addons and in our opinion there is no excuse for removing your ability to enjoy those addons with any issues.

The MS SDK's were designed and made for a reason... so were default FSX files.. regardless of how well or how badly they were made, to change those files to the point to where there is a significant negative impact outside the coverage zone and in order to fix it requires a flight be stopped for any reason, is NOT working with the program. If there were ways to change them and not cause problems elsewhere, or, force you to lose your flight in progress, .. thats different however we do not believe in trying to reinvent the wheel or design somthing that dictates that if you use one of our products you must continue to purchase more from us as it is released with no mercy to you or your hard earned money in the freedom to use any addon you may wish to purchase along the way which also follows the rules.

First and foremost, users should be able to enjoy freedom of choice and the ability to go shopping for good scenery knowing when installed it will work without issues.

And if we do come across an unforseen problem.. we will ALWAYS go right to work on a fix or patch. We appreciate the feedback we get and although it may not always be positive we will work with anyone in responding to questions and/or patching the product if need be.

 http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=121&topic_id=443633&mesg_id=443670&page=

No sir,.. the solution I gave you since you seem to be one of the few, if any.. who have a problem with a few rouge US/CAN textures in Europe which by the way is a Aces texture layout design issue, not GEX but we will fix it,... was to restore the default textures while in EU and if you decide to fly international, pause and run the GEX installer while over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on your way to the USA/CAN and have the scenery database do a quick rebuild. Should you decide to fly internationl from US/CAN the process is simply reversed.

I mentioned that we will make sure the texture blend is correct with the EU release and it will no longer require a change however the temporary solution I gave you does NOT require you lose your flight, only a brief pause and a scenery library database rebuild

That temp solution allows you to use and enjoy GEX US/CAN without any effect on EU textures or lose your flight with any given situation, and, it assures you are not forced to purchase any other GEX product should you decide not to in the future.

That temp solution falls in line with exactly what I posted above and places no contradiction in my statements about our consideration for simmers. 

I have also mentioned that we will be returning to US/CAN to make changes.. one of them will be to look at solutions so those who do not use GEX EU will not have any problem with GEX US/CAN and visa-versa, a change that requires dev time, part of which will be done during EU development and the other part completed after we finish Europe. That means if we can completely fix the Aces layout issue you will no longer have to use the suggested solution with the flight pause and you are not forced to purchase any other GEX product should you decide not to in the future. Again, that falls in line with exactly what I posted above.

I sincerely apologize if the Aces texture overlap issue  which we were not aware of until we started breaking down the Europe texture sets some months ago has presented a problem for you or anyone else. It will however be corrected for the most part when we release Europe and you will not have to use any workaround once all the corrections are completed.

We will do everything we can to minimize the problem in the future however the bottom line is that issue is directly a Aces design problem where they used textures all over the world and we have absolutely no control over it.

We dont replace landclass and scenery BGL's so we can not change Aces layout. What we will do is minimize it and try to work on a fix between EU and a US/CAN re-fit.

We place autogen but use the default 'location' system to do it... its called "regionalization' placement. Because textures are used more than one place the sim decides what type or species of tree or plant would be placed although we can place things by individual selection. If we placed things individually then everywhere the texture lands would have the same exact vegetation repeated everywhere and therefore we do not use that method with the exception of specific region textures and there are very few of those.

What you are seeing is what the sim chooses to land for that region of Europe in the spots where we placed a marker for autogen to be. That same texture set could be used for farmland elsewhere and the sim would choose the veg based on that region of the earth.

Texture resolution is still 1m although we are using FX techniques which delivers the illusion of higher res when it is really the same as GEXn US/CAN.

If they were higher res textures the install could easily quadruple in size and would also require "multiple resolution" autogen placement. A very large install and very expensive venture.

Nick, nice shots!

And nice job working around any anomalies created by us in these regions, that does make customers lives a bit easier.

no, I am just a lead.

there are 2 levels above me in the studio. the group manager for core and then the studio manager who all the group managers ( core, flight, trains, esp ) report to.

Phil is not just the Core Lead.. he's a simmer too and enjoys the differerent scenery and aircraft available (free and payware) as much as the rest of us. As I recall he likes the 'floats'.. his father was in the Navy if I remember correctly.

Navy brat?

LOL!

Small world... Mine was also Annapolis although I do not remember the exact class year. During his flying days went from the props to the jets during the transitional period. He retired a Captain but fortunately we (at least I didn't) did not do the travel routine since I came along quite late in his life and by then he was stationed at what turned out to be permanent in Washington, DC. He did twice a year tours of inspection and was gone for many weeks out of the year but was home in Bethesda, MD or on our farm in North Carolina otherwise.

Well I'm glad you turned it down~!. ..we need you right where you are!

OK, (if you have time) ... so what's the story with you and seaplanes? What was it at that age that sparked the interest?

its just a goofy story about my dad's plane returning from a long patrol with some damage and some kid-speak about it when I was little, but somehow that attraction to seaplanes stuck with me. I have roughly a dozen in my hangar although I haven't found a Marlin.

I got the bug building model kits of aircraft with my father. I would hear the stories while we built the vintage in balsa. We also had a Cessna on our farm and he was my first flight instructor too

I'm a low-n-slow Beaver lover. With everything else going on at the time, the first time I fired up FSX and found that outstanding Beaver and its flight dynamics,.. along with sunrise/sunset in FSX.... I was in heaven ! Everything else was secondary.

I have never come across the P5 M or a PBM 5A

The P5 Marlin would be right up Jens B. Kristensen's alley

Jens B. Kristensen did the S8, S17, S23, S25, S30, S45 and the Martin 130 Clipper many of which I believe he produced for FSX too. I know his M130 is posted to work with FSX-SP2. All his boats are listed at AVSIM in the library

... lets leave it at that

It's Europe or Bust for us now   !  

NOTE:

We got a bit behind with a patch for US/CAN but back on track now with EU

I think you may have hit the wrong thread

The Sunfix is my addon.. you can find it at AVSIM, Simviation and FlightSim.com in their file library

Here is a direct link to AVSIM

http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fsxscen&DLID=111343

It is progressing and we will post more soon however Anthony and I took a much needed break last month

No one is unemployed  LOL

It was an unplanned break which was seriously needed. Since we are only 2 people this type of work can get furstrating and consume long hours of dedication to complete correctly

I probably should have posted an announcement we needed a bit of time off, sorry about that

I will say that because of this break we both had time to take some things into consideration and found some answers to issues we were trying to combat. One of the major problems with EU is that Aces used 1 primary texture set for a very large chunk of EU with the default landclass and in order to combat a major 'repeat' problem we had to come up with a layout that hid it. For those using default landclass there will always be some 'repeat' texture issues in EU for those who have a sharp eye for details and there is no way to combat that without designing a custom landclass file and calling custom textures which is no possible for the area and cost of the product.

Even what we are doing now is way over the top for the cost of the USCAN product and there will be a price increase for EU/Oceania but those who have purchased USCAN before EU is released will get a discount coupon for EU so it balances out the cost to GEXn users and is much more fair to the project in terms of development cost over time.

EU will be covered better than USCAN thats for dang sure and when we finish the entire GEX world set we are discussing going back and re-doing USCAN so it meets the same standards

Here are 2 new shots I just took displaying our 500ft target altitude ability. Real world ASX weather was running so there is a touch of haze in the air too. These textures respond to that haze and will automatically shift their contrast/color with clouds and hazy days based on altitude and amount of humidity

here is the same shot as above with weather and haze cleared

As you can see we are hitting our goal of dynamic response textures with the 500-1000ft limits without forcing you to load anything greater than 1024 textures... no hassle with the FSX.cfg file and no massve hit to your hard drive for storage or to the system in rendering huge resolutions

No muss, no fuss.. just install and go