Well here are some quick videos I made early this morning before work of X-Plane 10 running on 3 computers with a true 210 degree wrap around visual. This is using 3 copies of X-Plane networked and was extremely easy to configure in X-Plane 10. This is far from complete. I am using Fly-Elise Immersive Desktop Lite (3 copies) for warping. Each projector is running 1920x1080. I have not completed tweaking the warping and edge butting yet but just wanted to give everyone a flavor. This is over KSFO with addon scenery.
I am really happy :-) Hope you enjoy.
Scott
Part 1 - Daytime
http://youtu.be/WmBWoIObvho (http://youtu.be/WmBWoIObvho)
Part 2 - Nighttime
http://youtu.be/vvjFSQ7Zqxk (http://youtu.be/vvjFSQ7Zqxk)
Thanks Scott! You are going to end up really costing me some cash here....
It looks great. How's your copilot picking up the flying?
Seriously, this is outstanding work and I have to admit, you probably just sold me on converting everything... The other posts with links to scenery and such almost had me, but these videos just pushed me over the edge.
I guess when I put my sim back together I'll have to build some more computers...
Have you tried running anything else on the side view computers at the same time?
Warren
Fantastic work Scott you've got us all going. How difficult was it to setup the side views in XP10 and getting the 3 views/PC's to talk in sync?
Looking forward to seeing your flat screen option also, I'm very interested in the difference between this and curved screens with regard to depth perception. I suspect not much but I could be wrong.
Ken.
Wow! I had made my mind up already but I am glad it was the right choice.
Thanks guys.
Warren, I am not running anything but Xplane on the side computers and really didnt plan to. I have a seperate system for running Sim-Avionics that is an i7-920 with 3 9800GT cards for the 6 monitors (MIP/CDU) plus another older computer to run the lower MFD and SB, etc. I planned on having the Xplane computers dedicated to just running XPlane. One thing to note though is that in these videos all 3 computers have Kaspersky Internet Security Home Edition turned on with all protection enabled. I have also not defraged the drives yet since installation but as you can see performance is still pretty good.
Ken,
The setup with X-Plane was simple. There is a network setup menu item where on the master (center computer) you define the two other computers as being Visual clients and specify their IP addresses. On the two side views you go in the same menu and specify the master and its IP address. Then in the rendering menus on each I simply set the full screen resolution to 1920x1080 on each and then on the left computer I specified a 70 degree FOV at -70degree offset angle. On center computer 70 degree FOV at 0 degree offset angle, and finally on right I set that one to 70 degree FOV with +70 degree offset angle. The other thing I did was make sure all of the other rendering options matched up between all 3 and made sure the time on the outer two were not set to use real time. I think you can set the center to real time or any other time you want and the two slaves will match up to it.
Pretty easy over all. Hardest part was building the computers.
Scott
Looks awesome Scott!
Ive always liked the look of Xplane graphics. To me it always gave me that CAE sim feel. Looks great on the projectors with the wrap visuals! I guess its going to start costing people some coin building 2 more beefy computers now though lol. Heck ill be happy with 1 curved view for now.
Im in the process of moving the sim inside and upstairs to finally start doing some software testing and model tweaking. I look forward to working with x737 as i always thought it flew great with even just a joystick.
Btw, does anyone have any experience with Airplane maker in xPlane? Im just curious how difficult it is to go in and tweak the model of x737??
Cant wait to visit ya sometime soon scott!! Im always looking to trade for long layovers there in ORD!
Mike L
I am amazed how the get together has been changing the direction of many here, including you Scott. I was showing you the XP 10 one month ago, and you sounded a little bit skeptical at that time. One month later, you are stablishing the transition pace for many here (I guess, including me)
Really nice Scott :angel:
Roberto C
Quote from: jetpilot on June 20, 2012, 10:25:51 AM
I am amazed how the get together has been changing the direction of many here, including you Scott. I was showing you the XP 10 one month ago, and you sounded a little bit skeptical at that time. One month later, you are stablishing the transition pace for many here (I guess, including me)
Really nice Scott :angel:
Roberto C
Didnt I mention it was all your fault Roberto!!! >:( First I buy a 727 and now 3 more computers for X-Plane! I am not visiting you anymore.... :-)
Haha...just kidding. There are so many inspirations around here and people that have done great things and tried so many things that I owe a little of my insanity to just about everyone on this forum..
X-plane lighting and environments looks very impressive. Also as you pointed out... the beacon was visible in distance. Everything looks more natural, compared to FSX which looks little cartoonish when airborne.
How is the flight behaviour for the 737? Do you get the feel that you actually need to handle the plane on approach?
Kudos to your copilot, Scott. You should let him fly, while you film and narrate ;)
The graphics are really impressive. Can't wait to see your LOWI approach on XPlane.
Thanks for sharing your work with us.
Axel
Quote from: ivar hestnes on June 20, 2012, 11:56:39 AM
X-plane lighting and environments looks very impressive. Also as you pointed out... the beacon was visible in distance. Everything looks more natural, compared to FSX which looks little cartoonish when airborne.
How is the flight behaviour for the 737? Do you get the feel that you actually need to handle the plane on approach?
Hi Ivar I can not speak for the 737 but I have been flying B200 and you have to fly it all the way to the ground. No set it up and watch! :D
Quote from: ivar hestnes on June 20, 2012, 11:56:39 AM
X-plane lighting and environments looks very impressive. Also as you pointed out... the beacon was visible in distance. Everything looks more natural, compared to FSX which looks little cartoonish when airborne.
How is the flight behaviour for the 737? Do you get the feel that you actually need to handle the plane on approach?
I haven't flown it enough to judge the flight model and probably can't anyway since my real piloting is limited to the 172 but feels pretty good to me in comparison to flying the pmdg at least. I think if Mike Leavy says it is good and James and Matt like it then I am sold on it. ;D
Looking Scott!
Ive been playing with XP10 all week...I like alot of things about it too, although I keep going back to FSX for "comfort" :)
What projectors do you have again? Are they native HD short throw or standard throw?
Nat
Scott,
Is 1920x1080 the native resolution of your projectors? I didn't think that 1920x1080 was available for short throw projectors at the time you bought your projectors but I may be wrong about that.
I particularly love the night visuals with XP but I wonder how much the improved projected resolution accounts for the visual improvement over FSX and whether FSX would also look better at that resolution.
I'm not planning to switch to XP because of the requirements for 3 high end PCs but with the new & very expensive Nvidia card GTX 690, the Matrox TripleHead is no longer required and a higher resolution is also possible.
Food for thought for me but I need to know whether your projectors are running at their native resolution or maximum resolution. If yours are running at native 1920x1080, then I very much doubt my visuals would look any better at 1920x1080 even with the GTX 690.
Thanks,
Maurice
Hi Maurice,
You are correct. The mits ew230-stu is native of 1280x800 but they are 1080i/p capable at 60 hz at maximum resolution. Definitely a nice improvement over 1280x800 and that screen door effect becomes a little less noticeable so yes, I think if you can push your projectors up beyond the limitations of the Matrox TH2go you will be pleased with the result in FSX. FSX is still beautiful also if you can push it up to max settings. I think X-Plane has far superior lighting and don't think you will get that out of FSX no matter how much you push up the resolution. I believe this is due to the way X-plane uses the video card but I don't know for sure. Its just far better. Land details in xplane to me are better than native FSX but I would say so far that Orbx scenery or other good scenery can make FSX look a little better in some areas. Water in Orbx is superior but I believe lacks tropical water like you see in REX butbI expect it will come.
I definitely would not rush out to replace FSX when you have setups like ours Maurice with all the addons. It sort of depends on what is most important to you personally. For me I am willing to give up some of the nice FSX addons for the nicer lighting, water, and weather in xplane. I also like the traffic and plausible autogen. The other major thing for me is load time, ease of interface use, and setup. I think xplane wins in all of these categories as well.
Anyway, both systems are worthy of their place on our hard drives but definitely push up your resolution if you can.
Scott
Thanks for the feedback Scott. This makes my decision to go for the GTX 690 a little easier since I think I will also get an improvement in other areas as well, especially the occasional white flashes I get with FSX.
Anyway, keep pushing the envelope :). In your case, with 3 high end PCs running XP, I think you will end up with a fantastic system once you get all the kinks out and once you install more scenery & airports add-ons.
Maurice
Very nice Scott :-)
I am glad you are enjoying it! ;-)
I love it here as well...
James
Hey Scott,
Glad to see XP10 is going well for you. I've stalled out on it a bit...too much going on around the outsideof our house instead of inside with the sim. Where did you purchase your 3 new systems and what are the specs? Will you please PM the info to me?
Otherwise, I am actually flying the FSX sim right now, as I haven't just flown for a while. It's nice to get back in the cockpit for a change; although, XP10 will be on the checklist again soon...
BSD
Yeah, the worst thing with FSX is really on approaches. Anyone can do it. There is no challenge at all, when it feels like going on rails. And FSX is kind of unrealistic when you are up in the air. Things get a certain blur/fog so the terrain below just looks stupid, even it seemed to have improved with P3D. But I dont know how XP does the weather. The lighting on Scott`s videos is spectacular. Just how it should be. Please make a vid with some proper live weather also. Would be cool to see hoe it works on a big size screen.
I have XP10 on my desk for six months now, but have barely touched it ::) Guess I have been kind of tired of the flightsim stuff for a while, but motivation is coming back slowly and steady ;)
Quote from: ivar hestnes on June 21, 2012, 01:00:59 AM
Guess I have been kind of tired of the flightsim stuff for a while, but motivation is coming back slowly and steady ;)
I know exactly what you mean Ivar; there are days when the mere thought of powering up my simulator nauseates me. And then, I'll have a nice flight somewhere and all will be good with the world :)
But I must say I strongly disagree with your opinion about FSX, especially the part about feeling like you are going on rails. The only one I ever saw landing manually like the plane was on rails was Angus. Everybody else had a hard time keeping the plane aligned with the runway and in the correct glide path.
I do agree about your statement that anyone can do it. In fact, this was proven even in a real CAE simulator a few years ago in the United Airlines training center in Denver. They took someone who had never flown a real plane and had only flown an older version of flight simulator and they let him land a 747 in their simulator. The landing turned out to be pretty good under calm conditions and a bit rough under poor weather conditions but everyone would have survived.
I think the real reason why there is such hype about XP is that it is just plain human nature to always want what we perceive as something better. I remember watching one of your early videos where you were taxiing your plane & marvelling at your new wraparound graphics (I was sick with jealousy at that time :). I remember your words "This is great" & you sounded like a little kid having the time of his life, and now you are a bit blaze about the whole thing & find all kinds of flaws with FSX.
I think this is happening to everyone except maybe Jack who is still hanging on to FS9 (I think). This is of course perfectly normal otherwise we would still be living in the stone age. Wanting more is the catalyst to progress but being happy with what you have can also be the path to real happiness.
Anyway, I'm in no way implying that XP is not superior to FSX. I'm just saying that it is much too early to nail FSX in a coffin just yet. Even with all its flaws, you can still have a great time with FSX especially if you really learn how to fly it properly and not let the automation do everything for you.
I have seen Angus train several pilots in his own FS9 simulator and many of them have now become captains, so FS? can't be that bad :)
Maurice
FS is not bad at all Maurice! In fact it is the birth sim of the entire hobby. I have spent in excess of 300 hours flying FS9 and loved it. My big problem with FS is it is no longer being developed so there is no hope of ever getting rid of the problems that are there. There is no hope of improving frame rates with newer video cards ext.. I was all set to try XP even before the get together so nothing has changed on my part. I am VERY pleased with some of the testing I have seen and some I have been able to do. My idea was (and still is) that if XP does not work out I will go back to FS9. So how is that! lol
Scott, I think you need to talk a little bit about the blending software you are using. Seems to be a bit of an unknown but sure looks great to me! Maybe a new thread?
Quote from: Bob Reed on June 21, 2012, 06:42:35 AM
My big problem with FS is it is no longer being developed so there is no hope of ever getting rid of the problems that are there.
Just keep dreaming Bob that XP will not have its share of problems :). And like everything else, there is no way to guarantee that XP will always be developed/improved either since Austin Meyer is a mere mortal as well and he may decide to venture into other things some day or depart this earth.
One more time, I fully understand why XP is so attractive and were it not for financial & other factors, I too would likely jump on the bandwagon. My main purpose for saying what I am saying is that XP proponents are not just content to praise the virtues of XP, they are also determined to knock FSX as much as they can to justify in their own minds why their decision to switch is the right one.
This is called cognitive dissonance and a perfect example is when you decide to buy a new car for instance. You do all the research and weigh all the pro's & con's of various models. Then you decide on one and after you get it, you make up all kinds of reasons in your mind why you made the right choice and you forget all the good things about the models you did not select. Same thing is happening with those who switched to XP and if I was able to switch, I would be doing exactly the same thing (I did that when I switched from FS9 to FSX :)
Maurice
Very good points up there Maurice
When we start building it all we had nothing but dreams, and suddenly the day comes when its all there, and not too much to dream about anymore. Then it kind of stops itself. You just get used to it. Guess some of what happened to me also. Well... also if you do your hobby too much, or get it in a certain daily routine, this can be destructive and demotivating also. (Some people will know what I mean about this "undercover" message ;) )
So it is definitely time to step it up, and set a new set of goals/dreams to achieve. XP10 should definitely be part of that. Think I have approx 30 minutes of experience with it, so theres work to do... And new sets of hardware, more real parts, different solutions for wiring++++, Gene`s colimation and on it goes.
Funny you mentioned the visuals video maurice, heheeh. I actually watched it yesterday when looking through my laptop video folder. I remember the feeling when I made the setup. Was really proud when it worked. Good times :)
I think this thread may be getting a bit derailed. The intention of this thread is to show off the virtues of X-Plane and in my videos to show what some of those are. I can safely provide MY opinions now that I have seen both. Maurice has a lot of good points and everyone should know that I am not in any way stating everyone should jump off FSX and onto X-Plane. I will stay on X-Plane now unless something really comes out that kicks my butt. That is based on MY perceptions of the capabilities of the sims to match reality. Lets please not make this an X-Plane versus FSX thread. This thread should primarily be about X-Plane testing and infact mainly about the visual testing.
Here is another new video:
http://youtu.be/Ddf1HJ00fDc (http://youtu.be/Ddf1HJ00fDc)
How is the crabbing effect with XP? Crabbing is not apparent on your video, so does XP automatically correct for it or did you make any adjustments to minimize the effect.
Also, is WideView part of XP or is is it still a separate component? Since the clouds did not transition smoothly from one view to the next, did you have a chance to see how planes transition from one view to the next when you are on the ground?
Thanks,
Maurice
Quote from: maurice on June 21, 2012, 08:51:42 AM
How is the crabbing effect with XP? Crabbing is not apparent on your video, so does XP automatically correct for it or did you make any adjustments to minimize the effect.
Also, is WideView part of XP or is is it still a separate component? Since the clouds did not transition smoothly from one view to the next, did you have a chance to see how planes transition from one view to the next when you are on the ground?
Thanks,
Maurice
Great questions. The crabbing effect doesn't seem to be there at all but I haven't done any long approaches so I need to test that more. I will get back to you on that. One thing I think needs to be adjusted is the height while sitting on the runway because it seems a little low to me considering I am supposed to be in a 737. This model is the x737 so not sure if it was supposed to be higher or whether XPlane puts everyone in a GA sized height and you have to modify.
The wideview functionality is built into X-Plane so nothing extra needed. I have another video I am trying publish but it seems that not all clouds are problems but some definitely as you saw in the video had issues. This may be something that is in the bug tracks already in Xplane that would hopefully be corrected later. The question about airplanes I have not looked at yet but will try to capture that in next video session to see how it behaves. I believe I recall seeing some planes taxing and didnt notice any issues.
I should note that you can see in some of the videos road traffic and in Xplane it is just phenominal. Not that we care when bombing around the sky at 30+ thousand feet though :-)
Quote from: XOrionFE on June 21, 2012, 09:01:27 AM
I should note that you can see in some of the videos road traffic and in Xplane it is just phenominal. Not that we care when bombing around the sky at 30+ thousand feet though :-)
I love seeing road traffic when landing but unfortunately I had to set the road traffic to zero so as not to end up with a slide show in FSX. I suspect that the reason your frame rates are not much higher than what they are is probably because of the road traffic as well. Still, your frame rates are excellent & I wish I could have the same with only 10% road traffic :)
Maurice
Quote from: maurice on June 21, 2012, 09:17:36 AM
Quote from: XOrionFE on June 21, 2012, 09:01:27 AM
I should note that you can see in some of the videos road traffic and in Xplane it is just phenominal. Not that we care when bombing around the sky at 30+ thousand feet though :-)
I love seeing road traffic when landing but unfortunately I had to set the road traffic to zero so as not to end up with a slide show in FSX. I suspect that the reason your frame rates are not much higher than what they are is probably because of the road traffic as well. Still, your frame rates are excellent & I wish I could have the same with only 10% road traffic :)
Maurice
Actually I think if Scott loaded up FSX on this system you would get similar frame rates with similar traffic, and maybe even birds! However I do love the water effect, not sure about the clouds though, they seem like they're out of a Tim Burton movie sometimes.
Keep up the good work Scott, I'm playing with XP9.7 at the moment until my XP10 disc arrives.
Ken.
[/quote]
I love seeing road traffic when landing but unfortunately I had to set the road traffic to zero so as not to end up with a slide show in FSX. I suspect that the reason your frame rates are not much higher than what they are is probably because of the road traffic as well. Still, your frame rates are excellent & I wish I could have the same with only 10% road traffic :)
[/quote]
Actually I think if Scott loaded up FSX on this system you would get similar frame rates with similar traffic, and maybe even birds! However I do love the water effect, not sure about the clouds though, they seem like they're out of a Tim Burton movie sometimes.
Keep up the good work Scott, I'm playing with XP9.7 at the moment until my XP10 disc arrives.
Ken.
[/quote]
Ken, I am told the clouds in 9.7 are nothing like 10. None of the graphics are supposed to be. Now that being said I do not have 9 so I can not compare. I know the clouds I am seeing are very nice.
Scott ,its great you have taken the time to show us all the out standing lighting effects of XP10 ;)
Im happy right now with FSX/ Prosim737 setup BUT NOW am very interested in XP10.
I had SA with FSX for about a year but became very unhappy with it so switched to Prosim737 and am loving it......I know you were playing with prosim too......so was wondering if you can comment on XP10 and Prosim737?
Cheers
Chris
Quote from: cmdurney on June 21, 2012, 11:15:40 AM
I had SA with FSX for about a year but became very unhappy with it so switched to Prosim737 and am loving it......I know you were playing with prosim too......so was wondering if you can comment on XP10 and Prosim737?
Cheers
Chris
I do not know what version of SimA you were using but there have been huge improvements and more functionality in their current release, so I would not dismiss using XP with SimA if I were you. I use SimA with FSX and I love it although I too was not too happy earlier.
Maurice
Maurice
Quote from: maurice on June 21, 2012, 11:50:28 AM
Quote from: cmdurney on June 21, 2012, 11:15:40 AM
I had SA with FSX for about a year but became very unhappy with it so switched to Prosim737 and am loving it......I know you were playing with prosim too......so was wondering if you can comment on XP10 and Prosim737?
Cheers
Chris
I do not know what version of SimA you were using but there have been huge improvements and more functionality in their current release, so I would not dismiss using XP with SimA if I were you. I use SimA with FSX and I love it although I too was not too happy earlier.
Maurice
Hi Maurice, Ive used all versions....currently using Beta 1.93.
Cheers
Maurice
Quote from: cmdurney on June 21, 2012, 11:15:40 AM
Scott ,its great you have taken the time to show us all the out standing lighting effects of XP10 ;)
Im happy right now with FSX/ Prosim737 setup BUT NOW am very interested in XP10.
I had SA with FSX for about a year but became very unhappy with it so switched to Prosim737 and am loving it......I know you were playing with prosim too......so was wondering if you can comment on XP10 and Prosim737?
Cheers
Chris
Hello Chris,
Glad you enjoyed the videos so far. Yes I have Prosim737 and actually own a copy of it and have used it extensively. I think it is a great package though I have not even touched it though for use with X-Plane. As I understand it Prosim737 does not have direct support for XP10 yet but looks like Marty is planning on it. So for now you would have to use with XPUIPC I presume? If you currently own Prosim737 you could give it a shot but maybe wait until Marty offers support for XP10 directly? Other than that I cant comment on how it works with XP10. As for Sim-Avionics, two premier builders are using it with XP10 to great success that know their 737 systems far better than me so I decided to follow suite rather than take a chance on all the unknowns of XP10 and Prosim737 right now. Sim-Avionics is also a superb system that is being enhanced all the time.
We are so lucky to have all these choices these days! (<---Thats my way of saying that I am not going to comment about Sim-Avionics versus Prosim737. I am lucky enough to have both and they are both good systems in their own rights)
Scott
I have already provided my feedback to Scott about his work...
Before i ask any more questions about FSX lights or throttle quads, can i ask if there is a way to filter out Scott's posts... I just bought a brand new setup... How in the world can i explain asking for two more within a week of getting first one... :-)
I remember i was a very content person before i came to this forum and even more so i met Scott.
Living close to his place i thought was one of the best things that happened to me...now i wonder...
Humor apart, i told Scott last week, he is one of those few people i know, whose latency between thinking and action is a less than a few nanoseconds. And of course, i will always remain envious of his woodworking skills and his penchant for clean, near perfect work.
The amazing thing is that he knows how to make a virtue out of errors and mistakes. That calls for ingenuity... For those who have been to his workspace and his Sim will know what i am saying....
NICE WORK Scott! As always...
CPJ
Quote from: firstinflight on June 21, 2012, 01:49:58 PM
I have already provided my feedback to Scott about his work...
Before i ask any more questions about FSX lights or throttle quads, can i ask if there is a way to filter out Scott's posts... I just bought a brand new setup... How in the world can i explain asking for two more within a week of getting first one... :-)
I remember i was a very content person before i came to this forum and even more so i met Scott.
Living close to his place i thought was one of the best things that happened to me...now i wonder...
Humor apart, i told Scott last week, he is one of those few people i know, whose latency between thinking and action is a less than a few nanoseconds. And of course, i will always remain envious of his woodworking skills and his penchant for clean, near perfect work.
The amazing thing is that he knows how to make a virtue out of errors and mistakes. That calls for ingenuity... For those who have been to his workspace and his Sim will know what i am saying....
NICE WORK Scott! As always...
CPJ
Hey CP, when are you coming over to check out this awesome new 3 computer X-Plane Visual setup??!!! ;D ;D Just kidding....your wife probably would like to shoot me by now....lol
Thank you for the very kind words my friend. Seriously though...I only feel like I am good at taking all the wonderful ideas and little nuggets from everyone else and incorporating them. This is an awesome community with research abound..... Also awesome vendors that support us with awesome products. Anyone new to building just needs to spend some time reading all the awesome posts by everyone and they have a wealth of knowledge to use.
Scott
Quote from: firstinflight on June 21, 2012, 01:49:58 PM
he is one of those few people i know, whose latency between thinking and action is a less than a few nanoseconds.
CPJ
You can say that again. One day he talks about buying three computers and the next day they are bought, installed and running with X-Plane. I would hate to be one of his employees if he expects the same efficiency from mere mortals ;D
Maurice
Quote from: XOrionFE on June 21, 2012, 09:01:27 AM
One thing I think needs to be adjusted is the height while sitting on the runway because it seems a little low to me considering I am supposed to be in a 737. This model is the x737 so not sure if it was supposed to be higher or whether XPlane puts everyone in a GA sized height and you have to modify.
I remember posting a pic here somewhere from inside the airplane on the runway. Ill have to dig a little. I remember how many people commented that the real one seemed low as well lol.
To me a good measure of the height is when your taxiing. If anyone has flown smaller GA airplanes at a busy airport its very hard to tell and identify taxiways and where they start etc. all you really see is the ones right in front of you. In larger airplanes like the 737 ive noticed that now you can really get a better view of taxiways and the airport overall. Picture being low and everything blending in and now having a more overall top down view.
Scott... I was almost spending the day up there in ORD Sat.. Was soo close! Was on the phone to trade a trip to get there and someone else picked up part of it and decreased the value of the trip too much... I really want to see that sim in person!!
Mike L
Drop in any time you can Mike. I will accommodate. Would love to have you over.
Mike,
If you mean the pic you took for me when at the start of the runway, I still have it.
Let me know if you still have it, if not I can post it?
Thanks
Regards
Ben
Hey Scott,
I know I called you and Rob during the trip to get the F16 cockpit without calling either of you back afterwards, and I apologize for that to both of you. It just seems my brain is scattered somewhat lately. Anyhow, I wouldn't mind coming to visit sometime in the future. Let me speak with Simlady and see if she can get time off, if not I might try it alone... My birthday is in August, so that could be a good time to come.
On a different note, about your visuals with XP10, you're getting 23-26 avg on the ground, what about in the air during heavy cloud layers? Also, are using any SLI modes with the GPU's? Did u get the GTX 690 cards for all three machines? If not which cards are in use? Additionally, are you overclocking the cards, overclocking the CPU's, using SSD drives, using Ultimate Defrag (or another defrag program, in which can place XP10 on the outer rings), and do you know if XP10 can take advantage of PhysX or CUDA? I ask those above questions because they would affect your visuals in terms of FPS.
More questions would be concerning the network you're using. You said in a video that sometimes clouds or images are not matching, can that be due to your network speeds and NIC cards? Is your backbone 1Gb or still 100Mb, as well as your cards matching it? Then, how does your avonics computers interact with that network? I am wondering because network lag or interference could be a little drawback if the visual computers are not dedicated. I have not read any of this yet, but it could be important... Even more so, how does the concept of a server and three visual boxes play in, if someone went that way? Is that even possible with XP10?
Finally, have you tried to import anything from FSX over to XP10 yet? It would be nice if we started a file download section here on CB, and then any files that have been converted could be uploaded for sharing; especially, since more folks might see the benefit of that and XP10, if aircraft and scenery were being made easily available. Besides, it saves on recreating them by everyone; maybe, we could do a sectional workload. In other words, each person would do a certain area if scenery and a certain set of aircraft... I'm sure Bob would be first in line to get that King Air.
John
Welcome anytime John. Would be nice to have you over.
As for your questions....where do I start LOL
I guess the first thing is to remember that I did this setup quite fast. I built the 3 computers myself over the weekend and didnt even get xplane going until the end of the weekend and now back at work all week in a very busy week for us. So everything thus far is not tweaked yet.
The computers are each based on the Asus X79pro MB and Intel i7 3930 processors. The ram is 16 gig DDR3 1866 Corsair Vengence memory. Single 300 gb WD 10k rpm Velociraptor drives, and EVGA GTX 560ti single video cards. No SLI. CPU cooling is with the Corsair H100 liquid cooler. The CPUs are 6 cores and native 3.2 ghz. I have a mild overclock on them right now of 3.9ghz. I pushed them up to almost 5ghz and they passed on the bench tests but seemed to have instability problems once running the sim so I dialed back for now. I will likely be able to push them up further to around 4.5 ghz or so but am going to wait a little before doing that. The video cards are not doing SLI or tweaked in any way. Straight out of the box with latest nvidia drivers. I installed windows 7 and did some of the Nick Needham tweaks specifically related to windows 7 performance and not the ones related to FSX. I have O&O defrag loaded on each of the systems but have to do the defragging yet. Didn't have time yet. I am also running kaspersky AV without any exclusions right now and all security settings turned on at there defaults. The network cards are running at 1 gb to a dedicated Netgear 8-port gigabyte switch. Networking and Internet security along with computers have been my vocation for 20 years so I am confident in the overall setup.
So as you can see, there is a lot to do yet. OC the CPUs, tweak the video settings, defrag the drives, possibly add additional drives to separate spindles, possibly test SSD.., turn down or off AV, etc. I have barely scratched the surface. I also still have to play more with the rendering options in Xp. Turning up more weather, adding multiple cloud layers, turning up more water effects, adding more traffic...all will have more impact on fps. I have read there is no hardware today available that will allow XP to run at full settings so I have to find the nice misddle ground I can be satisfied with which I guess is no different than what we all have dealt with with FSX. That said, I like that XP takes full advantage of GPU and video memory as well as multiple cores. That means over time things can only get better.
As for going with a 4 system setup having one dedicated to the server and others to visuals...I can't answer if it would be any better. It doesn't seem to me like my server/middle visual machine is running any slower than the other two just doing visuals so I am guessing it wouldn't make much difference but who knows.... Three was expensive enough :-)
I have not tried converting any scenery either yet.
Hope this helps answer. Still all very early and probably much too improve yet with tweaking.
Scott
So in shor
I have had a go at scenery conversion and it's quite simple once you have done it! I noticed that actually converting fs9 sceneries was producing better results as fsx took a bit more fiddling with overlay editor.
Scott , absolutely loving your work her and it's great info! I'm using the same gpu cards as you but with the latest i5 processors and happy with the results,
Did you try the warping software in xp10?
Awesome,
What are some of the scenerys you tried? Sounds very promising. I have Innsbruck, midway, and Boston Logan.
Can't wait to do some more testing tonight...
Scott
Not to sound, well, snubish but could we put the scenery stuff in another thread? That will make it easer for us to follow all the threads! ;D Thanks.....
Here is another video showing more terrain features.
Hope you enjoy.
Scott
http://youtu.be/t-QgpbGzEdw (http://youtu.be/t-QgpbGzEdw)
I must say that twilight sky looks lovely and I do like the fact that time can be changed instantly. Thanks for the latest update Scott and keep up the good work. You're helping (or perhaps hindering) many of us here with these. I feel like making a donation to your project given the amount of ground work you're doing for me in particular :)
Thanks,
Ken.
Quote from: Kennair on June 23, 2012, 11:51:39 PM
I feel like making a donation to your project given the amount of ground work you're doing for me in particular :)
Thanks,
Ken.
Lol, thanks Ken for the nice thoughts. I am glad to be involved in this effort to try new things and contribute something. You have already done so much for us all as well with your time and efforts testing new systems. Heck...you and your original site and airplane were one of the inspirations for me to get into cockpit building in the first place! I copied my original Cessna sim yoke setup from you! Anyway, let me know if there is anything specific you want me to test. Still a work in progress.
Scott
Quote from: XOrionFE on June 24, 2012, 05:48:30 AM
Lol, thanks Ken for the nice thoughts. I am glad to be involved in this effort to try new things and contribute something. You have already done so much for us all as well with your time and efforts testing new systems. Heck...you and your original site and airplane were one of the inspirations for me to get into cockpit building in the first place! I copied my original Cessna sim yoke setup from you! Anyway, let me know if there is anything specific you want me to test. Still a work in progress.
Scott
Well I guess we're all here for the purpose of sharing our experiences, and happy to do so. As my website states "Knowledge is useless unless shared" (and yes I pinched that from someone else too). Your X-Plane testing specifically for cockpit builders is really very enlightening however given that this is really the only remaining serious sim platform that is still under development. While I am still pursuing P3D it will never offer multicore CPU and modern GPU support and certainly not 64 bit support (which I beleive could be in the wings for XP).
One other question which I'm not sure you've answered. How is the crabbing effect? I know you said the height may have been a bit low but wondered about the feeling of runway centerline. I am keen to use 3 x 42" LCD TV's for my view which will take me closer than your projector screens.
Cheers,
Ken.
The out of the box eye point must already have some offset because I have not done any correction (ie-shifting all angles by 10 degrees to favor the captain) and it seems to be fine. I will do some more testing of that today.
Well, I've fallen off the edge of the earth. XP10... Looks amazing. Now I just need to sort some time to see it in person. Vacation coming up in 1.5 weeks so for sure I'll be there.
Hope you well Scott!
Don
Quote from: dharrison on June 25, 2012, 12:21:32 PM
Well, I've fallen off the edge of the earth. XP10... Looks amazing. Now I just need to sort some time to see it in person. Vacation coming up in 1.5 weeks so for sure I'll be there.
Hope you well Scott!
Don
Yes Don, I need your help. You need to get off your butt and get over here. I need the other half of my crew!