Aero Commanders - Portovers

Milton, My abject apologies are surely due. Before all this began I PM'd you about an FSX port-over for the AC500. Since then the project has just growed and growed, Topsy-like. I never imagined that you would end up re-designing the entire Aero Commander fleet. Oh dear!

But...now that the leaks and draughts have been sealed and new yokes fitted, not to mention the plush new interior furnishings, I'm going to bring my wife on my next trip. She hates flying and insists on going first class. Now, she can!

Thanks a bunch, Milton. I've run out of superlatives. :jump:
 
PLEAE NOTE: Textures need to be corrected

I refer to the post below and numerous others like these about missing alphas and mimaps
http://forum.avsim.net/topic/382519-a-huge-fps-increase/page__st__175#entry2461271

Please note that there are a HUGE quantity of textures in all the aero comander portovers that do NOT have the necessary alphas and / or Mipmaps. (Bitmaps with DXT3 format without alphas and mipmaps) This do results in blury textures and unnecessary strain on your graphic cards especially if you have the latest graphics cards that struggle to keep up if they dont find the mipmaps. (So if your scenery suddenly become very blurry when flying the commanders, it is because your graphics card try its hart out on the commander textures and then all other textures (eg scenery) get loaded last.. resulting in blurred scenery, this could be the cause of it)

I have redone all the textures and it is making a HUGE difference. Please dont shoot the messenger.. It work for me on my machine and my set-up and as I said the effect is absolute mindblowing. Suddenly my scenery is again as I expected to be with any native FSX developed plane.

Anyway for what's it worth.
 
Anyone know how to fix

Took her for a Full IFR flight in RAIN..

Anyone know how to fix. I know I have seen many posts how to correct a specific flight1 problem in the past, but I dont know how to fix this in the commander.
Any ideas for the green windows. I have not yet tried the other commanders in RAIN. Only the Wood panel one at this stage.

cockpit_wood03.jpg
 
snow_white said:
Took her for a Full IFR flight in RAIN..

Anyone know how to fix. I know I have seen many posts how to correct a specific flight1 problem in the past, but I dont know how to fix this in the commander.
Any ideas for the green windows. I have not yet tried the other commanders in RAIN. Only the Wood panel one at this stage.

cockpit_wood03.jpg
Click to expand...


Check that you have this in the Effects section:

windshield_rain_effect_available = 1
 
snow_white said:
I refer to the post below and numerous others like these about missing alphas and mimaps
http://forum.avsim.net/topic/382519-a-huge-fps-increase/page__st__175#entry2461271

Please note that there are a HUGE quantity of textures in all the aero comander portovers that do NOT have the necessary alphas and / or Mipmaps. (Bitmaps with DXT3 format without alphas and mipmaps) This do results in blury textures and unnecessary strain on your graphic cards especially if you have the latest graphics cards that struggle to keep up if they dont find the mipmaps. (So if your scenery suddenly become very blurry when flying the commanders, it is because your graphics card try its hart out on the commander textures and then all other textures (eg scenery) get loaded last.. resulting in blurred scenery, this could be the cause of it)

I have redone all the textures and it is making a HUGE difference. Please dont shoot the messenger.. It work for me on my machine and my set-up and as I said the effect is absolute mindblowing. Suddenly my scenery is again as I expected to be with any native FSX developed plane.

Anyway for what's it worth.
Click to expand...

Thanks SW. Since you have already been through them all, do you have a list to share with everyone?

I put these Aero Commanders out for test here before release and there were many, many downloads and no reported texture issues. That's kind of frustrating. :-/
 
Well as I have already done mine I cannot tell you. I redownloaded and put these an a seperate temporary location and ran alpha searcher again for you. Here is the results

AC500ca1 Alphas
FileAC500ca1_alpha.jpg


AC500ca1 Mipmaps
FileAC500ca1_mipmaps.jpg


AC500vc1x Alphas
FileAC500vc1x_Alphas.jpg


AC500vc1x Mipmaps
FileAC500vc1x_mipmaps.jpg


AC500w Alphas
FileAC500w_alphas.jpg


AC500w Mipmaps
FileAC500w_mipmaps.jpg


AC520v3 Alphas
FileAC520v3_Alphas.jpg


AC520v3 Mipmaps
FileAC520v3_mipmaps.jpg


AC560v3 Alphas
FileAC560vc3_Alphas.jpg


AC560v3 Mipmaps
FileAC560vc3_mipmaps.jpg


AC680v3 Alphas
FileAC680v3_Alphas.jpg


AC680v3 Mipmaps
FileAC680v3_mipmaps.jpg
 
Milton Shupe said:
Thanks SW. Since you have already been through them all, do you have a list to share with everyone?

I put these Aero Commanders out for test here before release and there were many, many downloads and no reported texture issues. That's kind of frustrating. :-/
Click to expand...

The thing is that there will be no abnormal anomalies to reports. Most people see degrading scenery etc (blurry, but normally dont think much about it as most people put down to quirkiness of FSX), but never really investigate the problem any further and 95% of people just accept the fact. That is why 98% of people do not see anything wrong with this scenario and never will report this. Its not something like a missing texture that results and nothing shown or just a black area. Textures do show, but these anomalies (no alphas/missing mipmaps) put a HUGE strain on graphic cards.
 
snow_white said:
I have added this now. When start up a lot of flashes between green screen and seeing the rain, and then after about 10-20 flashes it just stay green.
Click to expand...

It would help if you would be specific about which aircraft you have this issue with.

Also, are you running DX10?

I do not have this issue on my FSX system with SP2, Excel and DX9.
 
I am also having a problem with the green windows.
Seems strange as I had the FS9 version in FSX and no problems with the windows.
 
Milton Shupe said:
It would help if you would be specific about which aircraft you have this issue with.

Also, are you running DX10?

I do not have this issue on my FSX system with SP2, Excel and DX9.
Click to expand...

Ac500 Wood panel version
No not running DX10 - just normal dx9
System is FSX gold (acceleration)
 
TREETOP said:
I am also having a problem with the green windows.
Seems strange as I had the FS9 version in FSX and no problems with the windows.
Click to expand...

Sorry that you all are having issues. I wish life among simulators, the miriad of differences, and the endless files, formats and configurations were simpler.

I would recommend that you fly in good weather until I can revisit all these aircraft.

My apologies to all.
 
Okay, to eliminate frustration and confusion for everyone, I have deleted the Aero Commander FSX Port-Over versions until I can get time to correct texture issues. Sorry for the false start. I'll get them back in order and re-release them at a later date. Meanwhile, carry on. :) There are a lot of nice aircraft out there to enjoy.
 
green screen rain- fs9 to fsx port overs

from what I can remember it is a texture that results in the green screen. I will go google a bit. I really cannot remeber the detail, but I knew I have seen posts on green screens from FS9 port overs. But I also knew that there is a solution. What I dont know. So I am off to google a bit. See if I can find those old posts.



EDIT-

Found this, - backed up my FSX and tested. All working 100% now for me.!

IF YOUR TRY THIS: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A PROPER BACKUP OF FSX . NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU MESS UP..

Virtual Cockpit Rain fix for FSX (1.1MB) - If you have FSX SP2 or Acceleration installed, you may have solid windows when in the virtual cockpit when it is raining with many addon aircraft. This update repairs FSX so that you can have transparent windows again.
http://www.simviatio...um=1197380641#7Flight1 has released a FIX for older FS9 aircraft in SP2/Accleration that have VC rain issues and cause the glass to wash out to blue or other colors.====================================Quote:If you have been paying attention to any of the recent threads you are probably aware that SP2 has broken FS9 SDK created aircraft with respect to visibility out of the windscreen in the VC when it is raining. It will render the windscreen a solid blue turquoise color.I believe we have a remedy in the form of a utility that we have created. When you run it, it will replace the affected FSX textures with new ones (No, not the FS9 ones, they are our own) and it will back up your existing FSX textures. Restoring those textures is as easy as clicking on the "restore" button.It appears to restore visibility to FS9 > FSX aircraft and does not appear to harm the FSX SDK created aircraft in any way.You may use it, upload it, include it, whatever... but all we ask is that you give us credit. Run the tool and it will fix the VC rain and cockpit windows for FS9 aircrafthttp://www.flight1so...x_vcrainfix.exeIt back up your original files and will allow a restoreYou now have your windows clear and working=============================================================NOTE: THIS FIX DOES NOT MAKE FSX-FS9 AIRCRAFT HAVE VC RAIN FX, ONLY FIX THE WINDSHIELD PROBLEM. DO NOT RUN THIS TOOL IF YOU WANT TO RESTORE VC RAIN FX TO FS9 AIRCRAFTIf you want VC RAIN to work in FS9 aircraft that have the ability, do not run this tool, instead download the add-on vcrain.zip, rlvcrain.zip which contain modified and the orignal backup vc rain textures for FS9 and work in FSX. Install the FS9 default textures and your VC rain will return to FS9 planes

 
Milton Shupe said:
Okay, to eliminate frustration and confusion for everyone, I have deleted the Aero Commander FSX Port-Over versions until I can get time to correct texture issues. Sorry for the false start. I'll get them back in order and re-release them at a later date. Meanwhile, carry on. :) There are a lot of nice aircraft out there to enjoy.
Click to expand...

Now that is not necessary and that was not the intention to have these excellent planes removed with my post. I for one will fly them till i cant anymore.
and no need to say sorry.. I mean we all enjoy them to bits..

in fact I ran a batch job to add alphas and missing textures. Was not even 2 hours work to have all these converted to include alphas and missing mipmaps.

to the rest of the guys that now have to suffer for my inconsiderate post, I am sorry.
 
I removed them with good intentions to correct the archives. You have no reason to apologize. You simply highlighted issues that need to be addressed. For that I am appreciative. :wavey:
 
green screen correction found. See post or two above.


also seen this (but not tried yet)
Google vcrain.zip or rlvcrain.zip and you will find plenty on getting VC rain effects to work on FS9 addons ported over to FSX.
PLEASE NOTE:
vcrain.zip or rlvcrain.zip will give you rain in FSX, but it is ONLY for custom FS9 models and will NOT add it to FSX planes... STILL would be AWESOME to have this again on the Aero commanders.... at least because they are still FS9 models.

as i have just created a backup anyway I will try it later and report back. Should be fun.!

EDIT

Yes it work indeed. not so good as what some developers have done in FSX. I am really in two minds about if I will keep this one
you just need the VCrain.zip file. (all others are just deviations to drop size etc.. but you more then welcome to try them. I did not.
cockpit_wood04.jpg
 
I have all the alpha issues corrected in all the liveries of each aircraft.

Now the question is about MipMaps. Historically, people have been against them saying they cause the aircraft textures to be blurry or not crisp.

I look for input as to add MipMaps or not.

Anyone want to weigh in?
 
Mip Maps - I seem to recall reading somewhere that NVidea cards handle them better than ATi. Cannot quote a source however.
 
Sorry Milton, I cannot comment for or against. as per the post at avsim I qouted I add mipmaps to all files. I dont see any degrading blurie textures on mymashine. So we need to really get the knowledge-able people coming and present their cases.

As I understand it is ONLY the bitmaps in DX3 or DX5 format that MUST have a mipmap (as I understand the graphics cards will try and find a mipmap and if it is not there it keep looking and that is what put the strain on graphics cards. as long as it find a mipmap within a BMP file in dx3/dx5 format the grpahics card is happy and continue on its merry way processing other textures) - It is ONLY related to the dx3/dx5 bitmaps

again from what I read in the qouted AVSIM post who there seem to many people who know what they talking about. There are a few related posts about the dxtfixer program/utility at avsim, who cover and discuss this in detail. maybe time for some reading
http://forum.avsim.net/topic/382811-dxtfixer-utility/

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/382595-alpha-channels-mips-dxt1dxt3/

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/382519-a-huge-fps-increase/page__st__175#entry2461271
This one in particular have a lot of good info.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top