xp+10+reviews + the weekend update for 29 January 2012

A couple of new files to keep you warm during a cold winter’s night, and a little news to round out your weekend too:

So, it had to happen. Austin renewed a trend with the beta release of XP10, and the “pre-sale”  – or payware beta test paradigm – has now officially moved over to another payware ACF! To quote Ramzzess concerning his 757-200: “ok guys. The plan is the following. In two weeks the first beta will be ready, we will do as Austin did, start a presale. When you get the model on presale you get all the betas while you are waiting for the final version.”

Well, it worked for Austin, it’s apparently working for The Avroliner Project too, so why not?

And so, in other news:

• The Senate again approved a funding extension for the Federal Aviation Administration. The measure will extend funding through Feb. 17. House and Senate negotiators are negotiating a final bill for long-term funding for the FAA. The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires
• New details on the Northrop Grumman flying wing airliner are emerging, and this article is worth a close read.

Interesting. Aside from looking a little like a Klingon “Bird of Prey”.

+++++

A lot of memories here as I’ve been in and out of this airport too many times to count, and looking the file over this morning all I could think about was my dad and flying down here with him when I was a kid. The storm clouds above brought back memories too. West Texas “Boomers” roll through here regularly from March through August, producing huge storm fronts and violent weather – including tornadoes – and these are a regular feature of flying in Texas.

So, T82 + Gillespie County Airport, Fredericksburg, Texas is the third installment in N76JG’s Central Texas Airports series, and it’s a welcome addition to XP. All of us from that next of the woods will appreciate having these, but T82 will stand out for a lot of reasons.

The airport looks quite good in XP9, and because 9 seems more tolerant of higher res settings, I was able to run this one at “extreme” res and the textures on the hotel and diner look quite sharp as a result. As we’ll see below, that’s not the case in 10. This is a simple airport relatively speaking, but representative of small town airports across the US. What’s different about T82 is that it serves the town of Fredericksburg, a German settlement in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, and where the very very affluent from Dallas and Houston run for a weekend getaway. More than a few movie stars have ranchitos in the area, and Chester Nimitz used to call this town home, too. You’d never know it unless you know it, but this is one of the most upscale hideaways in Texas, and lots of nice twins use this airport every Friday and Sunday evening!

XP10 does a fair job with this airport too. The town of Fredericksburg looks better in 10 of course; F’burg does NOT have any industry (but tourism) and the endless refineries, IKEA stores and cracking towers generated by 9 ring false and hurt the overall success of this scenery file. The file in XP10, with res at “high”, takes up about 450 Mb, and cranking up res to “extreme” crashed 10. Oddly enough, KMIA weighed in at 405Mb, so perhaps this file needs some optimization? With res at “high” the textures on the diner and hotel were quite blurry, a real shame too, but that was about the only low I had in 10. Framerates were never lower than the mid 30s here in 10, BTW, but generally much higher.

The Hill Country always looks great in the evening, but when those West Texas thunderstorms move in the sky becomes something quite special to behold. XP10 does a fair job of making a little drama up there too, and the action only adds to this airport’s appeal. Highly recommended in either 9 or 10.

+++++

We’ve reported on this one before but LFBZ received a modest makeover and was re-released this weekend; this remains the most interesting XPFR facility on the Bay of Biscay and is a centrally located stopover on the run from Madrid to Paris (in your Bonanza?), and this is a very busy commercial facility as well. Some buildings appear tweaked in the revision, and roadway LITs as well? It remains a very good airport file and we thought we’d image this one in XP10 to see how it looks…but first a few in XP9.70…

And here we are in XP10, and this facility takes on new life here. Lighting is NOT updated but the new rendering engine, AI traffic, as well as OSM data really changes the character of this airport. I really liked it before, but it’s about ten times better in 10!

Of course, AI traffic has a lot to do with that. This one feature more than any other is taking center stage for me these days, but with the new clouds the area just appears grand.

So, long story short, this one’s better and worth updating due to the revision.

+++++

Oh! The Trials and Tribulations of Livery Work!

XP10′s default 744′s forward fuselage has more hidden bumps and grinds than a Vegas stripper’s, and nowhere is that more apparent than when trying to get a text/logo element to line up smoothly just under the aft portion of the upper deck. And getting rid of those pesky remnants of other liveries is a royal pain too, but that’s why they pay you the big bucks, right? Well, practice makes perfect, and hopefully this one will get a few tweaks. It’s an otherwise decent effort .

Valery12 seems to be having a good time with the 752 this week, and his latest Transaero for the XPFWProject’s ACF looks excellent, night and day. He’s added the bright cockpit LITS too, so all around this one looks great at night on the ramps. Seen here departing LFBZ…

+++++

And Jiggyb2 isn’t having any problems with the 744 these days, that’s for sure! When not working on airports he still devotes time to his livery work, and a good thing that is for us, too.

For he’s released two extremely nice Air New Zealand paints for the 744 – and both spot on examples of great workmanship and even less grimy than his other recent work!

Day or night, up close and personal or far, far away, these two just look great.

Oh… I wonder if Simon will be interested in these – after two weeks down there?

Ah, well, that’s about all we’ve got today. Take care, and we’ll seeya early in the week. C&S