Author Topic: AirDaily X: The Barometer - Customer Support Pole  (Read 12432 times)

JamesChams

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AirDaily X: The Barometer - Customer Support Pole
« on: May 03, 2011, 11:04:07 pm »
Virtuali/FSDT,
Have you seen this... http://airdailyx.blogspot.com/p/barometer.html
IMHO, I always thought you guys were in the top 2 category... but #3 isn't too bad, really! :)

"Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble.” (Prov.13:20 NIV)
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
From,
  James F. Chams


cmpbllsjc

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Re: AirDaily X: The Barometer - Customer Support Pole
« Reply #1 on: May 03, 2011, 11:52:39 pm »
IMHO, I always thought you guys were in the top 2 category... but #3 isn't too bad, really! :)

I would have put them in a tie for 1st, with that being FSDT and ORBX, with Aerosoft being second.

While its true that Aerosoft does communicate a lot, its seems like its mostly Shaun saying "let me check with the devloper" then waiting for a response. At least with FSDT and ORBX you get to speak to the developer themselves and they respond very quickly.


CX 747-400

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Re: AirDaily X: The Barometer - Customer Support Pole
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2011, 12:02:03 am »
I would have to disagree with several of the list. I have never had any issue in communication with many that are considered erratic. I would also put FSDT tied with Aerosoft.
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sjt375

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Re: AirDaily X: The Barometer - Customer Support Pole
« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2011, 12:23:46 am »
interesting list...

I would put ORBX and FSDreamteam above aerosoft. Also flightdream is in the "highstandard" and they haven't even released a scenery yet. Flytampa is in erratic...I have never had a problem posted in the flytampa forum solved in less than a day.

I'm personally not going to take this list to heart as "the list" of customer support.

virtuali

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Re: AirDaily X: The Barometer - Customer Support Pole
« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2011, 12:45:10 am »
We were in 2nd place after OrbX until last week, it would be really interesting to know what made Aerosoft jump in the 1st place in one week only in "High standard of communication"...maybe I haven't properly setup my spell checker, and some typos creeped in more than necessary in the replies.

Or, perhaps is the fact I'm on vacation and, since my connection here is way slower than it used to be, my usual response time is measured in hours rather than minutes is counting. Or maybe it's because this week a fire in the major Italian DNS hosts put about 200K italian websites (including this one, for a few hours) off-line has something to do with this.

Apparently that "barometer" is very sensitive to small variations so, it's more like a seismographer...which means there's hope we should will make it to #1, eventually.

Jokes apart, the issue is, the new design method we are using with KLAX, has a bad side effect that it costs a plenty of time (an overnight rendering, plus additional work to put everything together) to compile and see the scenery inside FSX, which for us is only useful to post new screenshots here to show progress, which I guess might be interpreted as "high communication standards".

This also confused a couple of people believing we are progressing backwards, since the last screenshot that was posted was a rendering, compared to the second-last, which was inside FSX. For the same above reason, it doesn't make much sense to stop working at the scenery for a full day *just* to post new in-game screenshots, since that time is better spent modeling/texturing. Perhaps this is giving the impression we are communicating less than with previous sceneries, when we had much more "work in progress" threads.

In any case, I read that blog every day (on my iPad), because it's quite fun and direct, and the author posts his own views, rather than blindly copy&pasting press releases. We can only hope it will stay like this, free from commercial pressures.

« Last Edit: May 04, 2011, 12:49:53 am by virtuali »

Bruce Hamilton

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Re: AirDaily X: The Barometer - Customer Support Pole
« Reply #5 on: May 04, 2011, 04:14:21 pm »
..its seems like its mostly Shaun saying "let me check with the devloper" then waiting for a response.

LOL   :D

In all fairness to Shaun, keep in mind that Aerosoft markets a lot of software made by others, while FSDT and ORBX market only their own.  Shaun can't speak for the other developers, so he has to check with them.
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cmpbllsjc

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Re: AirDaily X: The Barometer - Customer Support Pole
« Reply #6 on: May 04, 2011, 05:46:54 pm »
In all fairness to Shaun, keep in mind that Aerosoft markets a lot of software made by others, while FSDT and ORBX market only their own.  Shaun can't speak for the other developers, so he has to check with them.

Yeah I know, that's why he's "always checking with others".

That's the one thing I like about buying from FSDT, FT, LatinVFR, PMDG, LDS, and ORBX , is the fact that you can speak directly to the developers, rather than having a middle man.

I'll be honest, I am not much for Aerosoft anymore, whether its the products they actually produce or their support forum. Although I was never really enamoured with a lot of their products to begin with, as time has worn on and I have purchased and been only somewhat pleased with their offerings, I pretty much stay clear of most anything they make, especially if Peter W. has his hand in the developement. Plus their ego turns me off a bit, especially after Mr. Kok made that post a while back showing how big their offices are with all the pics showing the facilities. I almost felt like making a comment about all those people and the nice big office and you still can't manage to mip map sceneries on the initial release. Of course I didn't do that, but surely was thinking it.

On the suject of egos, I am getting a little turned off by ORBX as well. As of late they really seem to have adopted a mindset that they are the "be all, end all of FS addon developers". While I agree that some of the stuff is nice looking, frankly I dont think is as great as a lot of people do. Maybe when they can start making large hubs like their own YBBN and YMML that perform really well on the majority of upper mid level rigs and they include features like those of FSDT airports, then maybe I will be impressed. I'm so sick of hearing about PeopleFlow, TextureFlow, and any other Flow. How about they start making FPSFlow for the large hubs? In all seriousness, I have tried to figure out what TextureFlow is after backing up a bunch of textures prior to doing an update to one of the airport that now includes it. Frankly, it doesn't look like its anymore that converting some 32bit or DXT5 textures that didn't already have alpha channels to DXT1, or mip mapping some of the textures that weren't prior. I know its all part of their marketing though and dont dare ask them what it is.

If any scenery devlopers are pushing the envelope of scenery developement it would be FSDT not ORBX.

newmanix

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Re: AirDaily X: The Barometer - Customer Support Pole
« Reply #7 on: May 05, 2011, 02:19:34 am »
@ cmpbllsjc

That was very well said. And the only thing I really follow at areosoft anymore is AES. Like you I am also tired of the ego. As fas as FSDT goes, I never had an issue here that was not sorted out within 24 hours. In my opinion FSDT belongs higher on the blog because wheras Aerosoft may respond in a timelu manner, any issues I have at Aerosoft still took a week at least to get a resloution to my problem. In Shauns defence, he does a very good job.


theshack440

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Re: AirDaily X: The Barometer - Customer Support Pole
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2011, 05:13:48 am »
Also @ cmpbllsjc, (and newmanix)

I have tried some ORBX packages, such as YMML and I don't get NEARLY as good fps as I do with fsdt. I do not want to sound as though I am just bashing ORBX, they are very high up in my developer mind and they have some beautiful stuff, but they seem to act as though, as cmpbllsjc said, the "be all end all of developers." I have always thought fsdt the best (for one they do American airports for the most part which means they are of the most usage) in innovation and end result.
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meshman

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Re: AirDaily X: The Barometer - Customer Support Pole
« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2011, 04:25:22 pm »
How about they start making FPSFlow for the large hubs?

Sean, that's got to be one of THE best lines I've read in a long time! Nice to chuckle over an early morning cup of coffee.

I'll refrain from other comments, other than to say I don't have any products, nor will I ever have any products from a particular developer.   ???

Bruce Hamilton

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Re: AirDaily X: The Barometer - Customer Support Pole
« Reply #10 on: May 05, 2011, 05:14:47 pm »
Plus their ego turns me off a bit, especially after Mr. Kok made that post a while back showing how big their offices are with all the pics showing the facilities.

I remember that thread well... then there was the sudden appearence of Winfried, the company CEO.  No idea what prompted him to post, when he hadn't in all the previous years.  About all I buy from Aerosoft lately is any of the German airport series and AES credits, and I'll probably buy less of those once GSX is released.

As for what TextureFlow is, just ask them.  JV has always been very forthcoming with information.   ;)
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cmpbllsjc

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Re: AirDaily X: The Barometer - Customer Support Pole
« Reply #11 on: May 05, 2011, 05:27:28 pm »
Sean, that's got to be one of THE best lines I've read in a long time! Nice to chuckle over an early morning cup of coffee.

Haha, I admit, when I wrote that I didn't think it was that funny, but after reading it again, it is kind of funny, but true!!


I'll refrain from other comments, other than to say I don't have any products, nor will I ever have any products from a particular developer.   ???

Well, if you refering to one of the ones I mentioned I dont blame you, unless of course they make one airport/scenery you just have to have, but proceed with caution since there are no trials or refunds if your not pleased.

I'll be frank regarding Aerosoft and ORBX, I have put them into the "show me" category. Meaning, come up with something that is truely ground breaking (not PeopleFlow or ObjectFlow), looks good and performs well, and maybe I will give it a shot. Until then, I think I will stay away since neither offer sceneries/airports that are in locations that I fly often anyway.

cmpbllsjc

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Re: AirDaily X: The Barometer - Customer Support Pole
« Reply #12 on: May 05, 2011, 05:44:38 pm »
I remember that thread well... then there was the sudden appearence of Winfried, the company CEO.  No idea what prompted him to post, when he hadn't in all the previous years.

I know what prompted them to post it, their egos. For what other reason would an FS developer do that? They just want to show off a little and reiterate how much stuff they sell and how much money they are making.


About all I buy from Aerosoft lately is any of the German airport series and AES credits, and I'll probably buy less of those once GSX is released.

I have come so close to pulling the trigger on the AES a few times, but Umberto saved me what could have been a ton of money on AES credit by comming up with GSX :-)


As for what TextureFlow is, just ask them.  JV has always been very forthcoming with information.   ;)

LOL, I remember someone did ask them once not long ago and they danced around the issue without ever saying exactly what it was. Basically I have come to the conclusion from doing my own investigation prior to and after "TextureFlow" updates that its just a matter of cleanging up textures as far as more efficient compressions and/or textures size reductions. In addition, adding the ability to turn off the resource hungry ground polys that some of the large airports have and just using the underlying photoreal ground, which imho looks horrible when you land. There's really no mystery when it comes to texturing a model. You can do in with efficient sized textures and compressions or you can do it without those. Since a lot of their original releases where done with less efficient methods, it gave them a new tag line or marketing tool to say that they have now included "TextureFlow".

In a way, I have been adding my own version of "TextureFlow" for years now to my addon sceneries, user a/c and AI, haha.

I guess you could say that FSDT has also come with their own and better version of "TextureFlow" the way they did KDFW and the upcomming KLAX using all the fancy shader techniques :-)

I would bet my bottom dollar as they say, that if ORBX did their own version of KDFW or KLAX the way they did YMML and YBBN, we would all be complaining about how poor the FPS are!

masondom

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Re: AirDaily X: The Barometer - Customer Support Pole
« Reply #13 on: May 05, 2011, 08:15:36 pm »

Hello guys.

Respectfully just one world to tell you that obviously i didn't ask anythink from Aerosoft.

I put every designer/ editor on the same level and i respect them.
Aerosoft won the first place last week because they kept sending previews.
I love FSDT and OrbX but apart Cushman Meadows, Orbx Road Map didn'move quite a lot since a few months.
ok then i know, i need to make a lot of progress, to improve mysyelf transparency about rules of this barometer. Its a start.
About my post on Amateurs, that has been misinterpreted, it is just that it is a heartbreak to see a new designer sending us news and news and hop, he disappears just like that. No message.
And oh, yes, a lot of mistakes in spelling and grammar but for a few people who didn't understant that, i founded my blog to try improving myself. It has been 5 months.
Hello to my friends
Dom Mason


masondom

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Re: AirDaily X: The Barometer - Customer Support Pole
« Reply #14 on: May 05, 2011, 08:18:21 pm »
 :D  oh yes Umberto ;) free from commercial pressure, rest assured !

And you are first for overall quality product (but you already know that for shure !)

best to America