Author Topic: KFLL as well as KLAS: What is it? Take a closer look!  (Read 6539 times)

CyrQ

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KFLL as well as KLAS: What is it? Take a closer look!
« on: June 30, 2009, 01:43:24 am »
Hello friends!

KFLL is my second fsdt airport aquired recently as my first fsdt one is KLAS since it came out.
"Kudos", FSDT! Great products, but:

The FS machine I own is fairly high end perfectly stable with the following some specs:  
* CPU-Q9550 (2.83) @ 3.63
* VGA-GTX280 (186.18 latest driver)
* RAM-8G (tested with 4G also)
* Motherboard-X48 Chip
* PSU-750Watts
* OS-Windows Vista Ultimate SP2 64bit

- LVLD 767-300ER, only aircraft add-on to date.
- Radar Contact 4.3
- ASX Weather
- Fly Tampa St.Marteen
- FSUIPC 4.52
- FSX SP2 @ 1920 x 1200 on 28" LCD

[Very Clean Install]!!!

Now, a little more than 2 months ago I thought I won't need to post about this when I purchased KLAS
and that the issue may just be from my system (which somehow I actually doubted from the very begining in my mind anyway)
and would be dealt with once I have tested thoroughly overtime and/or otherwise keep on reading the forum
for possible troubleshooting solutions...

About 3 months later, here I am.  I just have to post even though quite similar problems have been raised by others and
also kept me in part for posting earlier:

The bue runway/taxiway lights and the marking panel signs DO disappear.  Yes they DO!  And no, not all of them!
When these lights and signs disappear all that left on the surface are respectively a splash blue spot and a splash somewhat yellow
spot in lieu and place of the pole/bulb lights  and panel signs.  
This seems to occur more towards the runway ends, and progressively away from the main terminals as well onto GA parkings.  
But it happens around the main terminals too sometimes.  Many times I can see at the same moment an area with the blue lights
and signs up while another area has only the blue and yellow splash spots on the ground.  This is clearly visible when taxiing and
transitionning from one light up (little pole with a bulb or marking red-yellow sign) to a just flat colored splash (no pole/bulb or
panel sign at all).
The same can occasionnaly be noticed at landings also.  So, please pay careful attention while taxiing as soon as you
leave the parking gates tarmac and when coming in to land.  They are times when I've been unable to read (no see) any sign after
landing or read any border marking so I could naturely direct myself quite easily towards the terminals.  With disappearing
indicating panel signs and the nice blue lights, you guessed it, that's  unfortunately really annoying!  It very well occurs day or night.  
Obviously, you can't see the splashes during daytime but at night.

I would like by the way to remark that the green runway/taxiway centerline lights stay put always and never disappear!
But along with the issue stated above, the red/green runway-threshold lights DO disappear also at the same time leaving
only red splashes around!

As I said, long ago I thought something's wrong with my system but after several testing and re-testing meanwhile as the
results explain it well enough (in the same screen at the same time, visible areas with lights and areas with only splashes), it
became clear and I strongly believe there is something bizarre in the overall rendering process of those specificaly and materially
designed lights and signs in FSX/SP2 and these FSDT sceneries.  BTW, I tried both lvld et default aircrafts for testing with the
same outcome.

On a side note, it would be great and reasonnable to have a taxi-centerline all around terminal D in KLAS since there are gates everywhere;
the right way to access them.  [Real world terminal finished or not shouldn't matter since all the gates have been implemented
on all sides anyway].   Therefore the "space" argument doesn't cut it.  That's just logic to me, contrary to one's reply to the post
about the issue in KLAS FS9 forum.

Repeating, issues are true for both KFLL & KLAS (what I own).  Every measure and possible suggestion mentionned anywhere
in the forum have been tested.  Mind you by now, just to say Coualt Engine - Addon Manager are in place of course...  
  

Again, great products!
Any input will sincerely be appreciated.

Thank you FSDT.
CyrQ
    



 
  
    
 
 


      
« Last Edit: July 02, 2009, 08:52:51 am by CyrQ »

virtuali

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Re: KFLL as well as KLAS: What is it? Take a closer look!
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2009, 01:21:15 pm »
Nothing reported in your message is a bug or a scenery problem.

Everything in the scenery appears and disappears intentionally, to optimize fps as much as possible. So, objects like signs are designed to disapper at some distance.

However, there is an Addon Manager setting that allows you to CUSTOMIZE the range itself, the "Anti PopUp" slider. The default it's 1.0 but, if you set it at higher values, the range programmed in the scenery will be multiplied by that value so, an object that was programmed to disappear at 0.5 nm, will disappear at 1.5 nm if the Anti PopUp slider is set to 3.

Of course, putting the slider too high will result in lower fps. On my system ( CD2 2.66 ), for example, I lose about 10 fps at KLAS with the slider at 10. So, as they say, there's no "free lunch", if you don't like the pop-up, you should be prepared to pay a price in peformances, that might be noticeable or not, depending on your system.

Anything related to runway lights, instead, it's handled entirely by FSX so, any kind of disappearing/appearing behaviour is not specific to our sceneries, but it will be exacly the same at any FSX airport.

CyrQ

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Re: KFLL as well as KLAS: What is it? Take a closer look!
« Reply #2 on: July 01, 2009, 08:15:00 am »
Thank you Umberto for the reply.

Well, indeed that just confirms it what I suspected early on.  Sadly that distance too often reduces itself to zero as you pass right by or you go by a great deal of a runway/taxiway distance with no visible custom lights and signs.  I guess we're just going to stick with the ever heavy trading off game game.

Cheers
CyrQ

virtuali

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Re: KFLL as well as KLAS: What is it? Take a closer look!
« Reply #3 on: July 01, 2009, 11:16:05 am »
Sadly that distance too often reduces itself to zero as you pass right by or you go by a great deal of a runway/taxiway distance with no visible custom lights and signs.  I guess we're just going to stick with the ever heavy trading off game game.

That's not the case! Have you read my explanation ? If you act on the "Anti PopUp" slider of the Addon Manager, you can customize the loading range of all our 3d objects to your liking, up to 10x the default one.

CyrQ

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Re: KFLL as well as KLAS: What is it? Take a closer look!
« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2009, 08:49:44 am »
Hi there Umberto.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.  In fact I actually agreed with you entirely on your clarification in your response.
I was rather infering in my follow up as you rightly said so previously that one's should expect the hit impact on
performance by accelerating the sliders (for most systems to date) or "suffer" some trading off balance
otherwise with FS.
The "Anti Pop-Up" does indeed do the job accordingly so!

Dearly loving these airport sceneries au contraire.  Hey, can't wait to see others such as KDFW. "LOL".
Thank you for the support.

Regards
CyrQ    
« Last Edit: July 02, 2009, 08:56:38 am by CyrQ »