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Flight Sim discussions; mostly on the core platform ( graphics and terrain, platform team, sim engine, geo tools and geo data, international, internal tools, technical art ) plus news on releases and updates, and the occasional tweaks and tips.
FSX-SP2 Beta posted

To the beta tester group.

Size is approximately 166M.

This is an important milestone in the drive to deliver SP2 before "end of the fall".

Posted: Friday, November 16, 2007 5:17 PM by Phil Taylor

Comments

jerm138 said:

SP2 Beta tests?

I thought that the version of SP2 that came with Acceleration was the final and complete version of SP2.

# November 16, 2007 10:27 PM

Phil Taylor said:

Jerm:

Its a separate product.

That means we need to validate that the same set of fixes that are in Acceleration are in SP2.

And it has a separate setup. That needs to be validated as well.

It as never quite as simple as it seems.

# November 16, 2007 11:23 PM

philby said:

Hi Phil, will the SP2 fix this issue.

With Direct X 10 preview turned on, using a system with a Nvidia Ge Force 8800 GTX card drivers 163.15 ( latest ones not beta)

Taxi way yellow lines and progressive taxi keep flickering on and off.

Now this is either FSX Direct X 10 doing this or video card drivers. Do you know which?

Thanks

Phil M

# November 18, 2007 12:16 AM

Jorgensen said:

Sorry - I don't get it. Will the SP2, wich will be released in dec (?), support full DX10 or is it still a 'preview' ?

# November 18, 2007 11:04 AM

Phil Taylor said:

All:

The SP2 released as a separate web download has the same SP2 content that is in Acceleration.

No more, no less.

So it has the DX10 preview, no more. And no additional bug fixes.

# November 18, 2007 1:20 PM

marcbosch said:

Hi guys,

end of autumn - which hemisphere? :-) *joke*

In the southern one autumn goes till June 21st, right?

I hope you mean X-Mas 2007

Regards,

Marc

# November 19, 2007 4:09 AM

Ian McPhail said:

Phil:  but surely you would fix some of the more obvious bugs such as the vc lighting issue.  There would be no point putting something out that contains bugs that Aces has acknowledged.

This could then mean that we Acceleration users could get these known problems fully resolved by reinstalling the modified SP2.

# November 19, 2007 9:33 PM

Jay_W said:

Phil,

Thank you for everything that you do for Flight Simulator.  I read some of the posts in various forums and simply shake my head at the attitude and nature of some people.

The support that you give to FSX is second-to-none and this is evidenced through your attention to the forums and the various SPs such as SP1 and SP2.

As a real-world instrument-rated pilot, the product that you designed is so close to real-life.  There is no other product available in the world where I can replicate the navigation aids, IFR procedures, etc. on top of the great visuals.  Many people also think that they need 50+ fps in order to enjoy the product.  I'm quite happy with my fps locked at 20 because that is what it is like in real-life.

I really just wanted to get my comments to you because I wanted you to know how much I appreciate your efforts.  Don't let the handful of negative people discourage you because there are millions out there like me who absolutely appreciate what you have done and what you are doing to further this technology for our learning and enjoyment.

Jay

# November 19, 2007 10:39 PM

yamane said:

McPhail,

SP2 is SP2, so is impossible launch a SP2 different from SP2 available in FSXacceleration.

So, in current release politic, FSXa Users need wait SP3.

I don't agree with current releases politic, because FSX still don't is "frozen". In every Service Pack, FSX is changed and Add-ons Developers need make a pacth.

E.g. Scenery "X" is developed to FSX, but don't work with FSX-SP1. Developer make a patch to this scenary work again... After sometime, Scenary "X.01" work with FSX-SP1. But... FSX-SP2 is released and scenary developer need other patch.

In my humble opinion, correct is:

- Release FSX and frozen it!

- Do a SP1 to fix higher severity bugs.

- Do a SP2 to fix intermediate severity bugs.

- Do a SP3 to fix low severity bugs.

In current release politic, we have:

- Release FSX

- Do a SP1 to fix some bugs.

- Do a SP2 to fix FSX bugs, FSX-SP1 bugs, and implement more features.

- Do a SP3 to fix older bugs on FSX, others FSX-SP1 bugs, others FSX-SP2 bugs, and is necessary fix bugs about "new feature" implemented in FSX-SP2 too.

So... Bugs never is finished! Because FSX is still in "development mode"

Regards,

Renato

# November 21, 2007 12:54 PM

Phil Taylor said:

Yamane:

content authored with the FSX SDK is fine, it is content authored with techniques outside the SDK that causes issues. developers step outside the SDK at their own risk.

there are no plans for further releases.

# November 21, 2007 1:06 PM

yamane said:

Hi Phil,

I see a lot of Scenary Developers with problems with trees using "rotate to user" (SDK for FSX) after SP2 is released.

So, how I say in my last message, FSX is still in "Development Mode".

FSX-SP2 have more features (as Dx10) and I think that "New Features" result in "More bugs". So, is necessary FROZEN FSX to fix bugs, and NOT implement more bugs.

Regards,

Renato

# November 21, 2007 1:31 PM

Phil Taylor said:

Yamane:

the FSX SDK is what it is. developers have to live within the rules or create problems for themselves, their choice.

the dev team has stated we are done with FSX releases. any one else's statements to any different effect are not factual.

# November 21, 2007 2:05 PM

yamane said:

Hi Phil,

This is a question of Scenary Developers:

Can you inform us why Trees with "transparent textures" don't work in SP2, and work fine in FSX-RTM and FSX-SP1?

If Microsoft don't release a SDK exclusive to FSXaccel, I think that current SDK-FSX-SP1 need work fine, but is not true!

Why this?

Regards,

Renato

# November 22, 2007 7:27 AM

Phil Taylor said:

Yamane:

You are referring to old scenery, not scenery exported with the FSX SDK. As I have already posted, there is an issue with back-compat there. All the developer has to do is to use the FSX SDK, re-export, and re-release.

And, as I have already posted, we are seriously considering changing the back-compat story in the future, one possibility is that all add-ons will be required to use the current SDK in the future.

# November 22, 2007 11:42 AM

yamane said:

Yes, I'm talking about scenery exported with FSX SDK.

This same trees (with transparent layer) work fine in FSX and FSX-SP1, but not in FSX-Acelleration.

In both case, this trees is exported with FSX SDK.

Regards,

Renato

# November 23, 2007 9:53 AM

Phil Taylor said:

What we found was FS9 style trees have this issue and not FSX SDK scenery. Send a repro case to tell_fs@microsoft.com.

# November 23, 2007 11:26 AM

maxam66 said:

Hi Phil,

I took the time to post a reply to your comments early this morning to the delay to SP2 where I asked what I thought was an important question regarding how FSX now freezes after having installed Acceleration .  I posted in the other blog which may not have been the right place, because I was not asking specifically about DX10 but rather I was concerned about what has happened with the sim and how it will be remedied.  Maybe it has not reached the blog yet but I noticed other comments that were posted well after my own are now in the blog and I am wondering if my comments were deleted.

Can you offer any comments as to what has happened with FSX\Acceleration.  Many posters over at AVSIM are concerned as well

Thanks,

Robert

# November 26, 2007 8:22 PM
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