PTaylor's WebLog

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.

New Job, New Blog

I opened the doors on a new blog here so that this blog remains clean and FS focused. The new blog...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 10/15/2008

Heads up, PTaylor leaving the building

Sometimes you run across an opportunity that is so big, so cool, that you just have to take it.Intel...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 09/25/2008

Cool Scenery Index site

which lists available scenery worldwide, at https://walhalla.mine.nu/fsx.php very useful to...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 09/20/2008

KJFK by FSDreamTeam released

Newly released and looking impressive. At https://www.fsdreamteam.com with a few interesting FSX-only...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 09/19/2008

Available North American GA airports

As part of a discussion thread or 2 on AVSim.com and FlightSim.com, I researched smaller GA airport...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 09/17/2008

Another list of great places to visit

To complement my list of high-detail airports and cities here...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 09/08/2008

FSX Gold

showing available from EB Games here ( on 9/30 )...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 09/07/2008

For 2D Panel fans

SIDickDastardly has just posted about an amazing freeeware 2D Panel add-on called PanelMania that...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 09/05/2008

Freeware and affordable modeling tools for FSX

XSI Mod Tool There is a discussion of how to use the XSI mod tool here to create models for FSX. XSI...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 09/03/2008

Another aircraft developer hints at going "FSX only"; once current projects are off the books.

Team Eaglesoft, discussion here. Ron notes the GA roster is already "FSX only", and explains why the...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 09/02/2008

Another developer commits to going "FSX only" in the future

Gary Summons, of UK2000 scenery fame, announces his intent to go "FSX only" in 2009 He discusses it...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 09/02/2008

Available "True FSX" Freeware Aircraft Add-ons and FSX

Lately the chorus of voices complaining about lack of add-ons for FSX has stopped complaining about...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 08/31/2008

Another developer goes "FSX mostly" based on customer demand

Aerosoft, read about it here https://www.forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?showtopic=19472 it makes sense...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 08/28/2008

Excellent scenery library management post

here...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 08/28/2008

Two more Propliners for FSX

Connie DC-7 The FSX add-ons are really starting to roll out. Now if Nehalem delivers the performance...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 08/19/2008

Some really gorgeous sceneries and airports for FSX on the way

From Aerosoft, see TahitiX MadeiraX VFR London Charles de Gaulle These are amazing, congrats to...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 08/18/2008

More positive news for FSX

Carenado, a major add-on aircraft developer, has announced they are going "FSX only" with all future...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 08/10/2008

Rocket Racing League

is at Oshkosh and one of the models flew, how cool is that! a nice writeup on msnbc.com at...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 07/29/2008

Article on how to convert 3DSMax content for use with GMax

I worked with Chuck Jodry and John Walton on an article to showcase how to convert 3DSMax model...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 07/28/2008

Gamefest 2008 and the DirectX 11 announcement

GameFest 2008 slides are available athttps://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/xna/aa937787.aspx GameFest is...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 07/28/2008

Rendering Engine Updates for TS2, or the dirt I can spill after the National Train Show demo ( animated characters )

So, in case you missed it, TS2 was publicly demoed at the National Train Show last week. And the web...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 07/21/2008

What is available at the MSDN ESP Developer Center

Almost 2 months ago I briefly noted there is a new MSDN ESP Dev Center. Available...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 06/26/2008

Confused about FSX-Acceleration? What does it contain, and is it worth it.

I still see a lot of confusion about Acceleration ( aka X-Pack ). X-Pack is an expansion pack for...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 06/24/2008

Intel CPU release cycle update

https://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=557 has what they purport is the Intel CPU release...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 06/24/2008

YAFT

Yet another FSX tweak. Note, it is possible to tweak the shadow quality somewhat. Try adding this to...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 06/23/2008

A couple of sweet airports coming up

St Maarten by FlyTampa! is already released, see https://www.flytampa.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2977...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 06/18/2008

More HW articles

Graphics ATI 4850 accidental viewing, https://www.tomshardware.com/news/Radeon-4850-4870,5667.html...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 06/16/2008

Interesting geo-site, map2explore.com

that provides a great level of geo-location search. in the authors' own words: "Map2Explore.com is a...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 06/13/2008

Beautiful "classsic" airliner coming up

The B-377 Stratocruiser from A2A Simulations, formerly known as Shockwave. Some nice screenies on...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 06/06/2008

Success of FSX and Future of the Franchise

I see questions all the time about how successful is FSX as compared to FS9. I cannot share internal...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 06/05/2008

Really nice screenshots from some amazing add-ons

FSWC https://www.fswaterconfigurator.com/gallery.htm FEX...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 06/05/2008

Nice post measuring relative aircraft performance

and showing the difference an "SP2 native" aircraft makes, here. its nice to see people flying and...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 06/02/2008

Have Acceleration? Like the Missions? How about a free bonus?

see https://www.fsinsider.com/downloads/Pages/BonusAccelerationRacingMissions.aspx

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 05/29/2008

Nice French bird due up for FSX

https://www.pilote-virtuel.com/viewtopic.php?id=2130 some interesting shots in there, including a...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 05/27/2008

Interesting "rumors" about the next-gen ATI and NV parts surfacing

here for ATI and here for NV. the "Related News" links on both pages have more tidbits. it will be...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 05/26/2008

TrainSim2 to make an appearance

as per TSInsider.com at https://www.tsinsider.com/en-US/team/Pages/MeetusattheNationalTrainShow!.aspx...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 05/25/2008

Great FSX video using FTX

Soaring Heroes, by Andreas Paschen. Normal-D on youtube at...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 05/23/2008

Changes to this blog and my posting habits

You will have noticed there are no more comments or email from my blog. No, there is no change...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 05/23/2008

FSX Tip-Flight UI: User cannot interact with panels/views after loading saved flight in fullscreen (Vista, DX10, multi-mon, dual monitor)

When loading a flight (saved in windowed mode with open panels/views) in fullscreen mode, the opened...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 05/22/2008

Holy FPS, Batman!

Toms posted a OC CPU-GPU review on May 15th that included FSX-SP2 and shows a whopping 83.1 FPS at...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 05/21/2008

Vista product page with magic screenies

is finally changed. <sigh of relief> .please see the new images at...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 05/14/2008

FSX Content Taxonomy

Goal: Let’s create some definitions for FSX content, so users and third-party developers (3PDs)...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 05/07/2008

ESP News:Developer Conference later this month and new ESP Dev Center on MSDN

Microsoft ESP Developer Conference - May 22, 2008 - Reston, VA, See...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 05/07/2008

Caveat Emptor:FS9 port-overs may reduce your simming experience, Part II

I want to clarify my previous post on FS9 port-overs. Let me start by saying my blog posts are my...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 05/01/2008

I just have to share

Lamont Clark has posted a way cool tweak to display descriptive labels about 1500 ft above airports...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 04/17/2008

Back of the envelope

Everyone who writes software, and most who use it, should be familiar with "back of the envelope"...

Author: Phil Taylor Date: 04/17/2008

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