New beta release just out, and one circuit in the newly revised Catalina around Munda completed. Read below from posts concerning the revisions to views, but they’re significant, and feels very different. The weather dialogue seems a bit simplified, very “beta” in this release:
Cloudscapes still very lackluster.
Here’re the release notes from Laminar:
X-Plane 10.10 Beta 5
- We now support devices with an insane number of buttons and axis like the Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog (That thing is an insane beast).
- Improved consistency in views. Right click and scroll are now used everywhere for camera movement and zoom respectively.
- Implemented Quick-Look view commands to allow users to save predefined views on a per-aircraft basis. (see below)
- OBJ File Format Extensions – docs coming soon!
- ATTR_no_shadow disables shadows for just one part of an OBJ; polygon-offset (ATTR_poly_os) geometry now works this way too.
- A new pixel-based manipulator lets you define drags that work horizontally or vertically, with scaling. This manipulator is intended to make draggable knobs.
- GLOBAL_cockpit_lit object attribute declares that ATTR_cockpit will use real 3-d lighting. This provides a better migration path for old airplanes that depend on translucency.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed broken hot-spots on Altimeters
- Fixed broken adjustment on attitude indicator
- Fixed 3/4 deflection on Joystick Axis page on some devices (Saitek Flight Stick, Epic USB, etc.)
- Fixed “sticking” hat-switches that would sometimes not turn off once pressed.
- Fixed Joysticks with missing buttons/axis on Windows such as the Logitech G940 or G25
- Bump maps now work in .ter files again.
- The HDR pipeline has been severely thrashed in an attempt to improve the look of translucent scenery. While there are still translucency artifacts in HDR mode (and all airplanes should use the “glass” option in plane-Maker for windshields and canopies) translucency should be better than it was before.
- Fixed ugly blue glowing water at night.
- Added back 3-d cockpit toggle command to match v9.
- Airplane is converted to metric before plugins are run.
The Views – Updates to a very important system
Once Ben is done fighting his war on HDR arthropods, Beta 5 will make its way out to the masses. In it, you’ll find some very cool updates to the view system that we think will make sim-life much easier, more intuitive and more useful.
The first change is the removal of the “mouse look” in 3D mode. This was the mode where the mouse controlled your camera orientation just by moving the cursor aroundwithout clicking. We had some feedback on the feature and agreed that it’s really not a very useful mode. The mouse is needed to click on various things in the 3D cockpit and to have your head bobbing around while you’re trying to do that was just annoying.
To look around in 3D mode, you can still of course right click and then move the mouse to adjust the camera angle. You can also use your scroll wheel to zoom in and out of things. This has been in the sim throughout the 10.x run and will remain the primary means of controlling head movement (unless you use your keyboard or Track IR of course). Since many people find the right-click/scroll gestures to be intuitive and useful, I’ve gone in and made things more consistent. Now, no matter what view you’re in, if head movement or zoom is possible, it’s done with right click and scroll. It used to require a LEFT click and scrolling was not an option. This should immediately help people who had trouble with the left clicks activating their mouse-flying box.
The final change is a pretty important one. We’ve added a system called “Quick-Look” (QL from this point on). Technically, you already have QL but I didn’t want to point it out to everyone until I had time to make some improvements to the system which I’ve done for Beta 5. QL allows you to get a view just the way you love it…and then save it to a hot key/cmnd that you can recall at any time later to go right back to the same spot.
For example, suppose you’re flying the default King Air and you find yourself frequently positioning your head, tilting down and zooming in on the throttle quadrant to see how you have the aircraft configured. This can take some time to setup and if you do it often, it can really get tedious. Let’s assign it to a QL then! Get the view the way you like it, and assign it to QL1. Now, no matter what you do to your views, when you press QL1, your head position, orientation and zoom goes right back to your memorized view of the throttle quadrant. It’s not just for 3D cockpit mode either. It works in all aircraft-relative views so 3D Cockpit, Ridealong, Chase, Circle, Forward with Hud etc. The reason for that limitation, is that these views are saved a little differently than other things in the sim. These are aircraft specific preferences. This is necessary so that your views for the Cessna 172 stay with the aircraft and don’t interfere with views for the King Air etc.
Currently, you get 10 QL views per aircraft and they’re saved/recalled anytime you switch aircraft. The QL keys are number-pad 0-9 by default. So for example, to recall QL3, just press the 3 on your number pad. To save a view to QL3, just get the view the way you like it, then press CONTROL + Num-pad 3. CONTROL is the default modifier key to do memorization. Like most of the commands in X-Plane, these are customizable so you can wire them up to any button combinations that you want. Also, you can use your joystick buttons as well to recall saved views.
A word of caution…some of you may have already discovered the QL system in earlier betas. That version is a fairly limited prototype (it only works in cockpit mode) so please do not report any view bugs prior to testing Beta 5. Lastly, your aircraft QL view preferences are going to get trashed with Beta 5 so please don’t spend hours tirelessly getting your views perfect for dozens of aircraft.
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So, we’ll be working through the list and seeing how this one goes, but initial impressions are this one appears stable so far and is a major update.
Hasta later – C
performance (and shadows) worse than beta4. Will skip this one.
(I really loose track of what they think and do. sorry to say so. they shoudl have focussed on 64-bit after the big bugs were ironed out and should have gone from there. all that HDR fixing and worsening and re-doing of the rendering engine, I fear will have to be gone through once again for 64-bit. I’m sooo tired of that sim, even AeroflyFS is more enjoyable).
I really like AeroFly FS as well. Simple relaxation, great scenery. I’d have preferred more attention paid to things like navigation and a variety of weather and times of day, but it’s understandable given their intent.
Beta 5? I’ll check out the shadowing. Performance seemed about the same to me.
I have newly introduced strange shadows on the ground looking forward from inside. (about the same in the cockpit itself as before. But why can’t this be fixed? AeroflyFS has beautfil shadows, maxed out, perfoming well. I admit it of course has all the limitation you named and more. But fun factor is higher …at the moment).
someone posted a screenie: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?showtopic=60684&#entry665969
Hey Chip/Simon/FT…
Any chance the sorting order for comments can be reverted to the old site’s “oldest at the top”? It’s kinda counterintuitive to finish reading an article from top to bottom, just to have to go then to the end of the page and then read the comments from bottom to top…
Other than the shadow bug (which happens when clouds+HDR is enabled) the performance seems to be fine in 10.10b5.
Agree, performance is good, HDR porked, hard to say if HDR is still “glimmering” with shadow bug.
wish i didnt update to beta 5, demo seemed alright but then did full update and the fps are lower than 10.04 , the sun light transparency on the horizon still is not fixed, acf scrolling in the quick flight/ acf selection menu still non existent, which makes it a pain to manually click unclick each folder and scroll the scroll bar with mouse cursor on it. beta 5 is not too good, seems 1 step forward 2 back each time vs just building upon and making each newer beta better so we can move on.
this new view system blows, no more option for toggle 3d cockpit look and 3d cockpit hold. how are you suppost to freely look around the cockpit. i dont wanna assign hotkey buttons 5times only to have to remember the new key. if you wanted a stable camera in 3d, then assign 3d hold view or whatever it was. beta 5 is a pain in the ass performance wise and function. screw this
Just click and hold the right mouse button (in 3D cockpit look) and the camera will work freely with mouse movements.
Well beta 5 works very well for me. No noticable difference in frames that others have mentioned as far as I can tell (without testing properly). The new QL functions are excellent and I can’t understand why so many people are whining. If you don’t want to test a BETA version then don’t tick the BETA box for god sake!
Why not? as long as it is test on a demo install or a second install? Why not test it? There is no reason to update ones main install, though.
I was paying attention to the beta releases but now instead, I am building my machine to run FSX until I see a somewhat, finished piece of software and then I may switch over from there.
Rob
I just don’t recall my X plane 10 saying “BETA” anywhere on the package, even in web advertisements.
Being a windows man myself, I sense your frustration. But anyone who knows xplane reasonably, knows the beta run will go for years! It’s part o the fun they tell us!
So, tell us, what machine are u building? Will it be as good as the beast Im ORDERING IN 2 DAYS TIME!!?? Woohoo