Switzerland DLC for AeroflyFS1 owners

  • Hello Ipacs,

    Nice to see you released the excellent Switzerland DLC for FS2!

    I must admit that I was a bit disappointed to see that owners of FS1, although being early supporters of your platform, also have to repay for this scenery that is almost identical to the original release?

    Or is there something I'm missing/overseeing??

    Thanks,
    Sylvain

    Corsair 600T - Intel i7 2600k - Asus Geforce GTX 1660 Super - 4 x 4Gb Corsair DDR3 Ram - Asus P8P67 revB3 - Windows 7 SP1

    2019 Acer Predator Helios 300

    aerofly FS, aerofly FS 2 & aerofly RC7 Professional

  • It is only GBP 7 (who knows what that is worth nowadays!) and the Corsair, Aermacchi etc are not extra so it is pretty reasonable. The scenery is early release and some details are not yet ready, there is no ILS at Sion or Lugano (IGS) and the water textures are flat as in all FS 2 sceneries. It does get dark though!

  • agree,
    the product pricing has been somehow fair.

    i had fs1 too, just like you, and i purchased 2 add-on aircraft which are now inluded in fs2.
    and i re-pay for the swiss scenery in Fs2.

    do i feel dumped?
    sort of.
    just like you.

    Give them a chance to learn.
    And let's pay for it. (lol )

  • We had a long debate internally regarding the Switzerland DLC.

    Sometimes people just don't see the amount of work required to get a product finished.

    For Switzerland, it was not just reusing the existing Aerofly FS 1 material. We reworked every airport and added the new runway texturing, we changed every building to have night lights and we tweaked other stuff to make it look better. Besides that, we have licensing costs that we need to take into consideration. I know for Aerofly FS 1 users, it might look strange, but please understand us, the amount of work we put into our product has to somehow pay off.

    I know we should not make this comparision, but a single airport for FSX usually costs >= 10 Euro or USD, so our price for over 20 airports is somehow a bargain compared to this.

    Consider your payment for the Switzerland DLC like an investment into the future of Aerofly FS 2 :)

  • Fair enough!

    Thanks for the detailed explanation :)
    If I were you I would consider mentioning some of these details on the Steam store page as like you said - we don't necessarily see the amount of work that goes into such a conversion.

    By the way- Can we hope to see the Discus and the Robin carried over to FS2 in the future??
    The Robin was my favourite touring aircraft in FS1!

    Cheers,
    Sylvain

    Corsair 600T - Intel i7 2600k - Asus Geforce GTX 1660 Super - 4 x 4Gb Corsair DDR3 Ram - Asus P8P67 revB3 - Windows 7 SP1

    2019 Acer Predator Helios 300

    aerofly FS, aerofly FS 2 & aerofly RC7 Professional

  • Dear IPACS Team,

    Thank your so much for the explanation, perfectly clear.

    Among so many great feature in AeroflyFS (actually both versions), 1 feature makes it different from most sims : runways don't need to be flat !
    It makes starting from places like LSGC Les Eplatures (in the Jura range) feel very realistic.

    Unfortunately, Lausanne LSGL was applied a flatten, while the actual runway features a non-constant downhill slope up to 2.5%, making the landing on R18 slightly touchy, especially when approaching with some extra speed in low wing aircraft like the Robin.
    This flatten was already there in AFS1 and I secretly hoped it would be removed in AFS2, but it's not the case.

    Is there a chance this flatten could be removed and the real slope of LSGL Lausanne be rendered in a patch ? Or is this flatten compulsory due to technical limitations only allowing slightly non-flat rendering?

    Same question as above regarding AFS1 Robin, I would love flying it in AFS2 too.

    Thanks a lot for that great and promising sim, looking forward to seeing what the SDk will allow third party editors to develop and how AFS2 will cope with add-ons, but the first shot is extremely promising. Keep up the good work and best luck to AFS2!

    Warm regards
    Antoine

    Config : i7 6900K - 20MB currently set at 3.20GHz, Cooling Noctua NH-U14S, Motherboard ASUS Rampage V Extreme U3.1, RAM HyperX Savage Black Edition 16GB DDR4 3000 MHz, Graphic Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB, Power supply Corsair RM Series 850W, Windows 10 64 bit.

  • runways don't need to be flat !

    very good point Antoine.

    Besides the inclination of many runways, most have depressed slopes, they go down and then up along their lenth.

    i support the idea of modelling runways in more detailed vortex/mesh.


    And: what about smaller airfields with grass runways? will they be offered in future releases? example: speck-fehraltdorf

  • Aerofly FS 1 and Aerofly FS 2 are two seperate programs. The old swiss cenery from Aerofly FS 1 isn't compatible with the newer engine of the Aerofly FS 2 as far as I know. Therfore you can uninstall Aerofly FS 1 if you don't want to fly the Discus bM or DR400 anymore... there hasn't been any information about weather these planes will come back to Aerofly FS 2.

    Regards,
    Jan

  • thanks. will uninstall then, hoping the Robin will be re-released one day, due its wide presence in swiss aviation schools.
    I will also miss the many VFR-objects which were provided by you and Krystof for aerofly1 as a download.
    Without these VFR-objects, things are not the same. Switzerland is a typical VFR-Product, it would help to push low flight objects for a better enjoyment or a Swiss-Plus-version for extreme realism. One day we will hopefully receive Helicopters for afs2, we somehow need to become ready for that step and think of closer objects.
    what happened to krystof, is he still alive?

  • I haven't heard anything from Krzysztof in quite some time, I don't know if he lost interest or just went silent.
    And yes, I know that the VFR objects are highly requested for the Aerofly FS 2. But since the scenery development has changed I haven't had the time to update the VFR objects yet or any of the aircraft from the Aerofly FS 1 that are available on my website...
    Helicopters would be awesome, agreed :D

  • hopefully those object packages were done in universal 3ds format, that would make it an easy transformation i assume.
    Can't provide help since object placements can't be done without access to the core program (SDK).
    Take your time Jan, once you are ready, let me know please. many thanks in advance.

  • Last year at the end of summer, I was longing for clear skies and beautiful cumuli with a range of gliders to fly without having to worry about TMA's and CTR's which in real life limit glider pilots as to where they may and may not fly.

    For those who are not familiar with the lingo here is a short description:

    http://www.pprune.org/atc-issues/208…tr-cta-tma.html

    Instead of having to drive 30 miles, waiting for my turn to fly for a couple of hours before finally taking the bird up for an hour and a half max, dodging the Brussels' TMA and then driving back another 30 miles home (with or without traffic jams), Aerofly FS 1 accomplishes this brilliantly and gives me the relaxing fix I sometimes need from the comfort of my home for a one time fee.

    The IPACS devs don't give me the impression that I am re-buying something that I have paid for already.On the contrary, I am glad that they have reworked the Swiss Alps in their new product. They don't strike me as liars neither since their replies are always elaborate and to the point as to what work was done on an existing product like the Swiss Alps addon in this case. On top of that, the support you get when asking questions on their forums whether it is for a mod you're developing, or a question you might have is swiftly met with a helpful response that leaves a lot of other game devs bite the dust.

    Now, to make a price comparison clear:

    10 Euros = 400 (old) Belgian Francs
    When I used to fly gliders (yes it's been a while), an air-tow costed about a Frank per meter. Thus to be towed to 400 meters AGL (which in a glider is not a comfortable altitude to start looking for thermals on a bad day) you would pay 10 Euros... every single tow !
    If you did not find any thermals, you would be back on the grass about a quarter of an hour later since you needed to start the downwind leg at about 350 meters AGL for a safe landing.

    Do I need to say more ?


    On another note, I fail to understand why aircraft who were modeled in house before (like the Discus and the DR400) were not included in the new product, especially the Discus since the avionics are very basic indeed, and the flight model should be replicated quite easily. However I am pretty sure that Jet-Pack at some point will have the relevant planes on his website for download.