Posts by Oldar

Just a reminder to us all as we point out issues with various systems that the Q400 is still wonderful! I have spent many happy hours just looking for real-life routes to fly with it, then recreating them. A nice function of the plane is that since it flies at lower altitudes, the cloud system isn't nearly as annoying. Set cumulus clouds to their highest altitude setting, then cruise along at 22,000 feet and the clouds almost appear to reach to the horizon! They still swivel, but you can't have everything. (Where would you put it?)

Bill

For flyover areas I download on level 3, and set levels 9, 11 and 12 in the Helper for Geoconverter.

Well, we have an autopilot that is good for folks who have A320 certificates in real life, but maybe not ideal for the rest of us! (Sorry, I couldn't resist)

I would be delighted if you could just roll back the autopilot to where it was when it was released along with the Q400. It was much more dependable and comprehensible to me then.

Just to add my experiences, often the black areas that I get are not so uniform, but look more "serrated", indicating that there are smaller scenery blocks being effected.

Just to duck back into the conversation, let me be as clear as possible about what happens to me. The black areas appear around the edges of my created scenery where it is overlaying areas of default scenery. It is NOT inside the center of the new areas which also, of course, is overlaying default scenery, but only on the edges where the new scenery is overlaying default scenery. It doesn't do this everywhere that the edge of the new created scenery is found, only in select areas. It is NOT present where new scenery butts against or covers other newly created scenery. That is where I get a strip of very low resolution scenery, and I can live with that.

The problem seems to me to be a conflict between the new scenery's edges and the existing default scenery. So, if you created a huge scenery area and only flew near the center, you would likely never notice it. As an example, I created an area that spans from just west of Pittsburg to the edge of the decent default scenery east of Chicago, stretching about two degrees in latitude. The black areas occur over the great lakes, and interestingly show up as white when they are over water.

I also created a single scenery from east of Innsbruck to Vienna. This time the black area shows up where the scenery ends just east of Vienna.

Now, just to confuse things, I created an area from Boston to where the NEUSA DLC stops providing crisp ground scenery, just east of Hartford. That area produced no black areas that I have found.

So it's clear as mud! I have no idea why some areas do this and others don't, but this is as detailed a description as I can give you of what is happening.

The next time that it happens I will try to remember to write down what you ask.

Then you have eliminated that factor.

See, I asked a brilliant question!

Or perhaps we can just ask who is using the Helper and see if it is only us that are using it who are having the problem?

Thanks for all the answers.

The only issue with the TOD point is that it often wants me to start descending at 260 or more nautical miles from the target, and then if I let it the autopilot will drop me down to 2000 agl 140 miles out! So as PIC I disregard that and usually start my descent between 120 and 140 miles out depending on my cruise altitude.

Ok, got it.

But If I am too high/too fast it is because the autopilot hasn't set the descent rate/autothrottle combination correctly. All I have done is select the proper final approach altitude and pressed the altitude button. The autopilot then decides what my descent rate and throttle setting should be, correct? I haven't made any other inputs.

Now that we have brought the issue back into view I'm sure they will address it!

There doesn't seem to be any question that it wants me to slow down when I get the "increase drag" message because I am in fact over the desired speed set by the autopilot. This is usually because the descent mode has placed me in a very high rate of descent. I deploy some spoiler because the engines are already in idle.

I look forward to the next update. Thanks for all the hard work!

Now upon landing when I engage reverse thrust it stops the A320 in about five seconds. Anyone else seeing that?

Also, the autopilot doesn't want to engage until about 30 seconds to a minute after takeoff instead of the few seconds after takeoff that it used to be able to engage.

And the autothrottle on approach and landing seems screwy. The display will tell me to apply drag, and when I do and the speed comes down the engines rev up and increase the speed again.

This is addition to the sudden banking that occurs when the autopilot is disengaged, which I know has been reported.

Recently I have been flying the Q400 for the most part, so if these are all known problems with the A320 I apologize.

Thank you for confirming that it is not only me!

It's not the blurred border, it's the black areas around parts of the new scenery that sometimes occur.

In any case you answered my question. There is no status to report because you can't reproduce the problem! Fair enough.

One more request. It would be ideal if the Geoconvert Tool was able to handle various levels of detail automatically. Thus you could use relatively low res (say level 3 in FSEarthTiles) for "flyover" areas, but imbed higher resolution areas around airports within those areas from which one might want to take off (level one or zero). Currently this seems to always lead to large areas of very low res scenery adjacent to the hi res areas. That is the sort of problem the program out to be able to solve without having to edit anything manually.

Thanks.

I do indeed make one large scenery, but then I get the black areas around some of the edges of that large scenery. In fact the larger the area that I make, the more likely I am to get the black polygonal areas. Typically I make the large sceneries in level three of the FSEarthTiles tool, then use the Geoconvert helper tool using 9, 11, and 12 but not 13 or 14 because it is "flyover" scenery.

Also, I am not especially stupid. I can be taught. It feels a little bit like you think it must be the user's fault. If it is, then you need to make the process easier to understand. If the fault is in the helper tool, please say so. I know it isn't your product, but many of us are using it.

Annnnd, you still didn't mention the status of the airport creation tool.

I'm referring to the large areas of black terrain that can exist when tiles overlap. They happen over land areas and have been discussed here many times before. You shared a solution once before, but it looked tedious and anything but automatic.

And what about the airport creation app? How is that coming along?

Just a few questions about the status of a few things.

Are you working on a version of Geoconvert that automatically eliminates the creation of black areas.? I think that you are, but it has been a while since I have seen it mentioned. I don't really mind the small strips of low res scenery that we get, but the areas of black scenery are a scene ruiner for me.

And how is that new airport creation tool coming along? The one that will make it easy to create smooth runways and import existing FS 2 buildings using a relatively inexpensive graphics program? I am very eager to get my hands on that!

Keep up the good work,

Bill

Quote from Jet-Pack

This is a feature (what is it doing now???)

Just kidding, I think that is an internal trim run away, I'll fix it. I tested the autopilot but it might be more prominent the longer you fly and the more turns you fly to one side.

Sorry, I'll get to it as soon as possible. Use the autoland for now

Thanks. I always assume I am at fault. I have been married 32 years so it is easier that way.