Captain Kitten

Some things just work now. Pretty happy about the detour even if it has you guys waiting (we're impatioent too). But the core corrections do definitely show their worth under the current assembly tests.

"I see my last hand and raise myself with these." 1.14t85 Not representative of final product There are some things that we managed to fix in this deep dive that made other things easier to manage. Still some issues and implementations to be done. But on our way. Definitively on our way. Got a question if this is the final "resolution". Resolution wise it's the same. Problem with talking about resolution in noise rendered volumetrics is that it casn mean several things. Step sampling resolution won't change. That was set in the early stages and will demand a huge resource to increase. When it comes to definition and shapes, then that will be an ongoing battle while implementing everything that's going in. One by one we have to adjust for performance. So we'll see. We're not out of the trenches yet.

Still in midst of development sosome severe artifacts present.

I will keep a finger on it. Can't promise that it will, but definitely would be cool, yes. If not - then it will definitely be in after we transitioned to Vulkan.

I had some questioning of our approach lately. And I feel for addressing this. So I'll just post an answer I gave in the discord earlier today: The development has NOTHING to do with "wiggling" between directions. Most people who follow the development closely also read my announcements and understand the steps we take. I post the screenshots for them. No one else. So if you don't like 1.14 progress screenshots or tests of future items posts and so on, ignore them. I'm not apologizing for the time we spend on each update either. Last two updates had us carve deep in to the code to manage the goals we had set for that particular version. (Unfortunate - but part of development life) This time it is performance that has main focus. But the performance paths we have taken also led us down some roads where we had to reimplement the visuals. And I certainly don't mind spending MAYBE a total of three days exploring what we can do with it. (And thus the result gets better). And yes - there is a definite reason why I constantly say "not representative of final". Because we're in midst of development. (Now returning from the setback that had us revisit core code - and hence yet again less "appealing" clouds. But the screenshots tell a story IF you actually care to read what I write along side them. And if you are genuinely interested go to the facebook group or the Threshold forums to find my announcements.(edited) And let me clarify one more thing. We don't get "waived off" or even influenced by critique and comments like WHIPPED CREAM. We appreciate constructive critique, we're not blind. We know that the clouds have lacked detail, been too grainy and had artifacts and so on. What we have delivered so far isn't even close to where we want to end up. We're pilots (some working others hobby) and we add the functions we think are needed the most within the headroom we have to develop a tool that we actively use ourselves for training. We want the visuals. We want the features and everything that has been expressed by others as well. But it's a process to get there.

---> This will not be in 1.14!! <---- This is a test for the night environment build. Probably 1.17 or later. (Hopefully sooner than much later) A taste of one of the many functions that will come with the "night environment pack". In addition to ambient lighting that is featured here, the moon (not yet implemented) and clouds will reflect light and create dynamic night ambience lighting +++. But, again, this is just the adjustment of terrain ambience. More in 1.14 development hopefully this weekend. WIth a more detailed status update. (I just have to stop promising... That seems to always jinx my plans )

Alright - lets update you all on what's happening. My activity both here and on facebook has been pretty low the past weeks. Last week I also promised that I would have an update for you all that weekend - which didn't happen. So I dived under to not promise more before I actually knew that I had something substantial. Now I do. I need to add that several of us in xE dev team have day jobs that are considered critical in the lockdown period we're in and this has slowed us down considerably as well. So... what's happening? We're at 1.14t81 !! Never did I think that this update would take this long. I know I say that a lot. But not only has the "world situation" been weird and hectic, we also found an issue that lead us back to code that was solidified in 1.10. And when we followed that string back through the versions we discovered several issues where we had to dive deep in to the code and correct them. Among others there was a test formula that is attatched to the whole build which stems from 1.10txx - which, when corrected, helped us a lot in finding the others. When that was done, we discovered that an X-Plane bug that had been a glaring issue this whole build, got corrected. I'm not going to elaborate on that bug, but it tied in with distance math being tied to sun position for some very odd reason resulting in several issues with drawing orders. Once that was fixed the road opened up for us again and we got our first visuals of the new and improved code. I am cautiously optimistic now that we're back on track. Some of you who don't understand why we post development photos of the progress: Other people are interested in seeing the progress - and these are for them. To use one persons analogy: The progress screenshots are not "a different car" than the final version... It's a view in to the production line of "the specific car". From design board to ugly wiering and the inner workings all the way up to final polish. The only reason I don't post the "ugly shots" is becasue people definitely don't understand those and use it out of context. So if you're not interested - just stay away and wait or the release. These posts are for the people who are. Still isn't representative of the final build.

I see I will need to tidy up this club a bit... My Updates and announcements drown in comments. Which is a good thing. We want activity here New announcement coming shortly (no, not release or ETA - but an explenation of my absense the past weeks. And development update)

Cockpit shadow bug is not an XEnviro bug. It's an xplane native bug. But we have fixed it anyways. As for general shadows I don't know what you're talking about. Xe doesn't remove scenery shadows.

As some may notice in the images posted here: We had a setback and need to do some steps again to get back to where we were before. We were so close to wrapping up, but the cloud edges plainly did not want to cooperate and got either all grainy or bandy - both ways were ugly up close. So our new approach set us back a couple of weeks =( The fact that "this is the life of a developer" doesn't really help us much - that Andrey managed to whip out some magic after a couple of days in the sauna helps a lot. So, back on track but be aware that the clouds look worse again since several steps have to be remade.. And yeah - of course these images are hand picked and only show what works - we don't show the ugly sides of the development since we haven't taken that approach publically. If this were my primary occupation I could post the process and show the ugly bits too but it demands so much explenation. Would have been fun to do but none of us have the time for it.. Sadly. But one thing is sure: Nothing is altered in the screenshots. Every screenshot and video I have posted from development are X-Plane and xEnviro only. But now at least you know why the screenshots may depict clouds and features that look worse than our final approaches towards beta. (In test versions we go back and forth with modules anyways and testing is often done with very ugly versions) People usually don't read so I'll try to ignore the comments on how the clouds look worse These updates are for the people that do read. And I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you that stick with us and encourage us to push through. We wouldn't have done this without you! Alright folks - take care, happy landings and stay safe!

We will NOT develop 1.14 for Vulkan. I have stressed that point enough times and the reasons behind that decision. No beta chasing will be done until we have finished what we started in 1.14. With that harshness out of the way: We think we're back on track and hope to yet again begin our work towards beta assembly. Some screenshots: (NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF FINAL VERSION)

1.14 has nothing to do with x-plane 11.50. None at all. And it is the main performance update. I do mention this in just about every status update of xEnviro so do have a read in those.. I might have to post them elsewhere in the future. People seem to not read them at all..

This is what many people seem to get wrong: xEnviro isn't benefiting from Vulkan. Your computer is the factor that benefits from Vulkan. So if your system isn't benefiting from Vulkan, then you won't be able to enjoy xE any more than you do in OpenGL. But most people do see a gain, and that way we can take that in to account and push xEnviro further than we can do in OpenGL. How much we can expect? That is down to the further development of Vulkan up until its release and we don't speculate what that will be. We can see the tendency now with the beta. Definitely. But we won't know before we start working with a stable version of Vulkan. Preferrably a released one. So this is why it is senseless (for us) to chase the beta and rather to finish the performance paths we have taken. It will benefit everyone - not only the ones that get the gains from Vulkan but also those who don't. We can then concentrate on features like multi screens, VR, Thunderstorms and so on (that list is long). We're at a 5-10 fps performance gain from 1.13 and moving forward with finalizing the visuals. Nürburgring analogy: Racing past the DevilsDiner towards the last shicanes and towards the final beta lap. Which we hope will be a very fast one.

Addons are not used in test versions for a reason

Too bad that the detail won't be staying at this level. The grain is what gives the clouds the great contrast in this screenshot and it will be toned back when we deal with the grain. Just sometimes I would love to have the headroom to double the resolution. Too bad that it would cut the fps in half...

Step by step and along the way we iron out what we find. Not in beta yet. But we hope that the steps we take now will make the beta a smooth ride

Atmosphere work: Visibility 1000m (picture above) 2000m (picture above) 3000m (picture above) 5km (picture above) 10km (picture above) 20km (picture above) 30km (picture above) 50km (picture above)

I have huge trouble with the OpenGL version of 11.50. Do NOT opt in to the beta if you want to use xEnviro. Not yet. DO NOT OPT IN TO THE 11.50 BETA IF YOU WANT A STABLE SIMULATOR!!! We do NOT support trouble you get in to on beta versions of x-plane! Beta WILL break your X-Plane install. If it doesn't - you've been lucky. Just because others report stable sims that does not mean that yours is! Beta comes with risk! No developer with a level of sanity develops and releases beta compatible versions of their products. They prepare for the stable release. With the 11.50 BETA(!) update and xEnviro and any addon you are afraid of losing: Keep in mind that OpenGL will be available throughout XP11 lifeline. If you MUST use the beta - you will have to leave the toggle swithc of OpenGL and Vulkan on Open GL for xEnviro to work! We will be updating for Vulkan soon. If it's 1.15 or 1.16 we're not sure yet. A lot to consider before we take that step. https://www.x-plane.com/kb/x-plane-11-50-release-notes/

Same place, same time. Different conditions. Atmosphere work has begun. Ticking off the last boxes before beta one by one.

T47

Still in test versions - while we have extremely busy days the test team is working on assignements. (Upper atmosphere and final stages still lacking - So not representative of final 1.14). These are test team screenshots