Weather really not so flash today, but nonetheless I have a charter from home base to Napier.

Outside the terminal at Hamilton and today it is raining with an almost 17 kt crossind on rwy 36.

Hamilton ATIS Oscar advises wind 280/17, good vis under the cloud, t/d of 11/7 and QNH 989.
That'll be the pressure drop ahead of the winter storm that's heading our way then

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...and we're gone from 36 starting our turn out to the South...

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Glad to be clmbing away from and above the nasty stuff behind

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First turning point is over Turangi on the southern edge of Lake Taupo, not that you can see much from our cruising altitude of 13,000ft.

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We catch a glimpse of the lake out the port side

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There are mountains around here, but we can't see them until we catch a glimpse as we start a long descent towards Napier

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Ahead is the Whirinaki Point lighthouse and the Napier Gas Plant, our turning point for starting our run into the airport

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Out of the starboard side we can see Napier airport. Today we'll be coming in from the other side onto rwy 34.
Napier ATIS Whiskey advises wind 290/16, good vis under an 1800ft cloud base, t/d of 10/5 and QNH 988.

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Right downwind past the active 34

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To be frank, it was a hairy landing and I didn't get time to work in a shot, but we made it down and the passengers weren't too scared! Absolutely persisting down here though...

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Parked up at Gate 5 (I think it was). Passengers have disembarked and I"m just making sure everything is squared away. I'll be hanging around the airport for a few hours before heading back to base.

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Thanks for looking...

An interesting scenic flight in this old AN-2.
 

Keep up the great work and am waiting in great anticipation for the FTX Global product.

Regards

jja 

This DX10 guide is specifically for users of ATI/AMD cards wanting to use DX10 Preview Mode in FSX. It covers Super Sample AA in DX10 (Very sharp), some required DX10 related FSX Graphical settings, the RadeonPro tool (like NVidia Inspector for ATI) and the setup of FSX.CFG. Settings were tested on the current ATI HD 7000 series video cards. Results may vary for older video cards like the 5870. However, so far as FSX DX10 is concerned, I believe they cannot do SSAA in FSX under DX10. However for these older cards, I recommend "DX9 mode" with the amazing Bojote’s SM 3.0 patch for DX9 since you can enable SSAA in DX9 on these older cards (Google Bojote's Shader Model 3.0). The ultimate benefit is changes the cloud rendering to Shader Model 3.0 instead of the LEGACY DX9 Shader Model 2.0 that lost popularity soon after the release of FSX. With Shader Model 3.0, even deep thick layers of clouds seem to have very little impact on frame rate on ATI hardware in DX9 mode. For DX9ers with ATI hardware, it is an ultimate boon! Now back to DX10 if you have a newer 7000 series based ATI card.

Testing Scenario. Results confirmed on single screen based setup while in Full Screen mode. Flying was performed from VC view with no undocked windows. RadeonPro tool required for forcing vsync. It seems you need to auto hide the taskbar for vsync to work in Windowed mode. Be warned that although Windowed mode FSX performance is not bad, you lose approximately 15% performance running in windowed mode compared to full screen.

Specific Hardware tested – 7950/7970. Regarding AMD’s support for AA in FSX using DX10… It seems only recently (Last few years) released hardware can implement AA in FSX under DX10. This is a link describing DX10 SSAA support added by AMD to the 7000 series. http://www.anandtech.com/show/5625/amd-radeon-hd-7870-ghz-edition-radeon-hd-7850-review-rounding-out-southern-islands/3

Driver used – Catalyst 13.4

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

RadeonPro Tool ver 1.1.1.0

http://www.radeonpro.info/

A word on RadeonPro:

RadeonPro is a tool much like NVidia Inspector that is currently in development and free for ATI users. Like ATI’s own CCC, it can set various IQ (Image Quality) settings per game based on user made profiles. Things like MSAA, SSAA and AF. While you can already do most of that with CCC, there are some additional features and benefits from using RadeonPro.

What RadeonPro adds beyond just CCC:

• Multiple types of Vsync and specifically the DFC feature or “Dynamic Framerate Control”. For me, flying with “locked at 30” within FSX + vsync forced and no DFC versus using unlimited in FSX while setting DFC to 30, I see an average +5 to 10 fps buzzing around CYVR in the C337 with some decent cloud coverage above using DFC (externally limiting fps). Not sure what DFC does to make that happen but there it is. Since I will NEVER fly without vsync, it’s my personal preference in FSX with this tool.
• The ability to enable Direct X Triple Buffer in DX10 (not sure what that helps personally). Won't work in DX9 FSX though as it causes you to black screen. Some believe Direct X Triple Buffer helps in Windowed mode. I have not extensively tested it. Just remember to turn it off before flying switching back to DX9.
• The ability to combine FXAA Antialiasing injection with standard MSAA or SSAA. I'm still experimenting as it does change the look of the whole scene. An almost softening effect.
• An onscreen display you can turn on or off showing GPU temperature, % of GPU Utilization, current VRAM in use, fps, milliseconds between frames and so on. Great for testing.

The setup

DX10 patch and initialization:

1. Run the latest DX10 Shader Fix from Steve Parson (available on AVSIM linked from his Blog) if you have not already. And do exactly as it says in the included Readme file. Run the setup and follow the prompts. http://stevesfsxanalysis.wordpress.com/
2. Start FSX and switch to DX10 Preview Mode and then restart FSX.

Configure FSX settings:

1. Enable AA and set filtering to Anisotropic in the FSX Graphics Tab. (required for AA to work in DX10).
2. Confirm you have the correct resolution set for your screen.
3. Set Target frame rate to Unlimited. (You will be controlling FPS externally via RadeonPro)
4. Set the rest of the FSX settings like Scenery and Weather to your personal taste and your hardware's ability.
5. Exit FSX for now.

Prepare the FSX.CFG file:

In my experience with ATI, less is more when it comes to the FSX.CFG tweaks. For those that have lots of other tweaks, I suggest deleting or at least, commenting out, any big tweaks for now. Tweaks like [Bufferpools], Poolsize, RejectThreshold and so on. AMD cards do not seem to need them. Put them in later if you want to try them but leave them out for now to ensure you have a starting point of reference.

*TIP* Commenting out a line in the CFG so it won’t load only requires it have a semi-colon ( in front of it.

You MUST have these...

[GRAPHICS]

HIGHMEMFIX=1

D3D10=1 <----------- if 0 then it’s DX9

[Display]

WideViewAspect=True

NOTE: If you don’t know the location of your FSX.CFG, Google it. It’s different for XP and Windows 7.

Install RadeonPro and configure a Profile for FSX:

1. Download RadeonPro (link at top) and install it.
2. Create an FSX profile.

• Click the Add New Profile Button at the top of the screen.
• Browse to, and select your FSX.EXE in the FSX Program folder on your computer.

1. Highlight the new profile and start making changes.

• Antialiasing to “Use Application Settings”
• Antialiasing Filter to Multisampling (BOX)
• Antialiasing Mode to “Supersample”
• Anisotropic Filtering to 16x
• Under Advanced set Texture Filtering and Mipmap both to High Quality
• Under Tweaks set Vsync Control to “Always on”
• Enable Dynamic Framerate Control and “Keep up to 30” FPS
• OSD Tab Enable OSD settings (optional) Position Top. Enable some.

NOTE: RadeonPro must be running (minimized to Tray) when FSX is run for these to take effect.

Screenshots for those that do not like to read…

First, I’ve read that you should install FSX on its own hard drive, while installing everything else (including the OS) on a separate hard drive, but I’m still not clear on the rationale behind this. What would be the purpose of installing FSX on a separate drive, and how important is this? Also, what about programs such as REX? Should they be installed on the same drive as FSX in this case?

Second, name any tip you think I should keep in mind while installing FSX and its add-ons. Last time around, I didn’t do any research into the topic and later found out things I should have done differently. If you have any strategies or cautions you could give me, I’d really appreciate it.

Brighton

Shoreham Power Station

Parking at EGKA

Enjoy and thanks for looking!

Bug.

Thanks!