Vancouver+ for FSX FAQ

Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 6:15 pm Vancouver+ for FSX FAQ

1. When was Vancouver+ for FSX released?

July 2007

2. Does it include CYVR?

While we have made many improvements to the area immediately around CYVR (roads, bridges, road traffic, parking lots, etc.) the airport layout and buildings remain default FSX.

3. What does it cost?

34 Euros (€29.75 incl VAT for EU customers).

5. What improvements are there over the FS9 version?

AI

● Replacement seaplane and Heli AI models
● New AI ferry: Seabus running between Vancouver and North Vancouver
● AI flightplans converted to use FSX models where needed

Ambience

● Animated hawks at Brackendale (adjacent to CYSE) and in Stanley Park
● Custom road traffic, both light and heavy traffic options
● Ambient sounds: bridge traffic, ocean sounds, seagulls, waterfalls

Facilities

● New detailed airport: CYNJ, Langley Regional with custom buildings and and 4-season 30 cm photoscenery for surrounding area
● 4-season 30 cm photoscenery at CYPK
● New unlisted strip for ultralights: White Rock Intergalactic
● Additional adjusted default airfields: 7WA3 - West Wind/Everson, CAR3 - Lillooet, CAZ5 - Cache Creek
● Enhancements to several airfields: apron adjustments, fence, additional objects
● Leading zero runway markings
● Adjusted parking sizes at all facilities for correct wingspan parking of AI
● Detailed animated windsock model, lighted and unlighted models

Objects

● All custom models reprocessed with FSX exporter/compiler
● New custom object: Canada Place
● New custom object: Lion’s Gate Bridge
● New custom object: Pattullo Bridge
● Improved cabling on Alex Fraser Bridge and SkyBridge
● Peace Arch monument at Hwy 99/I-5 US/Canada border crossing
● Improved concrete textures on bridges
● Addition of US bridges in US overlap area
● Virtually all textures converted to .DDS format

Terrain

● Improved Vancouver Harbour shoreline, including new buildings and hi-res photoscenery
● Recompiled 19m mesh and buffer meshes for the entire area using FSX techniques
● Extended coverage to the north includes detailed water bodies and road/railroad network for the Lillooet, Seton Lake, Carpenter Lake, and Cache Creek areas
● Custom seasons file for accurate, elevation dependent seasonal changes
● New forestry cutblock/clearcut texture at 1m resolution with custom autogen
● Hi-resolution custom industrial textures with autogen
● Choice between using standard FSX ground textures or a local re-combined set that enhances texture content, seasonality and blending
● Optional “freezing” of lakes higher than 600m
● New photoreal shoreline textures for rivers, lakes and oceans

… and a myriad of little improvements, and the new level of detail that FSX permits.

6. What features do we not have in the FSX version that we had in FS9?

● currently, we don’t have FSX-compliant models for the AI DHC-3 and DHC-6. We hope to be able to provide these in a future update
● due to changes in usage rights we had to drop the local photoreal ground textures for Burnaby and Metrotown. We placed custom ground polygons instead
● the amusement park objects at Hastings Park/PNE are not animated any more due to changes in FSX animation

7. What is the performance impact like?

FSX pushes the edge of most systems, and Vancouver+ will push it further, resulting in somewhat decreased performance. Use of the recommended settings (available from your FSX settings menu) should help with performance, as well as using the default option settings in the Configurator. De-selecting Marinas and Static Boats, and/or Ambient Sounds will help further, as will reducing AI traffic. See the Recommended Settings, item #11, below. Many users have reported that their frame rates drop after a while flying, and that by saving the flight (press ";") and by closing and restarting FSX then loading that flight the get a big jump in frame rates.

8. What are the system requirements?

You must have a legal copy of FSX, and it must be patched to SP1 or higher. Your computer needs to be whatever it takes to run FSX to your satisfaction, so first ensure you can do that with SP1 installed. A minimum of 1.5 Gb of RAM and a 256Mb video card is suggested, although some folks willing to use lower settings are satisfied with less. For really good performance, a newer multi-core CPU, 2Gb of RAM and a video card with 340Mb of video RAM (or greater) is recommended.

9. Is Vancouver+ compatible with Ultimate Terrain and third-party texture replacements (e.g., X-Graphics, GE), add-on terrain mesh (e.g., FSGlobal or FSGenesis), ?

Yes for all of them. For some add-ons you need to ensure proper placement in the scenery library menu but they all work with Vancouver+. Please see the manual for more information.

10. Will there be missions included?

Not at this time. We do provide a number of interesting flight starting scenarios.

11. What are the recommended settings?

Vancouver+ for FSX comes with two files which allow you to easily load recommended settings, which can be accessed from Settings->Load. Here's what they consist of (one has 30cm, the other 1m ground resolution. Items denoted with * are ones where you may want to adjust as noted:

Graphics
● Frame rate: 25* (some get better frames at unlimited)
● Filtering: optimum for your video card
● Global texture res: Very high
● Lens flare: Yes
● Light Bloom: No
● Advanced Animations: Yes

Aircraft
● Global: Medium High* (reducing this could make a big difference to sim performance in some aircraft)

Scenery
● Level of detail radius: Large* (can reduce to medium to help texture loading times, textures will be less sharp at a distance)
● Mesh Complexity: 80
● Mesh resolution: 10m
● Texture resolutoin: 1m or 30cm (we provide configuration files for both). Some find no loss in performance at 30cm and it looks great when taxiing at CYNJ or CYPK
● Water effects: Low 1.x (this is the most realistic colour for the area)
● Land detail textures: Yes
● Scenery Complexity: Extremely Dense* (you can drop this for improved performance)
● Autogen Density: Dense (Many can fly usually at Very Dense, but Extremely Dense is not recommended for any current hardware)
● Ground scenery shadows: No
● Special effects detail: Medium

Weather
● Global Setting: Medium High (unlike FS9 weather settings don't seem to have much effect on performance)

Traffic
Note: our traffic files are designed to add more traffic at 30-35%, and again at 60-70%. FSX default AI has a major performance hit, and a global traffic replacement addon is a recommended addition. General Aviation and Airline traffic, as recommended by Microsoft, should never be set above 80%.

● Airline traffic density: 25%*
● General Aviation traffic density: 25%*
● Airport vehicle density: minimum
● Road vehicles: 11%* (and you can choose light or heavy traffic in the Vancouver+ Configurator)
● Ships and ferries: 10% (much more than this and you will start to see ships in odd places)
● Leisure boats: 15%