Running FSX under Windows 7

Lately there has been a lot of talk about how Windows 7 will run faster than Vista, and how this should be great for gamers (apparently it runs a little faster than XP did). With FSX however, often the standard ‘gamer tweaks’ do not actually affect performance, because it has a fairly odd architecture compared [...]

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Downloading FSDSxTweak now that AVSIM is down

The flight sim community is having a bad year. First the product get canned, and now AVSIM, one of the largest community sites, has been effectively destroyed (we are guessing it was some kind of SQL injection attack). Here’s hoping those guys recover and put the site back up. In the meantime, you can visit [...]

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FSDSxTweak Suite 2.4 released

I have updated the manual and rolled up the latest sets of small fixes into a coherent release – 2.4

Apart from some bug fixes, you can now set the specular colour and power of the base material, and call XtoMdl with any of the optional parameters it takes, directly from FSDSxTweak_Plugin.
You can download from the [...]

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FSDSxTweak_Plugin 2.3

I have added the ability to add switches to XtoMdl (/Keep, /Nogui, /Batch, /NoCrash, /BMP2DDs and /XMLSample) to the XtoMdl runs. NoCrash should be quite useful for folks who want to make scenery.
To turn this new feature on, hit the Advanced button on the exterior or interior model options

And then select whichever switch you need

You [...]

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Work resumes on FSDS Starship

The first version of Microsoft Flight Simulator that I got seriously into was FS2000. One of the interesting things about it was that you could get Flight Sim Design Studio Pro, a new model editor by Abacus, to design new aircraft for it. I have always been a fan of the Beechcraft Starship 2000A, so [...]

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PC Pilot magazine reviews the Skysim Hawk

I blogged earlier about the release of Rick Piper’s BAE Hawk under the Skysim label. Rick used FSDSxTweak extensively when building this amazing bird.

Yesterday while at Borders, I saw the the October issue of PC Pilot has an extensive review of Rick’s creation, and it even made the cover art. Congratulations, Rick! We look forward [...]

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FSDSxTweak v2.21 patch (fixes bloom disable bug)

ANOTHER EDIT!!: A new version of the Suite, v2.3 has all these fixes incorporated (and a few others too) – you can download that instead from AVSIM
EDIT: If you are still having problems, try using this version
A patch to bring version 2.2 up to 2.21 is up at AVSIM. Here’s the readme:
FsdsxTweak v2.21 patch for [...]

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FSDSxTweak Suite v2.2 is released!

Finally! This version has Modeldef_Edit included, and a tons of fixes and new features, including integration with DrawCallMonitor v1.1. You can download it from the AVSIM file library. The old v2.1 Hit 714 downloads, let’s see how this one does.
EDIT:I forgot to add the Modeldef_Edit SDK keyword list files to the installer! Sorry! I have [...]

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FSDSxTweak work progresses

V2.2 is coming together. Here is a screeny of _edit 2.2:

(click for full size)
New stuff is the diffuse and specular color selectors, the bloom parameters and the misc params (n-number and double sided). Modeldef_Edit is also progressing nicely, and the docs for all these are 60% done.
: : : : [...]

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I have a visa and FSDSxTweak has bloom

Today I got my H1B visa stamp in my passport – yeeha! I will be back in the Pacific Northwest in late September, ready to sweat and labor for the man.
FSDSxTweak news: I have been wanting to give a big feature for 2.2, because I have new stuff for _plugin and _edit, but nothing for [...]

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