20 June 2008 - FEX SHD Update Released
Press release: For Immediate Release
Flight One Software, in partnership with Aerosimulations, is excited to announce the release of the latest edition of Flight Environment X, now in pioneering Super High Definition (SHD).
Contained within the update are approximately 6 Gigabytes of new graphical data and content that represents the culmination of a massive amount of research and work carried out since the original launch of FEX.
Here are a few of the the key points of this update:
1. All new Super High Definition (SHD) Cloud content, available in sizes up to a SHD resolution of 4096 x 4096. This makes your FSX skies as realistic as ever, all from high quality photography as always.
2. Many changes to the FEX GUI (Graphical User Interface). This improves work flow and makes it much easier to create new cloud themes. This feature is a huge part of FEX and we hope that it is more intuitive to use as well as fun to use.
3. Performance enhancements. The entire UI performance has been improved to offer much better speeds when performing different actions and more complex processing has been pushed into different program threads for responsiveness.
4. Improved algorithms will now allow a more advanced and progressive control over the types of clouds you desire. This allows for a denser and more richly textured cloudscape. Clouds can now be fuller and have more defined detail made possible with SHD.
5. New special designs for the SHD textures allow for more creative inputs from the user. This allows you to create special cloud scenes from light and airy clouds, to deep and moody storm clouds. We also have additional options for "Bright White" or "Blue White" clouds.
6. There is a new EXTREME clouds option providing the ability to get extra dramatic looking clouds for those that like a more exciting cloudscape.
7. Additional softness is now available to get a more delicate looking cloud.
8. Bug fixes. Several bugs have been fixed since launch within this update. Live error reporting has been implemented to more easily track any issues that may come up and ensure a rapid response.
9. User information recovery. FEX now features a Forgot Password function within the application which can email you your lost credentials.
And this is not all... New features are planned for the coming weeks.
Chris Norris from Aerosimulations states:
"The past 8 months has involved an incredible amount of work in many areas. The SHD elements are first and foremost, but we are continuing on with even more in the near future, including much more realistic water, airport environment texturing, suns and moons, and we have made great progress on the weather/environment sim.
These aspects are planned to be delivered into FEX in a regular fashion, beginning within weeks. We encourage everyone to try FEX. And it is essentially at no risk because of Flight1's 30-day return policy. But we feel confident that customers will see that FEX is by far the most advanced cloud and environment expansion ever released for Flight Simulator."
And best yet, the new SHD edition is a FREE update to all current customers of Flight Environment X.
Download the update here.
Official press releases:
English: http://www.flightenvironment.com/press/release06202008en.rtf
Spanish: http://www.flightenvironment.com/press/release06202008es.rtf
German: http://www.flightenvironment.com/press/release06202008dt.rtf
20 October 2007 - Weather Component FAQ
In response to enquiries and requests for information I am pleased to issue the following FAQ for the forthcoming weather component for FEX:
1. How much will it cost?
You have already paid for it for buying FEX, therefore no additional cost. We originally hoped to ship FEX with the weather component implemented, however it was decided through feedback from beta testers that people will benefit from having the graphics side of FEX immediately, rather than delaying release of FEX until the weather stuff was all finished.
2. What is a weather engine and what will it do?
A weather engine is a means of translating real world weather data and/or user selected weather data into FSX to improve the accuracy and depiction of weather from the default "Real world weather" in FSX.
The FEX weather component introduces a whole new approach to tackling the above. The end result is the most accurate weather depiction to date in this industry.
3. Weather influenced textures
When we originated the ideas and concepts behind FEX the goal was to inject as much realism as we could into the simulation experience.
FEX has a revolutionary approach to textures which gives the ability to create textures dynamically both manually (through the designers) and also automatically. The true power of this will become much more apparent when the weather component is implemented, as this is not just making texture selections as has been done in the past, but is actually altering the textures according to the real world conditions.
4. Haze and Visibility issue
The FEX weather component implements a technique which solves the problems users have experienced with other weather engines. Accurately depicting visibility with no harsh transitions between layers.
5. Wind Smoothing
The FEX weather component does not suffer from the same issue and when flying along there is no sudden shifts, just gradual shifts as can be found in the real world.
6. So what is the Environmental Simulator
This is a whole new dimension to the concept of a weather engine, taking the whole idea much further than has been done before. Further information will be released soon as we are able, however historically we have discovered talking about our ideas and concepts tends to attract others to copy the idea and claim as their own.
7 October 2007 - GUI Screenshots Added
We've added screenshots of the Flight Environment X GUI to our Features page to give you a taste of how intuitive, flexible and powerful FEX really is.
28 September 2007 - FEX RELEASED!
FEX has been released! - Buy it from Flight1 here:
[ Buy & Download Flight Environment X]
28 September 2007 - FEX RELEASE WITHIN HOURS
We are pleased to announce that following an extensive beta test period FEX is now ready for release. It will be made available through the Flight 1 webstore within hours from now.
We sincerely hope that everyone enjoys FEX and we have worked pretty much from dawn to dusk mostly everyday for the past few months to reach that aim. We also request that you remember that purchasers of Flight Environment X will be entitled to a free update available as soon as possible which will include additional functionality and also the weather engine component of the Environment Simulator.
25 AUGUST 2007 - NEW SCREENSHOTS ADDED
We've added a new album to our Gallery page that features some very atmospheric in-game shots from one of our Beta testers, Vox™. Fly on over to take a look at them here.
22 AUGUST 2007 - BETA PROGRESS
The BETA1 test period of Flight Environment X is now well under way and will shortly move into BETA2 which will then progress to the first release! (Yay!). Feedback from our test team has been incredible both in terms of encouragement and product evaluation; we are much indebted to the team for their hard work.
We are also now hosted on an extremely fast server connection which will provide the servers for the community interaction possible within Flight Environment X. There is still infrastructure going into place which we hope will be ready in the next week.
22 AUGUST 2007 - WEBSITE LAUNCHED
Welcome to the Flight Environment X website launched today. Special thanks to Steve who stepped in to make this possible. The design and implementation was done by Steve and Tristine, both professional designers and their efforts are much appreciated!
Our Features page will hopefully give you a comprehensive overview of what Flight Environment X is all about, along with our Gallery showing screenshots of FEX in use inside the simulator - many of which again have been submitted by our test team to which we are eternally grateful.
We will continue to work on the website to provide more information and articles about the making of Flight Environment X in the coming months.
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