Arno Gerretsen

Getting up to speed

One of the problems with the latest release of ModelConverterX is that the preview image can be a bit slow when a big model is loaded. And with a bit slow I mean that it can take a second or so to update while you are rotating around. This is a bit annoying to say the least.

So solving this problem was quite high on my todo list and today I decided to take a look at it. The good news is that the preview works a lot faster now, I just had to optimize the OpenGL code used a bit more. I have now made use of draw lists and vertex arrays and that gave a big boost to the performance. Now even with the most complex default models I could find, rotating around and running the animations goes smooth. So the leason learned for today is that it is very easy to slow your graphics down by just sending unoptimized code to the graphics card. And in the next release you will also be able to enjoy this improvement.

Back from vacation, but...

I am back from vacation now for almost a week, but today I finally had the time to get up to date with all the posts on the FSDeveloper forum. This was partly because I had to go to Paris on bussiness trip two days this week and also because there were just to many things to catch up with. For example when I got back there were first some spammer problems on the forum that had to be addressed. Luckily it seems we solved that problem for the moment.

While on vacation I did some thinking about a new tool to make the creation of ground polygons easier. It seems that is still a big issue for many users. So I think I will create a tool that can do the ASM tweaks for you and also automatically split up your polygons in smaller pieces so that the curvation of the earth in FSX does not give trouble. I hope to start working on this tool soon. Another feature I have in mind is allowing to split big airports up into several reference points. This is good for the performance and should also reduce the deformation that sometimes appears when the polygons are too far away from the reference point.

And of course I am also still working on the ModelConverterX tool. I want to continue on the new features for version 1.0 soon as well. When I think about all the things I want to do, I almost need a new vacation right away...