Review iBlueYonder - Nantucket Island

[mutley 4,487]

 

Just published is my review of the recently released Nantucket Island by scenery designer guru, Bill Womack.

 

This scenery features the whole Island and a very detailed airport. How does perform? Read on...

[rosariomanzo 545]

Thanks for this nice and comprehensive review. This one is on my shopping list as everything coming from Bill!

[iBlueYonder 1]

Thanks for the review, Joe! I feel it was fair, and some of the issues you pointed out are definitely things that need to be fixed in a patch. Said patch is underway, btw, and intended not only to fix the few remaining issues, but to add some more details as well.

 

The only area that had me scratching my head was your issue with the FSX ground poly flashing. Nobody on the testing team had that issue, and I've never seen it once in all the months of testing I put in before them on two different systems. Goes to show you, you can test thoroughly, but without a massive test team, something is always going to go wrong for some users. The only response I have to that is that we'll do our best to iron out that issue in the patch. I definitely know we'll get the P3D poly sorted out, which looks amazing if it would only cooperate.

[mutley 4,487]

Thanks Bill, I really loved the scenery and I hope that comes out in the review. The problem I had with flashing with that particular building with the P3D polys switched off, was a surprise to me too as I thought I was having a problem with the native P3D textures until I checked the control panel, and they were switched off.

 

I will try to send you an accurate, easy  to replicate situation if that helps. I know no software is released as a perfect entity, my day job, the one that pays the bills for this site, is as a certified QA tester for a tier1 software company, so maybe I am a bit too hypercritical, guilty as charged m'lud!

Cheers,

Joe

 

 

[brett 2,283]

Thanks for the detailed review Joe, you certainly have an eye for detail.

 

I purchased it with my member discount and don't have the shimmering in FSX so hope it can be fixed for you in P3D. Although I have just flown into and around the island, which is good enough for me, I do look forward to the coming fix.

[mutley 4,487]

Nantucket update!

Bill and I have been talking about the issues highlighted in my review and I am very happy to say there is a patch in progress. Bill has found and fixed those texture issues (see comments on autogen later). I sent Bill a video showing the flashing I was experiencing with the FBO which he had never seen. Bill immediately put his finger on it and diagnosed it as Z fighting and went to some length to explain why the lawn around the FBO was flashing the way it was. It turns out Nantucket has some experimental techniques for modelling buildings on a raised patch of ground.

Regarding the issue with the autogen textures, after Bill had consulted Arno Gerretsen, the creator of the Nantucket autogen, they confirmed that there is no way to dial in the texture mapping for FSX/P3D autogen to avoid those problems altogether.  In fact, this happens in the default autogen as well as other 3^rd party scenery developers, and is a limitation within the sim. I must admit to never noticing before but now Bill has mentioned it I can't stop noticing it in other scenery!

So with these fixes, a couple of other fixes, and some extra content, I am really looking forward to the update and thanks to Bill Womack and the team at iBY for their openess and help.

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

A good Mutt is a Dev's best friend...especially a Mutt that spots and chases bugs.

Good job Joe and Bill on swatting another few.

[brett 2,283]

5 hours ago, mutley said:

I must admit to never noticing before but now Bill has mentioned it I can't stop noticing it in other scenery!

 

I hate when that happens!

 

Thanks for the update and kudos to Bill.W and team for getting right on it.