Looking for beta testers for MSFS Taieri

[toprob]

I hope to have a beta ready by the end of August, so I'm hoping to put together a good team of NZFF stalwarts to give it a go. This is for MSFS only.
Please contact me via PM (or email) if you are able to help. Note that this is a less formal beta than normal, the only requirement is that you are a long-standing NZFF member.

-Robin

[jpreou]

Looks good, but alas I am not running MSFS. Actually, I just bought P3D5 but although I have removed all P3D4 and all addons, I have yet to re-install anything. Still playing ARK with my little guy when not working
Good luck Robin - is it your intent to continue to develop for P3D?

[toprob]

No worries, Jeff, no doubt you'll catch up some day... joking...

Future P3D projects may happen, but the main focus will be on MSFS. I may test the market with NZPM, but it'll be after the MSFS release. I am thinking of doing a P3Dv5 update of NZCH when I release the MSFS version, as it really benefits from PBR rather than relying fully on photo textures. No promises, though, I'm still not sure how/when I'll release NZCH, as the current development probably puts it's release at the same time as NZA's -- which would be interesting, to say the least.

[jpreou]

I'll probably 'move' to MFSF at some point - really looking for them to add helis as I want to focus on those next.
I may still yet buy your scenery so I'm ready to hit the ground running ... we'll see how the finances look each time you release something

[cowpatz]

Wow.
Move over NZA...the old kid’s back in town!!

[deaneb]

Wow.
Move over NZA...the old kids back in town!!

yep looks bloody fantastic!

[toprob]

Thanks for the help, guys (and the comments here). I could do with a few more testers, so please consider getting in touch. I am looking for some people who may not be confident to do normal beta testing, but would be happy to test the installer.
This is for PC only, unfortunately, as I don't have access to the Marketplace yet. I hope this will happen eventually, because I'd love to see my scenery on the Xbox!
Just a reminder that this is a new project rather than an update of the FSX/P3D version, so there will be no update path, however the price will be closer to an update price rather than a normal Real NZ price. And of course, beta testers will get it as a thank-you.
It'll also be a well-overdue reward for the kickstarter project.

[jpreou]

It'll also be a well-overdue reward for the kickstarter project.

Well, now I'm just going to *have* to buy MSFS aren't I ... ? (pls don't tell the wife!)

[toprob]

It's been a busy time lately, and I suspect that the Taieri beta will be delayed for a few days at least. Every time I turn around lately it's another Friday tearing towards me, with no clue what happened to the rest of the week:)

Most of this is to do with family -- living with family is great, but a bit of a change for me, so I'm just getting used to what it involves. Yesterday my brand-new grandson arrived, and he should be home here tomorrow, so I'm putting family first for the time-being. It's an amazing time, that's for sure! Anyway, I'll still get a bit of time to work on Taieri, the last thing before the beta will be the installer, and I'm still deciding how that will work.

I do want to use an auto-installer, which I think would be the best idea for a lot of my customers, but I do know that some people use a tool to manage addons for MSFS, so I may offer the option of choosing a location separate from the Community folder. There probably won't be a manual installer, though. It's a tricky balancing act between features and ease of use.

Thanks for those who put their hand up to test this, and to those who I cajoled into it.

[toprob]

I must admit that I haven't even looked at the steps required to install scenery into MSFS, hopefully it's easy:) I'll make a start on that tomorrow, so the beta release will really depend on how this goes.

Apart from that, and a little tidying up, I'm happy with the end result after a lot of work over the last year.

Fingers crossed for level 2 in another week, so I can actually get out and about to spread stretch my legs. I have been relying on the world to come to me, including Teri the Tui, who pops in to say hi now and then. So I can take wild-life photos if only from my balcony...



I'm not sure of Teri's gender, maybe someone can let me know. Maybe female, as the males are normally not as tidy-looking, as they puff themselves up to look dangerous, and this one looks very well-groomed.

[NZ255]

All good Rob, don’t forget to warm up first

Great snap too!

[toprob]

I now have a beta available, as soon as I have collected all email addresses I'll BCC some more info. Pending that:

I may have some questions later, but in the meantime the beta test is open-ended -- if you want to report anything, comment on anything, or make any suggestions then let me know via email or PM. Feel free to give your thoughts on the quality, value, whether it is worth having etc. As always, a Godzone beta is confidential, which is really designed to give me the opportunity to fix any issues if I can. However tester's participation isn't a secret.

As I've mentioned to beta testers, the ultimate goal was to release this exclusively in the Marketplace, but it is looking very likely that won't be possible. It is now six months since I applied for access, and still no answer. So it will likely be released via my own Store. One of the goals was to build a scenery 'by the book', which means no non-standard features, tweaks or tools. I've mostly met this goal, but not 100%. For example, some models have been processed through MCX, to create the LODs, which is definitely non-standard, although very common with other developers.

At the moment the beta uses the sample installer, using Visual Studio, again to keep it by the book. However this may change before release, as there is one issue yet to be solved.

[toprob]

Just a couple more things:

The beta installer is approx 840MB. The actual installation is more like 570MB at the moment, but I think that the installer includes separate versions for Steam and OneStore. Weird....

I'm aware that the installer has some weird wording, it seems to install an installer, but really it installs a scenery addon. I'll fix that. I had mentioned that I wanted to offer the choice of installing the scenery anywhere, but if I use the MS installer then this won't happen. I have never used a MSFS addon management tool, so I don't really know anything about them, but I would think that if you use one, it'll be capable of working with a normal Community install.

I don't have a lot of scenery addons for MSFS, mainly because I don't have time for them, but also I don't want to be influenced by other work. So it is entirely possible that I've overlooked something which should be there, so again, let me know!

However I will be getting Flightbeam's NZ airports when they are available.

[waka172rg]

Pm and email sent Rob

[Radar88]

MSFS Taieri looking very good Rob from the reports seen in this recent preview video by Kiwi Mace with a true Southern Kiwi bloke commentary.

Watch on youtube.com