Nice to see everyone here is so fond of my screenshots
My job as a reviewer is not to blow sunshine up a developer's rump, rather to evaluate the product from an unbiased point of view (which is why I stay out of developers forums for the most part other than support and update issues). Some of those shots were taken on my old computer (which sucked major arse), and there is a noticeable difference between those few shots, and the ones I took on my current machine. For the record those screenshots were ALL retouched using the same methods I use for my airshow magazine work and Jetphotos uploads, though not edited to a point where I give an overly re-touched unrealistic representation of the product. Apart from light editing (cropping, color corrections, and re-sizing) there is nothing to do as I am not trying to portray the product any differently than it was for me on my computer. For that reason, I do not use a crazy full detail sliders with full AI when taking my screenshots, as I want to show what it looks like when you are actually flying it with a reasonable frame rate allowance rather than a slide show that my look incredible, but perform terribly. My screen shots aren't the edited masterpieces I see on these and other FS forums, but I don't have a supercomputer, and I'm not going to do HDR composites and use other environment enhancing things because those aren't part of the product that I am reviewing. Could you please tell me how exactly I could have represented the product better, as I feel I did a fair job as such. The only time I have EVER used extremely over the top screenshots was for my FT Kai Tak review, which I was forced to borrow from fellow simmers after my computer had some issues with the deadline looming. I am not all that high on the Avsim seniority list, and I am not sure how to give a gold star award (though this product, along with FT SXM and a few others clearly deserve it), the gold stars are always given by the experienced reviewers. I did give it the highest praise I could, with the 10/10 and if you have issues with gold star criteria, take it to the Avsim forums. I am extremely happy with how my FSX looks and runs, and would never consider going to FS9. I'm willing to accept criticism, but some of the stuff I just read here is a bit uneducated, which is understandable since I'm sure you guys aren't all reviewers, but think about what my job as a reviewer is before whining that I didn't edit the screenshots
Mark
