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General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Chalenge on December 05, 2008, 02:07:03 PM

Title: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 05, 2008, 02:07:03 PM
Must be a weather enhancement of some kind? Less then 20 hours to go...

http://www.hifisim.com/
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Yossarian on December 07, 2008, 02:38:28 PM
http://www.hifisim.com/xg.php (http://www.hifisim.com/xg.php)

Wow
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Wingnutt on December 07, 2008, 04:47:03 PM
NICE!

Ugg, I have lost count on how much I have spent on that game.. not counting the system upgrade for it.   :cry
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Cobra516 on December 07, 2008, 06:49:26 PM
That looks pretty slick - I think I'll end up getting that.


Chalenge, what are some reccomended add-on (freeware or payware) aircaft?  Do they have nicely modeled a CRJ-200/700?
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Wingnutt on December 07, 2008, 07:23:40 PM
I have the CaptSim C130 experence, its pretty deacent, though it has a bug where the fuel tanks dont work right, so you only get 1/2 the range.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Denholm on December 08, 2008, 10:12:38 AM
I have Active Sky6 for FS2004. I must say, it works VERY well and enhances the weather experience A LOT.

That looks pretty slick - I think I'll end up getting that.

Chalenge, what are some reccomended add-on (freeware or payware) aircaft?  Do they have nicely modeled a CRJ-200/700?
Yeah, you didn't ask me. Here are some I recommend:

www.precisionmanuals.com (Their 747 and MD-11 for FSX is exceptional)
www.leveldsim.com (Amazingly realistic 767)
www.wilcopub.com (Great Airbuses for FS2004 and FSX alike)
www.captainsim.com (Great 757. Probably a few other things on there you might enjoy)
www.flight1.com (Some more good planes, great scenery, and great texture enhancement programs)
www.flytampa.org (BRILLIANT Add-On Scenery)
www.aerosoft.com (More amazing scenery, my favorite add on is AES (Airport Enhancement Services) Yup, it makes your gates operate!)

For the freeware. Here's two sites I know of:

www.avsim.com
www.surclaro.com (Great forum, helps out a lot in finding add-ons, installing them, debugging them, and removing them)

Hopefully that answers some of your questions. ;)
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: indy007 on December 08, 2008, 11:56:28 AM
Free A/C, good quality:
http://www.projectopensky.com/ (http://www.projectopensky.com/)

Multiplayer ATC:
www.vatsim.net (http://www.vatsim.net) <- greatly enhances the experience
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Wingnutt on December 08, 2008, 11:58:19 AM
just keep in mind if your running it with DX10 preview, VERY few (and I dont think any free) addon AC will support it, they will show up as solid white and wont have cockpits.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Cobra516 on December 08, 2008, 06:19:50 PM
Denholm, Indy, thanks for the links guys!   I may have to give VATSIM a try, heard it's good stuff.
just keep in mind if your running it with DX10 preview, VERY few (and I dont think any free) addon AC will support it, they will show up as solid white and wont have cockpits.
Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of, I run in DX10 in Vista 64 with excellent performance.  Even with this monster PC it takes a substantial performance hit when not running in DX10. 
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Wingnutt on December 08, 2008, 07:19:25 PM
Denholm, Indy, thanks for the links guys!   I may have to give VATSIM a try, heard it's good stuff.Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of, I run in DX10 in Vista 64 with excellent performance.  Even with this monster PC it takes a substantial performance hit when not running in DX10. 

EXACTLY, dispite what the vista haters say, FSX runs far better in vista than XP thanks to DX10.. 

I think my fave is landing the big jets in crappy weather, in south america and alaska..
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Spikes on December 08, 2008, 07:21:06 PM
I have Active Sky6 for FS2004. I must say, it works VERY well and enhances the weather experience A LOT.
Yeah, you didn't ask me. Here are some I recommend:

www.precisionmanuals.com (Their 747 and MD-11 for FSX is exceptional)
www.leveldsim.com (Amazingly realistic 767)
www.wilcopub.com (Great Airbuses for FS2004 and FSX alike)
www.captainsim.com (Great 757. Probably a few other things on there you might enjoy)
www.flight1.com (Some more good planes, great scenery, and great texture enhancement programs)
www.flytampa.org (BRILLIANT Add-On Scenery)
www.aerosoft.com (More amazing scenery, my favorite add on is AES (Airport Enhancement Services) Yup, it makes your gates operate!)

For the freeware. Here's two sites I know of:

www.avsim.com
www.surclaro.com (Great forum, helps out a lot in finding add-ons, installing them, debugging them, and removing them)

Hopefully that answers some of your questions. ;)
If you have FS2004 and wane to make it look like FSX I suggest getting with Denholm here, my FS has never looked prettier. :)
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 08, 2008, 08:11:35 PM
That looks pretty slick - I think I'll end up getting that.

Chalenge, what are some reccomended add-on (freeware or payware) aircaft?  Do they have nicely modeled a CRJ-200/700?

So far I haved limited my addons to eye-candy and fighters. I did gather a large collection of freeware cargo planes (everything I could find at the popular FS sites) and I will be buying the A2ASims 377 as soon as they update the P-51 with their accusim touch-up. I have considered buying a modern day airliner but I havent looked into them much (yet).

I highly recommend HiFi Sims stuff (I have ActiveSkyX and GraphicsX) and also FSGenesisX and FSceneX and UltimateTerrainX. My two favorite airplanes (payware) are the A2A Simulations P-51D (awaiting refit with Accusim) and the Aerosoft F-16 (still being updated). Freeware I have to go with WorldOfAI for their Airliner AI (in that same area HTs CessnaAI package is a good payware). I have patrolled the freeware sites until I have WOAI airliners and the HTCessnaAI and default GA all flying together and with A2A Simulations 3D Lights Redux this really adds to immersion into the sim. I have ProFlightEmulator (and Deluxe) but since I havent done airliners yet I havent used it.

I would look at the AVSim reviews for airliners as a starting place. I havent been steered wrong yet on that site.

'Cargo Pilot' is probably the best addon I purchased and it makes FSX a blast!
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 08, 2008, 08:48:18 PM
NICE!

Ugg, I have lost count on how much I have spent on that game.. not counting the system upgrade for it.   :cry

Me too but this addon (HiFi Sims Active Sky X) really makes things feel more real. I especially like the way it can create facsimiles of hurricanes during the season plus it stores data so you can change the date of your free flight to the date of a hurricane and then fly storm tracker.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Denholm on December 09, 2008, 10:15:26 AM
EXACTLY, dispite what the vista haters say, FSX runs far better in vista than XP thanks to DX10.. 

I think my fave is landing the big jets in crappy weather, in south america and alaska..
Vista runs FSX fine because... 1. It's from Microsoft. Microsoft won't snoop its own software. 2. Vista has better memory management. 3. FSX was built with the goals to run with Vista and DX10.

The reason a lot of techies dislike Vista is because of its snooping, junk processes, junk security procedures (which in some cases prevents you from accessing your files or erasing them), and then the Big Brother aspect of the OS where Microsoft is now building in a sense to take away control from the user.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 09, 2008, 11:02:33 AM
I wasn't going to say anything but DX10 isnt something I would use to sell Vista or FSX. I dont even use DX10 unless Im flying off of water on a mission. DX10 messes with a lot of addons especially those brought up from FS9. I just read on an addon site that Microsoft doesnt even support DX10 in use with aftermarket products. I dont know that is true but if so that says a lot.

DX10 can be amazing in some situations but not a big sale item.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Kev367th on December 09, 2008, 11:54:50 AM
Shameless plug for a small group I am part of.

www.militaryaiworks.com

Although primarily for FS2004 all aircraft seem to work in FSX. There is also a topic on the forums on getting the packages to run under FSX.
So start filling your skies with proper military AI aircraft. Even better - ALL FREE.

My latest AI aircraft, many many hours of hair pulling!!!!
(http://www.militaryaiworks.com/forum/files/forforum_235.jpg)
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: indy007 on December 09, 2008, 02:06:33 PM
Denholm, Indy, thanks for the links guys!   I may have to give VATSIM a try, heard it's good stuff.

VATSIM can be good. It sort of changed how I fly FS though. I used to just fly places that looked pretty. Now I look for places with the heaviest traffic. The events are good too. Flying a 747-400 into an airport staffed with real people working as center, approach, departure, tower, ground, and clearance delivery with hundreds of other aircraft streaming in us much more entertaining and challenging than the AI ATC.

The downside is all the damn charts to print out, and extra screen space taken up. Having 2+ monitors is required to keep the enjoyment level up when you've got so many add-ons running.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Cobra516 on December 09, 2008, 03:42:07 PM
That sounds like fun! I think it'd be a good procedures trainer.  I'm about through with my instrument/commercial rating - VATSIM would be great for keeping my mind fresh on instrument flying.

Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: SFRT - Frenchy on December 09, 2008, 06:08:41 PM
VATSIM was frustrating to me as a controller, too many sunday pilots out there wetting their pants with a "heavy" callsign that couln't even land on the freacking runway ... not even talking about a STAR clearance. :cry
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Cobra516 on December 09, 2008, 08:21:06 PM
VATSIM was frustrating to me as a controller, too many sunday pilots out there wetting their pants with a "heavy" callsign that couln't even land on the freacking runway ... not even talking about a STAR clearance. :cry
:rofl  That sounds like it might be interesting to just sit on the ramp and watch people land.   
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: B17Skull12 on December 10, 2008, 01:05:28 AM
i caved in today got FS X.  Got a windows Xp this thing should run fine right?  Don't have a joystick at the moment.  Just going to use a xbox controller (yes i know it takes away from the experience).  My foot pedals are dying to be used.  Haven't used them since i quit AH about 3 years ago.  Anyone got any good deals on sticks?  Just need something.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: moot on December 10, 2008, 01:30:29 AM
Sheesh.. imagine if we had those clouds, sky, and lighting quality...
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 10, 2008, 01:49:15 AM
I really like it when the clouds look realistic or anytime the sky just seems 'right.'

Kev I also use the MilitaryAI but its easy to forget you have it owing to the fewer chances of seeing MAI.

Clouds from ActiveSky (also GraphicsX and UltimateTerrainX and FSGenesisX and FScene4X) and Aerosoft F-16.

(http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq197/Chalenge08/Clouds.jpg)
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: indy007 on December 10, 2008, 08:22:38 AM
VATSIM was frustrating to me as a controller, too many sunday pilots out there wetting their pants with a "heavy" callsign that couln't even land on the freacking runway ... not even talking about a STAR clearance. :cry

I like it when people connect while they're sitting on the active runway in the middle of heavy traffic.  :huh Tower & Ground tend to crap their pants.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Cobra516 on December 12, 2008, 12:44:02 AM
Logged into VATSIM the other night.  Loaded up the stock King Air at my home airport KRYY just north of KATL and filed IFR direct to the ATL VOR - was basically just so I could get in the air and get vectored around for a bit.  He set me up for the ILS 8L, I had my book of approach plates ready and shot the approach and landed.  It was pretty damn busy for one controller to be handling all those airliners.  I was really impressed with the professionalism and radio calls from everyone in there, you really couldn't tell it wasn't real, very cool stuff.

Just gotta figure out when everyone's on and the heaviest traffic times are, seems it gets pretty slow a lot of the time, but I believe KATL is one of the busiest airports in VATSIM.

So is X-Graphics the best sky / cloud add-on?  What about the best ground scenery for most of the U.S.?

Hey Chalenge, we should try the co-pilot option in VATSIM sometime for a short hop.

I think I'm going to try and make this get together this Saturday to see what it's like.

http://www.piperclub.net/?p=35

So far I can't find a Super Cub that works with FSX and DX10/Vista.  :(  Guess I'll just fly some other single.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 12, 2008, 02:20:35 AM
AVSIM has references to a Super Cub for FSX so it must be out there some where.

I think GraphicsX is the best but I base that on second hand opinions for the other products. I read around before buying and thats what I got.

Scenery is a sticky subject. If you go to AVSIM there is a freeware download for the grand canyon in photo real colors and 1m mesh details. Its the best I have seen and its free.

I use Ultimate Terrain X for the added features of night lighting but it dresses up things like roads and rivers and other water bodies (land class/water class features.

FScene4X is the general textures more specifically designed for land by regions.

GenesisX adds terrain meshes that are higher resolution than the default FSX mesh.

GraphicsX not only does clouds but the sun and how it flares and sky colors and water and waves and runways and taxiways... a very good buy.

Active Sky X allows you to tie your flight into real world weather. Im not sure it actually gives you both ends correctly but I can tell you that if I leave sunny Florida to visit Indiana when there is snow actually in Indiana it shows up in FSX. And the recreation of hurricanes will amaze you but I appreciate more the fact that Active Sky X recreates conditions like crosswinds and prevailing winds so even if the airfield AFCAD was designed incorrectly and the tower usually by default uses a different runway you will use the one active at that time in the real world. This is part of what is getting updated/tied-together if I understand what HiFi is doing.

SceneryTech puts together 'landclass' updates by region that are supposed to make actual city/urban/rural/water/etc cover the same area in FSX (to within 1km).

Put all of these together and thats what I use along with another freeware scenery of the Alps and Greenland and a few other areas. I usually grab the AFCAD fixes that are posted on AVSIM daily.

If you go to install this on a Vista machine make sure you install FSX to a disk off of your boot/OS disk and if you cant then at least dont put it in C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86).
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: cpxxx on December 12, 2008, 06:04:17 AM
VATSIM was frustrating to me as a controller, too many sunday pilots out there wetting their pants with a "heavy" callsign that couln't even land on the freacking runway ... not even talking about a STAR clearance. :cry

I ventured into VATSIM once. I was a nervous wreck. Afraid I'd mess up some of the experts 'flying'. However the pilots and controller came across as really professional. More professional than many real pilots I encounter on my normal job, that includes airline pilots.

As for FSX, some great enhancements. Can it be too long before the visual realism competes with reality? Real flying will always be more fun and more scary. I don't see how any sim can simulate the heart stopping moment when you look out and see ice forming on the struts and leading edge as you took 'that little short cut' through the itty bitty cloud with a full load of skydivers in the back.  :O

Is there even an add on that simulates ice?
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: indy007 on December 12, 2008, 09:05:52 AM
Just gotta figure out when everyone's on and the heaviest traffic times are, seems it gets pretty slow a lot of the time, but I believe KATL is one of the busiest airports in VATSIM.

www.vatsim.net   The link is to the left. There's a little block labeled Network with 4 options under it. Who's Online will show you, but Resources imho is a better link since you get all the links to chart tools & whatnot. I find it easier to read too. In game, depends a lot on your FL too. I cruise @ FL950 and of course never see anybody until I finish the descent leg.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Fishu on December 12, 2008, 10:47:05 AM
EXACTLY, dispite what the vista haters say, FSX runs far better in vista than XP thanks to DX10.. 

I couldn't use DX10 setting because it was way too slow.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 12, 2008, 11:04:55 AM
DX10 makes almost no difference in performance unless you have water effects turned up too high. Otherwise there is almost no difference in frame rates but it does make it hard to use visual effects with AI and other addons that do not support DX10 due to invisible airliners and light effects that move off of respective objects (FSX bugs).

 Here is a couple of screenshots from the Canyon freeware I mentioned:

(http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq197/Chalenge08/Canyon1.jpg)

(http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq197/Chalenge08/Canyon2.jpg)

And one of nice cloud cover:

(http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq197/Chalenge08/BnZFalcon.jpg)
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 12, 2008, 12:48:17 PM
I forgot to post the video to the Aerosoft F-16 for you:

http://www.vimeo.com/2375220
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Cobra516 on December 12, 2008, 04:07:57 PM
Very cool.  I got Active Sky X and X-Graphics last night - awesome additions.  I think I'm going to buy Ground Environment X   http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=gexusacan - that to me looks better than Ultimate Terrain and the others.

The only complaint I have about the clouds is that they just kind of dissolve as you pass through them, you don't actually go IMC / solid white.  It's a limitation of the FSX cloud engine I guess.  They look excellent flying by them though, just wish they were a lot denser.  I wouldn't think it'd be too hard to program the visiblity to go to 1/16th mile when you penetrated a cloud, then back to whatever was set once you're out of it, would look more convincing.

Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 12, 2008, 08:36:02 PM
I cant say I have experience with GEX but I did look at reviews and opinions on the AVSIM forums before I bought and something led me to get UTX instead just cant remember what. Clouds are good looking at least but I think one of the coolest things is the lightning and thunder. Today I flew 3 hrs from PMDY to PKWA (Midway to Kwajalein) into a thunderstorm with nearly no fuel remaining. I never saw an AI flight to sponge fuel off of but the sky looked great!
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: mensa180 on December 13, 2008, 12:06:15 AM
Alright I got into the whole "vatsim" thing about 5 days ago...  It is fantastic!  So far all of my flights have been VFR and around the Los Angeles area from KLAX (although I ventured to Dallas today).  I am weary to try an IFR route with a large jet for now.  Cobra516 I would be interested in a get together, I am sure I could learn a lot.  Heck I just found out yesterday that this game modeled ILS.

I live under a rock, I know :).
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Cobra516 on December 13, 2008, 03:59:09 PM
Heh yea it is pretty slick.  Atlanta was pretty quiet but I saw there was a decent bit of traffic around LAX last night so I filed IFR from Point Mugu NAS about 30 miles to the northwest of LAX and took a King Air into LAX.  I printed out the approach plates for a few of the runways at LAX and let him know which ones I had in the remarks section of the flight plan.  He was busy but vectored me in behind a 737 for the ILS 24R.  It was VFR weather but still fun to fly the approach.  Then I departed from there and went to Santa Barbara Municiple and flew the ILS for 7.

I used the default flight planner to plan the flights, it seems to do a decent job of getting the best route, then I just print that out and reference it for what heading/distance between waypoints.  I can't figure out how to program the route into the stock GPS in the flightplan page.

Mensa, I'm not sure exactly how to do the copilot thing, you may know how.  I know one of us logs in as an observer?  I'll see if I can find some info on it.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 13, 2008, 04:35:41 PM
I fly over here:  http://www.ivao.org/hq/  when I fly virtual routes. I have never had anyone join me and I am not sure if it is supported by the rules of IVAO. I have been thinking of trying my hand at online ACM with the Aerosoft F-16 but that is expressly forbidden for IVAO. Other then just a free flight hosting I dont know if thats even possible but if someone has the same plane it would be cool to test FSX in ACM mode even if you cant kill each other.  :D
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: indy007 on December 13, 2008, 05:20:27 PM
Alright I got into the whole "vatsim" thing about 5 days ago...  It is fantastic!  So far all of my flights have been VFR and around the Los Angeles area from KLAX (although I ventured to Dallas today).  I am weary to try an IFR route with a large jet for now.  Cobra516 I would be interested in a get together, I am sure I could learn a lot.  Heck I just found out yesterday that this game modeled ILS.

I live under a rock, I know :).

Do the IFR! I still haven't flown VFR online, but I've flown a bunch of IFR cross country flights. And if you're feeling frosty, try out vasFMC. http://vas-project.org/ (http://vas-project.org/)   It's a pretty good FMC that can interface directly with FS2004 or FSX. You can punch in an entire flight, takeoff to SID to STAR to landing. If I can work it, anybody can. Though if you're running this, vatsim, and other gauges (radar, whatnot), it's time to start putting that stuff on a second monitor or second PC before you run out of real estate.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: mensa180 on December 13, 2008, 05:51:18 PM
I flew (am flying) two IFR routes today.  The first was an IFR flight from KDFW to KJFK in a Learjet 45, I just took a good route from simroutes.com and filed it.  Things went smoothly, except that I forgot to get the frequencies for an ILS approach but I did fine anyway.  I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed having the freedom to cruise higher than 18,000 feet and being vectored around by ATC was a blast too.

My second IFR flight is from KJFK to KBUF.  I am flying it now and am about 35 minutes out of Buffalo in a Mooney Bravo G1000, lets see how things go :).

edit:  I will probably fly a couple more (short >100nm) IFR plans just to stay in practice and to be vectored about a bit.

edit 2:  I have no idea what a SID or STAR is, time to do some googling.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Cobra516 on December 13, 2008, 06:23:34 PM
Good deal Mensa, sounds like fun.  I haven't been above 18000 yet in anything big, might have to try that next. 

Just flew a short sunset IFR hop from Santa Barbara Muni. to San Luis Obispo, about a 65 nm flight.  Took the 208 Caravan.  Santa Barbara had a live ATIS, tower, departure and approach control, it was pretty busy - a few guys were just doing touch & goes in the pattern in light singles.  I held a few minutes waiting for my release and then was cleared as filed.  Got into some crappy weather about half way there but the wx was good enough to fly the visual approach. 

VATSIM makes it so much more immersive, I'm glad I finally gave it a try.  I figured out the deal with the GPS flight planning.  If you create a flight plan and save/load it in the default flight planner, it'll enter that route into the stock GPS, so that's pretty cool - breaks it down leg by leg with the headings/distances to fly and ETE.

Chalenge, I don't know how much fun that'd be to do ACM with the Aerosoft F-16, I tried it and it flys decently just cruising around, but once you get to racking it around it seems to fly a little odd, I'm too used to Falcon 4.0 I guess, heh.  FSX seems to behave strangely when you get into the edges of the flight envelope.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: mensa180 on December 13, 2008, 06:34:25 PM
Cobra what is your callsign?  I go by N92920.

Around what times are you on (Zulu)?
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: CavPuke on December 13, 2008, 10:21:00 PM

edit 2:  I have no idea what a SID or STAR is, time to do some googling.

Standard Instrument Departure procedure http://books.google.com/books?id=cHKevTrbjCEC&pg=PA174&lpg=PA174&dq=standard+instrument+departure+procedure&source=web&ots=D-1Nj8bzEV&sig=Ray7BOQZTG7KqQu2sJKHFxB9qPU&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result (http://books.google.com/books?id=cHKevTrbjCEC&pg=PA174&lpg=PA174&dq=standard+instrument+departure+procedure&source=web&ots=D-1Nj8bzEV&sig=Ray7BOQZTG7KqQu2sJKHFxB9qPU&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result)

Standard Terminal Arrival Route http://books.google.com/books?id=cHKevTrbjCEC&pg=PA185&dq=standard+terminal+arrival+procedure (http://books.google.com/books?id=cHKevTrbjCEC&pg=PA185&dq=standard+terminal+arrival+procedure)

They are the procedures that ATC uses in the terminal environment for departures and arrivals.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Cobra516 on December 14, 2008, 12:41:43 AM
Cobra what is your callsign?  I go by N92920.

Around what times are you on (Zulu)?
I usually go by N9842Q.  I'm EST time zone, have been on in the evenings these last few days.  If I'm not working I'll probably be on in the afternoon and that night, just kind of on and off.  I'll shoot ya my cell # that'd probably be the best way to coordinate timing. 
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: B17Skull12 on December 14, 2008, 02:25:48 AM
im SWA2467 most of the time on vatsim.  Mostly working out of KONT, KLAX, KRNO, KOAK, KPHX.  Although i did a flight from KONT to KDEN.  That was fun :-).  only took 1:45 to get there i thought i would take like 2.  im tempted to try a cross country fligh from like KONT to KJFK.  I saw a person yesterday do a flight from FACT (cape horn south africa) to KSEA.    :O :O :O :O
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Steel on December 14, 2008, 03:52:03 AM
IFR into Anchorage in whiteout conditions....

 :devil

Anyone do the missions?

Steel
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: B17Skull12 on December 14, 2008, 04:34:11 AM
IFR into Anchorage in whiteout conditions....

 :devil

Anyone do the missions?

Steel
bring it  :D :D
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: indy007 on December 14, 2008, 09:07:02 AM
edit 2:  I have no idea what a SID or STAR is, time to do some googling.

It's best to think of it as a highway system. It's the method of coming & going the controllers would prefer you to take. There's a list of "procedures" which in non-atc speak just basically means driving directions. What point to cross, how fast to cross it at, and what alt to cross it at. They have them for pretty much every airport.

Go here: http://chartfinder.vatsim.net/ (http://chartfinder.vatsim.net/)  punch in your airport code, and all of the charts are there in pdf.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: mensa180 on December 14, 2008, 11:26:45 AM
You mean like GMN4 out of KLAX? 

@ Steel:

Yes I did that mission, it was very fun.


Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: SFRT - Frenchy on December 14, 2008, 11:37:56 AM
You can also use this real life pilot tool called fltplan.com. Registering is free. It will spit out the Wx and more importantly the  recomanded flight route that you can print out. It will give you ur nav aid, radials, distances, and even allow to print dept/arrivals/aproach charts.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 15, 2008, 04:58:25 PM
Chalenge, I don't know how much fun that'd be to do ACM with the Aerosoft F-16, I tried it and it flys decently just cruising around, but once you get to racking it around it seems to fly a little odd, I'm too used to Falcon 4.0 I guess, heh.  FSX seems to behave strangely when you get into the edges of the flight envelope.

The edges dont seem to have as much problem as the game coding does with million polygon aircraft and that makes it impossible to film even one on one. 
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Fishu on December 15, 2008, 07:05:53 PM
The best sources for the latest terminal charts:

USA: http://avn.faa.gov/index.asp?xml=naco/online/d_tpp
Europe (every chart per country): http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/eadcms/eadsite/index.php.html
UK: http://www.nats-uk.ead-it.com/public/index.php.html
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: moot on December 15, 2008, 08:36:24 PM
Never flown jet sims.. How long does it take you regulars to start up a jet for take off?
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: mensa180 on December 15, 2008, 09:19:53 PM
It depends if you start it up with switches or with the short cut key.  The switches could take you a little bit, the short cut key takes a couple minutes on a big jet.

Start and shutting down are easy, what is hard (and fun) is knowing what the heck ATC is talking about, reading charts properly, getting charts in advance, planning the flight, having a perfect landing.

Alright so some of those things aren't fun by most people, but call me lame; I love them.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Golfer on December 15, 2008, 09:25:47 PM
You can also use this real life pilot tool called fltplan.com. Registering is free. It will spit out the Wx and more importantly the  recomanded flight route that you can print out. It will give you ur nav aid, radials, distances, and even allow to print dept/arrivals/aproach charts.

Don't check the "File This" box if you do that.  "Learjet N12345 I don't have a flightplan for you to Midway but I do have one to Vienna Austria..."  :P
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 15, 2008, 11:25:35 PM
Never flown jet sims.. How long does it take you regulars to start up a jet for take off?

I only have two jets the one being the free SectionF8 F-86 Sabre which can be started in under one minute and the Aerosoft F-16.

The problem with the Aerosoft F-16 is that in order for a cold and dark start on the jet to work right you must (absolutely must) load the Cessna 172 first. That means load the game with the Cessna ready to go and then exit the flight and load the flight of the F-16. So even if you can start the jet in a minute its going to take several minutes to get it started. I have been flying it around the world and Im just about to land in Abu Dhabi UAE. I discovered in Micronesia that the landing light is inop and does not light the ground (they left it off intentionally). I dont know if its intentional or not but you can also refuel just be pulling the throttle back the A-A system active and the fuel door open (,aybe all you need is the fuel door open) so you could fly Mach 2 around the globe even without the AI tankers. It is easier for me to refuel off of a King Air then it is an airliner because the King Air is smoother in the air.

I ported the F-86 over to FSX (it was released for FS9) as did many many people (hey its free) with little problem and for a long long time it was my favorite jet. The F-16 has radar and thats a big deal to me because with the air refuelling you can stay in the air a very long time and it can climb to FL380 (above the weather) or higher and is very fast. I am a little disappointed in the F-16 because of all the bugs in it but at the end of the day it still works.

Commercial jets may be next for me but I also have this neat add-on called Cargo Pilot that I will play with for Christmas when the nephews are here.

(http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq197/Chalenge08/Camel.jpg)
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Gh0stFT on December 16, 2008, 05:42:09 AM
i also fly FSX often, nice Grafix, i fly mostly offline missions (Red Bull Airrace) or just seightseeing.
Last year i discovered a small freeware tool called 'FS-Recorder' http://www.fs-recorder.net/ (http://www.fs-recorder.net/)
It allows recording and playback of flights, the recorded flights can be played back either using the
user's aircraft or as AI traffic, which allows you to fly formations with yourself.
Hey and thats what i use now, its really fun! Try it out and fly formations with any Aircraft you like :)
Look on Youtube for FS Recorder to see it in Action.

Imagine escorting this bird...
(http://lh5.ggpht.com/simple.peterson/SC1Tv3BwrvI/AAAAAAAAAZc/NV2j7TbIPL0/s800/Shepherd.jpg)

R
Gh0stFT




Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: moot on December 16, 2008, 03:38:51 PM
Thanks :)
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Denholm on December 17, 2008, 02:58:57 PM
Haven't been flying online in VATSIM a lot recently. However I enjoyed a lot of the flying in Europe. Typically ATC there comes online and it gets wild around 3:00 P.M. Central (-6:00 GMT). A lot of fun at Heathrow when you are literally fighting to get a word in edge-wise.

Two great tools for monitoring traffic and ATC are here:

VATSIM Visual Display (http://www.webalice.it/robertobazzano/atcapplet/ada2jar.html) (Sorry Firefox users, only works with Internet Explorer.)
Servinfo (http://www.avsim.com/hangar/utils/servinfo/)
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 17, 2008, 03:12:39 PM
I just learned yesterday that IVAO has the record for greatest number of simultaneous connections? and 100000 users? Wow!
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Denholm on December 17, 2008, 03:26:14 PM
Sine you're an IVAO flier, I was curious. At what times are IVAO users online? I've checked on their website and through Servinfo a few times and never saw an active connection count above 0. :confused:
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 17, 2008, 03:37:39 PM
Im not sure if that even works since the new software has been implemented. Over the next few days there will be plenty of activity as the 10 year anniversary flights are launched across the globe.

Beginning fliers should keep an eye on the Academy because the shared cockpit instruction (once its 100%) will be a marvel of modern technology.

Im thinking about learning the PMDG 747 what do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cLW7yn_TZE
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Denholm on December 17, 2008, 03:40:14 PM
I already have my PMDG 747 and 737s tamed. Rather simple if you understand how to work the FMC. If you haven't learned how to fly the PMDG planes, do it! They're marvelous creations that nobody in the FS world should miss out on.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Cobra516 on December 17, 2008, 04:29:28 PM
Yea I've been thinking about buying a PMDG plane for a while, but I don't usually do much high altitude stuff, yet.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 17, 2008, 04:34:59 PM
I just bought the Cessna Mustang and I will probably get the Cessna 400 if it ever comes about (the Columbia 400 has the wrong avionics for me). Maybe I will get the PMDG after Christmas.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Denholm on December 17, 2008, 05:06:57 PM
If you're wondering which to buy for FSX, buy them both! PMDG is top-notch quality. They spent years making their 747, and I think two years making their MD-11. Absolute quality software if you combine it with some advanced camera software such as Active Camera or DBS Walk and Follow (http://www.dbsim.com/Waf.x/dbs.waf.x.htm).
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 17, 2008, 08:13:44 PM
PMDG eCommerce is offline for planned server upgrades. We anticipate returning to service at approximately 2000Z/18DEC08.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

This message will no longer be displayed when the system is live once again.

I guess I will do something else then.  :mad: :mad:
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Cobra516 on December 19, 2008, 01:27:44 AM
I got the Citation Mustang yesterday.  It's a killer on framerates - even with my relatively stout rig (Q9550 quad at 3.83 ghz, 4 gigs ram, and a GTX 280 SSC o/c'd) - granted I'm running FSX at max graphics settings with anti alaising, :lol  But it's drops the FPS by a lot compared to the other stuff I fly - guess that's part of having a highly detailed airplane to fly. 

I also got the Digital Aviation Cheyenne X - it's outstanding, excellent FPS and extremely detailed avionics/systems - I like the steam gauges better than glass anyway.
http://www.aerosoft.com/cgi-local/us/iboshop.cgi?showd490!0,4753328950,D10283

I can see how FSX can get very expensive, :lol
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 19, 2008, 02:12:21 AM
Did you experience ice up on the Mustang yet? Surprised me because I dont have another airplane that does that! It really got me thinking about the wing buildup after that!
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Cobra516 on December 19, 2008, 06:00:33 PM
Well I tweaked with the texture bandwidth buffer and bufferpool size in the fsx.cfg file and have it running very nicely now, even at max settings - I couldn't believe the improvement, can fly over LAX now and it's very smooth.  The Mustang still taxes it a bit, but certainly playable.

I saw some photos of the icing but haven't tried it yet, will have to give it a shot, very cool feature.  I wish all the airplanes would show ice accumulation.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Fishu on December 19, 2008, 08:43:29 PM
I already have my PMDG 747 and 737s tamed. Rather simple if you understand how to work the FMC. If you haven't learned how to fly the PMDG planes, do it! They're marvelous creations that nobody in the FS world should miss out on.

Then there's also LDS 767, Leonardo's Fly the Maddog (MD-80 series) and Flight1 ATR-72 for prop enthusiastics. They're actually better accuracy wise than PMDG. Although the MD-11 is great and ahead of the 747 and 737 in system modelling, however the 2D cockpit textures are awful.

I got the Citation Mustang yesterday.  It's a killer on framerates - even with my relatively stout rig (Q9550 quad at 3.83 ghz, 4 gigs ram, and a GTX 280 SSC o/c'd) - granted I'm running FSX at max graphics settings with anti alaising, :lol  But it's drops the FPS by a lot compared to the other stuff I fly - guess that's part of having a highly detailed airplane to fly.

I had some expectations towards the mustang, but now that it's released it appears to be completely useless to me and the developes appear to be a bit arrogant. Of all the problems the biggest problem is the inability to update navigational data. The devs jumped to defend this saying that with the updates the FS world wouldn't match the data, which is quite a poor excuse considering that airfields are not difficult at all to modify and I've never used the FS navigational data as the fixes and airways are completely outdated (which is also a good reason to stay off of outdated 3rd party navigation systems) - just doesn't fit to my online requirements.

So I will not get the mustang which lacks proper navigational data and something else.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 19, 2008, 09:27:47 PM
I had some expectations towards the mustang, but now that it's released it appears to be completely useless to me and the developes appear to be a bit arrogant. Of all the problems the biggest problem is the inability to update navigational data. The devs jumped to defend this saying that with the updates the FS world wouldn't match the data, which is quite a poor excuse considering that airfields are not difficult at all to modify and I've never used the FS navigational data as the fixes and airways are completely outdated (which is also a good reason to stay off of outdated 3rd party navigation systems) - just doesn't fit to my online requirements.

So I will not get the mustang which lacks proper navigational data and something else.


What were you hoping for? a Navigraph plugin? I guess if you use it for home based training it might be useful but otherwise? What is the other thing you mention? A flush handle on the toilet? (kidding) Is your AP giving you trouble too?
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Fishu on December 20, 2008, 07:57:32 AM
That's what I meant with the arrogance.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 20, 2008, 11:18:01 AM
Well given that reply I would have to say your expectations for bang/buck was too fantastic. I would expect something like that from a professional tool but not recreational software.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Fishu on December 20, 2008, 12:01:48 PM
Well given that reply I would have to say your expectations for bang/buck was too fantastic. I would expect something like that from a professional tool but not recreational software.

The Mustang *ALREADY* has navigational data, but for some reason they opted to not make it updateable. It doesn't make it any more professional, just easier when you have up to date navdata that compares with the charts. Try to plot your route in VATSIM/IVAO when airways or fixes doesn't compre with the available charts online. Not to mention how I as an ATC love people flying online with a flightplan route from 2001 or so - try then to figure out what kind of route he's going to use between airports X and Y!

Why do you conclude that I want a navigraph "plugin"? I'm talking about a text file with beacons, fixes, airways and airports in it, which already exists inthe product, but cannot be updated. Updateable navdata is a stantard nowadays and makes alot of things less of a hassle. Old data is useless and makes the equipment only partially useful. They advertised the Mustang as some sort of highly modelled piece of an addon, but for some reason they've badly neglected an essential piece of equipment and did not create a navdata file that could be easily updated. I figure it took them more effort to scramble it than use an existing readily available navdata format.

Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Cobra516 on December 20, 2008, 02:12:13 PM
How many add-on aircraft have updatable nav data? 
 
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 20, 2008, 03:37:43 PM
The data when you buy airports and aircraft are 'fixed' at some point in time (I think early 2006 typically) and I dont know of a single airplane that has upgradeable navdata but I havent looked too hard. It is true that IVAO has its own navigation data set but I have never run into a problem and also I have not spent enough time in the manual to try the Mustang online. If there is a real need for it then maybe this is an opportunity to market something!
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Fishu on December 20, 2008, 04:00:11 PM
How many add-on aircraft have updatable nav data? 

Almost every popular airplane with FMS/FMC, some with GPS, flightplanning utilities and some other miscenalleous programs.
Every PMDG plane, F1 ATR and The Super (MD)80, PSS planes, Wilco 737, Leonardo's Fly The Maddog and LDS B767. Those are the most popular commercial addons around for FS. Thousands of people download new AIRAC (navigational data) every month.


Chalenge,

Geez, you just insist on staying ignorant don't you? Popular airports are updated most of the time when there are significant changes and you don't have to buy those. At the simpliest level you only need a small AFCAD file that brings you every change to airport and it's easy to make. Even addon sceneries can be upgraded by a third party to include additional runways or change of ILS frequency.

And there's indeed market for the navdata - the updates are being sold!

I don't care what you prefer or what you don't run into, because it's about my preferrence along with many others I know. The others were keenly waiting the release of the Mustang, but every one them was dissapointed when they learned that there will not be updateable navdata and did not buy the addon solely because of that reason. That meant a loss of roughly ten sales due to one issue that is a minor coding problem at best. We've purchased most of the before mentioned addons.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 20, 2008, 04:06:07 PM
Well if your going to start tossing insults forget it. I still think you and your ten friends had elevated expectations and whether that is Flight1s fault or yours someone else will have to decide because I dont care.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 20, 2008, 06:56:48 PM
I hate to say it Fishu but you have been contradicted by many professionals producing aircraft for FSX and defending the position of Flight1. Flight1 says they will support SIDS/STARS. I believe the best thing supporters/users could do if the Mustang is a favorite is to fly it and give bug reports and if after that you are not happy then dont support a particular vendor. The way 'the ten' went off was as if they have a personal vendetta against Flight1 and that wont fly.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: mensa180 on December 20, 2008, 07:08:41 PM
My machine gets 80 fps at times, but averages 15-20 it seems.  When it hops about like that I get major stutters with it dropping to 5 fps or less!  I have had to do many modifications to the fsx.cfg file AND limited the frame rate to 21 plus setting all settings to their minimums and I still get 20 fps if I'm doing GOOD.  In extreme weather (with active sky/ graphics X) I get 10-15 fps and slight stuttering, not even going to think about what I would suffer through if I went online and dealt with traffic.

The stutters only started happening after I installed SP1 and SP2, but I still had low frame rates before that--just no stutters.

I have a ATI 4850 vid card (512mb memory), 2.5 gigs of ram and an "intel (r) pentium (r) 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)" processor <--taken from dxdiag

I want to increase my performance (no jokes guys ;)) so I am cleaning off the computer and reformatting it.  My computer is pretty bloated and I think I should get some increase after the reformat.

Any help with getting this to run better?
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 20, 2008, 10:25:36 PM
You should get a lot better frames. Let me tell you what I have done and you can see how things work for you.

Go to AVSIM.com and download the FSXMark07 benchmark. Its just a saved free flight with the CRJ700 but it with FRAPS will give you benchmarks you can tune your system for. The flight is over Seattle and Boeing Field and SeaTac then Auburn... and it can be taxing on your system. The benchmark only needs five minutes for each run... you should read the directions with the benchmark actually...

In Settings I have the following setup:

Graphics:

Device (your graphics card)
Target Framerate (60 - refresh rate of your monitor - unlimited)
full screen resolution (native resolution)
Filtering - Anisotropic
Antialiasing (unchecked)
Global texture resolution (Very high - maximum)
DX10 Preview (unchecked)
Lens Flare (unchecked)
Light Boom (unchecked)
Advanced animations (checked)
Informational text (continuous - pretty sure this is your discretion)

Aircraft:

3D Virtual cockpit
show cockpit tooltips (checked)
high-resolution cockpit (checked)
2D transparency (set to 0%)
Aircraft shadows (both off)
Landing light illuminates ground (on)

Scenery:

LOD: edit fsx.cfg to set
Mesh Complexity - 65%
Mesh Resolution - 10m
Texture Resolution - 1m
Water effects - Low 2.x
Scenery complexity - Extremely Dense
Autogen Density - Dense
Ground Shadows - unchecked
Special effects detail - High

Weather -

Cloud draw distance - 110km
Thermal visualization - none (doesnt matter really)
Detailed Clouds (checked) set to maximum
Rate at which weather changes (medium)

Traffic: If you have default traffic this will kill your frame rates. I recommend WOAI.

Commercial Traffic - 100%
General Aviation Traffic - 100%
Airport Vehicle traffic - Minimum
Road and Boats - 0%
Aircraft labels - All unchecked

With default traffic I would use it sparingly... like under 20%. Default traffic uses the full model and it wastes resources.

I have FSX.CFG as a shortcut on my desktop so that if I make changes in the flight sim to settings I can change the LOD_RADIUS value back to the illegal value I use.

I set my framerate limit (UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT) to 60 though I am not sure if it makes a difference from being set to 0 (unlimited) and the texture bandwidth multiplier (TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT)to 120. I dont think you should mess with FIBRE_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.33 because every value I tried other then .33 gave worse stutters but I think the most important is LOD_RADIUS which I have set for 6.5 (an illegal value above the scale in settings).

Now that you have a shortcut for fsx.cfg you can make adjustments to UFL and TBM and LR to figure out what works best for your system. I set the 'Settings' area as I indicated and then set UFL and TBM before tweaking LR. I got peaks of frame rates at 3.25 6.5 and 9.75 with 6.5 being slightly better (I tested by changing by a factor of 0.05). In the FSXMark07 benchmark the stutters occur at turn #2 and over the airfields worse then anywhere (you will see what I mean). I was able to get rid of them completely but as I said the UFL I am using is beyond the reach of the slider in the settings panel.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: B17Skull12 on December 20, 2008, 11:14:56 PM
the one thing that is kind of bugging me about FSX, and maybe it is because i was used to FS2002 and FS2000, but it is really lacking in freeware planes.  The PMDG stuff is  :O :O :O :O$100 and I keep reading about this captsim 757 $40.  Too much for the plane.  The only shareware i ever got was $20 and it was a 747-200 pack for FS2000 and it was well worth it to me.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Fishu on December 21, 2008, 12:47:21 AM
I hate to say it Fishu but you have been contradicted by many professionals producing aircraft for FSX and defending the position of Flight1. Flight1 says they will support SIDS/STARS. I believe the best thing supporters/users could do if the Mustang is a favorite is to fly it and give bug reports and if after that you are not happy then dont support a particular vendor. The way 'the ten' went off was as if they have a personal vendetta against Flight1 and that wont fly.

I'm sorry for the insult but I hate it when my needs are ignored and downplayed as rubbish. You may like it, but it's useless to tell me to like it when I don't get an essential feature with it. I don't know whether you fly offline or online, but I fly exclusively online if I'm not training for a new aircraft and up to date navigational data helps alot - helps me as a pilot and the ATC trying to figure out which kind of route I'm flying. ATC doesn't have years old data, so it's useless to say you're flying via route that no longer exists and the ATC has never heard about. Thanks to the updates for ATC sectors and plane addons I've as the ATC only very rarely ran across pilots with this problem. Majority of people flying online are using up to date data - the rest are improvising. I don't like to improvise, especially if I've paid for a highly detailed aircraft.

I tried to access a forum thread where a developer arrogantly denies the possibility to update the navdata, downplaying the importance of the feature, but they have since then moved the thread into the members only area (http://mustang.flight1.net/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=178).

I suppose you meant the professionals in this thread: http://mustang.flight1.net/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=294
Let's be short about it:
1) You asked whether SIDSTAR procedures will exists in the product, which is slightly off the point I was making and somewhat irrelevant to the issue I'm having with it
- I'm not so worried of SIDSTARs as for up to date navigational data (RNAV SIDSTARs can be programmed as part of the route if the proper navigational aids exists in the nav data; of course properly implemented SIDSTARs are much more helpful if you need to change it in-flight to another one), which includes fixes, NDB and VOR beacons, airways, runways and airports.
- You asked whether it SIDSTARs will exist, but you did not ask whether those will be updated. SIDSTARs without updates are useless in many airports. What's surprising to me is that it appears from the thread as if SIDSTARs are not already included in the old navigational database that they've included into the product. I thought they had included SIDSTARs into the data already and not just the support for it(!).
2) The answers do not state anywhere that you will be able to update any of it as new ones are published elsewhere.

So that changes nothing of what I've been trying to say here.


In many other commercial products SIDSTARs are not automatically updated with each AIRAC update and are often updated individually by random enthusiastics (http://www.navdata.at). Although Navigraph (http://www.navigraph.com) has lately began to offer up to date SIDSTARs included with the AIRAC updates for some of the addons. Although user made sidstars from Navdata are often more accurate than the generated files.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Fishu on December 21, 2008, 01:23:27 AM
the one thing that is kind of bugging me about FSX, and maybe it is because i was used to FS2002 and FS2000, but it is really lacking in freeware planes.  The PMDG stuff is  :O :O :O :O$100 and I keep reading about this captsim 757 $40.  Too much for the plane.  The only shareware i ever got was $20 and it was a 747-200 pack for FS2000 and it was well worth it to me.

Yeah, I've thought for a long time that the PMDG products are a bit overpriced. At least if compared to those addons that are even more accurately modelled but cheaper. Although PMDG is one of the best around and their latest addition, the MD11, surpasses their previous products in terms of accuracy of the systems. However the MD11 wasn't originally developed by them, it was acquired while its development had already been underway for some time. Originally it was supposed to be a freeware release, but the developer needs to eat too and these projects can take enormous amount of time and dedication. A luxury that only a few are able to afford without a salary.


Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Gh0stFT on December 21, 2008, 07:07:24 AM
hey Chalenge, i have a smilar setup like you, actually i have 3 differnet settings saved, before start
i load the one i need. One setup ist constant 60fps & monitor (or beamer) refresh at 60. I use this setup
for Airrace and Carrier missions where 100% smooth fps is need for the right feeling. Just a small stuttering
would kill the expirience especialy with my Track IR pro.

Other setups are less fps but much more detail, i use this for seeightseeing.

R
Gh0stFT
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 21, 2008, 11:50:45 AM
Fishu Rhoads said last night he is looking into many options. I believe that they were planning on keeping the SIDSTARS stuff to the ESP version but now they are looking at repairing the data that was accidentally left off and considering the best options for their customers. I am hoping it comes through something like Navigraph but maybe there is a better solution for everyone I dont know about (that would not be hard to believe)?

As to the PMDG prices I can only say that is a marketing decision more then it is a consideration of what he went through to create the product. Obviously once the product is complete there is an infinite supply but demand still determines if he continues with the next product or merely tries to get out of the market with his assets intact (subjectively speaking). PMDG obviously has an excellent product and considering the quantity of materials and quality of the aircraft their asking price is perhaps a little high but not so far out of whack with the rest of the market.

Ghost it sounds like you came up with something that works well for different flights and thats always good. Thats about how I approached it but of course I was just trying to get the Aerosoft F-16 to behave near major hubs.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 22, 2008, 03:07:58 AM
Another really nice looking aircraft will be on AVSIM available for download today. I just installed it and it looks great but I havent flown it enough yet. I did notice I didnt ice up anywhere...

(http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq197/Chalenge08/T45J-2.jpg)
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 22, 2008, 12:07:36 PM
What kind of Hellcat pilot shoots down his wingmen? The new F-6F from RealFlight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYqHFzwU5ks
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Cobra516 on December 22, 2008, 12:25:07 PM
Another really nice looking aircraft will be on AVSIM available for download today. I just installed it and it looks great but I havent flown it enough yet. I did notice I didnt ice up anywhere...

(http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq197/Chalenge08/T45J-2.jpg)
Post a link, can't find it. ?
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 22, 2008, 12:46:40 PM
Post a link, can't find it. ?

Just search for 'T-45C' and you can also see the repaints. Or:

Aircraft:

http://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=127412

Repaints:

http://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=127639
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 22, 2008, 02:17:48 PM
I tried to refuel at 42000 feet with Active Sky Advanced (ASA - the reason for the original post) and I can tell you it makes it more difficult! My first attempt I actually got pushed off by the wake turbulence so I wised up and found a King Air to refuel from.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Cobra516 on December 23, 2008, 01:09:24 AM
Haha refueling eh?  I've heard you can do that but don't know the details of how to.   I downloaded the T-45 but will need to pick up Acceleration to make it fully functional, will do that soon. 

So I discovered tonight that I don't think my Digital Aviation Cheyenne likes VATSIM/FSInn - I crashed at the same point 3 times in a row on the same flight / profile - no idea what's causing it, the "this program stopped responding" window pops up and that's it.  The same flight works fine offline.  Damn.  That's my favorite airplane :(  Any ideas for a fix?  I modified the dll.xml file and moved the FSCopilot entry to the last spot in the line of commands - read that may fix it, guess I'll find out next time up. 
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Fishu on December 23, 2008, 01:47:05 AM
So I discovered tonight that I don't think my Digital Aviation Cheyenne likes VATSIM/FSInn - I crashed at the same point 3 times in a row on the same flight / profile - no idea what's causing it, the "this program stopped responding" window pops up and that's it.  The same flight works fine offline.  Damn.  That's my favorite airplane :(  Any ideas for a fix?  I modified the dll.xml file and moved the FSCopilot entry to the last spot in the line of commands - read that may fix it, guess I'll find out next time up. 

If it doesn't fix it up, then disable all the addons and replicate the flight to the point of crash. If it works out, then enable an addon or more and try again, till you have narrowed down which one crashes it.

Once I had a scenery which had a slightly faulty AFCAD file, but it caused me to crash 100 miles away from the airport, but not at the airport.
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on December 23, 2008, 01:05:42 PM
Haha refueling eh?  I've heard you can do that but don't know the details of how to.   I downloaded the T-45 but will need to pick up Acceleration to make it fully functional, will do that soon. 

So I discovered tonight that I don't think my Digital Aviation Cheyenne likes VATSIM/FSInn - I crashed at the same point 3 times in a row on the same flight / profile - no idea what's causing it, the "this program stopped responding" window pops up and that's it.  The same flight works fine offline.  Damn.  That's my favorite airplane :(  Any ideas for a fix?  I modified the dll.xml file and moved the FSCopilot entry to the last spot in the line of commands - read that may fix it, guess I'll find out next time up. 

You should get a target lock on your intended 'camel' so you can see relative closure rates. It is a little buggy in the reported speed of the locked target but the missile ring will give you a pretty good idea of the closure rate.

The simplest way to refuel is to just hit the button that opens the refuel door. It doesnt always work but I discovered while I was chasing down a s-turning 737 that there is a bug where the plane refuels when the refuel door is open whether you are behind an AI 'camel' or not. Since learning that I dont hit the switch until I am nearly behind the AI camel.

When you open the refuel door the right hand indicator lights up with a blue 'RDY' at the top and a red 'DISC' at the bottom. When you got to the boom position (there is no boom) and hook up the middle of the indicator will light up 'AR/NWS' as you take on fuel. When you are full of fuel the green light goes out leaving only 'RDY.'
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Cobra516 on December 23, 2008, 10:49:55 PM
Well damn this sucks - I did the .dll mod and it crashed almost instantly after loading FSInn.  I re-installed FSInn/FSCoPilot and tried the flight again, crashes at about the same point - only happens while connected to VATSIM - works fine offline.  I'm pissed. 
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: B17Skull12 on January 25, 2009, 01:56:49 PM
well we don't know what is coming in the future but microsoft has shut down ACES studio's.  So the next flightsim may just be 3rd party.



http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/01/trouble_in_the_software_busine.php
Title: Re: FSX - whats coming?
Post by: Chalenge on January 25, 2009, 02:03:44 PM
As has been noted here:

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,256942.0.html

probably a move toward pay as you go gaming.  :mad: