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Flight Sims
Once again, I thought we had a thread already, but I guess not. I've been reading up on Prepar3d (I know there was a thread at our last stop), and it looks really promising. So I just bought it, it's downloading at home as I sit here at work.
With Flight being a complete flop, it looks like this is the star right now. Surely not the same following as FSX, but with it being almost completely compatible, many developers are releasing simultaneously for both. And even FSX dedicated items work in many cases. So why not take advantage of P3D's advantages in performance?
I've also been wanting to get back into DCS: Warthog. The biggest reason I got away from that was not the complexity, but the dexterity, you could say. With my joystick, one screen, it was dificult to find all the buttons, and keep track of keyboard hotkeys, not to metnion see where you want to look while mainting good flight control. I hope all of that will improve, as I've finally ordered TrackIR. And I also pre-ordered the new Seitek X55. I think that will make it much more enjoyable. Also still need to figure out how I want to set up my desk for triple monitors.
As for War Thunder, I think I need to read into it a bit more. It can be fun and the ease of joining into a multiplayer session certainly is appealing, but I haven't figured out the way you progress in this game, so I'm woefully undermachined in most battles.
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Well, Prepa3d *IS* FSX with updates - Lockheed Martin bought all the IP from Microsoft.
I don't have it but then that's because I don't have my desktop PC set up out here in CA and probably won't anytime soon. Plus, I'd rather spend my time and money flying for real. :)
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Warthunder, you are pretty underpowered to begin with, especially if you play certain countries early on, because as it is now your plan is an old used model when you get it, and you have to upgrade it to get it performing properly. Kinda a balance mechanic to keep the player from rushing too quickly through the game.
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I'm really digging on Prepare3d 2.0, it's nice to see the technology in the game finally catching up to like early 2000s levels (seriously, I remember buying 3D graphics cards back in the late 90s and we have to wait until 2014 to get ~FSX to support them?) What I really need more than anything else to mess around with that more is a significantly less shitty computer desk. Got no room for anything, I can't even have the joystick, throttle, and keyboard on the desk at the same time.
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I only tried p3d briefly last night, but I got bunch of crashes, and freezes. It was saying my computer was out of memory, but it wasn't even close. I'm guessing it's bc it's 32-bit and can only utilize 4gb? But i wasn't even on max settings or near a city. I'm going to have to look into that. Surely the game doesn't constantly try to use more memory than it's programmed to use?
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That's surprising, I have had no problems at all with crashes or freezes.
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I tuned the settings a bit and haven't had any problems. Mem usage hovers around 2gb. I need to keep messing with some setting, as I know p3d now utilizes the GPU much more than FSX and even v1.x.
By the way, while trying to install a scenery add-on for FSX (ORBX PNW demo), my registry apparently points to the wrong place (an old FSX install) and thus I can't install it. I tried FSX Registy fix but that didn't seem to work.
[edit] Went through my registry and manually changed every reference to the old location to the new one, ugh. But it worked.
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I went to the Prepar3d site, and it confused me, looks like it is marketed more as actually flight simulator lessons for pilots rather than a flight sim for gamers who want something realistic but don't plan on getting an actual license.
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It is a bit odd. Best I can figure, it's all just legalese in order to get around some kind of rights agreement they have in order to continue the platform. I got an academic license. It says in small letters in the corner "Academic License." Other than that, it's the same as the other main version.
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Yeah, short version:
Microsoft decided to abandon the Flight Simulator franchise and instead start the Microsoft Flight project. It was a free-to-play simulator that was dumbed down a bit (though still not terrible), and then everything but the first part of the world and a couple of planes were pay add-ons. It didn't take off at all - too simmy for your average gamer, not simmy enough for people into sims, and after 6 months or so, Microsoft abandoned it.
Around that same time, Lockheed bought up the code and almost all of the actual Flight Simulator team and brought them in house. Part of the agreement with Microsoft was that Lockheed would not try to compete in the entertainment market against Microsoft Flight, so they market it as an educational tool and only the professional, $300 or so license was available. After Flight was abandoned, Lockheed came out with the "Academic License". However, I think Lockheed hasn't bothered to spend the time and money to get Microsoft to change the original agreement, so if you look in the EULA for Flight Simulator, it actually says you cannot use it for entertainment purposes.
Extremely silly, but at this point everyone pretty much knows that Lockheed are winking everytime they mention something like that. It is FSX updated to work with modern, dual-core processors and use DirectX 11.
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Yeah, I found it a bit odd, that they didn't rework the agreement when Flight was abandoned and release V2 as a normal sim. I guess it's just easier this way, though for the end user, it could be a mess legally (not that anyone would ever be pursued).
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X-55 arrived today. First impression: It's (They're?) massive. Further impressions to come.
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My X-45 is super old and kinda gross, curious to see how the X-55 is.
Just installed Prepar3d v2.2 but no chance to play it yet. Went for a flight with my wife, my sister, and my sister's friend (he was the pilot) in a Piper Arrow II up the east side of the Sierra Nevada range on Saturday, landing at Bishop, then heading back down here.
I got to sit in the copilot seat on the trip back from Bishop and was pretty happy that I knew what nearly everything was, except that I don't think I'd ever seen an exhaust temp gauge before, which the pilot explained helped to figure out what the optimal fuel mixture was while in flight - when it's off, the exhaust temps drop. I also understood just about everything I heard over the radio, though I definitely had a much harder time immediately recognizing the plane's call sign when said over the radio than the pilot did, I would have missed messages for us far too often.
Definitely fun to go on that long of a flight doing the real thing and to hear all the radio traffic going on. I feel reasonably confident too that, if something had happened, I probably could have managed to get the plane back to the right airport and land it without ruining too many people's days.
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DId you get any actual stick (yoke?) time?
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Naah, not this time out. The guy who was flying the plane definitely takes all the rules and procedures about flying extremely seriously, so I didn't even bother asking. I have done a bit in another plane once though, I found it much easier to do than on a sim, since you can actually feel everything.
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First impressions of the X-55:
Makes Sims (especially DCS) much more fun and user friendly having all of those buttons and axes. Hardly going to the keyboard anymore.
Very sturdy feeling almost all around.
I like having the "toggles" just be two separate buttons rather than real toggle switches. Give a lot more options for buttons.
Software is a bit annoying. I can never get the profiler to recognize both the throttle and stick for axis adjustments. But I can still program both. Humph. Also I can't figure out how to unload a profile. I loaded an msfs profile that replaced the buttons with macros and basically had to go through and put them all back to normal. I don't know why you'd use that instead of just assigning in the sim anyway, other than in one of the other two 'modes' for extra buttons.
I can't get any game to recognize the little slider on the throttle near your thumb position. The profiler sees it, but games don't and the game controllers dialogue doesn't see, to either. Same thing for the mouse nipple so far. That would be perfect for slew in DCS.
It comes with the strongest spring installed and I immediately swapped it for the lightest. Feels really good. Just a bit lighter than my old sidewinder was. I might try the next one up. Kinda wished the throttles could get even lighter than they are on the lightest setting but that might get better with some break in.
Keep in mind this is my first HOTAS or even high quality throttle, but I love it.
I also need to rethink my desk space. I can't go full nose-down without angling or moving it off the desk.
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Did he give you a big thing about flying lean of peak vs rich of peak Tom?
I dont know if there is a flight school near you but the one here does intro flights for 100 bucks which are an hour or so flight which gets you some stick time plus some ground preflight stuff.
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He did not, actually, and of course I only remember some of it anyway.
There are a ton of flight schools around here, and I've done the intro flight thing, which was great. But it's clearly an expensive hobby and, right now, I've got enough of those!
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Honestly the hardest thing for me has always been the radio. My hearing isn't the greatest and the sound quality of the radio usually isn't good.
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Yeah, I always felt that way too. Especially since it seems everyone on the comms seems to want to say the least possible in the quickest way possible. The shorthand combined with the speed at which many pilots and controllers speak is tough to get used to.
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I still haven't found a good resource on how to use the HUD software. First of all, when I start up, it (usually) has two icons in the tray, right clicking does nothing, and there is no difference in their icon or name. It seems like you need to open two instances of HUD, one for the throttle, one for the stick. I can't figure out how to get one instance to recognize both at once. This seems to only be for calibration/axes, as the program can see button presses in the programming tab from both.
I would normally forego the software, but it seems without it, you can't use the mouse nipple or slider buttons. Even with them programmed, they don't work well. The mouse clearly needs to be calibrated, but I can't figure out how. I'm going to email Saitek about this.
I also can't get a DCS profile to work. It will load, but doesn't actually seem to work in the game. I wonder if I'm going something wrong too maybe? It'd be nice if there was some kinda of info on how to use it.
Aside from the (unsurprisingly) bad software, the hardware is awesome, and programming the buttons/axes through the sim/game works just fine, but you lose a bit of functionality. For example, if the game doesn't allow you to assign an axis for something (like speedbrake in A10-C), you can program an axis to hit button macros for a given percentage through the profiler. At least, you're supposed to be able to. And of course that slider and mouse are useless without it.
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fwiw Russ I've been using a modded X52 for many years now and I gave up on the Saitek software not long after getting it. It was nothing but frustrating and a time waster in my experience. Luckily since I pretty much just virtually fly stuff from the 60's or older, I generally have more then enough switches, toggles, sliders etc. without the need for any mode switching and macros.
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Crossposting from VR thread.
X-Plane 11 has native VR support now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpKlKyoO0lc
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Just got X-Plane 11. FSX was getting a bit tired (and messy with the add-ons), and I just wanted to try something new.
Love it, except ATC is useless compared to FSX, and I enjoy pretending to be an airline pilot, so that's a let down. Supposedly 11.3 improves ATC.
Gonna need to up the PC game for higher detail, but even at the level I'm running it looks as good or better than FSX.
Now time to look into add-ons to improve it even more.
Also finally put to use those rudder pedals I got from Reynard.
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Does this version have Mars? I haven't used X-Plane in over 10 years.
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I wonder if the VR has improved any, I haven't really messed with it since it came out.
I also felt like it wasn't that hard to look much better than FSX, did they ever get hardware acceleration patched onto that?
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Looks like there was a big media event for the upcoming MS Flight Simulator yesterday, with the main schtick being that reporters would fly around the area by MS headquarters in the sim and then get into an actual Cessna and do the same (except for take off and landing, that was handled by an instructor in the plane with them). The visuals look pretty bonkers, and I like that it sounds like what I'd been hoping for, that tech like Google Earth would be used, is happening. Satellite imagery over real world terrain data.
It's surprisingly hard to find the set of images that MS clearly gave out (more than one article had identical pictures).
https://cnet2.cbsistatic.com/img/lxr...unset-logo.jpg
https://news-cdn.softpedia.com/image...d-527627-2.jpg
https://compass-ssl.xbox.com/assets/...350x759_02.jpg
Excited about this, though I haven't seen any mention of VR yet.
https://www.polygon.com/2019/9/30/20...-hands-on-demo
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Yep this one is definitely on my list.
It’ll be cross-play with Xbox One as well, so even console plebs can enjoy it.
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Here’s a fairly long-winded but interesting video on the media event. Mostly footage of real-world flying so feel free to skip to the b-roll footage of the game. Salient points:
Accessible ease-of-use for flight sim n00bs
Real world map and building data pulled from Microsoft’s own mapping service, combined with laser-scanned terrain and handmade landmarks, as well as procedural terrain generation from 2D terrain imagery (I guess it will be hierarchical based on how popular certain areas will be)
Full weather system that affects the physics and gameplay, with seasonal changes to come as development progresses (somewhat of a GAAS model I’m guessing)
VR not implemented right now but will come in a future update
And for the cashed-up sadists there was mention of support for full motion and FFB flight yokes as they come to market
https://youtu.be/UYXV5S8Mpx0
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Yeah, I can't wait. I've been enjoying XP11, which felt like a huge jump from FSX, even with a lot of mods. I've been doing a lot of my own scenery improvements, and flying VFR in locations I know, but this is beyond anything right now.
I have a feeling this will dictate my PC upgrade I talked about in that thread. Especially once VR is available. This in 4k or VR :eek:
Of course, most of the focus has been the visuals so far, but impressions on the flight models were good from the event. The last parts (IFR, ATC, systems, etc) is still to be seen. The main thing I do in XP11 is pretend I'm a commercial airline pilot :lol:
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In terms of PC hardware, it will be a cross-play title on Xbox one, so even a mid-range system should handle it beautifully. So far every XB1 game I’ve played on my PC (esp Gears 5 and FH4) has run like a dream because they’re so well optimised.
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I'm getting the feeling the X-Box version will be 'dumbed down,' though maybe that's not a great phrase for it.
As far as I know, this is being developed for the PC and ported to X-Box, not the other way around? Maybe I'm just being hopeful?
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Yup, signed up last week :)
Hope I get the tech alpha program.
Might be a bit out of date on hardware for it, but maybe that's good, they'll see how it performs on older machines :D
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Just tried to resubmit my hardware spec for the alpha program, but it's too late:( I checked yesterday and you still could, but my new GPU didn't arrive until today.
Maybe they'll pick me as a low spec test case :lol:
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Looks like I missed out.
Next phase then…
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Huh, I signed up on the insider program but never heard anything about submitting tech specs. Meh.
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There's a tab on the insider website for tech alpha sign up. After filling out some form boxes, they ask for a tech tool to run and generate a report on your tech specs that you upload to them.
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There's an insider website?!?
I get this feeling like my initial sign-up didn't take in the way that I should have expected. That or I skimmed the welcome email.
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I watch a lot of (real) aviation videos on YouTube, and it seems like every top comments on recent ones is about how realistic FS2020 looks :lol:
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Not much in the last couple updates, but feedback is rolling in from the first Tech Alpha group (I still haven't been picked :( )
Anyway, I thought this screenshot would be of interest here.
https://msgpwebsites.azureedge.net/f...erstone_50.png
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Despite the next update scheduled for the 9th, they decided to get in the spirit of the season and launch a seasons teaser (/confirmation?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQFmpakz9Yo&feature=emb_logo
Looks like a far leap from just winter textures. It appears to be dynamic based on the first shot of it falling in NY, and it affects buldings, autogen, and the ground. :up:
I'd love to see how it affects airport operations, if it does.
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It looks great. I'll be interested to see if it has a truly realistic flight model. I remember playing pretty much every version of MFS from FS4 to FSX, and it seemed like the basic underlying physics engine just got improved over time and never truly rewritten. I never was able to put a plane in FS into a true aerodynamic spin.
Having my pilot's license and flown single engine Cessnas, Pipers, and Grummans, I put a Cessna 150 into a spin as part of my flight training (not required by this point, but I wanted to learn how to recognize and prevent or recover from a spin quickly as they cause a significant number of loss-of-control accidents) probably 20-30 times. It's pretty easy to do in a Cessna, but it just won't go in FSX or any earlier version I've experienced.
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They are taking a new approach to the flight model. I think it'll probably be closer to X-Plane 11 than FSX would be my guess.
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I've not done a flight sim in probably 15 years (IL2). I just want to hop into a plane and fly and watch the scenery. Hopefully they have a "dumb dumb" mode for just that, so I'm not having to fuck around with prop pitch and air/fuel mixtures, etc, etc.
I just want to see all the pretty
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I’m pretty sure they will. One of their recent development videos mentioned making it easy to play on an Xbox controller, while also giving the option for hardcore flight nerds to make it as sadistic as they want.
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New rounds of Alpha invitations are taking place.
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsof...erway-and-more
Don't forget to log in and complete the survey - hopefully some of us will be invited soon!
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Yup. Still not picked. :mad:
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Cancel the last :D
https://i.giphy.com/media/V2AkNZZi9ygbm/source.gif
(I don't think that violates NDA?)
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The question I have: will you be able to do mach 2 20' above the Sears Tower?
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All of the airports.
ALL. OF. THE. AIR. PORTS.
https://youtu.be/10P21oFOxAU
Pretty clever, if a bit labour intensive. And of course they’re using Bing Maps…
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I'm actually quite blown away by this game, and like drew i really hope that a n00b like me can play it easily enough.
Instantly recognised Queenstown's airport in the vid above, as have been plane spotting there before, and last year we stayed in a hotel there that's right across the road from the runway. I'm not an elite PCer, so it'd be the OneX for me, hopefully it still looks epic on that come release time.