Flight Sims

[Freude am Fahren]

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.

[Reynard]

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.

[Tom Servo]

Crossposting from VR thread.

X-Plane 11 has native VR support now:

[Freude am Fahren]

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.

[dodint]

Does this version have Mars? I haven't used X-Plane in over 10 years.

[Tom Servo]

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?

[Tom Servo]

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).







Excited about this, though I haven't seen any mention of VR yet.

https://www.polygon.com/2019/9/30/20...-hands-on-demo

[Rare White Ape]

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.

[Rare White Ape]

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

[Freude am Fahren]

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

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