I got my CD in the mail a few days ago and WOW!. I had always thought BT set the standard for classic round-engined birds, but the R4D takes it to a whole new level.I did have a couple of questions though. I noticed that from certain angles, various bits of the airplanes appear and disappear, ranging from the antennas on the DC3 to the prop hub and cowling tops on the R4D, is there a way to correct this or is it a hiccup in the model?My other comment is that my CD was missing the XC47 for some reason I downloaded it off the maam site, so its no big deal to me, but I thought you'd like to know that there may be some V7 CD's that are missing that part(everything else was on the disk). thanks for the great model,David S

Hi David,I'll let Jan respond to the question about the nature of those phantom antennae, because I don't know the answer. I only noticed the phenomenon myself the other day for the first time, probably because it does not happen in full screen mode on my system. I suspect it's a video card related issue.Now, as for the other missing item - the XC-47 on the 7th Edition CD... GOOD GRIEF!!! I just checked, and to my horror confirmed that the big floatie is indeed missing in action on the latest iteration of the Douglas CD! I am mortified. :-hangI will begin burning 8th Edition CD's to correct the ommission today. In the meantime, the obvious fix is to DL and install the Amphib as you have done. Here is a direct link to her...http://library.avsim.net/sendfile.php?Loca...=ftp&DLID=55234My abject apologies for the oversight. I'll blame my still recovering bad left eye. Otherwise I have to admit to yet another senior moment. ;-)Bill RambowMAAM-SIM http://www.fssupport.com/maam/maamsim_neon.gif

Bill, Saw your post in reply to David. You have all the senior moments you need, anyone with your talent has earned them!Hope the eye heals well. Regards Blue, & still enjoying both the creations!!

I've noticed the same thing with the R4D. It only happens when I zoom in past 1:1 and it seems to depend on the camera angle, too. I first saw it months ago, but never thought to post anything about it.

David and Ken,can you let us know what video cards you are using please ? Also, do you see this phenomenon with other add-on aircraft models too ? Do you see this in Window or full screen mode or both maybe ? thanks,Jan

Finally found a place here in UK who sells the R4D, and I fell in love with her as soon as she arrived. One circuit, that was all it took, one circuit and I was hooked. She's georgeous from the look and sound right down the flames and smoke on startup.BTW I loved the D-Day additions with the Paras, have done two runs over Oshkosh to pay tribute to those brave men. Can't be at the real Oshkosh for obvious reasons but can be there in spirit.Once more, thanks guys, sweet rendition of a sweet old lady that a lot of aircraft enthusiasts have a large soft spot for.

Jan,I'm running a Geforce4 FX5900 in fullscreen mode (my PC tends to crash if I go into windowed, so I haven't tested that yet) Some other aircraft also do this, but the R4D seems to be the only aircraft that actually has parts of the airframe vanishing, instead of just antennas. I have played around with FS a bit and it looks like there is some correlation between the lights being on and the disappearing bits, but it isn't consistent. Weather also seems to play a role in this as well as the vanishing doesn't seem to happen as often when flying in clouds as in clear weather.

David,I suppose you have tried various drivers for your video card ? Mind you, i am certainly no expert on hardware but your comment about seeing this phenomenon appear with other models too makes me assume it must be a video card issue. Be it antenna's or prop hubs doesn't make a difference, it's all just 3D objects 'glued' together. In the 'old days' of FS aircraft design we needed to take care of this 'glueing' ourselves,i.e. manually put 'ghost triangles' in between certain groups of connected parts to stop them bleeding thru one another. It could easily happen with a model, if not 'glued together' correctly, with certain angles of view you'd see part of the fuselage dissapear to show the opposite wing and engine nacelle(s), a terrible sight! :( When FSDS and FS2K came around luckily those days were over ( i have always compared working with former FS aircraft design programs like AF5 and AF99, not to speak of MS A&SD, the first ever FS related 'CAD' progam, to working with FSDS and later GMax, as coming from flying a Tiger Moth to flying an F-16 :-cool ), for one thing we didn't need to worry about 'glueing' anymore. No more worries about which part would get view priority over another. All done automatically now.So, as far as that goes, i can assure you that the vanishing of some parts you are seeing has nothing to do with how the model was put together in FSDS or GMax. It's just a wild guess but i can imagine that certain video cards might have more problems with dealing with this 'auto priority view' ( there's a proper name for it but has escaped me at the moment) then others. I have always used Geforce cards ( currently Geforce 6800Ultra )and i myself have never been confronted with this phenomenon ( crashing when trying to go to windowed mode, sure ! But today not anymore (-: ) I actually hope you did not try any other drivers for your FX5900, as it might well prove to be solution when you do!Good luck !cheers,Jan

Jan,Thanks for the reply. I have tried different drivers and nothing seems to make a difference. The weird part of all this is that the vanishing issue only happens sporadically and no one thing seems to make it appear or go away, so I guess its just some quirky thing on my system.

I'm running a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 with recently updated drivers. From what I see, your theory about it being a prioritizing problem sounds likely. It only happens at certain zoom levels and angles, mainly closer zooms and forward quarter. I don't really consider it a problem, it doesn't always happen.

All, I read the posts - I too have similarly experienced this behaviour. Not just on the MAAM aircraft. Described happenings are the same. I have updated drivers across the board - changing them has had no effect one way nor the other. I am running a nVidea 6800 LE 128Mg AMD Athlon 2700+ CPU if that is of any significance. I just live with it - doesn't cause too much grief.This info may help someone.Regards Blue.

Too bad changing drivers doesn't resolve the problem! Very intriguing the more so that other people with different video cards see it too. Would be interesting to see a post from someone using one of the same cards as are mentioned here and NOT having this problem...Say,guys, when this phenomenon occurs, can you make the dissapearing part turn up again by changing your view point in any sort of way ? David, can you put up a screenshot of the vanished engine cowling top,please ? cheers,Jan

Any of you guys with the problem changed the spot view distance and/or using Active Camera, by any chance?AC can cause the `problem`.Allcott

Hi again, In answer to the queries about making the parts reappear..... they do reappear as soon as the position of the "Spot" view is moved (on my set up) i.e. although the aerials etc. (different parts on different planes) disappear as the view point moves, they as quickly reappear. It is no great problem on my set up. I have lived with it. I only posted to let others know they weren't the only ones with the problem. Good luck if you're trying to solve it. Hope this helps. Regards Blue

I can make the missing parts re-appear by shifting the camera or zooming out. I don't have Active Camera. Here are two screen shots of the effect. It's not a huge thing, thinks for taking the time to look at this.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/123551.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/123552.jpg