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Guest Water Mango

Active Camera a Rediscovery...

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Guest Water Mango

Last week I took a flight from Denver to Minneapolis. For some reason I tried to take in every movement and feel of the aircraft possible. Flying United Airlines you have the option to listen in on all the ATC transmissions. What surprised me was ATC communications were sparse at best. Seeing everything is programmed into the FMC there's no need to constantly tell the various planes where to go. I didn't even hear Departure vector us out. All that was said and done was tuning in and contacting Departure. At cruise the only difference in FS9 ATC and the real world was pilot's mostly called in various weather conditions along their route. 'Light Chop' was the call of the day if an airliner in question hit some light turbulence. Very little vectoring was done on final as well. The only call out the ordinary was slow to 170kts. So on an uneventful flight in FS9 we pretty much have what's in the real world (man I wish holding and speed restrictions was simulated for AI separation).This leads me to a finding I've been trying to simulate in FS9 that I found in the real world. The actual feeling of flight. With FS9 things can be so stable and straight forward that the feel just isn't right. I've heard all the crap about how FSX has such a better feel than FS9 then it got me to wondering. When we taxied to the runway and barreled down it for takeoff I remember feeling the bumps on the runway and the bouncing of the cabin which abruptly stopped when we left the ground. I got the thought that Active Camera should at least be able to simulate this to some point. I got home and I was right... I played around with a few things or should I say jacked up a few setting and BAM, visually it's achievable to get the separate motion of the cabin from the pilots body (I know I'm late on this).Let me say it in a different way, just like in real life it's possible to visually see those imperfect bumps you feel on the runway on take off. To have the aircraft turn and your head delay the turn visually as if you

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Guest DocW

good point. I somehow lost this effect and will try your settings. I agree that it adds A LOT to the immersion.

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Chris I'm glade you found the beauty of Active Camera. I have always used similar settings to what you have above. People need to understand that using lower settings in AC takes away from a more realistic experience. I discovered AC while doing flight training. I needed to simulate buffeting when I'd test what the weather was before going up in the real world. When in a light plane you really feel the plane on the runway and the subtle bumps in flight. When you dip the plane in a sudden turn you can feel it in your gut. What AC does with the settings you posted above is give you that to the best extent virtually.Like you said some may find your settings a bit much but you hit the nail on the head and started a good topic (actually I'm going to incorporate your settings over mine, their perfect). Properly setting up ActiveCamera needs to be discussed. If a simmer wants a taste of the real world these are the settings to shoot for. Not only do you have to contend with handling an aircraft, you have to be able to simulate all the forces that come into play operating the bird on your body. The panel in the VC is supposed to shake around a bit as your coming in for a gusty landing. That's why you don't focus your eyes on the panel in the real world, you focus on what's going on outside. You have to feel the aircraft on the flare and all but do a control stall on touch down. You need to feel when the aircraft touches the ground understanding things only smooth out once you slow down.This tip goes along way in making any simmers experience more life like. Great job spelling it out in laymen terms Chris... :-beerchug


FS2020 

Alienware Aurora R11 10th Gen Intel Core i7 10700F - Windows 11 Home 32GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB DLSS 3 - HP Reverb G2

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I just wanted to add that ActiveSky 6.5 is all but a must to go along with Active Camera in FS2k4 these days (for those new to the hobby)...


FS2020 

Alienware Aurora R11 10th Gen Intel Core i7 10700F - Windows 11 Home 32GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB DLSS 3 - HP Reverb G2

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>I just wanted to add that ActiveSky 6.5 is all but a must to>go along with Active Camera in FS2k4 these days (for those new>to the hobby)...Les, Active sky 6.0 brought my computer on its knees so had to refer back to the previous one. Does it run okay on your system?


Dave Taylor gb.png

 

 

 

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Guest Zevious Zoquis

6.0 runs ok on my system (P4-1.8, 768 megs ram, Geforce4Ti4200 128meg) but you have to set it reasonably. I limit visibility to 20 miles all the time (I actually prefer this to longer visibility anyway - just seems more visually pleasing to my eyes), and I limit it to 2 cloud layers and only about 2000 feet per layer...Active Camera is a great little app. However, I prefer Realair's implementation of "head physics" on its models. I actually get a feeling that the head latency effects are backwards with AC. Of course, Realair's implementation only works with their planes - although their planes are pretty much all I ever fly... :)

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>Active Camera is a great little app. However, I prefer>Realair's implementation of "head physics" on its models. I>actually get a feeling that the head latency effects are>backwards with AC. Of course, Realair's implementation only>works with their planes - although their planes are pretty>much all I ever fly... :)>I read this yesterday, and had my own thoughts on the subject; in which my preference is also the RealAir method. It implements movement, but doesn't make you feel as though your eyes can't be where you want them, for a second or two at a time. Because of that, I turned head latency in active camera to low settings. Otherwise, during simulated flight such as aerobatics, a higher head latency setting, would control your view, instead of "you". In reality, most of the time, your head isn't being thrown back and forth, to where it's impossible to see straight ahead for that second or so. FWIW, since FSX is mentioned in the title subject of this thread; the method in FSX is much like the RealAir setup; which is also noted in RealAir's documentation for the FSX SF260.L.Adamson

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FSX head latency isn;t too bad when flying when there is trubulance.However there is no latency while taxing or when rolling on the runway...like the aircraft has no strut in the front wheel.Active Camera was great for that.Don't know if there is a setting for this? There is head latency if you off of the runway or taxiway though.Manny


Manny

Beta tester for SIMStarter 

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>FSX head latency isn;t too bad when flying when there is>trubulance.>>However there is no latency while taxing or when rolling on>the runway...like the aircraft has no strut in the front>wheel.>>Active Camera was great for that.>>Don't know if there is a setting for this? There is head>latency if you off of the runway or taxiway though.>FSX does have it on the runway roll. I have the new Shockwave Spitfire that has a little plexi window frame mounted on the canopy that makes it real easy to see some great interaction between the fuselage and wing. The effect makes the cockpit come alive; and again, it's about the same effect as RealView for FS9 RealAir models.This Shockwave model also has the FS9 version. The plexi window remains perfectly still with the wing, while the FSX version is definitely a moving three dimensional look. I don't know what effect active camera would have on this FS9 model, as I've never loaded active camera on my newer CPU.L.Adamson

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Active Camera is a great program! I don't have the "Buttkicker", but I'm sure that it, combined with the AC head movement would be a great experience!! On another note..with active Camera installed I can't use the middle mouse button on reality XP guages that have a middle mouse button control. Does anyone know of a work around for this?Up the Irons!!

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