Multi Crew Experience

[Guest Pittnuma]

I believe Alan has already reviewed MSE.sorry forgot the link to it.Was a very good review aswell. Done 2009.

[awralls 5]

Whenever I see one developer taking a hostile attitude to another it just convinces me never to go near their product.Nice work Mr Reilly./Andy

[Mir // Flightbeam 541]

This may help some people who are deciding what to get. Honestly both products rock and it demonstrates the absolute best thing about FSX, the endless addons that keep adding realism. With that said.. I recently downloaded MCE and now my 3rd evaluation day, and I'm sold. The immersion factor is really cool, especially when talking to ATC. The fact that it's dynamic and not "set up" really helps with the experience. I also LOVE not having to turn those dang altitude and header dials all the time, especially during a bumpy descent in VC using EZdok camera. I was also surprised how good it understands my commands, particularly when the wife is sleeping and my tone is a lot lower, almost whispering. Anyway, just my 4 cents

[Chock 17,769]

In saying MCE does more, one has to be careful to acknowledge that FS2Crew's products have (and indeed demonstrate)) the capability to be more specifically tailored than MCE's equivalent feature, so a direct 'one is better than the other' discussion can never really be had on a completely level playing field, as the focus of the two products is really rather different when you get past face value. A crude analogy would be to say that MCE is kind of like a Swiss army knife that is good at a lot of things, whereas FS2Crew is like one really good quality tool. Sure, you can undo screws with a Swiss Army knife, but for that task, you'd probably have an easier time of it with a really decent screwdriver.Personally, I like the broad flexibility MCE offers, since I have tons of aircraft that FS2 has not yet covered, so it's a good solution for me, but using a direct comparison of that flexibility to mark down FS2Crew is to unfairly tie one of FS2Crew's hands behind its back, as it is not intended to match the broad canvas that MCE aims to paint. Yes, I can create a comprehensive 737 checklist for MCE, with all of the procedures, but what if I am not familiar with how that procedure goes in a real 737? With FS2Crew, that work has been done for me, and that is one of the things I'd be paying for, along with voice acting and such if I had only default voices to use with MCE.So a truly fair comparison between MCE and FS2Crew would focus purely on how well you can do correct procedures for a specific aircraft, in the right order, at the right time, without the the need to research what those procedures are, or the need to then create the related checklists. Personally, I don't mind doing that sort of thing and have a lot of resources that would enable me to do so, but that's not going to be true for everyone.I say give them both a shot and see which one blows your skirt up. and even then, that will bring different conclusions for different people.Al

[byork 2,259]

Al's assessment is fair and agree with it.Ultimately everything boils down to personal taste.FS users should happy that they have such a wide variety of excellent options available to them... the FS "copilot" market is indeed a crowded one (even though the market for it is extremely small and very niche), and all the devs who are in seem to take great pride in their work and really go out of their way to support their users.I would however mention that there's a reason why FS2Crew does "single versions" for each specific aircraft because I often get asked a lot why I do it this way.It's not just so I can model specific checklists and procedures, it's so I can get the FO to interact with the plane.Getting the FO to be able to interact with the 3rd party high commercial planes is a real difficult row to hoe.For example, in the PMDG Jetstream version of FS2Crew, I had to work directly with the PMDG devs so I could get the virtual FO to be able to directly control all the switches and buttons on the plane.In fact, this is the first time I was able to control the switches in a PMDG aircraft "without" having to use simulated mouse clicks or keypress. This makes for perfect integration between the two products.But it also requires a tremendous amount of complex, specialized work that would be very tough to implement in a generic "one size fits all" type co-pilot program.Ultimately, without the direct PMDG support, I wouldn't even be able to have done an FS2Crew for the Jetstream because I wouldn't be able to control anything in the plane, except for maybe the landing gear lever and maybe a few external light switches.So that's largely why I have to do the single, specialized versions.How happy the universe would be if the high end 3rd party planes confirmed 100 percent to the MSFS SDKs, but alas they don't....

[BartEnder 2]

My two cents here...Both MCE and FS2Crew are awesome products.MCE goes for people, who fly different A/C, FS2C is aimed at specific A/C.MCE is outstanding in terms of flexibility and integration with RC4, FC2Crew get as much as possible within particular A/C.This is not fair saying one product is good, second not. If You can afford, go for both, it is really worth if You are looking for realism.

[WX4JCW 0]

I have Both, question is it possible to use both at the same time and say use MCE with RC4 and let FS2CREW do the checklists, etc?

My two cents here...Both MCE and FS2Crew are awesome products.MCE goes for people, who fly different A/C, FS2C is aimed at specific A/C.MCE is outstanding in terms of flexibility and integration with RC4, FC2Crew get as much as possible within particular A/C.This is not fair saying one product is good, second not. If You can afford, go for both, it is really worth if You are looking for realism.

[Steve1969 8]

I have Both, question is it possible to use both at the same time and say use MCE with RC4 and let FS2CREW do the checklists, etc?

Yes. I use both together regularly with the PMDG J41 and Level D 767 along with the FS2Crew Voice editions. I use multicrew for ATC only with RC4 and use FS2Crew for everything else.You disable everything you don't need in multi-crew and ensure that the soft mute/hard mute button in FS2Crew is the same button used in Multi Crew to initate ATC comms - that way FS2Crew is muted whilst you talk to ATC via multi-crew. Since you have disabled all the other functionality in multi-crew there is no conflicts when you issue commands to FS2Crew.Best wishesSteve