Multi Crew Experience

[Mike_CFII_MEL 788]

Hi,Anyone using this software package?, if so what do you think. I also noticed the review made no mention of the Level-D 767-300ER airliner, which I find hard to believe, seeing its one of the top Boeing systems extensive addon aircraft for FS9.Anyone using this program with Level-D's 767?.

[Chock 17,769]

Hi Mike. As you know, the MCE review was done by myself and you are correct, the Level-D 767 was not mentioned. That's simply because I don't have that aircraft, and not for any other reason. What I will tell you though is that any aircraft which strays outside of the standard FS SDK parameters is going to have issues with MCE, since that is what it accesses in order to work. So, you can determine for yourself if this is likely to be a problem by either your own knowledge of how the Level-D 767 interfaces with FS, or by simply downloading the MCE demo and trying it out for yourself.The nice thing about MCE is that even if it does not completely gel with an add-on aircraft, there will still be many features of MCE that do work just fine, and one of the reasons why I rated it so highly was because of that. It is intended to allow a user to 'cherry pick' what MCE features they want to use, and since there are so many things it is capable of, even when an add-on aircraft doesn't mesh perfectly with it, it is still usable with that aircraft to some degree. You will notice that the PMDG 747 is shown in the review, and not absolutely everything on the PMDG 747 can be accessed by MCE, but many things still can which as I say, is the nice thing about the product; it may have limited functionality with some things, but there will almost always be some useful MCE feature that can be used regardless of what aircraft you have running.As I stated in the review, the best thing you can do is try it for yourself and see how you get on with it. I daresay there will be some people who don't like it, but I thought it was really great and I'm still using it, which is not something I can say about everything I've ever reviewed.Al

[Mike_CFII_MEL 788]

Hi Al,Thanks, I'll give the demo a try over the weekend. If its capable of releaving some of the workload, it will be an addon I will purchase.Thanks again

[JET 1 0]

Hi Al,Thanks, I'll give the demo a try over the weekend. If its capable of releaving some of the workload, it will be an addon I will purchase.Thanks again

Mike,Have you looked at FS2Crew for the 767?-kyle

[Chock 17,769]

I'd second the recommendation to look at FS2Crew as well. Interestingly, FS2Crew have mooted the idea of adding voice control to their products too, and given the technology would seem to be reliable enough to support that, it seems likely that they will do so. In the meantime, if you prefer genuinely recorded voices and are not interested in the broader type flexibility MCE offers, but would rather specifically concentrate on the 767 alone, you might find FS2Crew more 'up your street' as it were.I've got several FS2Crew addons; they are very good if you like getting into the minutia of checklists, and as I jokingly pointed out in the MCE review about the amazing list of things it can do not stretching to it being able to make you 'a nice cup of tea', well, FS2Crew can actually do that (granted it's only a picture on the screen) but it does go to show how in depth FS2Crew is when it comes to cabin crew operations :( As I understand it, there is no free demo for FS2Crew, but there sort of is a cheap way to test it. FS2 offer a product for the default FS 747 which is not as expensive as the other FS2 products for fancier add-on aircraft (I seem to recall I paid ten quid for that one). I bought it to essentially audition FS2Crew's products and see if they were any good without paying the higher price of their other stuff. I went on to buy their crew add-on for the Flight 1 ATR-72, which is indicative that even the fairly basic FS2Crew add-on for the default FS 747 was enough to convince me of their worth.Al

[byork 2,258]

I'd second the recommendation to look at FS2Crew as well. Interestingly, FS2Crew have mooted the idea of adding voice control to their products too, and given the technology would seem to be reliable enough to support that, it seems likely that they will do so.

Actually that's likely about to change. We're strongly looking at adding a voice option for the next version.However, because we know that voice can sometimes be unreliable due to accents, etc., voice will be added in addition to the pre-existing system, which relies on joystick and keypress for the interaction.So that way users can have some choice.Cheers,

[darem 84]

How does MCE interact with ATC? Is it like VoxATC or more like "choose item one, choose item two"? :-)

[Chock 17,769]

Well, you can read my review for the full story, or here's the quick version:1. You can choose item one on the ATC Window by saying 'ATC 1' and it will be as though you selected that with a key like you would normally do.2. You can actually talk to ATC and say what you would in real life, i.e. you can say: 'Speedbird 123 is at runway 26, ready to go.' or some such, and you'll get clearance to take off from the default ATC in FS.3. You can make things a bit easier by not having to get your callsign perfect, so you can be a bit sloppy in what you say.4. You can leave it all up to the co-pilot and you will hear him talking to ATC instead of you having to do so (this is one of the best aspects of MCE actually, because it teaches you what to say simply by virtue of listening to stuff and learning from it)..5. You can do any combination of those above options depending on how lazy you are feeling, i.e. choosing to do it one of those ways does not preclude you from doing it any of the other ways, you always have all those options available to you.6. You can have the ATC window pop up when you get a call and just press the relevant number key like you normally would if not using any voice command.Hope that helps. Try the demo it's great. There's a reason I recommended it for an Avsim gong (i.e it got the Avsim Gold Star award) - and that is simply because it deserved it.Al

[darem 84]

Thanks. That sounds great.

[ilovetofly 1]

Is it possible to configure this so that only ATC and the Co-pilot's voices are heard through the earphones while all other aircraft sounds are heard through the speakers? I have downloaded the demo and am not having success in accomplishing this. Jim D.

[darem 84]

The synthetic voice is absolutely awful, even compared to IYP. It sounds like a robot on stereoids *g*.

[ilovetofly 1]

Is it possible to configure this so that only ATC and the Co-pilot's voices are heard through the earphones while all other aircraft sounds are heard through the speakers? I have downloaded the demo and am not having success in accomplishing this. Jim D.

P.S. I haven't been able to get this to work yet either. Is a second sound card necessary to accomplish what I want to do, or is the MB sound card sufficient? Instructions seem to indicate that a separate sound card is required.

[ilovetofly 1]

Well, you can read my review for the full story, or here's the quick version:1. You can choose item one on the ATC Window by saying 'ATC 1' and it will be as though you selected that with a key like you would normally do.2. You can actually talk to ATC and say what you would in real life, i.e. you can say: 'Speedbird 123 is at runway 26, ready to go.' or some such, and you'll get clearance to take off from the default ATC in FS.3. You can make things a bit easier by not having to get your callsign perfect, so you can be a bit sloppy in what you say.4. You can leave it all up to the co-pilot and you will hear him talking to ATC instead of you having to do so (this is one of the best aspects of MCE actually, because it teaches you what to say simply by virtue of listening to stuff and learning from it)..5. You can do any combination of those above options depending on how lazy you are feeling, i.e. choosing to do it one of those ways does not preclude you from doing it any of the other ways, you always have all those options available to you.6. You can have the ATC window pop up when you get a call and just press the relevant number key like you normally would if not using any voice command.Hope that helps. Try the demo it's great. There's a reason I recommended it for an Avsim gong (i.e it got the Avsim Gold Star award) - and that is simply because it deserved it.Al

Al,I've tried all of this with the default Cessna in FS9 and just couldn't get all of it to work. Could not do item #'s 2, 3, 4, some of 5. So I'm giving up on this for now. Glad I didn't pay the license fee. I'm a little surprised that there hasn't been more postings here.Jim D.

[ilovetofly 1]

Thought I would update this thread as regards my case with MCE.The support group at MCS has been helping out with some suggestions. They were kind enough to extend my trial period so that I might implement the ideas presented. So I'm going to start over with this and see if I can get it to work as I imagine it should, or at least to a reasonable degree.Will post my results here.Jim D.

[darem 84]

Well, ATC in Cessna still doesn't work for me. No matter what I say, no matter what I try.I'll give you a rundown of the things I do:1) Load the Cessna (callsign RAL001) to start up cold and dark in LOWW, parked. No flight plan.2) Go through all the procedures, start engine and radios.3) Manually tune to Vienna Ground.4) Saying one of these sentences with the space bar depressed:"Vienna Ground, Cessna Romeo Alpha Lima Zero Zero One, ready for takeoff, depart straight out" (or requesting takeoff - in all cases)"Ground, Cessna Romeo Alpha Lima Zero Zero One, ready for takeoff, depart straight out""Vienna Ground, Cessna, ready for takeoff, depart straight out""Ground, Cessna, ready for takeoff, depart straight out"No matter if I have the ATC window opened or closed, nothing happens.I press the "talk" key, talk, release it.When I do the same with the boeing:1) Load the Boeing (callsign 101) enignes running. No flight plan.3) Manually tune to Vienna Ground.4) Saying:"Vienna Ground, Boeing, ready for takeoff, depart straight out"5) The Co tunes to the ground frequency again, although it is already tuned. (!!!!)6) Saying again:"Vienna Ground, Boeing, ready for takeoff, depart straight out"I get permision to taxi then.It seems that MCE doesn't like me tuning to ground myself. Since the Cessna has no co, it looks like this is the cause of the problem. Am I right? or what am I doing wrong. I am desperately seeking a way to get ATC working with planes that offer no co.