Virtuali - A Rant

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

The guilty will remain nameless....In late November I purchased an aircraft add on. Worked perfect. Loved it. Flew it just about evenly with my PMDG collection. In early March, I purchased a scenery. It installed without issue, and I proceeded to boot up FSX. Went to the airport just installed. No terminal buildings and jetways and light poles were floating about 20 feet off the ground. Not pretty. Dumped it pretty quickly.During the install of the scenery however, a new guage file was downloaded for my earlier purchased, and perfectly running, aircraft. I removed the scenery file, and started up FSX again. Went to fly my perfectly running aircraft, and upon selection, it caused FSX to CTD. There was and is nothing since then that has allowed me to get my previously perfectly running aircraft operating again. The reason? Virtuali had downloaded a new gauge file for my aircraft, when installing the freeking scenery!!! A guage update that apparently didn't work.I have vowed to never ever again purchase a product that has Virtuali included. I refuse to purchase a program / add on that uses this program. Virtuali itself may be a perfect product, but when I am not allowed to chose whether to accept an update or not, when the author/publisher of the product pushes an "udpate" without giving me the choice to accept it via Virtuali... It won't be purchased by me (or recommended for that matter). If I purchase a program / add on in the future, and the inclusion of Virtuali does not appear in the product description, BEFORE I PURCHASE IT, I am going to ask for an immediate, no BS, refund.

[kevinc5 15]

What is Virtuali?

[level7 172]

it feels weird saying this to an admin, but did you get support for your *ahem* "virtuali" productseriously why don't you just name names. most of us know who "virtuali" is

[Paul J 349]

it feels weird saying this to an admin, but did you get support for your *ahem* "virtuali" productseriously why don't you just name names. most of us know who "virtuali" is

Because "Virtuali" is also a company, which uses Escellerate as the purchase method. The new KSFO by FlightBeam uses Virtuali to manage the purchase of that product: it's very tempting to link the two names, but one might also be stepping in a pool of engine oil...

[brucek 38]

Because "Virtuali" is also a company, which uses Escellerate as the purchase method. The new KSFO by FlightBeam uses Virtuali to manage the purchase of that product: it's very tempting to link the two names, but one might also be stepping in a pool of engine oil...

I have also had issues with this "Virtuali" installation s/w. My KORD pay ware scenery uses it, as does QW B757. Once I had installed the QW product, all of the terminal buildings disappeared at KORD ( appears as though the scenery is inactivated). I'm sure developers have their own reasons for using it to install / activating their products, but when comparing to Flight 1, it's no contest IMHO.Thanks, Bruce.

[ryanbatc 12,857]

I own multiple Virtuali-based scenery, and have had no issues with it interfering with other addon planes (of which I own many). Have you tried getting help at their support forum?

[Paul J 349]

Exactly my same reason for not buying it, Bruce, yet Vituali hangs on and defends it with all his might - it doesn't compare with Flight1, OrbX or FT. I dearly want KORD - and a number of others - including SFO, but I'll wait for those guys to produce - FT being my #1 choice.

[tf51d 284]

Virtuali is FSDT, and before that Cloud 9. I personally also has concerns with their Addon Manager, but generally FSDT has had a good reputation, so I'm a little surprised at this thread! :(

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

Virtuali is FSDT, and before that Cloud 9. I personally also has concerns with their Addon Manager, but generally FSDT has had a good reputation, so I'm a little surprised at this thread! :(

Let's make sure we all understand what I am saying, as this thread seems to be taking a path toward questioning the value, reputation, etc. of vendors, including Virtuali. I am not saying that any product that uses Virtuali is bad, I am saying that Virtuali's absence of choice in downloading "updates" is why I will not purchase any program that uses it. It is simply about choice. I refuse to accept that any update needs to be "pushed" on me. I want control of that function, period.

[Alan_A 1,650]

I went through a bunch of gyrations after installing several of the FSDT airports (bought during their most recent holiday sale). I was never fully able to trace out the cause but I know my problems (generally involving CTDs during initial load) started with the scenery install, and ended when I restored an earlier version of my Simconnect folders. In between I had a string of malfunctions with programs that use Simconnect. So, yes, I agree completely with the rant.

[el_kab0ng 29]

And yet PMDG has also been known to destroy files beyond what was installed with their products....

[scott967 62]

Is Virtuali different than bglman.dll/bglmanx.dll? I guess there is also some escellerate stuff that also gets installed and I don't recall that it is well-documented what all system changes are made when you install a product that uses this technology. As far as PMDG, I am aware of some issues if the product is unable for some reason to read the serial/key data.scott s..

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

And yet PMDG has also been known to destroy files beyond what was installed with their products....

I have every PMDG product they have made and I have never had an issue installing them or having them effect other products.

[Stormtrooper 7]

I had that problem to and it aggravated the heck out of me. Shutting off Ad-aware and antivirus while i flew fixed the problem.

[Alan_A 1,650]

Is Virtuali different than bglman.dll/bglmanx.dll? I guess there is also some escellerate stuff that also gets installed and I don't recall that it is well-documented what all system changes are made when you install a product that uses this technology. As far as PMDG, I am aware of some issues if the product is unable for some reason to read the serial/key data.scott s..

I beleive the two offenders are bglmanx.dll and couatl.exe.