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MS Flight UI Improvement Ideas :)

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Just having a brain storming sesh at 2:06am, as you do. rolleyes.gifWhat would you like to see (or not see) with the new MS Flight User Interface? What do you want it to look like? How do you want it laid out? Do you want simplicity or more advanced features? Any thoughts on this, no matter what they may be, are much appreciated! Jamie ♥

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Guest ShinyJetSyndrome

I think the GUI in FSX was quite the improvement over FS2004. It's got smooth movement, doesn't temporarily hang up my sim (like it did in FS2004) and has that cool transparent look.My only complaint comes from the use of thumbnails in the aircraft selection. Pretty pointless and the load time adds up the more aircraft you have installed. Plus it's a hassle to generate thumbnails for aircraft that don't have them. Besides being able to sort by manufacturer, publisher, and type/role, I'd like to able to sort by operator. e.g. (Delta Air Lines, US Air Force, etc.)[EDIT] Oh yeah. I don't know if this counts as user interface, but being able to find out where a parking spot is located on an airport (without having to look on AFX or ADEX) and being able to see which spots are occupied in multiplayer before spawning.

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I think the GUI in FSX was quite the improvement over FS2004. It's got smooth movement, doesn't temporarily hang up my sim (like it did in FS2004) and has that cool transparent look.My only complaint comes from the use of thumbnails in the aircraft selection. Pretty pointless and the load time adds up the more aircraft you have installed. Plus it's a hassle to generate thumbnails for aircraft that don't have them. Besides being able to sort by manufacturer, publisher, and type/role, I'd like to able to sort by operator. e.g. (Delta Air Lines, US Air Force, etc.)[EDIT] Oh yeah. I don't know if this counts as user interface, but being able to find out where a parking spot is located on an airport (without having to look on AFX or ADEX) and being able to see which spots are occupied in multiplayer before spawning.
I would like to see it well integrated with Windows 8.

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I don't know if this counts as user interface, but being able to find out where a parking spot is located on an airport (without having to look on AFX or ADEX) and being able to see which spots are occupied in multiplayer before spawning.
Huge +1 on that. Such a hassle to not know where you are starting from unless you have the airport memorized, LOL!

Brandon Filer

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Guest ShinyJetSyndrome
Huge +1 on that. Such a hassle to not know where you are starting from unless you have the airport memorized, LOL!
Also it could read the parking code for your aircraft texture (atc_parking_codes=DAL in your aircraft.cfg) and then highlight the gates that have the AI parking code for your aircraft. Of course, default MSFS airports don't have parking codes assigned but 3rd parties could take care of that. That's just something that would be nice to avoid people who just pick the first "Gate Heavy" or whatever in ATC sessions. The ATC/real-life nerds like to see Delta, American, and United tails where they belong. tongue.gifAlso using atc_parking_codes to display the correct ICAO radar identifier on multiplayer (instead of tailnumber or the first three letters of the airline selected) would be amazing too. People who do ATC on the realistic gamespy servers understand that concept. With FSX, you have the "cheat" the UI by typing the identifier and number in the tailnumber box and leaving the airline and flight number blank.

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Please give us a standard window that can be resized and manipulated. What I want is something like Explorer, where the window can be maximized, and you can resize the columns. The higher the resolution, the more info that can be displayed. I'd like to have less scrolling, and not have some of the airport names get cut off. Perhaps we could even have the ability to turn the thumbnails on or off like someone else mentioned.I'd like to see some sort of "hangar" where we could look at the aircraft without starting a flight. I know they show them spinning, but I want something with the ability to move the camera closer and really explore the models. This could also be a place where third parties could incorporate maintenance, like overhauling the engine in A2A planes with Accu-sim.I don't know if this falls under UI, but let us map mouse buttons, including the side (thumb) buttons.

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I like the thumbnails, they don't take all that long to load on my system, what would be useful though is a more organized way of displaying the liveries/variations so that you could "expand" models individually instead of the current "Show variations" checkbox. Even better would be something completely different from the current list that FSX has, I love the idea of having a 3D virtual hanger style menu, this would be perfect. 3D space is inherently less cluttered and it would give more options for eg. doing pre flight inspections etc.The concept of a visual representation when selecting parking spaces; ++++111111111111 I couldn't agree more.

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I'd like less going into sub screens and sub menus.Want to go for a flight in FSX, you have to open a sub screen to change the plane (wait 8 seconds for the airplanes to load), go back to the main menu, go into another screen to change the weather, go back to the main menu, go into another screen to change the location, go back to the main menu, go into another screen to change the time, go back to the main menu, finally can start a flight (wait 5 minutes while the scenery loads).


www.antsairplanes.com

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I'd like less going into sub screens and sub menus.Want to go for a flight in FSX, you have to open a sub screen to change the plane (wait 8 seconds for the airplanes to load), go back to the main menu, go into another screen to change the weather, go back to the main menu, go into another screen to change the location, go back to the main menu, go into another screen to change the time, go back to the main menu, finally can start a flight (wait 5 minutes while the scenery loads).
that is so sad :( . How long does your finger have to rest after that?

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I assume you are talking about the UI that comes before the sim starts (i.e. before the scenery loading progress bar). If it's not asking to much, I would really like several UIs for various use cases, pretty much like my scanner have "easy", "expert" and "professional" UIs :

  • A quick flight UI that would let me pick an aicraft, choose an airport or a mission and go. This one would be not to intimidating for the casual user and efficient for a quick flight. It's a bit offtopic but it would be great if it could even suggest/generate a flight plan, weather scenario (something in between a mission and a custom flight) depending on a choosen aircarft and available time. This is something I miss when I have little lime to fly and that it is not enough to plan a flight, gather the charts, basically do the paper work. Eventually this would link to the market and suggest addons to embellish the flight.
  • An expert UI that would let me configure things in details and manage the addons/market. This one would respect the user experience of the OS (no fancy transparent fixed-size windows). The configuration of the simulator, hid, sceneries (including texture sets, something missing in FSX) would be done here. It would let me associate configuration presets with use cases (i.e. practicing for , fying heavies...).
  • A training UI with revisited lessons from Rod for the beginner mixed with a simple instructor station for the advanced user (i.e. to practice procedures, approaches).
  • Additionally there could be a preflight UI that would help doing the paper work seamlessy. Something that would be a mix of nDac, FSBuild, EFB, topcat (if applicable) ect... I'm not saying that this service should be for free, but I would kill for having it all integrated in a simple workflow within the sim.

What do you think ?

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I assume you are talking about the UI that comes before the sim starts (i.e. before the scenery loading progress bar). If it's not asking to much, I would really like several UIs for various use cases, pretty much like my scanner have "easy", "expert" and "professional" UIs : What do you think ?
I meant overall, in every aspect, other wise I may have said otherwise :( But yeah, I agree on some of your points/ Ideas :)Jamie ♥

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Guest ShinyJetSyndrome
I'd like to see some sort of "hangar" where we could look at the aircraft without starting a flight. I know they show them spinning, but I want something with the ability to move the camera closer and really explore the models. This could also be a place where third parties could incorporate maintenance, like overhauling the engine in A2A planes with Accu-sim.
As a brand-new flight instructor (just waiting for the checkride), I can tell you I see a teaching/learning opportunity in your idea. A "walk-around" camera with the ability to interact with the aircraft on the outside. You could teach what to look for in the preflight if the model/systems are detailed enough (probably asking too much with today's computers).Another would be teaching maintenance requirements. Annuals, 100 hours (for hire/flight instruction ops), preventative maintenance and the limits of what a pilot can do versus a certified A&P mechanic. Maybe this is not a good idea because after doing 3 or 4 100 hour's in a month some folks would realize they play Flight Sim too much. blink.gifIt's cheaper for the student than me charging him/her $45/hr to walk around the hangar and ramp!
that is so sad :( . How long does your finger have to rest after that?
He has a very good point. You're telling me you've never tried changing weather and time in flight at the same time? Would be nice to have one dialog box in which all environmental factors as well as aircraft can be changed at once. So flight sim only loads the environment once as opposed to loading weather, then going to back to change time, aircraft etc.^X-Plane has a combined dialog similar to what I'm talking about and I love it!

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I'd like less going into sub screens and sub menus.Want to go for a flight in FSX, you have to open a sub screen to change the plane (wait 8 seconds for the airplanes to load), go back to the main menu, go into another screen to change the weather, go back to the main menu, go into another screen to change the location, go back to the main menu, go into another screen to change the time, go back to the main menu, finally can start a flight (wait 5 minutes while the scenery loads).
This is what you need........ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227328 make sure to include this like I did for FSX and you won't have any problems with loading....trust me.... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227520

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HelloWhat Motherboard is this system using ?
I don't know, I was just showing this PC to let him know that his loading problems was not because of FSX but because of his slow PC.

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