New to FSX

[samtx 1]

You can throw any FS9 plane into the FSX SimObjects\Airplanes folder and it'll work, you just don't have a thumbnail or predefined views. So if you like the historical stuff and can find FS9 for cheap, think of it as getting a handful of planes for a few dollars :)

 

Just to quantify that a bit to avoid confusion, that is not true unfortunately although I'm pretty sure what you meant was, that you can throw any default FS9 aeroplane in there, but not any FS9 one, some will work, but by no means all of them, and in fact, some of them will crash FSX because of the gauges in the cockpits.

 

Thanks for the tips, I didn't realize that. I did set up a couple more default camera.cfg views for those planes lacking the standard FSX variety of camera positions.

 

Just remember to go flying at some point. I get so wrapped up in setting up and addons, I often forget to go flying.

 

Ah yes, I know what you mean. I did manage to squeeze in a few test flights of the new planes in between installing and tweaking. Now, I'm going to spend some more time flying, going through the missions and working on ILS landings.

[PIC007 82]

One thing no one mentioned, mesh. That alone will greatly enhance your FSX experiance.

[samtx 1]

Well, I had my first CTD tonight after practicing jet landings and watching replays. If it starts to happen frequently, I'll give the alternate UIAutomationCore.dll fix a a try.

 

One thing no one mentioned, mesh. That alone will greatly enhance your FSX experience.

Which mesh is that? FSGenesis Terrain Mesh or Freeware Global Terrain Mesh Project or something else? I found a lot of search results.

[severniae 78]

Hi Samtx,

 

What was the CTD error? the problem with UIautomationcore.dll seems to occur after clicking on a few menus - So if your crashing just after a few right clicks then its really the first thing you could try.

 

Other causes can be OOM - If you search the forum there's a wealth of information on that one, I too unfortunately suffered that one recently and this very forum was a great resource in getting it sorted.

 

Unfortunately FSX is now an ageing program, designed six years ago for six year old technology. Whilst yes, it does work better these days with better hardware, its still not the most efficient - and its a shame that DX10 was never implemented properly, but then it was new at the time and somewhat experimental.

 

Anyway, get the error and I'll see what I can come up with for you.

[CFIJose 5,485]

FSUIPC is the cure for most CTDs. Get it free here: http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html

[PIC007 82]

Which mesh is that? FSGenesis Terrain Mesh or Freeware Global Terrain Mesh Project or something else? I found a lot of search results.

 

 

I use FSGenesis but there are others out there like FS Global. It depends on whether you want just a specific area or 'worldwide'.

[samtx 1]

What was the CTD error? the problem with UIautomationcore.dll seems to occur after clicking on a few menus - So if your crashing just after a few right clicks then its really the first thing you could try.

 

Other causes can be OOM - If you search the forum there's a wealth of information on that one, I too unfortunately suffered that one recently and this very forum was a great resource in getting it sorted.

 

I'm sorry I didn't make note of the detailed error message. There was no FSX error message, it was a general Windows 7 error dialog "A fatal error has occurred." I'll try to click for more details next time. It may have happened at the end of a 60 second replay, when I was holding SPACE and using the mouse to look around the plane exterior. I think I also had the ALT top menu bar visible.

 

I will check on memory usage next time I run, but I didn't see the typical errors or slowdowns I'm used to with other programs and memory errors.

 

Wary of crashes, I was fully exiting FSX between missions and different free flights, but when the crash occured I had saved and loaded a free flight practice landing setup a few times in a row without exiting.

 

FSUIPC is the cure for most CTDs. Get it free here: http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html

 

Thank you. I'll give that a try too. Does FSUIPC also make logs to narrow down and troubleshoot errors, or does it simply fix errors in the background before they happen?

 

I use FSGenesis but there are others out there like FS Global. It depends on whether you want just a specific area or worldwide.

 

I see, thanks for the clarification. I've bookmarked FSGenesis.

[Damien 4]

Also do a search for Dino Cattaneo's works... His T-45 is excellent and absolutely free.

 

-Damien

[samtx 1]

Also do a search for Dino Cattaneo's works... His T-45 is excellent and absolutely free.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not sure where I found it, but I must've read about it somewhere, because I was flying it around earlier today. It is very nice. I will look for his other planes too.

 

Update on my progress:

 

I'm spending more time flying than downloading and tweaking now. Making some progress on missions and learning ILS approaches and landings.

 

I did have another crash and the error details said it was related to UIautomationcore.dll, so I put the other version of UIautomationcore.dll in the FSX and haven't had any more problems yet.

 

I put in a couple of tweaks mentioned in this thread and also used Nvidia Inspector to handle anti-aliasing. I had to use lower settings than mentioned in the guide I was following, but now I've found a good balance between image quality and acceptable performance on my older machine.

 

I've installed the Orbx demos and they run pretty well, except for some distant odd blue textures in Tasmania which should have been white snow or green/brown.

 

I've been trying out a lot of planes and learned how to make new transparent propellers for the old FS9 models with DXTBmp.

 

All of course, I've been visiting sites around the world. Well worth the price of admission and a bit of effort learning all the commands.

[kjb 0]

The beauty of FSX (vs Flight) is you pay a little for the program and can add thousands of freeware planes and sceneries for nothing. If you don't like them, just delete them and try another.

[conura 45]

I considered putting TrackIR in my list, but I ended up leaving it out since it's quite expensive. it's indeed an integral aprt of my FSX experience, but there are some other more basic things, I think, that could be purchased first without getting the feeling that you've wasted a lot of money in the event that you suddenly decide you don't like FSX that much anyway.

 

FSX + aircraft addon + TIR5 is, in my opinion, a better experience than FSX with GEX, REX, UTX etc. Not to detract from these addons, they're fantastic, but TIR5 cannot be understated.

 

The reason is that with TIR, like a real aircraft in VFR, you can learn to fly according to the view outside the window rather than "tunnel syndroming" instruments.

 

Honestly, TIR5s ability to completely change the feel of the sim cannot be understated.

 

Also, I recommend getting World of AI - takes a few hours to install all the packages but I'm prefering it to my payware MyTraffic X.

 

Here's a free ex payware Cessna - leagues ahead of the default http://www.justflight.com/microsoft-c152

[BenW 0]

+1 on world of ai. It's weird that no payware developer has come up with an ai program that matches the quality of the woai stuff that is free.

[samtx 1]

FSX + aircraft addon + TIR5 is, in my opinion, a better experience than FSX with GEX, REX, UTX etc. Not to detract from these addons, they're fantastic, but TIR5 cannot be understated.

 

Also, I recommend getting World of AI - takes a few hours to install all the packages but I'm prefering it to my payware MyTraffic X.

 

Here's a free ex payware Cessna - leagues ahead of the default http://www.justfligh.../microsoft-c152

 

Thanks for the great tips. TrackIR is on my wishlist when I'm ready to make a bigger investment. The JustFlight C152 is a nice one I'll be installing. World of AI looks like a great free addition I hadn't heard of before.

[TheBFG 1]

 

Also, I recommend getting World of AI - takes a few hours to install all the packages but I'm prefering it to my payware MyTraffic X.

 

Downloading them all may take a few hours, but when you install them you can select all the packages at once... just in case you didn't know :)

[conura 45]

Downloading them all may take a few hours, but when you install them you can select all the packages at once... just in case you didn't know :)

 

On a stupid scale of 1-10, this afternoon I have scored 10 :)