Top quality addons for PMDG 737 ngx

[Mephic 129]

Ive decided to create a new topic because I made the best decision in my life - get PMDG 737 ngx.

 

I have 150-200 bucks which I will spend on addons.

 

For now I have ftx global, Rex, gsx and accufeel v2.

 

I would be grateful if You could help me choose (as this great community helped me choose plane) the best addons for PMDG.

 

What I was thinking about:

 

1. Radar contact v4 (so I am able to use Sid and star with ATC)

2. Fs2crew voice controlled (so the whole experience will be more immersive)

 

What I need:

 

A) a decent best for PMDG and radar contact flight planner

B) purpose to fly even more (was thinking about ideal flight 10)

C) something else which can make the experience more immersive

 

Could You please post Your suggestions? I would be grateful.

 

Top priorities for me:

 

1. Graphics

2. ATC

3. Flying model

[Q_flyer 766]

If you are including Hardware in your "make the experience more immersive" aim, then I would say a TrackIR would hugely increase immersion when using the PMDG NGX.

[Capt Speirs 52]

+1

[KaitheFly 5]

i have to agree with Dave. Track IR was the best hardware addon i ever purchased. can't fly without it anymore. fs2crew voice is essential too. pfpx and an icao/vatsim account and your are totally "in". There's an android app coupled with a litte pc programm called VAinterface to bring your fmc in real size on your tablet if available. You'll love it

 

 

Kai Kraushaar

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

With FS2Crew voice control think about VoxATC instead of RadarContact: Vox is voice-controlled as well and will assign SIDs and STARs to your flightplan (if suitable). So you don't tell ATC you want to fly an IAP, but ATC instead tells you which one exactly you are supposed to fly.

 

Vox provides a manual and a trial version before purchase.

 

 

 

FS Captain is another addon that can dramatically increase your line flying experience:

 

It will suggest routes with your departure being the last airport you landed at (resulting in a multi-leg around-the-world tour, if you actually want it that way). Of course, you can change the DEP airport any time to a different airport you want to takeoff from.

 

You can also create your own "hub(s)", in case you want to fly "hub and spike" from your home/favourite airport, for example.

When creating a hub, you can tell FS Captain your preferred flight distances, runway length, ILS equipment etc. FS Captain then will determine the "spikes" for you.

 

Alternatively, you can set up any other specific flight you wanna do next (called "ferry flight" feature).

 

Etc., etc., etc. Just check the manual, the tutorial and the demo before you buy.

Edited December 12, 2013 by olli4740

[ryanbatc 12,818]

Agreed.  Track IR5 - excellent product!

[Mephic 129]

As usual - multiple answers proving that Avsim account creation was the best decision I've made in my short fsx life

 

1. According fscaptain - read about it a lot. It seems very good but will I be able to create flight plan for PMDG in it? Or will it give me one?

 

2. Trackir - no go to me. Although I am a sim addict and I love to play ets 2 and train simulator 2014 which also can utilize it I think it makes no sense to get it until you have 3 screens. Did You use it on one monitor? Does it work good?

 

3.voxatc - won't it create issues with fs2crew? I heard fs2crew doesn't like additional voice software - could You comment on that?

 

And thank You all for taking time to reply

[laserit 93]

It's more useful to use TrackIR with one screen then it is with three. It's awesome.

 

I would get the TrackIR and the Fs2Crew

[red259 31]

Get pfpx for flight planning, it's worth it. Topcat works with the 737ngx so i would get the pfpx package that includes topcat. Fs2crew is really top notch for flying experience. I have voxatc and it works with fs2crew although I would recommend flying online. Atc software isnt anywhere near perfect and I think you will be much better served going online. I know it can be intimidating but you will learn quick. I bought track ir but have not been able to get it to work well with the 737 yet. I need to spend a lot more time trying to tweak it but so far I haven't been happy with it. I'm sure with time it may work but it requires more effort than I have to give at the moment.

 

Fs captain is more of a simulation. You can try it for free at specific airports but I would not use it for flight planning. EFB is a great program and has a free trial, so get it and see what you think (moving map/charts etc). Bottom line is don't be afraid to download the free trials and see what you enjoy. Some software like pfpx is simple to use but has a lot of depth and you can grow with it.

[fs4fun 366]

 

 

1. According fscaptain - read about it a lot. It seems very good but will I be able to create flight plan for PMDG in it? Or will it give me one?

 

No, FSCaptain creates a dispatch, not a flight plan.

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

(...)

1. According fscaptain - read about it a lot. It seems very good but will I be able to create flight plan for PMDG in it? Or will it give me one?

 

FS Captain cannot create flightplans. It uses a default FSX flightplan for better ETAs (it estimates the duration of your flight more closely if it knows your exact route). But FSC has multiple options if your PMDG flightplan differs: Correct ETA manually, request early/late approach in flight, disable penalties for late arrivals etc.

3.voxatc - won't it create issues with fs2crew? I heard fs2crew doesn't like additional voice software - could You comment on that?

 

Both addons use the U.S. English Windows speech recognition, so your OS is configured the same way for either FS2Crew or for Vox. FS2Crew allows you to define a "soft mute" button which will stop FS2Crew listening to you temporarily. You can assign the same button to Vox as a "push-to-talk" button:

 

- Button pressed: FS2Crew is inactive, Vox is listening

- Button not pressed: FS2Crew is listening, but Vox is not

 

That way you can determine precisely, which addon is controlled by your voice for any moment during your sim session.

[zmak 331]

Track Ir will nearly wipe you out $150. 

 

Vox Atc and 1 ivona voice will set you back around $110

Fs2crew around $45

PFPX $50

Weather, opus or Active sky $50

 

I would load up on the last four first. Opus allows you to set multiple cameras for easy viewing inside and out of the PMDG

 

You can save more be using the brilliant free Simbrief flight planner. It exports to PMDG as well 

[red259 31]

Track Ir will nearly wipe you out $150. 

 

Vox Atc and 1 ivona voice will set you back around $110

Fs2crew around $45

PFPX $50

Weather, opus or Active sky $50

 

I would load up on the last four first. Opus allows you to set multiple cameras for easy viewing inside and out of the PMDG

 

You can save more be using the brilliant free Simbrief flight planner. It exports to PMDG as well

 

If you don't have weather then you really should pickup a weather addon. I have opus and Rex. Currently testing asn. I may switch over to asn with more testing. To really appreciate an advanced Addon like 737ngx you should get weather.

[Sportsfan23 2]

I would suggest Active Sky Next. I had been just using REX for both textures and weather and it just seemed like something was missing. Then I tried ASN for weather and it was just amazing. 

 

If you don't want to get TrackIR I highly suggest getting EZdok. It's a fantastic and simple camera add-on that makes flying in the VC just an awesome experience and can kinda replace TrackIR. 

 

I highly suggest PFPX and Topcat for flight planning. You can export flight plans from PFPX right into the FMC of the PMDG planes and there are a bunch more airplanes that are supported by PFPX as well which is great. 

 

RC4 is a fantastic program. I haven't tried this yet but there are like a ton of extra voice files on AVSIM that you can add to RC4 which I haven't done yet mostly because I think I might mess something up so I have not done that. 

 

If you decide to get a AI traffic program I highly suggest Mytraffic 5.4. 

[KingGhidorah 209]

All good suggestions above, I'll add you might consider Multi Crew Experience.  FS2Crew modules are very good, and the voices are very professional, but I think that MCE provides equivalent capability, much more flexible and customizable, and supports most of the same planes but in a well-priced, all-in-one package.  It doesn't suffer from the issue of certain commands only being permitted according to a set-piece flight phase or reject commands due to a slight difference in verbiage.  Plus, you can extend it's voice capabilities to ATC, including RC4.  Downside is that since the sentences are constructed dynamically, it can sometimes verge on sounding a bit robotic.

 

I know, I sound like a late-night infomercial pitch. :lol:   Really, though, I just think it's really good, and they have good customer support.  Whether it's FS2Crew or MCE, both are really good.