My Carenado PC12 vs. Flight 1 comparison

[Poncho 19]

I have both of these and have now done a couple back to back flight comparisons, and found the Flight 1 to be the better of the two for several reasons. 

 

Now I should state I have about a dozen Carenado aircraft in my hanger and have always liked them. I find them easy to operate and fly with good FPS. I'm not a RW pilot and I don't know these aircraft well enough to pick apart the little details in the Sim aircraft. I just like to get in and fly.

 

In my opinion the Carenado looks better as you would expect. However that being said the F1 certainly is not ugly, and I have no problems with it's graphics. I can't compare how they stack up systems wise because I simply don't use all the systems (most of my flying is by hand and VFR). I have my FSX locked in at 30 frames and can acheive that with the F1, however my Carenado is around 20 FPS, thats a big hit. Now my computer is 5-6 years old (yes a dinosaur) so I'm not knocking the Carenado for that. It might be perfectly fine on a modern machine, but certainly not on mine.

 

Another thing I like better about the F1 is the sounds both inside and outside the cockpit. To me Carenado's interior sounds like I have head phones on all the time, and the exterior sound almost has an echo (so to speak) as if it's running in a steel hanger. The F1 to me sounds better and more realistic. Living in Canada I have a real world RCMP PC-12 that flies over my house (I live near the airport).

 

I have read the night time lighting in the Carenado not correct. I did not fly it at night yet, but one of my complaints about many of my other Carenado aircraft is the inability to seperate the panel lights from the dome lights. They have not made fixes for this in these other planes, so I would not hold my breath they will fix it in this one. I have flown the F1 at night a few times and as far as I'm concerned, it works fine as you can run the dome and panel lights seperately.      

 

One last thing I like better about the F1 is that it has a 2D cockpit. I rarely ever use 2D cockpits and don't miss them in my other Carenado aircraft. However, I find I do use it in the F1 PC-12 during start up as I can have the dash panel, overhead console, and lower throttle controls all on my screen at the same time. It's a little more cumbersome starting the Carenado or the F1 from a 3D panel.  

 

Anyway most of you guys are better picking these plane apart than me, this is more of a comparison for the casual simmer without a state of the art computer. I have never returned a plane before, but if I could return the Carenado PC-12 somehow I would, but I don't even see contact info on their website?       

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

Regarding performance... try turning off the Avidyne unit.

 

It does not contribute anything IMHO and does suck up computer cycles.. ^_^

 

I have actually disabled it permanently in the panel.cfg file..

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

 

 

Anyway most of you guys are better picking these plane apart than me, this is more of a comparison for the casual simmer without a state of the art computer. I have never returned a plane before, but if I could return the Carenado PC-12 somehow I would, but I don't even see contact info on their website?       

 

You can go here 

 

https://carenado.zendesk.com/anonymous_requests/new

 

...and at least ask them to change it out...they've done that for me a couple of times without a complaint.  

 

In regards to the sounds, you could easily replace the Carenado sounds with the F1 versions.  If/when I get this airplane I'm planning to use the C208 sounds I have.  Lots of folks don't like the Carenado sounds lately.

 

In terms of lights...there's a real opportunity there. Lately, other aircraft makers are including dim-able lights (A2A, Milviz, Realair panel, Majestic).

 

Good flying...

 

Gregg

[Poncho 19]

Regarding performance... try turning off the Avidyne unit.

 

It does not contribute anything IMHO and does suck up computer cycles.. ^_^

 

I have actually disabled it permanently in the panel.cfg file..

 

In effort to get the best FPS I did have the Avidyne unit turned off, as well as the GPS, and also all the stuff in the Shift+6 window such as reflections etc. I looked in the panel.cfg like you mentioned, but I'm not sure what to change to disable it?  

You can go here 

 

https://carenado.zendesk.com/anonymous_requests/new

 

...and at least ask them to change it out...they've done that for me a couple of times without a complaint.  

 

In regards to the sounds, you could easily replace the Carenado sounds with the F1 versions.  If/when I get this airplane I'm planning to use the C208 sounds I have.  Lots of folks don't like the Carenado sounds lately.

 

In terms of lights...there's a real opportunity there. Lately, other aircraft makers are including dim-able lights (A2A, Milviz, Realair panel, Majestic).

 

Good flying...

 

Gregg

Thanks for the link, I might contact them, but will give this a little more of a chance. You bring up a good point Gregg as I have the Both R.A. Duke 60's and the Lancair, also have the A2A Cessna and Ckerokee, and I love the night lighting in them. It surprises me Carenado would even release a plane these days that has lighting issues, that should all be sorted out before release. 

 

BTW I have no complaints with FPS on any of these mentioned above, and I have not tweaked any of them.   

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

 

 

In effort to get the best FPS I did have the Avidyne unit turned off, as well as the GPS, and also all the stuff in the Shift+6 window such as reflections etc. I looked in the panel.cfg like you mentioned, but I'm not sure what to change to disable it?

 

Hmmm.  Surprised.  With the Avidyne off, it's pretty basic.  Somebody posted some frame-friendly textures in another thread...maybe it has something to do with it.  The Turbine Duke is one of my heaviest in terms of frames (really like that plane) so I'm surprised this one's heavier.

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

This plane has 4096 textures.. may be an issue on some systems..

 

re Avidyne disable:

 

[Vcockpit04]
Background_color=0,0,0
size_mm=512,512
visible=0
pixel_size=512,512
texture=$Panel_4

//gauge00=EX500_PC12!EX500_config,       0,  0,   1,  1
//gauge01=EX500_PC12!EX500_3D,           0,  0, 513,409
//gauge02=EX500_PC12!EX500_Update,       0,  0,   1,  1
//gauge03=PC12CAR!ToggleCARG500,         0,  0, 513, 32

[CoolP 283]

Does the Avidyne come with a separate panel.cfg entry for the "wx" part? If so, disable that one too.

 

The gauge entry should look somehow similar to the one used on the B1900: gauge00=WX_Gauge_3D_xxxxxx!WXGauge (x being a placeholder) This makes sure that the weather module isn't even loaded. Maybe this helps with some fps. I don't have the plane yet.

[Poncho 19]

This plane has 4096 textures.. may be an issue on some systems..

 

re Avidyne disable:

 

[Vcockpit04]

Background_color=0,0,0

size_mm=512,512

visible=0

pixel_size=512,512

texture=$Panel_4

 

//gauge00=EX500_PC12!EX500_config,       0,  0,   1,  1

//gauge01=EX500_PC12!EX500_3D,           0,  0, 513,409

//gauge02=EX500_PC12!EX500_Update,       0,  0,   1,  1

//gauge03=PC12CAR!ToggleCARG500,         0,  0, 513, 32

I believe my panel cfg looks exactly like you have posted above. What exactly do I need to change? Sorry but I am not a tweaker, if there is such a word. LOL  

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

I believe my panel cfg looks exactly like you have posted above. What exactly do I need to change? Sorry but I am not a tweaker, if there is such a word. LOL  

 

The double slash // means comment out that line, i.e.  it will not be executed.

[Poncho 19]

The double slash // means comment out that line, i.e.  it will not be executed.

Yep, you were right, that's what I missed. Thank you.  

[ryanbatc 12,833]

Jeansy did a 2048 interior texture it's over at OZx

[~Craig~ 10]

Regarding performance... try turning off the Avidyne unit.

 

It does not contribute anything IMHO and does suck up computer cycles.. ^_^

 

I have actually disabled it permanently in the panel.cfg file..

 

Agree, just another 'masked' GPS unit, so turn it off - makes quite a difference. :smile:

[FLIGHTO 8]

 

I have read the night time lighting in the Carenado not correct. I did not fly it at night yet, but one of my complaints about many of my other Carenado aircraft is the inability to seperate the panel lights from the dome lights. They have not made fixes for this in these other planes, so I would not hold my breath they will fix it in this one. I have flown the F1 at night a few times and as far as I'm concerned, it works fine as you can run the dome and panel lights seperately.      

 

   

 

Dont hold your breath is right!!! I sent in this request (more like an error in my eyes) to Carenado and they responds with:

 

"They will consider it as a modification to a future patch"

 

This is BS!!!!!

 

Something so common sense as cockpit and cabin flood lights!!! Hell there is even separate switches for them. I don't understand why. My hope is someone will threaten them and they will fix it - or one of our in mad modders here at AVSIM can figure out a texture fix..

 

Fingers crossed....

[LEAPWeaver 5]

The are several different combinations of panel lighting in the PC-12. You don't have to use the dome unless you want to. All the lighting modes are independently controlled. Here's a quick demo image to show you the modes:

 

[~Craig~ 10]

To be honest, as unimpressed as I am with Carenado's shoddy, lazy approach to beta testing and de-bugging, and their lack of recognition to the people who make their products so much more real and enjoyable (Bert et al), I still think the core PC-12 product is fantastic, and far superior to Flight 1's 2007 product.

 

But with the Carenado, in my opinion, it's vital to do the following 'mod' top make it enjoyable.

 

1). Forget SP1. I just tried it and so many bugs were still in place.  Just install the base product.

2). Firstly, install Nick's (AtlanticFlyer) Engine and Gauge Mods, and install those.

3). Next Install Bert Pieke's significant Autopilot and Transponder Fixes.

4). Complete the 'Pitot Heat Mod' that I've detailed further up this thread (very easy).

5). In my opninion the aircraft flies far more realistically with the 'Pitch_Stability' and 'Roll_Stability' settings of the [Flight Tuning] section, set to   =2.0

 

= beautiful plane.   :smile: