fsx-ms KSFO From FlightBeam

[CFIJose 5,485]

Thanks for the HU, but I'm not interested in purchasing any sceneries that utilize the addon manager. Not even if they are 50% off.

[TheFlightSimGuy 514]

Thanks for the HU, but I'm not interested in purchasing any sceneries that utilize the addon manager. Not even if they are 50% off.

I have to admit, the addon manager is a hit or miss for me too. I love the FB and FSDT airports, but when approaching some, you get serious freezes as the addon manager brings in objects. Wish they would optimize that thing.

[fppilot 4,370]

Thanks for the HU, but I'm not interested in purchasing any sceneries that utilize the addon manager. Not even if they are 50% off.

 

I have to admit, the addon manager is a hit or miss for me too. I love the FB and FSDT airports, but when approaching some, you get serious freezes as the addon manager brings in objects. Wish they would optimize that thing.

 

+1  Addon manager now a deterrent to my purchases.

 

+2  I do not get that issue on approaches, but too often I start from KLAX, KDFW, or KORD, and find no terminal buildings until I go into the addon manager and activate them again with my keys.  Such a hassle!

[gmoneyprs 2]

I think addon manager is one of those things that we only hear about from a vocal minority. Now, before said minority gets on me right now, I'll admit that only recently I've been having some issues with it as well. I consider myself "troubleshooter extraordinaire" but I can't figure out why these issues have started only within the last couple of weeks, save for one of the recent addon manager or couatl updates causing some instability.

 

That all being said, the scenery developers that use addon manager--Flightbeam and FSDreamteam--do simmers a favor by offering the unique ability to trial a product beforehand. And man oh man am I sitting here tonight staring at GBs of addon scenery that I have no intention of installing but am too dollar-ached to permanently delete. I've been burned... a lot. And in the flightsim world, it's mostly by scenery developers. Now, that's not to say that I have some FB and FSDT products that I don't wish would be updated and fixed (I've only gotten back into flightsim in the last year and half and perhaps my "trial scenery purchasing checklist" wasn't what it should have been) but I at least had a far better idea of what I was getting into. Those two companies have not only won an aggregate of 7 purchases from me but, in the several I declined, they saved themselves tirades of b!tching and complaining from me

 

Anyhow, I think what addon manager comes down to is a tradeoff (like many things in life). Given the functionality it contains to offer trials, I would rather take that and perhaps any idiosyncrasies (to put it lightly in the cases of some folks) that come along with it.

 

 

What other issues and have you posted in their support forums?

 

Despite my thoughts on addon manager above, I don't want to distract too much from the excitement and fanfare in this thread. So I'll just say that it's several rather small issues at several of Mir's other projects and yes, I've brought them to his attention in the forums. We've also corresponded through email. He's been helpful and responsive but I'm sure the development of KSFOv2 took priority over older products (as well it should have) so we'll see if updates start to come into the mix...

[John_Tavendale 453]

Disappointing you only get a 10% discount for previous owners though. There were technical issues with the previous version so I was expecting a much better discount. I will wait until it goes on sale later on sometime. Have too many other sceneries to buy that cost over $20

 

It's almost 5 years old. Better than no discount... not to mention it's $4 less than their other releases.

[Von Rondstadd 15]

6,16 euro TAX for a download?

No Way, Jose!

Robert

[Jimm 437]

I think addon manager is one of those things that we only hear about from a vocal minority. Now, before said minority gets on me right now, I'll admit that only recently I've been having some issues with it as well. I consider myself "troubleshooter extraordinaire" but I can't figure out why these issues have started only within the last couple of weeks, save for one of the recent addon manager or couatl updates causing some instability.

 

That all being said, the scenery developers that use addon manager--Flightbeam and FSDreamteam--do simmers a favor by offering the unique ability to trial a product beforehand. And man oh man am I sitting here tonight staring at GBs of addon scenery that I have no intention of installing but am too dollar-ached to permanently delete. I've been burned... a lot. And in the flightsim world, it's mostly by scenery developers. Now, that's not to say that I have some FB and FSDT products that I don't wish would be updated and fixed (I've only gotten back into flightsim in the last year and half and perhaps my "trial scenery purchasing checklist" wasn't what it should have been) but I at least had a far better idea of what I was getting into. Those two companies have not only won an aggregate of 7 purchases from me but, in the several I declined, they saved themselves tirades of b!tching and complaining from me

 

Anyhow, I think what addon manager comes down to is a tradeoff (like many things in life). Given the functionality it contains to offer trials, I would rather take that and perhaps any idiosyncrasies (to put it lightly in the cases of some folks) that come along with it.

 

 

 

Despite my thoughts on addon manager above, I don't want to distract too much from the excitement and fanfare in this thread. So I'll just say that it's several rather small issues at several of Mir's other projects and yes, I've brought them to his attention in the forums. We've also corresponded through email. He's been helpful and responsive but I'm sure the development of KSFOv2 took priority over older products (as well it should have) so we'll see if updates start to come into the mix...

Just my thoughts but why add insult to injury when it comes to add-on managers like the ones used by Flightbeam and FSDT?  Sure, they manage licenses, but so does PMDG (and ORBX to an extent) but you don't see them using special add-on managers that seem to foul things up more often than not on people's sims.  I have TWO sceneries by Flightbeam (drank the Kool-Aid) from a while back and while they are extraordinarily pretty, I was very disappointed in performance, which I attributed to Couatl and the same goes for FSDT.  Is it paranoia from the developer that they are afraid of being pirated?  To me, these add-ons being used are more trouble than they are worth.  Perhaps they should take a step back and re-evaluate.

 

I am also aware that for Flightbeam's Couatl, there are other settings that you can control on the fly (pardon the pun) for the sim, but that too seems a bit dangerous, but then again, you can achieve the same thing using the sim's respective settings menus as well, which could be safer, but the jury is still out on that.

 

This is just opinion talking so there is no need to quote me or bash my words.  Chalk me up as a frustrated customer who willingly gave money to these folks for free.

 

-Jim

[virtuali 4,421]

I have TWO sceneries by Flightbeam (drank the Kool-Aid) from a while back and while they are extraordinarily pretty, I was very disappointed in performance, which I attributed to Couatl and the same goes for FSDT.

 

Some comments about performances:

 

http://flightbeam.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=2110

 

Mir, this is truly a masterpiece. Just fiddling around with the airport, I tried my PMDG 777 and kept my ORBX NCA active, and I can't believe how good my framerates are. Thank you so much for this. You've really outdone yourself with this one.

 

http://flightbeam.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=2123

 

Mr. Mir you are amazing. Your scenery is by far the best addon for FSX today. Besides of the HQ of the Scenery the performance is incredible

 

 

http://flightbeam.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=2121

 

I close monitored the memory and performance and compared with LAX and old SFO.... the result was outstanding. Lot of visual improvements and zero of negative performance impact in my system!

And a VIDEO, note the smoothness, in 4K (if running the sim and capturing in 4K wasn't already impressive as such...)

 

[Jimm 437]

 

Some comments about performances:

 

http://flightbeam.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=2110

 

 

http://flightbeam.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=2123

 

 

 

http://flightbeam.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=2121

 

And a VIDEO, note the smoothness, in 4K (if running the sim and capturing in 4K wasn't already impressive as such...)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gchzl3DlqQc

I can see you read my whole post.

 

Why I was singled out, I can't figure out.  Look at posts #16,#17, & #18 for starters.  My point was about the add-on manager, yeesh.

 

-Jim

[fppilot 4,370]

 

 

And a VIDEO, note the smoothness, in 4K (if running the sim and capturing in 4K wasn't already impressive as such...)

 

What scenery are you using surrounding the airport scenery?

[tttocs 301]

+2 I do not get that issue on approaches, but too often I start from KLAX, KDFW, or KORD, and find no terminal buildings until I go into the addon manager and activate them again with my keys. Such a hassle!

 

The only time I see something like this with my FSDT/Flightbeam airports is if I enable them in the scenery library and don't restart FSX after doing so.

 

Scott

 

Edit:  Maybe I'm just lucky, but I truly don't get all the angst I see from some users over the addon manager.  It's been several years now since I first installed an FSDT airport and I've had zero issues in that time.  Must be something wrong with me. :-)

[virtuali 4,421]

I can see you read my whole post.

 

Why I was singled out, I can't figure out.  Look at posts #16,#17, & #18 for starters.  My point was about the add-on manager, yeesh.

 

-Jim

 

Post #16 doesn't state any fact, just prejudices. 

 

Post #18 reports something that nobody ever reported. Something in that report doesn't add-up: activation cannot be lost while flying, and buildings will not reappear by re-inserting the Serial Number, since the Addon Manager only checks for activation when FSX starts. Since nobody ever reported this problem before, it would have been best if the OP contacted us for a better understanding of his issue. I checked our forum, he has registered to it, but the only post he ever made, was to say he voted for KMEM in our poll...which I hope he'll like, since it's going to be the next released product.

 

Post #17 is about the pauses, which in fact it's a feature of the Addon Manager that, by not relying on the FSX memory handling of the objects, will ensure the scenery is loaded only when entering a specific area, and is unloaded on exit. Since is very well known that FSX is is not very capable of reclaiming VAS when exiting from a scenery area, the Addon Manager will help with VAS consumption, and will render practices like constantly changing the Scenery Library to only include the areas needed for the flight, useless for all scenery handled by the Addon Manager. Which, incidentally, is exactly what has been found in post #26:

 

 

The only time I see something like this with my FSDT/Flightbeam airports is if I enable them in the scenery library and don't restart FSX after doing so.

 

Yes, of course it does that. It doesn't re-read the whole Scenery Library *each* time you touch it. It doesn't have to, because its own sceneries don't have to be selected/unselected to save memory!

 

Yes, pauses might not look nice, but they are configurable (with the "Anti-popup slider") so, at the highest setting, there will only a longer pause about 10-15 NM out (depending on the scenery), but it will then be normally smooth, and this will save VAS and reduce the risk of FSX crashing on approach, which is far worse than a pause.

 

 

My point was about the add-on manager, yeesh.

 

You said you attributed the bad performances TO the Addon Manager/Couatl, which is why, I posted some evidence of how well the Addon Manager/Couatl-enabled KSFOHD performs, with several very positive comments from users AND a video on top of it.

 

No, I haven't done that video myself. It's made by Rob Ainscough,

[tttocs 301]

 

 

Yes, of course it does that. It doesn't re-read the whole Scenery Library *each* time you touch it. It doesn't have to, because its own sceneries don't have to be selected/unselected to save memory!

 

Yes, I'm well aware of that.  The reason for my posting was to point out to Frank that what he was experiencing was expected behavior if he'd disabled and then re-enabled in the scenery library without then restarting FSX.  In other words, the "problem" is easy to avoid.

 

Sorry if that wasn't clear,

 

Scott

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

Edit: Maybe I'm just lucky, but I truly don't get all the angst I see from some users over the addon manager. It's been several years now since I first installed an FSDT airport and I've had zero issues in that time. Must be something wrong with me. :-)

Something must be wrong with me as well as I've been using their products sine 2008 and never had issues either.

 

If you read their forum most issues come down to user error, virus scanner, faulty installation, etc. Very few times has an issue cropped up due to an actual programming error with a Couatl update, and those errors are quickly corrected. Pretty much any issue I've seen posted has been solved by Umberto helping the user in their forum or via a TeamViewer session.

 

Of course, like any product there are those who refuse to be helped and prefer to cry wolf and say the program screwed up their whole system or FSX.

[fullmetal02 23]

Yes there are criticisms that I have leveled re:FSDT, but the addon manager is not one of them.

 

The addon manager is really not an issue.

 

Still FB is at the top of addon pyramid. They have no current peer.