fsx-se Starting over... Been away for a long time

[jcalder 25]

There seems to be quite a few topics like this scattered throughout the forum but they all seem to be quite personalized so I figured instead of resurrecting someone else's that doesn't really apply to me I'd just start my own.

I used to fly a lot in FS2004.  Made the switch to FSX because that's what all the nice new addons were being made for and got it running reasonably well.  But I found myself always spending more time tweaking and messing with settings than actually flying, then when I would actually fly something would freeze or crash and I'd be angry and it eventually ended up forming a storm cloud above my head and deleting FSX in a tizzy.

That was about two years ago.

I sort of followed advancements over time but now when I actually read through this forum I see a million options and none of them make sense.  Some people say just regular FSX with SP2 is good enough.  Others say FSX:SE is good.  Others say P3D is the way to go.

 

Well, at new years I saw FSX:SE for sale for $5 so I bought it.  Never downloaded (doing that now, 7 mbps connection so it's gonna take awhile).

Now my computer is still the old clunker from quite a few years ago and I know that it's not up to snuff with today's stuff and I know that stutters and such will happen, don't really care, that's not what made the sim unenjoyable for me.  It is an i7 920 running at 4 ghz with a GTX 480.  I feel old just typing that out...

 

Anyway, am I going to have to spend months tweaking the .cfg file over and over just trying to get the sim to not crash or did Dovetail actually fix something?

 

What do people use for flight planning?  This was always a peeve of mine, I wanted to fly airplanes, not map routes and choose cruising altitudes and such.  My brother in law is a pilot for Air Canada, he never has to do that stuff.  Is there somewhere where you can just get a flight plan and follow it?

Active Sky Next seems to be the best for weather.  I still have that and I assume I can still use it.

ATC was the other one that always got my goat.  I read a few topics about the third party ATC programs available now and it sure seems to be a subject that gets everyone all riled up, so I don't know what to do there either.

 

If any of these things have been improved over the last few years I have no problem eventually buying a new system to smooth out performance.  But I want to be sure the basics work before I go drop a couple thousand dollars on a new computer.

For now I only want to fly the NGX.  It worked decent before I quit so I'm sure it'll be fine for now.  I eventually want the 777 and new 747 but for now I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.
 

Thanks to anyone who replies and if I'm not clear on anything I'll be happy to answer any questions.

[fs4fun 366]

 

 

What do people use for flight planning?  This was always a peeve of mine, I wanted to fly airplanes, not map routes and choose cruising altitudes and such.  My brother in law is a pilot for Air Canada, he never has to do that stuff.  Is there somewhere where you can just get a flight plan and follow it?

 

I highly recommend simbrief.com. Very quick and simple to get a dispatch along with downloadable route and flight plan files.

 

And yes, ASN is tops for weather. Download the .PLN file from simbrief and load it up in ASN and you're set.

 

I don't have FSX:SE but I think they fixed a lot of the .cfg issues so you don't need to do much tweaking. Since you have an Nvidia card you might want to get Nvidia Inspector and also have a look at the FSX config guide here: http://www.avsim.com/files/file/41-basic-fsx-p3d-configuration-guide/.

[vp49p3 216]

Your post was perfect timing.  I've been simming for six years.  Started with FSX, then P3Dv2 and then v3.  What originally sold me on P3D was that FSX wasn't being updated any more, while P3D would be. That turned out to be a mixed blessing, as many, many fine aircraft and sceneries won't work in P3Dv2, and even less work in P3Dv3.xx as I only use native installers.  Well, today I decided to set up FSX on a separate drive from P3Dv3.  I'm putting everything that I miss from FSX on that drive.  I'm eagerly looking forward to flying the A2A B-17,Spitfire, P51, J-3 Cub and B377, the Real Air Piston Duke and Catabria.  I even miss the Wilco Tilt Rotor, which was my very first addon.  I miss Austria X, Switzerland X, all the Swiss Airports, VFR Germany, Manhattan X, Hong Kong Kai Tak, Lukla Mt. Everest, London City and many, many others.  I miss VOXATC when I'm in P3dV3.  Maybe I'm getting nostalgic, but I've got thousands of dollars in scenery and aircraft that are perfectly good but were left in the dust by P3Dv3.  I'm afraid that as we get more and more P3D updates, too many good developers, aircraft, scenery and utilities will get left behind.  So, I'm creating two virtual worlds--P3Dv3 stuff and then everything else I love.

[spesimen 135]

Anyway, am I going to have to spend months tweaking the .cfg file over and over just trying to get the sim to not crash or did Dovetail actually fix something?

i vastly prefer the steam version, because it has the various fixes and tweaks from over the years implmented for you automatically. there is a subtle performance improvement and memory handling is improved also. it is still possible to make it crash if you throw enough addons at it but it is fairly solid without doing any tweaks.

What do people use for flight planning?  This was always a peeve of mine, I wanted to fly airplanes, not map routes and choose cruising altitudes and such.  My brother in law is a pilot for Air Canada, he never has to do that stuff.  Is there somewhere where you can just get a flight plan and follow it?

i agree with barry that simbrief might be the exact thing you are looking for and it is free.

i use pfpx myself but it is very expensive and overkill if you just want to fly pre-made routes.

 

Active Sky Next seems to be the best for weather.  I still have that and I assume I can still use it.

it works well for me

ATC was the other one that always got my goat.  I read a few topics about the third party ATC programs available now and it sure seems to be a subject that gets everyone all riled up, so I don't know what to do there either.

it's a big can of worms, there are really no clear winners, of the main packages they each have strengths and weaknesses depending on what you specifically want, it's a big topic to go into and reading the threads where people are riled up is probably informative at least

 

good luck

cheers

-andy crosby

[jcalder 25]

Thanks for the replies so far!

Another topic I haven't seen much on, what do people use for AI traffic?  I have UT2 but I don't think that's been updated in like 6 years.  Does it work with steam edition?

I think before I dive into ATC stuff I will try to get the hang of flying again using default ATC.  Just got it installed and it looks decent, I followed the NVidia inspector setup instructions from the link above and I installed Active Sky Next and the NGX.

Started up the aircraft and I can't remember what anything does...  Haha!

I have a handful of add-on airports but nothing too crazy.  I can honestly fly the same route over and over trying to remember all the ins and outs.  I can't remember the exact ones but a few FSDT ones like Honolulu and O'Hare.  I have some flytampa ones as well.

I think what got me back on this is I went on a cruise 3 weeks ago and we stopped in St. Maarten.  While everyone on the ship jumped in taxi's to go to Orient beach, my wife and I headed to Maho to watch airplanes.  It was cool to actually visit the famous airport/beach/bar.

Sitting on the ground at the default KORD in the cockpit of the NGX everything seemed to flow smoothly, I try not to look at FPS too much but it was sitting at about 32.  If I switched to the 2D panel it shot up to almost 50, better than my boxed FSX ever did, so here's hoping my old computer has some good hours of fun left in it.

[Fielder 3,673]

I have a cheap laptop (under $600).

FSX:SE runs fine, even with Orbx scenery, and almost all sliders maxed.

You (the OP) will have no trouble with it on your system, I predict 

[airernie 263]

I think before I dive into ATC stuff I will try to get the hang of flying again using default ATC. Just got it installed and it looks decent, I followed the NVidia inspector setup instructions from the link above and I installed Active Sky Next and the NGX.

 

Another option for ATC is to join VATSIM. 

 

Unfortunately, because the controllers are volunteers, coverage is spotty, but when available you're dealing with a real-live person.

[jcalder 25]

I've used VATSIM before, I do like to use it from time to time but would still like an option for when I fly at night and don't want to be talking or when I do a long haul where I'm not paying the most attention, sometimes sitting off to the side watching TV.. (during cruise...)  Haha.

So far my computer seems to be performing better with FSX: SE than it ever did with FSX Deluxe + SP1 & 2.

Was trying to figure out simbrief last night and flying the NGX I noticed on the ND that the plane was flying crooked alongside the purple line, like it was dog-tracking.  Kind of like |\ with the airplane being the backslash.

Then when I got to my destination and captured the localizer and glideslope, I came in crooked, the same way to the runway and was going to end up touching down on the grass and taxi-ways.  This was in auto-land mode too (gonna take awhile to get the hang of all this again and it makes it difficult when nothing is lining up.)

Maybe this is a unique problem but I doubt it.  The airports used were just default ones KMSP to KLAX was the route.

Brought back my frustrations from years ago.  Fly 1100 nm only to have the sim screw up and not line anything up right and mess up my landing.  By this point it was after midnight so I just ended the flight and went to bed.

I searched around a bit last night and saw some people having issues with the plane following parallel to their flight plans on the ND, but never crooked like what I was experiencing.  It was very weird.

Wondering if it has something to do with AIRAC data and outdated compass/magnetic fields or something in FSX?  Still doesn't really explain why the plane was sideways to the flight path.  Oh well, I'll experiment some more when I get some time.

[spesimen 135]

Was trying to figure out simbrief last night and flying the NGX I noticed on the ND that the plane was flying crooked alongside the purple line, like it was dog-tracking.  Kind of like |\ with the airplane being the backslash.

 

Then when I got to my destination and captured the localizer and glideslope, I came in crooked, the same way to the runway and was going to end up touching down on the grass and taxi-ways.  This was in auto-land mode too (gonna take awhile to get the hang of all this again and it makes it difficult when nothing is lining up.)

hmm i cant really comment about this since i don't see that but it might be easier to diagnose with a screenshot

 

does it happen with default planes? was stuff like the IRS alignment all legit? was there a strong crosswind because it is normal for the LNAV mode to take that into account

 

 

Brought back my frustrations from years ago.  Fly 1100 nm only to have the sim screw up and not line anything up right and mess up my landing.  By this point it was after midnight so I just ended the flight and went to bed.

well PMDG is very complex i would suggest to consider some shorter routes while you make sure you got everything working it will be less frustrating that way probably

 

Wondering if it has something to do with AIRAC data and outdated compass/magnetic fields or something in FSX?  Still doesn't really explain why the plane was sideways to the flight path.  Oh well, I'll experiment some more when I get some time.

the misaligned glideslope could be related to that. the issue comes from the navdata PMDG uses being up-to-date but the scenery being 10 years old. without knowing more specifics about which fltplan/STAR/approach/runway it might be hard to diagnose also. at some airports things haven't really changed much but others have completely different ruwnays and frequencies. really a screenshot in that wacky ILS approach case might be more informative also

 

anyway good luck

cheers

-andy crosby

[jcalder 25]

I'll try again tonight and if it's acting goofy again I'll take some screenshots.

I'll do shorter flights too, KPAE to KSEA is pretty short, right?  Haha.

[olliegreen4 0]

 

 

I used to fly a lot in FS2004. Made the switch to FSX

Wow! I could have just as easily written this. Enjoyed FS9 with Just Flight's Air Hauler for about 4 years until personal issues completely drove me away from both. Now, I've built an AMD/ASUS 8 core computer because my previous build wasn't up to the task of Win 7. And I went with an 8-core CPU for future considerations.

 

Also, wanted to get into FSX and get back to Air Hauler. But for some reason FSX couldn't handle my 8 core CPU, or vice versa. While flying, FSX would slow right down to 1 FPS, but only after flying perfectly for about half an hour, and while landing at airport "X". Core usage indicated ALL 8 cores maxed out to 100%. ?!

 

Searching for solutions yielded nothing that wasn't over my head. One person said that they had the same problem until they bought FSX-SE. So, I sunk $20 and downloaded SE from Dovetail. Have been running it with AH for a couple of weeks, and NO bog downs.

 

For flight planning I've been using FSTramp. Unfortunately, there is no one-time cost. More like a yearly subscription. Sort of like the old FSNav for previous FS's.

 

Good luck with your own adventures.

[jcalder 25]

Since I started this thread I've been really enjoying FSX:SE and the NGX.  Actually bought REX 4 today to make things look a little more realistic but I can fly into KORD with Ultimate Traffic II and Active Sky Next running and have no problem keeping thing running nice and smooth.  I don't know what the FPS are since I don't like watching the meter, as long as the experience is smooth, I'm happy.

Now I just have to find time to fly!  Simbrief is exactly what I was looking for in flight planning, I'm really enjoying this.