Flight recording software for Concorde

[Ray Proudfoot 8,930]

As a huge fan of FS Labs' ConcordeX I am frustrated I cannot make decent recordings of my flights. I have tried FSRecorder but it doesn't record either reheat or the visor/nose movement. These are two of Concorde's most important features but a request for these to be included when recording has ended in disappointment with no discussion on the topic on the FSRecorder forum in over 4 years.

 

With all the utilities available for FSX / P3D it's disappointing nothing is compatible with this iconic aircraft.

 

Can anyone recommend a product that is 100% compatible please?

[Ray Proudfoot 8,930]

I'm very surprised there's been no comment on this. What about all you P3D pilots? FSRecorder doesn't work with that and the author appears to have abandoned his project.

 

Is there no recording alternative? That seems such a shame and a great opportunity for someone with the necessary skills to make a few bob!

[spesimen 135]

i think fsrecorder was really the only one that performed this function of recording the internal position and state. when i googled around a few months ago i found a lot of threads of people asking about alternatives but no real solutions.

 

cheers

-andy crosby

[Ray Proudfoot 8,930]

Thanks Andy. I also searched without finding anything useful. Makes you wonder what commercial companies use when creating a video for a new product. Surely not a donation-ware product?

 

I mean no disrespect to the author because FSRecorder was a great product. I'm really surprised it wasn't taken up by a commercial company given its usefulness.

[Christopher Low 5,338]

I agree, Ray. The built in recorder is useless for picking up important animations like spoilers and thrust reversers, and it also does a poor job of accurately recording the subtle nuances of landings and roll out. How many times have you seen the plane stop suddenly at the end of a recording, instead of a smooth animation with that short "pull back" as the brakes are released? Flight simulation is crying out for some decent software that records everything.

[Airline2Sim 489]

Loads of options for recording flights, some better than others. One free one if you have a modern Nvidia card is 'Shadowplay', or 'Share' as the newest beta is called. The processing is done on the card itself and the impact on FPS is negligible. Captures at your native resolution and frame rate but we found micro stutters present in the final rendered video so didn't use it. 

 

Capture cards are the other option. We recorded our 'First Look' for the IXEG 737 with an Avermedia HD card (around £100) which to my eyes looks great, although we did render out at around 15 times the typical YouTube bitrate which made the final video size insanely big! The card simply slots into a spare PCI slot in your motherboard. It's the best solution we've found thus far, albeit limited only to 1080p.   

 

[tutmeister 695]

All those solutions record what is on screen, they are simply video capture options.

 

The point of Ray's post is to find a working version of the built in flight recorder in prepar3d or xplane where you can change views during replay to show different external angles of landings etc.

This means you can replay the flight numerous times and record from different angles before editing it together. Or you can use it for flight reviews.

I use the build in prepar3d instant replay for rough reviews which works fine but isn't good enough for making videos as it doesn't show control surface animations. The best solution would be for LM to fix this in prepar3d!

 

Chris

[Ray Proudfoot 8,930]

Chris,

 

Well made point. Yes, I don't need something that captures whatever is on the screen. I need a program that captures all parameters of the aircraft (including nose/visor movement and reheats for Concorde) and then saves it as a file. I then want to replay that saved information changing the view as required.

 

On take-off for example I want to replay it from four different viewpoints:- 1) Cockpit, 2) Tower, 3) Spot Plane view and 4) custom viewpoint such as the runway end point as the aircraft approaches.

 

FSRecorder could do all that albeit with the inability to record nose/visor and reheat action on Concorde as previously mentioned.

 

Airline2Sim, that's a very polished video but doesn't give me what I want. There appears to be an enormous hole in the market that has been temporarily filled for a few years by a skilled amateur who has now ceased supporting his product.

 

What is now needed is for a professional to step up to the plate and provide a commercial solution for both FSX and P3D. Can it really be that difficult? The incentive is they would have a monopoly of the market.

[Luke 782]

I need a program that captures all parameters of the aircraft (including nose/visor movement and reheats for Concorde) and then saves it as a file.

Does the Concorde have an open API or SDK to detect these movements and aircraft model state? Because if it doesn't, and it doesn't use standard FS states (flaps, reheat) then you're complaining at the wrong audience. You should express your displeasure to the makers of the add-on that created an opaque product that doesn't play nicely with others.

 

What is now needed is for a professional to step up to the plate and provide a commercial solution for both FSX and P3D. Can it really be that difficult?

I've generally found that the more I know about a given subject, the more complicated and difficult it is.

 

I have a commercial product but I'm in the process of going back to an office job because I'm not certain that a flightsim add-on can provide enough income to make it worth my while. When you figure that a professional software author can easily make $120k-$160k in my area, it's pretty tough to make that kind of money in the FS arena.

 

Why don't you try to create such an add-on?

 

Cheers!

 

Luke

[Ray Proudfoot 8,930]

Luke,

 

Empty message.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,930]

Does the Concorde have an open API or SDK to detect these movements and aircraft model state? Because if it doesn't, and it doesn't use standard FS states (flaps, reheat) then you're complaining at the wrong audience. You should express your displeasure to the makers of the add-on that created an opaque product that doesn't play nicely with others.

Don't think so. You'd need to ask Lefteris on the FSLabs forum. But the nose/visor does react to the standard flap command keys of F6 & F7.

 

I've generally found that the more I know about a given subject, the more complicated and difficult it is. I have a commercial product but I'm in the process of going back to an office job because I'm not certain that a flightsim add-on can provide enough income to make it worth my while. When you figure that a professional software author can easily make $120k-$160k in my area, it's pretty tough to make that kind of money in the FS arena.

There are plenty of clever people out there who create FS addons in their spare time. Like John Dekker with Radar Contact.

 

Why don't you try to create such an add-on?

Simple. I don't have the knowledge.

[Luke 782]

There are plenty of clever people out there who create FS addons in their spare time. Like John Dekker with Radar Contact.

 

Agreed, there are plenty of smart  people who do it in their spare time. But the reality is that they do it in their spare time because the rewards aren't there to do it full-time, and because it's their spare time you're competing with families and other hobbies. Generally speaking what this boils down to is that unless your problem is a personal itch of the author or you have several hundred people also having this problem (and willing to pay for it) it's unlikely to get fixed.

 

I wrote simFDR because it was an easy commercial port of something that scratched a personal itch. But even here, something as simple as autopilot integration with a payware aircraft (the PMDG MD-11) is time-consuming and I'm only doing it because it's something I want to do. Given my market rates I don't think it's ever going to pay for itself.

 

I didn't have the knowledge, either. Until I had an itch that needed scratching. Seems like you are in the same boat.

 

Cheers!

 

Luke

[Ray Proudfoot 8,930]

Luke,

 

My itch isn't that annoying and you'll see from my photo I'm considerably older than you.

 

If I had an inkling of how to write such a utility I'd hive it a bash but sadly I don't. Concorde has sold well but I don't know actual numbers. It remains a niche aircraft albeit a magnificent one. I suppose unless someone rises go the challenge I'll remain disappointed.