Sim Starter

[warbirds 555]

Anyone have it and how do you like it?

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

It's great.  Saves load times, helps when you have add-on airports close to each other, you can have multiple configurations based on performance needs and much more. 

[RichieFly 723]

I have the payware version (NG) and it's very good.

It's versatile, works perfectly 99% of the time and is great for having configurations for each of your aircraft. Specifically, for example; one aircraft requires certain entries in your DLL.XML and another one has its set of entries. With this tool, managing this situation is not difficult. Or, maybe you need to carefully manage your memory for certain aircraft (looking at you A320x). You can have a custom p3d.cfg with settings tailored to keep your VAS usage under control. 

Of course all this can be done manually by editing, but this tools greatly simplifies the process. I'd hate to be without it.

 

[CB_Pilot 54]

I have the paid version and, like others, think it's indispensable. I run a fairly low end rig and it really helps me get the best out of my setup by allowing me to manage settings depending on what and where I want to fly. I've had it for a year and I'm still learning more and more about its capabilities. It manages scenery, aircraft, FSX config settings and, using its "Run Manager" and clean desktop it can help you run customised external programmes (e.g. NVI, ORBX Vector AEC profile) and temporarily shutdown apps not needed for simming (e.g. virus scanners) then start them all up again when you close the sim.

It really is top of my add-on list and, for me, is great value. Worth mentioning that the developer also offers superb support and is really responsive.

Top marks from me.

[qqwertz 770]

I have it but so far had little use of it. I only use it to edit scenery.cfg. Having said that, I may start using it more since it may be an alternative to FSUIPC for creating different axes assignments for different airplanes. FSUIPC is great of course, but assigning axes with it is not compatible with the new PMDG 747.

Peter

[jason99vmi 157]

Worth every penny and its not that many pennies to begin with. 

Able to tweak the P3D cfg and scenery cfg. create different scenarios such as IFR, VFR, No traffic, etc.

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

For an example, I have one config I use when flying big iron with Orbx regions...sliders almost entirely right.  I have another config that I use when flying GA with Orbx regions...sliders reduced.  I can copy a set, rename it and make tweaks to that one for other conditions or for testing or, perhaps, make a setting for night flying.  I have my scenery divided up by region so I don't load everything when I start my sim...North America East...Central...West.  Europe...Pacific.  I isolate very heavy sceneries like New York City by itself and I turn it off and on when I need it.  I seldom modify the XML files, or FSUIPC but I could.   When you're ready to fly, you click your config set, select your scenery set(s) and click.  From there I always go to the P3D start screen, select my airplane (777, Duke, etc.), select my location and it loads.  There's a lot of scenery disabled so the load is fairly quick and I'm there...ready to go.  Sometimes there are just too many airplanes in my list so I go into the Livery Manager and disable a bunch of liveries...clean things up. 

[kenthom 19]

On 3/6/2017 at 7:24 AM, Gregg_Seipp said:

For an example, I have one config I use when flying big iron with Orbx regions...sliders almost entirely right.  I have another config that I use when flying GA with Orbx regions...sliders reduced.  I can copy a set, rename it and make tweaks to that one for other conditions or for testing or, perhaps, make a setting for night flying.  I have my scenery divided up by region so I don't load everything when I start my sim...North America East...Central...West.  Europe...Pacific.  I isolate very heavy sceneries like New York City by itself and I turn it off and on when I need it.  I seldom modify the XML files, or FSUIPC but I could.   When you're ready to fly, you click your config set, select your scenery set(s) and click.  From there I always go to the P3D start screen, select my airplane (777, Duke, etc.), select my location and it loads.  There's a lot of scenery disabled so the load is fairly quick and I'm there...ready to go.  Sometimes there are just too many airplanes in my list so I go into the Livery Manager and disable a bunch of liveries...clean things up. 

I know this is an old thread but I am considering purchasing sim start so I am doing my research.  Your description was helpful.  However, when looking at the videos etc it shows so many settings.  My question, do you have to set the "basic" settings exactly as your sim has them or is that done automatically?  

[qqwertz 770]

Automatically. It copies the configuration of your sim and starts with that. If you make changes in the sim, it asks you whether you want to add the changes to your profile. If you add a new scenery or airplane to your sim, it automatically updates your profiles accordingly.

Simstarter is definitely worth its money, it makes some things much easier to handle. I have a profile for turboprops with different axis assignments than for the one for jets. For jets, I have two profiles, one for jets that aren't that demanding on my hardware, and one with lower settings (essentially ORBX vector and regions disabled, sliders fairly much to the left) for the heavy hitters.

Peter 

[MarkW 1,490]

Under FSX, FSX-SE and P3D v3 I found it indespensible.  With P3D v4....I don't use it.  No need.

[newtie 533]

Because I don't fly a large variety of aircraft in alternate settings, it was of little value to me.

Lorby's AddOn manager takes care of the scenery for me and I have UTL and AS set up with the command line and that's pretty much all I need.

Now, if you fly under the opposite conditions, probably very useful.

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Woozie 732]

I can wholeheartedly recommend it, its one of very few addons i couldnt fly without anymore. It improves quality of life when simming significantly.

A few examples why i love it so much:

1. I created profiles for every addon plane i use regularly. It will...
   1. switch PFPX and TOPCAT PAX weights (via REG files)
   2. disable addons i dont need for that plane (like FS Spotlights when using PMDG planes)
   3. autostart 3rd party tools and addons specifically for a certain plane (like remoteCDU with PDMG planes or the Dash8 configurator)
   4. set GSX settings like FollowMe-Car-Speed or boarding times
2. With the fileswitcher you can switch BGL files to .OFF to ensure compatibility of addon airports with ORBX LC/Vector. All switches can be saved as individual sets, so when ORBX updates a product, you can simply switch all the sets again without manually searching and renaming all the files again
3. I have saved file copy jobs, mainly used for GSX customized files (pushback voicesets or handler/catering logos). As every GSX update will overwrite any modified files, I just run the saved copy jobs and all my customisations will be applied in a second

I simply love it. And customer support is great as well, regular updates and the dev really listens to customer feedback and requests

 

[scottb613 1,187]

Hi Folks,

I was a big skeptic before I bought it - picked it up over the holidays for v4 and now I wonder how I lived without it for so long... I still run scenery configs - even though we don't have VAS issues - they affect frame rate when in close proximity - such as KTEB and KLGA - I seldom need both active...

Almost every setting can be controlled from within SS and this includes all the AS4 settings...

I have two different graphics settings - one for out in the "boonies" and another for the "big city"... Here is what I have configured - the performance has lower graphic settings than the quality settings: 

• Performance VFR -  (AS4/ASCA - CP - UTL - FltPlan GO)
• Quality VFR - (AS4/ASCA - CP - UTL - FPGO)
• Performance IFR - (AS4/ASCA - CP - UTL - FPGO - RC4)
• Quality IFR - (AS4/ASCA - CP - UTL - FPGO - RC4)
• Clean - (no CP - no UTL - no AS4 - no ASCA - no FPGO )
• Testing (just CP)

Some cool backup tools to protect your config files - saved my bacon once already...

You can kill things like DropBox or Apple - then have them restart after the sim...

It's truly the master of all your config files for most of your flight sim programs...

Won me over big time - for the few bucks it costs - worthy investment...

Two thumbs up...

Regards,
Scott

 

 

[pegruder 65]

I just picked this up myself.  I've been hearing good things but kept putting it off.  Gonna try it out in a bit.

[MarkW 1,490]

42 minutes ago, Woozie said:

I can wholeheartedly recommend it, its one of very few addons i couldnt fly without anymore. It improves quality of life when simming significantly.

A few examples why i love it so much:

1. I created profiles for every addon plane i use regularly. It will...
   1. switch PFPX and TOPCAT PAX weights (via REG files)
   2. disable addons i dont need for that plane (like FS Spotlights when using PMDG planes)
   3. autostart 3rd party tools and addons specifically for a certain plane (like remoteCDU with PDMG planes or the Dash8 configurator)
   4. set GSX settings like FollowMe-Car-Speed or boarding times
2. With the fileswitcher you can switch BGL files to .OFF to ensure compatibility of addon airports with ORBX LC/Vector. All switches can be saved as individual sets, so when ORBX updates a product, you can simply switch all the sets again without manually searching and renaming all the files again
3. I have saved file copy jobs, mainly used for GSX customized files (pushback voicesets or handler/catering logos). As every GSX update will overwrite any modified files, I just run the saved copy jobs and all my customisations will be applied in a second

I simply love it. And customer support is great as well, regular updates and the dev really listens to customer feedback and requests

 

I am clearly not using it to its full potential.  Need to relook at it.