Flight Simming - The Hobby That Always Under-Delivered - Until Now

[montanasimmer 7]

8 hours ago, snglecoil said:

Late 90s early 00s was such a fun time for flight simming. Had all of the sims you mentioned above @Chock. Fly! had a particularly special place in my heart with Richard Harvey being such an active part of the Avsim community. And if memory serves me right PMDG really came into the scene with the Fly! series. And lest we forget one of the most die-hard communities here at Avsim for Sierra Pro Pilot. Ah good times....now get off my lawn you young punks 

Honestly it is pretty amazing what has been done with 3rd party help even over the near absence of major developers for a few years. My CFI in the late 90s told me to stay away from sims. I would develop bad habits. Wonder what he'd think now!

Yep, PMDG's first airplanes were the 757 and 777 for Fly2K...good stuff.

[dommel1234 1]

I  cannot agree more. I am more than 20 years  in flight simming my first simulator was FS5 and now its the first time in my simming life that i have a decent experience. Always my system was lagging behind even when i decided to throw  at some point some serious bucks, always something was missing from the whole experience. I almost dont believe it finally happened with V4 :)

[Slayer 190]

After I saw Robs post on his new system I pulled the trigger on X299  and bought a 7740 for the single core performance. This is the first time I ever saw any PMDG aircraft run at 90 FPS (P3Dv4). Slowly adding my payware and it seems to still hold up. Very happy with V4  so far. Good times.

[BobP 56]

All I have done since installing P3dV4  a couple of weeks ago is fly. Every day with smooth motion and not a single CTD do to P3dV4.(I'm retired :)) None. I load up the simulator in the morning and fly any where in  the world with the Queen V3 and the NGX. It's amazing to me to select a location and plane without concerns for  stuttering,  VAS depletion or a sim crash.

Bob 

 

[vgbaron 3,597]

17 minutes ago, wiler said:

the topic was about the flight simming hobby  not specifically p3d or fsx. why cant xp11 be mentioned in the same breath as p3d as a step forward for the hobby. SMH.

Because the topic is about P3D and it's contribution to the perfect sim. Bringing up XP just begins a comparison again. You want to extoll the virtues of XP - please do so in the XP forum - this is the P3D forum. And so your posts are removed.

Vic

[Guest]

This is the P3D forum, lets not digress this thread, if you want to talk about XP11 we have a forum for that also.  If you want to talk about both then use Hangar Chat but it has a high probability of being locked because of "the few" that can't just agree to disagree.  Yes, there have been a "few" enthusiastic members that want to encourage 'the battle of platforms'.  However, there are a very large majority of members that don't want and/or don't need to have almost every topic diverted into XP11 vs. P3D and/or visa-versa.

Cheers, Rob.

[JYW 2,980]

Great thread.

I will jump to P3Dv4 as soon as Flight 1 release their V4 version of the GTN750.    Couldn't do without that for now!

[Parping Couplet 117]

5 minutes ago, JYW said:

Great thread.

I will jump to P3Dv4 as soon as Flight 1 release their V4 version of the GTN750.    Couldn't do without that for now!

That's my one regret about making the full jump, plus that Orbx seems to be taking forever to get their airports converted with the new objecflow. Orbx I trust to get it sorted asap. However I'm not so confident about Flight 1...

[vgbaron 3,597]

9 minutes ago, Parping Couplet said:

That's my one regret about making the full jump, plus that Orbx seems to be taking forever to get their airports converted with the new objecflow. Orbx I trust to get it sorted asap. However I'm not so confident about Flight 1...

I had the same feeling initially re the 750 but after being forced to fly w/o it for a while, it's actually kind of fun. Have to work a little harder but it takes me back. Still I am trying to remain patient......................

 

Vic

[wiler 394]

1 hour ago, Rob Ainscough said:

This is the P3D forum, lets not digress this thread, if you want to talk about XP11 we have a forum for that also.  If you want to talk about both then use Hangar Chat but it has a high probability of being locked because of "the few" that can't just agree to disagree.  Yes, there have been a "few" enthusiastic members that want to encourage 'the battle of platforms'.  However, there are a very large majority of members that don't want and/or don't need to have almost every topic diverted into XP11 vs. P3D and/or visa-versa.

Cheers, Rob.

Lets agree to disagree. When the thread is referencing "flightsimming" I dont just think about P3d even though this is a p3d thread, I get it you guys dont want to deal with closed minded people who cant have a calm discussion about our hobby. I just think XP11 deserves to be mentioned along with P3D as a product that is helping change the under performing mantra in this hobby. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, wiler said:

I dont just think about P3d even though this is a p3d thread

It's actually in the P3D forum so yes it's about P3D ... just like we don't want P3D "threads" in the XPlane "forum" or any X platform vs. Y platform thread in the X or Y forum or for someone that is posting their enthusiasm for Xplane and then another members comes in and says "hey lets talk about P3D too".  

Like I suggested use "Hangar Chat" as "neutral ground" for those types of discussions ... and hope it doesn't get out of control and locked.

Cheers, Rob.

[JYW 2,980]

I caved and got P3Dv4..... it's amazing!   I'm blown away with performance out the box.   I have a real modest set up;  i7-4790 at 3.6Ghz and a GTX770 4GB and I am amazed how high I can get the settings, and still get high frame rates.   Without wanting to provoke any conflict, I must tell you that I bought XP-11 and P3Dv4 on the same day.   XP11 is lovely but with my modest system I just can't get the real loveliness out of it - no go with HDR at all, and the anti-aliasing I'm seeing is very poor, even on max setting in the sim.     In P3Dv4, I have HDR, lot's of bloom and saturation and high settings for the environment, I'm in the A2A C172 over the Berlin area of Orbx Germany North (busy!) and have 40+ FPS and super smooth.

I'm not dissing XP11 whatsoever here - I had a fantastic flight in the IXEG in it.  But what I am saying is that, for those with modest systems like mine, P3Dv4 seems to give a heck of a lot more mileage for pushing the settings.   I really don't like what they've done with the XP11 visual settings; dumbing it all down to quite extreme levels!     I have bought both and will use both.    I love creating ortho with Ortho4XP in XP11 and grabbing all the fab free airports from people like MisterX.    But for the most part, it's going to be P3Dv4.

I will wait a week and then almost certainly uninstall FSX (after 11 years almost unbroken installation!).   Just couldn't go back to it after the P3Dv4 experience.

Sorry for the rambling - excited!

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

I, like you, now have FSX on the back burner.

It still has some of the addons that I like (and that are not yet available for V4).

Things like the GNS/GTN gauges, the F33 Bonanza, and the Phenom300..

But, also like you, every time I go back to FSX, it suddenly looks like yesterday's sim... It is going to stay on my harddrive for a while, but probably not get a lot of use..

Right now, my Baytower RV7 takes me on many very nice flights in V4, and the world looks better than it ever has

For my settings, go to the bottom of this thread:

http://www.prepar3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6312&t=126112

[somiller 694]

On 7/25/2017 at 8:18 AM, snglecoil said:

@Chock

My CFI in the late 90s told me to stay away from sims. I would develop bad habits. Wonder what he'd think now!

I love P3D v4. As Rob and many others stated previously, the difference from v3 can't be overstated. I've flown all the MSFS versions back to the "program-on-floppydisk" days.

But I would NEVER take advice from YOUR CFI! The following is WAY off-topic, but illustrates the value of simming - it saved my life.

I have a good for you if you believed your instructor...from the "don't do as I do, do as I say column...and the "don't try this at home" column...

For cross-country practice before my private pilot exams, my instructor (best stick and rudder guy I've ever flown with...taught himself to fly helicoptors ffs!) asked me to fly from Henry County, OH to Chatham, MA in my brother's Cherokee 180. He wanted to look at a Pitts S-2B, and if he bought it I would be returning to Henry County by myself.

So, on an early morning in Feb. of 2003, we left for MA about 5:30 a.m. Great weather, with a nice tailwind giving us 145 kts over the ground. Stopped at Groton CT for fuel, watched a G-IV arrive, drop off 3 people, and promptly taxi and take off. We left Groton for Chatham and arrived about 4 or so hrs after leaving Henry County.

Well, to make a long story a little less long, he ended up buying the Pitts, and I watched him hand over $55,000.00 in $100 bills to pay for it. After milling around and checking out the airport, we decided to head on our respective ways (he was flying to Philly area to look at a helicopter), and by now it's about 2 p.m. - weather great, mostly sunny and light winds at about 270ish.

I headed straight back, making terrible speed over the ground cause the winds were a bit stiff at altitude, but no big deal other than I had been awake a long time and was beginning to get tired.

Landed at Williamsport, PA for fuel (like I said, I was making terrible progress over the ground) and went in to look at the weather. I was looking at a cold front in my line of flight, but didn't pay too much attention to bases or precip - and so you can probably see where this is going.

Took off from Williamsport around 6 or 7ish I think, in light drizzle, temp about 50 degrees and solid overcast, and beginning to get dark. Climbed out to about 4000 ft. pressure alt., still in light precip, getting dark.

Within about 1/2 hour, I became aware that I could see the strobes flashing all round the aircraft, and it became apparent I was now in the ######, no horizontal reference (other than on the panel), light to moderate chop, and SOMEHOW managed to lose New York Center on the radio. It's no understatement to tell you that I was in deep trouble, and quickly realized my mommy couldn't help me now.

Took me a moment to collect myself while I was flying the panel, trying to figure out what to do. Things were pretty bouncy, and I was having trouble controlling the aircraft if I tried to do anything other than "fly-the-plane", so it was no good trying to look at a chart, or fumble too much with the radio - of COURSE, the a/p on this plane was flaky, and I was afraid to use it cause the wing leveler had it's own idea of what was level. I was somewhat afraid of trying to turn around and get back out of the soup, cause I was afraid of a stall-spin when trying to turn with the turbulence bouncing me around. I thought about trying to re-establish radio contact with center (or anyone) to get vectors and alt. guidance to a controlled field with an ILS, but I just couldn't do all that and keep the damn thing flying. So, after some serious soul-searching, I decided to press on, knowing from my weather briefing that the weather line I'd flown into would be moving east, past the PA-OH line, so if I could just get there I would be back into clear air.

Thank God for giving me another hour of control of the aircraft, I made it to the backside of the weather. Ended up landing at Mansfield, OH for more fuel (I probably had enough to get home without, but the thought of a forced-landing, or worse, short of home base, was NOT going to be the end of this flight) and then an uneventful take-off and final leg back to Henry County, OH

A couple of pieces of advice helped to save my life on this fateful day:

1.) a couple weeks previously, a fellow pilot told me that when flying cross-country, he ALWAYS flew above MSA sector altitude, so that he never had to worry about running into anything other than another aircraft. I did exactly that, so it was one less thing to worry about.

2.) when flying my first cross-country with my instructor, we were flying below some overcast, and he used this opportunity to advise that if I ever found myself flying in clouds in the dark, to turn off all outside lights, to help avoid spatial disorientation - I can't begin to tell you how much this helped me.

3.) I had years of reading Flying Magazine, and remember a lot of tips from "Aftermath" and "I learned about flying from that"

4.) Most importantly - by the time of this flight, I had probably over 1000 hrs flying IMC with various versions of MSFS, and while the models may not have been perfect representations of flight dynamics, it taught me how to fly a panel, and that if I fly the G-damned airplane, I might be able to survive.

So, if you ever see your instructor again, you can tell him I said he doesn't know ###### about the value of flight sims, because experience in my sim kept me alive.

I had no business doing what I was doing, and the only reason I got in trouble was my own lack of proper weather briefing, and GET_HOME_ITIS. I would not recommend it to anyone! From experience, I can tell you it makes your knees shake. To pour salt in the wound, when I finally got the courage to recount this story to my CFI, he assured me I would NOT be logging the solo IMC time in my logbook.

 

Steven Miller

[Lenny777 299]

On 7/26/2017 at 2:19 PM, Parping Couplet said:

That's my one regret about making the full jump, plus that Orbx seems to be taking forever to get their airports converted with the new objecflow. Orbx I trust to get it sorted asap. However I'm not so confident about Flight 1...

Have you installed EGHI? Objectflow works perfectly fine and the airport is great in P3Dv4.