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Tomwetering

Is an update really necessary?

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Hello pilots!

As we all know, PMDG has released updates for their stunning products somewhere back in June or July (can't really remember, I had final exams around then). I own the complete NGX series, 777 series and the updated 747-400 V3 for FSX. Now, as I said earlier, there are updates for these products. However, I actually do not see a reason to update these, and I mean the 'uninstall-and-reinstall-the-product' update. 

Why? Well, I've had six (yes, six!) big crashes with my FSX this year. These crashes very from an addon scenery file that just completely disappears, to FSX crashing when I start the game, this all with me not changing anything. You may be wondering why I tell this. Most of us PMDG users know their way around a computer. I definitely don't. When a big crash in my simulator occurs, 1) I freak out for like two hours before even getting the courage to try and rectify the problem, and 2) I'm entering my graduation year this year, so, I do not have the time, nor the knowledge to rectify such problems. And now my FSX is in a stable position, and I've had before that just uninstalling something and reinstalling the same problem crashed my sim completely.

Now, I know that lot's of people are going to say that I just need to upgrade to P3D, and they're probably right. But, I've spend around €1000 on FSX, PMDG products (whom I absolutely love) and scenery products. Upgrading to P3D means that I need to spend all of that money again, maybe even more, because P3D software is expensive. Furthermore, because I'm in college, I only fly three to five flights per week. So all of these factors lead me to conclude that I'm actually not going to update the superb PMDG products. But I want your opinion, because am I just refusing to 'eat the apple because the pear was not tasty', or do you think it's reasonable what I'm saying? :)

Love to hear from you!

Sincerly, Tom van de Wetering

(Sorry for my not 100% grammatically perfect English, I'm from the Netherlands).

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This one, probably not so much right away since it doesn't really solve any bugs, apart from a somewhat of a solution to the pop-up panel for one of the displays, but you're going to need the full installer for this one anyway, so you might want to do it. Any updates that come after would be done via the micro-updater through the Operations Center, at which point you could just check the change log to see what gets fixed, but any update after that requires this full installer anyhow.


Captain Kevin

nGsKmfi.jpg

Air Kevin 124 heavy, wind calm, runway 4 left, cleared for take-off.

Live streams of my flights here.

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I don't know how many in the last month or so but it seems every time I go to the PMDG Control Center there's major update for all three planes now.  A full installer download.

I mean I just bought the 777 yesterday, installed it and flew it and really like it.  Got liveries set up and now today there's a full installer download update?

It's makes my head spin faster than a Trent engine on takeoff!  I love you guys but I thought this was going to be fixed?

Every time I turn around now there's full installer update.  So now I have to download all three, uninstall, reinstall, fiddle with the repaints, and it's generally a royal pain in the you know what.

Will there come a time when we will not have to keep doing full installer updates and the control center will do it for us?

Thanks.

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Jack Sawyer

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Just now, Jack_Sawyer said:

Every time I turn around now there's full installer update.  So now I have to download all three, uninstall, reinstall, fiddle with the repaints, and it's generally a royal pain in the you know what.

Will there come a time when we will not have to keep doing full installer updates and the control center will do it for us?

This is what I meant, but I said it in a more chaotic way :)

Tom,

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From Robert's post in another thread, so we hope.

13 hours ago, rsrandazzo said:

Okay- another big round of updates for you this evening.  We are modestly certain that this will be the last batch of "no, you REALLY have to download the full installer again" updates as we seek to improve customer installation stability and eliminate some of the more common support call causes moving forward.

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Captain Kevin

nGsKmfi.jpg

Air Kevin 124 heavy, wind calm, runway 4 left, cleared for take-off.

Live streams of my flights here.

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PMDG did state that this will (hopefully) be the last full reinstall. This update, along with the work around for the CTD, added RAAS and will be a baseline for future microupdates. Even if you don't think it will be necessary, it is best to get it out of the way.

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Thanks fellas, to be honest I don't come here that often.  Is there a thread I can subscribe to so I can get news of updates like they have at Orbx?  Does Mr. Randazzo have an update thread or something I can subscribe to?

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Jack Sawyer

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2 minutes ago, Jack_Sawyer said:

Thanks fellas, to be honest I don't come here that often.  Is there a thread I can subscribe to so I can get news of updates like they have at Orbx?  Does Mr. Randazzo have an update thread or something I can subscribe to?

I don't think so. To keep up to date without coming here everyday, I think you could just follow RSR. There's no official announcement forum, I'm afraid.

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1 minute ago, Milton Waddams said:

I don't think so. To keep up to date without coming here everyday, I think you could just follow RSR. There's no official announcement forum, I'm afraid.

How do I follow him then?

 

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Jack Sawyer

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1 minute ago, Jack_Sawyer said:

How do I follow him then?

 

Go to his profile and there will be a button that says "follow" to the right of his name.

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3 minutes ago, Milton Waddams said:

Go to his profile and there will be a button that says "follow" to the right of his name.

Thanks!

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Jack Sawyer

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8 minutes ago, Jack_Sawyer said:

Thanks fellas, to be honest I don't come here that often.  Is there a thread I can subscribe to so I can get news of updates like they have at Orbx?  Does Mr. Randazzo have an update thread or something I can subscribe to?

There's the official thread that was posted and pinned.

 


Captain Kevin

nGsKmfi.jpg

Air Kevin 124 heavy, wind calm, runway 4 left, cleared for take-off.

Live streams of my flights here.

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Just now, Jack_Sawyer said:

Thanks!

Not a problem, glad I could be of some help!

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7 minutes ago, Captain Kevin said:

There's the official thread that was posted and pinned.

 

Thank you kind sir!  I have now read that thread and followed Mr. R.  Very cool.

So after I hit submit reply I am going to uninstall all three, reboot, and install one, get the liveries, run P3D and load one.

Quit P3D, rise repeat two more times.

I have to say it is a pain but I can't complain either because you guys are always improving things and THAT my friends is what I call outstanding customer service/relations.

Great work you guys!

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Jack Sawyer

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This install is necessary for you to receive future updates which won't need the full installer.

Regarding your crashes... If you're not running the FSX: Steam Edition, then I strongly recommend you purchase it.  You can usually find it for $5.00 on Steam and it is by far the most stable FSX platform - actually, it's FSX Acceleration only with an updated API and some other important fixes to FSX.

If you decide to go this route (and for your sake, I hope you do), then you're going to want to first Uninstall your current version of FSX using the procedure located HERE.  Do that VERBATIM (don't skip a single step), otherwise you're going to have nothing but problems after you've installed FSX:SE.  Now, yeah, you can run FSX and FSX:SE side by side, but it takes some detailed knowledge and setup and in the end there is rarely a good reason to bother.

The entire uninstall and reinstall procedure should take you less than an hour - 1.5 hours max.  The great thing about FSX:SE is that it self installs without any interaction on your part (after the initial "click Next thingys).

Doing this will help you avoid the pain of putting 2+ hours into a flight only to experience a Crash.  In other words, spend 2 hours (adding in PMDG, Scenery and AIRAC installs to the base install - which by the way is the length of a typical regional flight) to avoid having those crashes which routine your flights!

 

I hope you find this helpful.

My very best wishes to you.


Dave Hodges

 

System Specs:  I9-13900KF, NVIDIA 4070TI, Quest 3, Multiple Displays, Lots of TERRIFIC friends, 3 cats, and a wonderfully stubborn wife.

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