Uh oh. I just joined the P3D club. ;)

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

Adding your Orbx sceneries is a no-brainer and easy to do, using FTXCentral.

Maxing all settings is fun as a test, but not where you want to end up  

Edited October 30, 2018 by Bert Pieke

[MDFlier 2,029]

I'm sure. But I'll let this CPU die trying. She'll run at 5 GHz just fine. And heat the house this winter, too!

Okay, I've made one flight and made a complete backup of the main P3Dv4 folder, as well as the 2 LM folders in Appdata (local and roaming), as well as the LM folder from program data. I think I'm good.

Orbx install coming up. Then BWI goes in, and then hopefully I can get KMCO installed.

Edited October 30, 2018 by MDFlier

[Benjamin J 751]

2 hours ago, Chock said:

I would suggest that the most important thing 'before you get too far in' is to not fall into the trap of adding everything including the kitchen sink to it, but instead be selective in what you add. Starting with a new base simulator is an excellent opportunity to do that.

That's how I started out... and it went fine for the first two or three months. Then I wanted everything :)

On a more serious note, I'm personally not too restrictive with scenery, as sceneries can be easily managed using Lorbi's P3Dv4 addon manager. Sicne you're coming from FSX:SE, this is something BIG that you should delve into right away: there's a new way of adding scenery. Whereas previously everything run through the scenery.cfg, LM added an xml-based method, where a 'addon.xml' file is placed in a P3Dv4 Addons folder in your Documents folder (I believe that's where it lives). This file is essentially a placeholder, allowing you to install your scenery wherever you want. Though this file, besides the main 'scenery' folder, you can also define 'components', such as Effects, for example. it's a very powerful way to manage your scenery library without having to 'contaminate' your P3Dv4 installation with third party files. Lorbi's tool is instrumental herein, as LM did not add an eays way to manage sceneries this way, so Lorbi's tool does it for you. It will also display all sceneries added through scenery.cfg, and give you the opportunity to haul them over to the addon.xml method. Thus all but my OrbX sceneries use the XML method.

Now, what I am restrictive about is essentially everything that is not scenery. I try not to acquire and install aircraft that I don't think I'll fly, though with the amount of beautiful products being released for P3Dv4, it can be pretty hard not to buy everything I see. Thus I restrict myself generally to short haul mainline aircraft (Aerosoft Airbus, PMDG 737, Leonardo Maddog X, TFDi 717, whenever CS releases it probably the CS757F), regional aircraft (Arosoft CRJ, Feelthere E-Jets v.1) and A2A props (I've got the C172). Then I have some freeware planes from Rikooo, which is a pretty good freeware sites with some nice freeware packages, some of which are 'tested and certified P3Dv4 compatible'. I'm not too big on long-haul aircraft, as I generlaly do not have the time or patience to fly such routes. That said, especially in Asia such long haulers do tend to do short hops between bigger cities, so I'm considering getting myself a A330 at some point, or QW's 787 perhaps.

[MDFlier 2,029]

Oh wow. P3D just made me cry. Literally. I noticed that there was a C130 Hercules included, so for old times sake, I started up a flight at Glenn L Martin State Airport near Baltimore, MD with the C130 on the tarmac.
You see, my father was in the Maryland Air National Guard at Martin State (KMTN) for 35 years. He was a Chief Master Sargent in charge of maintenance for 8 C130s for the last 10 years or so of his career. I used to go down there to visit him and he would take me out to see the airplanes. I've stood on the wings, sat in the pilot's seat, and operated the cargo ramp I've seen the engines torn apart, landing gears disassembled, etc.. Wonderful memories of some fantastic days.

The flight launches, and I switch to external view to check her out. The dang thing is in MD ANG livery!!! It has my father's unit number on the side of it. He was in the 135th Tactical Airlift Group, It also has name of their sister unit, the 175th Tactical Fighter Group (the two were merged into the "175th Wing" in 1996) in which my uncle Buddy was a Colonel, and my cousin Ed was an ordinance specialist in painted on the nose, They flew A-10 Warthogs. My Dad's C130s were tail numbers 71351 through 71358. P3D has 71351 in it. This IS one my father's airplanes, and she looks exactly like I remembered. My father passed in 2017. I don't care if P3D ever works beyond letting me fire it up and see that big, beautiful, powerful beast of an airplane sitting on the ramp at KMTN. I'll just sit here hovering around it in spot view bawling my eyes out. Thank you, Lockheed Martin.

Edited October 30, 2018 by MDFlier

[Mace 1,896]

3 hours ago, MDFlier said:

I'm sure. But I'll let this CPU die trying. She'll run at 5 GHz just fine. And heat the house this winter, too!

Okay, I've made one flight and made a complete backup of the main P3Dv4 folder, as well as the 2 LM folders in Appdata (local and roaming), as well as the LM folder from program data. I think I'm good.

Orbx install coming up. Then BWI goes in, and then hopefully I can get KMCO installed.

Wow!  You are not wasting any time!  I thought you had willpower to fly a stock sim for a week  :)
I guess we are all like Sylvester in "Birds Anonymous", the straw is our PC, and Tweety Bird is our sim.

If I were doing it over -- I would try my best to install everything outside of the P3D folder structure, for example, D:\AIRCRAFT and D:\SCENERY.    I realize that many installers do not do that -- but for those that give you a choice, it is advisable.  Lorby's Addon Organizer can help you organize things with some level of sanity.

Also...this will really separate your P3D apart from FSX -- a shader mod (TomatoShade or PTA) and a good weather program with realistic visibility settings.  This combo will give you realistic haze and lighting that in my opinion, no other sim can match right now.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Also, if you had any Carenado titles for FSX you can redownload those with P3DV4 installers by going to Carenado's website, reviewing your product listings, and downloading them.  Your license keys will be there, and they will be changed from your previous license keys, so add them to a text file and save them for each of your aircraft.  If you do not have any Carenado add-ons, no worries, I am sure your fav add-ons support P3DV4 by now.

John

[Guest]

8 hours ago, MDFlier said:

Is there anything important that I need to know before I get too far in?

Yes, it's going to get even better … invest in VRAM.

LM has always been about providing the "base" engine/features/SDK and leaving everything else up to content providers.  

Cheers, Rob.

 

[MDFlier 2,029]

I'm on a roll. So far, so good. KIAD gave me fits. Turns out, it must be installed in the main P3D folder (it creates it's own folders under there)

GSX 2 - INSTALLED & WORKING (SODE did not automatically install & register on the 1st try. I had to run FSDT Live Update first in order to get it to do so)

Orbx (Global Base, NA LC, Vector, NCA, SCA, PNW, and the freeware airport pack plus a few single freeware airports) - ALL INSTALLED & WORKING

Taxi2Gate KMCO - INSTALLED & WORKING

LatinVFR KBWI - INSTALLED & WORKING

Flightbeam KIAD - INSTALLED & WORKING

Rex HD Airports - INSTALLED & WORKING

Active Sky for P3Dv4 - INSTALLED & WORKING

If my wallet doesn't kill me first, the PMDG 737NGX is next.

Lemme have a beer and think about it first. lol

Edited October 31, 2018 by MDFlier

[tutmeister 695]

So out of interest, what has all the above done to your frame rates compared to your first install experience?

[FDEdev 955]

6 hours ago, MDFlier said:

Active Sky for P3Dv4 - INSTALLED & WORKING

FYI, AS has been optimized for the default airplanes. Many add-ons with higher quality FDEs don't work in a realistic way with AS turbulence.

AFAIK you should reduce the turbulence to 20%-30% in this case.

Edited October 31, 2018 by FDEdev

[Patco Lch 1,459]

8 hours ago, MDFlier said:

I'm on a roll. So far, so good. KIAD gave me fits. Turns out, it must be installed in the main P3D folder (it creates it's own folders under there)

GSX 2 - INSTALLED & WORKING (SODE did not automatically install & register on the 1st try. I had to run FSDT Live Update first in order to get it to do so)

Orbx (Global Base, NA LC, Vector, NCA, SCA, PNW, and the freeware airport pack plus a few single freeware airports) - ALL INSTALLED & WORKING

Taxi2Gate KMCO - INSTALLED & WORKING

LatinVFR KBWI - INSTALLED & WORKING

Flightbeam KIAD - INSTALLED & WORKING

Rex HD Airports - INSTALLED & WORKING

Active Sky for P3Dv4 - INSTALLED & WORKING

If my wallet doesn't kill me first, the PMDG 737NGX is next.

Lemme have a beer and think about it first. lol

I notice your MDFlyer. Consider Leonard's Fly The Maddog -64bit or TFDi  Boeing 717 both of which were made with P3D in mind.Both are great productions and look great in P3DV4!

[DylanM 1,069]

Fantastic that you're having a blast!

If you're trying to squeeze out performance in any specific scenarios, try playing with the dynamic lighting, dynamic reflections and SSAA options as they are some of the heavy hitters...

[MDFlier 2,029]

12 hours ago, tutmeister said:

So out of interest, what has all the above done to your frame rates compared to your first install experience?

I just did the first tutorial flight of the PMDG 737. It never went below 45 FPS. I'm happy!

Loving the PMDG 737NGX, but glad I didn't bother with it under FSX. It would have made me mad struggling to get decent performance.

I'm down to 1 remaining issue. No Jetways at KBWI. Everything else is great! I'll need some AI to play with, though.  

[MDFlier 2,029]

3 hours ago, DylanM said:

Fantastic that you're having a blast!

If you're trying to squeeze out performance in any specific scenarios, try playing with the dynamic lighting, dynamic reflections and SSAA options as they are some of the heavy hitters...

So far, I haven't seen any reason to think about lowering settings or anything like that. I'll be keeping an eye on it, though.