v1.0.19 cannot switch back to pilot view

[rooitou 119]

After Chaseplane updated itself to v1.0.19, I can no longer switch back to pilot view after going to one of the default FSX external views (using the 'S' key).

EDIT: I restarted everything and now it seems to work (tried to delete this post as it is no longer relevant, but couldn't)

 

Edited November 30, 2018 by rooitou

[Keven Menard 659]

Can you generate a Report file from the Preferences after observing the issue and send that file over to us at the address mentioned at the top of the file?

[Keven Menard 659]

Ok we found the source of the issue. We published 1.0.20 on the Experimental channel. Please test that version and report back here to let me know if the issue is fixed.

[rooitou 119]

Thanks Keven, I've lost interest in flight sims for a while - too much faffing with updates and incompatibilities. Besides whittling away at my game backlog on Steam, I've also moved over to X-Plane 11 in a big way.

Must be honest I got so tired of the constant updates with Chaseplane and every time having to deal with the security warnings, then not working in FSX and having to re-start and troubleshoot. Wish you guys will settle on one version and leave it for two years or at least give users the option to stay with a version and have control over when/if to update to a newer version. Chaseplane is a great product, but it is very high maintenance, especially when compared to the X-Plane equivalent, X-Camera, which is pretty much "install and forget"

[Mustang-242 13]

Interesting to hear of your experience. I would say mine is the opposite. I love ChasePlane and would say it's my most sorely missed utility in X-Plane. I've also been having a break from flight sims but have recently been dabbling with XP (I figured P3D would come with all the same faffing & limitations as FSX, so made the decision to abandon that family of sims going forwards). I find X-Camera rather confusing, even thought I am a confident user of IT. I can make basic cameras but many of the other options are rather confusing and not self-explanatory, and the interface is as utilitarian as a tractor. I know there are several tutorial videos but in my limited free time I admit I am lazy to be studying new things when I'd rather jump in to enjoying an activity. ChasePlane is so intuitive it teaches you by itself for the most part.

I used to sit on the experimental channel but even then had very few issues. The stable one didn't change versions so much.

Obviously your experiences are genuine but thought it was interesting that they were quite the opposite of mine, that's all 🙂

[rooitou 119]

Hey Mustang-242, now that is a most interesting post and very enlightening for me. It just shows once again that us humans all have different tastes and ways of working. Thank goodness for that!

My real peeve with ChasePlane is actually on another post, but I just felt so bad when I saw Keven's unanswered post here, that I felt compelled to reply and couldn't help leaving a "request" at the same time.

Unlike you, I'm a very superficial user of ChasePlane (and X-Camera for that matter) and really only using it as a replacement for a little utility called JAB_FSX, which pauses TrackIR when in external views, so that one can use a joystick hat to move the camera instead of TrackIR head movement. JAB_FSX worked perfectly with FSX and all the P3D versions up to V3, but struggled to cope when one had both FSX disc and Steam versions installed. I think it is because FSX Steam uses another version of SimConnect and JAB_FSX locks onto one version. JAB_FSX also became redundant with P3Dv4.

ChasePlane doesn't suffer from those shortcomings, but I found that every time ChasePlane updates to a newer version, it would cease to function in FSX (both versions). P3D never gave a problem and also doesn't require the security warnings that FSX does, so P3D is not the problem, it is FSX. Unfortunately I still love FSX (huge invested add-on library) and up to a point used it probably as much as P3D and X-Plane combined.

What I found over time, is that if I exit FSX and start P3D and then return to FSX, ChasePlane would function again - sometimes (hit and miss). Sometimes ChasePlane would start working if I simply change settings or uninstall/install an aircraft or scenery. Other times it wouldn't work for several days in a row and then suddenly one day it would work perfectly again, without me changing anything. I suspect it has to do with SimConnect and all the different versions installed by FSX disc, Steam and P3D (there are 4 SimConnect versions on my PC). It probably confuses the hell out of ChasePlane in FSX and perhaps re-sets every time it updates.

I don't understand how those things work, but all I know is that every time I see ChasePlane updating, I'm in for a few days of it not working in FSX. THAT is my major annoyance with ChasePlane and why I asked for a way to prevent updates, so that I can at least use FSX for a stretch off time without all the hassles. Now of course X-Camera may not be as good as ChasePlane in some areas, but it has never given me one problem ever. So nowadays I tend to spend more time where I have the least problems: X-Plane 11

Edited April 18, 2019 by rooitou

[Mustang-242 13]

Hi rooitou. Now I understand much better why your experience was so different to mine! I only have FSX-SE on my PC, and before that only FSX boxed, so haven't had as many issues. Whether the myriad sims is related to the problem or the versions of SimConnect, I have no idea. I do recall installing several SimConnect versions on my FSX installs due to various add-ons requiring one version or another. I would have hoped they could co-exist without issues, but perhaps not in your particular setup.

I started with the X-Camera tutorials this evening; almost 30 minutes for the first basic tutorial video and several more to go! Quite a time investment. I'll get there, until such time as there's an equivalent. My main reason for using X-Camera is because the default implementation of TrackIR in X-Plane seems to be atrocious. Too 'smooth' making it lag behind my actual head movement, and too sensitive in translational motion resulting in my head going out of the plane rather too often. I wanted it to rotate quite crisply and precisely, and I could only achieve that with X-Camera. I'm using a mixture of X-Camera cockpit views with the default external views (Shift-4 etc.) at present, and that causes some trouble, especially if I have a controller connected with view axes mapped. Then the external view gets locked into one position and cannot be spun around the plane with a right-click-and-drag of the mouse. I can only temporarily move the camera using the controller. It's... clunky. Here I much prefer CP's implementation of controller input which doesn't interfere with the cameras at all (unless you touch the controller).

Like you, I found TrackIR was an odd thing to use in FSX with external views. It always worked for left/right orbit in spot view, but in no other direction.

I will still use FSX, as I also have a moderate amount of add-ons that I owe attention to. I've been sat on the fence for about a year between P3D and X-Plane. I always felt XP was the sensible choice due to the more modern approach to how it was built, from the community-sourced airports, OpenStreetMap world data, simple handling of aircraft and plugins, more up-to-date nav-data and so on. P3D would have supported many of my existing add-ons and is graphically a bit 'cleaner'. But the P3D update cycles look to be hard work and the foundation of it is ESP/FSX which has a lot of aspects I don't like, so in the end I followed my head not my heart!

Either way, one thing is for certain: Flight sims these days require 80% of your time for tinkering and troubleshooting and only 20% flying! 😁