Things that I have learned and some that amazed me!

[bobcat999 8,538]

I just spent four hours in the sim this morning flying around South Africa (beautiful country - never been there before).  It's amazing how much you can still learn after 50 hours in the sim!..

 

1.  If you disable the VFR Map from the icon settings menu at top of screen, it prevents you from CTD's if you accidentally hit the 'V' key in flight, as have done a few times when resetting the altimeter on the 'B' key.  🙄

2.  The free third party VFR Map is a really good substitute.  Alt-tab works fine to go in and out.  He had to use Openmap, as apparently there was a cost to using google maps.  But easily good enough! 👍

3.  Instant Teleport anywhere - amazed at this! 😲 You can click on a point in the above VFR Map to set a pin, and if you then click on the pin it asks if you want to teleport there.  It works instantly and you can even set the altitude before you jump.  I was amazed at this and it works seamlessly.  I got all around South Africa on a tour this morning!

4.  The community fix to get rid of the five storey builds works perfectly.  I also have the additional LOD patch added.  I can't see any problems.  Running trees at ultra seems to correct some of those problems relating to them, and I am not getting a noticeable performance hit.

5.  My Saitek throttle quadrant arrived.  It just plugged straight in and worked seamlessly.  Loving controlling the prop and mixture with this.  I didn't realise it had extra buttons on the bottom as well.  Why didn't I get one of these years ago?  I set 'proper' pause on/off on the first button, as I have flaps etc. set on my joystick buttons.  Works much better than the active pause.     At around £50, I might even get a second quadrant.

6.  I flew through quite a large dark cloud just off Cape Town.  In the middle of the cloud I hit a downdraft of about 400 feet per minute, Then it climbed a bit (due to the extra speed picked up) and stabilised again out the other side of the cloud.  Not seen this before.

7.  I am also getting lift effects when close to hills/mountains.  When flying close to the steep sided valley in Blyde Canyon (SA), it even pushed up one wing more than the other with the updraft / thermal.  Brilliant!

8.  'Track up' is now great on the improved community G1000 pack.  Lots of other features of course.  A big thank you to he developer for this! 👍

9.  My graphics card was getting hot again and it was trying for 40 FPS, which I found strange.  Then I realised you need Riva Tuner SS actually running to control it!  I thought once it was set it just did it in the background like the NVidia Inspector settings. 🙄

10.  30 fps is definitely enough for this sim to have a smooth experience.  With both of the caches off / zero GB / greyed out, I am getting no stutters.  At high/ultra settings, 1080TI @ 1440 and 130 scaling, I can hold 30 fps almost everywhere except cities.  Scaling at 120 help in these busy areas and still looks good.

11.  I had sliders on my front and rear case fans set to silent.  My 1080Ti was running at 82C with a noisy fan.  (limited by GPU.  Roll-on 3080 stock in the UK 🙄).  I turned all of the case fans up - still just a whisper, and the card now runs much cooler.  Of course it would - what was wrong with me that I only just considered this?  The best thing is that I still can't even hear them above the aircraft sounds in MSFS.  Laughing that I didn't consider of this sooner. 😄

 

Also,  I just found my TrackIR kit in a drawer just randomly.  I have not used it for years, but it still looks in good order.  I have heard it works well now with MSFS so I am going to fire it up after dinner!  👍

Actually loving this sim with all of its problems.  Riva Tuner locked at half refresh (30) and only one pre-rendered frame is working great - really smooth experience. 

 

Edited October 3, 2020 by bobcat999
Extra stuff..

[illidanx 11]

For #2, if you use version 0.2, it still use google map but you will have to provide your own api key. The key is free to get if you sign up for a google cloud account and the limit for free usage each month is so generous that you dont have to worry about exceeding it. However,  version 0.2 doesnt have all the new features like teleport so that is a trade off.

[Stoopy 1,623]

13 minutes ago, bobcat999 said:

2.  The free third party VFR Map is a really good substitute.  Alt-tab works fine to go in and out.  He had to use Openmap, as apparently there was a cost to using google maps.  But easily good enough! 👍

 

Stoopid question please: Which third party VFR Map is this? 

 

[crimplene 634]

2 minutes ago, Stoopy said:

Stoopid question please: Which third party VFR Map is this? 

 

This one:

https://github.com/lian/msfs2020-go/releases
 

Very simple and useful.

[RobdeVries 28]

https://www.msfsaddons.org/freeware/plugin-vfrmap

 

[leprechaunlive 1,861]

 

 

#for 2 again, try LittleNavMap, you'r going to be amazed. Can display many different type of maps, OSM, Google, US Vfr Sectional etc.

 

[pmb 5,138]

Excellent! Mods, can we have this copied to the Tricks and Tips section?

Thanks and kind regards, Michael

[Stoopy 1,623]

1 hour ago, crimplene said:

This one:

https://github.com/lian/msfs2020-go/releases
 

Very simple and useful.

Also @Holland_Holland -  thanks Gents, that's pretty cool and lightweight, I dig it!

 

[pjs37 319]

Man I really need to break my iPad out more for flying.  There is a lot of good things out there for it.

[bendead 1,094]

A couple extra things :

- You can simulate a noise cancelling headset. it's available on the sound menu

- I you only select an arrival airport, you will start align with the runway at 1000ft, useful for landing training

Edited October 3, 2020 by bendead

[stigt 13]

2 hours ago, bobcat999 said:

4.  The community fix to get rid of the five storey builds works perfectly.  I also have the additional LOD patch added.  I can't see any problems.  Running trees at ultra seems to correct some of those problems relating to them, and I am not getting a noticeable performance hit.

Can you point me to this fix please?

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,799]

2 hours ago, bobcat999 said:

 

 

Also,  I just found my TrackIR kit in a drawer just randomly.  I have not used it for years, but it still looks in good order.  I have heard it works well now with MSFS so I am going to fire it up after dinner!  👍

 

 

If it an older TrackIR with the cap clip try attaching it to the top of your headset instead of a cap. You look like a dork but it works far better.

[bobcat999 8,538]

2 minutes ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

If it an older TrackIR with the cap clip try attaching it to the top of your headset instead of a cap. You look like a dork but it works far better.

Cheers.  Was working great just after a bit of setting up.  I will try it without the cap as you suggest, as my head was getting hot. 👍

[bobcat999 8,538]

47 minutes ago, stigt said:

Can you point me to this fix please?

Here you go.  Post 85.  The thread is an interesting read.

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/tall-buildings-hot-fix-needed-immediately/288663/85

Note there are two files.  The second one fixes some LOD issues as well as the five storey buildings, but has been reported to create problems at some airports, but I haven't seen that yet.

[Dillon 2,208]

2 hours ago, bobcat999 said:

Actually loving this sim with all of its problems.  Riva Tuner locked at half refresh (30) and only one pre-rendered frame is working great - really smooth experience. 

This sim has amazing potential, I just hope they get it stabilized.  After the last patch I was on my way back to P3D but when I loaded it up it just looked so far behind that I had to think about it.  I went back to MSFS only to find the CJ4 didn't suffer as much with the Autopilot bouncing issue.  I hadn't got around to learning that aircraft so I downloaded the 3rd part MOD and starting learning it.  I actually love that little aircraft and didn't know it had the range it does.  Asobo added a ring in fuel planning so you can see the actual range depending on fuel load.  Just did a flight from KISM to TAPA with Tropicalsim's new version.  I'm hooked again... 

Edited October 3, 2020 by Dillon