If some of you are interested in a replay software for MSFS, see this page:
http://emarciano.free.fr/MSFSREC

It is easy and cheap.

Just got a copy of this. Basic recording and playback seems to work ok. I did a trial flight out of Newark up around Manhattan and playback was about as smooth as the original (I only get around 20 fps there anyway on 4k with everything set on and at ultra plus).

But no "save to file" function! Which is NOT apparent from the page on the above link, and the link in the above page to the documentation takes you to the doc file for a different product, so there's no way of knowing this without buying it. BE WARNED.

Still, under ten squid, and if he updates it to provide file save/replay it might well do the basic job just fine without the various complications of the other two products.

Or maybe Asobo will still get a working replay before any of this lot come really good.

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the feedback. I am sorry for the wrong link, I will fix this ASAP.
I confirm the load/save is not available but I plan to implement it quickly, probably by the end of this week. Upgrade will obviously be free for existing users.

Eric 

I have just fixed the wrong link on my web page and added a note to mention the load/save feature is not available yet.

51 minutes ago, Rocky said:

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the feedback. I am sorry for the wrong link, I will fix this ASAP.
I confirm the load/save is not available but I plan to implement it quickly, probably by the end of this week. Upgrade will obviously be free for existing users.

Eric 

Hi Eric,

thanks for the response. Just had a couple more flights using this and if the load/save function comes along and works ok I'm beginning to think this might be the replay tool for me. A nice simple recorder that seems to have no significant impact on performance - and that's just what I'm looking for.

One request for consideration. It seems to be the same with all three of the recorders so far, so I assume there are problems doing what I'm about to ask, but it would be really great if the "pause" function in the actual sim could also control the recorder during replay - i.e. hit pause on the sim and the replay stops/resumes as appropriate.

Anyway, thanks again for the quick response.

That's interesting Andy, let me make sure I understand correctly.
During recording, pressing the pause button in the sim obviously pauses the sim, OK. Now you would like that during a playback, the pause button in the same acts as the pause button of the recorder, is that right?

I guess this is because like me you fly in full screen mode and you want to be able to pause the replay without switching from the sim to the MSFS Recorder window.

I think this is doable, I will look into this.

I have just implemented the save and load feature, i was faster than expected. But there is no control at all...

I mean that if you record a flight in Los Angeles and save it, then start another flight in New York and load the LA sequence to play it, your aircraft will immediately jump from New York to Los Angeles and the sim will probably not like this. In addition you can save a recording made with an aircraft and play it back with another aircraft, possible cause of error. Do you think I should implement checks to avoid this?

I think users will be smart enough to not do this if I write a note in the documentation 🙂

Hi Rocky,

                I'm hoping you can answer a few questions about your program.

                Is there a limit to the length of time it can record, and if so how long?

                Can you restart play back at any point of the recording?

                Does it impact the frame rate of the sim?

                 I noticed that it shows landing gear animations, does it show other things like flap settings, landing lights, etc?

                 Does it retain the current weather conditions?

                 How big are the recorded files?

              This does look like a new promising  recording app 🙂

Thanks!

 

Here are my answers:

                Is there a limit to the length of time it can record, and if so how long?
Yes, depending on your frame rate. On my system, I have approximately 10 minutes of recording buffer.

                Can you restart play back at any point of the recording?
Yes. In fact, you always srart the playback from the beginning, then you can easily jump to any position using a slider.

                Does it impact the frame rate of the sim?
No.

                 I noticed that it shows landing gear animations, does it show other things like flap settings, landing lights, etc?
Yes. Gears, flaps and spoilers are recorded. Unfortunately I couldn't find a way to record lights (in fact I can record them but cannot play them back)

                 Does it retain the current weather conditions?
No. The playback is done in the current weather conditions, even if they changed since the time you recorded. Same for the hour of the day.

                 How big are the recorded files?
Approximately 13 KB per second at 60 FPS.

I have just upgraded my web page to reflect the version 1.1 that now includes the save and load feature, with a check on the aircraft position compared to the recording position. Have a look here 🙂

 

4 hours ago, Rocky said:

That's interesting Andy, let me make sure I understand correctly.
During recording, pressing the pause button in the sim obviously pauses the sim, OK. Now you would like that during a playback, the pause button in the same acts as the pause button of the recorder, is that right?

I guess this is because like me you fly in full screen mode and you want to be able to pause the replay without switching from the sim to the MSFS Recorder window.

I think this is doable, I will look into this.

Hi Eric,

yes, that's pretty much it. I run the sim full screen and have a second monitor for the likes of LittleNavMap, system monitors and now my replay software. I have all my main sim controls mapped to my controllers so that I don't have to take my hands off the controllers for anything, generally. So when I'm in replay mode, I'd like the button that I press to invoke pause in the sim to also pause the replay. If I can't do it via a mapped button, that's ok - I can just pause via the keyboard, but I would like not to have to change focus to the Recorder window to activate the pause.

Also, noticed your reply about the recording buffer - any way to increase that? Seems a bit small (I was getting more than that from the looks of things but I cap my fps at 30) and more would be good.

I've got some thoughts about the whole "save a file and restart at the same location" but I need to check a couplf of things out so I'll post something in a couple of days time. Meanwhile, thanks for your work,

 

Thanks for the info 🙂

 

Andy, 

Increasing the recorder buffer size is possible, but is it really necessary? At 30 fps you should have about 20 minutes of recording and if you fly longer than this, the last 20 minutes will be available for replay. Isn't it enough? 

Remember it is a rolling buffer, so when it comes to the end, it restarts at the beginning to erase the start of the recording so that the last minutes of the flight are always there. 

Regarding the load/save feature, I implemented a position control so that a recording cannot be replayed if it is too far from the current aircraft position, to avid a huge jump that would probably cause strange behavior, or crash, in the sim. 

My next objective is to implement the pause with the pause key, you are right, it is something useful. It will be for version 1.2 🙂

Just purchased 😀👍

Keep up the good work and forum responses. Very impressive.

 

3 hours ago, Rocky said:

Increasing the recorder buffer size is possible, but is it really necessary? At 30 fps you should have about 20 minutes of recording and if you fly longer than this, the last 20 minutes will be available for replay. Isn't it enough? 

Hello Eric, the recorder functionality is definitely a must have in the sim and I want to tank you for that and for your immense contribution to our hobby.

I've bee recording my flights for the last 15+ years because sometimes I want to just be a passenger in my own flights. I would start the sim, choose a plane and location, play a previously recorded flight and just enjoy the flight as a passenger. I really loved Matthias Neusinger's FSRecorder as it did an amazing job for that, and what I liked the most was the fact that the user was able to choose  which variables to be recorder as well as the recording interval, thus being able to control the recorder file size for the longer flights. I am wondering if you would consider adding a similar functionality to your recorder.

Thank you,

Chip