What's the point?

[Christopher Low 5,352]

2 hours ago, neilhewitt said:

 I like to fly in and out of EGLC, so I need something that actually does that. I've got the QW146, but it's old now. I could get the JF146 but I don't like steam gauges and we don't know when the Avro versions will show up. There's no A220 worth having, Whiskey Jet's project has gone to MSFS and may never see the light of day on P3D (I'd take a bet it won't), so the E-Jets is the default choice for an airliner. I do fly bizjets out of EGLC too, but I'm bored with that right now.

I fly the PMDG 737-600 into EGLC, although I admit that the passengers are booted out long before I get there Nevertheless, I can get it to do that 5.5 degree glideslope with maximum speedbrake, but the flare is........quite dramatic.

[neilhewitt 493]

4 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

I fly the PMDG 737-600 into EGLC, although I admit that the passengers are booted out long before I get there Nevertheless, I can get it to do that 5.5 degree glideslope with maximum speedbrake, but the flare is........quite dramatic.

Nice 🙂 If only it were certified for the approach...

One day when I have the Aerosoft A318 working well enough (assuming they don't ditch P3D altogether) I will do the EGLC-EINN-KJFK route - the 'Concorde replacement' all-business class flight to JFK stopping in Shannon for pre-clearance and arriving at the domestic terminal. BA is cancelling the service this year, probably permanently, but it was always a dream of mine to fly on it. Sadly too pricey. 

I've done the Phenom 300 into EGLC quite a bit and the approach is dramatic (though not a patch on real life - I used to fly to/from City regularly a couple of jobs back) but it can land fast and stop quickly and in the real world is certified for the approach without modifications, unlike the E-Jets which have to be fitted with a ventral speedbrake that can be deployed at full flap (unlike the main speedbrakes which won't deploy above Flaps 2). Sadly, FeelThere has not modelled that variant and while it is possible to get it into EGLC on 5.5 degrees GS, it has to be done manually and not via the real procedure, and I haven't done it yet. Never managed to get the QW146 into EGLC back in the day either, only outbound. 

I really want to fly the A220, so I really really want someone to do a good one (the only one available for P3D is pretty word not allowed). Disappointed in Whiskey Jet for switching to MSFS but I know why they're doing it and I'd do the same if I had a business to run. 

4 hours ago, SAX702 said:

@neilhewitt, I've been flying the FeelThere E190 for at least my last 15 flights on P3Dv5.  No issues. 

To be fair, I've found it mostly fine (if FPS-heavy), but there are things that don't work in v5 to do with how the model was re-built for P3Dv4, the WXR doesn't work with ASP3D, the cockpit windows take on a nasty green tint in v5 (though I fixed that with a shader edit), but most of the other pain points are to do with how it was built and the fact that the FSX-era heritage shows through, particularly cockpit and cabin lighting done with emissive textures that turn off in daylight and cannot be turned back on. I still do like the aircraft very much especially as I've customised it with sound packs etc, and TBH I think my odd failures are more likely to be a sim problem than an aircraft problem. And I checked my SSD from that machine earlier today and there's definitely some problem with it, so I think a replacement is in order before it fails. Sigh. More money gone. 

Just to close my contribution here with a happy ending - tonight I did the flight I wanted to do and filmed it and there were no random failures and no major mistakes on my part (except for shutting down the engines before starting the APU and sitting there looking stupid until the GPU kicked in), so I'm finally done with it. Now to edit the footage for YouTube 🙂 And then at the weekend, I will start my sim machine rebuild, I think. To me, the fiddling about with computers is as much part of the fun as the flying.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts on this thread. Good to share some pain points and remember what an awesome community we have here. 

[David Vega 348]

1 hour ago, neilhewitt said:

Now to edit the footage for YouTube

When you're done with the video, please post the link here.  I definitively have to see this video.  

[neilhewitt 493]

8 hours ago, SAX702 said:

When you're done with the video, please post the link here.  I definitively have to see this video.  

Sure. But I think you may be disappointed 🙂. Still, if a few people here watch it that will double my audience. I am far from a pro pilot and I'm sure I do lots of things that you would cringe at. In this video there's a point where I start ignoring ATC instructions altogether because otherwise I can't actually get on the approach. One day I'll level up to VATSIM but not now!

The videos that do well on my channel are the ones about 180 degree curved display systems etc. Flight in the sim, not so much. I've had double digit views on some of them. As in <100. But I enjoy the process, it's fun, and that's all that really matters.

Plus: my videos are LONG. This will be a two parter and even with some trimming I reckon each part will be 45-60 mins. The algorithm hates that. 

[Christopher Low 5,352]

1 hour ago, neilhewitt said:

.....I am far from a pro pilot and I'm sure I do lots of things that you would cringe at. In this video there's a point where I start ignoring ATC instructions altogether because otherwise I can't actually get on the approach. One day I'll level up to VATSIM but not now!.....

Sometimes I get a message on the FMC that says something like "unable 230kts at MAXEV", but it is of no concern. That is the beauty of flight simulation. I do not have to worry about following real world procedures to the letter. If I need to manually adjust speed to compensate for something like this, then I do it.

Edited March 19, 2021 by Christopher Low

[Patco Lch 1,465]

19 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

Sometimes I get a message on the FMC that says something like "unable 230kts at MAXEV", but it is of no concern. That is the beauty of flight simulation. I do not have to worry about following real world procedures to the letter. If I need to manually adjust speed to compensate for something like this, then I do it.

Lol,  the sim world is one place in this life I do what I very well please.:)

[JoeFackel 760]

On 3/16/2021 at 8:33 PM, OzWhitey said:

Unfortunately, the message neve got through to this community that you can make P3D ortho tiles just as easily as you can for XP (overlays are trickier, tiles is the same process).

I always searched for an idiots guide to set orthos with autogen for v5, do you know a good source where i can find one?

[F737MAX 5,584]

2 hours ago, JoeFackel said:

I always searched for an idiots guide to set orthos with autogen for v5, do you know a good source where i can find one?

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/539089-ortho4xp-for-fsxp3d/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkvmlbJXAq4

Remember to add the following lines to the bottom your Ortho4XP.cfg file :

ESP_resample_loc=[Your drive]:\\Program Files\\Lockheed Martin\\Prepar3D v5 SDK 5.0.31.35253\\World\\Terrain\\resample.exe
ESP_scenproc_loc=[Your drive]:\\Program Files\\scenProc_2.0_x64\\scenProc.exe    (Download this program separately)
ESP_scenproc_script=[Your folder location]\\Ortho4XP_FSX_P3D-master\\ScenProc_configs\\default.spc
max_resample_processes=8
create_ESP_night=True
create_ESP_summer=True
create_ESP_spring=False
create_ESP_fall=False
create_ESP_winter=False
create_ESP_hard_winter=False

N.B. You *must* use double backslashes when linking file locations in Ortho4XP.cfg
 

[neilhewitt 493]

On 3/19/2021 at 1:27 AM, SAX702 said:

When you're done with the video, please post the link here.  I definitively have to see this video.  

Right... you asked for it 🙂. Part 1 is up, it clocks in at 48 minutes and only about the last 10 are actually in the air. I have a near-miss and nearly kill all my passengers. Part 2 coming in a few days once I finish editing. Oh, and sorry for the terrible hair, I was having a bad day. Thankfully you can only really see me in silhouette for most of the video.

Home cockpit | Finally flying the E-Jet: London City to Amsterdam (Part 1) | Prepar3d v5 - YouTube

 

[Fiorentoni 4,217]

I will just add my experience to it:

There seem to be two types of DXGI errors:

1. The VRAM one. That's pretty easy to solve.

2. The other one. It seems to me that that one occurs when the load or rather the GPU clock rapidly changes (up/down fluctuation / spike) due to something you or the simulator does. Typical scenarios are:
a) Changing graphics settings: The menu alone does drastically reduce the clock speed, then when changing settings it does of course fluctuate again (quite a lot, since it loads things one after another).
b) Changing views (inside / outside aircraft basically). Since the cockpits of most jets (and the Feelthere E-Jets are probably the worst offenders here) are really heavy on the GPU, the GPU will "relax" once you switch to an outside perspective. Anyone can notice that: FPS outside of a PMDG plane is substantially better then inside the cockpit.
c) Looking from something really GPU heavy (like half London / half your Cockpit) into the sky (I get a FPS difference of about 80!). Well, you cannot really prevent that, but it is what it is.

I've had a lof of DXGI errors on my 1080ti, but it was never outside of those situations, especially never when I had a constant high GPU load (like at EGLL).
There are a couple of ways to mitigate this, the most important one the already mentioned "Max Performance Setting" in the NCP. This keeps the power / load / clock most of the times at maximum, so you'll have a lot less fluctuations. Another one is disabling factory overclock on your GPU, using the "debug mode" in the NCP. This reduces your max. clock and therefore reduces fluctuations, since it's on max. clock most of the times. I know, it sound dumb to "weaken" your GPU to reduce crashes, but my observations would explain why this seems to predominantly happen to x080ti cards (I had a 1660ti before and I never had those crashes; well instead I had VRAM crashes but that's another story...).

So tl;dr: If you use a good GPU with high settings, in NCP
a) enable "Max Performance"
b) enable "Debug mode"
c) Don't change graphics settings mid-flight
d) Use FSUIPC autosave, so a CTD after 8hrs only means you have to wait 5 minutes to reload. Anything else is just masochistic.
e) Have a clean install of a studio driver, they seem to be more stable

This should drastically reduce those CTDs. Worked for me, I only have one once every 50 (real-time) hours, and most of the time it was because I needed to reduce some settings mid-flight (yeah, you can run out of 11 GB VRAM at KMIA or even worse KFLL...).

[FPStewy 538]

49 minutes ago, Fiorentoni said:

This should drastically reduce those CTDs.

I've rolled back my ATI to 20.9.1 and not one CTD in any sim or game, go figure.

[Christopher Low 5,352]

I can't remember the last time when "updating to the latest graphics drivers" made the slightest bit of difference to issues or performance in anything.

Edited March 21, 2021 by Christopher Low

[JoeFackel 760]

1 hour ago, Christopher Low said:

I can't remember the last time when "updating to the latest graphics drivers" made the slightest bit of difference to issues or performance in anything.

Thats why someone REALLY smart made the famous "If it ain't broke - don't fu**ing fix it!" quote.

And some are talking like DEVICE_HUNG are an P3D exclusive error. You can literally have it in ANY game/sim.

Edited March 21, 2021 by JoeFackel

[coastaldriver 919]

On 3/19/2021 at 10:51 AM, neilhewitt said:

To be fair, I've found it mostly fine (if FPS-heavy), but there are things that don't work in v5 to do with how the model was re-built for P3Dv4, the WXR doesn't work with ASP3D, the cockpit windows take on a nasty green tint in v5 (though I fixed that with a shader edit),

Neil - are you able to share the shader edit you used - I have a couple of other sim aircraft that have the same issue ( including one which is a rebuild of an earlier FSX model for P3DV5.

[OzWhitey 3,353]

On 3/19/2021 at 11:16 PM, F737NG said:

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/539089-ortho4xp-for-fsxp3d/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkvmlbJXAq4

Remember to add the following lines to the bottom your Ortho4XP.cfg file :

ESP_resample_loc=[Your drive]:\\Program Files\\Lockheed Martin\\Prepar3D v5 SDK 5.0.31.35253\\World\\Terrain\\resample.exe
ESP_scenproc_loc=[Your drive]:\\Program Files\\scenProc_2.0_x64\\scenProc.exe    (Download this program separately)
ESP_scenproc_script=[Your folder location]\\Ortho4XP_FSX_P3D-master\\ScenProc_configs\\default.spc
max_resample_processes=8
create_ESP_night=True
create_ESP_summer=True
create_ESP_spring=False
create_ESP_fall=False
create_ESP_winter=False
create_ESP_hard_winter=False

N.B. You *must* use double backslashes when linking file locations in Ortho4XP.cfg
 

Does scenproc actually work for overlays using this method?