Some multiplayer questions......

[Bilbosmeggins 217]

Firstly, at what distance of separation do player’s name tags become visible? I can be flying, and see 40+ players populating the skies around me. Many at a similar altitude. However, I have not had a single one of these grow into an actual plane. I only fly the PA28, so the prospect of me catching anybody up is slim. But I would expect the odd plane to be going in the opposite direction occasionally. Do planes only get rendered when they are almost on top of you? To date, I have only seen about 4 actual planes other than mine, and they have all been on the deck.

Secondly, if I have a payware airport, how will players on the default airport get on when sharing the same location? Will they be consistently in the right place on runways and taxi-ways etc, but running through buildings and cars etc everywhere else where there is a discrepancy between versions? Or will they just not get shown at that airport unless they own the payware too?

Thirdly, weather.....  Do players on Live weather occupying the same airspace see the exact same weather, or the same type of weather, but generated individually on their system? In other words, if I were flying with a friend, and said “Wow! Look at that huge, black cloud at 3 o’clock, with a rainbow behind it”, would they see that same cloud and rainbow, or just have similar weather going on in their world?

None of the above is deal-breaking of course. I just fancied seeing how smoothly, and realistically looking other planes appeared in the skies. And how good is the multiplayer code? Are planes teleporting, freezing etc? And how consistent the world appears to the participants within it? 🙂

 

Edited April 6, 2021 by Bilbosmeggins
Typo

[sauviat 137]

@Bilbosmeggins Using the H135 in Multiplayer I see other H135s and planes acting like H135s. Read the H135 discord server as to why that happens., but you see others and their nameplates. When flying alone I see the planes and their nameplates, providing multiplayer is selected.

Martin

[Redge 241]

In a group flight, you share the same weather profile with all users (I believe the person who sets up the group flight determines what weather everyone sees). I did a group flight a couple of months back, and chose the "Scattered Clouds" preset, and then modified it (rain, changed cloud heights etc). All of these changes were reflected across both computers, but the rain shafts, while very very similar, appeared in slightly different places on both computers.

At one point, I mentioned a rainbow I saw (and said where it was). The rainbow was replicated on the other computer as well. Not sure if this always happens, or whether it was just luck.

If you're flying with "All Players" you, and everyone else is free to use your own weather preset, so no weather information is shared. But in "Live Players" mode, everyone has the same live weather and accurate time as well.

One thing I thought I'd noticed (but I might not be correct on this), is that the Live Weather on "Live Players" mode isn't always the same as the live weather when flying alone "Off (Group Only)". The latter tended to be a bit more up-to-date when I tried it.

 

 

 

Edited April 6, 2021 by Redge

[Bilbosmeggins 217]

1 hour ago, Redge said:

In a group flight, you share the same weather profile with all users (I believe the person who sets up the group flight determines what weather everyone sees). I did a group flight a couple of months back, and chose the "Scattered Clouds" preset, and then modified it (rain, changed cloud heights etc). All of these changes were reflected across both computers, but the rain shafts, while very very similar, appeared in slightly different places on both computers.

At one point, I mentioned a rainbow I saw (and said where it was). The rainbow was replicated on the other computer as well. Not sure if this always happens, or whether it was just luck.

If you're flying with "All Players" you, and everyone else is free to use your own weather preset, so no weather information is shared. But in "Live Players" mode, everyone has the same live weather and accurate time as well.

One thing I thought I'd noticed (but I might not be correct on this), is that the Live Weather on "Live Players" mode isn't always the same as the live weather when flying alone "Off (Group Only)". The latter tended to be a bit more up-to-date when I tried it.

 

 

 

Ah, that’s a little disappointing with the weather then. Although pretty much what I expected. I’m planning some long, cross country flights with a friend, and it could be a little immersion breaking.
 

Imagine both of us flying identical planes for a hundred miles or so. No landing options, apart from the destination airfield, because of mountainous terrain, or huge swathes of forest or water. On the final leg of the journey, just as landing preparations are being made, only one of us encounters a huge thunderstorm, while the other one has a nice, clear final run. It would be great for us both to be battling the elements, and “in it together “. I guess I maybe asking a little too much from the software.

[Redge 241]

In that case I’d recommend live weather. You might as well give it a go!

A few weeks ago I was flying using Live Weather, with ForeFlight running on my iPad. I arriving in London and there were scattered showers all over the place. I saw a rain shaft in front of my plane and was surprised to see one matching it on the ForeFlight radar — happy coincidence, I thought —but then I saw another tiny shower in the sim next to a lake. I thought it looked a little unrealistic, having such a tiny shower from a small cloud, but then noticed the same tiny shower next to that lake on the radar in ForeFlight as well. After that, every rain shower I saw matched what ForeFlight was telling me. So (in Europe at least) I think they’ve more recently got the precipitation linked up to a live source.

I’d have passed it up as a coincidence had I not seen it be completely accurate on the six or so rain showers that I saw.

[Bilbosmeggins 217]

5 minutes ago, Redge said:

In that case I’d recommend live weather. You might as well give it a go!

A few weeks ago I was flying using Live Weather, with ForeFlight running on my iPad. I arriving in London and there were scattered showers all over the place. I saw a rain shaft in front of my plane and was surprised to see one matching it on the ForeFlight radar — happy coincidence, I thought —but then I saw another tiny shower in the sim next to a lake. I thought it looked a little unrealistic, having such a tiny shower from a small cloud, but then noticed the same tiny shower next to that lake on the radar in ForeFlight as well. After that, every rain shower I saw matched what ForeFlight was telling me. So (in Europe at least) I think they’ve more recently got the precipitation linked up to a live source.

I’d have passed it up as a coincidence had I not seen it be completely accurate on the six or so rain showers that I saw.

I think we may be at cross-purposes. I always use Live Weather. I just wanted to know how consistent it was across more than one PC. ForeFlight sounds interesting. It’s a new one on me, I’ll have to check it out 🙂

[Redge 241]

Ahh, ok. Well I think it’s definitely consistent enough in multiplayer to make for an enjoyable experience. Certainly in my case it had been. 

[bumpywindshear 43]

It would be nice i we could toggle the MP name plates using a keystroke.

[RXP 2,338]

4 hours ago, sauviat said:

I see other H135s and planes acting like H135s

It is unfortunate, but you can voice your concern:
Multiplayer: display other players actual aircraft 3D models and liveries around you - Self-Service / Wishlist - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

 

45 minutes ago, bumpywindshear said:

It would be nice i we could toggle the MP name plates using a keystroke.

Same as above:
Multiplayer nameplate on/off key mapping - Self-Service / Wishlist - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

Similarly and more generally:
Taxi Navigation Ribbon - Toggle - Self-Service / Wishlist - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

57 minutes ago, bumpywindshear said:

It would be nice i we could toggle the MP name plates using a keystroke.

There is an app for that 😉

[Treetops45 1,082]

Another factor could be the server you are on.

My understanding is you might be flying in Australia, but if you are multiplayer flying on the North Europe server, then you will only see other flyers also using that server, be they flying in Australia too, or in Northern Europe.

Or would you only see those flying in Australia?

Which gets back to the question of how far can you 'see' other flyers?

T45

Edited April 6, 2021 by Treetops45

[109Sqn 1,564]

It's definitely a strange omission, not to know how far away another aircraft is. Afterall, real world ATC would inform you if another plane was close to you.  The sim must know how close each aircraft is - in order to render it as a physical model (first lights, then the fuselage and wings) - so the nameplate could easily display the distance as well as the altitude. It would also make things easier for those flying in a group.

[bumpywindshear 43]

On 4/6/2021 at 7:54 PM, Bert Pieke said:

There is an app for that 😉

can you serve a link ? 😱

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

14 hours ago, bumpywindshear said:

can you serve a link ? 😱

https://github.com/mixMugz/msfs2020-uimod

[bumpywindshear 43]

thx man !