I just recently got the previous patch working now 3.0.0.6 broke it again. It's exhausting trying to get this program to work. When it does work it's great but then along comes something like a patch and sends everything to broken and so the pattern seems to repeat itself. For example, I just got this message AGAIN with this recent patch. I tried to re-install the new patch but MC website download for PD3V5/MSFS wasn't working. I am spending more time trying to get this program to work than actually flying.

1 hour ago, surfcandy said:

I just recently got the previous patch working now 3.0.0.6 broke it again. It's exhausting trying to get this program to work. When it does work it's great but then along comes something like a patch and sends everything to broken and so the pattern seems to repeat itself. For example, I just got this message AGAIN with this recent patch. I tried to re-install the new patch but MC website download for PD3V5/MSFS wasn't working. I am spending more time trying to get this program to work than actually flying.

From Gerald's post in other threads, bugs have been identified and are being fixed. The download on the website has been disabled pending the update. 

On 12/3/2022 at 5:59 AM, surfcandy said:

I just recently got the previous patch working now 3.0.0.6 broke it again. It's exhausting trying to get this program to work. When it does work it's great but then along comes something like a patch and sends everything to broken and so the pattern seems to repeat itself. For example, I just got this message AGAIN with this recent patch. I tried to re-install the new patch but MC website download for PD3V5/MSFS wasn't working. I am spending more time trying to get this program to work than actually flying.

This messagebox typically pops-up when the Fo cannot access airplane specific variables.

Youmay not know this, when you switch planes in MSFS, they all create tons of Lvars (2000 each on average), with Inibuilds A310 even going above 3000

The planes don't seem to bother de-registering their custom created variables. MSFS being 64 Bit can afford to waste virtual memory on unused things

As a result, when you innocently keep switching planes to finally opt for one, you could be accumulating 6000 with only a third of them relevant for the aircraft you intend to fy.

Apart from ASOBO simple planes where you can switch from one to other (they share the built-in ASOBO variables and hardly create any custom ones, unless they are modded), when you intend to fly a specific complex plane, set it as the one MSFS loads on startup, wait until it has finished loading (ready on tarmac in ANY state), then start MCE.It's unlikely you will get that dialog box again

And yes, very recently, there was a screw-up. We should be able to upload a new package, if not late today, definitely by tomorrow evening.

It hurts us because believe me, putting out a Demo that is incrementally modified for people to enjoy newly integrated planes without compromizing it isn't easy.

And you have 10 minutes to impress. All it takes is a user having some unsuitable headset, very noisy room conditions, <END> or <DEL> key stuck down (or triggered via a LUA script) for MCE to suspend all speech reco by design  and the user running away thinking "It doesn't work at all". All because there is no upfront money commitment which would force the buyer to seek help.

On the up side, it forces us to look at all "possible points of failure" and patch them over time.

The easy option is to NOT have a Demo, put out a 2 minute "doctored video" that gives the illusion you're going to hire a real world Fo for US$ 30, and pay influencers to push your product. Once users commit their money, you can then point them to the manual and say, read carefully here, don't expect this to happen until you utter this magic sentence burried in the manual (and speak it exactly as written and when the software expects it not when you want) or FO won't react to whatever you say.

The result, maybe more sales for sure, but a vast number of users will drop-out of using Voice Control because it's not fun at all. You will be turned into a robot. A DVD pilot at best.

We say, a user who knows the aviation jargon, should be able to ask the FO to request what he wants, when he wants and using the verbiage that comes to his/her head intuitively. If FO doesn't react to something you utter a couple of times, you can assume the command isn't built-in. But we give you the means to "teach the FO your Lingo" so that he understand what you meant by that intuitive sentnce you uttered.

We are trying to build the most intuitive voice control that is the closest you can get to "shared cockpit" nirvana. Even after more than a decade of fine tuning, it will always be "works in progress"

When we see a video on Youtube, we identify some usability issue and try to adjust the sofware rather than tell the user to change his/her behaviour. Hence the need to constantly fiddle with the app.

I could mention Inibuilds A310 which only came out recently...

Well, we started with the most helful commands like Fo dialling flaps, transponder, radios and FCU (MCP) to help our users, then we'll take more time to round up every switch worth controlling via voice (hopefully this month).

I could mention the Fenix...

While we had all the buttons rounded-up (for accurate flows execution) by August, trying to find out how to read FCU values so Fo can dial them, CDU data so call-outs can be in synch and FMA announcements for you is a job on its own. No SDK. And no wonder other products that say "specifically developed for Fenix A320" won't bother putting in the R&D effort to get it going. It took 2 months to work that part out and more importantly make it reliable (Like needing to update "Simco64_Ldr.exe 3 times a week). For instance early implementation wa focusing on getting access to CDU data as the main objective. Then realised later since Fo won't be able to read any unless the data is already in and it could take ages before that happens (time consuming cockpit preparation), in more ecent update, MCE will only start looking for data once at least one engine is running (when you can assume the data should definitely be there).

We don't pester users with updates either.

Because of the sheer amount of supported planes, every glitch with a single switch could  prompt a new upload (remember we a have a Demo).

I suggest you read the forum to see if it's worth updating on your side, if say you happen to be acquiring a new plane or fond of the "Simbrief" integration which was added very recntly and which no doubt will need fine tuning as the flight plans may have some unexpected data.

So, why do we keep updating MCE....

I guess, some of the lines above answer that.

More than a decade ago, we made the pledge to make MCE the most fulfilling crew experience you can get and to extend it to as many complex aircraft as possble without charging a dime. The lucky ones are those who subscribed early as we moved from supporting just default planes in FSX to gradually integrating the big hitters from PMDG, FsLabs, Majestic, Aerosoft,, not to forget Captain SIm and other airraft vendors. Not only in FSX, but also Prepar3D and MSFS

We also moved from using TTS voices back in 2010 to human pre-recorded audio.

Now supporting Native, PF3 and Radar Contact ATC when the initial product only had support for FSX & FS9 ATC.

We could have inundated the market with tons of products, one for each supported plane (we support 50 complex planes) and more importantly charged for the MSFS specific product when we didn't even have competion then, being first to integrate the new sim.

I hope I have clarified things for everyone and not just Surfcandy.

Yes, it may be percieved as expensive to some. And here is why we started releasing separate affordable packages. One for each plane

For Fenix A320

https://secure.simmarket.com/fs-limited-multi-crew-fenix-a320-msfs.phtml

For PMDG 737

https://secure.simmarket.com/fs-limited-multi-crew-pmdg-737-msfs.phtml

 

 

 

Edited December 4, 20223 yr by FS++

Thanks for your detailed response. Like I stated earlier MC is a great program when it's working no question there. So far the problems I've encountered with MC not working properly is connected to  MC and not the other programs like PD3V3/MSFS or X-Plane. Almost all the other add on programs I have work most of the time with PD3V5/MSFS and X-Plane. MC though I like it alot doesn't work most of the time. I own both the complete registered PD3V5/MSFS and X-Plane-11/12 versions. I am hoping that in a couple of days I can return here with good news about how MC is now working great after the latest fix.

Would appreciate anyone on MCE V3.0.0.0 or higher applies this patch and confirms all is well.

http://www.multicrewxp.com/Latest-Beta.zip

Note: It appears Simbrief either changed the way the Notam info is embedded in the downloaded file or there is more than one way they do it.

So, for now, when you click <Notams> button, you may not see anything shown.

Thank you

Thanks for the quick work as always Gerald.  I'll give it a try later tonight.

6 hours ago, FS++ said:

Would appreciate anyone on MCE V3.0.0.0 or higher applies this patch and confirms all is well.

I've only done one flight with it, but it was decently complex, in the PMDG 737 from Chicago O'Hare to Detroit.  MCE worked almost flawlessly.  I only found one remaining issue: my designated PTT button for transmitting on Vatsim was not muting MCE. The hard mute toggle button though, worked perfectly.  I didn't hear anything from the "button" mode; no one else responded "checks" to transition or 10,000ft calls etc.  And it just seemed... Smoother, somehow.

So the only issue I found was the PTT button not muting him while held down.  But this was an enjoyable flight without any unpredictable behavior from MCE.  Thanks!

7 hours ago, Stearmandriver said:

I've only done one flight with it, but it was decently complex, in the PMDG 737 from Chicago O'Hare to Detroit.  MCE worked almost flawlessly.  I only found one remaining issue: my designated PTT button for transmitting on Vatsim was not muting MCE. The hard mute toggle button though, worked perfectly.  I didn't hear anything from the "button" mode; no one else responded "checks" to transition or 10,000ft calls etc.  And it just seemed... Smoother, somehow.

So the only issue I found was the PTT button not muting him while held down.  But this was an enjoyable flight without any unpredictable behavior from MCE.  Thanks!

Thanks for feedback Andrew.

I assume you setup a joystick button in wizard to serve as ATC PTT.

When you restore to factory settings it sets you back to "Native ATC" mode. In this mode, when you hold PTT down, it suspends all speech commands for FO interaction, but also enables ATC related speech commands and that's why you are probably seeing some detection.

In ATC tab, click the '+' right arrow until you get to "Other ATC". Then click <Activate> and restart MCE so it can switch to "Other ATC" which includes Vatsim, Pilot2ATC, VoxAtc or any other. If the same PTT is set on Vatsim, it should cut all MCE speech when held down. Same applies when the DELETE key is held down.

Also a time out was added for scenarios where Fo gets Metar or Taf on request, starts reading it and occasionally hits some unexpected data and goes into a loop forcing you to restart MCE. For Metar, he has to spit out all audio within 1 minute. For TAF, up to 2 minutes.

Demo is now back on server: http://www.multicrewxp.com/Downloads.html

22 hours ago, surfcandy said:

Thanks for your detailed response. Like I stated earlier MC is a great program when it's working no question there. So far the problems I've encountered with MC not working properly is connected to  MC and not the other programs like PD3V3/MSFS or X-Plane. Almost all the other add on programs I have work most of the time with PD3V5/MSFS and X-Plane. MC though I like it alot doesn't work most of the time. I own both the complete registered PD3V5/MSFS and X-Plane-11/12 versions. I am hoping that in a couple of days I can return here with good news about how MC is now working great after the latest fix.

Agree, the X-Plane version is in great need of an update. Already works in progress and should be out by the end of the coming week.

Download and install the very latest V3.0.0.7 and report any issues you may have with Prepar3D. FSX or MSFS.

Because the focus is now mostly on MSFS, it's not impossible something gets changed in MCE that could cause un-intended side effects with some previously suupported plane in older sims.

What we can't do is run a full test on 50+ supported planes across 3 simulators every time there is a minor (or perceived as such) update.

But if you report it, it would be easy to look at it closely and get it fixed if it was working before.

Sometimes even a plane update where the dev changes some entries MCE relies on to identify it causes the latter to appear as if it doesn't support it at all.

It's not enough to detect it's an airbus or even A320.

We support many of them and while they share the speech commands, the way FO reads and operates their switches and dials will differ from one to the other, therefore crucial to know which plane it is dealing with.

In a product that is dedicated to a single plane, you just make the assumption it's going to be that one.

 

8 hours ago, FS++ said:

When you restore to factory settings it sets you back to "Native ATC" mode. In this mode, when you hold PTT down, it suspends all speech commands for FO interaction, but also enables ATC related speech commands and that's why you are probably seeing some detection.

Yup, my fault. I had all MCE ATC functions disabled so I couldn't even get to the ATC tab.  Working correctly now, thanks!

On 12/3/2022 at 5:03 PM, surfcandy said:

 X-Plane-11/12 versions. I am hoping that in a couple of days I can return here with good news about how MC is now working great after the latest fix.

Here is an interim patch for MCE X-Plane Edition

http://www.multicrewxp.com/Patch-MceForXPlane.zip

LM new A330 integration is still works in progress. We initially assumed it would be like their old default planes. It turns out all switches are operational. It's like interfacing some plane from Flight Factor or JAR Design..

Manually replace files as per folder structure.

 

Briefly tested with PD3V5 and MSFS and happy to report the message is now gone and the flight plan from Simbrief now appears ( MC website dl of 3.0.0.8). The flight plane not appearing still persists in X-Plane 11 and 12.

4 hours ago, surfcandy said:

Briefly tested with PD3V5 and MSFS and happy to report the message is now gone and the flight plan from Simbrief now appears ( MC website dl of 3.0.0.8). The flight plane not appearing still persists in X-Plane 11 and 12.

You can use the patch to manually replace a couple of files in MCE installation folder and move to V3.0.0.8

http://www.multicrewxp.com/Latest-Beta.zip

Recheck the Simbrief feature. The Notam display isn't working because last flight plans that were downloading have shown Simbrief changing the location of the info. Therefore, that part needs to be reworked.