FSUIPC for MSFS?

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

22 minutes ago, jrw4 said:

With regard to autosave, doesn't this put a load on the system and potentially cause stutters at regular intervals? Additionally, does it work with the more complex add-ons like PMDG and Fenix a/c? I have never used this function in previous flight sims and so never thought of applying it in MSFS.

Many thanks.

Speaking as a P3D user there is no noticeable load on the system. I’ve never noticed any stutter at fixed periods. Every switch on the PMDG737NGu is saved both with a manual save and AutoSave.

Try saving a flight manually with the PMDG. You’ll find every switch is remembered. Then do the same for the Fenix. How switches are saved is down to the aircraft in use, not FSUIPC.

[G550flyer 1,013]

2 hours ago, Egbert Drenth said:

Is it still a 'required' add-on for MSFS?

Though not required, I will tell you what I love about FSUIPC. I didn't find it easy to set different profiles for different aircraft within MSFS. I have both the Boeing TCA yoke/throttle and the warthawg thrustmaster stick/throttles. I fly my side stick aircraft with the thrust master and the yoke aircraft with the TCA. It works seamless for me. With the different profiles, I can have different controls and settings for each aircraft I fly. I can separately tune the controls per aircraft too. Now, if having different profiles per aircraft is not a thing for you, then you really don't need it.

[bbuckley 133]

tl;dr  -- No you don't NEED it. BUT,

I've used FSUIPC for as long as I can remember. In my FSX/P3D days it was ESSENTIAL. I implemented auto profiles, and many advanced capabilities enabled by FSUIPC's very capable assignments, and things like LUA files. I now fly MSFS exclusively and use SPAD.neXt mostly but still have some buttons programmed in FSUIPC. I bought SPAD back when I had Saitek panels and that was the best way to program them. If I didn't already have it I'd probably still be happily doing all my control profiles in FSUIPC. 

IMHO the flightsim community owe Pete & John Dowson much more than the relatively small cost of the paid version for all that thay have done to advance our hobby.

 

[pete_auau 1,159]

Another  thing  is  some  addons  require  you  to  have at least  the  free  version  eg  p2a  is  one  of  them

[LRBS 947]

IMHO, Msfs has the best interface and adjustments for control sensitivities.

 

But the reason I do use FSUPIC is as follows:

1. On my throttle quadrant, I have separate reverser axis and I can assign them to modulate as needed. Not with buttons.
2. There is also an option to eliminate the elevator, rudder, and aileron trim delay.
3. I can set different profiles for each airplane, which will load automatically without any other steps.

I never used Autosave and during all these years never witnessed any performance or stuttering issues. 

[Nemo 1,305]

3 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Had a crash? No worries. Reload MSFS and load the last saved flight.

The safe flight function is pretty useless imo. Loading a saved flight misses some cockpit settings etc. as far as I remember .Weather menu is also not available when loading a saved flight. But maybe that has changed, I haven't tried quite a while.

[ark 1,290]

In some addon aircraft the default MSFS controller options are not sufficient to operate some of the aircraft controls (switches, etc) that have been custom coded by the developer. If you want to assign a key or button to operate those "non-default" custom coded aircraft controls you need a third party tool like FSUIPC, Spad.Next, etc.

Al

Edited April 27, 2023 by ark

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

36 minutes ago, Nemo said:

The safe flight function is pretty useless imo. Loading a saved flight misses some cockpit settings etc. as far as I remember .Weather menu is also not available when loading a saved flight. But maybe that has changed, I haven't tried quite a while.

Incorrect cockpit settings are down to each aircraft. Third party reference ones like PMDG and FSL make the effort to save every switch position. I’m speaking of my experience with FSL Concorde in P3Dv3 and PMDG737 in P3Dv5.

It’s doubtful default aircraft in any sim would have this feature. Depending on the delay between saving the flight and restarting the live weather in MSFS it may well have changed. In sims that accept weather data from an external source (P3D and Active Sky) the same weather would be loaded.

Pros and cons. 😉

[Ricardo41 5,949]

4 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Imagine you're 2 hours into a 3 hour flight and MSFS crashes.

I had one crash with MSFS - when MSFS bugged up the vfr map display in-sim.

[SN737 140]

3 hours ago, jrw4 said:

With regard to autosave, doesn't this put a load on the system and potentially cause stutters at regular intervals? Additionally, does it work with the more complex add-ons like PMDG and Fenix a/c? I have never used this function in previous flight sims and so never thought of applying it in MSFS.

Many thanks.

I use it with PMDG's 737's without issues. It certainly stutters because of the work it does to save all parameters for msfs and pmdg but if you set it like I do (manually saving by pressing one key), then it will save when you choose and the stutter never gets you by surprise. For example, I press my chosen save key (N, in my case) when i'm holding short on a rwy prior to takeoff, at TOC, at TOD and on final approach. You do this by going to Key Assignments, in "Press set, then the key you want to program", you input the keyboard key you want to use to save the game, then in "Control sent when keys pressed", you select "Trigger Auto-save" from the drop-down list (you can write trigger so you don't have to scroll down all list). Finito.

[rwalls 25]

There are other options for setting up axis and buttons but eventually you will run across addons that require at least the free version of FSUPIC.

I think it is worth the effort to install it and as others have said Peter Dowson has given so much to the flightsim community over the years and is still giving.

Richard

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

Personally, I like to use FSUIPC to calibrate my CH Yoke, and also have a custom key that centers the heading bug, via a one line LUA script..  Definitely nice to have.

The only "mandatory" addon I can think of, is the free Addons Linker 😉

[jrw4 624]

Thanks for your replies to my question regarding complex aircraft and autosave in MSFS.

It looks like the PMDG 737 does save the various cockpit and state variables, although it helps to trigger the save procedure manually, hence not really autosave, but useful. I don't see any reports that this works with the Fenix, which isn't much of a surprise, since this a/c doesn't itself offer any way of saving its state variables, perhaps because it makes use of that external module outside of MSFS. 

Someone did note that one additional challenge: it's not possible to save the weather state if using real time weather within MSFS. No historical weather is available at the present time, so one would need to use a preset In order to ensure continuity of atmospheric conditions.

Finally I should note that I don't make use of any external software to set up my controls. The built-in MSFS functions seem to work fine, although the interface took a little getting used to.

[SN737 140]

2 hours ago, jrw4 said:

Thanks for your replies to my question regarding complex aircraft and autosave in MSFS.

It looks like the PMDG 737 does save the various cockpit and state variables, although it helps to trigger the save procedure manually, hence not really autosave, but useful. I don't see any reports that this works with the Fenix, which isn't much of a surprise, since this a/c doesn't itself offer any way of saving its state variables, perhaps because it makes use of that external module outside of MSFS. 

Someone did note that one additional challenge: it's not possible to save the weather state if using real time weather within MSFS. No historical weather is available at the present time, so one would need to use a preset In order to ensure continuity of atmospheric conditions.

Finally I should note that I don't make use of any external software to set up my controls. The built-in MSFS functions seem to work fine, although the interface took a little getting used to.

Yeap, historical weather would make msfs complete for me (if you live in MIA for example), you could be replicating a RYR flight from LEMG to LEBL with the same weather as it had at the time of departure and arrival. Today as msfs stands, you can't, you'll most likely get boring calm winds and no clouds that you will have at night in Andalucia. Or Oceania tome zone, that would be more significant weather extreme example. A shame really that Asobo makes nothing about this, even if you could have a 48hs historical weather it would be a complete sim. Unfortunately, I keep flying in my time zone because of this. Of course, what you're saying with a saved flight is a great example, you could save it a continue the next day without issues.