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terrypin

Walk And Follow - Help for FSX beginner?

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I'm an absolute FSX novice and new to AVSIM, so not even sure I've got the most appropriate forum. I've just installed Walk And Follow from the German developer DBS, and I'm hoping other users here might help me get started please. (I'm mainly aiming to use FSX to view planned and completed walks/hikes, and explore UK scenery.)The 2+ page PDF 'user guide' is so badly translated by DBS that it's incomprehensible to me. Here are some specific queries, starting with the most pressing one:a) How can I fly to a certain place and then stop and look around atmy leisure in all directions, including down towards the ground, withno plane or cockpit visible to spoil my view?:( How can I tell what mode I am in? Even after I have used 'ResetWalk mode' the message strip still says 'Free Walk Mode'.c) Am I supposed to use Free Walk mode when the simulation is Paused? It seems not. But if it is truly 'Free Walk' I would expect that it is independent of the aircraft position.d) In Free Walk mode, it always seems to start with a view from aprevious flight? (The F11 view I gather.) If I use F9 or F10 then it changes to a view in my current flight. What's going on here please?e) When I am already in Free Walk Mode, if I select it again (perhaps because I am not sure if I am in that mode), it loads all the terrain data again. Why?f) I just cannot understand how to save and reload camera views. Can anyone give an example please, showing each step.I've googled for ages but so far not found anything by way of an intoduction or tutorial. Anyone know of anything along those lines please?Any help would be much appreciated.-- Terry, East Grinstead, UK

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Guest jshyluk

Hi, Terry, I will try to get you started:First, DBS is Russian, not German. We don't want to get those two at each other's throats again!Second, Angelique van Campen and I wrote a detailed review of Walk and Follow for AVSIM not long ago. Here is a link:http://www.avsim.com/pages/0408/WalkFollow/WalkFollowX.htmIn it, I do mention how to get many of the features going, including saving views. Please read that and then come back here and ask any outstanding questions you might have. Jeff ShylukAssistant Managing EditorSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

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Thanks Jeff, appreciate the fast reply. Found your review shortly after posting last night, following further forum browsing. Great article! Printed and studied it before going to bed and was at least reassured that my problems weren't all down to my inexperience!My experience with the installation/registration/activation echoed yours. Took me a whole day to unravel, including reaching the right SP level and some other patch, with very helpful support from a (Russian!) DBS Support person who was clearly not the one who had written the user guide ;-)Of course, being a non-gamer (I don't even have my joystick yet) and also brand new to FSX, my problems with WAF are compounded. Not to mention my impatience to get results! I'll get back on the case as soon as I can (weekend husband duties allowing) and step methodically through some experiments. Then I'll come back with specifics for further help please.Meanwhile, can you just cover question (:( please? I'm sure I was still getting 'Free Walk Mode' displayed in that message strip after using Reset Walk Mode. Much of my floundering around was down to not knowing what 'status' I was in :(P.S. Unlike the composing stage, the finished messages here are in an unusually small font. Is there a setting I can change please? (If relevant, my browser is Firefox.)-- Terry, East Grinstead, UK

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Guest jshyluk

Walk And Follow (WAF) for FSX got changed from Walk & Follow (W&F)for FS9. In FS9, the Walk and the Follow were discrete, while in FSX, the functions seem to overlap. I kind of ignore what the strip is telling me, for starters, I usually have it turned off. Basically, if the aircraft moves out of the frame, I am Walking, and if the aircraft stays put but the scenery is moving, then I am Following. I tend to use Walk much more than Follow to get my screenshots, so I mostly concentrate on that. I like to pause the sim so I can get the precise composition for the shot that I am looking for. If the sim is paused, then generally Walk works the same as Follow.So, STEP 1: Pause the Sim (Optional)STEP 2: ENABLE WAFSTEP 3: Choose your viewIf you haven't set this up, you're going to need to do so:3a) Go into WAF SETTINGS3b) Look at VIEW MODE OVERRIDE3c) Choose a FSX view that you would like WAF to override. I like the default SPOT. Whenever you I) Enable WAF, and II) choose that view you picked, then WAF will go into Walk mode.This is important! If you ENABLE WAF, but you >do not< choose the same view that is in VIEW MODE OVERRIDE, you will be in Follow mode!So, if you enable WAF and choose Locked Spot as your view, you should be in Follow Mode, but if you picked Spot as your view, then you should be in Walk mode. This is assuming that Spot is your VIEW MODE OVERRIDE view. You can change it to whatever you like.So, what we've learned is that the VIEW MODE OVERRIDE sets up Walk mode. WAF's Walk will override, will take over for the one single FSX view that you set up in the WAF SETTINGS. Another trick I like to do is set up a unique view for the Walk Mode. For instance, FSX has no native 3/4 views, i.e., where you are looking bearing 45 degrees to the aircraft. So, I set my default walk view to snap to -45 degrees at 50 feet away (I like the small prop planes like the Cub). Then, the first thing I do after ENABLE WAF is to RESET FREE WALK MODE. If the aircraft is pointing forward and to the camera's left from 50 feet away, then WAF is in in Walk Mode. This works best if the sim is paused, because if the aircraft is moving, it will immediately exit the frame! Jeff ShylukAssistant Managing EditorSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

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Guest jshyluk

I nearly forgot:1) I don't know what's up with the fonts. I should know, and I wish I knew. I sometimes have that problem as well. Your message looks normal from here, though.2) As soon as you can, you should invest in a nice joystick. It does not have to be expensive, but quality will out. A joystick with a twist rudder and/or a throttle lever will help a lot. If you are swimming in money, I would also highly reccomend a TrackIR, which, ironically, gets overridden when using Walk And Follow.3) If you can, do your weekendly husband chores when and where the wife can see you. I find that I get many more brownie points when she can see what I am doing. If I finish a chore and she never sees it, I never get credit for it. Sometimes, I will do a bunch of things during the week, but leave them intentionally unfinished until I know she will see me doing them. Then, I finish the chores while she is looking. I can't count how many flight sim and gaming hours this strategy has bought me. It's no secret either: she knows how the system works, which just gives me bonus points for being up front with her. Jeff ShylukAssistant Managing EditorSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

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First, thanks a bunch for that clear and detailed explanation. I'll have a crack at stepping through it asap. I also spent an hour or so editing the DBS PDF, with your article and an email from DBS alongside, and that should help too. I'd still love to be able to toggle a tiny message box reliably showing the current status ('WAF Enabled - Walk Mode', etc), especially at this learning stage.Re the fonts, it turns out that this is confined to the Preview, so no big deal. Just some heavy staring while I look for my typos. The threads all look OK here too, including my posts.Joystick on my To Do list for the coming week.Your chore-score techniques are uncannily similar to mine!;)-- Terry, East Grinstead, UK

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