barryward12345

I am having a great time flying choppers in TP. They are made for it - great forward and sideways vision for sightseeing, you can vary the speed from very slow to Cessna type speeds - and , as we tend to fly slow for TP, they offer a bigger challenge to fly than a very stable small fixed wing a/c. All round, a very pleasing FSim experience.Barry

Hi HiltonI used GE yesterday successfully. I normally use Y - and had only used GE once before. I was a bit startled the first time by the popups asking me to recognise and input a code.But everything worked fine for me yesterday. I have read somewhere that the success or otherwise of using GE can be determined by the time of day. I don't know if I can really believe this because it is probably "peak hour" in some part of the world all the timeRegards Barry

Trouble is that Flashearth.com only allows you to compare Yahoo with Microsoft VEHere is another website that allows comparisons between Google and MS VE http://www.jonasson.org/maps/My previous posting has the website which allows comparisons between Google and Yahoo http://www.sergeychernyshev.com/maps.htmlIt's a shame we can't get all 3 map providers compared with one another on one page.Regards Barry

compare the maps from the different Service providers - depending on just where in the world you want to fly.I had been doing a lot of flying in the US and found that I was getting good overall textures from Service 3 . But I decided to do a bit of flying in Israel - it is great to use TP to see parts of the world that are famous (for various reasons) - great geography lesson. But I found that I was getting all sorts of strange and unusual error messages when loading up TP and the scenery was not very good at all. Had a look at this website http://www.sergeychernyshev.com/maps.html and it became obvious to me that Service 2 had much better resolution maps all over the country (Service 3 only had high res maps for the major cities) I know that this all sounds rather obvious - but it really lies at the heart of TPBarry

I have a feeling that this may be caused by the fact that the area I am trying to fly in is of very low resolution in Service 3 . It is a much higher res in Service 2 - so will try that.Barry

Hi allUsing Service 3 , I am all of a sudden getting an error meddage "JPEG decoding problem - Level 14" Using FSxAny ideas please?Thanks Barry

Yes - I think you are right - I cant notice any difference to performance either wayBarry

G'day Ron and BillI think also that it may be a matter of priorities - as Bill alluded to. I can certainly see that perhaps, after spending hours and hours modelling the exterior and interior VC to a very good standard, the modeller just runs out of steam when it comes to texturing the VC.But for me, as I fly in the VC , a beautifully rendered and textured VC is more important than the exterior model- which frankly I don't pay much attention to at all. But perhaps, I am in the minority in this. I do notice that the great majority of screenshots in this forum are of the exterior of a/c. We all want the best of everything - and I think that it would be very difficult to get people to state their preferences one over the other - but it would be interesting to see whether a model with an exceptional interior and less finished exterior would outsell a model with an exceptional exterior but less finished interior (the second of which seems to me to be more commonly available) Regards Barry

When I load up a free flight in the VC on the runway at KSEA, I initially get good FPS (around 20) - BUT if I pan the VC view sideway to see the airfield buildings, the FPS reduce to only 10. OK - that is maybe understandable - BUT when I pan back to view straight down the runway and the buildings are no longer in view, the FPS remain low at 10.I mostly fly in rural areas and haveb;t experienced this anywhere else - but it is REALLY noticeable at KSEA .Any thoughts re this?Thanks Barry

Some time ago, I tried out a FS9 Gmax tutorial exercise - and realised how difficult and time consuming it is. It didn't help to later discover that the tutorial itself was faulty :-( I don't really have that amount of time - and I can see that there are many great freeware models already released which also have very good VC's --However, one thing I have noticed is that often/mostly, these are excellent except for the quality of the texturing inside the VC.I am curious about why this is so - as, for me, it really lets down an otherwise very good model.An example of really superb VC texturing is the Carenado Mooney make-over done by Orbx (as freeware). Is there a reason that we don't see more internal VC texturing of this quality? Is there an opening there for interested capable enthusiasts to pick up this aspect of Simming as a hobby?Thanks for any infoBarry

I have just noticed that the "RESIDENT SHIELD" part of my freeware AVG anti-virus is setup to scan Executable files and other "infectable " files. The list of files to be scanned includes XML and BMP files.I have never really noticed AVG using any CPU time while flying FSx - but I am curious now about this -- any thoughts please??Thanks Barry

The high-quality freeware Piasecki has a float version http://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=104549Barry

Hi KevinI can bring up the radio stack OK - but all the radios are OFF!x( The Piasecki has an option to shut everything down - and go through a detailed startup. But once you do this , the radios are shut down and there is no Avionics switch to turn them back on again. Of course, I can use an allocated keyboard combination to switch the avionics on, but would prefer a switch:-) As I said in my post above, I have found this before in other addon a/cRegards Barry

Bump -- anybody??:-( Barry

Can't figure out how/where to turn these onAny help much appreciated.Thanks Barry

Yep - I have an Intel dual core E6600. Standard experience for me is for FS.Exe to show around 55% and System Idle Process to show around 45% when flying.FSx does not take full account of dual cores - it only uses the second core for some threads.(That is my understanding, anyway) Barry

Thanks for that RhettWhy would a reboot be necessary? I notice that when I shut down FSx, MEMSTATUS reports that vid RAM usage has been reduced to zero.Regards Barry

Hi KevinI only have a 256 meg vid card - and MEMSTATUS reports video consumption getting close to this. I can reduce vid RAM usage by lowering the "level of detail radius" and frankly, I can't really see much difference onscreen.The strange thing about this is that it is random (when it happens). On 2 occasions now, I have had this problem when running 2 of the default missions - on both occasions, replacing the included mission Wx files with clear weather files from elsewhere has cured the "problem"I could probably do with a newer 512 meg vid card - but can't really justify the expense. RegardsBarry

Hi MaceThanks for your reply - although I have to say that it is a little cryptic for me and don't really understand what you are saying. I note that nobody else has commented on my "problem" - perhaps this is something that others have not seen before? I don't know. This situation only happens sometimes - as an example, it appeared suddenly when I loaded a standard MS Mission. This mission does start in an area of the world that does have low FPS for me - ie the Seattle area - and also the weather associated with this mission also has "flashing" cumulous clouds - something which also only happens occasionally.I have a distinct feeling that most of my FSx flying is quite good in quiet areas of the world - but as soon as I enter other areas of the world, strange things happen. It is not just a matter of low FPS in those areas - which also may have happened with FS9 - but more a matter of FSx doing strange things when under stress. FS9 did not do this - if overburdened, it merely produced low FPS, "blurries" or "stutters" It appears to me that when FSx is a little overstressed it does all kinds of "weird" things - like the example of my screenshots. Trouble is - you never really know when it is going to happen. My experience with Fsx has been quite good - until , all of a sudden , things like this happen.Surely I am not alone here??

Every so often , this happens to my a/c - looks like somebody has assembled a plastic model a/c incorrectly, parts either missing or in the wrong place. In the case below, the a/c steering wheel is upside down and the rudder pedals are missing.Sometimes the external a/c model looks like it has been blown apart by a bomb!!Any ideas pleasehttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/190246.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/190247.jpg

Little things in FSx which are weird - for example, you have to completely load a "free flight" before you are able to load a saved Mission.How did that get through the Beta teaters? :-) Was it so difficult to be able to include saved Missions in the LOAD section of the initial startup screen of FSx. When you go to "LOAD" after loading a free flight, you can see any saved flights, plus Missions plus saved Missions. But for the initial opening screen you can only load saved flights and Missions (but not saved Missions!) :-) Barry

Oh dear! Have I unwittingly opened a hornets nest??Mods - better shut this one down quick before it melts down of it's own accord!:-) Barry

>Barry, I'm not sure whether you've noticed but on the>Missions page there is a Show Saved Missions checkbox which>will allow you to load previously saved missions. Loading a>saved mission is simply a matter of going to the Missions page>rather than the Free Flight page.>>Mike.:-doh :-doh :-doh :-doh OK OK - he who is without sin may cast the first stone (not bad hey - just made that up! :-) Obviously I wouldn't make it through a Beta tester application test. You know - I have looked and looked and looked at that page and my eyes have failed to see that checkbox!Thanks for the pointer in the right direction Barry

I have finally completed this mission. It has been quite a good one for a beginner chopper pilot to undertake. It involves a lot of mountain flying, some quite tricky landings (for a beginner)in awkward places and, although just a "fly and see" type scenario, felt right to me as an introduction to Missions. I am certainly a better helo pilot now for itRecommended.I wonder what happened to the plans to make this one the first of a series??Barry

When I first installed FSx, I intalled everything right up to SP2. BUT - I had severe graphical "glitches". The ONLY way I could eliminate these was to uninstall SP2 - everything has been fine ever since.Who knows why -- perhaps the hardware, perhaps the hardware drivers, perhaps the programme itself??Who knows - but frankly it is all too difficult for what is supposed to be a retail product which you install out of a box!Barry