JSACKS

I am ready to pull the trigger on a hefty new rig for the first time in 11 years that includes a ton of flying the PMDG 747-400 in FS2004. However, before I do so, I want to check, is the PMDG 747-400 V2 that was in Alpha state in November going to be compatible with P3D V3.0 when it is released? I can't imagine a sim life without the 747 so wanted to ask here. Appreciate any replies, many thanks. Jonathan Sacks McLean, VA

I fly FS9 with REX and a lot of PMDG and other commercial add ons on a 42" LG LED. It is fantastic with very high quality and excellent visual performance. I have a 24" DELL LCD for moving maps and gauges, etc. I used Triplehead2go with 3 LCDs for several years--a 24" center and 21" side monitors--and that was great. I do miss the fuller peripheral vision from triple LCDs, but I became frustrated with the limited vertical height of the screens physically, so I decided to switch to one large LED screen. I love the bigger cleaner single screen with its large vertical height, and I use my hat swiitch for peripheral vision, but it's still not the same as triple monitors. I am thinking about possibly getting a 55" LED now although a better thing to do would probably be 3x32" LEDs. The trouble is you need a lot of space for that kind of set up and then a lot more PC and video horsepower! JS

Thanks, Robin, I appreciate your post. I actually ran the DBC as the first order of the day in trying to fix this because I wondered whether all the airports had dropped out magically (I mean, it is FS!). But it didn't make a difference. I did have a feeling that it might be one of the little FSNav sidebar icons, so it's interesting I didn't look more closely at the time and check every single one. JS

I am flying the default FS2004 Beechcraft Baron with the autopilot active. My current IAS at 14,000 feet is 158, but the speed displayed in the DMA Nav panel reads 190 knots. Is that my current Groundspeed (GS) in knots? I appreciate any posts, thanks. JS

Hooray! That worked, yay! Thank you. You know, when I was with my friend, it occurred to me to look down the list of icons, but after having a superficial glance, I thought to myself, Nah! this can't be right. This is a good example of overlooking the blindingly obvious and it makes me wonder how often it's done in real life with fatal results. Next time, I shall go with my gut and look more carefully. Thanks again, phew! JS

I have an old friend who started using his FSNavigator 4.7 in FS2004 for the first time in about 3 years. This evening we found that when we bring up FSNavigator within the sim, no airports or runways are displayed on the FSNavigator moving map. We are totally baffled by this. My friend says that last time he used FSnav some years ago, all airports and runways showed up normally. He showed me a screenshot from back then and sure enough there were the airports and runways. I ran FSNav DBC to see whether this would make a difference. It didn't do anything at all. So as of now, my friend has all waypoints, nav aids, and ILS's displayed within FSNav, but absolutely no airports, runways, taxiways, parking spots, etc. Can anybody assist with this bizarre matter? Thanks for any posts! JS

I echo the relief, thanks, and gratitude of others in this thread. Thank you, Tom, and all AVSIM staff ! Jonathan .

Hmm, this isn't going too well. I tried MipMap Manager three times and no diff; still have blurred text in VC mode, especially overhead panel labels with night lighting. I am not sure how to use DXTbmp; the HELP section isn't much use to somebody like me who's got no experience doing bmp work. Any further guidance appreciated, thanks. JS

Mike, Thanks for your helpful reply. Much appreciated. Johan: Thanks for posting. I never migrated to FSX. It was always too much work to contemplate! I still dream of a new rig and migrating, but will probably never get around to it. My FS9 setup is better than ever with a 42" LED for the sim and a 24" LCD for FSNavigator and instruments. Cheers to you both! JS

Excuse my ignorance and lateness to this topic, but I just discovered it and downloaded and installed the replacement VC textures successfully. They look very nice. However, I would like to know how to remove the mipmaps to reduce the blurriness and also how to re-save the textures in DXT3 format as well. Can anybody kindly assist? Many Thanks! (p.s. greetings to you, Johan. Hope you're doing well after all these years!) JS

Thanks to all for replies. Much appreciated! JS

I am about to start making the transition from FS9 to FSX (yes, I know I am 7 years late!) and this week will be ordering a new super-rig to upgrade my virtual life. I've been flying PMDG in FS9 for years and recall that the sequence of installation of their Boeing jets was important. I want to ask, when I get my new rig, will I have to instal the PMDG Boeing fleet in any particular sequence? Or can I go ahead and just buy the 747-400X first, for example, or maybe the new 777 when it is released? Or do I need to instal the NGX as the "base" model for all subsequent PMDG Boeing jets? I appreciate any reply with guidance, thanks. Jonathan Sacks

Excellent piece of writing. Conveys a vivid view and a sense of immediacy that videos do not provide. Verily is the pen mightier than reality. Thank you and well done. I wrote a piece in a similar vein when I attended the AVSIM Denver fest in 2004 and about two hundred of us were unleashed on UNITED's training simulators at Stapleton for a long weekend. As I read through your article, I recalled Denver and was able to see and feel your excitement and sense of virtual destiny in rotating the mighty PMDG T-7 for the very first time! I guess I really do have to order that new rig from Jetline Systems now. JS

My two eyes are approximately 54" away from the 42" LED screen. I measured very carefully and went to check out a huge range of LED ascreens at Best Buy. They must have thought I was a madman because I had a 10 foot measuring tape and spent 2.5 hours standing and measuring many different screens. I was tempted to get a 55" monitor but 54" is too close. 54" works very well for me. I have a huge flat office desk and the LED sits at the very back of it, just ahead of the structural wall. I get an additional 15-18" of distance thanks to my CH Yoke which is screwed into the desk. I had also thought about getting 27",30", and 32" LEDs in Triplehead format, but it was too difficult to fit. You need to be careful with size and distance. Sorry for late reply, hope this helps.

I just got a new ultrathin LG 42" LED TV for FS2004, swapping out my triple DELL LCD display with TH2G. It's lovely to put a 747 on this big screen in spot mode and see everything all at once on a larger scale and with no bezels. And the vertical height of the monitor is great too. Takeoffs are more realistic with much bigger runway views and the resolution is tolerable. Colors are vibrant and very realistic. EWith Flight Environment, the skyscapes are sensational and totally realistic, especially the clouds. I think FS runs smoother as well on just the single monitor than the triple setup, but am still trying to validate this. However, in doing this, I've had to give up peripheral vision and it's a major give up. I did an approach to Kai Tak in the PSS 777 and could see the PAPI until nearly at the checkerboard and then when I turned, I lost the runway view and the PAPI on the screen. It's like being blind in one eye after 6 years of peripheral vision. I thought about resurrecting Track IR5 but frankly it never really worked that well for me over the years although recently I was told that this is probably due to light reflection somewhere in my sim room. I may stick with this bigger screen. Not yet sure. Still experimenting. Thought I'd post for the benefit of others considering a similar migration. JS

Hey, Joe: Your post triggered me to search deeper within fs9.cfg and you must be correct. Something in the earlier FS9 session today caused the cfg file to revert from its current status to the default FS9 status and therefore nothing worked properly for me. I could not understand why everything was in super dumbed down 800x600 mode, single screen, flickering LCDs, defective flight surface controls, weird error messages, etc. It was maddening and a little scary too. I then after more work on the rig found that I DID have a backup of the cfg file although it is over 4 years old. However, I dove into it and my heart leapt as I realized it might have been configured for my myriad hardware. Guess what? It bloody works! The yoke, throttle, GoFlight stuff, it all works! I am sooooo relieved now. I tweaked the old file for some sensitivities and am now flight testing with GA and heavies. It's going quite well. Don't have the sensitivities down optimally, but it's coming along. Mainly, I won't have to spend countless hours and days reconfiguring my entire rig into fs9.cfg. Joy! I had forgotten how critical fs9.cfg was over the years. It's probably the most vital file of the system for somebody like me with my set-up. I have copied and backed up the updated cfg file now. I hope I shan't forget to keep a copy of every update if I instal new stuff. Thanks a mill for your helpful post. JS

I'm very sorry to report that I don't have a backup of the cfg file. I stopped backing up the cfg file years ago. I used to do it, but just forgot about it over time. My loss! JS

This afternoon, I set up a flight in the Level-D 767 with my trusty rig. I have about 20 CH and GoFlight modules which have been in place for years now and generally they work well. Not today however! After experiencing a series of throttle surges in the 767, I closed the sim in order to re-open it and start again. The moment FS9 started to re-load, I got two windowed error messages I've never seen in all the years I've been simming and using Fs2004. First I got an error message pertaining to FSSound.dll and then an identical one pertaining to SOARrec.dll. They were warning messages. I've had both dll's on my system for years with no trouble at all and made no changes, edits, instals, or whatever to the system for a long time. I was unable to launch the sim normally. To cut a nightmare story short, after 2 hours lof troubleshooting, I discovered that for no apparent reason, the following have happened to my system running FS9: 1. The resolution of the sim got chopped from 3840x1024x32 (under my Matrox TH2G device running triple LCDs) to 800x600x32 and got written into the fs9.cfg file. 2. My CH yoke, CH rudder pedals and CH throttle quadrant no longer work because all settings have vanished within Fs9. It's as if the sim is brand new and all hardware needs to be installed and assigned. 3. None of my numerous GoFlight modules work at all. It's as if they have all been disconnected. 4. The slew mode is a disaster and spirals wildly out of control when activated. I have absolutely no idea what has happened or what is going on. I appreciate any posts, thanks. JS

I am still in the FS2004 world but now re-examining a migration to FSX. I have used three LCD's for many years with TH2G with FS2004 and have to say the immersion factor has been fantastic. I have a center 24" DELL Ultrasharp flanked by two 20.1" DELL LCDs. I run the show with an eVGA 7900 GTX card and the performance visually is quite fantastic. It's always worked perfectly even though I have had to dumb down the res to 3840x1024. The field of vision is huge and everybody who has seen it says it is quite a trip. The bezels are irrelevant; nobody notices them once they are in the virtual cockpit. I find the prospect of going back to a single monitor quite dismal. I would actually like to have 3x24" LCDs with FSX on a new PC and card like a GTX 680 but am not sure if there will be enough power to drive the much increased resolution of 5760x1200 (or 1080). I have considered a single DELL 30" but the main issue is the lack of peripheral vision after years with triples screens. No way you can approach Kai Tak or KDCA properly without triple screens because there is no peripheral vision with one LCD panel.

I am looking at a new PC with possibly a GTX 680 for FSX to drive 3x24" monitors, each with a resolution of 1920x1200 or 1920x1080. Is the GTX card going to be able to handle such a task and provide visual fluidity even with the latest Sandy Bridge processor? If not, what kind of video setup should I be looking at? I mainly want to be able to fly PMDG jets on long flights with very high definition and fluidity. Scenery is of some interest to me, but I won't be cramming the box with ORBX stuff. I appreciate any posts, thanks. JS

I am thinking about getting a new Sandy Bridge based system for FSX. In FS2004, with my old DELL XPS system, I have run triple LCDs under MATROX TH2G using a single GTO 7900 card which worked very nicely indeed. For the new Sandy Bridge system, if I wanted to continue with triple monitors, should I get a GTX 590 card with 3GB of VM or would I be better advised to get an SLI set up with two GTX 580 cards? I am not sure if I will continue with TH2G, I am thinking about Digital Tigers monitors and I don't think they need TH2G (or do they?). Appreciate any advice, thanks! JS

Mark: I actually watched the first NewEgg video just now. It was good. Maybe I shall reconsider...! Have you found your huge Nochua fan works well? I was thinking of liquid cooling but I am not impressed with the idea of having to service liquid cooling. Just curious about this item in particular given that we all want 5 Ghz machines. JS

I have been running FS2004 on an ancient DELL XPS-4 for 5 years now very happily with three DELL LCDs (1x24" Ultrasharp and 2x20.1" 4:3 ratio screens) and a Triplehead2Go. If I now buy a new gen PC, say, an i2600K with nVidia GTX 580 or 590 card, can I continue to use Triplehead2Go and run all three screens? I think the max res under my TH2G is 3840x1024. Or should I be thinking about a completely different video/visual arrangement by now? What would work best with FSX for multi-screen or an amazing resolution on a biggish screen? Appreciate any advice, thanks! JS

Paul: Those stats for your rig and FSX are almost unbelievable. And for $4K they seem incredible. Did you build the machine yourself or have it custom made? JS

Thanks again for more replies and info. The comment on the 2500K not running on DDR3 2000 is interesting to me; I wonder if DS would tell me that if I submitted an order?! Anyway, noted, thanks. I am not sure what I think of H20 cooling. In the older FS9 world there certainly were a lot of cooling issues, it seems. I figured if I was going to overclock by 50%, maybe best to be as cool as possible. But maybe air/fans works just as well...? I had seen today the comment about the i2600K, etc. and thought that was interesting too. I would upgrade to the i2600K based on what I've read. Thanks, all! JS