Wagz

GreetingsI've been attempting to convert textures of various payware aircraft for FSX for the VA I'm involved with. I use 32 bit 888-8 encoding on all my textures for FS9. These textures do load in FSX, but various aircraft parts are lit incorrectly (doors are dark etc...). I still primarily use FS9 but may finally make the switch to FSX soon, plus many of our pilots have been requesting FSX textures as well. The first aircraft I'm trying to tackle is the QW 757. As I said 32 bit 888-8 BMPs load fine, but the doors are dark. So, I tried re-saving them as 32 bit 888-8 .DDS textures (flipping them of course), but the same problem occurs. I've attached a screenshot to show you whats going on. I've haven't tried it myself, but some of our pilots are reporting similar issues on the FSX LDS 767. I've only converted the fuse textures to DDS, so I'm not sure if the engines would match the fuse if I converted them as well (but there is no real change from when using BMPs). What format do I need to have my textures in?ThanksJoe Wagner

I've recently built a new system and I'm experiencing a strange phenomenon in FS9 if I "Alt+Tab" back to my desktop while in flight. I'm flying on Vatsim using Squawkbox, and if I alt+tab out to do something else, my aircraft is apparently behaving erratically in my absence. I'll return to FS9 to find my aircraft 1000 feet or more below my cruise altitude descending at a good rate, and usually quite a bit slower than I left it. So far this has occurred with the PSS 757 and LDS 767. A quick glance at my MCP reveals that the autopilot is in the same state I left it, in VNAV and LNAV. The MCP altitude and speed are unchanged, so that would rule out some keystrokes or mouse movement outside FS9 having an effect on it. Immediately upon my return, the autopilot recovers the aircraft and gets it back to its assigned altitude and speed. If I stay in FS9 the entire flight everything is fine. Checking my history on vataware.com reveals porpoising of my altitude while I'm away. Luckily all these episodes have occurred while in uncontrolled airspace, so no one has had a chance to yell at me yet. This one really has me baffled and annoyed, as it never happened on my old PC. I don't really want to have to stare at my flight deck the entire trip, especially if I need to pull up a chart or something. Anyone encountered a problem like this before?For the record, I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.AMD 965 Black EditionNvidia 280 GTX4GB RAM

Oddly enough I installed those new drivers as well, and my aircraft preview went totally blank as well. The odd part is I was running 4X AA/AF already. I seem to recall the drivers not playing well with some other game, so I rolled back to whatever it is was on there before.

It's probably nothing to do with your video card.From time to time FS real weather will report visibilities of 10 miles or less. The problem is that any visibility of 10 miles or less is considered "fog" and the sky is painted that dull gray. Anything over 10 is "haze" and normal sky color is shown.This may have something to do with that fact that all US METARs show a maximum value of 10 miles vis no matter how much higher it may be. I beleive there is an FSUIPC option to increase the visibility generated in this case.Joe

Yep, POSKY's 777 was I think actually created for FS2000, but still worked in FS2002. There were no such things as Opening Doors and whatnot back then.Are you sure you're not using MelJet's 777?

Sure pilots can fly turning and winding aproaches in near zero conditions, but they of course would require some sort of navigational signals (VOR, ILS, NDB, DME etc) to fly by.In your case, you're flying the River Visual. Notice Visual being in the name of the approach. It requires visual contact with the river at all times. In 1/4 mile visibility, low ceilings and snow it is completely impossible to fly this approach real world or sim (which you found out through your 4 crashes obviously). In such conditions the only option you have to get that plane on the runway is an ILS, be it "boring" or not.I can understand that you were looking for a something refreshing and challenging, but I'm afriad you picked an approach that is completely impossible.That said, the River Visual is hard enough to fly in clear skies. I would try flying it at the published minimums for the approach that someone else mentioned above, I beleive 3 miles vis and ceiling 3500 feet. That way you'll be "legal" to fly it, while with the 3 mile vis you still won't be able to see much in front of you down the river. Or, you can try it at night (I have, and it was very intresting).JoeStudent Pilot - 50 hours - KPNE

Hi,I'm currently working on a scenery project of Philadelphia International Airport (KPHL) with a few other people. I'm building the model in GMax which is going well. However, I'm wondering if anyone would like to join us in the project.We need someone with experience in quality texture creation and also in creating ground polys for taxiways etc. Yes, we are "newbies" in regard to scenery design, although I have used GMax in the past, so there are no problems with the models.Anyone intrested can contact me at "wagz0627 @ comcast.net" (take out the spaces) for details.Thanks in advance,Joe Wagner

Oddly enough I set up a windy flight the other day (25 gusts to 35, moderate turb and moderate shear), and the C172 was bobbing up and down just sitting on the runway. Nothing severe though. I'll have to try more.Joe

I'll give that a shot, but I just noticed someone else showing some screen shots of a non textured structure he was testing in the sim. Everything was still very brightly pastel colored as GMax does.EDIT: Nevermind, I've got it fixed, sort of. Apparently the XML file generated had a comment section encompassing the plpacement lines. I'm not completely familiar with XML so I didn;t catch it at first.In any event, the BGL now appears, however the default scenery is still there, so mine is appearing half inside the default. Did I forget something?Joe

Hello,I and a few other people are currently working on a KPHL scenery for FS9. I'm working on the main terminal strcuture now in GMax. I decided to compile the current model (no textures yet) and test it in sim.I exported the mdl file, opened the XML file and placed the coords of the structure. For the record they are N39

Here's an idea:Did you try testing the system out in a more "normal" situation? Every system in existance will struggle with 3D thunderstorms, 100% AI, high detail VCs and high detail scenery areas all thrown at it simaltaneously. You may be expecting too much. All of that is one killer workload on the system.Try a test in fair weather, with perhaps a slightly less detailed aircraft. I don't know if your old system is still hooked up, but if you could compare the same flight/aircarft against both systems, then I am tempted to think you'll see a good increase in performnace. I recently upgraded as well from a Athlon 1900+/768 MG Ram/Ti440 128MB to a Athlon 3200+ 64bit/1 Gig RAM(PC3200)/5700LE 256 MB. I'm running the sim at 1280 X 960 with 4X AA and AF (There's really no point in high res and high AA, one or the other will work well enough) and fps are generally in the 20s (locked at 24) in fair skies with most any aircraft. 100% AI at most airports won't bring me down to less than 10 fps. However, overcast cumulus clouds will bring me crashing down to 6 fps, which is the same as my old system. I haven't tried Thunderstorms out yet, but I'm sure they'll be just as bad. It seems then Cumulus/T-Storm clouds are the biggest killers. Overcast stratus clouds aren't that bad though.So, in conclusion: Clouds are the biggest killers (in my opinion). The new system should let you run most everything else with better performance however.Joe Wagner

While there is no GPS on Eric's panel, you should get the green line for your filed flight plan on the HSI. His panel can also optionally display Airports, VORs, NDBs etc as purple dots on the display. The right hand knob of the two I mentioned before changes the range on the display, from 10 up to 80 nm I think. Pretty much does the same thing as the default GPS without the performance hit.As for Ken's panel, I haven't used it, but I see he has the same two knobs I mentioned on Eric's panel. I don't know if they do anything or not, but you may have to also switch the left kbob to "LS" for the ILS to display. The same applies on PMDG's 737NG panels: If you switch to VOR mode with an ILS tuned a message appears stating that this is not an active VOR signal. Joe

Actually that circle button will switch the HDG to CRS and vice versa. To track the GPS flight plan, right click the HDG Knob (the equivelant of pulling it out, as opposed to pushing it). The HDG display will change to dashes and the aircraft will track the flight plan.As for the descent speed issue, at light weights these suckers will accelerate on descent. Leave the VS at somewhere around -2000 to -2500 fpm. You'll have to deploy the spoilers to some extent during the descent. I was on a BA A319 heading in to ZRH last summer and we had the spoilers deployed until we were on final for runway 14. In fact they kept the spoilers open until the flaps were set to the second notch. It was a fun ride :).EDIT: Oh, and if you can't display the ILS on the HSI, look for the two knobs above the HSI. Switch the Left hand knob to "LS" (Landing System).Joe Wagner

Yep.When the patch/upgrade/bugfix or whatever was announced for FS9, they said in that announcement that the next version of FS would be announced in something like 6 to 10 months time. If my brain is still functioning, that was late August (I think). 6 to 10 months from say Sept 1 is somewhere between March 1 and July 1 2005, which would be roughly on "schedule" with how past releases have been announced and released.

This sounds like your joystick/yoke/other control device is malfunctioning big time. It sounds like a severe case of noise in the cable, sending erroneous commands to the sim. If the flight controls of the aircraft are not affected, it could be a number of bad buttons on the stick (hat switch sending of commands to cycle views, button for flaps repeatedly sending command etc).There's nothing in the panel that could cause anything remotely similar to this. Further proof that your control device is at fault is that you mention the problem continues when you switch to a differant aircraft (I'm assuming one that doesn't use Eric's panel).Joe Wagner

I've had this same problem as well. Load up the real world weather for the airport two miles from my house. Everything is good, nice sunny day in the sim, and also outside my window. After once or twice around the pattern a very low visibility fog appears out of nowhere, sometimes enough so for the default ATC to deny me clearance because the airport is now IFR. I've stopped using real world weather a lot because of this. Unfortunately it hasn't happened to me enough to generate any theories as to why it happens.Joe Wagner

Privat Air are actually opperating both on differant flights on behalf of Lufthansa. The 737-700 is actually the Boeing BBJ, which has additional fuel tanks and seats some 40 or so in an all business class configuration. The A319 is actually the Airbus Corporate Jet or ACJ, also with additional fuel tanks and an all business class config.Airbus will soon also be operating flights with the ACJ between CDG and some African destinations.Joe Wagner

I've seen this happen before occasionally with Win XP. It usually occurs when you shut down a program. Visually the program is no longer running, but checking with the Task manager will show the main exe still running at 100% CPU power indefinately. I've seen it occur to FS9 after closing the program, but also with other games as well. I don't recall ever seeing it happen while the program was running, but either way it's odd behavior that shouldn't be happening.Joe Wagner

Imtrestingly enough I'm looking at getting a new system as well and I did look at Cyber Power Systems. Indeed they were hundreds cheaper than a couple other manufacturers I looked at. On the video card issue, what would you recommend, outside the FX5900 Ultra 256 MB, since that will add a good $200 to my pricetag. Is the 5900 Ultra 128 MB any good (I would assume its the same, just with less onboard memeory)? Also, I'm a diehard NVidia supporter, so ATIs are out of the question for me.ThanksJoe Wagner

Maybe you can't edit existing NAV Data, but I just installed the file mentioned a few posts up, and now there be NAT waypoints! No more manually editing pln files to add in the NAT waypoints.Joe Wagner

Well, I'm glad to see others at least saw the bumps. Whether a particular aircraft crashes or not on the bumps is not my concern. There shouldn't be bumps in the middle of what is supposed to be a smooth surface in the first place. The aircraft that I have to found to crash most is the POSKY A330. Now I'm not saying there is any flaw with their FDE; from the ammount of jostling I watch this particular aircraft do, the real thing would probably snap its nose gear as well if it hit bumps of this magnitude. I tried capturing a video clip of my experiences with a POSKY A330 at KBOS once, but even a short 6 or 8 second clip came out being like 6 MB. I couldn't find any way to compress the file size any.My ultimate point is, whether I snap nose gear or just smoke tires over the bumps, there shouldn't be any in the first place. I don't find it realistic to watch my aircraft bouncing along a "smooth" surface. I also don't want to have to turn off crash detection just so I can use the sim at all. MS certainly did something wrong if I have to make compromises to get basic use out of the software.You can probably tell I'm starting to get fed up with these scenery holes everywhere. They've been bugging me since day one.Joe Wagner

Hye JimBob,The reason I mentioned PHL is because I'm from Philly too :). Therefore, I stick around PHL and PNE a lot. I actually live 2 miles from PNE, and am a student pilot there as well. Good thing there's none of those "holes" on the real life runways at PNE, as I wouldn't want to hit one in the middle of my takeoff run.

While almost all aircraft exhibit this bouncing behavior when switching to exterior views, there is also bouncing caused by scenery "holes" at specific locations in airports. In that, I mean that I can taxi down the same stretch of taxiway or runway and hit these "holes" at the same place each and every time. Speed is irrelevant - the aircraft bounces whether rolling at 2 kts or 140 kts.For those that haven't experienced any of this yet, take a plane, any plane. I've hit these holes with every aircraft, default or otherwise. Go to KPNE (Northeast Philadelphia) and start off on runway 24. Begin your roll down the runway, any speed is fine. Taxi or start an actual takeoff, it should work either way. By the time you get halfway down the runway you should hit some bounces. I beleive there is a second set of them if you continue further down as well.You could also try KPHL (Pilly Int'l) on either runway 27L or 27R. Roll down the runway for a ways and you should hit some bumps halfway down. I beleive the 27R bumps are a bit more than halfway down. In this case, I have experienced the holes with the default airport, and also after installing SimFlyers KPHL. After Simflyers, the holes were still there in the same place as before. Also, Simflyers does install a flatten switch to the scenery.cfg.If anyone lese tries the locatiosn and doesn't hit anything, then something else is at play here that doesn't affect everyone.Joe Wagner

Hello all,Being a private pilot in training, I find it amazing how well FS9 has replicated haze, visibility and the overall environment. However, when one sets visibility in FS9 to 10 miles (or less), the sky ceases to be blue and turns an overcast looking gray. This really bugs me, as when visibility is 10 miles (or sometimes in the summer around here 5 miles) the sky is still blue. A more gray tone only appears closer to the horizon and obscures distant objects. As a matter of fact, I was flying yesterday (in the real world of course) and visibility was maybe 7 miles. Yet, it was still a bright blue sunny day.I attached a screenshot of visibility at 10 miles over KSEA. Also, its like this in all of the sky "color themes" that change from day to day. Also, the weather in this shot is few clouds (2/8 coverage).http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/64050.jpgMy question is this: is it possible to alter this affect. Could it be altered via one of the sky_xxx.bmp in the texture folder? If so, which one? Thanks in advance.Joe Wagner

Those "scenery holes" are everywhere. Default airports, 3rd party airports. Flatten switches have absolutely no effect on them. As a matter of fact, at least half of all default airports I've encountered have these "holes". I've had to turn off crashes in the realism settings. Breaking a nose gear on your takeoff roll isn't my idea of fun.I posted a similar thread a while back, particularly concerning the excellent freeware KBOS scenery which also has them. Just wait until DarkMoment sees this thread... hes convinced they're actually moles that keep popping out of our runways and getting squashed :).Anyway, they affect all aircraft. I haven't been able to find any cause for them, they just exist in random places all over the planet. That "dancing" thing aircraft do always occurs when you switch to an exterior view of the plane (tower or spot view). It is quite fun to watch sometimes.With all these bouncing planes, makes you wonder what MS was thinking when they designed this one. I can't beleive nobody would have noticed all this stuff during beta testing. It happens to me on just about every flight.Joe Wagner