robert young

Hi Ray, The Bonanza mod is a little out of date now and needs some sprucing up especially with the NXi G1000 and other things. At the moment I am very close to finishing a DA62 makeover/flight model mod but if health allows I'll also revisit the Turbo bonanza if there's time, though as pointed out there are now other pay/free versions around. Hope you are well, Robert

Whatever ATC system used, for me it is above all the quality and believability of the voices that counts. Many people knocked the old FSX ATC system but apart from a few syntax and procedural errors it still has the most believable voices. Such things are not that difficult to program but they take a lot of time and patience and you need to hire people with totally authentic voices who understand how to talk in ATC lingo, or you need an AI system that understands the same. It's not just the syntax either, it is also getting the most natural sounding (and suitably lo fi) inflexions, cadences and flow that is important. I've heard a bit of Beyond ATC and to me the voices are still a bit too deadpan and lacking natural cadence. You can spot it a mile off. I still haven't seen in all these many years a single ATC program that demonstrates developers understand and can implement natural sounding voices. I don't think it is that difficult but it requires a lot of care and very long hours of testing.

I think I might have an answer to this oddity. I kept an eye on the (animated) rudder pedals in some GA aircraft. Every now and then they wiggled from side to side, as though my actual yaw controller was vibrating all by itself. After re-calibrating it didn't make much difference. It still occasionally went wild. I'm going to reset the controller in MSFS each time I fly and see what happens. So it is probably not turbulence at all but either something wrong with my rudders/stick yaw controllers, or somehow MSFS is commanding controller wriggles occasionally. If you get what appears to be sudden turbulence even when it is set low, check your rudder pedals in the sim to make sure they are not moving or vibrating by themselves.

Thanks!

Yes.

Thanks for confirming I wasn't going bonkers. It happened again today, for one flight. I then tried another flight and it was gone. Very strange.

Well maybe it is not just me imagining it. I seem to get it in certain areas but not others.

Thanks. Well it could be a one-off, because after closing the sim down then re-starting it's now back to normal. So maybe it's my end. If no-one else reports it over the next 24hours I'll delete the post.

Is it just me? Since the small update yesterday I'm getting a lot of turbulence with the "Low" setting which used to be virtually zero. In any GA aircraft I'm not only getting quite extreme turbulence but I get it when weather is set to zero clouds and wind, at any time of day, over a completely flat scenery, and also some very wild yawing on the ground as though there were extreme gusts. Before I start ranting 🙂 I want to check whether this is somehow just my end, or do others experience the same thing?

Thanks Ryan. Sorry to hear of your father's illness.

Thanks!

Thanks Christopher.

Thank you!

I did not "give up" as your statement says. I have stage 4 cancer and if health ever allows again I would be there seeking to improve things.

Yes Bert. Yaw inertia (MOI) values in yaw tend to need much higher values than either pitch or roll, but you have to be careful not to overdo it as then steering on the ground can become more sluggish to respond so as always it is a compromise between the two.

Hi Bert, I have PM'd you with the mod to test. For general use in taming the weather vaning and exaggerated crosswind effect on the ground there are a number of parameters that can be adjusted. Under the FLIGHT_TUNING section of a given flight_model.cfg file are new parameters which add resistance to tire grip on the runway and also damping the tendency to over-react to cross winds. The examples below probably need to be re-adjusted depending on the size and weight of each individual aircraft but the example below seems to work well with small GA aircraft, but of course there will be room for improvement for each individual aircraft model: ground_crosswind_effect_max_speed = 200 ; feet per second, default is 80 ground_crosswind_effect_zero_speed = 1 ; feet per second, default is 5 ground_high_speed_steeringwheel_static_friction_scalar = 1.3 ground_high_speed_otherwheel_static_friction_scalar = 1.3 Cheers, Robert

My mod fixes the weathervane excess. Would you like to test the mod?

Is there a Just Flight Warrior sim pilot out there who can test the mod? This is the only variant left that hasn't been properly tested. Any takers?

I take it that is a sort of apology?

Thank you Ryan, for taking the trouble to read what I actually said!

Hi Noel, I think you have misread what I wrote. I wasn't referring to Asobo's MSFS 2020. I was referring to DOVETAIL GAMES when I said Dovetail wrongly assumed simmers wanted a prettier version of FSX. I have never, ever said that Asobo were doing such a thing with MSFS 2020. Your knee jerk reaction indicates that you utterly misunderstood my post. I said that DOVETAIL abandoned Flight Sim World because they assumed customers would be satisfied by a slightly updated version of FSX and early sales indicated that their decision was wrong. I NEVER said that MS or Asobo did the same thing with MSFS 2020 which is a fine sim apart from the continuing unfixed basic flaws. Please read my post again and I would be obliged if you could please withdraw your comments. Thank you.

I don't particularly mind if MS announced "Pepper Pig Goes Flying 2024" or "Pokemon Takes To the Skies 2024" provided they hang around long enough to fix all the glaring flaws in the current sim, but I'm not holding my breath. They must know their demographic and market and of course that is uppermost in their minds. However, we have a very good example of Dovetail, whose attempt at joining the market with Flight Sim World fell flat on its face because DT completely under-estimated the sophistication of their potential customers who wanted a lot more than a slightly prettier version of FSX. I can only assume MS are not satisfied with sales projections of MSFS 2020 and want to attract customers other than those interested in details like decent ATC, AI and the cleaning up of existing weaknesses in the current sim, otherwise why would they divert their focus and manpower onto what appears to be a role playing title? Again that doesn't bother me provided they don't abandon a really promising existing sim which just needs more polish to make it outstanding rather than an "almost there" product. While they have given assurances that current and third party products will still work, that doesn't mean they are still committed to sorting out the weather, Ai behaviour and frankly lamentable ATC. But there is still cause for optimism if MS expanded its sdk and coding access so third parties can finish the job for them.

The mainstream media hysteria about AI has reached ridiculous proportions, except that some are rightfully concerned about its impact on collection of mass privacy DATA and the displacement of jobs that require bespoke handling of such data. At the moment the much hyped ChatGTP cannot even compose a convincing simple melody with even simpler harmony, so how it is going to design a convincing Ai aircraft movement algorithm for flight sims like MSFS is a very long way off. Maybe the construction of scripts for better ATC is more promising but the most important thing here is decent voices that are believable. Ai aircraft movements cannot be programmed by artificial intelligence. You need skilled programmers in co-operation with professional flight personnel with a deep understanding of ground and air movements, altitude restrictions and air spaces. As Asobo seems largely to be more interested in expansion of scenery and global landscapes, it doesn't look like it is that interested in knuckling down to create aircraft Ai movements beyond the very simplified methodology currently used. ATC requires at the very least a SUITE of believable voices capable of talking in a believable manner and with a "knowledge" of precise ATC procedures. At the moment ATC in MSFS is way short of that designed for FSX more than a decade ago.

My pm inbox might have been full. I just emptied/deleted a whole lot so I assume this was the problem. Please try again and sorry for the inconvenience.

Sorry about this. I can send messages as far as I know, but I'm not sure why I'm not receiving them. I will investigate. Thanks for your patience.