Jim Robinson

Thanks for the video, nice landing BTW! :smile:

David, there's a v3 compatible version from Flight1 now. v1.12 IIRC and they've all been updated to use the newest v5.13 Garmin trainer: http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=53826&title=gtn-patch-112

Keystone Ice from my observation B) Nice shot Rich are you liking it?

Didn't catch that Ed :blush:

Try deleting it Ryan and then restart the sim and close it again, it should put a new one in there that looks like this: [Entry.0] Title=Default Effects Path=Effects Required=True Active=True

Thanks very much for all the nice comments everyone, it's LM and Carenado that're responsible for the purdy pictures though! :smile: JYW how'd you make out on the Corvallis? Did that trick help at all? I did notice that the mousewheel doesn't do anything on the VC mounted autopilot, you have to actually click (right click increases speed hold setting, left click decreases speed hold setting - I think) @Phil: I swore I wouldn't buy another Carenado until it hit the shelves at FSS after a download fiasco with the Titan. I totally get what you're saying with the patches too, I guess I was overcome, lol. I was suckered in on the Navajo too! I have no discipline, I couldn't even wait till the off-peak to download it! Mitch I watched that Premeir/Eagle Co video and now I'm on a KEGE thing, lol. I gotta go get Orbx KEGE now and try that approach! That's on the agenda for tomorrow, "thanks" right back atcha buddy Guys I can't say I'm wishing I had my money back on this one. Maybe I dunno what I'm lookin' at but I like it. I haven't heard anyone mention the hand flying qualities of the F406 yet but IMHO it's the best yet of the props, that may be heavily influenced by the fact that I just disabled my joystick and assigned all the axes through FSUIPC. Doesn't seem as heavy on the ailerons and doesn't tighten up in the turns as much as the Titan does, maybe that's the result of the Citation style tail. There seems to be some quirkiness with altitude and speed hold values between the Aspen and the autopilot. Maybe they're not meant to coincide at all times but they behave like two independent altitude selectors at times and at other times not. Maybe the one on the Aspen is supposed to be an independent altitude alerter and that's all. I don't feel like I fully understand how it works, I need to fiddle with it more. Anyway I can get everything done I need to with the AP alone for a smooth flight (after some practice) so I'm happy. Gotta go sneak another flight, thanks everyone! :smile:

Thanks for the nice comments folks! :smile: This thing has a FLC type function labeled IAS on the autopilot. It has strange behavior (I'd say "bug" but I haven't ruled out operator error yet, lol) where when you click the IAS button it sets your current IAS as the speed to hold. Well at least that's what the Aspen gizmo shows but the tooltip on the autopilot mounted rocker switch actually reads "IAS 0 kts" until you click or mousewheel it once then it receives the input setting from the Aspen and reads 170 or whatever. What happens is the airplane tries to achieve 0 kts during this glitch phase if you don't know what's going on and pitches the nose up wildly. The trick if you're gonna use IAS is to click the IAS button and then immediately click or mousewheel the rocker switch one way or the other (read the tooltip to get the speed value you want). I'm talking about the 2D autopilot gauge here BTW, I meant to try the panel mounted autopilot and see if it behaves any differently but I got busy on approach to KRDD and forgot. Anyway in IAS mode the AP holds a speed, ie. if you pull the power back slightly the nose drops and the climb/descent rate decreases/increases to maintain the selected speed. It actually works pretty well and then it'll capture whatever altitude you have "armed" in the altitude selector when you finally get there. So two ways to climb/descend, you can either us VS hold or IAS hold. Keep plenty of power on during approach, the engines are the slowest thing on the planet to react so if you let speed bleed off too much the engines will just start producing power about the time you smack into the ground :smile:

Thanks Mitch! :smile:

Few shots of the new "Turbine Titan" Landing at Sun Valley Not really thrilled with either of the supplied US paints so I adapted the F-ZBCS livery, "N406JR", love this paint! Enroute between Jackson Hole and Rock Springs, WY So far I haven't found anything not to like about it. Installs into v3 without any hacks. The autopilot is much more advanced than either the Titan or the Navajo although the altitude/VS selector requires a little getting used to. The Aspen EFD1000 is really pretty advanced, need to spend more time playing with it. Gobs of power, 2000'/min is no problem through 15,000' or so, service ceiling is 30,000' but bring oxygen. With a nice tailwind from ASN I saw 305 kts GS at one point cruising at 24,000'. I haven't flown it much yet but so far I can't even think of anything for a bug list, I think it's as good as the Navajo or better and a heck of a lot sexier. I'll put some hours on this one for sure. Thanks for looking! :smile:

I think it's better than the Titan and I also thought the Titan was great. The autopilot is much more advanced than either the Titan or the Navajo and the Aspen EFD1000 is actually pretty impressive. GTN integration works great without losing critical avionics (we had to give up the DME in the Titan for the GTN). It has an OAT which the Titan was missing. TAS at 20,000'+ is about 240 kts so about 30-40 kts faster. Climb performance is nearly "Turbine Duke-like", lol. Service ceiling is 30,000'. It has a Citation style horizontal stab mounted halfway up the vertical stab which makes it look a little sexier than the Titan. I took a few pics, I'll put some up in the screenshot forum after a bit.

The Carenado F406 Caravan II released yesterday has an option to install in v3.

For some reason mine didn't try to put that in my dll.xml. I've got a CMeteoXml.dll in my root P3D v3 folder though. What does this do? I tried to put it in the dll.xml for the Navajo and the Titan in v3 but yeah, it crashed my sim too. I just removed it and I can't see where either plane is missing anything? Are you talking about ASN radar? Because the little Wx radar on the panel seems to work fine for me without it? Well I don't think it really works but I can't tell any difference with or without CMeteoXml.dll anyway. I did a quick flight from KHIO to KRNT so far before I even installed the GTN and that's all I've had time for. Don't really have an opinion yet but it's a little faster than the Titan so that's a plus. It's definitely not the Turbine Duke though, lol.

FYI the F406 "Turbine Titan" is released and it has an option to install into v3.

Yep that's what I did too and it took all of about 15 seconds, no drips, no runs, no errors. Make sure you import your backed up theme data immediately afterwards so you don't lose your themes! Good show REX and thanks!

Playing around with a hypothetical batch file to config my Bar Harbor scenery, the user selects where to install the scenery, the batch file is included in a "Config" folder alongside the installed Scenery and Texture folders and the installer triggers it to run after copying all the files. This get's the P3D v3 path from the registry and configures the paths in the scenery.cfg and effects.cfg according to the user selected installation folder. @echo off :: determine if the OS is 32 bit or 64 bit and query the appropriate :: registry key. Set the path into the variable "%p3dPath%", note the :: path from the registry will contain a trailing slash so compose :: commands accordingly, %p3dPath%Prepar3D.exe as opposed to %p3dPath%\Prepar3D.exe :: which actually means "Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\\Prepar3D.exe" :: (note the double slashes, in practice they don't seem to :: cause problems though so whatever...) reg query HKLM\Hardware\Description\System\CentralProcessor\0 | find /i "x86" > nul if %errorlevel% == 1 goto systemx64 :systemx86 for /f "tokens=1-2*" %%a in ('REG QUERY "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3" /v SetupPath ^| find "REG_SZ"') do set p3dPath=%%c goto check_path :systemx64 for /f "tokens=1-2*" %%a in ('REG QUERY "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3" /v SetupPath ^| find "REG_SZ"') do set p3dPath=%%c :: make sure Prepare3D.exe exists at the path found else abort :check_path if not exist "%p3dPath%Prepar3D.exe" goto abort :: make backups of the existing scenery.cfg and effects.cfg but :: only if the backup files don't already exist (don't overwrite :: the initial backup if setup_KBHB.bat gets run more than once) if not exist "%programdata%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\backup_scenery.cfg.kbhb" >nul copy "%programdata%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\scenery.cfg" "%programdata%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\backup_scenery.cfg.kbhb" if not exist "%programdata%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\backup_effects.cfg.kbhb" >nul copy "%programdata%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\effects.cfg" "%programdata%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\backup_effects.cfg.kbhb" :: Add the two areas to the scenery.cfg. I want the landclass :: beneath the scenery in the scenery library so adding that first :: :: I want the user to be able to choose where he/she installs the :: scenery and that will determine which directory the batch file :: runs from as well as Local= in the scenery.cfg so I use %CD% :: (current directory) in the Path= option. First cd up two :: levels to get out of the KBHB Bar Harbor\Config folder cd ..\..\ "%p3dPath%Prepar3D.exe" "-Configure: File=Scenery, Operation=Add, Path=%cd%\KBHB_Landclass, Title=KBHB_Landclass, Required=False, Active=True" "%p3dPath%Prepar3D.exe" "-Configure: File=Scenery, Operation=Add, Path=%cd%\KBHB Bar Harbor, Title=KBHB Bar Harbor, Required=False, Active=True" :: Add the KBHB effects folder to the effects.cfg "%p3dPath%Prepar3D.exe" "-Configure: File=Effects, Operation=Add, Path=%cd%\KBHB Bar Harbor\effects, Title=KBHB Effects, Required=False, Active=True" :: and when support for editing the terrain.cfg is eventually added I suspect the command might look something like this ::"%p3dPath%Prepar3D.exe" "-Configure: File=Terrain, Operation=Add, AppendFile=KBHB Bar Harbor\Config\terrain_cfg_KBHB_Shorelines.txt" :: report success for 5 seconds and get out before the user sees the abort screen cls echo. echo. echo Bar Harbor has been successfully installed! echo Start Prepar3D, go to airport: KBHB and enjoy! >nul timeout /t 5 exit :abort cls echo. echo. echo There was a problem finding Prepar3D in your registry. Running one of the echo commonly available registry repair tools may fix the problem. echo. echo Press a key to abort now... >nul pause exit Here's the result in the scenery.cfg, "the user" selected to install the scenery into "D:\P3Dv3 Addon Content\Addon Scenery" in this case: [Area.161] Title=KBHB_Landclass Local=D:\P3Dv3 Addon Content\Addon Scenery\KBHB_Landclass Layer=161 Active=TRUE Required=FALSE [Area.162] Title=KBHB Bar Harbor Local=D:\P3Dv3 Addon Content\Addon Scenery\KBHB Bar Harbor Layer=162 Active=TRUE Required=FALSE ...and the effects.cfg: [Entry.0] PATH=D:\P3Dv3 Addon Content\Addon Scenery\KBHB Bar Harbor\effects TITLE=KBHB Effects ACTIVE=true REQUIRED=true [Entry.1] PATH=D:\P3Dv3 Addon Content\Effects TITLE=SimObject Effects ACTIVE=true REQUIRED=true [Entry.2] PATH=Effects TITLE=Default Effects ACTIVE=true REQUIRED=true Jim

I'm sure the only difference is the v3 compatible installer. Mesh is mesh basically since the FSX SDK came out and nothing's changed with mesh through any iteration of P3D that I'm aware of. If it were me I'd paw through some folders and find where you installed it initially, when you find it just add it to the scenery library in v3 and you're good to go without flushing another 22 Gb of disk space for a redundant installation.

I don't have all that stuff but I saved up a nasty flight with the Carenado Navajo from Renton, WA over the top of KSEA at 2000' MSL, up to the Space Needle and then over to WA05 Apex Airpark. FTX PNW is installed and NA active in FTX Central. I saved ASN weather along with the flight initially but didn't run ASN for the actual test. Heavy overcast conditions and I have all my sliders/shadows/stuff adjusted to "ridiculous", identical settings for each test. I think I'm even getting double freeway traffic from UTX v2 and PNW combined, need to investigate that further but left it as is for the tests. For all intents and purposes "unflyable" for anything other than testing, lol. No AM in the .cfg either time. First test from a cold boot with HT on FSUIPC.log says: Reboot with HT off: ...so I didn't notice much difference in FPS but if "Minimum available memory recorded" is the same as "closest I came to an OOM" then it looks like HT off may have helped somewhat. i7 2600K @ 4.4, GTX770 4Gb, 8Gb DDR3@1866mHz Jim

The only thing I've held off installing due to "lack of dedicated v3 installer" is FTX SoCal, lol.

It does seem to take forever in v3 dunnit?

Check your Prepare3d.cfg for: [sTARTUP] LoadWindow=1 (near the end of the file) I tried LoadWindow=0 thinking it was the setting to show the startup window or not and I had the same black screen issue you describe.

I think it might have been in the old popcorn clouds thread. What happened was LM made an error in cloud.fx at v2.3 with GetScreenQuadPositions(quad, width*1.0, height*1.0); so I believe it was Beau Hollis that posted this hotfix where you change that to GetScreenQuadPositions(quad, width*0.5, height*0.5); What you need to do is open Prepar3D v3\ShadersHLSL\Cloud.fx in Notepad or Notepad++ and go to line #315, by default you'll see GetScreenQuadPositions(quad, width*0.5, height*0.5); so you just scale the clouds by changing 0.5 to 0.65 (or whatever you prefer up to 1.0 but try 0.65 first). Note if you search Cloud.fx for "GetScreenQuadPositions" this will be the 2nd occurrence, leave the first one alone. At that point you can either simply save the file (make a backup first in that case) or preferably do "save as" and save the modified version in an external ShadersHLSL folder. Then open ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\shadersHLSL.cfg in Notepad and add your external folder above the default folder like this: [Entry.0] Title=Tweaked Shaders Path=D:\P3Dv3 Addon Content\ShadersHLSL Required=True Active=True [Entry.1] Title=Default Shaders Path=ShadersHLSL Required=True Active=True Make sure the Path= in [Entry.0] is correct for your own situation. With this "compliant" method you can just delete the shadersHLSL.cfg to revert if you don't like it, the sim will generate a new default shadersHLSL.cfg the next time you start the sim. The problem with this tweak is that there's a certain point in cloud coverage density where your frames will tank badly, the larger the multiplier you choose in clouds.fx the more susceptible to "frame tanking" you'll be. When ASN sends Wx updates to the sim they don't remove the previously depicted clouds immediately which keeps clouds from popping in and out of view, and for a while you'll have double clouds, that's when you'll most likely see the frames plummet, it depends on the cloud depiction, if ASN is depicting fair weather with few clouds you probably won't notice any difference at all, in heavy overcast it can ruin your flight though so you sorta need to apply the tweak when you're expecting fair weather and un-apply it if you're planning to fly in heavy cloud cover. That's easy to do in the shadersHLSL.cfg just by setting Active=False on the external ShadersHLSL folder [Entry.0]. Also note with the scaled clouds your ceilings and tops may not coincide with what your Wx program is trying to depict, larger multipliers in cloud.fx will exacerbate this discrepancy. Just don't start a thread at HiFi telling them their cloud ceilings aren't accurate because the problem isn't with them, it's the tweaked cloud.fx that's causing the inaccuracy, lol. Jim

The GetScreenQuadPositions(quad, width*0.65, height*0.65); tweak still works in v3 (at a cost in some cloud conditions of course), and now you can set up an external ShadersHLSL folder for your tweaked shaders and link 'em via the shadersHLSL.cfg leaving the default shaders intact. LMAO @ Phil, yup...

It replaces textures so the only additional files size there would be the difference between normal sized textures and HD textures so maybe 10 Mb at the most. It also sets up a folder in Orbx\Scripts though so when you select "Trees HD" in FTX Central 2 it has textures to copy depending on the region and this folder is 215 Mb on my system. I'd guess 250 Mb of free space per sim should do it. Jim

No Idea on the installers but if you've got them installed in v2.5 just link the other sim's Scenery\Global\Texture folder in the texture.cfg above the default, and add the other sim's Scenery\Global folder in the scenery library just above the default Scenery\Global area.

Let's just say ShowInfoText=0 in the Prepar3D.cfg hides everything (but alas, Shift+Z as well)