MillKa

My guess would be a DHC-2 Beaver. Check the spa.bin files in the Games For Windows Live - Addons folder. There are several planes mentioned: - Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero (released April 4) - P-40 (released April 26) - F4U Corsair (released May 31) - DHC-2 Beaver - Carbon Cub (released July 25) I think, that means that a Beaver has been on the DLC list.

I already updated my controls during the program update, so I cant test my idea ... Change something in your control configuration, save it, then change it back. That should rewrite the controls configuration. Maybe then Flight stops to ask, since the configuration is newer. You might want to backup your control configuration file. Its called standard.xml. On Win XP its found in: c:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Flight\Players\SomeHexadecimalNumbers\Career\Controls\ If you know how to edit XML files (its not rocket science, especially with an editor that understands XML), it might be smarter to backup your old file, then accept the update, then copy your custom settings using an XML editor.

Just an idea I havent tried so far ... Is it possible to fly clandestine missions in multiplayer mode ? Can another player crash into to the cops plane ?

Well, here it works .. Windows XP Professional SP3 NVidia Geforce GTX 560 Ti (Asus) NVidia driver v296.10 Main monitor: 1920 x 1080 Second monitor: 1280 x 1024 The position of the second monitor on the common virtual desktop is to the left of the first main monitor. Because of that, the horizontal coordinates of the second monitor on the desktop are negative. I have noticed, that a few other applications got confused, when the second monitor was on the right side. These applications seem to ignore the second monitor, when its on the left (because of negative coordinates).

Check this link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc707102 It explains how the scenery system works for FSX. The scenery system for MS Flight is newer, but similar.

You can collect the AC without flying THROUGH the keyhole .. Nice pics, btw.

I just collected 4 of them. Red/White tower and Waimea bridge did not show up for me, but i know i collected them earlier. None of them is listed on the aerocache website, so they all might be previous daily caches. Either its a bug, or all yet uncollected previous daily caches are still collectable, just without the circle range hint thingy via ac hunt ? Would be great to have a list of all previous daily caches ...

It would be nice, if the already expired Aerocaches Of The Day (already found or not yet found) were available in the normal Aerocache list, maybe under their own category "Previous Aerocaches Of The Day". So those of us, who cant fly every day, could collect them later.

>I found a line in the Ivap add on entries, which reads:>>>>which did not look right. I checked on the IVAO forums and>found details in other members' posts, which shows this line>as:>> >>Should I correct it?>Hi,the two lines are equivalent. The second form is the standard form of an empty xml element:- the tag opens the commandline element- the tag closes the commandline elementIf the element were not empty, its content would have to appear between these two tags, e.g.- C:foo -barHowever, if the element has no content between its two corresponding tags, it can be abbreviated by "tag blank slash", e.g.-

...>------------------------------------------------>01: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?>>02: >03: >04: Launch>05: dll.xml>06: True>07: False>08: >09: FSUIPC 4>10: False>11: ModulesFSUIPC4.dll>12: >13: >------------------------------------------------...Hi FalconAF,the syntax looks correct.In line 10, FSUIPC is turned on.However, in line 06, dll.xml as a whole is turned OFF, so the whole file will be ignored and no modules will be loaded.Change that line 06 to: False

>Anyone know what has happened to the ADE website? Hasn't been>there for several days...Thanks,>>Steve in Kansaslooks like some hoster problem ..check this thread for the latest info: http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11576

dazza answered:>Your incredibly naive and gullible.Thank you so match for your kind words :)>Have you not even tried Crysis and flown the planes and>helicopters?Unfortunately I have never "flown" Crysis or MineSweeper or Excel or whatever. My only flying experience consists of real aircraft in real air plus every GA flight sim since the ancient days of Sublogic. However, some government dude signed my pilot license anyway. >This is a video of the spitfire in Crysis. As you can see the>graphics are amazing and embarrass Microsoft developers. > Thanks for the video. However the spitfire feels a bit slow or was crytek running at half speed ? I also watched a bunch of those other crytek videos at youtube. However, none of them showed what I was looking for:- a plane at an altitude higher than the sourrounding mountains, so that i can look beyond them- a line of horizon over non-flat landmass further away than 8-9 km- any other proof that crytek goes beyond their own specificationWould you please give me some links to screenshots or videos of that kind, e.g. at altitudes of 1.000/10.000/30.000 ft ?>They know what Microsoft do not: How to write cutting edge>scaleable software. Crytek has an excellent engine for their genre of games. And they know what limitations their engine has. And they are honest about it in their specification. Even if MS buys Crytek, 1 + 1 would still be 2, not 3. Every combination of CPU/GPU has its uppper limit of X million triangles per second. Crytek knows that, and thats why they put that limit in their engine.I am still waiting for your ideas and suggestions for improvement of the MSFS engine. Kind regards, Martin

>Why would I want to fly a plane through a bunch of trees?>>Jim>Sshhh, dont tell anyone, but thats the magic dx10 screenie of cryteks upcoming bird simulator ..SCNR ;-P

Dear dazza,> .. They should outsource this to Crytek .. Here's just one little nasty fact to burst that dream bubble:Quote from http://www.crytek.com/technology/cryengine-2/specifications/ :"This feature allows optimal usage of CPU and memory to display closer objects and terrain at a fine level of detail while enabling long view distances of over 8 kilometers."So how much is 'over 8 kilometers' ? Well it's not over 9 kilometers, otherwise they would say so. Maybe it is 8192 (= 2^13) meters.So what should a CryEngine2 based FS 11 should draw beyond 9 km ? 100 % opaque haze ? A brickwall ? Nothing (black emptyness) ? Or a huge banner "stay tuned for CryEngine v3 in 201x" ?I you have some elaborated brilliant ideas how to improve the FS engine, lets hear and discuss them.Or, to get filthy rich and famous, grab the sources of FlightGear ( http://www.flightgear.org/ ), implement them yourself and show MS Aces how it should be done ..However, remember that Phil Taylor spent several years at ATI and in the DirectX team. It might get pretty hard to show him a trick he doesnt already know.Kind regards, Martin

> .. installing XP on the same drive as Vista .. First, a disclaimer: Using more than one OS is dangerous. Just forget one critical step and you might mess up your system, so that you have to install everything from scratch !Backup your whole system before messing around like that ..If something goes wrong, my answer will be to start from scratch and use your backups ..Be prepared to start from scratch several times until everything works !Still here ? OK, my PC has two drives. Disk 1 boots XP, Vista and Win2K. Disk 2 boots XP64, Linux, and i could still add two other Windows OS, e.g. Win2008 Server or whatever. Disk 1 is partitioned like this:- BootUS boot manager in the MBR (Master Boot Record) of disk 1- XP in first primary partition- Vista in second primary partition- Win 2K in third primary partition- an extended partition containing just one shared logical partitionDisk 2 is partitioned like this- XP64 in first primary partition- empty second and third primary partition for two other OS- an extended partition containing several logical partitionsThat extended partition on disk 2 contains:- a shared logocal partition- three logical linux partions (swap, boot, root).Using the BootUs boot manager, i can select XP, XP64, Vista, Win2K or Linux.The easiest way to install an additional OS is using a VM (virtual machine) by using MS Virtual PC, VmWare Workstation or something similar. Problem: You cant run FSX or any other DirectX 3D accelerated stuff inside the VM, cause the VM emulates some really ancient GPU from last millenium ..As Reggie already said, the next best option is to install XP first, then Vista. Each OS needs its own partition, so you have to partition the disk using PartitionMagic or something similar. When you install the second OS (Vista), it will be added to the boot menu of the first OS (XP). Problems: Now the 2nd OS depends on the 1st. You cant delete XP without destroying Vista, because they share the boot.ini file in the XP partition.As Reggie said, you cant install Vista first and then XP, if you want to use the official MS OS selection mechanism (boot.ini).On my previous PC i had several OS installed, each independent from each other. I used the XFDisk boot manager ( http://www.mecronome.de/xfdisk/ ) for that. XFDisk can only boot from disk 1. To boot from more than one disk, i use the BootUs boot manager ( http://www.boot-us.com/ ). Read its manual and check the support section on that site for lots of info about using several OS ..Make sure that you understand:- primary partitions- extended partitions- logical partitions- partition types- how to resize and move partitions- how to activate partitions- how to hide partitions (during OS installation)- how to remap partition letters- how to remap physical disks numbers during booting- how to install a boot manager without using a partition- all MS OS need a primary boot partition on the first disk- when installing an OS, hide the partitions of all other OSThere are several limitations, mostly for historical reasons ..Still want to try a multi OS installation ?For some recommendation i need to know:- list of OSs to install (XP and Vista ?)- which OSs need DirectX 3D (both ?)- why not XP + Vista with shared boot.ini (the offical MS way)Martin

Hi Phil,i am working on a map / flight planner application, so i need all navigation data and whatever else makes sense on a map.This is the bgl data that i need and that i am able to read:- waypoints / intersections, V/J routes, approaches, transitions- radio nav aids: ndb, vor, dme, loc, gs, im/mm/om, com- airports, runways, taxiways, names- airspace structure, geopolitical boundariesThis is the data i am not yet able to read:- raster data: dem, landclass, ...- vector data: roads, railways, ...It would be great if future versions of the FS/ESP SDK would document the binary formats.Martin

Hi Mike,to give a somewhat solid advice, i need to know more about the original problem you are trying to solve.Here are two extreme cases of original problems to illustrate the possible solutions ..Problem A) Near some big airport, a new 1100 ft skyscraper is being built very close to waypoint Delta. Because of that, the published approach to runway X has to be changed. Your boss has invented a new one that is pretty much the same as the old one except for these minor adjustments:- Altitude at waypoint Alpha was and will be 2000 ft.- Altitude at waypoint Delta was 1000 ft but will be 1500 ft.- Altitude at waypoint Gamma was and will be 500 ft.Which means from Alpha to Delta the aircraft will have to sink slower than before, but from Delta to Gamma it will have to sink faster than before.Your job is to do a first check if that new approach looks ok or not, and so you want to look at it in FSX, and you want to try if it is possible to fly that new approach.So you create some custom scenery addon with the new skyscraper.Next, you define a flight plan in FSX that follows the waypoints of the new approach. Then you fly it in a C172 and a B747. In FSX, both have GPS and autopilot, so they can follow the track, but you have to set altitude and sink rate on the autopilot manually. Or you could write a little SimConect program that monitors position and sets altitude and sink rate on the autopilot. Or you could get some addon aircraft (e.g. from LevelD or others) that has a FMC/FMS with VNAV management.Then you could play with the weather settings in FSX to give all kinds of bad conditions and see what happens ..To the professionals: No, i dont think that ARINC 42x conforming approaches should be developed this way .. The important point in this example is, that the real world data is very loosely coupled to the simulation. We have a very small number of real world data samples (just the 3 waypoints and altitude) with lots of time between (minutes). FSX "connects the dots" using its own idea of weather and aerodynamics and cockpit systems simulation. The multimillion dollar simulators from Boing and others are most likely somewhat more precise.Problem :( After some soaring plane championship you get the pilots flight recordings and you have to check if someone has cheated by editing the recorded data. The recorded data looks like this:one sample every 10 seconds, consisting of latitude, longitude and altitude. Each sample is one line in a text file. You write a SimConnect program that reads the recorded data and sends one sample every 10 seconds to FSX. On each received sample, FSX sets the aircrafts position accordingly and lets the FSX engine run. With a locked frame rate of 20 fps, FSX will have calculated and drawn 200 frames until the next sample comes in. Most likely the simulated aircraft position, orientation and speed in FSX after these 200 frames will differ slightly from the next real world data sample. For example, in FSX the left wing touched a thermal with 3 fpm uplift, but in the real flight the right wing touched a 7 fpm thermal uplift. So in FSX the aircraft will do a small jump every 10 seconds to resync with the recorded data. It depends on your original problem, whether these small jumps just look funny but are tolerable or not. For example if you see a sudden huge jump instead of lots of tiny jumps, the recorded data smells like cheating ..In this example the simulation is coupled very tightly to the recorded data (lots of samples) with small time steps.Each problem comes with its own can of worms ..Thats why i need to know more about your original problem.What real world data is recorded ?- position (lat, lon, alt)- aircraft orientation (pitch, roll, yaw angles)- speed (amount and direction), momentum (1st derivation)- sample rate- small plane or big iron- what else ..What is important about the resulting simulated flight ?- view from outside- view from cockpit to outside- displayed values on cockpit instruments- preformance data (time enroute, fuel consumption, derivation from planned track/altitude, ...)- what simulation errors are tolerable- what errors are not tolerable- what else ..Martin

Hi Mike,>3. MOST IMPORTANT... I would like the ability to be able to>take a set of data of a (real) aircraft flight and import it>into FSX and make the FSX aircraft fly the flight.With SimConnect (part of the SDK) you can read all kinds of data from FSX and as well feed data like position, speed, direction, and much more into FSX. However, you cant change physics, e.g. you cant fly the Cessna 172 at Mach 2 - but you could use slew mode.What exactly do you have in mind ?Martin

>Ah Yes, "gray areas". I see you as carefully straddling the>"gray area demarcation line", but not over it. You choose your>line most carefully, and in that sense you are a true "Open>Source Hero". Umm, maybe someone from MS Aces Team (guess who i'm thinking about ..) could talk someone from MS VirtualEarth Team into some kind of special permission to use FSX/FS11 as an alternate browser for VirtualEarth ? ...For example, if TileProxy would read a flight plan defined in FSX to preload stuff it would still be some kind of interactive access ?There must be some FS addicts in the VirtualEarth Team ..Martin

> In the cases I'm seeing, it is not only things like mesh or > landclass being loaded but individual scenery items...buses, > tires, >papi, etc.MS Aces uses certain conventions what they put in what bgl files (e.g. airports in APX at QMID 7, navaids in ATX at QMID 4, vector data in CVX at QMID 7, ...). I am sure these conventions are fine tuned to the FSX engine for optimal performance and minimal memory footprint.However the BGL compiler does not enforce these conventions. A somewhat clueless scenery author can throw all kind of unrelated stuff in the same bgl file. A smart scsnery author would analyze the standard scenery to learn the conventions and follow them.And then: what was ok in FS9 might be bad in FSX ..So just recompiling unchanged sources of an FS9 scenery with FSX SDK will give a working (error free) FSX scenery, but at bad performance.> And the mysterious part is that the associated textures are> never accessed.Well, textures are only needed when the thing becomes visible to the eye. Position info might be needed much earlier, e.g. when the GPS can see it ..Martin

Hi Paul,>Also, I'm not entirely certain that the 'out of area' BGL loading is restricted to addon scenery. It depends on the bgl files content, e.g. the six bgl files containing geopolitical boundaries each cover 90 degrees latitude and 120 degrees longitude (QMID 2). On the other hand, APX*.bgl files (which contain airports) cover an area of only 3x3 degrees (QMID 7). ATX*.bgl contain navigation aids information and cover an area of 22x22 degrees (QMID 4). As far as I understand, each bgl file can have its own QMID level setting in the header, even wrong ones .. ;-P>So, in the discussions here, can one safely assume that "tile" refers to the QMID level 4 size?Nope, see above. However I think Phil referred to QMID 7, but i am just guessing ..It doesnt make sense to load all airport buildings of KSFO when youre sitting at KJFK. However it makes sense to load the waypoints / intersections and victor / jet airways between KJFK and KSFO ..The internal structure of each bgl file is organized like an directory. So if FSX accesses a bgl file, it might load it as a whole or just some small subset of interesting parts, e.g. when sitting at KJFK, FSK might load the bgl containing KJFK as a whole (to get all runways, taxi ways, parking spots, buildings, and whatever ...). When FSX loads the bgl file with KSFO (while still sitting at KJFK), it might extract only the ARP coordinates of KSFO and maybe the approach and transition info, and leave the rest for later when you get closer. Filemon doesnt tell you what exactly FSX reads from those files, just that FSX opened it.The standard scenery is about 12 GB, so FSX simply cannot keep it all in memory, but has to load and reload scenery info again and again to limit its own memory footprint. FSX has no other choice than to rely on the bgl header info being correct. If a bgl file says it covers area X, FSX has to load it when in area X or close to it.Now one could argue why 4.5 tiles instead of 2 or 6 ..I have no clue why 4.5 is the magic number, but im sure if MS ACES could use a smaller value they would use it, just to minimize FSX memory footprint.There are a number of different factors that determine that magic number:- how much scenery is visible to the eye from max altitude ?- what nav info is "visible" to the gps at max range ?>This is rather interesting but doesn't relate as to WHY those>files are being loaded in the first place. That is what I'm>striving to understand here.To understand what FSX is doing (and WHY !), I would recommend to turn of all addon scenery (assuming that the standard scenery files always use the smallest needed QMID), then fly from x to y and check whats happening in filemon, then look at TmfViewer to check if that makes some sense. After a while you will get a "feeling" for necessary vs. unnecessary loads.After that, you can activate addon sceneries one by one and repeat the same flight again. If something way outside the loaded standard scenery is touched, it is a very strong hint that the QMID header info in that addon scenery is to high.The latest version of TileProxy has a nice map overlay for monitoring the file access, however i dont know how to use that map thing without TileProxy. But it might help to get a "feeling" for the loading patterns ..Martin

To Phil Taylor:Thanks for FSX and thanks for your unlimited patience to deal with users whose strength of judgement is reverse proportional to their knowledge ..To Paul (original poster):The fact that (except for Reno) only addon scenery leaves these big footprints in filemon is a strong hint that we have a data problem, not a code problem.Please look at the following docs in the FSX SDK:- Environment Kit / Terrain SDK / Terrain and Scenery- Environment Kit / BGL Compiler SDK / Compiling BGLThe world scenery is divided into 8x12=96 rectangular tiles (at QMID level 4). These are the four digit named subdirectories in the scenery folder. Each of these tiles is further subdivided into 8x8=64 subtiles (at QMID level 7). Most bgl files stick to this tiling scheme.Here is a somewhat simplified explanation of whats going on:FSX scenery engine needs to know when to load a bgl file. So it looks at the bgl file header to find out what area of the world that bgl file corresponds to. FSX uses an index of all scenery files to look up those areas. If the aircraft is inside or close to (4.5 tiles) that area, FSX loads the bgl file, otherwise it doesnt.It is the scenery authors task to minimize that area. Lets assume the author made a typo and defines a VOR range of 5000 nm (instead of 50 nm). Now draw a circle of 5000 nm around that VOR, then draw the smallest rectangle that contains the circle. If that rectangle overlaps the 4.5 tile neighbourhood of the aircraft, FSX has to load the bogus bgl, since the bgl wants to be loaded ...I recommend that you contact the scenery authors and ask them to fix their scenery. Maybe they have a typo in their sources, maybe they did not use the FSX SDK tools but earlier or other tools ..Martin

Right click the AVG icon in the tray and launch AVG Control Center.In AVG Control Center window, double click the component Resident Shield.In the Resident Shield properties dialog, uncheck the first option. Its called: Turn on AVG Free Resident Shield protection.Click OK.The AVG tray icon turn monochrome and Windows XP complains about the security risk ..The Resident Shield component scans files on access. Whenever FSX loads some file, AVG checks if it is still ok. In theory, turning off that scan should improve I/O performance, however I didnt noticed any significant effect on FSX or other applications.

Hi Pat,In FSX RTM and previous versions of FS, you could cycle to the Cockpit View by typing S, then hide the cockpit by typing W several times, and then you could use the coolie hat button on the joystick to look out of the aircraft into eigth different directions.Unfortunately that was lost in SP1 or SP2. Now most of these views are blocked by the aircraft.Hopefully it will come back in FS 11 !However, this still works with FSX SP1/SP2:Cycle to OutSide View with S, then type 1,2,3,4 or 6,7,8,9 on the keypad (number block) section of your keyboard to look at your aircraft (and the scenery beyond) from eigth different directions.Adjust the camera distance / zoom factor with +/- to see more scenery and less aircraft. Type Keypad 0 to return to cockpit view.If you have FSX Deluxe version, check the SDK. In the core utilties kit, read the document about camera configuration to learn how to define your own views. For example you could define several new views with the eyepoint a few feet above your aircrafts center.Martin

>I wonder where I could find a list of detailed sceneries>which can be enjoyable to fly VFR with the default FSX &>Acceleration pack...?>I would like to fly VFR over some detailed nice places and>could not find the detailed areas listed anywhere.>>If you could recommend from your experience it's excellent as>well>Thank youFind the folder where you installed FSX. Inside you find a folder called Scenery with lots of subfolders. Look in the following subfolders:- AFRI = Africa- ASIA = Asia- AUST = Australia- EURE, EURW = Europe East/West- NAMC, NAME, NAMW = North America Center/East/West- OCEN = Oceania- SAME = South AmericaInside these folders, check the subfolder Scenery for bgl files with city names (e.g. AFRI/scenery contains cairo.bgl and capetown.bgl) to find those cities with detailed scenery. All these cities contain 3d models of buildings and other landmarks.The folder Cities contains those cities that use aerial or satellite pictures.Everything else is default scenery, generated from landclass info and elevation models.To find interesting landscape, type S to switch to the Outside View, type A to switch to Top Down View, type - to zoom out and look around ...