brian747

Hi Christopher! I totally agree. I can understand that COVID forced a pause for a year or so, but it seems weird that the show hasn't returned since then. (In fact, the last time that you and I met was at a Cosford show, which is a great central location — a pity it wasn't avilable for 2023, although I agree with Ray that the National Motorcycle Museum is a great alternative). Given the stats (confirmed again in the December 2023 Navigraph survey) that the UK is second only to the US for the number of simmers, it seems very odd indeed that we don't have our own show any more.... Cheers, Brian

I normally leave it on my desktop (there's a switch in the settings to control whether or not it's "always on top", incidentally), but I just tried minimising it — when I then click on it in the toolbar it pops up again in the normal way. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As it says (left), I'm 2 nm from the threshold of EGLF rwy 06. That's the north-east corner of Hampshire (England), around 40 nm west of central London.

Thank you for that. I tried it, but it had no effect on the movement. I should explain that I'm getting movement of the camera whilst the aircraft is on the ground, so perhaps it's not "cinematic" mode that's doing it? The unwanted movement continues, however. It's as though a heavy telephoto lens is gradually tilting the camera view downward, so that the view of the aircraft on the runway threshold gradually becomes replaced by a view of the ground. [LATER EDIT — FIX FOUND] Ah-ha!! I just went exploring to try and find additional options, and found the "Advanced" tab (I'm pretty sure I hadn't ventured there before). Enabling the "Track Aircraft" switch has at last caused the view to remain where I wanted it. (I'm not sure how the thing became un-checked in the first place, but hey...). :-) Many thanks, Brian

Apologies for raising this: I really *have* looked, but haven't found the answer (and it has to be something simple, one feels...). 8-\ How can I completely and permanently disable cinematic mode? I seem to have managed it previously, but following a recent update it's back and won't go away..... :-( Many TIA, Brian

The words that Keven quoted were "activated on a single computer", which is what I have — hence my question, since I have a concern that the requirement for holding CP's settings only on their servers does already suggest an excessive imposition of anti-piracy measures at the expense of user convenience: something which would be unfortunate, to say the least. > "Just curious, any reason you're hanging onto Windows 7?" <grin> Were it not so I would hardly have gone to the trouble of arranging the dual boot. ;-) (On a different topic, the red 'Interested in joining OVPA?' button on the OVPA web site is broken). Cheers, Brian

I have a single computer. On it I dual boot into either W7 or W10, both of which have a copy of FSX installed. Obviously, there is no possibility of my using both simultaneously. Can I therefore run CP in both environments, or are you saying that a second license would be required for the same machine? Cheers, Brian

In cinematic view, there was a noticeable slight twitching of the aircraft, which looked almost as though some random turblence effect (head movement? engines?) was creeping in. That effect in cinematic mode has also been remarked upon by a fellow Admin at my VA, so I thought it might be worthwhile mentioning it to you. What prompted me to do so now is that, further to your suggestion to disable Smooth Zoom and Static Mode, having done that I found that the twitching effect in cinematic mode was gone (although some shaking of the ground still occurs, but since it only happens in low views as the camera moves upwards I think that's probably a different problem?). Cheers, Brian

Ah — thank you, that's very helpful. I wasn't using the zoom controls in FSX, though, I rather naughtily edited the file directly (whilst FSX wasn't running). <*cough*> 8-º > "...make sure you enable the "Disable Smooth Zoom and Static Mode" in the Preferences" Roger, Wilco, and all that jazz. :-) Many thanks, Brian

Hi Keven! I'm hugely enjoying your great product! :-) The appearance of my ChasePlane views initially was similar to that obtained by using a wide angle lens on a DSLR (I only fly 744s, which look extremely distorted and unrealistic in that presentation). After thinking about this, I checked out <username>AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX\Cameras.cfg and found that three ChasePlane cameras had been added to the start of the file, all of which had their InitialZoom figures set to 0.4000333000. <gulp> Which would certainly account for the "wide angle" effect that I was seeing. 88-) Using the formula in the second video to which you kindly directed us, I plugged in the figures for my setup and the answer came back that in my case a zoom factor of 1.5 was applicable. So I edited the camera.cfg file and simple-mindedly substituted 1.5000 as the InitialZoom figure in all three cases. On starting FSX the distortion had completely gone (I had to move the viewpoint back a bit to compensate, obviously). :-) So I'm not sure where that initial zoom fiigure of 0.4000333000 came from, but it certainly had the effect of making an aircraft the size of a 747-400 look very strange indeed! However, now that I have changed the InitialZoom figures for all three types of ChasePlane view I'm finding that new presets added seem to inherit the figure from the previous preset, so presumably the problem has gone away. I just thought I'd mention it in case others had the same experience. :-) (Incidentally, does the "Focal" camera control have any bearing on this? It didn't seem to have any effect when I tried it). Cheers, Brian

I entirely agree with the OP. Storing stuff in the cloud is all very well until there is some problem with the Internet connection. There should *always* be an option to store (and restore) a local copy of ALL remotely-stored settings in order to prevent connectivity problems from rendering the app unusable. (This opinion is based on some decades of experience in the software business, incidentally. ;-) ). Cheers, Brian

Thank you, gentlemen — I'm very happy that it's been useful to you. ^_^ Cheers, Brian

OK, one more time:— > "...what is supposed to appear in the C:\fsx\Modules\linda\aircrafts\PMDG 777 folder..." Er.... You do realise, (or perhaps not?), that as well as the folder you mention there is another one called C:\fsx\Modules\linda-cfg\aircrafts\PMDG 777 — and that (or rather, something in a slightly differently-named subfolder called PMDG 777-200LR) is the one that is being cited in your error message, not the one you're asking about? I do appreciate that the linda and linda-cfg folder names are similar, but be absolutely sure you're clear which one you're dealing with. For the record, in my case anyway, the ...\linda\... PMDG 777 folder (that you asked about) contains actions.lua, readme.txt, and ident.lua. The ...\linda-cfg\... PMDG 777 folder, on the other hand, has config-hid.lua, config-mcp.lua, config-mcp.default, and config-mcp2.default. (I have the original v1 of the MCP Combo, not v2). I hope that helps. > "I believe it got to be something between Linda and the 777 installation that is not talking properly as my ngx installation works just fine." Hmm. All I would say is that after over 40 years as a techie in the computer business I have seen many thousands of hours wasted because someone has formed a theory and then gone looking for evidence to justify it. Wrong methodology. Belief is fine in its place, but in problem solving it's inappropriate because it can all too often be seriously misleading. (It can sometimes be misleading elsewhere, too, but that's a debate for a different forum). Instead, I would seriously recommend looking carefully and analytically at the evidence of what is actually happening and then determining why, and hence what's wrong, and hence the way to put it right. Otherwise you can find yourself in a maze of your own creation. In order to do this you will need a knowledge of how LINDA works, which means having read both manuals so that you know what you're dealing with, otherwise you're playing guessing games. For example, you might start by asking yourself about that strange PMDG 777-200LR folder name in the error message......? The only place that I recognise that from would be if you load the 777 and click on Edit — do you see something like this? Or you might perhaps try following the initial route I outlined in post #10, above. Or follow your own investigations, as long as they are systematic and focused. I'm assuming, of course, that you have read the LINDA 777 release notes? Have you also tried a search of this forum for any similar problems? Anyway, my bet would be that when you do find the answer, it'll probably turn out to be something really silly and simple, and you'll kick yourself for not having noticed it before. That's life..... :wink: But it's probably time I stood back and let someone else have a stab at helping you. ^_^ Best of luck, Brian

<sigh> Look, I gave you a very simple and logical sequence to follow: you didn't follow it (or seem unable/unwilling to clearly explain the results, if you did) — and furthermore FSUIPC macros and SPAD have nothing to do with this and are not required, and as for the SDK...... :rolleyes: I can't read the manual for you, that's your responsibility. LINDA, the PMDG 777, and the Saitek switch box all work very happily together when they are properly configured. The error message very clearly tells you at least one of the problems — for some reason your installation is trying to find the MCP config file in a directory called "PMDG 777-200LR", which doesn't exist. (Although in my installation there is one below "linda-cfg/aircrafts" called "PMDG 777", and which does contain the file, if that's any help). So you have sufficient information to solve the problem: good luck. Cheers, Brian

Hi! :smile: It's just that reading the manual isn't optional — we all have to start at the beginning..... Questions here are answered by LINDA fans who happen to drop by, not by paid support staff, so courteous questions are more likely to receive a response. And, of course, many of the questions asked here wouldn't be necessary if the manual had been read first, so please understand any slight weariness on our part. :wink: So we need to break this down and isolate the problem systematically — Is LINDA working? Is the 777 module working? Is the switch panel working? If, as you say, the NGX module is working, then it's a fair bet that LINDA is, too. If that's confirmed, we can move on. If *none* of your 777 functions are working, even with a simple joystick button (please try it), then my guess would be that your 777 module either isn't installed, or has been installed in the wrong place. Take a careful look at the directory structure below and compare it with yours (you might not need all the aircraft modules shown, of course). If you have anything out of place then I'd suggest uninstalling and then reinstalling, checking carefully after each step that the directories are where they should be. If you find that the problem is confined to the Saitek Switch panel (i.e. using LINDA you can assign 777 functions to a joystick button or something as suggested above, but you can't assign them to a switch on the SP) then it might be worth making sure that you are loading Saipanels.exe. The easiest way of checking that is probably to look in your EXE.XML file (and the best tool for that job can be freely downloaded from the kind TweakFS folks at http://tweakfs.com/download/fsx_xml_toolbox.zip , but for pity's sake don't use it to change anything unless you know exactly what you're doing!) — the EXE.XML file should have a section that looks something like this: <Launch.Addon> <Name>Saitek Panel(s) Plugin for FSX</Name> <Disabled>False</Disabled> <Path>C:\Program Files (x86)\Saitek\Pro Flight Panels\SaiPanels.exe</Path> <CommandLine>-run</CommandLine> </Launch.Addon> (Needless to say, Saipanels.exe has to exist where stipulated in the <Path> line, too). :Whistle: One final check: when I start up fsx with my NGX or 777 on the ground I see three greens on the SP landing lights (see pic, below) — do you? If not, then there's definitely something awry in the Switch Panel area..... If none of the above helps, then I can only suggest reading carefully through the extended description of the installation process in my detailed manual (link given in my previous post), pages 9 to 19. Don't skip anything — the answer is probably in there somewhere..... :Straight Face: But do bear in mind that the manual was written before LINDA supported the Switch Panel, so you won't find any reference to that — a question on the Saitek forum is probably your quickest route to an answer in that event. Best of luck, Brian