DickB

Safest (and easier) to do a full system backup using e.g. Acronis. Backing up individual folders/directories usually misses out something you weren't aware of, especially if you have addons (and who doesn't). Acronis allows you to do a full system restore or recover individual files. I swear by it.

I don't have the details to hand right now, but in order to get windshield rain effects in FSX you need to replace the FSX rain textures with the FS9 versions. That said, I believe they will only show up if the aircraft model invokes/allows them.

Hi Dave - sorry for delay, I was locked out of AVSIM for some reason. Not sure I completely understand the question, but the way I use Acronis is to take a back up of my system (with FSX etc shut down) every month and/or before making any significant change. Then if I get a problem I restore to the most recent level that ran clean. Since Acronis is not running when I run FSX there is no effect on performance. I back up to an external drive, but no reason why you could not back up to a second internal drive. On my system, the very first initial full system backup takes an hour or so, but thereafter each incremental backup takes less than 30 minutes, as does the restore. It's one-click, and much easier and more reliable and complete than other methods that I've tried, which always seem to miss something vital. And it's saved my bacon on more than one occasion. Now I only re-install when I change to a new system. And even then Acronis is helpful, because I can restore selected files (e.g. Addon Scenery, SimObjects etc) from the old system backup to the new system after the install. I should also perhaps mention that my system is dedicated to FSX. Also that I keep meticulous records of any changes I make between backups. That's pretty important.

IMHO there's no substitute for a regular full system backup using e.g. Acronis. Quicker to restore than re-installing and much more complete/accurate, particularly if you have many addons.

I had this problem, though my setup is a little different from yours ( I run DX9 and use FEX rather than REX). I fixed it with FSWC. The setting that did it for me was increasing Base Texture Colour Intensity: 100%. May not work for you, but you never know !

I had a note from Geko today announcing support for P3D. I'll be very interested in your feedback.

Just an update: I asked for a quote. The 2D0F platform is now 6000 AUSD plus about another 1K for packing and shipping to UK. So about £3500 total.

I got the same quote from Geko for the GS-105. Lead time normally four weeks (excluding Xmas). I have to say I'm tempted. But I'd still like to hear from someone who has bought it and is using it with FSX.

I may be wrong about this, but I believe that the full fat FTX regions (e.g. UK) use their own water textures, which I have always found to be too blue and unrealistic.Might be worth disabling the UK scenery and see if the blue water goes away. FTXG does not change water textures. You can set those up for yourself using other products (e.g. REX) in the usual way.

Somewhere on here I started a topic because I noticed that every minute my CPU utilisation went ballistic (80-90%) for about 30 secs, no matter what I was doing, even if I was sitting at the ramp cold and dark. It wasn't enough to give me stutters, but I wanted to know what it was. I was eventually told (apologies that I can't recall by whom) that FSX refreshes the scenery every minute, and uses as much available CPU power as it can get to do this. Can't say this is what you are seeing, but it kinda fits.

You won't regret it :smile:

Personally I'd go for the big screen every time

There s a fix for cloud-popping (if that's what this is) which I have installed and it works for me: http://www.simforums.com/forums/how-to-get-rid-of-annoying-flashing-clouds_topic24830.html I also read that the problem is fixed in ASE and AS2012,

Since you have Opus, might be an idea to ask the question over on the Opus forum on this site. Not saying it's an Opus problem, but they could probably shed some useful light on it. They are very responsive.

Me too. I guess if I used multiple drives I would image them all.

Far safer to take a full disk image backup using something like Acronis or similar. Otherwise most likely you will miss something.

You are correct - MCE is not an ATC program. It merely allows voice interaction with default FSX ATC, RC4 and (I think) some other ATC products. I fly VFR, and for me the combination of MCE and default FSX ATC is perfectly adequate. The voices are more natural and I like the flexibility. But I know that a lot of folks don't like the default ATC. Horses for courses !

That's fine. The 1/2 sync option isn't available in my version of NI anyway :smile:

+1 Better than VoxATC for GA flying IMO. It also tends to be more flexible in terms of the terminology that you can use.

It certainly is. That's the way I run it (although I run FSX windowed). I start MCE, wait for the splash screen, then start FSX. Works fine.

Ooops - so he does. Sorry guys, should have woken up before putting foot in mouth Just ignore me.

Also might be worth checking that your microphone/headset is still correctly set up in Windows. From time to time I find my settings get reset for some reason and the mike doesn't work. You can run a mike test in MCE. If the mike doesn't register, then the setup in Windows or MCE is wrong. If it does register, then at least that's one cause eliminated.

I doubt many users are even aware of it. It's a tip that's only helpful in really busy ATC situations. The rest of the time it works just fine. The issue is a limitation of FSX default ATC, not MCE. As has been mentioned, there are alternative ATC products like RC.

Yes - it's not exactly realistic, but it does work. The statement that I referred to is PTTTimeout=3000, which needs to be added to the [ATC] section of the active mce.ini file.

FSX ATC doesn't know about your PTT input until you have released the PTT button. What you can do is keep the PTT button pressed until there is a gap in the ATC chatter and then release it so your PTT input is heard at that point. I do that all the time. I think it requires a change to the PTTTimeout setting in mce.ini to extend the timeout, but I'm not near my FS system right now to verify. You can also use EditVoicePack to speed up ATC chatter to give you more gaps.