DickB

It took me a while to get the noise down to an acceptable level when using VAC. But then I discovered I could actually send FSX Aircraft Sounds to two USB sound devices (not theoretically possible) without it. VAC is still installed, but I'm not (consciously) running it. The magic formula seems to be to define one USB sound card as Default Sound Device in Windows, and select the other for Aircraft Sounds in FSX. I have no idea how or why this works, but it does on my system. And no pops and crackles at all.

I suffered quite a bit of crackling when I ran the main sounds from my onboard sound card to a headset and the BK. I was told that it was probably due to the sound card sharing the same Bus as other activity. That's why I went down the USB external soundcard route. My problem then was that I couldn't assign FSX sounds to a USB headset and a USB sound card for the BK. VAC solved that problem. It sounds like the new BK driver capability of Opus could be an alternative solution. I have Opus, but I haven't tried that function since I'm very happy with what I have and don't want to rock the boat ! .

Well - I for one viewed it, and am Following the topic, since I also thought about doing this. Afraid I don't know the answer though..

Hi Scott - not exactly sure what you're trying to achieve, but you may like to check out a product called Virtual Audio Cable and see if that helps. I use it to send my general sounds to two USB outputs, one for my headset and one for the Buttkicker, but it does other stuff too. Search AVSIM for further discussion.

Assuming you're talking about EVP mods, the two files it modifies are: usenglishbig.gvp - this is modified directly unless you use the accelerated voicepack, in which case it is renamed to USEnglisgBig.gvp.evpOrg and a new file called Evp.Accelerated.gvp is created. I believe these files are in the FSX Sound folder. The other file which is modified if you add new airlines, is airlines.cfg. Not sure where that is, but you should be able to find it quite easily. Personally I would also Export my own EVP mods to an external backup so if all else fails I can re-apply them.

You probably need to consult the documentation (if there is any) or contact the developer for that aircraft. It may use an existing FSX control (I have an aircraft that uses the Spoilers control for that purpose), but that would be implemented in the specific model.

Wow. I for one didn't know that, and I suspect others didn't either. That explains a lot.

I've used Nick's guides on every build also, and never regretted it. Thoroughness and conservatism is just fine in my book. That's not to say there isn't lots of valuable and helpful advice from others out there too.

I expect you did this, but in order for the airlines to be recognised you have to Update Voice Pack from the File menu in EVP and make sure you select the option to Update Airline list. Just saving the changes in EVP has no effect.

I don't have UT2, but some questions: Are you saying that there is now no interaction at all between any AI planes and ATC ? Or just the cargo planes ? Does ATC still talk to you in your aircraft OK ? When you installed EVP, what did you did you do (or try to do) with it ?

I can confirm this. It seems FTXG does indeed change a base texture which is commonly used for airport pads. The change means that the texture can now have autogen (e.g. trees) when previously it couldn't. If an airport using this texture for the pads doesn't have excludes defined, then trees can/will sprout up almost anywhere, including through runways. So it depends on how any given airport was made. Some will exhibit the problem, some won't. On my system, the only airports I've seen with the problem so far are some WW2 airfields, which the developer has been kind enough to change to avoid the problem.

Suggest you send an email to MCE support at support@muticrewxp.com. By far the quickest way of getting help. They do check on this forum, but email is quicker. I know it's Xmas, but I have known them work through the holidays, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if you get a reply by return. It's possible you have a bad download or install. did you try uninstalling/re-installing ?

In that case, the best I can suggest is to work with the FS++ support team via email. They are very responsive.

I feel a bit like the Genie in Aladdin. Mention DickIsHere and he magically appears. Not sure I can work magic though ! You don't say whether everything was working on 2.5.7.8 previously or whether it was an older version. The reason I ask is that I have been working with the FS++ folks over the past couple months to resolve some PTT issues which seemed to creep in some time after 2.5.5.0. Ironically, it seems they mainly showed up when the DickIsHere option is set ! So I would NOT recommend setting that option for 2.5.7.8. But in the course of fixing these, I know they also made a number of general improvements to the PTT processing which has made it a lot more reliable. So I would suggest trying the latest version 2.5.8.2. as a basis for moving forward. It's also possible that you have reset some setting you used to have when you did the new instal. One that springs to mind is the option that tells MCE not to insist on an accurate callsign. Can't recall exactly where that is, but it's in the GUI somewhere. Although a new installation of MCE picks up most of your old settings (from mce.ini in Users\<<yourId>>\Appdata\Roaming\Multi Crew Experience), I've noticed that I still have to make some settings manually after a re-install. The settings also get reset if you run the MCE application wizard. Hope this helps a bit. Good luck !

Default (plus MCE) for low and slow VFR flight. Modified with EVP to taste.

Not sure I can help much, but I find that sometimes when I start a flight, FSX changes the sound settings back to default for no apparent reason. I have to go to Menu/Options/Settings/Sound to set them correctly. If this is happening to you, then it would certainly explain why your ATC voices are coming through your speakers (your default playback device). But you say your FSX sound settings are 'the same as before'. By which I assume you mean that if you are in game and check your settings via Menu/Options/Settings/Sound, you still see your Voice sounds set explicitly to the headset ? Also - does this happen even if you run FSX without MCE ?

I asked that question a while back. Unless something changed recently there will be no facility to disable any roads. If that's the case, I'll be staying with UTX.

That's the key. I have UTX installed for where I fly (Europe), and it gives me accurate coastlines and water features. It also works very well with FTXG (and FSGenesis mesh).. I will not be buying Vector because (unless I missed something recently), it is an "all or nothing" package which does not have the configuration options that UTX has. In my case I find all vector (small 'v') roads unrealistic as they trample all over the scenery. UTX allows me to remove these. My understanding is that Vector will not. I'm also waiting to see what colour inland water will be with Vector. With UTX you can change the colour to taste (I prefer my inland water brown). Historically FTX inland water has been very blue, with no option to change (in UK at least). All of this is very subjective of course. I'm still waiting to see how Vector turns out when it arrives. Particularly interested to see how it compares with UTX in terms of accuracy..

+1 to all of that

Pretty sure I have the files and instructions on my FS PC, which I'm not at right now. If you care to send me a PM with your email id I will try to send you the package tomorrow.

I agree that some topic titles that are less meaningful and informative than others, and some seem to be the creation of newspaper teaser headline writers. That said, I've picked up a lot of interesting info from topics I may not have opened if they had been described accurately !

Hmmm. I found a statement in this thread http://forum.avsim.net/topic/336277-high-cpu-usage-questions/ that says that FSX will load/refresh scenery "every minute or so even if you are standing still". If that's true, then I guess that's it, and everyone should be seeing the same ?

Well, I'm foxed. I've removed every addon dll and exe that are automatically started by fsx (there were a few more than I thought), and still something "in FSX" is taking 60-70% of my CPU for 25 seconds every minute. That's with the a/c parked up, engine switched off, and all traffic sliders zero ! Scenery sliders don't seem to have any effect either. I'm trying to figure what would want to wake up every 30 secs or so, then busy itself, then go to sleep again for another 30 secs. I am wondering whether it could be related to weather (I use ASE, but that's not active). And changing the weather settings to use FSX weather has no effect either. In fact the only way of quiescing this anomaly is to Pause the sim. That seems to do it, so it's definitely being driven by FSX somehow. And I don't see any blip in any other listed process when this happens. Any ideas ? Perhaps one or two of you could just try this scenario for me and confirm that what I'm seeing is unusual - park up the default Cessna at a quiet airfield, call up Task Manager/Processes and watch the fsx.exe CPU figure for a couple of minutes. Let me know if you see any blip similar to what is described above. Also, does anyone know of a tool that might let me get closer to this issue ? Thanks

Would the mods please delete this thread as a duplicate. AVSIM told me my post failed - it didn't !

That's curious - when I tried to open this topic, AVSIM told me it couldn't ! But I seems it did anyway. Oh well. Nope. In any event, Task Manager definitely shows the increased load as coming from fsx.exe, not an external process. I'm going to take another look at this today. I need to check out what dlls and exe's are actually being called by fsx that maybe I don't know about. So far I just killed (I think) the obvious. Will report back if I find the culprit.