wombat457

Hi Guys,Not sure if this is the right forum or not so forgive me if it isn't.This morning I reinstalled Squawk box V 4.0 for FS9 on a Win 7 Pro 64 bit system. When I go to set the thing up I get a completely BLANK BLACK window - no information whatsoever or anything that comes close to what (according to the manual) I should be seeing.Despite that, I click on START - CONNECT and get the information window; however, nothing in the DROP DOWN menus, especially the SERVER details. I have seen a couple of "Work arounds" to the no Server Info however it doesn't tell you how to use it, which makes it pretty useless unless you know/understand what the poster is getting at, which I don't.I recall, when first installing SB 4 (about a year ago) that I had the same problem but was provided a fix to it (from memory). I now am unable to recall what I did to get the Server Info to display allowing me to connect with VATSIM.Can anyone help me out here please?Cheers,Tony

If you want very good scenery (non airport) but general ground textures I swear by two products (both payware unfortunately)1. FS Genesis terrain mesh's for very detailed ground scenery2. Ground Environment Pro for appearances with changing weather/sky patternsWith those two complete products installed, all you will need is the various airport sceneries to have as realistic as possible scenery for ALL countries.Cheers,wombat

Everyone here has provided some good information, I would only like to emphasis a couple of things, generally speaking, and they are as follows:1. NEVER compare what you get from your system to what another gets from theirs UNLESS they are IDENTICAL in every way.2. Tweaking your .cfg is dependent on your system and what addons you have, so see point 1 above.3. The eye can't differentiate any FPS above 25 - regardless of what some have said here.4. If you have everything maxed in FS and you are getting an FPS of above 30 - then you really shouldn't mess with anything.5. My system runs FS maxed with a load of addons around 70 - 90 FPS constantly and up to 130 - 140 FPS at times - big deal, I have bragging rights but doesn't improve my flight experience one little bit, which is why I set my FPS to a MAX of 60 FPSAgain, if you are getting an FPS of 30 or above with everything maxed out, you really don't have a lot to complain or be concerned about.Cheers and good luck,wombat

Payware/Freeware -I have seen (and regrettably bought) some absolutely horrific payware software and have been angry. By the same token, I have downloaded some brilliant Freeware software and been very pleased with it.As one person has said, there are some companies out there that produce and sell terrible software then refuse to accept constructive criticism or provide customer service. MOST payware stuff IS over priced; however, that is a matter of Price versus demand. As long as people continue paying these ridiculous prices, they will remain and (probably) go up. Refuse to pay the price being asked, and it comes back to supply and demand - when demand goes down, so too will the price.Some people say that the cost of most payware is acceptable due to the time etc in making it. I think that argument becomes redundant when you have some one making freeware software that is as good and in some cases better than the payware equivalent.The one thing that angers me about some payware are those companies that have gone out of business or, refuses to provide support to a product due to age but STILL want to charge money for them - Imagine sim is one such company that comes to mind that is out of business but their products are still being sold by third party suppliers.Be aware that the advertising done by these companies is done for the sole purpose of presenting their product in the best possible light and that the product MAY NOT look or respond as well on your system. That is a chance we all take when buying payware products.So, I have a number of Freeware products, all of which are very good and with no payware item that is available or compares to them; and, I have a number of Payware Products as well, primarily scenery and utilities such as Active Sky and so forth.My advice is to look at the Payware products you might think about buying and ask questions about those products of people who own them - DON'T take the manufacturers word for it OR some bias Review of it, and from my experience, MOST Reviews ARE bias, one way or the other. So far as Freeware products are concerned, ask about them or download them and see if they live up to expectations, if not - delete them and no harm done, the majority of the time.Some people will say freeware stuff is unreliable and with no customer support and may have derogatory effects on your system or on FS, and that is true in most cases. Some payware companies, such as Abacus for example, seem to fall into the same category and you pay for their rubbish.Also, no a days, there seems to be a tendency with payware companies to only give you a PART of the complete thing you are buying - a "base package" for example, then expect you to pay more for anything else you want for that particular plane for example. If you deal with any of these companies - take a very close look at what you are REALLY getting compared to the price you are going to have to pay, as well as the additional costs involved with getting the FULL item. You may find that the entire cost is anything BUT reasonable.Research into products that you want to buy is imperative and any one who buys just because it is a particular company or as a result of a review is crazy, in my opinion.Cheers,wombat

stormpup,Looks very nice!Cheers,Wombat

Joe,Thank you for your in put - I have tried many things with the .mdl's but NOT adding or removing the extension. I will see if that works for me.I think the most annoying thing here is it only seems (in my case) to effect the posky stuff, but not all of it. Seems a little selective and could just be a flaw in FS Repaint and I have the bought version.As mentioned in my initial post, I have contacted ABACUS.PUB but they seem to have ignored the request for help - again!Thanks Joe for your input though, appreciate it.wombat457

"...The second time with only that problem listed they never returned my email..."Seems like one of the original problems is still a problem, only reading one part of the problem and ignoring the rest. While the issue with the aircraft mentioned maybe a dev issue - the failure of the AVSIM Store to apparently reply in an appropriate way (or at all) is definitely an AVSIM Store problem wouldn't you think, regardless of whether that practice is a widely used one (at least here in the US) by most companies who don't like negative comments ?wombat457

stormpup and CaptKornDog,Stormpup, we obviously share similar opinions on the rather dubious practice of charging for repaints, and while I cannot say for sure, I honestly doubt that anyone has total legal rights to paint anything OTHER than Fictional Liveries.Like most people, I use photos from Airliners.net (in my case) as reference points for my paints only. I don't believe in Photo realistic paints (aka copy and paste) as that to me is not painting. We have mentioned copy right breaches and I believe they are well known and accepted by most companies, although there are some who actually do not permit their livery to be painted by us painters. Plagiarism is another issue though - and yes this is possibly taking things to extremes; however, for all those who do use photo's from Airliners.net for the purpose of creating their Photorealistic work and then passing that work of as their own is actually plagiarizing the work of the photographer, perhaps something that is never considered. I seriously doubt if any photographer would "complain" about his or her photo's being used, unless, of course, those paints were being sold. Just something to think about I guess.Some companies, such as those in the UK (for instance) lay claim that they are NOT selling the paint work but selling the painters time????? If you can wrap your head around that logic then so be it, but I can't. A rose is a rose by any name.In short, every commercial airline knows (or can be reasonably expected to know) that we painters do replicate their liveries which they pay out the butt for, but they don't care as money does not change hands, and so long as that remains true there is little they can do. Essentially, we who paint for fun, relaxation, as a service to the flight sim community are not a threat to those companies in any way and, perhaps, act as an advertisement for them. Those who charge, on the other hand, are as said treading a very fine line and a line drawn in very VERY deep water.I also agree with you though CaptKornDog, if you do a paint for someone and that some then "offers you" some form of compensation for your effort, that to me is acceptable and is vastly different to advertising a charge for the work. Albeit, I still wouldn't take money for something that I love doing and that provides me with as much satisfaction as I trust the end result provides the recipient/s.Cheers and also, apologize for the slight hi jack of the post.

Hmmm, "16 views" and no responses, I guess that says a great deal in itself.Cheers,wombat457

Darn - after ALL these years of painting for "free" and people actually take advantage by charging for a repaint!!!!!!!As with turbodak, I have painted for VA's and done countless paints for people as well as for my own pleasure and have never NEVER charged to do them despite having been offered money on various occasion by individuals.I am in the middle of a paint and have already spent in the order of 7 hours on it, with probably another 7 to go. If you look at the base wage for the US ($7.25 ph) I could charge $101.50 for this paint (if it were commercially available) and that is minimum not taking into account electricity used, wear and tear on my system and all the "good stuff" business's seem to through in in an attempt to justify charges etc etc etc. Grief, who in their right mind is going to pay someone $100 plus dollars for a paint that can be easily found on the internet for free?It is bad enough that some payware companies (who need not be mentioned) charge for additional liveries and upgrades and updates and darn near everything else without everyone else jumping on the "who wants to be a millionaire" band wagon.I honestly believe that if a person has the choice of having a painter do work for free or charge for it - pick the free guy. Why, because his/her motivation for doing the work comes out of commitment and dedication NOT the almighty dollar!Just my 2 cents worth (for free)wombat457

Tom,For a "first" effort on FSX, it doesn't look bad at all - especially as it is still a work in progress. One thing you might do when posting your paints is to show the paint work more so than the over all plane. Not wishing to be critical but it is hard to give an opinion when much of what you have done is not all that clear. What I mean by that is this:"The closer you take the screen shot, the clearer the paint work will be" A lot of painters take their shots at night, dusk or dawn or far off so as to avoid mistakes and/or poor work being seen and giving the appearance of a good paint. Some painters also do that due to "prima donna" remarks that are sometimes given rather than constructive criticism.As said, for your first attempt it is pretty good :) Fix up the "grey ridge back" and that will improve it dramatically ;)Well done and keep at it!wombat457

This is very much a "Work in Progress" and there is much to be done such as:Fuselage detailsreplacement of the circles in some areasslight color adjustmentalpha channels placedgeneral mods to paint work in some areas, particularly the lower fuselage.This is totally hand painted, no "cut and paste what so ever".I am about 30% finished, with around 7 hours invested thus far.Cheers,wombat457

Firstly, if this question has been asked and answered previously, I apologize for the duplicate post.I use FS Repaint as a means of checking my paints as I do them (like no doubt a lot of people). After installing "some models" (primarily the now defunct Posky stuff) the aircraft shows up in FS Repaint; however, when trying to open it I am getting one of two error messages, as follows:1. "mdl cannot be found" or2. FS Repaint cannot read this file (or similar)I have searched the .cfg files for any anomalies that may be preventing the model to open without success and have compared .cfg files of those aircraft that DO open compared to those that don't from the same company (ie posky) and there does not appear to be any difference.I have contacted Abacus (a waste of time) without any response from them and posky no longer exists for assistance.Can someone please shed some light on this problem?The specific models I am having issues with are as follows: (all posky models by the way)CRJ-700 V3CRJ-900 V3Their CRJ-200 opens without a problem.I run Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.Thanks for the help.wombat457