JohnsonPBX

Hello guys. After formatting my computer and installing PMDG's 777 SP1C (both for the base package and the -300ER expansion) I noticed something rather odd with the throttle: I have the Saitek Pro Flight Yoke with its included Throttle Quadrant. I also have the latest FSUIPC 4.937. Since there's a known issue in which the throttle cannot sent directly to FSUIPC's calibration, I assigned the throttle lever axes individually through FSX's internal Controls menu. What happens is that, for example, when I have the engines in idle, and advance ONE of the levers a little to perform a single engine taxi (let's say engine ONE's lever), engine TWO's N1 automatically advances to the same N1 percentage as the moved lever, EVEN THOUGH that engine's physical lever in the Throttle Quadrant is left in idle; then, when I return engine ONE's lever to idle, engine TWO's N1 remains in the "advanced" percentage, so, in order to bring it back to idle as well I need to advance that engine's physical lever a little and bring it back to idle. I tried checking Saitek's control panel to see if it was a spiky axis or if by moving either of the levers the other one advanced automatically, but that's not the case. I also tried in other aircraft (default), and this does not happen there. Has anyone experienced this or can reproduce it? Or is it a normal behavior of the airplane's throttle / is there something I forgot to configure in the airplane's configuration options? I don't remember experiencing this in SP1 / SP1B. This basically means that right now I cannot perform a single engine taxi since even if I move one of the levers the other engine's N1 will advance as well, as if I was moving both levers together, which I'm not. Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance!

I was also curious about this. In my case, for example, these days I'm only flying circuits in my local airport for testing purposes. Therefore, I do not enter a flightplan in the FMC (although I could just enter one with departure / arrival airport being the same). Now, what happens is that after noticing this yellow indication, I went on the airplane's electronic checklist and saw this: "> LANDING ALTITUDE < Condition: One of these occurs: - The FMC does not supply a landing altitude -The landing altitude selector is pulled ( ) LDG ALT selector......PULL ON, set manually" In that case I tried pulling the landing altitude selector and manually setting the landing altitude as-per my local airport's elevation, and selected (checkmarked) the "( ) LDG ALT selector......PULL ON, set manually" option in the ECL, but I still see the yellow LANDING ALTITUDE indication in the EICAS. Only case in which this one disappears is by entering an actual flight plan in the FMC. Is something missing? Is there any way to get this indication disappear without needing to enter a flightplan on the FMC? Sorry for the ignorance but I haven't figured this one out. Thanks!

Got it now, thanks!

Hello guys, I got a quick question. I know it was basically answered a few pages ago, but I just want to be 100% sure. Since I just formatted my computer (last time I touched my simulator I was on SP1B), are updates cumulative or can I just install the RTM version and then directly SP1C for both the -200LR/F and -300? Thanks in advance for your help!

Now this is weird (or I was doing something wrong). I was trying to assign one axis as "Steering Tiller" via "Send direct to FSUIPC Calibration", and then calibrated the axis, but it would still move both rudder and steering tiller together. However, I tried to assign it as "Steering Set" via "Send to FS as normal axis" and now it works as it should. Does anyone know why's that? Shouldn't "Send direct to FSUIPC Calibration" do the trick?

There is an axis called "Steering Tiller" that can be sent direct to FSUIPC calibration, but it has the same effect as the normal "Rudder". Tiller and rudder move together.

Hey Luke, could you please provide a screenshot of your TO / Landing view? I still haven't figured out which is that so-famous white cross! Yes, in the future I'd also love to get a TrackIR. Only problem is I'm unemployed now, which means I can't afford something as expensive. Right now max I could afford would be EZCA / OpusFSX, which is why I was asking for opinions on both. TrackIR is a must have for me in the future, nonetheless!

Good point, will do so. I'll let you guys know which one did I finally prefer and why. Thanks for your points of view, from both sides of the coin!

Well I'm using Active Sky Next, wouldn't Opus generate conflict with it? Would it be better to buy EZCA since it's a camera-dedicated program or Opus even though I already have another weather engine? Both Opus and EZCA cost exactly the same ($34.95).

Thanks for your replies guys! Your opinions on EZCA convinced me even more. As I mentioned, EZCA is my next to-buy addon, as soon as I free some space up in my creditcard that is haha. Later on I'm planning on buying a TrackIR as well. It's hard to get used to the new eyepoint but well, practice is what it's all about!

Hello everyone. I used to fly with the default eyepoint until today. A few days ago when reading the 777’s Introduction manual, I noticed some tricks proposed there for camera adjusting, but I just didn’t pay much attention. Today, however, while performing a mid-range flight, I decided to try said tricks out. Obviously, since it’s something new it looks weird to me, especially when landing, due to the fact that I have to totally move the camera up and leave my instruments behind when trying to visually line-up with the runway (that’s the way it’s supposed to be eh?). Also, when on the ground, if I focus on the instruments I can roughly see a few meters of horizon ahead, not the entire field as I used to. However, I want your opinion (especially PMDG guys, real 777 pilots, and people who has flown the plane in the real deal simulator). For me it looks like the eyepoint was a little high, but I can’t really tell a thing since I’ve never been in the real plane, let alone its cockpit. Does my setup look realistic? I have a 19’’ Samsung monitor (8:5), resolution is 1440x900 and WideViewAspect=True. Introduction manual doesn't tell anything about moving the camera forward or backwards, which I don't know if it could also have an impact in the view's realism (logically it also should). Some pictures attached (all of them in the 777-300ER): 1. 0.8 zoom, focused on the instruments (part of the horizon also visible though): 2. View of both the yoke and the checklist holder as shown in the Introduction manual, although both don't match perfectly: 3. Again focused on the instruments, this time with a zoom of 0.9: 4. Focused on the horizon: 5. Camera tilted to the right, to have a reference of its height compared to the first officer's seat: 6. Yoke and captain's seat, looking well centered in the screen: 7. These last two now on the ground, with a zoom of 1.0: 8. And the horizon: One issue that became more evident after trying this, and worsened by the 777-300ER's length, is the with which camera drifts off-position even with a slight movement of the plane. It's really annoying and distracting to be constantly trying to move it back to where it should be. I'm seriously considering to purchase EZCA when I have some money. According to what I've read in other posts it seems to be really worth it when it comes to customizing views and assigning a specific camera location to a defined button. Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone. Today I want to share my (curious) experience with FSX with you. Here’s my setup (hardware and software): Motherboard: ASUS Z87-PRO Processor: Intel Core i7-4770K (stock speed and cooling, 3.5GHz) – HyperThreading enabled Videocard: 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4870 manufactured by MSI RAM memory: 1x 8GB Corsair Vengeance Pro Series DDR3 2133MHz (CMY16GX3M2A2133C11) Hard disk 1: 1x 128GB Corsair Force GS SATA3 6 Gb/s SSD Hard disk 2: 1x 500GB 7.200 RPM Samsung Hard Drive Yoke: Saitek Pro Flight Yoke plus one additional Pro Flight Throttle Quadrant unit Joystick: Saitek X52 HOTAS Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 Ultimate x64 (installed on the SSD) Flight simulator: Microsoft Flight Simulator X Deluxe Edition + SP1 + Acceleration expansion pack (installed on the 500GB hard drive) Add-ons (that interact directly with the simulator): PMDG Boeing 777-200LR/F + SP1 + 777-300ER expansion, Real Environment Xtreme 4 Texture Direct, Active Sky Next, FS Real Time, FSUIPC 4.929, ORBX FTX Global 1.00 Tweaks: fsx.cfg run through ******* Altuve’s tweaking website (although not advised lately, I still have a 2008 videocard), and applied his Shader 3 mod 1.6 – no external fps limiter, and FSUIPC’s patchsim1friction=Yes for the simulator’s ground friction. It is to note that I still use my Saitek X52’s throttle unit (alone, the stick is stored), because given the fact that I have no pedals, its Y axis (the biggest rotary knob) is the one I use as the plane’s tiller while on the ground, and I use the slider just beneath it for brakes. Everything in this PC is new (March 2014) except the videocard and the 500GB 7.200 RPM hard drive, which date from 2008. I got the Saitek X52 as a gift in 2009, and bought both the Yoke and Throttle Quadrant in 2013. This computer was bought with the idea to improve FSX’s performance, since I previously had a non-overclocked 2.4GHz Intel C2Q 6600, 2x 2GB DDR2 RAM memory modules (all from 2008), and no SSD. I am aware that even though FSX is more CPU-dependant, the videocard is also important when it comes to clouds / addon sceneries, and vital for other videogames, but I preferred to leave the videocard last since it’s the most expensive single component, and my budget didn’t allow me to go that far, so I updated what FSX needs the most first. Of course a new videocard is my next most immediate to-buy item when I can afford it. When I first set everything up – a.k.a. install Windows, FSX and add-ons in the SSD and tweaking - everything was going flawlessly (I even remember posting about it somewhere here), but all of a sudden it became pretty frustrating. Frame rate was high but the stuttering was so severe that it made my flying experience almost un-enjoyable. If the view from the cockpit was stuttering constantly, the outside (locked) spot view was practically unusable due to the even higher amount of stutter going on. What was causing it if it worked so well at first? Tried everything: tweaks, no tweaks (deleting fsx.cfg so the simulator created a new one), playing around with the simulator’s settings, leaving frame rate unlimited in the simulator, limiting them, using an external limiter, deleting FSX from the SSD and re-installing in the hard drive, and anything else a desperate person in need of a decent performance can do. Nothing worked. Only two theories left I had (just to calm myself and reduce the frustration it causes to NOT know what’s going on) were that it was either my videocard doing a bottleneck, which makes sense if we combine a brand new 2014 hardware with a 2008, 512MB videocard, or that it had to do with the clouds and the way Active Sky Next interacted with the simulator. The latter didn’t make much sense though since I experimented stuttering with both Active Sky Next open and closed; therefore, I was keeping the (fake) hope that once I updated my videocard the stuttering issue would be gone and I’d be happy. Not a very encouraging solution since I’m still months away from updating my videocard. Whenever I first run Windows my yoke’s X axis is always offset to the left, so I have to un-plug and re-plug it and it fixes itself. One weird thing I noticed in this PC (which didn’t happen in my previous one) is that whenever I unplugged the yoke (while also having the X52’s throttle and the Throttle Quadrant plugged), its icon in the notification bar took several seconds to disappear, as well as Windows’ sound that plays whenever I plug / unplug any USB device. Seemed as if something got frozen in the meanwhile, but I didn’t give much importance to it. At first I had both X52’s throttle and the additional Throttle Quadrant plugged into the yoke’s rear USB ports, but since I read somewhere that the yoke’s power alone might not suffice the other devices on it unless a power adapter was plugged on it, I preferred to plug each device in a separate USB port in the PC. When both SP1 and 777-300ER were released on the 18th I came back to my simulator (hadn’t touched it since the World Cup started), with the hope I could finally fix the issue so I could enjoy the plane. Since I had already tried anything else I could think of, I remembered the above mentioned USB unplugging freeze, although I always was like “nah, that wouldn’t make sense”. Well, this time it did! In one of my “what if…”’s I decided to unplug the Throttle Quadrant and leave only the yoke (with its default throttle) and X52’s throttle unit and voila! Stuttering disappeared. Vanished. I just couldn’t believe it. Went into the simulator, panned around and the stuttering was gone both in the cockpit and the outside locked spot view. The next day I did an entire flight to make sure it wasn’t just a wrong impression and that stuttering wouldn’t be back. Flight went out flawlessly! Only rare times it had an almost un-noticeable stuttering was when first loading big scenery objects or when focusing on IVAO’s MTL traffic, which is pretty normal. It is so heartwarming to finally have tracked down and fixed such an annoying issue and finally be able to fully enjoy flights! Now I have four questions: 1. Has anyone else experienced a similar issue? 2. If that’s the case, could anyone find a solution to it? I don’t really know if it’s related to the devices or some conflict with the USB ports, since I didn’t experience this in my previous PC. I wouldn't like to ditch my Throtlle Quadrant just for the sake of a better performance, either. 3. Has anyone experienced having any of the yoke’s (or any other device’s) axes offset, and that unplugging / replugging fixes the issue? 4. If that’s the case, could anyone find a solution to that? I suppose it has to do with the drivers, but honestly have no idea. Yes, I know this topic is waaay too long, I just wanted to describe it the most detailed way possible so it’s easier for other people to reproduce. When I found out what was causing me such stuttering I felt so happy that I wanted to share it, and possibly help anyone who might also be experiencing it but has no idea of what is causing it (yet). Thanks to those who actually read it fully! Regards.

Hello everyone. Today I want to share my (curious) experience with FSX with you. Here’s my setup (hardware and software): Motherboard: ASUS Z87-PRO Processor: Intel Core i7-4770K (stock speed and cooling, 3.5GHz) – HyperThreading enabled Videocard: 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4870 manufactured by MSI RAM memory: 1x 8GB Corsair Vengeance Pro Series DDR3 2133MHz (CMY16GX3M2A2133C11) Hard disk 1: 1x 128GB Corsair Force GS SATA3 6 Gb/s SSD Hard disk 2: 1x 500GB 7.200 RPM Samsung Hard Drive Yoke: Saitek Pro Flight Yoke plus one additional Pro Flight Throttle Quadrant unit Joystick: Saitek X52 HOTAS Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 Ultimate x64 (installed on the SSD) Flight simulator: Microsoft Flight Simulator X Deluxe Edition + SP1 + Acceleration expansion pack (installed on the 500GB hard drive) Add-ons (that interact directly with the simulator): PMDG Boeing 777-200LR/F + SP1 + 777-300ER expansion, Real Environment Xtreme 4 Texture Direct, Active Sky Next, FS Real Time, FSUIPC 4.929, ORBX FTX Global 1.00 Tweaks: fsx.cfg run through ******* Altuve’s tweaking website (although not advised lately, I still have a 2008 videocard), and applied his Shader 3 mod 1.6 – no external fps limiter, and FSUIPC’s patchsim1friction=Yes for the simulator’s ground friction. It is to note that I still use my Saitek X52’s throttle unit (alone, the stick is stored), because given the fact that I have no pedals, its Y axis (the biggest rotary knob) is the one I use as the plane’s tiller while on the ground, and I use the slider just beneath it for brakes. Everything in this PC is new (March 2014) except the videocard and the 500GB 7.200 RPM hard drive, which date from 2008. I got the Saitek X52 as a gift in 2009, and bought both the Yoke and Throttle Quadrant in 2013. This computer was bought with the idea to improve FSX’s performance, since I previously had a non-overclocked 2.4GHz Intel C2Q 6600, 2x 2GB DDR2 RAM memory modules (all from 2008), and no SSD. I am aware that even though FSX is more CPU-dependant, the videocard is also important when it comes to clouds / addon sceneries, and vital for other videogames, but I preferred to leave the videocard last since it’s the most expensive single component, and my budget didn’t allow me to go that far, so I updated what FSX needs the most first. Of course a new videocard is my next most immediate to-buy item when I can afford it. When I first set everything up – a.k.a. install Windows, FSX and add-ons in the SSD and tweaking - everything was going flawlessly (I even remember posting about it somewhere here), but all of a sudden it became pretty frustrating. Frame rate was high but the stuttering was so severe that it made my flying experience almost un-enjoyable. If the view from the cockpit was stuttering constantly, the outside (locked) spot view was practically unusable due to the even higher amount of stutter going on. What was causing it if it worked so well at first? Tried everything: tweaks, no tweaks (deleting fsx.cfg so the simulator created a new one), playing around with the simulator’s settings, leaving frame rate unlimited in the simulator, limiting them, using an external limiter, deleting FSX from the SSD and re-installing in the hard drive, and anything else a desperate person in need of a decent performance can do. Nothing worked. Only two theories left I had (just to calm myself and reduce the frustration it causes to NOT know what’s going on) were that it was either my videocard doing a bottleneck, which makes sense if we combine a brand new 2014 hardware with a 2008, 512MB videocard, or that it had to do with the clouds and the way Active Sky Next interacted with the simulator. The latter didn’t make much sense though since I experimented stuttering with both Active Sky Next open and closed; therefore, I was keeping the (fake) hope that once I updated my videocard the stuttering issue would be gone and I’d be happy. Not a very encouraging solution since I’m still months away from updating my videocard. Whenever I first run Windows my yoke’s X axis is always offset to the left, so I have to un-plug and re-plug it and it fixes itself. One weird thing I noticed in this PC (which didn’t happen in my previous one) is that whenever I unplugged the yoke (while also having the X52’s throttle and the Throttle Quadrant plugged), its icon in the notification bar took several seconds to disappear, as well as Windows’ sound that plays whenever I plug / unplug any USB device. Seemed as if something got frozen in the meanwhile, but I didn’t give much importance to it. At first I had both X52’s throttle and the additional Throttle Quadrant plugged into the yoke’s rear USB ports, but since I read somewhere that the yoke’s power alone might not suffice the other devices on it unless a power adapter was plugged on it, I preferred to plug each device in a separate USB port in the PC. When both SP1 and 777-300ER were released on the 18th I came back to my simulator (hadn’t touched it since the World Cup started), with the hope I could finally fix the issue so I could enjoy the plane. Since I had already tried anything else I could think of, I remembered the above mentioned USB unplugging freeze, although I always was like “nah, that wouldn’t make sense”. Well, this time it did! In one of my “what if…”’s I decided to unplug the Throttle Quadrant and leave only the yoke (with its default throttle) and X52’s throttle unit and voila! Stuttering disappeared. Vanished. I just couldn’t believe it. Went into the simulator, panned around and the stuttering was gone both in the cockpit and the outside locked spot view. The next day I did an entire flight to make sure it wasn’t just a wrong impression and that stuttering wouldn’t be back. Flight went out flawlessly! Only rare times it had an almost un-noticeable stuttering was when first loading big scenery objects or when focusing on IVAO’s MTL traffic, which is pretty normal. It is so heartwarming to finally have tracked down and fixed such an annoying issue and finally be able to fully enjoy flights! Now I have four questions: 1. Has anyone else experienced a similar issue? 2. If that’s the case, could anyone find a solution to it? I don’t really know if it’s related to the devices or some conflict with the USB ports, since I didn’t experience this in my previous PC. I wouldn't like to ditch my Throtlle Quadrant just for the sake of a better performance, either. 3. Has anyone experienced having any of the yoke’s (or any other device’s) axes offset, and that unplugging / replugging fixes the issue? 4. If that’s the case, could anyone find a solution to that? I suppose it has to do with the drivers, but honestly have no idea. Yes, I know this topic is waaay too long, I just wanted to describe it the most detailed way possible so it’s easier for other people to reproduce. When I found out what was causing me such stuttering I felt so happy that I wanted to share it, and possibly help anyone who might also be experiencing it but has no idea of what is causing it (yet). Thanks to those who actually read it fully! Regards. P.D. I'll also post this topic in AVSIM's "Hardware Controllers & Drivers" section so other people (who might not often access PMDG's section) can also read and comment on it.

That small detail could seriously compromise the flight's safety if a mid-air over-wing evacuation had to be made, so I wouldn't overlook at it like that. On a more serious note though, in a constructive way I don't see any harm in the point "Mo" raised. It's a very small and (with no disrespect intended) silly detail, that anyone could have missed. However, if I understand right, he isn't really debating whether the hook should be there or not, but the fact that (at least in the -300ER), the hook is visible while on the ground, but once airborne it simply disappears, which would then be a model-related bug since as far as I know the hook is static, not deployable. If I remember properly, this was also mentioned in another topic. Personally it doesn't affect me or the simulation itself at all, it's just that it's one of those little, curious details that would attract one's attention since, after all, their correction completes that flawless and top notch notion we all have about PMDG's products since they're the ones who got us used to such. If I was on the developer's side, I'd be like "oh snap, hadn't noticed that!" and just address it, that's what the feedback is there for isn't it? Hope I was clear enough to not generate any further misunderstanding! EDIT: Also worth mentioning, for anyone interested on checking out the emergency - evacuation equipment, be aware the FCOM has two volumes, Kyle meant page 1.50.6 of volume two. Don't worry, I got lost at first as well!

Awesome! Thanks for pointing it out Bob. Now I can run IvAp externally! Even though part of the sounds are lost when switching windows as Ryan just said, they now are intact when I move onto IvAp's scratchpad, which wasn't possible before this was implemented, thus forcing me to run IvAp internally and generated crashes to desktop some times when hitting the "Connect" button.

Oh I'm not the only one who was desperately looking for it! :lol:

Thankssss Ryan! Couldn't believe it when I saw it on Facebook. In my opinion, the most beautiful 777-300ER ever! :wub:

Oh alright, I recommend you a screenie when you get it! Thanks.

Nice! Thanks for taking the time. Can I make just another request please? ALL BLACKS :ph34r:

OOMFG. Now this is neat. If you or any of the beta testers / developers happen to publish a picture with the All Blacks livery that'll cure my anxiety until both SP1 and -300ER are released :lol: Thanks for the screenshots, Luke!

Oh, so I'm not the only one having this issue. Weird thing is this started happening only after I upgraded my PC (changed mobo, processor, RAM memory sticks and SSD, but using the same FSUIPC version). Never happened in my previous machine. Using also Saitek's throttle quadrant, only way for me to solve it, as well as Wayne, was assign the axes in both FSX menu and FSUIPC. They work fine but still stutter a little after passing around 100% N1. Do you development guys have an idea of what might be causing this? What is actually weird is that I did not experience it at all in my old PC (2008-ish).

Nice! I hope this time not to be the exception.

This is it. I'll give PMDG five (5) days to have both SP1 and 777-300ER ready and available for download / purchase, or else... Now seriously, I got a side question: along with the SP1 and 777-300ER, are you guys working in the Tutorial #2? Because I really am expecting it :ph34r: Would be nice to have it included in the package.

LOL

http://#####.wordpress.com/fsx-software-and-hardware-guide/ There Word Not Allowed gives a brief explanation of how to get the AffinityMask value for both HT enabled and disabled. According to him (and to what you see in the calculator, which makes sense), using AffinityMask=84 when HT is enabled inutilizes core 0 (threads 1 and 2), and only enables cores 1, 2 and 3 (threads 3, 5 and 7, which should be the "physical" ones if I got it right). Since I'm no expert in the subject, my question is: does HT make a difference regarding external programs? By this I mean performance related to other programs run in the background while FSX is running, say ActiveSky, Chrome, music programs, etc.? Or it's no difference at all?