krazyk

It has not yet been updated to work with P3Dv4.4. The developer is away but we should see basic compatibility sometime this week while larger feature upgrades will come soon after.

If the motherboard changes, you've got to reactivate Windows. That was the case with the OS before W10 but now, if you have the system tied to your MS account, you could easily reactivate your new hardware without going through much fuss (as long as your current system has been tied to your MS account). Follow the steps mentioned here so your current system is registered properly before a hardware swap: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change

I presume this is an exaggeration as feeding a route into the Q400 is frankly quite easy. A few mouse clicks and you're there. Type in the departure airport (SID, if you're using/been assigned one). From there on it's a simple case of clicking on 'List', then 'Airways' and selecting the appropriate airway/endpoint until you're ready to type in your destination field. Even if you push the endurance of the aircraft to its maximum, you can still finish inputting the entire route in under 5 minutes. Surely you haven't been typing each and every waypoint (without considering you could feed in airways) and that's why it's taking you so long? Similarly, if you go through the product manual, you'll see that the Majestic Q400 simulates the tiller axis separately from the rudder axis so you'd have to use the tiller controls on the captain's side to turn the airplane on the ground (assuming you've already flipped the switch for nosewheel steering correctly after pushback). FSUIPC could assist you in assigning the tiller to a function on your hardware or if you only have access to a single rotating axis (used for rudder usually), you could edit the 'mjc84.ini' file found in 'Prepar3D v4\SimObjects\Airplanes\mjc8q400\ini' folder. The variable you're looking for is 'PEDALS_STEERING_EFFECTIVENESS='. Adjusting that to anywhere between 4 and 6 will allow you to control the steering on the ground with relative ease. Do keep in mind that you need to have the 'STEERING CONTROL MODE' found in the MJC8 Q400 Control Panel app set to 'Ailerons+Mouse'. From there on, the rudder axis on your joystick will control ground steering as well and if you're still running short of control authority, you could use the aileron axis on your joystick to get a pronounced response from the nosewheel.

You might have some other issue. Just tried it and all is working just fine here, as is the QW 787.

Sure, I'm still on v24 myself for the same reason. Here you go: https://mega.nz/#!jZNA3KLD!rH0uJmcc_HJC2cCXDENAE67AooHdLZqfl6EiSbMnn0Y

There were some changes made to the reflection process in v25 which is why you're seeing these errors. The developers of those profiles will likely need to update their work to be fully compatible with v25 and beyond. Until they do and you're satisfied with the new profiles, I would suggest you go back to v24 and continue using the current profiles. Do keep in mind that if you come across some profile made for v25 (for example the QW BAE profiles), they will not work with v24 so either message those developers and request they supplement it with a v24 specific profile or wait until the rest of the incompatible profiles are updated to v25 standard. As far as I am aware, the developer of TomatoShade is only available on Discord.

Discord usually. The developer likes to maintain his privacy so he's only active when he's ready to announce a new version of TomatoShade. You can reach out to him but that again is also only possible via Discord.

Direct from the developer of TomatoShade: "Now to a big new feature of the new version - the refractive rain drops: this addition lays on top of the wind shield effects the aircraft itself produces. It does not create raindrops itself. To be able to see this feature, you need to have a profile for the VC applied, which has this feature activated. At the moment, only the FSLabs A319 profiles are up to date, the PMDG 747-8 VC is for an older version of the -8. You can still use it, however the profile is not complete yet. The refractive rain works with FSLabs rain effects, PMDG Rainmaker, TrueGlass and A2A's rain effect with the Bonanza."

Definitely looks a lot better, keep at it and has me interested!

Took me by surprise as well. Annoying feature. You can turn it off by doing the following: Preferences - Camera - (Right side) Cinematic Mode - (6th slider) Auto-Enable Its set to activate at a certain flight level. Slide it all the way to the left till it says 'Auto-Enable Disabled' and no more camera going wild.

I don't use any of those ENV products so I'm not sure if they can be used together. However, if you're able to use them with PTA, then it would suggest that none of them modify the shaders for the sim like PTA and TomatoShade do so it should be safe. Still, I would advise you backup relevant files before experimenting. Performance is a direct function of your settings in sim, especially related to reflections. TomatoShade offers the feature of reflections on your aircraft and different settings will reflect different objects but the general consensus is the higher your Dynamic Reflection setting in sim, the more it's going to cost you in performance as there's more for TomatoShade to reflect. I use the 'Medium' setting and see no loss of performance with TomatoShade reflections enabled which give me just enough reflections to make it look realistic and not overly polished. If you have a strong GPU (I run a GTX970) then you could go with higher settings of dynamic reflections enabling even more objects being reflected on the fuselage and other parts of the aircraft.

I recently got Chaseplane after being kind of frustrated with the restricted movement P3D offers. The 'Avatar' feature is great but again the controls take away from enjoying it. I had been reading a bit about Chaseplane and asked a few friends who got it before me on what it was like. They all were reasonably happy with their purchase and seemed the enjoy the new mobility it offers to marvel at your airplane or just walk around the airport. So, I got it too. It does enhance on the immersion quite a bit and it has a lot of standard features (compared to EzDok) like shaking, breathing, momentum effects, etc. I think Ezdok has more of these little options that you can tweak to your satisfaction. The community section in Chaseplane allows you to browse and instantly download pre-created views for almost every airplane add-on out there so setting it up for your plane of choice is pretty quick, allowing you to focus on doing your pre-flight on time. Chaseplane is also compatible with TrackIR, according to their website. Joystick, Yoke, Keyboard or even an XBox controller - you could use any of them to manipulate Chaseplane. BUT there are two things I don't agree with - Price and always online connectivity. It's a camera add-on and I don't think it's worth more than $15 at full functionality. I browsed their website for other products and the pricing generally is on the higher side, for me, even for the immersion packs. This is, however, a subjective function so I'll let you decide how much a camera add-on is worth in your eyes. The 'Always online' function is supposedly going to be changed where you don't need to have a persistent online connection in order to use the add-on but we're on v1.0.9 at the moment and I haven't seen anything to suggest this has changed. If you're okay with the above, it would certainly be an add-on you could quickly get used to and enjoy but I can certainly live without it.

Pretty much. However, the differences between PTA and TomatoShade are growing at a rapid pace since TomatoShade is in constant development. You can try your favorite PTA preset (be sure to restore shaders to default first) and see if it works without errors. From my experience, I've rarely come across a PTA preset that wasn't completely compatible but it's been quite a long time since I've looked for any PTA preset anyway. There are plenty of dedicated TomatoShade presets, so for best results I'd say get one of those from the links mentioned in my previous post. If you really want the exact details of what can/can't be accomplished with TomatoShade, you can go through the manual. Rayleigh scattering is just one of the features that you can tune to your liking. There is an entire section dedicated to improving performance and dynamic lighting in sim alongside advanced atmosphere scattering, specular lighting, fog scattering, autogen lights adjustments, precipitation opacity, shadows, post-processing, stars lighting intensity, particle size lighting (essential if you feel the runway lights aren't unique enough to the surrounding lighting at a distance) and the list goes on. In the end, you get visuals closer to what you see in XP11 (not as detailed obviously but better than what comes with P3D for the moment). It's best if you try it for yourself.

PTA & TomatoShade modify shaders of P3D which is why there is a conflict. You can only use one of those at a time otherwise you're bound to end up corrupting those shader files. PTA started off as the father of shader modding but TomatoShade was introduced when PTA was bought out by Matt Davies and turned into a payware product while TomatoShade remains a passion project that is also free of charge. Majority of the features in both are identical. However, TomatoShade is continually updated and came out with pseudo-reflections for aircraft in P3D. This isn't true reflections but an estimation which works pretty well for someone who only has access to shaders without any sim core files. Although there are a few more really nifty features in TomatoShade, aircraft reflections and moisture on surfaces (airport or aircraft) are some of the more popular ones. The plus side is that nearly all PTA presets work with TomatoShade out of the box. Where you may need to find a TomatoShade specific preset is in the scenario of the user deciding to add reflections to their aircraft. You can modify an existing PTA preset within TomatoShade to take advantage of this effect or simply download one of the many presets available in Facebook/Discord groups or websites created by simmers to document their own settings, presets, etc. The future of PTA is undecided as the developer is going through several personal issues so the software may never be adapted for future versions of P3D or introduce the new features TomatoShade already offers. You could go about switching from PTA to TomatoShade by doing the following: 1. Open PTA, find the setting which restores your shaders to their default condition and restore the shaders. 2. Delete PTA and install TomatoShade (a drag and drop function into a folder of your choice like PTA was when it was freeware) 3. Find a preset online (example: https://www.rdpresets.com/rd-tomatoshade-preset.html OR https://live-cockpits.weebly.com/tomatoshade.html) 4. Run TomatoShade so it can create a backup of your original shaders. 5. Apply the preset you downloaded from one of the two websites above. The next steps are only if you have dynamic reflections enabled in the preset (for aircraft reflections) 6. If you/the preset enabled dynamic reflections, the software will warn you that you have not applied aircraft reflection profiles for your add-on aircraft. 7. Download aircraft reflection profiles (*example: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bxcgdvznl0eear2/AAAsfpUBeVLtA-aS7hRTG5Cla?dl=0&lst=) *The dropbox link contain profiles created by the developer of TomatoShade. They are not as good as user-created profiles but will give you an idea of how the aircraft will look with reflections turned on. To get more up to date and better profiles, it would be best to join the P3D groups on Facebook as they're usually shared there. 8. Close TomatoShade and open another program in the same folder called 'DynamicReflectionMaker'. 9. The list is populated with all aircraft in your SimObjects folder so search for your add-on aircraft. For example, 'PMDG 737'. 10. On the right, click on 'Open a profile'. 11. Browse to the profile downloaded on Step 7. 12. Apply and click on 'Save' on the top right. You'll notice the aircraft in the aircraft list on the left will turn red. This means the reflection profile has been applied successfully. Make sure you go into P3D settings and have 'Dynamic reflections' enabled. 'Medium' setting works and looks best, in my opinion. It can seem daunting at first to go through it all but once you get the hang of it (made easier as the developer chose to keep a similar UI to the freeware PTA), it becomes a breeze to operate and the results are nothing short of stunning in sim. If you need my help in expanding on a certain step, feel free to PM me.

Ideally, get both. They're great products in their own classes. If you had to choose one, the TFDi 717 still suffers from some CTDs which might be resolved with the next P3D update but it isn't as polished as the MD so I would go with the MD80. It is up there with FSL and Majestic, way above PMDG.

Ah, what a tease! I came in here thinking it might also be for P3D but darn! Guess I'll have to wait a little longer for their site-wide sale to pick up the 757 RR Expansion for P3D.

He was never involved with the development behind POSCON, nor does have the skills to do so, so POSCON remains and develops as per schedule. The extent of his role there was management only & the future of POSCON isn't under any kind of threat from this development.

You will see an improvement in areas that haven't been updated in the base sim since the FSX days. Load up somewhere in Africa or Asia and compare the surrounding region with FreeMeshX active and inactive. You should see a visible improvement with finer details and accurate topography in hilly areas. I believe the stock data is LOD6/7 and FreeMeshX brings these areas up to LOD10 in most areas and LOD9 in some remote regions around the globe. Regions like the US won't be the ideal area to see the difference as the stock data there seems to be LOD10 already.

Has any developer actually done this before or will it present itself under the guise of a sudden sale?

The Aerosoft bird is fantastic if you want a beginner's Airbus that does most of the face value items quite well. Things like the texture & model work, variants, shared cockpit (still a WIP, I understand), FMS, etc. These are things the average simmer would interact and enjoy without questioning the underlying functionality or basis of the simulation because it gets them from point A to point B but it won't do anything else for you - sounds, systems, immersion, etc. The FSL bird is fantastic if you want an advanced simulation of nearly all Airbus systems as well as aerodynamics logic. Here you will find the true showcase of 'cause and effect'. From the jaw-dropping systems to the aural simulation of what the real world counterpart sounds like, this is where it all comes together and I don't think anyone that has tried both products would deny that. The price points reflect the above. For Aerosoft, you pay X amount for recycled code which was improved upon while also adding newer features like the inclusion of TFDi Reallight & TrueGlass, and several Airbus variants but you only get the features that will allow a fairly inexperienced simmer to be content. For FSL, you get an add-on that will show you its worth from the minute you load it up to the minute you shut it down, relentlessly. It's a product that is far beyond just an aircraft shell and systems simulator. In fact, it goes beyond anything else I've ever experienced in an aircraft add-on before - even Majestic whom I considered to be at the top of the game. You pay a high initial cost but I assure you, you are getting a LOT more for your money here compared to some other top-tier companies in the business. I don't think anything else comes close to what they have achieved and they seem to consistently raise the bar that was already too high for anyone else to reach. If you can justify spending your valuable funds on something like PMDG which doesn't offer a strand of immersion close to the FSL, you can easily justify the cost of picking up an Airbus by FSL and really celebrate what simulation has become today. I rarely describe an FS product as 'art' or 'a labour of love' but I truly believe that Majestic and now FSL have created works of art stemmed from a passion that surpasses every other developer in the business of making aircraft add-ons. As for performance, I run both the FSL A319-320 on an old i7 4790K with a GTX 970 and 16GB of RAM and have little to no issues running the aircraft with modest to above average settings.

Sure, it could help me understand how the tool functions although I'll likely do a complete version myself, eventually. I have some time this week so I'll give it a shot. From there on, it depends on how time-consuming the process actually is before the mod is available for you and the rest to enjoy. As a fail-safe, you should also contact ImagineSim and see if they are working on it too, although I doubt any work is being done on the current version as they're likely to do a brand new variant using current technology and features in P3Dv4 but we could be years away from that happening.

EASA ATP with a B737NG TR. GA ratings include C152/172/182, DA20/40/42, Cirrus SR22, Piper PA28/44. CFI/CFII S/E & M/E and a bit of ground instruction time too. Simming started way before professional training. I think my first ever sim was Microsoft Flight Simulator 4.0.

Hi Swapnil, I have picked up the GSX L2 Expansion but it will be a while before I can get around to experimenting with it. Hopefully, you'll have a full SODE compliant VIDP mod from me soon.

Process Lasso can do that for you.

Looks a lot like the original one which has been around for quite a long time now. You can visit it here. Free and works on both PCs as well as mobile devices. Either way, nice find.