Chris_the_Swiss

"I have nearly all the Captain SIm products. I'm not going to bash CS just for the sake of bashing them but, I do agree their products are somewhat sub-standard. Often, when I think about flying a CS I don't bother because I don't want the hassle. Their steam gauge products seem to be better and the CS 777 is a step back in terms of quality IMO. They seem to be going in the wrong direction with this release." And that's something I don't understand. How can you claim that you "have nearly all the Captain Sim products", if you then state that "their steam gauge products seem to be better"? Where's the logic? Stop discussing things you just know by heresay. Captain Sim has three add-ons that have steam gauges, the 727, the 707 and the 737-200, that's about 50% of their latest releases (the other 50% being the 767, 757 and the 777). Correct me if I'm wrong. It would be just like me stating an opinion about PMDG's J41, although I only own the NGX, the MD-11 and the 744. And what's "the wrong direction"? Logically, that would mean that the new version is worse than 0.9. However, the 1.0 is considerably better than the 0.9. It has it's flaws and I hope they will be sorted out. And what's the title of this topic? "CS B777- service pack 1.0 released!" - So to make our time worthwile, you'd talk about the positive and negative points of this new release after doing several flights with it. I would appreciate it. Chris

"this addon is a piece of ######!" > This is mere bashing und totally unfair. This product undoubtedly has some qualities, e.g. it's beautifully modelled, the vc is rather nice, ... It has also some negative aspects, problems which will hopefully be solved. "it's a shame to sell a V1.0 how is nearly equal of the 0.9 (a beta!!)and totally unflyable as a airliner... they just stole you 60€ /80$" > Do you own the latest version? I did a test flight yesterday when it came out straight "out of the box" and it worked just fine. Only problem I had was the missing TOD. Apart from that: really nice. Opus was on, no problems with the frames. So to say that this product is unflyable is definitely not true. Not telling the truth on purpose is lying. "I don't want to compare it to PMDG, it's a non-sens, so Quality Wings is in the mid core business too and they made 2 greats planes... far most advanced and playable than the lot of unfinished CS one..." > How many CS planes do you own? I have had both 757. The one that I have kept is the CS757 because the latest version is IMHO better than the other one: I prefer the looks of the vc, it flies just as well now, it has a bit more system depth. And the 707 and the 737-200 really are a lot of fun and quite immersive. Beautiful old-style VC's. Very stable, good frames, follow the GPS perfectly on a lazy flight. Some minor issues which you forget once you know the plane. "I'm reader of a french FS forum and we are starting to give as a personal gift all of our CS key to people how want them... with no success... no one want our garbage" > Giving out a key of a payware product is illegal and no serious FS forum can support such action. "CS is nearly dead, stop buying there unfinished products... force them to deserve our money..." > Where have you got this from, nearly dead? Is this insider knowledge or another lie? > I can understand it if someone doesn't want to buy a CS product. However, I cannot understand why people tolerate such behaviour: telling lies, illegal conduct etc. just in order to bash and ridicule a company. > By the way, I'm a free citizen and I love this hobby. I'm thankful for every company to contribute because they help to keep FSX/our hobby alive. Weren't it for those companies (PMDG, QW, Coolsky, Aerosoft, ... and CaptainSim) our hobby would be dead. And it's my own free will whether I support a product or not. Yes, I'm looking forward to the PMDG T7 but I'm also looking forward to the next Captain Sim product, maybe it is the 747-200?? I'd be more than happy. Chris

As many aircraft are released in near Beta-stage nowadays, I think this has become normal. Maybe the passengers get a ticket at a reduced price for being beta-testers. I wonder whether there's a sticker at the main door saying "Work in progress". ;-) Chris

A DREAM COME TRUE or as Barak Obama put it: THE BEST IS YET TO COME!! Chris

CS is really great in doning eye-candy stuff, such as virtual cabins, animations etc, but IMHO they should either improve their systems or drop them to support a "lite" aircraft. Judging from their latest releases (707, 737-200), they have improved indeed. So let's see what they will come up with as far as a complex aircraft (777) is concerned. Although there are still a lot of bugs, it seems that we have every reason to be optimistic. I just don't understand those who say they could do without eye-candy. Eye-candy belongs to a realistic feel as much as a good software. That's how we human beings work. Would you order blue spaghetti in a restaurant? I would be very reluctant because the visuals would turn me off. With the possibilities that we have nowadays, we can have eye-candy and good systems. That's what I expect from a great add-on. A PMDG 737NGX with a great cabin etc. would be better than without. I own that Airbus A300 for FSX that got excellent reviews. It sits there in the hangar because I just don't like the visuals. So the rock band Queen were right: I WANT IT ALL! ;-)

I own both, the Level-D and the Captain Sim 767. I loved the Level-d 767 in FS9. That's why I bought it again (full price!!) when I switched to FSX. Now I don't use it any longer for the following reason: I just hate having to load the FMC twice, having to insert all the information a second time after start-up. This bug drives me crazy and is IMHO not tolerable. Of course, there are ways around it, but they aren't the proper procedures. That's why I bought the Captain Sim 767 and have come to like it a lot. It isn't perfect by any means, but it does what it does really well. There's one little bug with the FMC (Top of Descent) but I have learnt a way around the problem and it works most of the time and it doesn't interfere with the normal procedures. What I get on top of a very stable add-on is a good VC with all the bells and whistles. Plus, I'm looking forward to the update. Level-D on the other hand said in their thread that they won't fix the bug I mentioned above until the 757 is out ... Therefore for me, the Captain Sim 767 is the best 767 add-on for FSX. And by the way, the 757 is on par with the 767 and it is going to be updated soon.

The most important and imo most sensible question is "What is the best Airbus for FSX at the moment." Furthermore, about the existing ones, "Is there any potential for improvement." From that point of view I'm really tempted to buy the Blackbox offering. Of course I'm really interested in the Aerosoft product as well and, judging by their excellent and transparent forum support, I'm fairly sure that their extended Airbus will be good. FSLabs sounds promising but it is not more than hearsay. IMHO there should be more information about the progress. We've had this with other companies ... That's why I like the approach of delivering a beta product and have the customers take part in the development. I usually wait until v1.0 is out because the testing time is too unnerving for me. However, in the meantime, I can watch how the product progresses. This is much better than any review of a long past version. What I don't understand is the fact that some people buy the more or less cheap beta-version and then complain that it has bugs. Can anyone tell me what the latest version of the Blackbox Airbus is like? The company advertises their update 0.54 as a rather big one. Can anyone confirm? Is it worth it now or would you rather wait? Christoph Kühne

Here's what my 737ngx looks like at the moment. It should be a 738 ... Sorry, can't upload the picture.

All my 737s are transparent now. Yesterday I installed SP1 after deleting all the old flights and the opition.ini file. It worked really well, no issues. I used the PMDG livery as I hadn't any other liveries installed.Today I couldn't help purchasing and installing the 600/700 and the new liveries: Everything is see-through now, from 600-900, exterior and interior. I tried to delete all the new 800-liveries and simulate last night's flight, but the trouble is there.What can I do now? Thanks for your support.Chrisi7 Sandy bridge, Windows 7 64-bit

Thanks for this tip. I'd like to express a warm thanks to all of you for your support, ideas, and for sharing your knowledge. Thanks to your advice I'm now able to finally fly the Maddog using the VC. But there were a number of things that needed changing:- convert to dxt3 to add alpha-channel- remove fs1view to be able to rotate the knobs- add a 30gb switch to avoid OOMs- change fs9.exe to enable the switchWith these things done, the Maddog (2008) is truly a marvel. I've just started to fly with it around the world. My first lag took me from LFPG (everything on 100% with heavy AI) to EGLL. Both airports are from Aerosoft. That was a really hard test on the system with the new 30gb switch. And it worked, no OOM, no lost textures. What a welcome change!!! At the moment, I'm in Seattle. The Maddog is so much fun and so smooth to fly.Too bad that LAGO doesn't seem to care and try to include these tips in their product. It was sad to see that this marvel add-on was rather useless right out of the box.Chris

Sounds interesting. What is it and where can I get it?. Would that work with all other add-ons as well?

I asked some questions about my vc problems in the Maddog 2010 Review-Topic. Since not all of my concerns could be solved and some more issues have come up and I couldn't find a similar entry, I decided to open this new topic.My issues:- As mentioned in the other topic: How can I move around the vc of Maddog 2008 without using the module FS1view.dll? Since I deinstalled it, I can rotate buttons (which really is a lot of fun! It's just like the real thing.) but I cannot move backwards or forward, left or right any longer.- All the screens (FMC, ...) remain black, even though they are on in the 2D-panel. How can I get them alive in the vc as well?Thanks for sharing your knowledge and skills with me.Chris

Yes, I have. And I've just removed it. The result is that I can now rotate the buttons, but I can't move about in the cockpit anymore. What's missing now? Thanks for your help.chris

I've just found the solution to my problem on my own, and it works. Thanks for the suggestions!!However, there's a further problem. Trying to rotate the buttons (e.g. autopilot/altitude) the button rotates alright but at the same time I move forward or backward in the vc. So, how can I stop the forward or backward movement while rotating a button? Suggestions really appreciated.Chris

Can you help me? I tried to open the bmp files, using the explorer. What I get is the paint program. Trying to save this, I can't find any DXT3 format. What am I doing wrong?Thanks for your answer.Chris

Thanks, that sounds very interesting. I'll try to do the change.Do you know if it's worth buying the upgrade from the 2008 pro edition to the 2010?

Could you tell me the difference between the Maddog 2008 and 2010? Is it worth buying the upgrade? I've had the 2008 edition for a while now and the reason why I seldom fly the bird is the VC. I get rather poor framerates in the 2D cockpit ( compared to all the other add-ons I know, I have most of them) and the VC is even worse. In addition to that, I just can't work the buttons. Why on earth couldn't they come up with a more customer friendly way to dial? Furthermore, in comparison to PMDG's MD-11 or AS's Airbus, their VC seems to belong to years long gone by.So, does the 2010 edition make a difference? Has Lago also updated the model, e.g. the nose which has never been exactly like the real deal? Or should I wait for the next edition (if there is one)? And here's another question: Why are most of the posts in the support forum quite old? Have the fans run out of questions or is the company dead? Thank you for your honest replies.Chris