clarkTX

I don't have the 747 but I have the PMDG MD11. Active Sky 2012 "DWC mode" should take care of this for you without FSUIPC. You can find/get details in the official Active Sky forums on the HiFi site, or possibly in the dedicated Active Sky support forum here on AVSIM.

It sounds great if you have a direct need for it; eg your control-mapping software isn't up to snuff or some add-on requires it. I've avoided it so far because it sounds like it touches a lot of things that are already working fine on my system. The laundry list of things in FSX that have to be configured and corrected is long enough already, and I avoid unnecessary additional "moving parts" whenever I can. Thanks for this info. When you go to the "official" download page, it does look like an abandoned product.

AS will update weather during your flight if you wish, and at intervals that you wish (15 mins, 1 hour, etc). It can also download any weather condition from up to two years ago and freeze at that moment with no updates if you wish. I don't know what version is currently shipping but the updates are easy to download and apply. The beta updates are stable so don't hesitate to try them if you can't wait.

Consider getting Active Sky 2012 which will not only address this issue but will also give you better weather graphics, an advanced dynamic weather engine, weather data sheets for your FMC programming, and access to live and historical (back 2 years) weather data. Cheers Clark

My 2 cents, don't waste the extra money on a water cooler unless you are trying to get above 4.5Ghz; then I imagine you'll need to get a very good cooler indeed. (like $200 or better). For o-clocks in the range of 4.5 Ghz, you don't need extreme cooling; just better than stock. Side-by-side comparisons say the better air coolers (large units with push/pull fans) are just as good if not better than water coolers in the $100 range. A fixed fan speed push/pull unit is around $40. Here's just one comparison: http://techreport.com/review/16744/battle-of-the-elements-air-vs-water-cpu-cooler-showdown/8 There's nothing magical about water cooling: it just uses a liquid pipe to transfer the heat out to a radiator outside the case. If your case is roomy and has good flow through, its more simple tech to put the radiator inside the case. Water coolers under $100 don't have radiators that compare to the in-case air coolers but they are convenient if you have a cramped case. For extreme clockers, a water cooler is necessary because they use huge 4-8 fan radiator arrays that cannot fit in the case. Clark

Just ran a test on a long flight with an Eaglesoft add-on aircraft. Used physical memory (commit memory) is under 3.5 GB with FSX, TrackIR,, 100 planes from Ultimate Traffic 2 Active Sky 2012 (with its high-res textures), Chrome with Airnav website up, etc... FSX itself stays under 2.5GB. This is in detailed places like SFO, with autogen and terrain settings near max. Is there anything extra you are running on your system, Paul? 6GB seems pretty high. Edit: I run in DX9 mode, so maybe that is making some difference...

I think so, especially if the new MB allows you to overclock the CPU to 4.5 Ghz (very typical). To me at least, price per performance goes up quickly past these hardware specs.

This is strange behavior. I would expect AS would linearly vary the wind parameters as you transition from one alt to the other. You say it has a hard break instead? Clark

Mid-upper 20's. Cloud count and AI count seem to be my biggest factors. When they get really busy (lots of clouds and scores of planes at an airport) FPS can sink to around 20, which is much better than with the i3 (12-15). FPS improves greatly once I get airborne. Don't recall using more than 3GB of memory but I'll have to double check. I use Active Sky 2012, Track IR, Ultimate traffic 2, PMDG, FS2Crew... There's lots of variables here and things to tweak in fsx.cfg so your mileage can vary. Still, i3 to i5 was a very noticeable difference.

I have almost the same setup (except the equiv AMD card) and going from the i3 to an i5 overclocked to 4.5Ghz doubled my frame rate in most situations. You'll see FSX making use of 3 cores easily. I have a Z68 motherboard that supports the overclocking. I also installed a $35 cooler Master constant speed CPU fan (its the size of a softball ). 4.5 Ghz was easy to achieve without going over 70c. Didn't seem worth it to push it beyond that. I'm really happy I made the switch. Clark

Snark ignored. I flew to PAUN in a Cessna with a stock FMS so that's all I could say about it. However, I did have very similar problems at KSEA on the PMDG MD11 and all that was needed to "fix" the MD11 ILS offset to match the default airport was just the registry fix I mentioned. That doesn't accommodate the new runway they added though. Since then I've landed at dozens of stock FSX US airports with no problems in the MD11. Sooo, someday maybe I'll encounter a mismatch and need to download the mag file, or maybe not. So far so good. Don't know what else to say.

This is all I had to do to fix the runways I had problems with: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/356825-ils-localizer-slip-off-744x-and-md11x/ I didn't have to grab any new mag files or Navigraph data to work with native FSX airports so far but I'm not 100% certain about Unalakleet. I landed there once two weeks ago using native FSX GPS and I don't recall any problems. And yeah, it was totally barren; just a turn off and a fuel box Clark Thanks for the tip!

It does support reloading saves. Since it takes a few seconds to load the plane into the game, sometimes it takes a few tries because FSX is impatient. However, if you pre-load the MD11 before you load the save game it seems more reliable. So: 1. save the flight in progress 2. game crashes 3. restart FSX 4. on "Free Flight" page, load the MD11 first 5. now load your saved flight For the first few seconds inside the world, the plane will go wonky while the game systems initialize but it usually settles down and you can continue flying. The only consistent problem I get is a "Cabin Pressure" warning light that won't extinguish that is a leftover of the start-up craziness. Doesn't affect the flight otherwise. Clark

New idea. Did you remember to pull the Baro knob to reset the altimeter to standard pressure? If you didn't then you can't be sure you were at FL340. If you were really above FL340 then the FMS probably doesn't want you entering a new CRZ level below your current altitude. Also, check the MAXFL on the Init page. If for some reason it is below FL340, then the FMS would probably reject 340 unless (maybe) it was a CRZ step-up like 320/340 etc... Clark

Don't have NGX, but on the MD11 I find it easy with TrackIR. To help, I added TIR/pause on a secondary mouse button: 1- turn head to radio stack and "pause" Track/ir 2- tune radios 3 - unpause track IR Works well, especially since PMDG's radio knobs are designed with good mouse scroll zones.

That page can definitely be changed in flight. This is the way you update the cruise level and it should have solved your problem. I've done it before myself and I didn't have to be at the new level. Please post a screen shot of the FMS with 340 in the scratchpad just before you press the LSK button and maybe something will stand out. Good luck Clark

Your copilot is there to handle the radio. In FSX this is simulated by using the '1' shortcut in the ATC window. I agree with you that its fun to be a pilot; just don't overdo it trying to be pilot and copilot. Like in real life a SID is the base plan for a flight but ATC is going to take you off it when it suits them. So in FSX they do take you off before the end but that's the way it should work. The only real problem I have with FSX ATC is they don't help you clear over mountains along the path; they tell you to descend but its up to you to choose the descent rate that gets you past the mountains before getting too low. Sometimes they complain if that takes awhile Clark edit: sorry, I confused SID with STAR. Yep, its hard to juggle the radio while climbing out just above stall speed

oops - wrong post.

Two possibilities: 1) speed is under FMS control (magenta cues above speed tape) but in "pitch" mode. The airplane may be descending shallow or not at all in order to reduce speed via pitch. If so you can add spoilers to help it slow down and continue descending. 2) speed is under direct control via the Speed knob (white speed target above the airspeed tape) and is using "pitch mode" to reach this speed override target. You could use spoilers here as well to respect your override, or push the FMS button under the speed knob to restore speed control to the FMSs. Or it could be something different. Will know more with a screen shot. Clark

UT2 is a viable choice. It works for me. I wanted to see a busy FedEx hub so I followed the clear instructions by a user on their forums to add the FedEx repaints and schedules and now I fly out of busy FedEx hubs. I like the sliders in UT2 that allow you to adjust how many planes it spawns. It has separate sliders for airlines and GA so you can skew it one way or the other if you want. I skew it to airlines when I fly heavies; I skew it towards GA when flying small stuff. You can easily clear away the AI while in-game to test framerates or to clear the pattern when you don't want to wait your turn. Also, when reading these comparison posts keep this in mind: * "30%" in one add-on cannot be compared to "30%" in another add-on; one needs to ask "how many a/c is 30%" * these traffic add-ons decide when to inject a/c and the flight plan of the a/c; they do not control the tower or taxi routing or ground placement within a gate; those bugs are all FSX and airport model layout * framerate depends on the model (which are usually provided by the add-on or you or downloads), ground physics (all FSX), and flight physics (all FSX) multiplied by the number of a/c in the scene; all the add-on can do is scale the number of a/c, choose the model, and decide what is moving or just sleeping at the gate. In other words, all of the add-ons can have some part in the framerate, and you should ask about the settings in the add-on, but much of the framerate is the FSX physics. Sounds like they are all workable so just pick one and fly! Clark

The Flaps 50 is hindering your efforts to recover and narrowing the acceptable speed range so much you are having trouble staying in it. At those speeds the aircraft is probably really sluggish. I rarely use Flaps 50 and only during the last few seconds of a landing IF everything is very stable, and I let the ATS deal with it then. If you were landing manually and lost control, you want to add power and reduce flaps to 25 (then to 15) so you can accelerate rapidly while climbing. Just to check, is this during takeoff or landing? Takeoff does not require Flap 50. Use Flaps 25 for takeoffs. In short, do not linger around in Flaps 50. good luck Clark

Yes please!

Giving FXAA a try. I have a Radeon HD 6850 with latest Direct X. I deleted my Radeon profile for FSX and disabled anti-aliasing in FSX itself. I run FSX in Windowed mode with the VSync/Aero fix startup method. I installed a FXAA profile for FSX, verified it copied its file shortcuts into the FSX folder (d3d9 dlls, shaders, injx folder, etc), and did a simple test with just FXAA anti-aliasing and sharpening enabled. I went into those feature pages and MAX'd their effects for quality. SAVED the FSX profile settings in FXAA. Got into the game. Nothing. No anti-aliasing in effect. FXAA seems to be an NVidia product; will it work with my Radeon? Anything I missed during install? Thanks Clark PS Log.log file: redirecting CreateDXGIFactory redirecting CreateDXGIFactory redirecting CreateDXGIFactory1 redirecting CreateDXGIFactory

Hi Fu My enjoyment of the MD-11 increased a lot when I also purchased Active Sky 2012. AS allows you to set and read 'winds aloft' data so you can enter the cruise altitude temperature and headwind component into the MCDU Init page. This makes "time to arrival" and fuel usage predictions much more interesting than when using the stock FSX weather. You should give it a try. And I agree that when you keep the FMCs well-informed of your intentions, the MD-11 piloting experience is really cool. Happy Holidays Clark Ha! I didn't know what 'RTA' was so my reply may seem a bit off-topic.

I've read a lot of posts in this forum but can't find many that deal with my lowly i3-2100-3.1GHz. Many non-FSX sites post benchmarks that I suspect reflect multi-core optimized apps which we know FSX is not. The FSMarks thread has so few i3 entries. If this q has been answered already, I'd appreciate a link to the post. Thanks! So... I don't have the skillz, time, money etc to take on the risks and equipment of OC'ing so I simply want to know if dropping in an i5 or i7 in place of my i3 will make much of a difference in framerate. By tweaking fsx.cfg, video settings, and game settings, it seems like I can work with my existing gfx card for now. It does seem like I am CPU bound for the most part. I'm at 15fps in busy airports and cloudy skies, Track IR, Active Sky 2012. I'd like 25. Since the stock Hz isn't much different between all 3 chips, will moving up make much of a difference? Do the "Turbo" Hz make a practical difference as well or is that marketing fluff? Track IR and AS2012 don't use much CPU but I suppose there will be a little gain if they get their own cores... Thanks Clark PS I have a z68 chipset MB.