ADamiani

Hi, I followed your advice by renaming the preferences folder (we are talking of that inside the Output folder right?). Then I tried to run X-Plane (10.50b6), but after 40 minutes it is still loading resources ..... Andrea

I have recently found a near-perfect setup with Aerowinx PSX (747-400) and P3D3.5 as scenery generator and this is all I fly now, with ASN. The only exception is the occasional A2A 172 or 182 short hop to do some sightseeing. It should be noted that the connection between PSX and P3D3 does not use Simconnect; it is obtained via ExternalSim, and it produces the smoothest simulation experience that you can imagine. Quoting the LM Learning Center: "The ExternalSim capabilities of Prepar3D give developers to ability create their own external simulations that can be ran inside of Prepar3D" If you want to give it a try, the SDK includes the source code for a flying saucer using that technology. It would be really great if some developer made tried that approach! Andrea Damiani

Uhm ... looks like a Klingon bird-of-prey from Star Trek tbh ... :-))))) ANdrea

I am generally happy with P3D3.1 performance-wise; my rig is a 2600K oc to 4.5GHz, 16GB 1600 DDR3 RAM, GTX980TI STRIX, Win7pro on its 250 GB SSD and P3D3 on its own 500 GB SSD. It runs quite smooth with all GPU related sliders pretty much to the right and some acceptable compromises with CPU related ones. Only problem: the occasional stutter; well, more than that: the sim actually stops dead for half a second, sometimes longer, then it resumes. It happens about once in to o three minutes in slow flight, more often during fast flight (default F35) Addons: ASNext, FTX Global (flying over Italy with no addon airport at all) I tried to monitor resources and found out that invariably, before the hiccup happens, it is loading something, then HD activity stops dead and then it resumes. In practice, I see two peaks with a valley in the middle for the duration of the pause. Also, sometimes, during this time interval, CPU usage goes from the usual 30% - 40% very close to 0 and then back. Looks like something serious is happening during the pause. Then today I got a hint: a crash of P3D3 (it NEVER crashed before, it is quite stable), complaining about a fault in module StackHash_4baf (details included further down). I investigated the thing and found out that it is related to data execution protection; tried to turn DEP off for P3D3 but I couldn't: it says that P3D3 needs it enabled. So my conclusion is that maybe there is actually something going on there, and that all hiccups might be related to the same problem, with the system trying to recover some piece of data and stopping dead waiting; the one time it got really bad the sim acted up. Now, if only someone more expert could help me with this .... Thanks Andrea Problem signature: Problem Event Name: APPCRASH Application Name: Prepar3D.exe Application Version: 3.1.2.15831 Application Timestamp: 5672b60a Fault Module Name: StackHash_4baf Fault Module Version: 6.1.7601.18798 Fault Module Timestamp: 5507b3e0 Exception Code: c0000374 Exception Offset: 000cea0b OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1 Locale ID: 1040 Additional Information 1: 4baf Additional Information 2: 4bafdb9123bce5309c09630570acc5a2 Additional Information 3: 2cd7 Additional Information 4: 2cd75ee6ac94e3578f1648244e761c7b

Thank'you all, I see our experiences are consistent; I finally downloaded the scenery this morning, that's 10 hours ago, while getting ready for school. It took less than 15 minutes. Interestingly, they never accept responsibility for the inconvenience. A peculiar policy indeed, when they could simply advice to try again at a more convenient time ... Anyway, all is good ... Andrea

Yup, tnx, Antivirus is off, I am trying again and getting a forecast of 15-19 hours. Ok, good night. Best luck tomorrow, I'll launch the dl again before going to work. Tnx again Andrea

Hi Poppet, thanks for your answer, unfortunately there is no server choice, just that one. I also opened a ticket with SimMarket and tbh I had a very quick answer. They say that everything is ok on their side and that they are not responsible for download speed, and that "For very large files you should have a fast and reliable connection to the internet as well as time and patience." I suggested that they write about time and patience in the product description and don't let the customer find out the hard way after the credit card has been charged. Restarted now after it got stuck. Forecast is currently 14-20 hours and we are still at 0.0 Disappointing. Andrea

I'm trying to download a scenery (NewYorkX for P3D3) I just purchased from SimMarket, ok it's 3.1 GB, but forecast is oscillating between 15 and 48 hours (!!!), and after 20 minutes it's still at 0.0 (nothing received)! My connection is quite good and working well (100 Mb/s). Has anyone experienced that kind of problem? Thank'you Andrea Damiani

I posted my SimConnect.xml in an attempt to help you, but the post was deleted because I signed it with my name only (my second name is both in my account and in two other posts in the same thread). Strict rules can produce funny side effects sometimes, but anyway. Now, I would be glad to repost it, only this time I want to make sure I am allowed to do that: I don't want to find out that I am infringing some other rule. So the question is: am I allowed to post my SimConnect.xml here? On the other hand, maybe that's not the solution (worked for me but who knows) and you are supposed to do something else, after all I am not the expert here, just trying to help. Andrea Damiani Rome - Italy -EU Planet Earth - Sol system ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha

Is SimConnect.xml where it is supposed to be? C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3 Cheers Andrea

I solved that problem with the panel by: 1) installing all three versions of simconnect as per the included readme file 2) copying the v2.5 SimConnect.xml from C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2 to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3 Apparently no installer had performed that operation. Cheers Andrea Damiani

Hi, just purchased P3Dv3 so I thought I'd install my favourite small liner. Downloaded the new NGX installer from my account, launched it, removed version 2.5, then installed v3. When I launched P3Dv3 and tried to fly the NGX I noticed that only the autopilot part of the panel was working, everything else was not responding to mouse clicks, and even the FMC was unresponsive. Exited P3D, installed simconnect as per the readme instructions (all three versions in the right order) then got back to the sim: no joy, it's not working, same panel problem. I get the same SMOKESYSTEM error as many others, but I think it's got nothing to do with my problem, Also, notice that I was not asked for my registration key, but that may be because the NGX was already installed on v2.5. Of course, there is no addon installed: we are talking of plain P3Dv3. OS is Windows 7, and of course the NGX worked perfectly well with 2.5 (and now it seems I won't be able to reinstall that version) Can you please help? Andrea Damiani

Just my 2 cents: I think we need some comparison of v2.5 vs v3 with the same addons installed: while it is unfair to compare P3D with FSX with "all maxed out", when P3D has so many more features, it is equally misleading to compare a vanilla v3 with an overburdened (addons-wise) v2.5. Anyway, I really hope it turns out well! Andrea

I want to thank all those who are writing n this topic, because it is one of the mot interesting to this old simmer, who remembers a Commodore 64 struggling to show 4 frames per second at Meigs (what was supposed to be Meigs). In these 30 years many things have changed, most for the better, but I think we have sometimes lost our bearings. I have. When we had FS4 my dream was 12 fps, which seemed unattainable, then with FS5 it was 18 fps, because a new sim, called Airline Simulator, came out, that showed how 18 CONSISTENT frames per second were enough to enjoy the ride. I think that we got too attached to fps, that we ended up like those audio nerds (my other hobby) who judge sound by the numbers instead of listening through their ears. As a mathematician, and machine learning researcher, I know the limits of numbers. I often say to my students: "when reality knocks at physics' door, it's physics that must leave town, and mathematics follows with chalks, blackboards and everything". So, after reading this topic, including some excellent contributions by Steve, I made a few experiments and now my mind's made up. My present system is an old but honest [email protected] GHz, a 4GB 970Ti, 1920x1200 resolution, two Samsung SSD's, one for Win7 Pro and one for P3D2.5. Both SSD's are more than half empty. My flightsim policy for the future is: 0) No config hocus-pocus 1) Set the limit @20fps. Gauge all settings so that my flight will NEVER fall under 20fps. This means that I can have a collection of different cfg files depending on: Aircraft, Scenery, Weather. Smooth. 2) Buy a new rig only if either: a) it allows me to significantly improve my settings while maintaining my 20 smooth fps b) it allows me to maintain the same level of detail while getting to 30 smooth fps 3) Rinse and repeat aiming @ 60 smooth fps, and/or 4K. 5) NEVER buy a new scenery or aircraft if it makes me lose smoothness. It's a threshold effect, so it's pretty obvious to check. So now I am eyeing a 6700K with 970 (or 980) video card. Do you believe that such a system will give me that extra kick over my present one? Thank'you very much. Andrea

Steve, your answer makes a lot of sense to me and clarifies a lot of doubts. Does it work the same way with P3D2 as well? Because in that case the best solution for me appears to set it limited @20 until I have the hardware to step up to 30 and so on .... Andrea

Well, that would be impressive, or even altogether awesome, IF someone, hypothetically, had seen all that happening with his/her eyes while testing it in the last weeks .... :-) Take care Andrea

Just out of interest Rob .... are we to expect another 2.x update, i.e. 2.6 or is it straight to 3.0 ? Then I won't ask anything else, I promise. And call me when you are in Italy! Andrea

That about the flightmodel is an interesting debate. I reckon that P3D's dynamics are based on lookup tables: for each flight configuration, given certain coefficients that model the aircraft behaviour, a lookup is performed which gives the next aircraft state, and so on. The "other" sim is based on a geometric approach: the aircraft is analyzed and broken into parts, then a finite element routine is applied to each part in order to determine its beahaviour through the airstream. resulting forces are derived and applied to a Newtonian model, which in turn determines the 6-component acceleration needed to update the actual updated aircraft state. As a mathematician, I have no reason to prefer one model over the other: final performance compared to the real thing it the only thing that counts. What really bothers me is what we mean by "improve the physics" of the flightmodel. I am sure that the guys at LM know something about the physics of flight, its simulation, and behaviour inside and outside the envelope. But the real question is: what are we actually asking for? Andrea

As a mathematics researcher in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, I'm usually prone to stick to factual evidence when I deal with hardware and software. Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that flight sim (P3D 2.5 in this case) is not strictly deterministic, in the sense that, given the SAME initial conditions, it gives you different results in terms of stutters and rubberbanding (that bad visual feeling you have that your speed relative to the ground is going up and down). "SAME Initial conditions" means same scenery, aircraft, date, time of day, weather, running services, no antivirus, and of course same PC. The observed variance is there: this is no psycological effect: there are times when it is smoother and times when it is bad. Sometimes I look back to old good times, when performance was consistently awful, but at least you knew what to expect. Is anyone else experiencing any of this? And maybe someone has an explanation for it? Tnx Andrea

Make that two Rob! 2.5 was stutteering badly, so I uninstalled it and then I uninstalled all simconnect entries from control panel and then reinstalled 2.5 from scratch. Stutters nearly gone: now it is a different sim. Nice find indeed! Andrea

Same here, today's hotfix broke it ..... :-/ Already tried to reinstall ASN: no joy

That is sad, really. Maybe it's the real meaning of "fire and forget".

I think you could try a LIRF - LIEO: taking off from 25 and then you have a nice 06 circle to land at LIEO (Olbia Costa Smeralda). Otherways a (very) short hop from PISA to GENOVA, also an interesting circle to land depending on weather. Have fun! Andrea

This is a very sensible point. That's what I meant when I wrote that there is a lot of speed and mass involved when you have the real thing in your hands. This means that, compared to the flightsim situation, there is a lot of sensory input reminding you second by second that this is for real: no reset button. And this can put a real strain on your nerves: I can land an md80 and a 747-400 level-D simulator: I have done that a few times. Does that mean that I could do that in a real situation? Meaning that both pilots are incapacitated and that there's just me? (this also rules out the Belgian journalist example: he KNEW that in case of a major mistake on his part a real pilot was ready to come to the rescue) I'm not sure: we'll have to wait until both pilots eat fish to know :-) Oh btw, for the next nonsensical discussion (because these are vaguely nonsensical discussions, but hey, we are also here for the fun, aren't we?) my proposal is: In the double-fish scenario above, in a 747-400, you have both a 172 rl leasure vfr pilot and an accomplished PC 747 simmer (PSX level). They are your last resort. Who would you put in command? I don't want to hijack the thread, so if this is interesting, we can move this question to another topic

A2A 172. Nothing else. Oh and PSX for heavies (747-400)