FlyBoyMike

Interesting. I did notice it happen only in variable wind conditions. I also started noticing stutters and pauses after their most recent hotfix especially during cloudy and overcast conditions. I'll try without the time sync option and see how it goes.

I've started using this again now since it became supported on X-Plane (used to use FSGRW with FSX but then upgraded to ASN) and absolutely love it. It's great to finally see a decent weather add-on for X-Plane with proper upper air winds, no abrupt weather updates and proper depiction of dewpoint on METAR (unlike NOAA plugin). I was getting random disconnects from the sim before but the hotfix has since fixed that. I find that there actually is some turbulence. It's a lot more subtle than what you get with NOAA plugin or FSRealWX but it's there, I did a flight in the JAR A330 last night from LTBA to LSGG and it was definitely there during cruise over southern Europe.

I've since worked out that the problem causing the pauses I was experiencing was related to X-Camera plugin. Are you using it by any chance? Might be worthwhile to update it to the latest version as it addresses an issue where excessive CPU time was being used.

Hi Doug, Thanks for the info and heads-up about the Win 10 consumer preview. I actually have an ISO image of a tech preview I burnt to disc a while back but haven't had a chance to install as yet, is it the same thing or have they come out with something newer since then?

Does anyone know if this issue still exists with FSX SE running Win 8.1 or have DTG managed to fix it?

I've been using X-Camera for weeks now and it's probably the best and most useful plugin I have especially since I use TrackIR. It doesn't cause any crashes or performance issues although the earlier beta I was using did cause a lot of stutters and CPU spikes this has since been resolved after updating to v1.0. This is an absolute must have IMO!

Great shots! I actually thought that was the JARdesign A320 NEO at first. Have you tried that one as well? I'm wondering how Peter's A320 compares to that one as I've been considering getting it as well.

Have to agree. I have the PMDG 777-200LR and 300ER and can't get enough of them! I also have the one for X-Plane as mentioned and even though it's nice it doesn't seem to be as representative of the real thing in terms of systems as the PMDG offering. Your line of work sounds very interesting though. I would love to get the chance to use a full size sim be it a 777 or something else. I live in Australia on the east coast and the only 777 sim as far as I know is located at an airfield all the way in Perth used for training by Virgin Australia.

I'd happily try it out. But $200....just seems a bit steep, would have to be a significant improvement over FSX. Apparently they do some sort of trial where they will give a refund if not satisfied? I also don't really have any aircraft to test it with (only have the FSX version of A2A C172) unless I install the Aerosoft AXE which seems to work on it. I do find the flashing textures and popping autogen annoying from time to time but have learned to live with it. I notice that many people who move to P3D always had problems with stability in FSX, my FSX DX10 setup is very stable and has been for a long time. I think I've only ever come across an OOM once and that was over a year ago. Hardware is also a concern for me particularly in graphics. I have a GTX 560Ti 2GB and find that it struggles to maintain good FPS over time in XP10 with HDR and all the settings I want for a good experience. I can't really afford to upgrade at the moment.

If ORBX is cigarettes then PMDG must be meth. I can't break away :ph34r: As for the weather in XP10 to me having an external engine such as FSGRW would be a huge improvement considering how much 10.30 has already improved in all other areas, it's a shame this will no longer happen. If I was to completely ditch FSX for XP then all the features and accurate weather depiction of ASN will really be missed. The biggest problem I have with P3D is the price. I wouldn't buy the academic license knowing that I'm not eligible so only option is the professional one for $200 (more since I have to pay AUD) which I can't justify knowing that underneath it is still the same FSX/ESP engine with HDR, a new UI and a few other visual improvements.

I have a 560Ti 2GB and it also struggles to maintain the FPS using the settings in XP10 that I'd prefer to fly with including HDR and decent level of FXAA. I've actually put XP to the side for the time being until I can afford to at least upgrade the graphics card. Flying without HDR just isn't much fun :(

Sounds like it might be the next Win 7 where Win 8 was another 'Vista'. I'm downloading the ISO now and will try it at some point. I'll be really interested to see if flight controllers no longer drop out like they do in Win 8.1.

I've recently just come across this problem the other day trying the latest 10.30 release. I notice that RC2 just came out but have only used RC1 so far. After taking off on a flight in the FF 757 (haven't had a chance to try other aircraft yet) I notice that the sim will pause momentarily as it updates weather and cloud positions, this has always happened to some degree but never as frequently as it does now. The pauses now last much longer than before, sometimes for up to 15 sec being very disruptive to the flight and the worst ones happen during climbing and descending with almost constant pauses. I'm not sure if anything has changed in this most recent beta release but previously I've never had these issues flying the 757 or any other aircraft, I also had a quick look at Task Manager in Win 7 when these pauses occur and notice all of my CPU cores (4 physical and 4 HT virtual) are maxing out at 100%. At first I thought it might be SkyMAXX Pro 2.0 as I just recently updated to this but this problem also occurs using the default XP clouds. I thought it might be an issue with the way XP injects default weather now but it also happens when I use EFASS UltraWX. Has anyone else experienced similar issues? At this time I actually get better performance with my FSX DX10 setup.

+1 I've been turning random system failures on the 777 on my flights a lot lately. A good one I did recently was VHHH to RJTT and about 2 hrs into the flight the PFC's malfunctioned and the FBW went into 'secondary' mode which meant no AP for the remainder of the flight. The flight controls also felt a lot more sluggish in this mode, really had to put a lot of effort in to keep straight & level. I highly recommend people try flying the 777 sometimes in modes other than just 'normal', makes you realise just how dependent you become on FBW. Of course the problem I find with failures is that if you do decide to do a long-haul flight you'd probably have to sit in front of it the whole time in case you wake up in the morning with the plane floating in the ocean somewhere

I sometimes think that us simmers who take the time to properly learn to fly complex airliners like the PMDG's are still really only seeing the tip of the iceberg. There is still only so much that we can do in our limited PC environment especially considering that we still probably aren't following exact procedures and skipping many other routine tasks including exterior inspections, maintenance logs, position reports during cruise, regular fuel cross checks, keeping an eye on weather etc. I'm sure pilots don't just sit around and twiddle their thumbs or talk about wives/kids during cruise. There's also the fact that we sit here and fly these aircraft ourselves. In the real world you would never do this and would have to learn crew co-ordination skills by working with other pilots etc. The airspaces themselves would also be much busier (even busier than most events on VATSIM or IVAO) requiring you to frequently divert from the 'magenta line' or even go into holding patterns (I wonder how many of us ever use that function in the FMC) and this is where you fuel planning actually becomes critical.

I purchased the BBS A320 two years ago and have since given up on them. I then noticed that later on they released the A330 which at the time I thought 'NO WAY', I'm not going to go down that road again and was disappointed they decided to start working on another product before finishing the first one. I've been installing the updates they released over time for the A320 just to see how it's shaping up and been disappointed every single time prompting to uninstall it again. Taking it for a quick flight I always got this feeling of still flying an incomplete half-baked product that I paid $60 AUD for - the price you would pay for a complete v1.0 product. Last version I installed was 0.80 to see the updated and revamped VC textures and actually found it looked worse in some ways. I understand that by purchasing their products you are essentially agreeing that it is an incomplete product still I beta with 'great things to come'...some day, but I think that's a sneaky way of them covering themselves from any trouble by saying 'well you knew this from the start and agreed by purchasing it'. On the other hand it seems they do provide refunds under certain circumstances.

I think they might be making the assumption that because the majority of their user base aren't real 777 pilots (which is probably true) then we won't notice the difference. Not everyone uses more than one platform and has both the PMDG and FF 777's like we do so a lot of people who only use XP will only get exposure to the FF 777. As much as I like XP for it's fluidness and visuals especially at night time I still find that overall the PMDG 777 gives me more of a sensation of an actual 777 than the FF does, not just in terms of visuals but also consistency with the real aircraft in terms of systems accuracy (electronic checklists, TO de-rates, FMS inconsistencies etc). The FF may have a lot of systems modelled as well but after a bit of study you do notice they aren't entirely accurate.

If that was me I would TOTALLY be hand flying for as long as possible before turning on the AP. Unlike the sim where we have to do everything ourselves plus talk to ATC if online he actually has someone in the right seat to back him up which makes it more manageable. Hand flying the 777 especially since SP1b is absolutely sublime.

I just did a short flight the other night between Bergen (ENGM) and Oslo (ENGM) using PFPX for my flight plan. It did calculate an optimal cruise alt of FL310 which I went with even though my optimum on the FMC was coming up in the FL200's. I was also a bit surprised it came up with such a high alt for a short flight and only left me less than 5 mins cruise time but wasn't really a problem since I did all my descent planning on the way up. I suppose like others have already said PFPX works out the most efficient cruise alt for you if you select that option. I've been flying around Norway on VATSIM a bit this week and find it really nice. Europe generally works well in my time zone as I can do mid morning to afternoon flights based on RW time. There's been a bit of stormy weather around those parts too whereas it's been mostly clear/dry conditions around Aus.

I have tried both XPRealWX and EFASS UltraWX and would have to say that UltraWX is the better of the two as far as weather injectors are concerned. FSRealWX is quite rough and doesn't depict weather all that well even though upper winds aloft are present the weather updates are too abrupt causing major shifts/displacements in the aircraft. UltraWX does a better job with smoothing out wind transitions between weather updates but still find that depictions aren't all that accurate particularly reading METAR's around airports. Air pressure and temps tend to be off.

Had a look at another set of screenshots in the forum and notice that Doha city itself is also modelled. Looks similar in quality to FlyTampa Dubai and I get excellent frames on my moderate system. Think it would be a good complement as I like doing short 777 hops between the 2 cities sometimes. Not sure if that option was included prior to SP1.

It's one of the custom display and equipment options you can set via the FMC. I you press the MENU key then PMDG SETUP > AIRCRAFT then either EQUIPMENT or DISPLAYS can't remember which off the top of my head. Should be a 'digital' or 'analog' clock.

Nice shots! Didn't know there is a payware scenery for OTHH considering it's such a new airport. I'm currently using the freeware one downloaded from the library. I'll have to check this one out as I've been doing a fair bit of flying to and from that part of the Middle-East lately.

Good point about the electronic checklists. Although FF include checklists that can be displayed on the EICAS they aren't the shortened (they're just excerpts from the Normal Procedures section of the FCOM) fully interactive checklists like on the real aircraft. PMDG simulates this and I find it incredibly useful, don't really use the ones in FF 777 at all. One thing the FF 777 has though is a sort of mock-up EFB on the captain's side but using it isn't very practical as you must run a few conversions from PDF files so that charts can display on them, I think I've only ever used it once but found it too cumbersome to bother with. Having only a single FMC modelled usually isn't normally an issue as the only reason you would use more than one is for the added convenience of having 2 different pages displayed on each one. It's more the inaccuracies and 'simplifications' with it for example not having the ability to use RVSM step climbs and the fact that you're limited to whatever VNAV profile gives you, if you try to stray from it and do a 2000ft step climb then it completes dumps the whole profile mid-flight. I also find that the figures for de-rated takeoff thrust and assumed temps are off. Ever tried entering a higher temp and found that in some cases the thrust actually increases? It's mostly a lot of small things like the time it takes for the APU to start up seems more realistic in the PMDG 777 and the whole power-up sequence of the aircraft from cold & dark.

Excellent idea! Although I find it amazing that you're even able to find the time to do anything with that much going on.