MarkSC

A little evidence of how supportive these developers (IPACS) are: TrackHat was not working with AF2, even though AF2 does work with TrackIR. Within a week of letting them know that on their forum, they contacted the developer of TrackHat, who released an update to OpenTrack that fixed the issue. Nice work by both developers!

I'm not a designer, but I would think it would be relatively easy for those who use 3Ds Max, which is most professionals. Here is what ipacs says: http://steamcommunity.com/app/434030/discussions/0/351660338685554098/

The devs have announced a scenery SDK (available on request while being tested) and will undoubtedly soon release it publicly so Steam Workshop and other outlets will be an option. That will allow anyone who can use 3D Max (and possibly other 3D design tools) to add airports and autogen to their hearts' content.

EZDok is what you want. It's a camera add-on that lets you set and configure your own camera views and bind them to keys or buttons. Essential.

To the mods, could AF2 be moved up the ranks, so to speak, with its own category the way Dovetail Games has rather than buried in the "other" category? Market share and interest in AF2 among flight sim enthusiasts is much higher than Dovetail I would think.

Jan at AeroFly posted this on Steam today. The future looks bright indeed. "I've spend the past seven years with the Aerofly RC and FS series and I can assure you, as a developer in the IPACS team, that in the Aerofly FS 2 almost every system could be implemented right now. The aircraft definition files can be edited with a text-editor and there is nothing really stopping you from implementing your own systems into existing default aircraft or with the release of the SDK, with your own aircraft. We just lack the man-power to simply throw out an update that adds every imaginable system there is. But I can't see a reason why it should not be possible to add increadible complex systems to the sim. The SDK for the scenery is already out for evaluation, aircraft SDK is being prepared right now. With the project included in the SDK thrid party developers can connect to the simulator and read and write data to the core physics simulation. With this its possible to implement any feature that you see in other simulators. There are a few things that we would like to implement ourselves first, so that not every third party development team has to redo the programming of complex physics elements such as hydraulics."

I'll let pilots speak to the flight dynamics, but the reviews I've seen say better than FSX/P3D as far as capturing the true feeling of flight, turbulence, less "on rails", etc. It's not fair to compare to A2A and other add-ons. The only fair comparison is to default planes. For the variety and quality, AF2 is unsurpassed imo.

I'm not a real world pilot, but the ones who have tried it report that AF2 has the best flight modeling of any sim's default planes. Of course, systems are somewhat limited, but that will come. For instance, there is a mod now that allows a cold and dark start of the C172.

I'm currently addicted to Air Hauler 2, but I figure Slopey won't expand it to AF2 in the near future. Can anyone make a few recommendations of good virtual airlines that don't require ACARS and that would work with the two regions we have for AF2? It would be nice to have a career option of some sort for AF2. I know that has been mentioned before in the Steam forums. If done right, it would be a great way for ipacs to expand the user base. MS Flight tried it, of course, but that was a rather half-baked attempt.

I'm really impressed with AF2 (or should we call it FS2 or AFFS2?). How can we promote it more to the flight sim community? I just posted in the P3D forum about how much better the VR experience is in FS2 (see-I mixed it up there) compared to FlyInside, as I've tried both. There was an article in this month's PC Pilot, that's good. I'd love to see a developer add a core feature like real world weather (ATC too, although my hunch is that ipacs will add that themselves). When that happens, it will show the enthusiasts that this is not just another Steam game but a flight sim platform for the future. Still, AF2 may not need the support of flight sim enthusiasts to be successful and grow. If it can continue with VR and other features that appeal to the masses (where's Slopey? We need AH2 for AF2!), it can grow its market share I think. Then the developers will jump on board.

It's actually placebo effect or your HDD was fragmented. All of the tests I've seen show no difference in performance between HDD and SSD. Only difference is load times. http://m.hardocp.com/article/2013/12/10/hdd_vs_ssd_real_world_gaming_performance/5

Don't forget Orbx FTX Global Vector. It's a great improvement over default vector (coast lines, roads, etc.).

Alabeo PA32 Saratoga is a great GA plane and has built-in 750 integration. It's my go-to plane for short hauls using Air Hauler 2.

My favorites, in order of size, are Alabeo Saratoga (with GTN 750) Carenado PC12 (with the mod found in the forum and the GTN 750 mod) PMDG 737

As promised, I purchased today, and all I can say is, "Wow!" The devs have done an amazing job. I couldn't believe it when I was able to configure my yoke AND rudders AND Saitek panels in less than 5 minutes. Every flight sim enthusiast should purchase this product and support this development.

Does it have to be a jet? Carenado PC12, though a turboprop, is a great luxury airplane that can land on short grass strips. Turbine Duke is another one.

I'm just about to pull the trigger and purchase. I owned version 1, which kind of died on the vine, but version 2 looks more promising.

I think you mean DCT, meaning a "direct" route between the two points.

It really is simple. Here is a pretty good step-by-step description. It's a bit dated (before the 2015 update), but the same general steps apply: https://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=48343 For short, direct flights from smaller airports, I've run into the issue that the program's flight planner expects a SID transition as per an IFR flight, which may not always be possible. However, ProATC-X works fine for trips from normal airports that have SIDs. I believe that the upcoming update fixes this issue and so should be more friendly to VFR direct GPS routing and the like.

I only use the copilot to control the radios, but, yes, that works with all planes.

It works great for IFR flying with any aircraft. You can add any plane to the database. For VFR, you cannot fly direct routes as far as I can tell. You must have a departure transition. And if you fly to a large airport, ATC will assign you a STAR. Still, with the moving map feature of ProATC, it's really not a problem to follow the STAR to the runway. I've gotten to where I really miss not having background ATC chatter, so I tend to use ProATC even for VFR flying if possible.

I assume you are using the latest drivers for your GPU? Make sure to do that, robot the computer, and delete the shaders folder in P3D. Also, make sure that your resolution and refresh rates in Nvidia control panel match your screen's native settings.

They work after the plane is loaded, but do not work from the scenario start screen. Thus, I have to first load the plane at whatever time and then change the time after the scenario is loaded. At least this is the only way I found to get UTC time to work at a different location.

I've never been able to get the time to work with the startup screen. Whether checked or unchecked, the time is always tied to my local time. It's disappointing at this stage of development that something as basic as the time function is so difficult to manage.

I have a Samsung 6300 series (forget the exact model, as I'm not at the computer now). It was around $550 at Best Buy. It's great. You can use DPI scaling in Windows for text, so that's not an issue at all. In P3D the only small text is the ATC window. I sit about 3 feet from the screen, and 40" is perfect. If you get a Samsung TV, there is a great tuning guide out there somewhere for how to calibrate it for use as a monitor. For instance, you have to turn on the UHD color setting and disable some TV settings. Easy to do. I'm happy to share my settings with anyone who is interested. Samsung is a good choice because input lag is very low when properly calibrated and using the PC input. Edit: here is the tuning guide I mentioned. https://hardforum.com/threads/2015-samsung-4k-tv-as-a-monitor-set-up-guide.1869675/