malibu43

I like how in the fall and winter shots, the trees are better color-matched to the texture. Its most apparent on the furthest hill.

Random question - Does anyone know if I can find my MS Flight DLC keys anywhere now that GWL servers are down? Just in case they can be used for something with whatever DTG releases later...

Ah. I see your point. I still would guess that they just sell FSX as-is and focus changes on Flight/future title. But I could be wrong.

Well, they can't do anything to the copy of FSX I already own to force me to limit the addons I use. And I highly doubt they would put in all the work and effort to re-write FSX code and folder structures to somehow control add-ons, when Flight is already built in the way you described. My money is still on no changes to FSX.

It sounds to me like they are: step 1) initially just selling FSX Gold on Steam. The same FSX Gold that's was sold in boxes and on GFWL. I wouldn't expect any changes to FSX step 2) Releasing something else later next year. Based on the timing and the fit to what they currently do with TS, it's probably just going to be MS Flight tweaked and broken out into whatever DLC package model they choose. Maybe with more DLC to come at a later time. In short - no effect on FSX users. Hope for MS Flight users.

So what ever happened with all this license stuff? I thought we would know by the end of the week... a couple of weeks ago...

Hmmm... This (the shut down of GFWL) has me wondering if I should reinstall Flight (even if I don't intend to use it anytime soon) just so I have access to it later if I want it....

You have to uninstall FSX (or be on a computer/latptop that doesn't have FSX installed) so that you can get GFWL to re-download FSX. After GFWL is done downloading DO NOT START THE INSTALLATION!!! Instead navigate to whatever temp folder GFWL save all the .cab files in (11GB) worth, and back those up to DVD's or an external HD. Then, if you want to install FSX some day, you can install from those .cab files. There is more information on it here, starting at the 6th post down: http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3819990/Re:_Some_FSX_files_lost_-_litt#Post3819990

I think it will be great if Dovetail really has bought and resurrects Flight. Flight was a nice core and just needed a different strategy in terms of what features and content should have been made available and when. Even if it isn't hard-core sim replacement for FSX/P3D, it could be a nice "sim-lite" that helps the hobby grow. It would be nice if our previous DLC purchases are recognized somehow. If they are, I could see myself reinstalling Flight and seeing where Dovetail takes it (Don't worry. I'll make sure keep Flight and FSX several folders apart to prevent one from trying to erase the other off of my hard drive, which apparently is a major concern...). However, if I would have to pay for the core game and/or rebuy my DLC, I'll probably sit it out for quite a while.

I was wondering if anyone has tried P3Dv2 on a laptop with specs similar to mine. I know with their return policy, I can try it for "free", but I'd like to at least know ahead of time if it's worth my time or not. HP Pavillion Dv6t Quad Edition, Win7 (64), i7 2.0ghz (2.9ghz w/ Turbo Boost), 1GB Radeon HD6770M, 6GB RAM For reference I get steady 30 fps (limited externally) in FSX right now at ORBX KHQM in the stock C172 with autogen and scenery complexity set to "Very Dense", REX and "Fair Weather," water 2x low, and all traffic on but set pretty low. The A2A C172 with drop the FPS down to about 25 fps. Ideally, I'd like to have same visual quality I have now (even if the settings are technically labeled "Normal" or "Dense") but with some cockpit shadows and maybe the volumetric fog. If it's lower FPS (20?), but smooth, I'm OK with that. Just curious if I'm even in the ballpark before I "loan" LM money and put the time and effort into downloading and installing. Thanks!

Can I ask what GPU your MacBook has? I also use a laptop and get OK performance with FSX, so your experience could be useful to me.

That's because the default P3D scenery is the same as FSX default scenery.

From now on, I'm going to downvote every post that mentions the downvote button!

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/426105-prepar3d-v-20-will-come-out-in-november/page-2#entry2850457 Leaves me feeling optimistic.

Grumman Tracker found here: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?linkid=5319&catid=6

Coming in low Dropping

I'm using DX9. 13.1 (not 13.10) is working great with no crashing. 13.4 and above cause BSOD issues for me (not related to FSX).

Well, in case anyone else ever does a search and they find this thread, 13.1 works great for me and is a big improvement over whatever I had from 2011. I'm seeing a 5fps (15% - 20%) increase with frames staying locked at 30 most of the time now. With the older driver, they'd often dip to or stay in the low-mid 20's in areas with more complex scenery. Very happy camper!

I have an HP laptop that has switchable graphics. The drivers from HP haven't been updated since 2011, so I'm running with something really old at this point. I can get drivers up to 13.1 from leshcatlabs.net that should be stable for my laptop. Does anyone know what version tends to give the best performance with FSX? Should I even expect any performance increase? Thanks.

I saw a 30% - 50% increase in FPS when I followed the instructions and set mine to 25GB. Everything just on one hard drive (not SSD).

The unfortunate thing for me is that it is not a smooth drop in fps. It's very jerky and noticeable even without the FPS showing. While I agree my processor is a lot less powerful than what most use for FSX (and that may be the root cause of the issue here), I will just clarify that the processor is running "Boosted" to 2.9ghz when I'm using FSX.

I did turn off "Aircraft casts shadows on itself" and my FPS jumped back up. However, VC shadows are one of the big pluses of using DX10. Here is the thread I started at A2A. I did get some responses from the folks there. http://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=108&t=36145&p=272635#p272635

An update on this: I somehow missed before that this is a DX10 w/ A2A C172 issue. I went back today and compared DX9/DX10 with the stock C172 and saw the improvements with DX10 that I had initially expected. I jumped back into the A2A C172 and my FPS in the cockpit dropped from "locked at 30" to 18-22. In external views it jumped back up to 30. I'm guessing this has something to do with the cockpit shadows in the A2A C172, but I really don't know... I'm not sure why the A2A cockpit shadows would have a bigger impact than the stock cockpit shadows. Any thoughts?

Pics!?!? I haven't had a chance to install yet.

Wrong. http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/64168-ftx-global-patch-110/ *edit - someone beat me to it.