D_Dragon

I am about to build a couple of PC's (old ones for the displays (I use iFly CBE) and a new one for FSX). I want a minimum install as far as possible. That means no anti virus for me. If those PC's are used without any internet access that could be possible on a separate network without an outside connection. However I will need an outside connection for VA flying and weaher updates. So now I have a dilemma. What action can I take best? Will I need an extra PC with a second network card so that PC can connect to VA and weather (with an anti virus program) and that PC will have contact with the stand alone network for FS (without an anti virus program)? How can I make sure that FS is connected through the separate network card and cannot communicate with the outside world in any way? Will an old Pentium III PC (with XP) suffice for this task or will I have to look for a faster PC just to handle the traffic for VA and WX? Thanks in advance for your answers. Greetings, Theo.

I am about to buy interfaces for my cockpit. However I am not sure what is wise to buy. I use the iFly 737 Cockpit Builders Edition and I think I will need to make a decision between the combination Pokeys / Lua and the combination Open Cockpits / SIOC. On my FSX PC I also run FSUIPC. I am planning to use the interfaces as analog and digital input only (for now anyway). I think I like the Lua programming better than SIOC, but the example programs supplied with iFly CBE for Lua are all but complete (many times I have come accross things like '-- to be filled in'). The SIOC examples are complete (as far as I can tell at this moment). However I have read many times that there are programming problems due to the way SIOC handles the events (event driven). On the other hand I have a slight preference for the Pokeys 56U over the Open Cockpits variant. So my questions are: - Do you need any programming if you use the Pokeys 56U with FSUIPC or does FSUIPC recognize the Pokeys 56U as a joystick? - Does any of you have had to make the same decision? - What decision did you make. - Based on what arguments did you make that decision? - What are your experiences with the hardware / software that you choose? - Knowing these experiences would you select the hardware / software again if you had to make the choice again? Thanks in advance. Greetings, Theo.

Thanks for your answer Jim. I don't fly in windowed mode, so there is always a possibility to drag the ATC screen to another monitor. But I was thinking about a small (numerical) keyboard that I could place somewhere in my simpit just to work with ATC. I will however have a look at the possibilities of VoxATC. I am planning on building a new FSX main computer and that one will be setup in English to be able to use FS2Crew and possibly also VoxATC. Greetings, Theo.

I have seen a video on youtube (some time ago) of a guy with quite a setup. One of the things I noticed was that he had his ATC on a seperate computer and screen. He even had the keys of the keyboard for that computer marked in different colors to be able to quickly interact with ATC. Do any of you know whether this is possible with the standard FSX ATC and if so how? Was this perhaps a different (ATC) product and if so, what product could that be? At the moment my FSX PC is not configured in an English language (due to other work / persons on that PC) so spoken ATC is not an option at the moment. Thanks in advance, Theo

You stated that it happens after a landing, so I presume not when you start and take-off. If this is true, then it happens after you used the (differential) brakes on your pedals. Is this correct? I don't have a solution for this, but this is the same problem that I have. Try to do the following to see if this is indeed the case (for better support from other people who might know the answer, but don't know the real problem): instead if using the brakes on the pedals, use de period key to brake and see if the zig-zag problem the persists and report the results back in this topic. Greetings, Theo.

You're welcome, glad I could be of help. Greetings, Theo.

You will have to 'share' the directory you want to access from the other computer. Right click on the directory you want to share and follow the screens. Choose 'Everyone' to get rid of different users on both computers. You have to select if you want that directory access read-only or also writable from the other computer. After that you can connect to this share from the other computer. Choose 'Keep connected' to not having to connect each time. Greetings, Theo.

If I remember correctly, the 4th monitor has to be connected to the DP port. Greetings, Theo

I hope I am not too late, but I have read that Microsoft has stopped the development of MS Flight, So going that way is running into a dead end street. Greetings, Theo

I think he will like such a surprise. But what if he already has some ideas on what he would really like and you show up with something else? Partly it will be a surprise, but I can imagine that it can also be a disapointment if it is something completely different from what he really wants. What about the idea of surprising him with a voucher or something (selfmade offcourse) and let him decide what he really wants and go shopping with him. I know that I would like that better! Greetings, Theo

I have tried that also. The difference is that I get a full view of the scenery or just half of it (all in the upper half of the screen), but no main panel visible. When the full screen is displayed and I check the 'View / Instruments' the 'Main panel' is not checked. When only the upper half of the screen is shown and I check the 'View / Instruments' the 'Main panel' is checked (but not visible). Theo.

I am flying in full screen. I use three monitors for the scenery and one for the instruments. What I normally do is first switch to 2D view (Cockpit) and than move the main panel from the three scenery monitors to the instrument monitor (after resizing offcourse). SInce a while I am missing my main panels for every airplane. The bottom half of the scenery view becomes black and I have to resize this view to occupy the whole screen again. If I activate the main panel (via Instruments) again, nothing happens. Other instrument view however do work and I can reize them and move them around as I wish. What did I mess up in the configuration and how can I fix it again without having to install everything all over again. Thanks in advance, Theo.

On my old PC (even older than yours, P4) I run Plan-g and FS Commander while I am flying. I installed FSUIPC (registered) on my main PC with a client on the old PC. It does nothing for the performance on the main PC, but I like the expansion. Greetings Theo

Today I first tried if the (passive) DP-DVI adapter I've got did work. It fortunately did so I decided to put the other leads also on the GTX670 and not using the TH2GO DE to see the result. In the previous attempt I already made a surround group and couldn't rearrange the order of the three screens. It appears that you need to arrange the screens before you put them in a group (that now seems logical). After I created that group my fourth screen went black. In al the Nvidia screens it was greyed out. I finally found an option to 'rigorous detect screens (needed for TV screens)'. After selecting that option my fourth screen (the compaq monitor with the DP-DVI converter) was finally recognized and could be used. Then I copied the .670 version of FSX.CFG over the existing FSX.CFG file and started FSX. In windowed mode all worked great, but in full screen mode I got the black screens again. So I think it is safe to say that the problem does not lie with the TH2GO DE, but in (the combination of FSX with) the GTX670. I know some of you also run a GTX670. Do you run it in full screen or windowed mode. If in full screen do you also have (had) this problem. If so, what did you do to get rid of the black screens? Greetings, Theo.

Further investigations. Today I continued to try to taccle this problem. First I connected the monitors straight to the GTX670. Two of them with a DVI-DVI cable, the 3rd with a DVI-HDMI cable and the 4th (the separate monitor) with an active DP-DVI adapter and a DVI-DVI cable. Everything worked fine, but I couldn't use my 4th screen and the sequence of the three monitors wasn't correct. I could not swap them because of the length (or rather shortage) of one DVI-DVI cable. Since I have an appointment with some people to fly in my simpit tonight, I decided to switch back to the 7770 AMD card. I have another (passive) DP converter somewhere and I will try that later. If I can get the 4th monitor to work, I will get a longer DVI-DVI cable so the GTX670 can work properly without the TH2GO DE. After installing the drivers again and several reboots I could rename the saved FSX.CFG file from the 7770 version. After starting FSX I got black screens and nothing more. I decided to reinstall both the firmware and the drivers for the TH2GO DE. After several reboots and starting FSX again I got black screens all over the place randomly appearing and disappearing again and FSX didn't run. So back to the GTX670 once more, I have to be able to fly tonight, even if it is in windowed mode. I swapped the GPU's again and connected all the screens and the TH2GO DE. When I removed the AMD drivers with DriverSweeper I realised that I hadn't done that when I went back to the 7770. I will have to give that one a go again tomorrow. Now I can fly in windowed mode anyway, so my friends can come flying in my simpit tonight after all. Greetings, Theo.

Until this moring I used a Sapphire Radeon HD 7770. On the first DVI I had a TH2GO DE with 3 22" WS monitors. On the second DVI a 17" monitor. I used the 3 screens for the outside view and the 4th monitor for the instruments. Framerate appr. 17-19 on average. I decided to (finally) go for Nvidia and ordered an EVGA GTX670 which I picked up early in the afternoon. After coming home I removed the AMD card and installed the Nvidia one. I removed the AMD drivers and installed the drivers from the supplied CD (301.25). Before the switch I ran 3DMark Vantage and got a Pscore of 11804 (GPU 12726 and CPU 9696). I am still running on and old Q6600 processor at 2.76 GHz with 4 GB of RAM. After the switch I ran 3DMark Vantage again and got a very good (and unexpected high) result. A whopping score of 24980 (GPU 21654 and CPU 46324). The CPU score amazed me, I hadn't changed anything there. It looked like the AMD card was holding the processor on the parkingbrake or something like that. So I was very anxious to see the results for FSX. With the AMD card I ran FSXMark11 on my setup (not a clean install, just for reference). Out of the five measurements I got an average of 14.437-14.860 (min 10, max 20) with frames from 4356 to 4458. Hardly what you can call a good framerate. After installing the latest stable version (301.42) I ran the FSXMark11 again. First the results, then the problems. I got an average of 16.120 to 21.280 over five runs (min 0, max 29) with frames from 4836 to 6384. As you can see very odd results. What's happening. Each time I touch a key or click a mouse button when FSX is started, all my four screens go black for 7-20 seconds. Very often I get the 'No signal' message on the screens. The TH2GO DE blinks red for about a second, then flashes green while the screens come back to life one by one. That can account for the minimum of 0 frames (blank screen). The rest of the figures look promising enough, but flying while everything is (very often) completely dark can hardly be called fun. It also isn't possible to move the instuments to my fourth monitor as with the AMD card. Everytime the screens go black, the mouse cursor is placed in the center of this 4th monitor. Via the TH2GO DE I am running 5040x1050 (3x 1680x1050) so this is an improvement over the AMD card. Im am running FSX in full screen. I have hardly any experience with Nvidia cards (just the results of this afternoon) so there might be something I am overlooking in my setup. Please can anybody help me, else I will have to go back to the AMD card and I really don't want that. I know the GTX670 is capable of driving three screens like the TH2GO DE does and still be able to use the fourth monitor for something else (instruments), but I am thinking of using the TH2GO DE for a (wide) instrument panel over two or three monitors in the (far) future. So I would like to have a solution for my current setup. BTW, both the firmware as the driver of the TH2GO DE are already updated to the latest version (dated somewhere in june 2011 if I recall my memory correctly). Greetings, Theo

Apparently it is not only the maximum DVI bandwidth that limits the maximum resolution you can get. Both our cards have dual link DVI-I connectors. The maximum resolution I can get on my 7770 is 3x 1280x104 while you get 3x 1680x1050 on your GTX580 (as probably als TechguyMaxC). I already installed the latest firmware and driver so that can't be the 'problem'. I still think there must be a differende between a 7770 and a GTX580 on a different level than just the DVI bandwidth. Knowing that I am strongly considering buying a GTX580 in my current system before I build a new rig. Greetings, Theo

Thanks Gerard, this is an answer I was looking for.

I have googled for a DVI bandwith calculator as you said and I found the one for the EmSai Project that I used. I played around with some different resolutions and found that 5040x1040@55Hz needs 10.36Gb while a DL DVI can only support 9.9Gb so I guess that won't work. The resoution I currently use (3840x1024@55Hz) needs a bandwith of 7.7Gb, so that will explain why I can't get a higher resolution with my current videocard. That would also implicate that I can't get a higher resolution when I buy a GTX580 because it uses the same DVI connector (Dual Link DVI-I). According to the Matrox site the maximum resolution with a DL DVI connector should be 5040x1030@57Hz (3x 1680x1050). I installed the latest firmware in the TH2GO DE and also the latest driver on my W7-64 system (both dated june 3, 2011). However the 5040x1050 resolution is not available on my videocard. Is it available on a GTX580 card?

I have already looked at the connector(s) of my video card. They are DVI-I. I nowhere mentioned that they were single link (because they are not). The 7770 as well as a GTX580 have DVI-I dual link connectors. But again that is quite besides the point. I already have the 7770 and I also have got a TH2GO DE and three monitors @55Hz. I am not looking to get a better resolution with my current setup because (I think) I already have the maximum resolution with this setup and it suits me fine. I am planning to build a new rig and I was wondering what the maximum resolution is that can be acchieved with the three monitors @55 Hz, the TH2GO DE and a GTX580 card. On the Matrox site it only says that the maximum resolution can be 5760x1080 (3x 1920x1080) @50HZ, not what the maximum resolution can be @55Hz. That is al I like to now from the users of a GTX580 / TH2GO DE combo. If this combi yields a (far) better resolution I am thinking of buying the GTX580 before I buy the rest of my new rig. If the resolution is not (far) better than my current resolution, I will buy the MOBO and so before I buy the GTX580. That's all there is to it. Greeting, Theo

My current videocard (as mentioned a Sapphire Radeon HD 7770) only has a DVI-I output (as has my older Sapphire Radeon HD 5770). The cable supplied by Matrox is a DVI-DL cable. But that is quite besides the point. I like to now what resolution you guys are getting with a GTX580 card (which, as far as I am informed) also has a DVI-I connector. Greetings, Theo.

THe TH2GO is connected to a DVI connector on the videocard. The left and middle monitors are connected with a DVI/DVI cable (supplied with the monitor) and the right monitor is connected with a (long) DVI/HDMI cable because the supplied DVI/DVI cable is too short. So what is the maximum usable resolution with à GTX580 and a TH2GO DE that you guys can archieve? Thanks in advance, Theo.

Yesterday I installed my new TH2GO DE. At the moment I am (still) using a Sapphire Radeon HD 7700 videocard and, after I iinstalled the latest firmware and drivers, the maximum resolution I can get is 3840x1024 (3x 1280x1024). I am using 22" monitors (Iiyama) with a syncrate of 55 Hz. According to the website of Matrox the maximum resolution a TH2GO can give is 5760x1080 (3x 1920x1080) but only at 50 Hz. I searched for monitors which are able to cope with that 50 Hz, but only found monitors for 55/56 Hz minimum. In principal this is no problem and I am happy with the view I now have. BUT. I am planning to buy a GTX580 (as a lot of you guys have) and I am wondering what is the maximum usable resolution that you can achieve on non 50 Hz monitors? If this is considerably more than my current resolution I am thinking of altering the sequence in which to buy components for a new to build rig. Thanks in advance, Theo.

Sorry, wrong forum. Theo

@Gerard (and others ofcourse). I think I will go for an odd number off monitors for my outside view else the bezels are exactly in the middle of my most importent view. At the moment I have only one usable PC, the other is that old that I can't install WideView on it (I tried but got an error that the hardware didn't support something, I don't remember what that was). I am using that one now for FSCommander or Plan-G depending of the plane I am flying. I am planning for a new PC and then I can use the setup you mentioned. In the mean time I am thinking of going for a TH2GO Digital so I can use my three 22" monitors for the outside view and an old 17" screen on the second port of my HD7770 for the instrumentpanel I am building at the moment. The TH2GO can be used in the new setup as well, but then with a GTX580. Anyway thanks for the advise. Greetings, Theo