47driver

Its pretty well impossible for any current developer to accurately replicate a complex helicopter on this platform and still have time left over to afford to eat. It also depends on what you are trying to simulate. IFR? VFR? Mission? ...The dodosim is hands down the best overall. What kind of flight controls are you using? Thats a huge part of it as well. Most the helicopter product developers are primarily hung up on making it look pretty on the outside and they care very little about systems or replicating flight dynamics. Much of the flight sim crowd is all about the visuals, not the actual aspect and task saturation of flying. I have yet to fly any of their helicopters that fly remotely near the real thing or systems that even attempt to mimmick their actual counterparts. Its too much work, and I dont blame them. Military professional helicopter simulator designers spend hours with very experienced military pilots covering every detail, and it takes a lot of flying sessions and feedback to get even close.

I hope the modders can make the helos & planes fly better. They were utterly horrible on the PS/360 release. Otherwise a great game.

My apologies to the mods for posting in the wrong spot; this forum can be a little buggy on my tablet sometimes. I hope I didn't come across harsh or dictating on my OP; that wasn't my intent. I just encourage anyone who hasn't yet to explore IFR and be amazed how well this platform does it and the satisfaction it brings to pop under the lowest of clouds and see the runway threshold in front of you. That never gets old to me and its not too often you get to fly such approaches IRL, as the weather is always either too good, or so bad you cannot fly in it to begin with. It just seems like a lot of newbies get pushed into the mentality of "You must have X system with X processor and X framerates to enjoy the sim" and with every new processor and vcard there are hundreds of new posts. I never found anymore of the initial crippling issues back since the faster duo cores came out, as long as I wasn't pushing the limits. Don't get me wrong, I love the eye candy as well as anyone else. Shadows, cloud rendering and cockpits are amazing these days. I agree with the guys who mention they like flying the smaller planes. My favorites are the older turboprops with the simple old fashioned steam guages and Analog HSI's. Flying VOR radials/approaches and practicing holding without the GPS is a fun challenge and a good way to stay sharp should the Garmin ever fail.

I am getting the impression that many on here load up gobs of scenery and complex jumbo jets that they don't even know how to fly other than p throttling up & pulling back, then take off, while fixating on their frame rate monitor in an attempt to see if their newest mod fixed previous stutters or other graphic inconsistencies. Not saying that's what really happens, but the holy grail seems to be some smooth system that will run all orbx scenery with perfect clouds and plowing tractors in fields with busy freeways outside of a big city with plenty of AI traffic nearby VFR in a complex airliner that was designed to fly IFR in class A airspace. I fly purely for training and the experience it gives me. This simulator is years from simulating a very realistic VFR experience, and despite current technology, it is visually well above some of the best commercial and military simulators I have been in. I am not quite sure what people expect, or how many of them are actual pilots. If anything needs to be improved that reasonably can, its the availability of controllers on vatsim, or the automation of the air traffic control. Flying is not a glamorous hobby where you spend the entire flight looking at scenery; at least not near busy airports where you are trying to navigate while being handed off to several different controllers at once and get your call in amongst other aircraft while worrying if your fuel burn rate met your calculations based on your weight & balance because you're too busy to do a fuel check, and if the next approach will get you low enough to break out and if not, trying to remember your current category limitations and do you have enough fuel to get to the alternate. I use my sim to simulate the nastiest weather conditions known to man while flying IFR through busy airspace to airports where ground scenery isn't even visible. As a real pilot, I find this simulator very useful for putting myself in weather conditions and situations that I would not normally find myself in real life, as well as training in situations that I may encounter in real life, in local areas with the same GPS points, approaches, terrain and obstacles that I can expect in real life. Simulating an actual check ride, I'm way too busy to have time to sit and look out the window. For flying IFR, I can attest that I do not get stutters. This IS a flight simulator, not an eye candy machine. For those of you who are obsessed with frame rates, I encourage you to decrease ground scenery to a minimum, learn the aircraft you are flying, fly some IFR, navigate by your instruments, and do some instrument approaches in poor weather. You will see the true beauty of what this software is: a FLIGHT simulator; simulating flying a real aircraft. Not a computer scenery program. Most of these complex aircraft models and systems take days to learn and years to perfect IRL. I just get confused when so many people are primarily concerned about frame rates, stutters while flying a commercial jet VFR near big cities, and smooth running systems and I ask myself if these people are truly trying to simulate flight, or computer nerds; just attempting to do the graphically impossible. I've run FSX perfectly fine for the last 6 years as a simulator, doing many approaches, familiarizing myself with IFR & VFR corridors, waypoints, NAVAIDS, SIDS, STARS, approaches, and had very little issues with my 6 year old rig "running FSX" Just a rant; nothing personal to anyone.

If it was so great, it wouldnt be offered at the same price as a 4770k

My last desktop build with an E8500 duo core overclocked to 4.2 and a GTX 480 runs FSX very well with VATSIM. Granted I used it purely for IFR training with REX, Genesis Mesh, and a few decent Megascenery kits. Don't get lost in the hype. Most real pilots dont fly around, staring at the ground the entire flight looking for stutters and monitoring frame rates. Personally, I'm more concerned with which controller I'm gonna call next, what I'm gonna say, and how to set up my next approach. In my FSX the weather is always below minimums and I'm lucky if I break out on an approach.

My last desktop build with an E8500 duo core overclocked to 4.2 and a GTX 480 runs FSX very well with VATSIM. Granted I used it purely for IFR training with REX, Genesis Mesh, and a few decent Megascenery kits. Don't get lost in the hype. Most real pilots dont fly around, staring at the ground the entire flight looking for stutters and monitoring frame rates. Personally, I'm more concerned with which controller I'm gonna call next, what I'm gonna say, and how to set up my next approach. In my FSX the weather is always below minimums and I'm lucky if I break out on an approach.

I have both the Saitek and the CH yokes. Saitek wins, hands down.

I'm getting ready to build a similar rig for P3D. As other people mentioned, stick with Windows 7. Crossfire with 2 780's is pointless with FSX, and altogether depending on what monitor setup you are using. All of these newer cards are powerful. People brag about and hype certain vcards yet they have not benchmarked them enough to compare them with others in the same range. Depending on addons or if you are going dual-boot, don't waste your money on extra ssd's. Modest OC on a 4770 will get you 4.1-4.2. You can always upgrade hardware more later if you need it. If you're a multi-gamer, save your money and get a 3-D setup for the games that play well under 3-D. That is by far the best, most captivating upgrade I've ever done.

How similar is the GTN to the GNS430/530? I was looking for a 430W to use with P3D (as that's what I fly with in real life) but unfortunately it appears there's nothing decent out yet. If the GTS offers a similar enough experience, I will be stoked, as I already have a touchscreen monitor.

I haven't run an antivirus in over 10 years. Firewall properly configured thru the router; that's it. AV software companies continue to make their money from the unknowledgeable by using scare tactics, yet they fail to remedy most of the most destructive malware. Keep docs/photos ect on a separate drive. Don't open suspicious links. Stay off of questionable sites. Dont click email links. Scan downloads with an external AV. Know when spamware is sending you a suspicious link and reset the browser. If its too much worry, use a seperate computer to do internet browsing & email on. AV is more of a hog on system requirements than a virus itself.

Lol...

Thanks, that was my next question. I do still have the FS Genesis world mesh disks that I bought 5 years ago.

Just to make sure: The Pilot's FS Global 2010 is the one I want for the mesh, correct?

Get rid of the trackIR, all but the camera. Build a 3 point led system and use freetrack or facetrack noir software instead with the TrackIR camera. It takes a bit of work and configuring, but I have my camera on the desk below my monitor and it tracks great. TrackIR is poorly built garbage IMO.

Cool, thanks for the advice. I love orbx, I just didnt know they are now making global stuff too. Thats awesome...

Starting a new build and trying to plan which addon software I will use. What I ask from you guys is your preference of P3D 2.2 compatible current environmental addons. Rex4 seems the no-brainer for wx & cloud textures. How about terrain mesh & scenery? I'm not looking for specific locations or geodrawn Orbx or Megascenery textures; more like the stuff FSGenesis/GEX/UTX used to do for FSX in terms of nice looking ground gen and accurate mesh altitudes. What seems to be working the best for you so far?

Im building a P3D rig and trying to plan out what software to use. I've used MCE with RC4 and VoxATC in the past, as well as VATSIM but my previous systems didn't have the greatest horsepower due to FSX. I am a helo pilot by trade, and VoxATC helped me immensely with my initial IFR ATC training, even with the minor issues it had. The voicepacks really make the difference. I am building my current rig for training; mostly helo SPVFR/SPIFR. Can anyone give me their opinions of how smoothly the latest version of VoxATC is with P3D and what improvements they have noticed since 5.x? I am also looking into pilotedge. I like VoxATC primarily because I can use it in areas I fly regularly to familiarize myself with local NAVAIDS and approaches, rather than being stuck flying only areas where the live ATC guys are working. MCE coupled with RC4 wasn't too bad, but I'd prefer to run less software and spend less time configuring it all. My new rig will be ample. I'll have plenty of RAM, processor and Vcard & will be utilizing SSD's. Thanks

I did some more reading up on TOH in the forums there. Apparently there were horrible FM issues in the beginning, but I know they've addressed many of them thru the updates, after a few actual helo pilots brought them up. I may take a look at it soon when I get some time. Could be fun; seems kinda like the helicopter version of Flight.

It really depends on the flight characteristics of the helicopter, and also whether it has any sort of stability augmentation system integrated into it. As far as flight sim-wise, the only thing I find even slightly comparable to real life is the FSX Dodosim and the DCS Blackshark, the Dodosim on level 5 being nearly perfect to what I remember a jetranger actually feeling like. That airframe has nothing to assist in stability; you fly it 100%. Helicopters can be rather unforgiving when it comes to control inputs, and that is difficult to model in a simulation. I don't think too many of the simulation companies really do much homework when it comes to helicopters, either. I've tried most of them and I don't get past 5 minutes before I become disgusted. It is unfortunate, because helo's can be really fun and challenging to fly.