darrenecm

Just some quick tips for everyone who may have aircraft issues that often result in lock-ups or crash to desktops. 1. FS9 / FSX installation location Do not install FS9 or FSX into the default location of C:\Program files (or C:\Program files (x86) for those running 64-bit Windows). The Program Files directory on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 is a 'system directory' that is treated differently to 'basic' user-defined directories. The Windows operating system applies various security restrictions to system folders (read/write access, file permissions etc). This can cause problems with certain addons (especially gauge DLLs and modules). I install all my games and sims to a non-system directory. In my case I have FSX installed to a secondary hard disk at D:\FSX because my D drive is the fastest. 2. Anti-virus exceptions Most anti-virus programs allow you to select certain file-types as well as entire directories to be excluded from any real-time or on-demand virus scans. I use Microsoft Security Essentials and in the Settings menu I clicked on Excluded files and locations and added the FSX folder and also folders on my other hard disks where I've installed scenery and aircraft addons. Doing this will prevent your anti-virus from interfering with any executables (gauge DLLs etc). It will should also help improve performance when FS9/FSX is streaming in scenery data because thhe real-time anti-virus features are not monitoring the file access. As a side note I used to have frequent issues when running FS Panel Studio until I added my FS Panel Studio folder to my anti-virus exclusion list. It frequently crashed when it was trying to resolve gauge DLLs but works fine now it's in my AV exclusion list. 3. Katana 4X banking to right fix My friend has the Katana 4X and was also experiencing the left bank tendency. We experimented a little and all it took to resolve this issue was to go the the FSX weight / payload options screen for the aircraft and simply add equal weight to the co-pilot / passenger side. With that done the banking vanished. I'm no real life pilot and am curious if this weight imblanance when flying solo causes this much banking tendency in real life? I do not have the Katana 4X because I'm not a fan of VC only add-on aircraft whose design make it difficult or impossible to add all my RealityXP or my other preferred third-party gauges to the cockpit - I much prefer having the 'functional fidelity' of an instrument to the visual fidelity of 3D knobs and controls so I'm happy to have 'flat' texture mapped gauges in my VC :)I I'm hoping aircraft developers begin to design their 3D cockpits so that we can select an option to change the VC 3D modelled interiors to apply 'blank plate' areas for instruments and avionics areas of the cockpit for those of us who prefer to add custom gauges. The ORBX Lancair does a fairly good job here as far as the raios area goes but, sadly, not the other instruments. Also, regarding the Katana 4X RealityXP option, my friend has the GNS530 and added it to the Katana 4X but then ran into issues with the RealityXP click-spots becoming drastically misaligned and / or inactive when viewing the GPS from certain angles. I hope the above tips help some of you.

Isn't the refresh rate on these things pretty crappy, resulting in laggy update speed? Or have they fixed that problem?

I's all eye-candy with no expense spent on gameplay. Once you have done 2 or 3 Missions, Aerocaches, Challenges and Jobs, it's the same thing over and over courtesy of the computer-generated, random mission system. I expect more for my money thanks very much. I've paid for the Maule and the Hawaiian scenery pack and my opinion is that I've been ripped off. The game was fairly enjoyable for a mere 2 or 3 hours before I exhausted the unique gameplay features and everything turned into a repetative grind that only those with OCD might eke some pleasure from. Although the game visuals look good, there are still major design flaws and creative laziness. The world is FAR too static. No water animation, no boats sailing across water, no traffic on roads, no other aircraft populating the sky or airports, invisible passengers and their disembodied voices accompanying you on missions, We're in a world of fast, multi-core computers and where even entry level graphics cards can churn out amazing visuals and Flight isn't delivering the goods with such a lifeless, static world. Given the low 'n' slow nature of the game and the advantage of not having to model the entire world, it only makes the lifelessness of the world even more glaring. I'm done with Flight until the gameplay content in DLCs improves by orders of magnitude. As such I'm happily going to ignore it for 6 months to spend my cash on games providing more substantive experiences and maybe come back to take a look and see if Microsoft has decided to inject more life and variety and longevity into the Flight experience.