luizsilveira

You see a beautiful day outside and think: "What a great sunshine for launching a sim flight in my area" (since you always play with real weather).

Hi, I have a racing wheel and a flight stick now. I'm using the wheel for the throttle axis, which I love. It feels like a lever (except that it goes sideways) and offers good, smooth and precise control. One question: the wheel is force feedback (as well as the stick). Is there any chance to make the wheel/lever move with the autothrottle movements, taking advantage of the ffb? Especially on Boeings and other aircraft in which the levers should move with the autothrottle, that would be grand. I've tried to research something but keep finding tons of things that refer to either force feedback or something to do with the throttle levers etc. Many thanks,

Sorry if I sound stupid but isn't that normal in multi core? I have a core2duo which is always ~52% used. That's one core at 100% for FSX and the other at 4% for everything else. London area is already quite a drag in terms of CPU, I can only imagine with UK2000 and 50% traffic in such a busy area. It's a completely different reality since my system sucks but I have two different config profiles, one for flying in London (with one or two notches lower autogen, scenery, airport and car traffic) and another one for flying anywhere else in the world. It takes me 2 seconds to swap between them by loading it via FSX menu so I'm happy with this "solution".

That's quite odd. I have a GT 520 (old and low end) and ran it no problem, even having another monitor plugged in. So I had two monitors plugged to the GT 520 plus a laptop, no problem. Maybe search their forums or give'em a shout. Ah! Try to make sure you have your nVidia setting for two monitors, since your computer now thinks it has two monitors. It might be the case that you need to enable that. Right click your desktop and set it (using either nVidia control panel or the windows interface). Might be that. I never tried synergy with FSX. You do not have to run it windowed. You should be able to just click and drag your 2d panels (like the CDU and MCP) to the second monitor. Be advised: if your system is a bit low end (like mine), performance can be severely impacted. My FPS cut in 1/2 if I try that, but I've seen many people doing it just fine. What you get is pretty much this: In that case, it's an ipad with touchscreen but it's the same thing with another PC and it'll work exactly like the guy's 2nd monitor there. Which reminds me that airdisplay is another option for software and it's cheaper than maxivista (again, iirc). But the free demo is only for ipad/iphone.

Yes indeed, using two monitors on the PC will not ease off the load. It may be best for sid to run other applications in a separate computer. That's something he needs to test. What I found out in my case is that FSX leaves idle cores anyway so I don't feel any difference in using more or less stuff on the FSX PC, but I'd believe that to be on a case by case basis. Just one thing: Sinergy and Maxivista are two completely different applications, with different purposes. Sinergy does not emulate a second monitor, but it's meant to let you control both computers with only one mouse and one keyboard. So when you "switch" to the laptop screen, you're actually using the laptop. You're using the laptop CPU, HDD, etc. Then you can "switch back" to using the PC. It's just sharing the inputs. Maxivista is completely different. It transforms your "client" computer in a complete dummy and takes its monitor. It works precisely as another monitor connected to the computer (and not like Sinergy, which has sort of a "clunk" on the switch between computers). Maxivista will let you drag windows from one monitor to one another etc. just as if you had 2 (or more) monitors plugged on one PC. Of course graphical stuff may have some (network) lag to drag them around but that's about it. Anyhow, they're all free solutions (at least to try), so it's just a matter of testing to see what works/suits best.

Yes, you need to install it on both iirc. But it's a very small download, only a few Mb. One will act as server (your PC) and the other as a client (the laptop). Of course if the need ever arises you can just invert then with a few mouse clicks and use it the other way around I don't know what you mean by "hardware needed". There are requirements but they are rather low, probably min. win XP (I'm guessing). Just check their page for that. But no, you don't need any extra cables, connections, nada. If you have a home router, just let the installer run on both ends, tell the software which is client and which is server, and off you go. Even the screen resolution will be correctly fetched. All you'll want to do is set (under windows itself, since windows thinks there is indeed another monitor) the position of the screens.

Yes, you CAN use your laptop as a second monitor for your PC. Just get maxivista, it's not all that cheap but works really really well. All you need is to have both computers in a home network. Installation is as easy as "click here and there", and there is a free demo for you to try for free and see if it suits your needs. The software emulates a second monitor on your windows system and sends across the network the data windows is sending to that second monitor. Works wonders, it's really cool. Anyway, if that is a bit too pricey for your needs, there are freeware solutions around. They are (as one would expect) more difficult to install, more unstable, and have less features. Just to a search and you'll find reviews of "softwares that do what maxivista does" kind of thing. Good luck!

Tell me I'm wrong but I thought all you needed was a router. And, of course, the cables if you want to make it wired.

I think that taking pleasure from default airplanes is just a matter of how you like your experience of flying. Some people don't take any pleasure in reading hundreds of pages of aircraft manual, nor or running checklists for a simple engine start. They rather just press ctrl-e for an auto start, and just fly. Nothing wrong with that, and I think in that case the default planes might be just enough. However, if you like to understand and control the aircraft systems in depth, and/or to understand and follow detailed procedures pre and post flight, the default aircraft just won't cut it. Especially the airliners. That doesn't mean the default planes can't be fun, it's just a different thing.

I started using this for FSX recently and what a fantastic tool. Many thanks Maarten, it's clever people like you that make this hobby what it is. Could I make one suggestion? No clue how feasible it is: To have the software to "save" either a favourite or even the last used gate for the airports. Let me explain: I always have the preferred gates I like to start at some airports. Plus, many VAs have their own gates or areas on the terminals. Often, I need to open the airport parking chart to figure out where to put my aircraft at the start of a flight. If the launcher would "remember" I have last used gate 109 at Heathrow (for example) when I choose Heathrow, that would be amazing. Of course, then one could always change from that to whatever else, but it'd save time and hassle for those who use always the same gate at each airport, but who fly from a number of different airports. Many thanks again, keep it up!

Hi, I know it's a pretty beaten up topic but after reading about it for days I couldn't make heads or tails. My system is mediocre: Core2Duo and a GT 520. Yet I'm happy with it and can get 50+ FPS with default aircraft and very high settings (AI traffic always off because I fly 99% online). FPS goes down to some 20 with complex aircraft and/or busy areas but I'm happy with that as well. I can see it's the CPU bottlenecking since one core is always maxed while the GPU is at ~50% capacity. When it gets hairy (bad weather etc.) the GPU goes up to some 70 or 80% with no FPS impact. So life is good. I have two monitors and the way I've been playing is FSX windowed on the main (24") with FSInn and other stuff like charts and flight plan on the second screen (17"). Works like a charm and no performance impact whatsoever over running with only 1 monitor. However, I started a few days ago fiddling with having 2D panel windows on the other monitor (like a FMC). At some point I even hooked a third monitor over the network, thinking about getting the overhead panel there. The networked monitor works fine with every software except FSX. If I'm running in windowed mode: I undock any window (say FMC) and immediately lose a ton of performance. Like, from 20FPS (complex aircraft, busy area) it drops to 13. If I undock another one (say overhead), it immediately drops to 8FPS or less. Unplayable. (on a side note, is it possible to get rid of the blue bar and frame out of an undocked window?). If I'm running in full screen, the second monitor is always black. Even if I drag a FS window to that monitor, it's still black. Nothing ever happens. I'd be very happy running both monitors full screen and then having my charts etc. on a separate laptop. I don't really need to alt-tab for anything during flight so full screen would suit my needs if it worked. Sorry to post asking help on a beaten subject, but like said I've been reading and searching it for days. I've seen people can use multiple monitors when on full screen but I can't see what I'm doing wrong/different. Many thanks. edit: just already addressing first questions. Win XP 32 bit. Latest video drivers. FSX with SP2 (no acceleration). I've read and ran every tweak I could find on the web over the last few months, although most of them didn't work. Even the mighty highmem=1 causes problems on my system, so the fsx.cfg is pretty much the default.