seodave

Loving the discussion. Downloaded the beta for X-Plane 11 last night and have been toying with it on and off today. Massive difference between FSX and X-Plane (talking from a physics perspective). The interface is lovely the weather management settings are great. Had a play and although there's not ultralight option I did play with a Discuss K21 and a C172 (see attached for how I ended the flight in the K21 ... skills). Graphically it's good but the physics do seem a million miles from FSX. Just a real shame there seems to be so few addons for it ... Anyone played with both X-Plane 11 and Prepar3D v3 to compare the physics and flight modeling? Would be interested to know how they compare. I can't seem to find a demo version of P3D v3 to play with. I tried stalls and sideslipping, both seemed to be modelled far better than FSX, unsurprisingly. Cheers

Many thanks for Chock, Bert, Glider1 and Bonchie for your replies. Pretty much as I imagined - I agree it'll very much never happen (at least certainly not in FSX anyway) but it is very nice to know that there are others out there whom have noticed the same things and would be interested in their development. FSX is very broad in terms of whom uses the platform which is probably the main reason none of what I listed will likely ever be added (great points regarding larger aircraft), but it is interesting to know also that there are some add-ons that may help with things like this, plus a few aircraft (such as A2A - thanks Glider1) that have their own 'physics engine'. Bert - I think I'll take a closer look at X-Plane just out of interest, thanks for the heads up. Cheers all, Dave

Evening all! I've been using FSX-SE for a while now and I am a dedicated pixel pilot (I'm claiming that term!) and I'm an avid reader of our hobby's magazine - like everyone else I've seen FSX and other flight sims develop pretty much exponentially over the years. Graphics have gotten better and better alongside the hardware we all use. The graphics and visual realism are genuinely staggering these days ... notice I say 'visual realism'. This led me to a conversation I have been having with myself recently and thought I would post here to get other people's opinions. Although graphics have improved, I've not really read about, heard about or seen discussions around physics. Physics is everything to flight, so I'm wondering why we don't talk about it more and why developers aren't focusing on it more (I appreciate scenery and graphics sell better!)? I've been looking back at release notes and updates from Dovetail regarding FSX-SE and I can't find anything about physics. It's all about graphic performance. I am very happy if someone can prove me wrong (again I appreciate that Dovetail's likely business plan for FSX-SE was to sell more to a mass market). There's quite an array of things that could be improved in FSX-SE with regards to the physics engine, I've named a few that I can think of: Friction - ground friction is something that can be controlled through the aircraft config file but I've never noticed a difference in surface texture comparing grass against tarmac. Aerodynamics - I think the principles are there but aerodynamics in relation to wind and especially changing wind conditions are not modelled well if at all. Environmental physics - how gusts and the wind interact with the aircraft, I really don't think the way it works currently is realistic - mainly during changing winds, is there even a wind gradient modelled? What about the effects of objects? For example, a tall line of trees alongside the runway will significantly impact the wind, considerations and handling on take off. Downdrafts and updrafts, eddies and vortices. Even having no wind during a landing can make for a profoundly different landing experience in real life. Instruments - as a pilot of small aircraft in the real world myself I know that the airspeed indicator needle is rarely still just because the air around it isn't! Especially during manoeuvres such as side-slipping. This isn't modelled in FSX I don't think. Maybe I'm asking too much of our beloved sim? I appreciate that for many this would be too much, are there other sims which do a far greater job of this? What does everyone think? Should be looking more closely at physics and less on scenery or am I just being a pedantic pair of buttocks? Very interested to hear people's thoughts. Cheers all! Dave

Hi JYW I totally agree! Specifically payware ones - although I love free stuff (who doesn't right?!) but something that has had this amount of effort put into it (like Carenado's models and the many others you have to pay for) I think it makes a difference and very pleased to see this coming out into the market for us to play with! Cheers, Dave

Evening everyone! I am particularly excited about this so wanted to post everywhere I have a forum membership - there is soon to be a payware C42 Ikarus (COMCO approved and pilot tested flight dynamics!) available for FSX and P3D! Brought to you in collaboration with the very excellent chaps at Sim720. You can find it here: http://airsim720.com/ It's launching on 01 August - not long to wait either! I'm particularly excited about this as it's the aircraft I fly (in real life!) and I know many people in our hobbie have been looking for one. Cheers all Dave

Afternoon everyone! Wow, been a while since posting here. I've got back on the FSX wagon and I've completed my home cockpit (very basic compared to many but I've done it) You can see it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/h10i9t6eesuhamd/20160321_141947.jpg?dl=0 Anyway, I'm enjoying it. I've recently installed the Iris Simulations Jabiru J-160 and I'd like to hook up my Saitek switch panel with the panel of the aircraft. However, they use custom variables and for the life of me I cannot get the panel to work. I've emailed David/support at Iris but no reply just yet. I'm using: > SPAD to assign a 'virtual joystick' and button which is sent to FSUIPC > Assign the "toggle elect fuel pump' command (parameter = 1) from FSUIPC I've got a joystick button working for opening and closing the fuel tap using FSUIPC and working well. But the buttons on the Saitek panel just aren't working. Remembering back a few years when I went through to the same thing with the Katana X the custom variables for that seemed to already be listed in the 'control list' on FSUIPC. However, I can't seem to find them for the Iris Jabiru. I can find them in the gauges folder within Steam's FSX objects folder but I have no idea how to import them (if that's even possible) into FSUIPC so I can assign them to particular button presses. If anyone can help me out I would really appreciate it as I'm slowly losing my mind! Thanks very much everyone! Dave