stevekirks

Rob: LOVE LOVE LOVE this RealAir Legacy v2--the gauge needle bounce was worth the money alone.

Ran the test again with historical weather from that day, running the same apps and flying the same route. Frames dropped pretty hard at the end (my machine, not a memory issue) but the VAS is nearly the same as I reported before. The only difference would be the PilotEdge traffic load was lower. I'd say that could make the difference. I'll try a KSAN to KLAX flight which should cruise over plenty of memory hungry scenery. Again...wizards they be...dunk them in water to see if they float as they might be witches, those PMDG devs...

Ah...weather. Forgot about that. I'll pull the historical weather in ASN and do it again when the PilotEdge network has even more traffic. Still, on my machine, that memory savings is a big deal.

Fellow Pilots: I downloaded and installed the update to the 777 with the VAS improvements and I have to say a big "thank you" to the PMDG dev team! My setup is newish but not high-end and FSX:SE is still FSX, so I was hoping for something, knowing that anything was an improvement. After the install, I have about 600MB more VAS memory than before! Core i5-4460 at 3.2GHz 8GB RAM Windows 10 64bit Nvidia GT640 1GB GDDR5 VRAM FTX Global/Vector/SoCal enabled PilotEdge connected, drone AI aircraft populating the skies I ran the same flight this morning that I did right before the change: KLAS BOACH6 HEC KAYOH5 KLGB FSUIPC was reporting 385MB VAS left before the update, 991MB VAS left after the update. THANKS PMDG! My investment is still paying off after two plus years....

I have this same issue. Digging into the files, it seems that there is a second set of radios enabled, but no way to display the content. I wanted to support the idea of basic add ons through Steam, not the exclusivity part, so I bought it, but I regret the purchase only because of the lower than expected quality. Missing dual radio support is odd and the instruction manual doesn't show how to hide the yokes and throttle quadrant levers--had to dig through the internet for those. I'm considering enabling a group of shift menu pop-ups for the FSX GPS and a radio stack, but without a second VOR display, it seems pointless.

Edited the post to be more clear about Shared Cockpit and the beta DC-6. It was not a question of whether or not someone has used Shared Cockpit. Birdy.dma--you need to sign your posts with your full name please.

As someone who made the jump to X-Plane last year, I was surprised by a couple of things: * My older Core2 Quad 2.66GHz machine does fine. It's the graphics card that suffers. I'm on a lightweight GT640 card with 1GB of RAM and it's enough in most cases, but 2GB or more would be much better. * the HD mesh that Kyle mentioned is free and amazing. Even with the low end card mentioned above, I'm able to run it and get 30FPS on most planes, even a payware jet with complex modelling. * If you're wondering how your machine will do with X-Plane, download the demo and try it out. The demo is exactly the same as the full version and it will run for 15 minutes under your control, and "forever" under AI control. That will give you plenty of time to try different rendering settings and see how they work for you. Kyle, thanks for taking the time to post these shots and the links. Questions: * TrackIR work? * Has anyone on the beta team tried the X-Plane plug-in for Shared Cockpit? Steve Kirks

PMDG Staff: I appreciate the separate pricing and no conversion offer. Different platforms with different audiences mean different rules. PMDG software is not an entitlement and I'm happy to "pay for professionalism". I would love to see PMDG customer base segmentation and a place for the users that wish to be...how do I say this...more professional and less game-ish. Overall, I'm a FSX customer that is happy to see companies like yours charge for your efforts. In a world of free games for your phones with in-app purchases, quality work work stands out and deserves to be rewarded. The pricing policy has helped me see that I'm likely not a PMDG customer in the future--my FSX install will give me plenty of fun for a few years more--but just because I don't want to follow your direction doesn't mean you're wrong. Steve Kirks

PMDG Staff: I'd like to get this install process straight and it seems simple: Starting with a clean install of FSX:SE without any PMDG 777 aircraft installed-- 1. Download the new master installer files from my account for the -200 and -300. 2. Run the installer for the -200. 3. Reboot and run FSX:SE 4. Load the -200 and make sure it's working. 5. Shutdown FSX:SE and install the -300 add on. 6. Reboot and run FSX:SE 7. Load the -300 and make sure it's working. 8. Run the Ops Center and have it check for any updates. Questions: 1. Is this the correct procedure? 2. After Step 7 above, will I have the equivalent of the 777-200 and -300 with SP1c/d?

PMDG Team: Will the patch require and "uninstall/reinstall" to make things work? I have FSX:SE (and the CD version, no haters pls) and I've been reluctant to do the uninstall unless the patch will require it. Thanks PMDG for taking the time to try to make this work. For me, the Steam version does offer some small performance gains on my other aircraft and that made it worth the $5 for me.

PMDG staff: I ran the 777-200 installer, did the Ops Center update, did the SP1c update and still have not been prompted to enter the activation code. It usually comes up when the plane is loaded in the FSX free flight screen, right? FSX Steam Edition 777-200 with SP1c No liveries installed stock textures, etc. What I've checked: --installed the correct software --FlexNet licensing service is installed but set to "manual" start and isn't running when the plane loads. I manually started it and reloaded the -200 and no joy. I also made sure it was running, exited FSX and restarted it. --SimConnect installed from the Steamapps SDK folder What I get: --black panels --no FMC functions --sounds like engine is running, outside view confirms sound --no landing gear Smells like a SimConnect issue. I've had to reinstall twice for a couple of A2A aircraft that had issues. I can provide order number and other information in a private message to confirm a valid customer.

PMDG Crew: I searched for this on the support site first with keywords of 'uninstall' and 'deactivate' and didn't get any results. Weird. What is the proper procedure to remove the 777 entirely if I have the 300 expansion? I was thinking: 1. Log into FSX and deactivate the -300 and the -200 base. 2. Uninstall the -300 from the Windows control panel, then the -200. Make sense? No opinions, would prefer real experience or a PMDG staffer.

Found this YouTube video with a landing then takeoff. The landing shows a steep approach and a near 3-point landing. Takeoff looks to be one notch of flaps and a hint of rotation before liftoff. Anyone with the plane get the same behavior in the sim? Also this video has a great narrative about PC-12 ops during a descent including using the flight director for guidance to hand fly the approach.

The Flight1 version does and the real life version does to based on some Googling. Also found this site: http://www.acftservices.com/safety_articles.html Run by a company that produces training info for the PC-12

OK, now I get it... ...that the 777-200 is ungainly looking. ...that the -200 is a hotrod. ...that the fly-by-wire needed to be fixed. . ...that it took so long. To the PMDG crew: I am an aspiring pilot with a demanding day job. It pays good, but I don't always have the extra money to leap into an expensive add-on without some careful thought. I bought the 777-200 last year at rollout, my only serious jet sim purchase. I was skeptical because as the average shmoe I thought the baby 777 was fine. I live my life from the "short" turn around, flying freight for FedEx. I don't spend tons of time in the manual and don't have failures turned on. I could still "see" why the software was so good. It had a feel that's hard to describe, every effort needed to be deliberate, thought out and most of all, by the book. Then I spent the $30 for the big brother... Wow... This new flight model and larger jet sure has the "feel" of mass. It's stunning and my rig is even pretty basic. Weather? I use a freeware FSrealWX (v2.0) and somehow I'm getting wind forecasts. Amazing! Won't have the weather radar until I'm ready to spend more, but I understand why and it makes sense. How much *should* something cost that everyone thought was impossible? Overall, thank you for the long nights and scratched heads until you got it right. I thought the orginal RTM was good, never having experienced the bugs of others. This new one...well...what a difference. Thanks, Steve Kirks

That's how I read the press release. Also note--this information appears nowhere on Microsoft's website. Nothing in the press release side or other likely places. So the news websites simply reprint what Dovetail says. Might be nice for an MS press release to show up here...

Me? Short Turn. I fly for a FedEx VA so I'm running the same routes I would if I flew for FedEx in real life. Here's my scenario: I'm a pilot near retirement, working for the company since the early 727 days. As a "reward", I fly from my home city of Memphis on a short flight to KSGF Springfield, MO only on the days when the regular 757 is down for maintenance. They pull out the 777, get it to the regular "short turn" state for me, and when I arrive, I just have a short walk-around and time to review the package, which is usually the same. HOTRD2 SID to the Springfield VOR (SGF) and land on runway 14/32. I arrive in Springfield early in the morning, catch some sleep, pick up some things at Bass Pro, then back to the airport by 5PM Central for the return to Memphis - WHOLL to BRBBQ1 and if I'm lucky, runway 09. In general, I can go from the short state to ready to taxi in 10-15 minutes from memory. Still fun and not a huge time sink. The KSGF-KMEM flight is about 35-45 minutes in the air, plenty of time for a flight before meeting the carpool for work. Steve

Holy Thread Revival Batman... Here's the issue I'm facing today: Specs: Dell Optiplex 755 Desktop with current BIOS A21 Core2 Duo E7500 2.93GHz 4GB RAM DDR2-667 250GB SATA hard drive as C: (Windows/FSX) 32GB SATA SSD as drive E: (ReadyBoost, pagefile only) Nvidia GT210 FSX - DX10 with freebie fixes and sane FSX.CFG changes Issue: With the config above, I get 20+FPS on default aircraft, 10-15 on my PMDG777. I swapped the lowly GT210 for a less lowly GT640 and get sound crackles, widely varied FPS no matter what the aircraft loaded. What I've done so far: -Reinstalled FSX -Updated every chipset driver I could find -Lowered settings in FSX to minimums -NickN's suggestions -AVSIM's FSX guide 2.0 -Slowly adding in typical config changes like HIGHMEM and BufferPools Nothing changes. What baffles me is that with the lower GT210 in place, it's stable, flyable and no sound issues. With the faster and higher-end GT640, the whole thing is wonky. Any ideas?

NOTE: This is not an effort to admonish someone about reading the manual. It's questions like this that made me really appreciate the manuals that came with the 777. I was on a flight where I needed to dump some fuel to meet landing weight requirements. A trip to the manual, then the checklists and I was able to correctly dump the fuel down to the weight I needed. A true testament to the detail of the manual and the simulation. THANKS PMDG! Thanks also to the beta testers who might have actually tested that procedure.

When in ALT hold, the pitch up/down on the throttle panel will control the rate of descent/ascent. Regular movement of the pitch wheel will not work even when it's AP on/ HDG hold. For others that have flown it, any chance the dials on the HSI work when in the VC? Mine don't seem to. Otherwise a fantastic airplane!

Enjoying? How about 'addicted'? Starting from the short turn-around, I can be in the air in 15 minutes flying a beautiful departure for my daily KMEM-KSGF flights for FedEx. I get a solid 45 mins of flying as my 'drug' before work each day. Well worth my money. Thanks for being willing to provide the detail. That alone can take a couple of days to gather the info, review it for accuracy, run it past a couple of people for editing and post. Sometimes people can forget how long things take and two days away from development might prevent Santa from picking the SP up for Christmas delivery. It's the attention to detail that makes me smile every time I climb in the cockpit. I love listening to the cockpit noises during APU power-up on the headset, separate from the "outside" engine noise on the speakers--helps me stay immersed in the simulation. Thanks! My nickel's worth--I don't miss it and wouldn't care to ever see it if that meant getting the 747v2 out the door faster... This makes me happy and sad. Happy because I wanted to buy this but didn't want the "old" version--sad because like many others, I'm hoping for a P3D version of a PMDG aircraft. I won't poison this thread with lame comments or complaints. I work for a large company that makes odd decisions that leave heads scratching. Sometimes I get the chance to see the 'behind the scenes' of a decision process and it become pretty obvious why something happened. A company that spends the attention to detail that you do would be very aware that P3D would be a good platform for their products. For someone to say to say otherwise would be childish. Like a lot of technically-minded people, I often want to know 'why' something is the way it is, and the not knowing of the 'why' makes it frustrating. One day, when enough time has passed, it might be great if you could post the why behind the delay (or the never) of a P3D move. Thanks to you and your team for the work you do. Even if I have to buy a dedicated sim PC just to run the PMDG line, I'll keep flying. Cheaper than writing the check to Boeing and renting the hanger space... Steve Kirks FDX4345 on VATSIM in the PMDG 777

All: I've had some FMC issues when trying to change STAR and arrival runways in the FMC. It seems to be isolated to flights where the flightplan is rather large, with say 6 to 10 pages of waypoints, like the KMEM to OMDB run. The last time it happened to me I tried to change approach and runway with about two pages of waypoints left. It's hard to describe but I'll give it a shot: (Procedures and runways are fake since I'm not in front of the sim right now) 1. Had the ALPHA1 STAR and ILS27L programmed with appropriate transition fixes. 2. Wanted to change to the BETTA2 STAR and ILS27R so I went to the DEP/APP page, and tried to make the choices. 3. FMC appeared to take the change and the EXEC button lit so I pressed it. 4. LEGS page didn't reflect the change but showed a discontinuity and I eliminated it with the next in line waypoint. this is where it gets wonky... 5. Route didn't really change and FMC started to behave unpredictably to changes. Tried to delete waypoints or replace them with no effect. 6. Tried to erase/delete waypoints from the bottom up until I got to a waypoint before the STAR...not working. So, has anyone else seen this problem? If so, how did you deal with it? Is there a procedure in the manual about creating an 'enroute' flightplan when the FMC goes nuts? In the last situation where this happened, I simply went "old skool" and flew using my map (skyvector.com) and the MCP and a visual approach to the field. Any hints here?

Did you import wind predictions from PFPX or a weather app into the FMC?

Regarding frame rates: I have a Core 2 Duo 2.93GHz basic Dell Optiplex desktop. With only 4GB of RAM and Windows 7 64bit, I was nervous about the making the leap to PMDG. To make matters worse, I have a low-end Nvidia GeForce 210 graphics card driving two monitors! That said, with minimal common sense "tweaking" to fsx.cfg, I get 30FPS with zero clouds, day or night, even with 5-10 VATSIMmers around. As soon as you add a cloud layer, my Nvidia card struggles. The sim has been rock solid for me, no crashes, no OOMs nothing. I run stock scenery, REX Essentials for textures and FSRealWX for weather. DX9 also...nothing special. I'm sure if I added a ton of payware HD airports it would kill, but I'm convinced it's my video card holding me back. I've tried all of the different tweaks you could think of for the GeForce 210 card, but there's no fixing in software what the board lacks in hardware. If you machine is having problems with framerates, I'd look to the video card first, RAM and processor second, FSX.cfg tweaks third. The eye opener for me? I swapped out my 23" monitor for an "old skool" 17" LCD running at 1280x1024. My framerates doubled and in most cases locked at 30. Swap the 23" LCD running at 1920x1080 and frames dropped to 12-15 from 25-30. Video card for sure...

I bought the PMDG 777 a couple of days ago and I'm frankly blown away. It's easy to dismiss some of the praise as hype but here's my experience: My machine is an older Dell desktop Core 2 Duo 2.93GHz with 4GB of RAM and Win7 64-bit. The video card is a low-end GeForce 210. I can still get 20FPS with the correct settings as recommended by PMDG (turning down the AA due to the card's limits) and that is amazing. I was worried that my hardware couldn't keep up but wow...wow. Ignoring the tutorial on purpose I was able to fly the plane (badly) and do some pattern work. Thanks PMDG for the instant gratification of a powered airplane ready to go from first install. The depth of the simulation ensures I won't need another plane for *years*. I can imagine months of work only to scratch the surface of what I could do with this. It's very satisfying to repeated fly a standard route and not be able to do it well or land successfully with automation. That sounds weird to say, but if it was easy "out of the box" I'd be sad. I will relish the time it takes to become proficient and that makes it worth the cash. Installation was a breeze the the Operations Manager app is the new "gold standard" for other developers to follow. Almost carefree to use confidently. How soon will it be before PMDG licenses the MS source code and creates a self-contained PMDG sim? $100 for the app with one plane included, $75 each plane after that. I'm in! Again....blown away...what a great add-on. Steve Kirks