harryw

And I think I am going to quote, just to preserve this elucidating analysis for posterity.

Exactly, I am going to stay with 7 as long as possible. There is no need to upgrade NOW, but the way Microsoft is pushing 10, practically begging people to install it, you can probably count on 7 being unusable for anything that's evolving rapidly (like flight simulators) within a few years. For starters, DX12 will only be available 10 and sooner or later developers will make the transition to DX12. Same thing is happening with OpenGL and Vulkan, i.e. on the Linux side, so there's a major change in GPU driver design philosophy in progress. If you don't want to be left behind, you gotta move on at some point. I actually understand quite well why Microsoft is forcing updates. Anybody who's ever helped a computer-illiterate person getting a system going again after a thorough mess up will understand! Windows has to work flawlessly on laptops, tablets an smart phones since Microsoft has decided that it's going to be one single OS to rule the whole universe of devices. The vast majority of users just want their chat and video apps to work without a hitch and never think (or even know) about things like drivers and optimization. Well, as flight simmers we are not that kind of user and Microsoft has already shown with Flight how much they care about that niche... If I need to tweak I'd rather do it on a platform that's tweak-friendly! Moving to Linux is going to be a long term project for me. It was really only FSX and Prepar3D that kept me on Windows this long. Everything else I need an OS to do is already well covered.

The update policy is really just the tip of the iceberg. That and many other things happening with Windows show the direction towards which Microsoft is heading so clearly that I am planning my slow migration to Linux / X-Plane within the next year or so. I don't expect P3D to ever be ported to Linux (maybe it will be possible to run with wine libraries in a few years) because the market is just too tiny. Sad but understandable: even with X-Plane it's only 3% Linux. I don't want to insinuate that this is the path everybody should take - it depends on your priorities and of course how happy you are to fiddle around with configurations and computers in general vs just wanting to go and fly - but I definitely am one of those who Microsoft has finally pushed to jump ship.

Is 'Instant Replay' not satisfactory or haven't you discovered it yet?

Are you running Saitek drivers? If the system freezes it could well be that those are the culprit. I don't install drivers (they don't add anything for me that I'm interested in) for my controls and never had any freezes or problems with either Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. (I do have the trim wheel)

For those who find the colors too bland without P3D HDR enabled and have an Nvidia card - did you set 'Output Dynamic Range' to 'Full' in Nvidia Control Panel/Display/Change Resolution?

I would say it's because there's no ORBX libs for Version 3 yet (which contains at least some of the autogen)

Yes, that certainly is not the default Prepar3D.cfg, or else there wouldn't be this line: SimObjectPathsRemarks=These entries were automatically added from SimObjects.cfg by Migration Tool. Set RepairConfig=0 in MigrationTool.cfg to disable. User Objects=Airplane, Helicopter, Submersible, ExternalSim delete it and start prepar3d - that should build you a new one. It still won't start since you deleted the default flight. Now go to your Documents directory (something like C:\Users\fakeflyer737\Documents\Prepar3D v2 Files) and copy any of the flights there (extension .fxml) to one named Default.fxml. That should get you started again IF the missing default flight file is the only problem left. edit: on second thought and looking at that line I copied above - since you apparently have the Migration Tool installed: Does that have an entry in the DLL.XML that gets executed before prepar3d starts and messes up the newly generated Prepar3D.cfg? I don't use or know anything about that tool but as is says right there in the line - maybe you should try to "Set RepairConfig=0 in MigrationTool.cfg".

Are you making fun of Swiss infrastructural planning or the land classes? tutmeiser - did you enable tertiary roads with Vector? And can the width and color of road still be easily adjusted with UTX? I think that was the case with UTX 1, but back then I didn't pay much attention to it. And can you disable power lines in UTX? Thanks again, that was very helpful. There's one or two other areas I'd be interested in but I should give others a chance to come up with a request first.

Thanks, Chris. Global + Vector + LC definitely has the edge as far as capturing the general lay of the land goes. The forests interspersed in urban areas in Switzerland are dense patches, not spread out trees as UTX shows. And the semi-industrial areas are more accurate too. But the shoreline depiction sucks and roads do look better with UTX, although secondary roads are too wide. Altogether Switzerland with UTX looks a bit too US-ish to me. I think I'll wait and see what Vector 1.25 brings. Thanks again for putting this together! edit: just saw you got more or less the same impression by means of Google Earth.

To be honest, the reason I am getting interested in UTX is because I am losing my faith that Vector is ever going to live up to the promises made. It's starting to push a year since the last update and the next one better deliver big time or I am going to give up on it. OpenLC, on the other hand, looks very good to me, especially in Switzerland and Italy but if UTX + Global comes even close then I might ditch that too.

I'd love to see Zurich, CH (not the airport, the actual city) Global LC Europe + Vector vs LC Europe + UTX if that's possible. Thanks!

That shouldn't be a problem. DHCP changes my IP all the time (and I have to go through the stupid 'security' questions of the online banks I'm with) but LM don't care.

Well, thanks! I've modified the code a bit to take care of bouncing: Now only the first ground contact within 7 secs will be displayed. Also, the variable L:Timer clashed with one used somewhere in the A2A C172 gauges; needed to be renamed. Since the community interest seems to be very close to zero I'll probably limit myself to topics such as 'My feelings towards X' from now on. gauge code update: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <SimBase.Document Type="AceXML" version="1,0" id="VSpeed"> <Descr>AceXML Document</Descr> <SimGauge.Gauge id="Gauge"> <Update> <Frequency>6</Frequency> <Script> (A:SIM ON GROUND, bool) if{ (E:ABSOLUTE TIME,Seconds) (L:DisplayInterval,Seconds) > (L:TookOff,bool) and if{ (E:ABSOLUTE TIME,Seconds) 7 + (>L:DisplayInterval) 0 (>L:TookOff) } } els{ (E:ABSOLUTE TIME,Seconds) (L:DisplayInterval,Seconds) > if{ (A:VERTICAL SPEED, Feet per minute) (>L:VSpeed) (A:GROUND VELOCITY, Knots) (>L:HSpeed) 1 (>L:TookOff) } } </Script> </Update> <Element id="Touchdown"> <Visibility>(E:ABSOLUTE TIME,Seconds) (L:DisplayInterval,Seconds) <</Visibility> <Element id="VSpeed"> <GaugeText id="VSpeedText"> <Size>50,28</Size> <FontFace>Arial</FontFace> <FontColor>red</FontColor> <BackgroundColor>azure</BackgroundColor> <FontHeight>25</FontHeight> <HorizontalAlign>CENTER</HorizontalAlign> <GaugeString>%((L:VSpeed,Number))%!d!</GaugeString> <Length>5</Length> </GaugeText> </Element> <Element id="HSpeed"> <FloatPosition>50,0</FloatPosition> <GaugeText id="HSpeedText"> <Size>30,28</Size> <FontFace>Arial</FontFace> <FontColor>red</FontColor> <BackgroundColor>azure</BackgroundColor> <FontHeight>25</FontHeight> <HorizontalAlign>CENTER</HorizontalAlign> <GaugeString>%((L:HSpeed,Number))%!d!</GaugeString> <Length>3</Length> </GaugeText> </Element> </Element> </SimGauge.Gauge> </SimBase.Document>

I forgot: In the [Window Titles] section in panel.cfg, add WindowXX=VSpeed to get the gauge selection into the pulldown menus.