s0cks

It's honestly a little gutting, cus I actually love (IRL) most of the planes they release. I have a thing for classics. But AH charge top tier prices for half baked products. When you're competing in price with people like Flying Iron you have to do better. The other downside is it makes the aircraft they release less likely to be developed by someone else. I would love an A2A or Flying Iron P51D.

So which has the best view? Because that's honestly why I've mostly avoided twins for all these years - I like them but then I can't see much of the wonderful scenery (unless going external cam ofc, but who does that??).

Yes, that's the thing. I like to fly VFR a lot and value good views. I actually lie, I have a couple of twin props. The BN2 and the Beech 18 (which is very good with Denarq mod). I guess I'm just missing a more modern, twin cruiser.

Yes, the Duke sounds amazing even in the vids. Does the 414 have any wear and tear? Or failures?

Haha. Yes, well, it's easy to spend money on MSFS that's for sure. Difficult choice. I will probably end up doing what I always do... procrastinating and then end up just flying one of the excellent single piston planes I have lol.

So if someone is looking for their first 3rd party twin piston, would you guys say Duke or 310R? Pros and cons of both?

I can't get over that A-pillar. Maybe it's ok IRL, but in the sim it restricts the view too much. I've always disliked the DA-62 for the same reason.

In Opentrack you can also adjust the axis offsets. So for example if you are too close you can adjust the Z axis offset. However it sounds like you just don't like looking down. Which is fair enough. Tbh neither do I. But I probably wouldn't use this on an airliner anyway. It's better suited for VFR flights in planes where you don't often need to look down.

You definitely need to mess with the curves in Opentrack to get it feeling as good as possible.

Higher fps will be better. Whether you deem it smooth enough at 30fps is for your judgement only. Give it a go.

You don't need one, no.

I'm sure it will work. You could try the free one I linked a couple of posts prior to my response to you. Install that. Run it. And in Opentrack set input to UDP over network. I'm certain the output should be freetrack enhanced. MSFS should then recognise it as a TrackIR device.

The latest version of Opentrack has an input source called Eyeware Beam. That is the one you should use. Under Options in Opentrack you will also need to bind a key for "Center". You press this once the software has a lock on your face and that will recenter the camera in MSFS.

I tried the demo. It's pretty good (I have a 60fps webcam). But I still think StableView is better, and free. My only bug bear with StableView is that if it loses your head you often have to stop and start it again (takes half a second but kinda annoying) - it also seems like the developer has abandoned it. But so far I've not found anything as smooth. Beam Eye comes close though.

I have the Logitech version of the X52 and it's full of noisy pots (and the same throttle creep). For reverse thrust I use a hold to toggle button. I hold down the button labeled D (in Windows it's button 7) and this toggles the throttle to control reverse thrust. Pull back to idle and take my finger off the toggle button to go back to forward thrust.

Have you checked the Windows Event Log to see if there is any corresponding error log when the app crashes (probably under the Application log)?

Maybe. Cities in general just seem too dark to me, especially the skyscrapers. True, but Orbx doesn't have everything the marketplace does. Each to their own.

MSFS is so dark at night over urban areas. American cities look more like Soviet cities trying to conserve power.

The marketplace helps fund continued development so don't feel too bad. I'm the same way. Buy from marketplace just to make everything simple. Yeah, you have to wait a bit longer, but still plenty to do meanwhile. Patience is a virtue.

Wait, alcohol dehydrates you so drinking that probably wasn't a good idea!

PNW Seattle is basically unplayable for me unless Scenery Complexity is Very Sparse or Sparse. Scenery Complexity seems to be the hardest FPS hitter. Big cities with custom scenery and large airports always bring my computer to it's knees. I know I don't have the fastest CPU in the world (shock, it's not overclocked!) but the hit I get seems unreasonable. This has always been an issue (even in FSX), but in P3D with Orbx the problem is far more pronounced. I don't think this is necessarily an Orbx issue, but rather an engine issue. I could be wrong though.

That means I have to d/l 10.30, which takes a lot longer than a screenshot! Tbh though, I've always found 10.25 to be butter smooth too and unless they've changed autogen and ground textures I can't see how it could be much different? Some of the screenshots in the screenshot forum don't seem to indicate a drastic change in graphics.

GMO is a real problem in terms of biodiversity.

Show us some screenshots at least!

To get more speed you will need a higher overclock. Ideally Intel is better as they have much better clock for clock performance (a 3.4GHz i5 is faster than a 3.4Ghz Phenom). May be worth trying P3Dv2 though, as it's more optimized and they are optimizing further for v2.3 update. Overclocking has it's downsides. It requires aftermarket coolers (or liquid cooling), and it produces heat, which means more fans, which means more noise. I personally got sick of the whirring sound of fans so I went back to stock speeds and replaced everything with slow & quiet fans. I love how quiet it is now, so I hope that P3D can eek out some better performance from more modest processors.