mtrainer

If you can afford it why not future-proof the rig and go for 32 GB of quad channel RAM (assuming your motherboard supports it). CPU speed increases seem stalled out so it is conceivable that the PCs purchased today will still be relevant 4-5 years later (just keep swapping out the GPU every couple of generations). Mark

Looks like ORBX scenery, but could that be REX textures for the water? It makes me wonder, if one has both, let's say for instance the full-fat region for Southern California, will REX water textures replace the ones from ORBX? Also, for you does this affect all your water or just this region? Mark Trainer

Cakewalk Sonar + FS9 on my music rack-mount machine in a spare bedroom. My main FS machine is pretty isolated though and runs on a PC mostly used for Internet, connecting to work, email, and Prepar3DV4. Mark Trainer

Was also wondering how Dan was doing. Hang in there Dan! Mark Trainer

According to PDMG, they don't suggest it although they did mention they may make the P3DV4 planes backwards compatible with older saved scenarios at some point in the future. Mark Trainer

Chaseplane has been fine for me, and I was an EzDOK user for about a year. One of the few gripes I have with Prepar3D is that it throws files all over your system in multiple directories- for instance if you really wanted to uninstall it all you'll be visiting many locations on your hard drive...not all of which are covered by running the "uninstall" program in control panel. Getting back to a true "base" configuration even with an "uninstall" and fresh "install" often doesn't work given the fact it leaves many residual files behind, mostly in the "Users" directory. For example, I made a small mistake a few weeks ago trying to apply a hotfix and it took several hours getting it right again, and I have a B.S. in Computer Science and work as a software developer. I can't begin to imagine what folks go through who just want to fly. Froogle even mentioned once on his youtube channel he often reserves Sundays for fixing issues and making tweaks. Insane as he is a developer too. Mark

tonywob nailed it....spot on....I was a late adopter to Prepar3D coming in at V3, and having been a person that sat on MS 98 (AKA FS 9) for what felt like a decade, and one that provided 90% of the reality I experienced initially with P3D, I was quite surprised things hadn't moved along farther. I had expected more out of the box. Alas, one must still buy replacement textures, sceneries, study-level aircraft, weather, cloud textures, and that is just the minimum. The default sims seem "afraid" to incorporate features that might put some add-on business out of a job. On the bright side, it does allow one to buy the simulator in bits and pieces, without the initial capital outlay that having everything in one box might cost. Plus, there is the aspect of being able to select what one feels might be best for their individual needs. I feel like the model going forward is that the major flight sim developers will only continue to provide a "base" upon which, AI, weather, scenery, textures, etc. can be added to. In a forum post earlier this year I expounded on the concept of being able to build an entire simulator out of interchangeable APIs, from lighting engines, rendering engines, flight envelope engines, thread management engines, scenery options, weather engines, etc. Mark Trainer

From what I've read, the complexity of the drivers for the cards go way up for SLI communication, and if NVIDIA isn't putting the R&D into that aspect you could wind up with poor SLI performance or a situation where it doesn't work at all with your favorite game. I plan on sticking with a single card now, although in my dreams I do wish that if I got 2 NVIDIA cards it would truly mean 2X the performance. Apparently not so....at least today. Mark Trainer

Yes, this is true - I experimented with C algorithms for Ray Tracing in the 80s.....took my Amiga a full day to render one simple image but the results were stunning when glass or mirrors were used. I thought for sure that would be the way of the future - and actually it has been for the animation studios, they use ray-tracing for all their frames. I feel some day this technique will be commonplace, just not sure when the consumer hardware will be there (studios have rendering farms). Mark Trainer

Would be easy to check, just by artificially setting your time and location in the sim. While the moon may move into the path of the sun it's highly doubtful that they modeled any sort of dimming of the scenery that would normally accompany that. Mark Trainer

After having issues yesterday, and refusing to perform heart surgery on PC in order to try all manner of things, I am today able to get the ops center updates. I don't believe, in my case anyhow, it had anything to do with the settings on my end. Nothing has changed. Mark Trainer

I did, and read about the new People and Object Flow, and of course opted in right when it was announced so that all my other airports would work so I guess I'm good to go....heck I just landed there last week using default scenery, wish I had noticed that ORBX had a version of Lake Tahoe before. I'll pull it down shortly. Just surprised their individual sites for the airports don't make it clear that they will indeed work for V4 as long as the beta Flow software is installed. Thanks, Mark Trainer

Hi, ORBX website indicates that the Northern California region is required for the ORBX Lake Tahoe Airport Add-On. That's no problem as I own it. BUT....when you go to the individual page for Lake Tahoe, it lists compatibility with P3D versions up to V3. I have the latest Object Flow, I was wondering if I can still purchase this airport while the sale is on, or is the web site correct and it still isn't cleared to work w/ P3D V4.... Thanks, Mark Trainer

Yes also having the issue, running with admin rights, deactivated anti-virus, etc. Getting stuck on different files each time, and it is able to pull some of them down so it isn't a connection problem, it almost behaves as if the source server is overwhelmed. I'll try again early next week, all the planes seem perfectly functional. Mark Trainer

Yep Dan! It was your picture of this plane a month or so ago that inspired me to get it! I love the paint job. This jet is only frequenting the party cities, and has an interior with ALL the amenities! There was a small change of plans with the destination, although I own the ORBX Telluride Airport and love the approach, after studying skyvector a bit I decided to fly to Grand Canyon Airport instead. Instead of taking a direct flight, gave all the friends in the back the scenic tour and headed out East over Lake Meade and then pretty much followed the Colorado River (yes, this definitely the long way) until I was 45 nm from Grand Canyon Airport. It's currently parked there getting the bar restocked. Taking a plane around the world is one of my goals in FS....maybe this is the bird to do it in. Mark Trainer PS. This is the first picture I've ever posted to AVSIM, I'm up to speed thanks to Poppet's great instructions.

OK, replying to my own topic perhaps this will work for someone else. After reinstalling Prepar3D V4, it appears FSUIPC5 became uninstalled. I reinstalled FSUIPC (and didn't touch a single setting in there), and now the joystick works even when the focus changes to a different window on a 2nd monitor. Happy Flying, I'm taking the BBJ party plane from Las Vegas to Telluride today. Mark Trainer

Well gents.....in learning the 737 I'm afraid that at some point I think I've made every mistake in the book, but it is the mistakes that make us better. And, the best of the best of us are the ones who read the manual, look stuff up, and re-do the tutorials as often as required to maintain proficiency. Mark Trainer (accomplished but still learning)

And on that extremely rare flight, the ingestion of a bird through the engine with some interesting fireworks briefly out the back end. Or even more rare, a cracked windscreen due to bird strike. Heck, let's throw in the occasional drone strike too, looks like it is going to become a fact of life too in the coming years. Mark

It seems before (a few months ago) I could change focus to another application/screen and still be able to have control inputs into the control of the aircraft via the joystick (In this case a Warthog Thrustmaster). Now when I switch focus to another app, for instance a ChasePlane menu on another popup that exists on a different monitor, I can't continue to control the aircraft with the joystick. It provides no control inputs while the focus is on the 2nd screen. I have to click back into the main FS window for the joystick to again provide input via the joystick. Nearly killed 166 fine folks leaving Lake Tahoe earlier tonight, and 2 seasoned crew members and 15+ extremely upset passengers ruined their underwear before recovery was initiated. It wasn't like this a month ago but unfortunately I had to reinstall most stuff after a major boo-boo of my own doing about a week ago. I went through the menu options in Prepar3D but couldn't find anything that sounded applicable. It's my last hurdle to getting things back to 100% as they were. Any ideas? Mark Trainer ( Nearly 100% success landing rate nearly anywhere in the world but for some reason suck at landing at ORBX Telluride in the Colorado mountains- it's hard! - try it...)

At some point you're going to have to bite the bullet, whether it is now or later- simply because FSX is a dead product. It has no real future. In the long haul you'll save more money switching over the P3D vs. investing another red cent in a FSX 32 bit add-on. And in time, some future version of Windows may not even run FSX....I have every version of MS FS they ever made, and the only ones that work on Windows 10 anymore are FS9 and FSX. Mark

The ORBX FTX Global Range openLC North America updates the Hawaiian Island Chain but doesn't do a whole lot for the airports. But ORBX is a big improvement over the default. An ORBX "Region" release focusing on the Hawaiian Island Chain is WAY OVERDUE....it astounds me no one has done this region head to toe yet....it's ripe for the taking! I absolutely love flying these islands....there is a lot of freeware stuff out there and also plenty of photoreal scenery, but it all felt kludged and I want something that is all inclusive. I'd pay more for this region than any other I've purchased so far if it was done right. Mark Trainer

As someone who has built their own custom rigs since 1995, I can say you can only upgrade a system to a point until you encounter that "weakest chain in the link". I have bumped up in my latest system the RAM (6 GB to 24 GB), Video Card (Some POS to NVIDIA 1050), and added a SSA drive but I feel I've bought one year at best. Next spring, an all new system which I describe to my fellow programmers (BEST -1)....meaning top shelf parts minus one downgrade. Mark Trainer

Good stuff folks- all replies appreciated....I'm looking at buying the Milviz Beaver for these much anticipated excursions! Mark Trainer

As some one who owns ORBX South America and Global Vector for about a week, I've noticed no issues. Your Mileage May Vary. Mark Trainer

Right - it's not as detailed "regional" sections, but it's not bad by any means. I spent a few weeks ago waging my way through South American all the way to Northern section of Antarctica and on my way back used the new South America add-on, which was as definite improvement. Many of the obscure airports still remain basic though/ Mark Trainer