mtrainer

My main irritation with the 747 is having to do even more through the FMC, such as VOR station navigation vs. just being able to adjust the NAV radios on the fly. To me it seems like one spends an inordinate amount of time programming the flight in the FMC before takeoff and then just letting the FMC execute it after taking off. The 737NGX allows me to quickly change things up on the fly without putting my head back into the FMC. Oh, and I'm a software engineer so I guess in some ways that makes no sense.....but- the NGX feels to much more "hands on". The 747, externally, rocks though. But, the cockpit seems a bit barren compared to the default view in the 737 cockpit. Mark Trainer

Well, welcome to the forum. The rules state you need to sign your first and last name at the bottom, so may want to read the sticky on that one. PDMG retains from Prepar3D many of the basic keyboard commands you've mentioned, which in turn retained the original FSX key bindings. So, yeah, you could get away with operating the plane using some of these simple commands. But, the reason most folks buy PDMG products is for the study-level realism and the joy of operating the aircraft on a much more detailed level. So in that regard, you'd be paying for a lot more depth than you need. Mark Trainer

They might even be reluctant to support a configuration that was built with a mish-mash of a normal install and copy/pasting of files (should you resort to having to open a trouble ticket). Although it's more work, I'm setting everything up in the new sim from scratch....otherwise when you hit an odd issue you'll always have that odd feeling in the back of your mind, "Did my manual overwrites cause this issue?". Mark Trainer

This issue has been written about already apparently the fix is to make sure you download the new operation center and not just the new aircraft. 10 hours ago, downscc said: Are you using P3Dv4? The OC update that was pushed out a few days ago, the one that added NGX P3Dv4 to the menu and caused such a stir, included a fix for the problem. The change log includes this entry, "Fixed: Livery restoration functionality in P3D v3/P3D v4 (User must run OC, clear any notifications, then exit OC in order generate new backup files and return to normal operation)". Hope this helps. It was this thread: Mark Trainer

The air Kevin paint job does rock. Mark Trainer

Thanks. Now back to topic - I just installed the 737 NGX for V4 - and although I've only got a 30 minute test flight in, the framerates seem quite improved - to me, this is the single biggest noticeable difference in the original V3 vs. V4 version. Anyone else seeing a very healthy improvement in frames (in all fairness, I haven't yet started cranking up the sliders, still running at the Prepar3D default recommendations). I'm getting 40 FPS at FlyTampa Chicago Midway which makes for some smooth landings. So far very impressed! I'll pull down the 747 this weekend. Good job PMDG! Mark Trainer

I never saw an OOM error in Prepar3D V3 either, and have plenty of regions, airports, weather, airplanes, and textures tacked on. The nicest thing I'm seeing in V4 is a healthy increase in framerates. The framerate boost isn't something I expected to see but now that it's there, I can't go back to P3DV3. Mark

Looking forward to flying this monster! Big Time! Mark Trainer

Well, what ever it is, I'll buy it- even if it is a Paper Airplane simulator or a Chinese Kite simulator....I'm there! As I've indicated in past posts through, I'd like to see this talented group stretch their legs into something a bit unusual. After all the big Boeing Tubeliners are pretty well represented. Mark Trainer

I actually make that mistake a lot, apologies. It always helps when I write it out to think about what it stands for! PMDG is the correct acronym. Mark Trainer

Sorry about the R9 GPU Tony....but I read your detailed description and overall, you're pretty much doing exactly what I have been doing on my multi-monitor setup with PDMG 737NGX. The terminology is to "undock" a window, pull it over to the screen you want, get it adjusted just so, and then dock it again. So for me, I have the main displays on my forward monitor, the radio stack and overhead displays on the two right monitors, and on the left most monitor running skyvector and google for airport diagrams. I have started to gravitate toward just the 3D view though....using EZCA (a real pain to setup in my opinion) and simply scroll over to what ever panel I need. Good luck w/ the hardware, I'm planning to build an all new system next spring, and going all out! Mark Trainer

If you fit the license requirements for the Academic version of Prepar3D, it seems to me the way to go as it has longer legs (meaning it is an active, continuing product and not dead like FSX:SE). As for PDMG aircraft, most of us seem to be quite partial to the NGX 737....it strikes a nice balance between automation and hands-on control. Mark Trainer

Good grief folks, in software engineering we have a saying, "If you want it really bad, you're gonna get it really bad". I'm all for taking the cautious approach and allowing PDMG to continue their reputation for delivering a solid and well-tested product, one that is nothing short of an engineering marvel of complexity. Folks today must think programming is like making clay sculptures.... Mark Trainer

Oh Brother! Just got back from ORBX's site with all the preview snapshots of South America! I did indeed do this a tad early. But that won't stop me from buying South America openLC, some of those screen snapshots are simply fantastic. I look forward to exploring even more of this beautiful country, probably in a plane that generally flies a little slower and lower than the 737, as there is a lot of eye candy to absorb. I plotted my final full routing on skyvector and when seen all at once you'd see it's a pretty willy-nilly zig-zaggy approach to working myself down south. Nothing special about it really. Once ORBX releases SA, there will be no bad routes from NA to Antartica. In fact if I were to do it again with the new scenery, I'd make a point to visit specific landmarks this time with a fair amount of googling up front which always seems to give each flight more meaning. One last thing to mention - I did the entire flight using AS16 and real-time weather - the weather in South America can be quite the challenge! It's always changing and it can be quite intense. Mark Trainer

Hi Warrior - yep I could have skipped lots of those intermediate airports in South America but I do like landing and taking off a lot (and most of those airports are short on nav aids, lots of good old fashioned stick and rudder work there- many airports were at high altitudes too), plus I sampled the local Margaritas at each stop and included the company of many fine women before retiring for the night. I'm even known for taking the 747-400 for some pretty short hops around the U.S. My time budget just doesn't allow for a 14 hour flight and increasing the sim speed always felt like cheating to me. Dan, I may go back to PAINE FIELD and buy another plane and re-create your trip. Navigating the globe is a Flight Simulator Challenge that is on my bucket list. I'd love to try to pull something like that off in the new and upcoming DC-6 from PDMG but not sure what its range is....but what fun trying! Didn't know ORBX was going to be updating South America - that is darn good news - the whole Southern Half of South America is pretty darn sparse. Mark Trainer

Furthermore, if we start asking PGMD to do "sortof" impressions of hardware not yet generally available to the public, where does it stop? People will soon be asking for the DC-6 simulation in all manner of older skinned-like planes. I say NO- let PDMG remain a "purist" simulation company and not start down the road of allowing accounting bullies to pull one-offs built with existing technology. We've seen to much of this in all industries, and it is a mess. Is it just me but does it seem the new gen of flight simmers are way to focused on pure eye candy? /endrant Mark Trainer

Hi Tony, I read your post twice and maybe I'm dense but had a tough time pulling out the info you were actually asking for. I'm glad PGDM777 was able to figure it out and give you the response you needed. Mark Trainer

Getting to Antarctica took 23 hops, here was my journey taking a brand new Caribbean Airlines 737 from Paine Field (KPAE) all the way to ISLA REY JORGE (TENIENTE RODOLFO MARSH MARTIN) (ANTARCTICA) (SCRM), a dirt strip about 4,500 ft. long in which I was barely able to get stopped in time. In total it took 23 landings and 23 takeoffs, not all of which were necessary but hey; I like taking off and landing a lot to keep it interesting. Most of the Southern South America Airports don't have ATIS by the way, and a couple had no night landing lights either. One thing for sure, frame rates at these remote/sparse airports are fantastic. Here is the route I took: KPAE KBFI KMDW KMIA MYNN MKJS MDST TNCM TLPL TGPY SOCA SBMQ SBSN SBEK SBPV SBRB SPZO SAZY SAZS SAVT SAVC SAWG SAWE SAWH SCRM. Yes not the most direct route but hey, I wanted to explore South America which was something in 30 years of Flight Simming I've never really done (started on the C-64 / SubLogic II by Bruce Artwick in 1983) After landing at SCRM I found a VOR station called SAWB and flew even farther south (about 91 miles), and although I could see the VOR station but no runway I landed on the ice but it appears my aircraft is bogged down in snow and appears stranded there, perhaps for all of time (or until global warming kicks in even harder). Some say it is a perfect story ending to a long journey; and while I somewhat agree I was looking to flying this plane around the world. I kept an Excel spreadsheet with each leg on a separate tab complete with airport diagrams (for those that I could find) along with tons of other detail, VOR / ATIS / Skyvector diagrams including pictures I took along the way. Free to anyone for the asking. Mark Trainer General "Buck" Turgidson: If the pilot's good, see, I mean if he's reeeally sharp, he can barrel that baby in so low... oh you oughta see it sometime. It's a sight. A big plane like a '52... varrrooom! Its jet exhaust... frying chickens in the barnyard!

Agreed! And folks, for now just disable dynamic lighting until the kinks get worked out and get back to what really matters - flying. Personally I'm seeing framerates on V4 that I haven't seen since a FS9 install of FS....running on an 2010 computer at that....we're moving in a good direction folks. Life is good! Everybody Dance! Mark Trainer

Anyone got some screen snapshots of the new lighting? Also, is this the same lighting I'm reading causes a massive performance hit? Mark

The unrealistic thing raises its head again! How is flying a computer realistic in the first place- one must admit we all have to put a certain amount of "realisim" behind just to enjoy this hobby. The nice thing about flying the big boys on short hauls is that it builds the skills there they are most needed - take off and landings. As a kid my friends and I watched B-52s doing countless touch and gos at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana. We'd lay on the large round hay bales off the end of the runway (but just off base) and watch for hours on end. Also got to see a lot of KC-135, KC-10, and A-10s doing the same thing. My first flights with PDMG 747 QII were repeated touch and gos between Midway and O'Hare just outside of downtown Chicago. Lots of good practice there. And I too am psyched about the DC-6... Mark Trainer

If you read the original thread posted on REX's website they are now reporting that many of the products now have a "mid-July" release date. No biggie. Thanks, Mark Trainer

What ever you have, you'll always want more.....my first 3D Accelerator was a Sierra Screamin' 3D. Only games written to take advantage of it at the time were Quake I and Descent. And that thing ran alongside your regular video card. But that was back in the 90 MHZ CPU days (which by the way, was awesome at the time!). I bought a NVIDIA 1050 a few months ago to try to get just one more year of life out of this system before building an all new one from scratch with next year's tax refund. This 1050 does OK, but wish I would have gone a little farther - but I needed something that didn't need extra power plugs and fit in 1 PCI Express Slot. Plus, I'm pretty much CPU bound as it is. Next spring I'll recon' I'll survey the market again and see what's available. Mark

Ahhh! I did the same thing too under your desk to brace the MFG Crosswinds rudder pedals since the wall was to far back. Mine is actually an old PC side panel with works perfectly. No more pedals sliding on the carpet. Mark

I have the Thrustmaster Warthog and Throttles, and using MFG Crosswinds Pedals (highly recommended piece of gear by the way- google up their web site). For the most part you can just plug it in and go; the basics work right off the bat after going into Prepar3D settings. The most common functions I've used in Prepar3D is to simply map different button presses on the joystick, things like flaps up or down a notch, trim, gear up/down. The throttle on the other hand, has a ton of switches for use but a lot of them are hard to find correct uses for. For example, The switch to the left of the left throttle has three positions, the forward position is spring loaded so it only stays there as long as it is held down and then springs back to its center position. The rear-most position is a click and it will hold position. The only use I can think of for something like that might be an APU start on the 737 where you press and hold the start sequence and then release once it gets going. The rear-most position could be to turn the APU off. Another three switch is spring loaded in the forward and rear positions and snap back to center when not being used. I guess that could be setup to a zoom in/out, or increase/decrease a particular knob. The push buttons on the throttle seem to be quite stiff with very little throw. Some switches on the throttle as dual position toggles and they have the most use in my opinion since a lot of things in cockpits work that way (simply on/off). I'll also mention that if you're flying anything other than the Warthog, most of the buttons won't be labeled properly. Most of my time these days are in PDMG 737. So as of this time, most of the bells and whistles on the throttle are going unused. So....I'm interested in seeing what others have done too- I want to avoid as much as possible using the custom software that came with the Warhog joystick/throttle because I want to keep things as simple as possible. But alas, it looks like to get the most out of the throttle buttons will require customizing their macro and their scripting language, which looks like straight C to me (I was a software engineer programming in C for years) but I still want too, if possible that is, avoid the TARGET script editor, LUANA, or FSUIC (even though I own a purchased copy). My goal is to see how far I can get keeping it simple and then slowly branch out. Prepar3D settings seem to recognize nearly all the buttons on the joystick but have had problems getting it to recognize most of the throttle buttons, something I'm going to dig into. I've set aside part of today to do nothing but work on this issue and if I make any breakthroughs I'll report back my findings. I'm on Prepar3D by the way and plan to move the to V4 after a few more products get updated. I've never seen an OOM error in V3 so no hurry there either. Mark