Kronovan

Well that was my thinking too, but try as I might - quick looks just aren't working. I did download the X-Camera plugin and found it easy to install and with about 5 minutes of reading the quality manual that came with it, I was able to enable X-Camera for TrackIR. I was also easily able to set limits, so that I'd no longer pop out into the enviro outside of the pilot door; something I really didn't like about the default XP11-TrackIR integation. As well, panning seems a lot smoother than the default XP11 TrackIR support. While I agree about not biting off too much from the get go, X-Camera really seems like a keeper.

I'm assuming they're disabled with TrackIR enabled, because they certainly don't work for me? I try pressing [CTRL] + [a numpad key] when viewing a specific area of the 3D cockpit while the numlock is on, but when I press that numpad key later nothing has been recorded. Meanwhile, trying to view the overhead panel in my new DHC-6 Twin Otter is like a new found form or medieval neck torture - ouch! Am I correct in my assumption that I can't use those quick looks with TrackIR and if so, is X-Camera the solution? And...saying that it is the solution, will the freebie version of X-Camera have that functionality? Sorry I'm making a lot of assumptions here, but I'm still a n00b and a XP11 bit bushy-tailed and bright-eyed with it all. If I need to be pointed in a different direction for getting custom cockpit views, please say so.

Many thanks for the replies. I'm going to take a look at 124thATC. I've also starting looking more into the Radar Contact plugin, to see if it's evolving and improving over what I've read. I'm likely going to have to change my PC setup for XP11 and dig out my old CH Products flight yoke, which will allow me to re-position my mouse on the right. My struggles with GA flight sims, is that I also play a lot of combat sims (IL-2 CloD, IL-2 BoS, Strike Fighters 2, DCS) and having my desktop setup with my stick on the right with mouse center works best for those. As well, those sims all take a keyboard intensive approach to comms, which I've compensated for by having a map-able gaming keypad conveniently placed near my throttle quadrant. I just find that being able to interact with ATC via keypad like in FSX feels more familiar to me, even though I'm talking to a controller instead of a wing man. And I definitely fly better with a joystick. I don't know, I guess I'm a bit of a creature of habit. :)

I've owned a CH-Products Combat Stick for years and it's proven to be very good for both GA and combat flight sims. Best of all, it's on sale @ the X-Plane.org Store for $80.00 US and ships free to USA addresses. It's not the top of the line flight stick for CH-Products, but it has 18 buttons total that you can map to. It has a throttle wheel, but also elevator and aileron/rudder trim wheels which allows it to support GA aircraft well. You do have to be comfortable using hat switches for mappings though, as it has 1, 8-way and 1, 4-way hat and that's where most of your button mapping is made; albeit it has 6 standard buttons too. Like all other CH-Products, it has a 2 year warranty.

I'm a n00b to the full X-Plane 11 experience, having just upgraded the demo to the full game on Monday. I must admit, coming from FSX:SE I miss the ability to respond to ATC by key presses alone. Part of the reason for that is my simming PC setup, where I always have a gaming keypad readily accessible while my mouse is somewhat awkwardly placed in the center of my desktop. So having to mouse click ATC options and responses is less than ideal for me. I'm wondering if I overlooked something though and if there might actually be some way in-game to have it use key presses instead? I looked under keyboard mappings last night, but only the default [Return] key for displaying the ATC menu is available. I do have Radar Contact 4.3 and I'm aware that you can buy a plugin to make it work with XP, but from what I've read it can be broken by game updates and can be tricky to setup; not to mention it'll cost me an additional $30 CDN. As well, I'm only ever configured RC3 for a nephew - never been a user. I'm fine with the in-game ATC; just would prefer to use it via key presses. So...I'm wondering if anyone here has found a way or some solution to achieve this?

Oh wow; didn't realize it was that little. I'll revise my prediction to 1-2 decades then. 🤣

I could be wrong about this and by all means I don't want to sound like a smart a$$ or derail a thread, but I believe it does have a maximum VAS of 18 Exabytes or less. Now that's a humongous amount of RAM by today's standards, but I'm old enough to remember the days when IBM sales reps would visit computer stores and state that the 4GB limit of 32 bit OS2 was as good as unlimited. Unlimited it a moving target so to say, and I predict in 2-3 decades gamers and flight simmers will be bumping up against the VAS limit for 64 bit OSs. 🙏

Considering how poorly helos were modeled in their last fight sim, that might not be a bad thing.

Correct, and I have been faithfully rebuilding the PlanG database whenever I make a change in FSX to my scenery library via Settings > Scenery Library... That database rebuild process takes as long as is expected, with 10's of thousands data writes being made; might even be 100's of thousands! The only such icons I have at the top are the Zoom In [+] and Zoom Out [-] buttons, which are present in the PlanG 'View' mode - those what you're referring to? If so, clicking those doesn't make a difference; the airfield symbols are still absent even if I zoom in to the closest extent. That said, with either the OpenTopoMap or a Mapbox Satellite map enabled, if I zoom in close enough I do eventually see the airfields on the map and I can actually place a waypoint there. With the airfield symbol never being visible for them though, without knowing where they're located in the real world I'd never be able to find them. And of course without an actual airfield symbol, I can't designate them as airfield departure points for a flight plan. It's weird, because those airfields are all there in FSX. I can find all of the aerodromes in coastal BC, Canada that were added by fan-made scenery addon in both FSX and PlanG, but another aerodrome in the same region that was added from another addon, doesn't show up in PlanG. As well, none of the airfields show up in PlanG for a region that falls within the area covered by payware scenery I have for southeastern France.

I have Active Sky Next for FSX:SE and consider it top quality product providing significant improvements to the weather simulation. With that flight sim though, due to there no longer being active weather updating with the core sim, ASN is a no brainer and an essential if not mandatory product. I'm wondering though, with XP11 being a big step up from FSX:SE, if ASXP is as much an essential product? I've only been flying the XP11 demo and that hasn't given me much exposure to varying weather conditions, so I don't have got a good sense of what's there in the core product. I do find ASN's popup X-Gauge app to be very useful, but from the ASXP webpage it doesn't make clear whether it's includes in the XP edition? I'm buying XP11 today and noted that on the same website that ASXP is onsale. So I'm hoping someon here can give me some feedback as to whether ASXP is must-have, and if so, a comment or 2 on what significant improvements it brings to XP11? I should probably mention that my simming PC is far, far, far from state of the art, so any hits to frame rate performance is a concern for me.

Yes indeed and it's on sale there now. The core XP11 + 6 detailed European airports for $10.00 CDN less than what I'd pay @ the LR store or Steam. Buying it today! 👍

Ok cool - good to know and thanks for that info. So my PlanG problem with small airfields and aerodromes not showing on that app's map is probably caused by something else. It's weird because they're there in FSX:SE when I create a flight plan or free flight, just never added to the PlanG database. Anyhow...that's a question for the tasoftware forums.

I've noticed that despite adding new scenery, my Scenery.cfg file never changes. Meanwhile, those sceneries are correctly listed in FSX:SE under Settings > Scenery Library... My Scenery.cfg file has a creation date of the last time I installed FSX:SE and it's size has remained the same. I ask if this is normal, because I'm having problems with the fan-made PlanG app recognizing some aerodromes and small airfields that are contained in addon scenery; PlanG reads the Scenery.cfg file when building its database. Note: I'm in the process of posting this very issue in the tasoftware.co.uk (creators of PlanG) forums, but hit a glitch with that website's sendmail system for Verification emails being broken. Just to be clear, by Scenery.cfg I'm referring to the file located in my Windows 7 "\Users\myaccount\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX" folder. That said, the file located in my '\Steamlibrary\Steamapps\Common\FSX" folder is the exact same date, size and has the same contents. I've noted that the last entry in my Scenery.cfg is as follows: [Area.120] Title=Addon Scenery Local=Addon Scenery Layer=120 Active=TRUE Required=FALSE All of my addon scenery to date with the exception of Ultimate Terrain X Canada, has been installed under my "FSX\Addon Scenery\" folder. So is it possible that this [Area. 120] section in Scenery.cfg is covering it and the reason it's never updating?

Yep, I'm likely going to buy the regular launcher version too. Going with it will allow me to avoid running the Steam service, which for running 64 bit flight sims has grown too large in terms of VAS for my comfort zone. It's temping to wait till the Steam Halloween sale, because I could save as much as $30 CDN. With only 16 GB RAM on my simming PC though, I'm thinking I need everything I can spare for XP11. LR certainly do make it easy to upgrade from the demo launcher.

I 2nd getting the Avsim Basic FSX Configuration Guide. I went through it and followed it's recommendations and had a significant improvement in visual quality and performance. And I run FSX on what the younger gamers over at Steam commonly refer to as a 'potato.' Translated; a very under resourced PC. 😉

Yep, that's the Seabee by Nicolas that I've been flying - one of the best freebie airplanes I've ever downloaded.

Yes I came upon that payware Twin Otter and viewed the many freebie liveries it's fans have made for it. I will most definitely buy it once I own XP11. I was hoping to find at least 1 free mid-sized amphib or floatplane that I could experiment with.

I'm still experimenting with the demo and I'd really like to try out more amphibs and floatplanes, as that's what I fly most of the time in FSX. I downloaded Nicolas' freebie Republic Seabee RC3, so I don't need to be convinced about how well small private amphibs fly in this flight sim - truly excellent aircraft and experience! That was a particularly good test, because I own KC Flight Shops' Seabee for FSX. I'm hoping to try a larger amphib or floatplane with some cargo capability like a DHC-3 Otter, Quest Kodiak, DHC-6 Twin Otter or Grumman Goose or Mallard. I did download another freebie floatplane that's larger than the Seabee and the included Cessna 172, but it was very underwhelming. So I'm hoping someone here might know of some good freebie, floatplanes or amphibs with some decent cargo capacity that I could try?

This. I've had issues with automatic/dynamic axis and button reassignment, but have had it occur for FSX axis and buttons other than just brakes. From my trouble-shooting, I've learned it's not entirely a FSX problem and is partly due to how USB device IDs are managed under Win7. I recently purchased a new gaming keypad and after its installation on Win7 64 Ultimate, had my axis and button mappings dynamically reassigned in FSX:SE, IL-2 Cliffs of Dover, Elite Dangerous and ArmA 3. Simulations of different genres, but all sims that allow axis and button assignments from multiple USB devices. The worst of it, is that it can occur when one of the devices mapped by a game is disconnected (connected to a powered USB HUB that's powered down too) when the game is started. So if you disconnected any of your USB devices when you upgraded your PC and didn't have all of them connected back the next time your ran FSX, I'd recommend checking FSX Settings > Controls. Check every controller type (even ones you never mapped an axis or button too) for their button/keys and control axes assignments and delete any unexpected buttons or axis mappings. As w6kd mentioned, be particularly on the lookout for any assignment for the Brake left axis & Brake right axis.

lol Well waiting until XP 12 is released would be too long a wait.

Hate to say it, but I had some compatibility issues with running it on Windows XP SP3. It's been a decade since I last had it installed, but IIRC I tried to track down a fix that would let me run it at 720p on my Sony HDTV which had a VGA connector, but I failed. I seem to recall that the 4:3 was hard coded and it wouldn't run at a rez above 1024x768; couldn't even get it to run @ 1280x1024 on my LCD. Other than that, the only thing wrong with it visually was a horizontal line along the dash. I believe there was a fix for that, but not being able to even run it at an optimal resolution on my PC's LCD, I threw in the towel. Anyhow... I admire your efforts and wish you the best of luck in getting it to run optimally on you gaming rig.

I know X-Plane 11 occasionally goes on sale on steam for about a 20% discount, but I'd like to be able fly this flight sim without the need to have the Steam client loaded. I'm looking to buy it in the next Sale sale, but having not followed its listing on the Laminar Research store I'm not sure if it's ever goes on sale there? Not that I'm not willing to pay full price for a good sim, but I'm in Canada and this costs me $79.50 CDN on the LR store, whereas it's already $7 CDN less on the Steam and that much more less when it's on sale. So I'm wondering if anyone here knows if it ever gets discounted during sales on the LR store?

Wow that Grumman Mallard is impressive - very nicely detailed and modeled! The 1st time I flew it I was a bit too eager and reckless and disregarded the weight & balance warning that popped up. So I couldn't get speed above 60 KIAS and power boated it all around Vancouver harbor and Burrard inlet - doh! I then realized I was full of fuel and there's no way I was going to lift that duck off the drink. Once lightened up and balanced it flies like a charm, even with a bit of Accu-feel water drag. I can see myself putting in a lot of stick-time with it. 😉

Thanks for the link Spokes. As I mentioned above, I do like amphibs and have some odd 2-seaters like the Seabee and Searey. I do like the larger amphibs too - couldn't fly them for a while as I run Accu-feel, but I've learned to tweak down the water drag setting to enable them to take off. I registered on the site and are downloading that Mallard. 😊

Many thanks for the feedback. I did some further reading on the Aerosoft Twin Otter and the reviews were more favorable than those I'd read earlier; especially regarding the FM. So I'm thinking I'll make the Kodiak and Twin Otter my next purchases. That's good to know about the Milviz Otter. Currently I'm only running UTX Canada, but I mostly bush pilot n BC, so that scenery's footprint is felt in most of my flying. I've done some optimizing and made a few compromizes with it, to the extent that most addons with a heavy footprint don't bring my simming PC to its knees. That said, my PC is far from leading edge, so I do remain cautious about purchases.