SimeonWilbury

Hi all, I've noticed a slightly odd issue with my copy of P3D on startup which I thought I'd throw out in case anyone has had a similar issue. Essentially I have a desktop shortcut for P3D with the compatability settings set to start the sim as Administrator, which would seem simple enough. However on a number of occasions I have started my sim only to check a few minutes later to see the splash screen has vanished. It turns out that when using this short-cut to start P3D it crashes to desktop on startup shortly after opening Chaseplane. Oddly enough, when I start the sim from the Start Menu (via right clicking and selecting run as administrator), the sim starts with zero problems. I'm slightly confused by this, now that I'm aware it's only a minor inconvenience, but I thought I would post in case anybody has had a similar experience with this sort of problem and is aware of what the problem/ solution may be? I am currently on Windows 10 if this helps at all. Many thanks, Martin

I would feel holding the right mouse button to controll view-panning in P3D could be problematic as that is what is traditionally used to handle the 2D Menu (i.e. for the addons dropdown which is used by many addons e.g. GSX etc.) If you don't feel like Chaseplane is right for you then fair enough, but I would suggest sticking with it a bit more, as it does so much as a camera addon (The Cinematic Camera is my go-to during cruise) and after a few hours of use I was very comfortable with it after moving from the default FSX camera that I panned with the hat-switch on my joystick/ yoke. I also put down a number of key-bindings that add a huge degree of quality-of-life at least in my experience. That being said being able to rebind the panning controls would certainly be an improvement.if that isn't already the case. Can't comment with regards to using an x-box controller or similar as I don't own one, but could be worth a try as well.

Noted, many thanks

Many thanks for the word regarding the Mobo/CPU combo, am reassured that that does seem to confirm my own reading on the issue, I believe the mobo I'm looking at has a BIOS flashback capability l so that should be perfectly doable. Regarding the GPU, based on my understanding of other threads regarding V5 around here, I don't believe resolution makes much of an impact on Vram usage itself which will most likely be the main limiting factor. I think if I keep roughly equivalent settings to my V4 setup my 8gb of Vram would probably be enough to run V5 at a stable level, though I'll do a little more research in advance probably. Of course a GPU with more VRAM will be preferable but It'll simply be a case of seeing when they're in stock!

Hi All, I believe I have posted about the potential of building a new PC on here in the past, however I am now in a position where I am actively planning to upgrade my current system in the coming months. I am looking at a small form-factor (micro-atx, small tower) PC to make transport easier in anticipation of my starting Univerisity later this year, with a substantial increase in my current level of Performance. I have a decent amount of money with which to finance this though I would ideally like to avoid going too far over GBP1000/USD1400 For detail my current setup is as follows, which I use to run P3DV4.5 at 1080p & 30fps: CPU - AMD-FX 8350 GPU - Radeon RX-570 8GB RAM - 16GB Corsair XMS3 (DDR3) MOBO - ASUS M5A99X On the whole with my current settings and addons the Sim Performs well, and I get consistent framerates is most areas. In some areas however, most notably London & New York, my FPS is quite choppy which makes flying accurately more difficult. I primarily fly the PMDG 747-400 and the Leonardo Maddog X, which are both fairly resource intensive aircraft. Currently I am considering the following which I intend to use to run P3D V5 (or potentially V4 Initially) at the same resolution & fps CPU - Ryzen 5 5600X MOBO - MSI B550M pro (micro-ATX) RAM - Corsair Vengeance LTX 16GB (DDR4) I have come to terms somewhat with the current shortage of GPUs, and given the current shortage will likely last at least until next year, I currently intend to maintain my RX-570 as an interim GPU until prices normalise to an extent at which I can purchase one, I am currently split between the RTX-3070 (which appears to give overall better performance) and the RX-6700XT (which appears to consistently come with a larger amount of VRAM, which I'm aware that V5 is more demanding of). Overall the plan is the stuff these along with a bunch of hard-drives (new & older) into a Coolermaster Q300L with a Hyper-212 on the CPU & an ADATA XPG 600w PSU. My primary questions regarding this are the following: While maintaining my old GPU but siginificantly upgrading my CPU, what will my performance increases be like between V4 & V5, given that V5 is more GPU heavy but also more optimised in the FPS department? Would V5 be worth the upgrade for the visual improvements at this level? Or would it be wiser to wait for a newer GPU and in the meantime stick with 4.5 (I'm very happy with the stability of 4.5 so I'm a little reluctant to move at present)? Does anybody have any experience with similar hardware combinations above that they can share? I'm aware of the potential for a need for a BIOS update on B550 Mobos, which I'll be happy to do so long as the board is capable of doing so without an older Ryzen CPU (as I do not have one on hand). I'm aware this isn't the video-card forum but I'd appreciate any advice on a new GPU when prices (hopefully!) relax, I'm acutely aware of V5's Vram Demands but if this is only an issue on fidelity levels unreachable with the hardware I'm looking at, then I may go for the lower VRAM of the 3070 so as to push up my framerate (in an ideal world I'd like to be able to run my sim at 1080p 60fps). If someone can correct me on the VRAM front with the 3070 then I'd also be grateful, as most models I've seen so far only appear to offer 8GB where as the RX-6700XT appears to consistently offer 12GB VRam. Thank you very much in advance for any advice you may have. Martin.

I feel that for the upgrade price ($12.99) offered by FlyTampa it is very much worth it. I can't say much about the modelling of Copenhagen itself unfortunately as I mostly tend to fly IFR, but insofar as the airport itself is concerned the PBR textures & dynamic really do make a lot of difference in making the scenery look a lot nicer. There is also support for SODE Jetways which I always consider a big plus on any P3D Scenery. And though I can't confirm this I do feel like the performance is actually improved relative to the old version as well, as I find a lot of older sceneries in 4.5 tend to have choppy framerates. CPH v2 is certainly one of the best looking airports I currently have. It isn't an essential upgrade per-se but I think the upgrade price is low-enough that it's worth it for all the visual improvements.

I think there's always been a problem with getting access from the Authorities in South Africa to get much in the way of detail for the airports there, I've heard rumours of devs trying to model Joburg in the past without much success. One hopes that perhaps something akin to FSDGs lite sceneries (like their one for Nairobi) could perhaps be modelled for Joburg as I'd very much like it as well for my 747 Cargo Ops. The NMG scenery for Joburg doesn't look much better than default.

I don't see much reason for it to become a paid service at the current time, the founder also appears to still be very much involved in the day-to-day development of the product. Naturally like anyone I can be proved wrong, but I've always been very happy with what Navigraph has provided for my money in the past and one hopes that further integration of Simbrief and existing Navigraph services will only improve user experience.

It is a great shame to see Piracy bring an end to new scenery development at WF, at least there is quite a good amount of existing products from them, I have my eye on Shenzen and a few others for routes to utilise the Maddog X on. China is rather a unique area to fly in I find with the metric airspace and close density of large airports, it's a region I wish was more well serviced were it not for the likely difficulty in obtaining detailed geographic information from the country.

I do remember a couple of years ago reading that some non-Russian speaking crews were accommodated on TU-154s through a english-language manual detailing the correct procedures, I'd suppose that would be the most ideal guide for a beginner looking to learn the aircraft. Provided there is a source to learn the various Russian Technical abreviations (I at least know a few of the abbreviations used for the Space Program) I would be interested in sinking the time in to learn such an aircraft.

I'd be very interested in trying this out when released to widen my selection of classic airliners, though I may need to get myself a crash-course in Russian in order to operate the Flight Deck!

I 100% agree with this, I remember a lot of these older sceneries looked fantastic closer to release but technology has moved on and my FSDT and DD airports look very dated in comparison to the new FlyTampa and Orbx sceneries (I flew into Orbx's ESGG the other day and that scenery is absolutely beautiful along with the one for ESSA). Given the quality of their more recent work It would perhaps be nice to see DD revisit their NY airports perhaps and give them a lick of paint, their recent RJAA scenery is really first-class. At the end of the day in my view most addon scenery is at least better than default scenery (at least for v4), and for some airports I still use unsupported FSX-Era Scenery due to a lack of any newer versions, so I guess it depends to a certain extent on your own standards for visual complexity.

That may be the case, in which case I won't be able to help as I'm still on v4. I would still double-check though as the screenshots strike me as being very similar to what I faced when I installed an addon that wasn't compatible with Vector's elevation corrections without adding any excemptions.

Have you used the config tool for Vector (I'm assuming you mean Orbx Vector)? Vector changes the elevation for certain airports and if you have addons installed that aren't compatible you will need to add excemptions so that Vector does not apply the elevation corrections. The Vector Config (accessible via Orbx Central) should have a scan feature which will add excemptions automatically for addon scenery that isn't compatible - it's also worth re-running every time you install new scenery. Hope this helps! Regards, Martin

Thank you very much for the explanation, will take a closer look at my various addons and see where that takes me.

HI all, Thought I would jump on to this as I am also hoping to upgrade to v5 in the near future albeit on more of a budget PC-wise (I am hoping to upgrade both at the same time however), Would it be possible to clarify the extent that resolution impacts VRAM usage in v5? I am aiming to be more modest and aim for solid 1080p performance while getting all the graphics/ scenery I can out of the sim, preferably on an 8gb card in order to save on budget. For reference I am currently on an RX-5708GB and am hoping to move to something like a RX 5700 XT (along with a newer CPU and Motherboard). Many Thanks, Martin

FSX from memory did have a representation of Kai Tak, though it was rather basic and I'm not sure if it was even properly usable in it's default state (I remember seeing some videos or imaged where the runway had Xs painted on it). Regardless, for those who use FSX/P3D (or even if you still cling to FS2004) I cannot recommend Flytampa's Kai Tak Scenery enough (I use it in place of the new Hong Kong airport out of preference and because It is provided for by Navigraph in their Airac Data). I'll include the link again for convenience: http://flytampa.org/vhhx.html It's a really fun approach that takes some getting used to and can be very challenging in strong crosswinds, but the satisfaction of pulling off a solid landing at Kai Tak is one eof those really rather special flight sim experiences imo, only the more extreme short-fields like Toncontin and Gibraltar come close for me, and you can't land a 747 at either of those!

Hi all, I was flying VHHX-RJBB this morning in the 744, and descended through some heavy weather into my destination. As I deployed Flaps 1 at the start of my approch to 6R however, I got a sim-hang that lasted about 20 seconds before the whole thing quit to the desktop. Nothing shows up in Event Viewer to recognise the crash. I've done a bit of detective-work and have two files which may identify the source of the problem. In the 747's debug log, the last few entries made before the CTD as I was flying in the heavy weather were as follows: 2020/05/23 08:53:51 readPrecipData: Previous cycle not finished. 2020/05/23 08:53:55 readPrecipData: Previous cycle not finished. 2020/05/23 08:54:00 readPrecipData: Previous cycle not finished. 2020/05/23 08:54:04 readPrecipData: Previous cycle not finished. 2020/05/23 08:54:08 readPrecipData: Previous cycle not finished. 2020/05/23 08:54:13 readPrecipData: Previous cycle not finished. 2020/05/23 08:54:17 readPrecipData: Previous cycle not finished. If this were the cause then I'd assume something to do with activesky would be the case. dxdiag however suggests that Chaseplane was involved: +++ WER9 +++: Fault bucket , type 0 Event Name: AppHangB1 Response: Not available Cab Id: 0 Problem signature: P1: ChasePlane.exe P2: 1.1.86.0 P3: 5eb71a31 P4: 6b69 P5: 134217728 P6: P7: P8: P9: P10: I am unsure if this is also a potential cause or if this happened as a result of the p3d freeze. I think there is one other post on these Forums which described a similar issue to what I am reporting, however there appeared to be no real answers given. If anybody has either suffered this themselves or can perhaps speculate the cause, I would very much appreciate any advice in order to prevent repeats (CTDs near to the end of a flight are the bane of my existence). Many Thanks, Martin

They don't include the Charts for Kai Tak, but the nav-data is very much there, it's what I use for my flight planning in PFPX Certainly. Flytampa does provide a set of charts, and somebody on their forums even provided a set of Jeppensen Charts I believe. The right turn was done on short final to line-up with the runway, but since this was a pretty tight turn if you were following the Localiser, it would actually be significantly easy to pull off if you were actually slightly to the left of the localiser, as this helped make the final turn a bit more shallow and easier to control.

It is indeed a challenging approach, even more so when you have a strong crosswind (though I believe Cathay pilots developed a habit of turning left off the localiser when visual, which gave more space for the final turn). I can understand the attraction with other offerings of the new VHHH scenery etc. but so long as Navigraph continues to include navdata for Kai Tak I intend to continue to quietly pretend that it never closed! Even if you don't use the airport itself though, the scenery for Hong Kong Circa 1998 provided by the Flytampa Scenery is cause enough to purchase it imo, it still looks stunning today even when compared to far newer scenery.

(I have just realised that this would perhaps be far better placed in one of the PMDG user-to-user forums, my apologies, if one of the Mods wishes to move this topic to the appropiate forum I would have no objections)

Hi all, As a quick look at my profile would probably suggest, I am rather a large fan of the old Hong Kong Kai Tak airport (closed in 1998), and indeed FlyTampa's Kai Tak scenery was my first (and remains my most treasured) piece of Addon Scenery. One video of Kai Tak which I'm sure you're familiar with is this landing from the flight deck of a Cathay Pacific 747-400. You'll notice that at circa 4:06 the Radio Altimiter calls out "60", an unusual callout but indeed one that was available as a custom option if requested by a customer. This callout was used by Cathay Pacific while they operated out of Kai Tak, and was dropped following the move to Chek Lap Kok. Although it does not initially appear to be available in the options of the PMDG 747 QOTSII, the callout is indeed included among the sounds in the aircraft in the P3D sounds folder. So, if you are a frequent flyer into Kai Tak, consider adding this callout to your Cathay Pacific 747-400 to be fully authentic for the time period. To do so, simply edit the .ini file for the relevant aircraft (located in [SIM-LOCATION]\PMDG\PMDG 747 QOTS II\Aircraft) and scroll to the GPWS section, above where it reads "GPWS_50=1", simply place above it: "GPWS_60=1", and then edit your other callouts as desired (as seen in the video, the callouts used at the time before landing were "60", "30", and "10". Cheers, Martin

Many thanks, hopefully it will get cleared up on Simmarket's end if that is indeed the case.

Hi all, Sorry to be having to resort to this, however since Simmarket support tickets require one to be logged in, I've had to resort to the classic general forum support thread. For whatever reason, Simmarket does not appear to be accepting my login details. The password reset facility appears to be working fine and I've already reset my password several times, however logging in I am met with: " ERROR: No match for 'E-Mail Address' and/or 'Password'." - This is despite the fact my login details are 100% correct (this also happens regardless of whether I use my customer number or my e-mail). Has anybody else had this? Is this perhaps a problem at Simmarket's end? I would like to be pointed in the right direction at least if possible. Due to the whole COVID-19 outbreak I have a lot of free time on my hands and would like to get my P3D running again! Many Thanks, Martin

Sounds like a good fit, I already have a 212 EVO which will simplify things as well.