longhaul747

Not really anything new despite several updates. They recently announced a version 2 of the 727 with lots of updates and improvements. No real information on what the improvements or other details or any sort of time line. I guess we will know more in the future! I hope they throw in a non hush kit model at some point soon.

This is good news. I was planning to purchase it so I could fly into ATL and than into the new MK Studios Key West as soon as I can get in front of my PC. After the DRM news it was put on hold. I can now go back to the regularly scheduled program now.

I certainly understand the need to protect a developer from piracy and it is definitely a problem. I don't mind a kernal or whatever opening in the back ground to confirm my purchase as long is that is all its doing. What I do find incredibly stupid is the need to launch this program everytime I wish to use the product. This is not what I should be getting for the price of admission. I have a few planes that do have something running in the background but it does not require me to do anything when I use it. I get the piracy concerns but they need to find a better way. At this time it won't be purchasing the ATL coming out.

Thanks I am going to try this.... I am sure I got a few more that I will have to do the same!

Way back in the early days of FS2020 I purchased the Fly Tampa CPH (Copenhagen Kastrup) in the Marketplace. It has been updated and despite it being based on an older scenery package it still looks pretty good. It is supposedly FS2024 compatible but I don't think it is officially from Fly Tampa so this might be the problem with the FS2024 Marketplace. Many online retailers show it as FS2024 compatible. Today I decided I wanted to install it into my FS2024 since its supposedly compatible and it should not be a problem since I bought it for FS2020. However it simply does not show up in the FS2024 Marketplace. Even though I bought it for FS2020 they won't let me try it in FS2024 whether it works or not. Any work around? I suppose its a dated scenery anyway and probably sooner rather than later a nice new updated scenery for FS2024 will be released but for now it would sure be nice to use the scenery I paid for in the Marketplace. I typically don't buy from the marketplace in fear of this very thing but in rare cases it was the only option at the time.

I have had mixed results with SU5 and in a way I wish I could just go back to SU4. Everyone has different results and some of it is probably down to system specs but for me its a few steps back. Some of the positives I have noticed is the Dawn and Dusk lighting seems improved and last night I noticed the sun shining through the trees and made a nice shadow on the runway. Maybe this is not new but 1st time I have noticed it was with SU5? At the airport textures seem sharper than before and I notice less ghosting than before. At first when I fired up SU5 for the 1st time I was pretty excited for what I was seeing. However this morning I did my 1st flight and this time I noticed some pretty bad issues. Above a few thousand feet my ground textures are way more blurry than before. In SU4 I had pretty good looking textures. Not perfect but definitely very tolerable. Same for the trees in SU4 most rendered correctly and now most of them look like green rocks. Honestly at the moment its not a very good experience. The worst thing is at 36,000 feet my clouds looked very hazy and have this snow effect in them like on a old TV not tuned to a channel showing a much of snow on the screen. I occasionally had this before but its way worse in SU5. Also I am still getting many lines in the water and this was supposedly fixed. Performance however is of coarse very good even on my slightly dated system. I have noticed an improvement in the UI menu system. Before SU4 it was pretty bad and seemed to suffer from memory leakage issues. SU4 improved things greatly but was still not perfect. Now its pretty smooth and I no longer get those funny pops and clicks from my speakers when I use the system. For the record I have not had the time to go in and have a look at my user settings. Its very possible they have been downgraded when I installed SU5 and that putting in my tweaks that I have done will improve the looks. Hopefully this is all it is. Also I feel SU5 has done a good job of reminding me that my 2021 build PC is now slipping into lower spec category. A new system is the forecast in the Fall but it worked pretty solid before!

Like everyone else I can't wait for the Fenix Neo's. It seems more and more at my local airport I see more Neo's than Ceo's these days. Same for the Max I see more of them at times than the older NG's at this point. I think its becoming pretty important that we get some Neo's and Max's in our simulator. As much as I want the Neo from Fenix I am not fully expecting it to arrive just yet. My prediction is early to mid Summer time frame (hopefully). Some Neo updates from Fenix would be nice but I can see why they don't. It could just very well show up and drop in weeks time. So it just might be sooner rather than later! The Max is interesting. You have the iFly Max 8 which is a nice model and its already out. They are supposedly coming out with the 9 and when and if the 7 and 10 are certified they plan to do those. However we have not seen a single update from iFly regarding the Max 9 since they announced it last August. At this rate the Max 7 and Max 10 will be certified before we ever even see the Max 9. Maybe like the Fenix its coming sooner rather than later and they are just being hush hush about it. We supposedly have the PMDG Max series aircraft but we really don't know anything about it other than PMDG occasionally dangling a carrot in front of us. I believe I read the PMDG Max has been on and off the burner since 2020 so I am starting to feel its probably never actually coming. I believe it was real close but RR at PMDG does not want to go head to head with iFly but does not want to publicly say that. Very similar to the sound update for the 777. It will be coming forever! Maybe with a bit of luck the PMDG Max will drop between now and the 747-100? I think the 747-100 is a ways off and PMDG will need another revenue stream since they just released the 737-700. I would be really surprised if the 747-100 makes it before Xmas and PMDG could probably use some revenue in the 4th quarter of this year. Just food for thought but it does make sense!

As far as I know installation went smoothly. I can always uninstall and reinstall it but I doubt it will make a difference. I suspect its some sort of missing texture that is preventing the view from rendering correctly. Maybe some of the paint jobs are still being worked on? View is fixed so you can't zoom or move it. Mostly 100% stock FS2024 install. I don't use Chaseplane or anything like that. Some of the other views are also a bit messed up but others are fine. Some show part of a window frame texture and look fine. I don't spend a lot of time in these views but it comes in handy when you see something cool and you want to take a screen shot showing the wings. Comes in handy when you want to see those flaps coming down. A nice clean view like before would be a nice touch.

I think I got it figured out... This is what I get in my wing views with the new model. Not sure if its a missing texture or not but I like it better when it was mostly just a clean wing view. This is the passenger version. The left side is much the same but not as bad.

I would love to do a screen shot but not sure how? Let me see if I can figure it out! Right now I am flying from SIT-SEA in the Alaska 737-700 colors.

Picked this up on release day. For me its okay and I don't seem to have any performance issues with it. I do get the VRAM error but I also get it with many other aircraft and it never seems to cause any issues. Sometimes I feel its more of an internal issue with FS2024 than anything really wrong at least on many systems. In the cockpit it looks a little better but not hugely so. Same for the exterior textures don't seem to really really be much different. I am hearing the exterior textures in this release are not the final versions so guess we can expect better textures in the future. A lot of extra modeling detail both inside and out which was not mandatory but kind of cool. I am looking forward to the same updates for the 600, 800 and 900. I also a bit perplexed that all the effort PMDG is putting into this plane in order to improve it but for some reason can't be bothered to do a non winglet version. I guess we will just have to wait for a competitor to make a better 737NG. Only real issue I am having that is bothering me I am a wing view nut at times. In the models for FS2020 and the earlier FS2024 models you would get a nice clean view of the wing. For now the same views exist but you got some sort of annoying box looking thing in the way. For example go to Views and Showcase and select External 8. You get a nice view behind the wing but it has some sort of textureless box destroying the nice clean view you had before. Not sure if its just anomaly with my particular paint or will be magically fixed in a future update but for now I liked it better before.

I have had an issue occasionally with the PMDG 737 in FS2024 when the Jetway does not properly meet the aircraft. It will be about 2 meters away. It does not happen all the time but does happen maybe 50% of the time. Is this the issue you are having? Sorry I don't have a fix but the PMDG model is the only one with the issue so PMDG must have not configured something correctly. This is the new FS2024 model. I never had this issue with the PMDG 737 in FS2020! Right now I just hope it fixes itself in a future update.

I thought it was a great interview. It would be a truly outstanding achievement if they can deliver everything they say they can this year. I am naturally skeptical they will be able to deliver it that fast but if it has already been in the works for a while now it might be possible. We will just have to see what they deliver and the ball is in their court so lets see what they bring to the table before jumping to conclusions. One thing I can't help but wonder if at least some of the team that worked for Qualitywings on the 787 are now working on this plane for Vector Studios? We may never know the answer to that question but I am thinking probably! Also I feel at this point we need some actual credibility from Ellie. If you have worked on many planes for previous sims and for FS2020 what planes are they? I have been into flight simulation since 1984 and we have many famous names when it comes to development and I don't recall any of them having the first name Ellie. Granted my memory is not as good as it used to be but if we actually know some projects they worked on we will know what kind of credibility Vector Studios has. I truly believe our hobby is evolving and in many ways its out with the old and in with the new. We witnessed this with Fenix which nobody knew anything about yet they have this outstanding product with award winning support. So it's definitely possible here with Vector and the 787. Of coarse for every Fenix and Vector Studios projects you are bound to get some real bad stuff as well.

FSS has said it will come in a future update eventually. However that was a while ago and we have not seen it yet. Actually the freighter version was originally released without a hushkit but it went away with one of the updates and it has not come back yet. Seems like a fairly simple thing to accomplish. They could probably even have it so you can select them in the EFB like the winglets option. The FSS 727 and PMDG with the lack of a non winglet model for its 737NG is really the only thing that bothers me about these developers.

Same here...I am hesitant on picking this up because they have not announced the 1 yet. If they create the 1 it makes it very easy to complete the rest of the series (50, 100 and 250). If they do in fact announce they will make the 1 I will gladly invest in the 500. I thought I heard they just might do the other variants if it sells really well. So hopefully its a big seller.

I am glad I invested in this airplane back in the day. Always been a fan of iFly's stuff! I hope we get a preview of the 9 somewhat soon.

Sounds promising and I am glad they acknowledged the 8 and 10 variants. As with any new developer it will take some trial but unless they come up with some sort of prescription plan or early reviews are bad than sometimes you just gotta give them a chance. With the gap between FSX and FS2024 its definitely in with the new and out with the old and we are bound to get some really talented developers coming along. This one will be interesting tracking and if it looks good and the 1st few people who buy it like it I will buy it within a week of release.

Hopefully it turns out to be a promising project. Our hobby is somewhat young after being born again so we are bound to get some really good but new developers. I remember when the Fenix A320 showed up and a lot of speculation that it was going to be garbage and that it was a stolen port from XPlane. Now look at how good it is? I definitely agree the 787 is a very important airplane for flight simulator and so far it has been mostly absent. Yeah we got the default 787-10 and the modifications to it have been amazing but it still has its limitations. I think Qualitywings fall out has a lot to do with why we don't have a serious study level 787 by now. Now that it has been a few years and we know Qualitywings 787 is not coming its about time someone picks it up. Hopefully we get the 8 and 10 as well at least eventually. The 787 is one of those airplanes that you just can't have one version. The future of the line is actually expected to be mostly the 10 since Boeing is getting the gross weight up.

I think we will see a lot of new scenery both payware and freeware in FS2024 over the next coming year. Its going to be an exiting year (2026)! I don't know of list other than what is posted above. I can name a few airports that desperately need to be done by a quality payware company or a really sharp freeware creator. Some interesting airports are still absent in my mind but many more exist out there. Some in my neck of the woods! KEAT - Wenatchee Washington is a small airport with minor commercial services. Its a pretty tricky airport to fly into at times so surprised nobody has touched it. KEKO - Elko Nevada is an interesting airport to fly into with limited commercial services. Surprised it has not been touched yet. KFTW - Fort Worth Meacham Field. An old airport with a lot of history. Now primarily a GA airport but some logistics there. Approach brings you right over the city. KBIL - Billings Montana. A beautiful approach with the airport sitting on the top of a bluff. Been done by a few but not the highest quality. KPUW - Moscow-Pullman Washington and Idaho. Beautiful approach and a popular college town. Surprised a quality one has not been done yet. So many more but the above airports would keep me satisfied for a while.

I completed the survey this morning. I think this is my 3rd or 4th year doing it. I feel its vital information for developers and the community so we can continue to develop our hobby for the better. Its always interesting when the results get published. In a nutshell I am basically a casual flight simmer with a old school joystick and a keyboard with a medium build system. Projects I am most looking forward to is the Fenix A320 Neo and IFly 737 Max series. I feel our hobby is weak in classic airliner depiction and weather in our simulator needs improvement. Will be interesting to see what the rest of the community thinks!

Last night I was suffering from withdrawals and just wanted the problem solved. So I ended up heading to Costco and picking up the 32" Samsung curved panel. I am not super tech savvy anymore or even really care I just want my stuff to work and work well. It turns out my old LG monitor was actually a 2020 model purchased in early 2021 so it definitely had its limitations. For starters it was truly only a 2K panel at 1440 x 1080. It had some pretty impressive performance numbers for that era and was not expensive to buy but that low resolution at that size was a bit of a strain and limiting what you actually see. This new monitor is not 4K but I guess it sort of a 3K monitor at 2560 x 1440. So you basically now get access to a bunch more screen real estate at that resolution. In fact at least for right now I really don't feel the need for a true 4K monitor. I was concerned that at the higher resolution my 2070 Super would suffer but for the most part it seems to be holding up well. In big cities and flying out of the Inibuilds DFW airport it seemed a bit more taxed but overall still totally usable in FS2024. I am starting to think what a faster card would deliver but for right now I am just going to wait until I buy or build a new case next Fall. As for the curved thing the jury still out on this one and its one reason why I bought at Costco for the 90 day return window. As far as immersion I see why these curved monitors are so popular. They really do seem to do a good job of bringing you into the action. In fact when turning I almost got a bit dizzy. At my age I have some minor issues and on medication for it so I can no longer ride roller coasters and if I watch a movie like Tron or whatever it actually makes me sick. With that issue I can tell the curved monitor does increase immersion and despite my issues I liked the affect. What I don't like is the keystone issue especially in the lower half of the monitor. Also makes my panels look warped and the worse think the exterior of my A321 looks bent. This can mostly be corrected by tilting the monitor up so its more in line with your eyes but Samsung for whatever reason made this monitor so you can't adjust the tilt. So I may find something to put under the front part of the stand tilting it up a bit. Won't eliminate the issue but should make it better. The biggest problem is my wife hates it. She does a lot of work on Filmora and the curved monitor just gets in the way. I am also finding standard internet work to be more annoying and even typing this post is more annoying that it should be. So I have a feeling unless I magically get very used to it I will have to find a flat panel out there. I got 90 days to figure it out!

Darn that ATA L1011 photo just sold me. Back in the FSX days I used to fly all over the place doing creative routes in the ATA L1011-500. Looking forward to doing that again!

Stopped at Best Buy and had a look at what they had. They had a better selection of monitors but something about the store just does not sit well with me. I had a look at an LG 32" 4K OLED 16:9 display and it was sure sweet looking. I get it and I want one unfortunately $1400 for a new monitor at this time is just not going to happen. This was the only monitor the employee felt like selling me and as soon as I started looking at other options he disappeared. Found a Samsung 32" G51 currently on sale for $210 for Presidents Day. Seems to get pretty good reviews but it not perfect but its available locally and not insanely over priced. Picture Quality was okay but it had that typical Samsung pop where some of the colors where just over saturated. Also the specs are off the charts good but it has been criticized for not actually meeting those specs. Fairly typical these days but at least it was flat if that is what I want! They also had a Samsung 32" G5 which is a little more popular I think and it looks a few levels higher in the build quality department. Spec wise its a bit more down to earth with its claims but actually looks better and the colors did not pop as much. This might be the one I grab since they had it priced at $290 but I see online its priced at $430. Still a 2K monitor but its approaching base 4K prices. They had a few lesser known brands at 32" and 4K and they were in the $500 to $600 range. Looked pretty good actually! Going to sit on this overnight and decide what to do tomorrow? I might just go to Costco and get the Samsung 32" curved screen for $250. You can't beat the 90 day return window plus you get 2% back on executive and another 2% back on your Citi Visa card. It is curved but pretty conservative on the curving and it just looks so much better than my broken garbage monitor at home. I ripped the internet forums apart and pretty much everyone says the curved monitors are awesome for flight simulation. So I think giving it a shot and getting used to it will yield positive results.

Booted up the sim and trying to see if this monitor issue is tolerable while playing but unfortunately its the opposite affect. The text in the gauges and the auto pilot are hard to read at times. When flying in the clouds those horizontal lines stood out like a sore thumb. Its so hard on the eyes even if you walk away from the computer you start seeing those annoying lines everywhere you look. Its more than that the video processing itself seems to have taken a step back. Its not as bad as those early LCD screens from 15 years ago but I seem to be getting a lot more ghosting. The problem is also getting worse. When you first boot up those lines are very noticeable but as the monitor warms up they slowly fade away but still fading in and out all the time. It's gotta be replaced unfortunately! My instincts and what I did in the past was just go ahead and buy that future monitor today. So it makes sense going 4K monitor at this point. Its just that the cost is just so far off the charts but I do admit I have not spent much time shopping around. I do basically live in the gamer capital of the world so its very likely some lightly used 4K monitors out there for cheap on the used market. Some of those guys upgrade almost monthly. So that might be an option! Needs are pretty basic. Just the highest resolution I can afford and run. Right now best to stick with 2K but 4K is definitely the goal by next Holiday season. Hoping to snag a deal on a new build with the fastest video card and VRAM plus regular RAM I can afford. That time unfortunately is not now. Systems are on the pricey side and manufactures seem to be skimping on memory. I hope by next Holiday season I can find some good spec hardware for not that much money. Budget for a new system is around $2K but waiting for a little better performance options at that price point. Even next Holiday season it was not necessarily in the cards to replace my monitor right away. One of those get the new case get it set up and shortly after go hunting for that new monitor but because of this issue I am forced to shop around now. Biggest debate is curved or not at the moment but if I go for a cheaper monitor curved is pretty much the only choice. Just a regular 16:9 monitor is all I am looking for.

To my surprise the other day my 5 year old LG 32 inch gaming monitor is now failing. Kind of shocked it only lasted 5 years but I guess that is the semi norm these days unfortunately and its a common problem with LG monitors apparently. It still works I have faint horizontal lines about 2mm apart and it screws up the text. Interestingly in the middle of the screen it tends to breath in and out and for a few seconds everything looks fine but it quickly comes back. I tried a different cable and checked the connections but I can put up a test pattern without anything hooked up and those lines are still there. So it must be some sort of internal fault. This monitor is or was okay and it worked well for games and flight simming. I found doing other work on it like word processing and photo editing to be a bit of a handicap but doable. Its only a 2K panel which at 32 inches was a bit of an eye drain but again in flight simulation it was totally fine and the big size was cool. A completely new system including monitor is in the budget for the 4th quarter of this year. I thought for sure my current monitor would hold up but obviously not. So I can't decide if I want to go something 4K and fancy now or just replace this one with a cheaper 2K gaming monitor for now? Even worse I have not warmed up to the new style curved screen and I have heard real mixed results. Apparently they are really good at gaming but suck even worse for other work. By default I started looking for a regular flat 32 inch gaming monitor but they are pretty hard to find these days and no local store bothers carrying them. Ironically many if not all 4K gaming monitors are flat still but the prices. Spending between $700 and $1500 for a 4K monitor seems pretty crazy. Performance wise they promise a lot though. I might have to rethink this 4K thing in the future! Not sure what I am exactly asking the community? Should I be at all concerned about a curved monitor? Looks like I don't have much of a choice unless I opt out of the gaming monitor choice. Most regular duty monitors are still flat and ironically a 4K regular monitor is cheaper than a 4K gaming monitor. Of coarse you loose the gaming features but pretty much the only game I play is FS2024 so is a gaming monitor even really necessary? 15 or 20 years ago we just bought a good performing regular monitor and we never complained. All pretty confusing but one way or another my current monitor has to go. I plan to try it in FS tomorrow to see if the panel issue impedes my ability to use and enjoy the sim and if not maybe I can live with it for a while but if not it must be replaced. I am a big enough sim junky that I am not going to let a panel issue keep me from enjoying my computer flying. Any real difference between a big name brand monitor and a cheaper generic monitor these days? At a big box warehouse membership store I can get a Samsung 32" 1K gaming monitor with solid specs for $249 USD. Reviews are a bit mixed but overall pretty good. On the Big River company website I can get a generic monitor 2K with good specs and good reviews for about $170. Both curved though! Curved seems to be where its at these days. I just remember the short trend with curved TV's and it failed hard. Prices were high and performance was not good. Another hobby of mine is home theater so naturally the curved idea is a big who cares kind of thing and nobody makes a curved TV these days. A bit shocked all of a sudden every gaming monitor has to be curved. Just old school I guess!