AJZip2

I'm sure it could...but the EFB route is very fast indeed with only a few clicks and a pleasingly (and rare!) logical sequence of sending the data to the aircraft

I may have found a mid point compromise to this, @Christopher Low . At the moment, I don't have the time to learn - or to operate - a full 'cold and dark' on an aircraft as 'study-level' as this one. So this evening, I explored just what you CAN do, instead, using the 'Turnaround' state. And I was pleasantly surprised. The boot up, at a gate, was engines and APU off. The EFB allowed me to: 'speed' load fuel, passengers, etc. Connect to external power Load a Simbrief plan into the MCDU Calculate T/O & landing calcs on the EFB and one-click them, including relevant Metar into the aircraft's MCDU I then could: Start up the APU Start the engines All of the above took less than 20 minutes Then call for pushback Fly the route Land Shut down So Turnaround works less like 'Cold & Dark' and more like 'Cool and Dark'! An excellent and very satisfying flight started and completed in not much more than an hour, of which at least 30 minutes was the flight itself!

Yes - I completely agree 👍

I absolutely agree with you. But there's a but...that this depends on your system's capabilities, or your individual internet streaming capabilities or your district/country's internet streaming capabilities (which for major areas of UK is not good at all by international standards) I would love to use photogrammetry in MSFS2024. It would be the icing on the cake on a simply mind-bogglingly good sim. But my infra-structure (in my case it is that the full-fibre broadband in my district is not very fast at all) simply cannot presently process the additional photogrammetry burden. The OP's question was: " Is there any fix to eliminating the post-apocalyptic "melted buildings" that I see when I'm at lower altitudes? It's truly horrific on my machine (which is a pretty high end PC). I know I can simply turn photogrammetry off but that's not really the point. Is there anything I can do at my end to make this effect go away? I've seen this question posted on MSFS FB pages but the responses are typically nonsense. If it's just the nature of MSFS 2024, so be it but I just figured I'd ask " And my answer is: if you have tried all of the tips and tricks to optimise MSFS2024 and your system and yet you still have melted buildings, then, yes, do disable photogrammetry because you will then have a sim that is unbelievably good and if you have the infrastructure that can cope OK with the added burden of photogrammetry, then do leave photogrammetry on because you will have a sim that is unbelievably, stunningly, g*bsmackingly good

Ignore the above!! It wasn't anything to do with the mouse configuration at all... There were some leftover default commands still in my Honeycomb Yoke and also Throttle blocks that related to APU!! I know that I cleared ALL supplied Honeycomb commands when I first got the controllers a few years ago - but the little tinkers clearly snuck these two back in!! Those spurious commands are now removed and all of a sudden my Legacy mouse settings worked a dream! 😊

Enjoying this very much so far...progressing through from 'Ready to TO' and completing a schedules flight to now progressively moving to Cold and Dark...and I've hit total brain sweep regarding the mouse settings for allowing me to start (or stop) the APU. It's a basic - and I'm sure I've sorted this in the distant past - but it has me stumped: I use Legacy settings on my standard/simple mouse so that I can fly Airbusses and easily pull out the A/Pilot dashboard knobs as well as push them back in to be able to change from 'managed' AP to 'manual' AP by hovering the cursor over the button, then choosing cursor down-arrow to pull the knob and cursor up arrow to push the knob. I then use either the scroll wheel or cursor rotate to turn the pushed or pulled knob. This setting works a treat for the F70/F100 heading - I use the cursor down arrow to pull to move the heading knob to manual and rotate the knob and then cursor up arrow to push the knob back to revert to managed mode. But on the new JF Fokkers I'm stumped at the two top right pull and twist knobs, including the vital APU start and stop. Instead of a down cursor arrow or up cursor arrow to pull or push, I get only a cursor hand symbol - and clicking that just pulls the knob out momentarily. But the scroll wheel doesn't turn the knob and any movement of the mouse to find and use the rotate arrows lets go of the pull command and so the knob retracts back to locked position and, as such I cannot start or stop the APU. Can someone enlighten/remind me what to do with my mouse settings. Many thanks in advance!! 😊 IGNORE - Problem solved. See post below

Installed - very quick flight - love it!!

Ref the more 'modern' 3rd Party ATC packages, I started off with BATC and - while there was a lot about it that I really liked - I got super-frustrated of being vectored to a point in the initial descent and then basically abandoned and the downright refusal to allow start of descent by pilot request even though that TOD was in the flight plan and airway restrictions. Similar repeated issues with arrival taxi and the like. I then tried FSHUD and - for the most part - found this suited me much better. My biggest gripe is that, similar to BATC, vector instructions are often far, far too late. But better than BATC had been. But after around 6 months, and after some reasonably large updates, I thought I would try BATC again. And yes - improvements in a number of areas - BUT vectoring seems just as haphazard and one every three flights I seem to be just abandoned by the ATC controllers. So I'm back to FSHUD. By no means perfect but usable most of the time.

This ^^^^ I turn off Photogrammetry everytime an update resets it back to ON and, magically, post-apocaliptic scenery turns into very realistic-looking scenery on my rig 🙂

It's been a few weeks since I have flown this but just did a short scheduled flight and the FMC worked fine. Are you using mouse or some linked hardware? If it's mouse, then it is worth try the 'Legacy' setting...for me this always works in all aircraft. Some of the other mouse options - including, ironically, the MSFS2024 default - give me issues from time to time.

As @AnkH says - if this isn't one bought through Steam, then download and/or boot up the Xbox App (you will probably already have it - if on a PC, click on Windows 'Start' Cube (bottom left) and scroll down the list of your Apps). Open the Xbox app and MSFS2024 should be visible there and there will be a button to download it onto your PC.

I have the standard battery back strap on my Q3 (which does wonders to the headset balance) and have never regarded the headset as uncomfortably warm. Ref a proper adjustable top strap, these are very very helpful in getting the lenses in the right position and so are 'a good thing'. If there's no great cost difference, I can't see any disadvantage of having a fan thrown in but if they cost a lot more, probably optional rather than essential.

Oh - and I'm in the non-London part of UK where full fibre Ultra-fast broadband is missing the 'Ultra' bit as far as many other nations would judge it. Just checked my speeds on Ookla - 113 Download.

With my old set-up I was able to run at 'Ultra' in Virtual Desktop. With my new set up I can go one step further to 'Godlike'. Visually, though, it's pretty close between the two. I think I'm on WiFi6, although that is through an ultra-inefficient booster using the house electricity cables to connect to a remote server, too far away for it's own Wifi to reach the PC.

No - can't see anything VR related in the settings so it should work fine. Worth deleting and reloading? Post script - when I went into the settings I saw that you can default switch off settings...seasick-inducing breathing sorted!!! 😁