Any Flight Simmers ?
Discussion
I've been playing FSX on and off for a while. Have a few add ons now (mostly military)
I used to use a mad catz F.L.Y or something like that, it was cheap and I found out why after 5 months of use it randomly started putting in yaw inputs. Have now 'upgraded' to a T flight HOTAS (not the warthog as much I wanted to justify the price to myself)
I have also dabbled with DCS which seems a lot harder...I don't seem to be able to land the F15c without buckling the landing gear at the very least
I used to use a mad catz F.L.Y or something like that, it was cheap and I found out why after 5 months of use it randomly started putting in yaw inputs. Have now 'upgraded' to a T flight HOTAS (not the warthog as much I wanted to justify the price to myself)
I have also dabbled with DCS which seems a lot harder...I don't seem to be able to land the F15c without buckling the landing gear at the very least
Did a flight in the 747 earlier, seems very stable and no major issues. Only issue was if you go above about 8x time it does not like it as the fuel tanks don't level out on their own. Unless I am missing something. Also kept getting speed warnings on the climb out (low airspeed), probably down to me not setting the weight of the aircraft properly I guess. Will have to read more on that.
Anyway, did Orlando to Manchester. Took about 2 hours ish. Nice decent into Manchester over the Irish sea at dawn and flew the 26R approach over Glossop. Handling was nice at low speed this time, as expected with <30% fuel by that point.
I can see many hours being wasted on this thing!
Anyway, did Orlando to Manchester. Took about 2 hours ish. Nice decent into Manchester over the Irish sea at dawn and flew the 26R approach over Glossop. Handling was nice at low speed this time, as expected with <30% fuel by that point.
I can see many hours being wasted on this thing!
red_slr said:
Did a flight in the 747 earlier, seems very stable and no major issues. Only issue was if you go above about 8x time it does not like it as the fuel tanks don't level out on their own. Unless I am missing something. Also kept getting speed warnings on the climb out (low airspeed), probably down to me not setting the weight of the aircraft properly I guess. Will have to read more on that.
Anyway, did Orlando to Manchester. Took about 2 hours ish. Nice decent into Manchester over the Irish sea at dawn and flew the 26R approach over Glossop. Handling was nice at low speed this time, as expected with <30% fuel by that point.
I can see many hours being wasted on this thing!
I've been trying to fly an A320 this weekend. I'm not sure if it's a bad install, or if I'm missing a step in the setup, but I have no control after takeoff. i thought I understood why and changed the configuration of my system. Spent another 40 minutes programming the FMC only to have no control again.Anyway, did Orlando to Manchester. Took about 2 hours ish. Nice decent into Manchester over the Irish sea at dawn and flew the 26R approach over Glossop. Handling was nice at low speed this time, as expected with <30% fuel by that point.
I can see many hours being wasted on this thing!
I've given up for today...
One thing worth mentioning with flight sims is your displays. I originally went from one to three monitors in order to enjoy FSX more, as I found one monitor far too limiting, especially when making turns. I've now gone to a VR headset (I bought a secondhand Oculus Rift DK2 for about £100) and it's made an enormous difference to my enjoyment of FSX. The only downside is motion sickness...
RobM77 said:
One thing worth mentioning with flight sims is your displays. I originally went from one to three monitors in order to enjoy FSX more, as I found one monitor far too limiting, especially when making turns. I've now gone to a VR headset (I bought a secondhand Oculus Rift DK2 for about £100) and it's made an enormous difference to my enjoyment of FSX. The only downside is motion sickness...
Oculus Rift... FSX...Oh sh..... I see some money being spent shortly
AlexIT said:
RobM77 said:
One thing worth mentioning with flight sims is your displays. I originally went from one to three monitors in order to enjoy FSX more, as I found one monitor far too limiting, especially when making turns. I've now gone to a VR headset (I bought a secondhand Oculus Rift DK2 for about £100) and it's made an enormous difference to my enjoyment of FSX. The only downside is motion sickness...
Oculus Rift... FSX...Oh sh..... I see some money being spent shortly
That 747 looks lovely, I'm tempted to try it out though I am reluctant due to heavy iron not really being my bag for FS, I prefer GA and warbirds.
Only played with the C172 and the Cirrus SF50 so far it does run fairly smoothly on the default settings but I can't max everything out, it just stops virtually dead, I'll need to have a play with it.
Intel i7 4770k (overclocked to 4.5ghz)
MSI motherboard
MSI GeForce 780
16gb Ram
Game installed on an SSD (as is the OS, both separate).
My only problem is the hundreds of £ worth of FSX addons that I have (and FSX runs really nicely with that processor - FSX being more processor than graphics intensive) and moving permanently away from FS (and Accusim) is going to take some willpower.
dmsims said:
I just tried X-plane (demo) on my 6 year old PC
I did a 747 auto flight with different views
CPU never went above 20%
Memory used just under 3GB
I was hoping to capture FPS but the overlay did not work. On take off (external view) and subsequently it was very smooth with no stuttering
All settings maxed
As I now have 250mb fibre optic internet I thought I'd download the X-Plane 11 Demo last night (old speed was so damn slow it would have taken 7-8 hours to pull it down), downloaded (5.5GB), installed and running in less than 10 minutes.I did a 747 auto flight with different views
CPU never went above 20%
Memory used just under 3GB
I was hoping to capture FPS but the overlay did not work. On take off (external view) and subsequently it was very smooth with no stuttering
All settings maxed
Only played with the C172 and the Cirrus SF50 so far it does run fairly smoothly on the default settings but I can't max everything out, it just stops virtually dead, I'll need to have a play with it.
Intel i7 4770k (overclocked to 4.5ghz)
MSI motherboard
MSI GeForce 780
16gb Ram
Game installed on an SSD (as is the OS, both separate).
My only problem is the hundreds of £ worth of FSX addons that I have (and FSX runs really nicely with that processor - FSX being more processor than graphics intensive) and moving permanently away from FS (and Accusim) is going to take some willpower.
Just revisiting the simming thing, I kind of abandoned it previously as I didnt have the right gear and it was incredibly frustrating, I had a Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback joystick which if you took your hand off flopped one way or another so it just drove me mad. I had a go on a full professional Sim (BAe 146) a couple of weeks back and I had been wanting to have another go so I just got ordering.
I bit the bullet and purchased Xplane 11 which is very good, but crashes fairly often, which feels a bit retro, also bought a fairly basic Saitek Yoke, not got the pedals but it makes a huge difference having the basics right.
Mainly learning how the AP and FMC works on a 737, I know I should start with a Cessna and I have tried it but seeing as its not real, may as well use a big one ! the whole thing seems to be based around managing the huge speed and weight.
So, how is everyone else doing with their simming and any pointers, I am watching a lot of videos and getting a lot out of that, main thing now is getting everything set up properly so I can concentrate on the sim and not the hardware, knowing where the buttons are etc.
I bit the bullet and purchased Xplane 11 which is very good, but crashes fairly often, which feels a bit retro, also bought a fairly basic Saitek Yoke, not got the pedals but it makes a huge difference having the basics right.
Mainly learning how the AP and FMC works on a 737, I know I should start with a Cessna and I have tried it but seeing as its not real, may as well use a big one ! the whole thing seems to be based around managing the huge speed and weight.
So, how is everyone else doing with their simming and any pointers, I am watching a lot of videos and getting a lot out of that, main thing now is getting everything set up properly so I can concentrate on the sim and not the hardware, knowing where the buttons are etc.
I am still flying the PMDG 737 (in P3D) once or twice a week. Just about at the point now where I can get from cold and dark to ready to fly in about 20 minutes ish. The FMC is the big hurdle but once you get how that functions and what needs keying in then you are good to go.
Also spending more time in the 747 although I prefer the shorter flights of the 737. My usual flight is Liverpool to somewhere in Spain or one of the Islands.
Can be done in about an hour and a half with a bit of "fast forward" on the way...
I upgraded to P3D V4 and have seen a good step up in performance and reliability plus native VR support. That said I have not been flying VR as much recently as I am enjoying setting up the FMC which is pointless in VR.
I have upgraded a few airports now too.
Also spending more time in the 747 although I prefer the shorter flights of the 737. My usual flight is Liverpool to somewhere in Spain or one of the Islands.
Can be done in about an hour and a half with a bit of "fast forward" on the way...
I upgraded to P3D V4 and have seen a good step up in performance and reliability plus native VR support. That said I have not been flying VR as much recently as I am enjoying setting up the FMC which is pointless in VR.
I have upgraded a few airports now too.
I would be cautious about VR unless you already know you're ok with it. If you have a friend with it I'd ask if you can go have a long play.
It is awesome (I have PSVR) *but*, some people get affected by "motion sickness" and if you are affected it seriously restricts how much you can use it.
I can only play for about 15-30 mins at a time before I feel ill and it's worse when there is acrobatics etc.
It is awesome (I have PSVR) *but*, some people get affected by "motion sickness" and if you are affected it seriously restricts how much you can use it.
I can only play for about 15-30 mins at a time before I feel ill and it's worse when there is acrobatics etc.
I've been playing MS Flight Simulator in one form or another since the early 90's. I had £000's of addons but never really gelled with FSX. After the Windows 10 upgrade essentially killed FS2004 I moved to P3D which was great but couldn't get any decent real-world scenery for it so I thought I'd give XP11 a try. X-plane feels a lot more like flying, and lends itself to the smaller aircraft much better than MSFS/P3D, but the latter are better suited to the more procedural autopilot type flying of the heavies. Also plenty of real-world scenery so I can practice flying around the areas I fly IRL.
All my sim flying now is DCS. Some of the modules on offer are amazing in their level of detail, and the bonus is that rather than just flying around, you get to kill stuff too. I'm using CH products controllers and toying with the VR idea. Not sure if my hardware is up to it though. Amazing simulator with more to come from the developers. Perhaps not the breadth of experience of the civvy sims, but certainly a depth of detail matched only by the most hardcore 3rd party airliners.
Also given that you can download it and fly a P-51 or Su-25 over the newly updated Caucasus AO for FREE! why would you not give it a go?
linky
All my sim flying now is DCS. Some of the modules on offer are amazing in their level of detail, and the bonus is that rather than just flying around, you get to kill stuff too. I'm using CH products controllers and toying with the VR idea. Not sure if my hardware is up to it though. Amazing simulator with more to come from the developers. Perhaps not the breadth of experience of the civvy sims, but certainly a depth of detail matched only by the most hardcore 3rd party airliners.
Also given that you can download it and fly a P-51 or Su-25 over the newly updated Caucasus AO for FREE! why would you not give it a go?
linky
J4CKO said:
why would filling in the FMC be pointless in VR ?
You have to stare at the button you want to press then a little blue dot appears then you press your primary action button... then stare at the next..... etc etc. Keying in a long string of commands takes forever and that's not what VR is about. You can use the mouse but IME its also very hard to see what you are doing unless you move around and that's also not much fun, the SDE does play a part.VR is about flying around in an F16 inverted through the grand canyon at 400kts
The main issue with VR and airliners is the number of switches and levers etc you need to pull and configure. Just changing heading or speed can be a PITA.
However hand flying is a lot of fun especially on simple aircraft.
Gassing Station | Boats, Planes & Trains | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff