FSX getting better the more i use it

[rjord]

I have to say now that I have worked out how to avoid the problems I originally had with FSX, I am getting to really love this FSX.

And with the problems, I find that if I fix them as I come across them, it makes FSX a whole lot better.

For example, I landed a Qantas 747 at Sydney airport yesterday and was directed to parking by ground control. Unfortunately when I parked I was at Qantus Cargo and not at the passenger gates with ramps..... so when I opened the doors the passengers fell to the tarmac below.

But opening up the config file for the 747, I added in

atc_parking_types=GATE,RAMP

for all the 747's so that none of the ones I am using at the moment will be marked as

atc_parking_types=Cargo

And my new laptop is really handling FSX well. I set the scenery to max to see the gates and I have not seen any issues with frame rates. Maybe FSX and Dual Core AMD's really get on with each other.





atc_parking_types=GATE,RAMP

[Captain America]

It's the scenery for me.

It is such a dramatic improvement over FS9.

[Skycap]

>It's the scenery for me.
>
>It is such a dramatic improvement over FS9.


Ditto! I am VERY impressed with the terrain now and the roads! I almost never fly VFR but, just to see how accurate it was, I took a Cessna out in my local area and was able to navigate entirely by flying at about 500' and watching the roads below as a guide. Great!

Of course, seeing the cars jump bridges that are a tad bit mis-aligned was a hoot as well! :) You'll notice that in areas where a bridge goes over another road, the cars don't drive under the overpass - they leap over it! I guess they all have turbo boost! (Knight Rider flashback)

One note, if you haven't done this already. If you want the jetways to work with aircraft not made for FSX, simply go into the aircraft.cfg and modify or add in the [Exits] section. In FS9, there was simply (if at all) a couple entries so the model would know which doors to open when you hit shift+e+1,2,3, etc. Now, you can enter locations in the same way as the loadpoints (stationpoints) to indicate where these openings are in relation to the rest of the aircraft. This is the part that tells FSX where to align the jetway. Today, I copied the default A321's Exit section to my FS9 A319, US Airways Piedmont Heritage aircraft and sure enough, the jetway swung right over. Of course, as this was a 319 as opposed to the 321, the jetway canopy dropped down about 20 feet in front of the nose! Just need to back it off a bit. I did the same for the E190 I have in jetBlue livery and the jetway landed behind the main door. That was a bit odd but, an easy fix.

Still need to play with the cargo doors.

[phillroath]

I too am a happy simmer now, but almost gave up in the beginning. Had lots of problems and slowly worked out the config updates and removing the default.xml and some other things. No road or boat traffic but grabbed the fs9 traffic bgl and my ardvark 737/747/757 and the airlines.cfg and now have 50% traffic with Delta, Southwest, Continental, etc...

Finally accepted (after denial followed by anger) the fact that my machine will deliver 10 to 18 fps in most areas that I fly in.

What do I like in FSX over FS9? First of all, the default aircraft are quite an improvement (just IMHO, folks) and I have now settled into two that I seem to spend the most amount of time in. The Maule and the B737-800.

I use real weather and fly from KDAL to KHOU or maybe KTUS to KFLG. For the Maule a real nice 7,000 ft cross country is KTRI to KROA. The cloud improvements have allowed me to use real world weather all the time.

I am now truly addicted to the virtual cockpit (this became an addiction in FS9 with the Shockwave P51) but always hated the idea that I had to cycle through so many views to get to the ones I wanted. Now in FSX I have removed tower and others (in camera add the CycleHidden=Yes line) and now the cycle is spot view and cockpit.

There are other things I like, but one example was when in the Piper Cub over downtown Houston and I looked toward the AstroDome and the freeways were all there. I thought something was wrong, so I went to one of the maps (Google?) and then got the satellite image and to my great surprise, it was perfect! Oh, and I did have UT in FS9 for the roads, but the FSX roads are much better.

Anyway, I have not been back in FS9 for awhile and really do like what I'm seeing.

Phill

Edit: My machine - Dell P4 2.8 Ghz / 1 GB RAM / ATI 9800 128 MB

[Rockcliffe]

I too am very impressed.
I read all the complaints in the forums and decided I wasn't going to get FSX. Then it went on sale :-)
I just upgraded my computer after five years, jumping from a P3 1 gig with a 32Mb card (!) to a AMD 64 dual core 5000 with a BFG Geforce 7600GT 256Mb PCIe card. I was pleased that FSX runs pretty well right out of the box.
I too am impressed with the default aircraft improvements and found my favourite addons (Carenado 182rg, 206 and Mentor) and the PMDG Beech 1900 ported over seamlessly.
And the missions are a blast!
Anyway, I feel sorry for all the abuse the ACES team has taken. I think FSX is a major step forward.
My biggest complaint is that some of the coastline/ lakes in my favourite flying area (SW British Columbia)are inaccurate. No doubt, someone will fix that.
Blair
CYOW

(I haven't deleted FS9 yet. Not until I can find a replacement for my Aldus MD80, Richard Probst's 727 panel and Rick Piper upgrades his HS748)

[Captain America]

>I am now truly addicted to the virtual cockpit (this became an
>addiction in FS9 with the Shockwave P51) but always hated the
>idea that I had to cycle through so many views to get to the
>ones I wanted. Now in FSX I have removed tower and others (in
>camera add the CycleHidden=Yes line) and now the cycle is spot
>view and cockpit.

How exactly did you do that?

I'm computer stupid, so go slow.

Thanks.

[N700MS]

I've become happy with it too. I've had to realize though that there isn't anyway I can fly into airport with large cities around since the frames drop below 1. But that's ok. I can deal with that.

[phillroath]

First find the Cameras.cfg file (same place your fsx.cfg file is at) and open with text editor. Scroll down to CameraDefinition.007 (nearest tower view) and at the end of the section (should be about line 160) insert line as shown here...

Title = Nearest Tower
...
Origin = Tower
SnapPbhAdjust = Swivel
SnapPbhReturn = False
PanPbhAdjust = Swivel
PanPbhReturn = False
Track = Track
ShowAxis = No
AllowZoom = Yes
InitialZoom = 8.0
SmoothZoomTime = 2.0
ShowWeather = Yes
XyzAdjust = FALSE
Transition = No
ShowLensFlare=FALSE
Category = Tower
ClipMode = Tower
NoSortTitle = True
CycleHidden=Yes <=== add this!

Repeat for CameraDefinition.008 (the remainder of the file already has this line for cameras for AI and Multiplayer, etc).

Next I decided to remove the cycle for other views (like passenger wing views). For example I opened the B737-800 aircraft.cfg file and added CycleHidden=Yes to the first two sections...

(CameraDefinition.0)
Title = "Right Side Window"
CycleHidden=Yes

(CameraDefinition.1)
Title = "Left Side Window"
CycleHidden=Yes

This does NOT remove the views, it only removes from them from the "S" cycle. Anytime, you may right click and select any view you want because they are all still there. This left me with only the spot and cockpit on the "S" key which is probably 85% of the time all I want.

YMMV - Phill

oh yeah, on the 737 I also removed the exterior tail, left wing, and right wing views. Might use them but wanted them out of the cycle.

EDIT: And just in case someone says "just use F9 and F11" I do that but I also have one button on my joystick (under my thumb) mapped to the "S" function. Don't have to reach over for the keyboard that way.

[Captain America]

Thank You!!!

Merry Christmas.

[iwantmydc3]

>I've become happy with it too. I've had to realize though
>that there isn't anyway I can fly into airport with large
>cities around since the frames drop below 1. But that's ok.
>I can deal with that.

Add a 512mb video card (maybe an NVIDIA 7900GTX, which is what I have), and you CAN fly to big cities :)