Newbie (sorta), & Not too Computer/Sim Literate, Either: Info Needed

Some years ago I played around with MSFS, but never got around to getting the required equipment/add-on configuration to make it visually and aurally natural for me. I recently bought an I5-6400 with 12 gigs of ram and a 1 Tb. hard drive running Windows 10 64 bit and I'm looking for input from experienced users. There are not many questions (I think), so here goes:

1. How much graphic card power do I need to run FSX/X-Plane/P3D with the Invidia cards? I want photo-realistic scenery, and plentiful AI happening in the air and on the ground (I plan on visiting IAH and DFW lot, as well as smaller airports). I have no interest in the war/fantasy PC games such as Warcraft or other such stuff. I would like to hook the game into the HDTV that we have, so an HDMI output is necessary. I also do small work in Autocad Architecture, too. I realize a psu upgrade is probably in the works, but that's O.K.

2. I have a special needs adult stepdaughter that lives with us and she loves to watch planes land and take-off from a busy airport with lots of traffic. I would like to put my older machine (32 bit Athlon X2 with 3 GB ram and 250 mb hard drive and a 2 gig GTX730 with HDMI out) in her room and hook it up to her 40" HDTV so she can watch FSX AI traffic land and take-off from IAH or DFW.

A. Is it possible to set this up with all that is required of her is to turn the PC on and it will boot up Windows,

then automatically boot up FSX.

B. After FSX loads, then automatically load a scenario where the point of view is from a spot beside a runway

and AI Traffic lands and takes-off.

3. The PC would have no mouse or keyboard that would allow her to mess stuff up. The only action she would take is to turn on the PC, then switch her TV input from satellite to the PC.

Is this too involved and intricate for me to do?

Mike

Hi Mike,

I don't know if it's possible or too involved and intricate for you but I can offer a few suggestions.

When a computer at our local library has problems the first thing they do is turn it off and then back on. The windows screen is briefly visible and then IE starts with the library catalog page displayed. So it seems possible to have FSX start and do what you like . There is a kiosk mode that seems to be the best possibility. Kiosk mode actually starts FSX with a mission selection screen. I don't know if the selection could be automatic.

Let's say that it is possible. It would take creating a "mission" to do what you'd like as far as watching aircraft take off and land. If you have access to the SDK and refer to the Mission creation section you'll find that AI Aircraft can be programmed to taxi and take off and land. There's a section called "Camera Mission Object" in which you'll see that a camera is simply a view point within the game that can be programmed to follow any moving object. In this case the object would be the AI aircraft. After certain conditions (time most likely) the camera could be set to follow the next aircraft or watch the current fly awhile and then land.

If someone was used to creating missions, doing something like this seems relatively trivial but anyone having that degree of familiarity with mission creation is rather rare now.

Jim F.

To watch AI you have enough video power in that card. The easy way to do this is to have the PC on a surge protector power strip and let it run 24/7. The power consumption will not be THAT much, it DOES NOT HURT the PC to stay on, and if anything happens the surge protector would kick off the power (ie: no fire from electrical short, etc - for the SAFETY part). Then all your kid would have to do is turn on the TV (with remote I assume) and switch it over and BAM - FSX is ON and running. No fuss no muss. Then once a week restart FSX to clear memory, etc for smoother fps.

Chuck B

Napamule

Mike,

If you would rather not leave your system on 24/7 as per Chuck's recommendation I can offer an alternative.

The biggest roadblock I see is getting into Windows without any input.

For this to work I think you would need to only have one user account with no password.

Unfortunately I cannot test this part for you as I am not willing to redo my user accounts.

For later versions of Windows this might not even be possible, in which case she would need to at least be able to click on the user icon to open Windows.

Once you clear that hurdle the rest is pretty easy.

First you would want to set up FSX in the scenario you want, airport, time of day, airplane, etc.

For the plane I recommend Bob, from Orbx. You can get Bob here- https://www.fullterrain.com/freeware

Once you have FSX set up the way you want, save the flight and close FSX.

Now go to ...\(My) Documents\Flight Simulator X Files\ and find your saved flight file.

When you save a flight FSX generates at least three files with the name you choose and the following extensions...

.FLT, .WX and .FSSAVE

Right click on your saved flight's .FSSAVE file and Send to... > Desktop (create shortcut)

Now you will want to go to the following folder...

C:\Users\user name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Drag the shortcut from your Desktop and drop it in that folder.

Now every time you start that computer it will automatically launch FSX and load that saved flight.

A few more thoughts.

The first is about time. If you choose to use Chuck's method of leaving FSX running 24/7, and FSX time stays consistent with real time (which I do not think it will over long periods of time), if she turns on FSX at night it will be night in the sim.

If you choose my method it will be the same time and day every time she starts FSX.

Chuck's method will give you season changes, mine will not unless you change the saved flight.

Also, I would not tell her you are setting this up until you get a chance to test it, to make sure it will work as desired.

I tried the saved flight routine on this laptop, using Win 8.1, and it worked. Please note that with Windows starting at basically the same time as FSX, it took upwards of 10 minutes for the sim to be up and running.

On a faster computer, with less software running on it (as compared to all the crap I have on this laptop) you would most likely see faster startups.

As an example, if your PC is not hooked up to the Internet you would not need to run any antivirus software, which can slow down FSX.

I also do not know if Windows will start on a computer if it does not detect at least a keyboard. Maybe you can use a wireless model and hide the keyboard somewhere so the computer can still "see" it.

I do hope you can get this to work for your daughter, I bet she deserves it.

Feel free to post more questions, if needed.

peace,

the Bean