Questions and some general observations

[b3burner]

A few questions/comments as I get more into this program... slowly but surely I guess I learn things around here (yes... I know... that's hard to believe isn't it?):

 

1. I notice that when I go to the flight map (within the simulator menu), that there is no red flight path line that trails behind my airplane, like there is in FS9 & FSX. Has anyone else noticed this, or is it just me? Is there a fix, or most people just don't care and have learned to live without it?

NOTE: I have the "show flight plan & route history" icon on the map legend turned on, so it should be showing the red flight path line, but it isn't.

 

2. I just want to double-check with others here and confirm that the default Raptor F-22 that starts at Langley AFB, is NOT supposed to have a 2D cockpit view panel... just the 3D ones... am I correct?

I ask because I'm not seeing it on mine, and I want to make sure I didn't accidentally alter something and that it's gone. Yes, I can key-A toggle to what would be the 2D-cockpit view, and I can key-W through the 2D-on/off sequence but nothing appears other than the default Cessna gauges as "bare-minimum" in part of my scrolling through those choices. Just want to make sure that's normal.

 

3. Questions out the way, I'd now like to make a few comments. How pleased I am that P3D has respected and accurately accounted for moon phase, position, time/day/year,etc. At first I was going to sing the phrases (or is it praises?) of how P3D is the first flight simulator program to accurately get this right. But in going back and taking a closer look at FSX, they too got it right, so I jumped the gun in that assumption. I guess I was thinking of FS9 where they hadn't quite caught up yet.

 

But what really impresses me is that P3D did take it to the next level (past FSX); by adding moon shadows at night! I had not noticed this until one evening I accidentally stumbled upon it while looking around the cockpit of a plane in 3D-V-Cockpit mode, and I noticed the grayish shadow of a pillar post being cast across the window sill and on to the seat. I wondered where that shadowing would have been coming from, as I knew the sun had set hours ago. I thought maybe it was a rendering error on the part of P3-D, that it was still trying to cast shadows from the sun. But then I looked up in the view and saw the moon high in the sky. That's when I realized that P3D really had something special going on-- as far as that one aspect was concerned. Though I know it's small potatoes in the large scheme of things, to me it's an important detail.

 

4. Don't ask me why I never noticed this before, but it is an interesting and important observation, and a good reason for a person setting up their own default starting points:

I live out on the West Coast (Pacific Time Zone) and I guess since FS9 default was KSEA, and FSX default was Friday Harbor, and those two just so happened to coincidentally match my home timezone, there was never a time conflict. For the first time with P3D, because it defaults in Virginia, I noticed it would use my correct computer clock time for my west coast time zone, but apply it to Virginia! Then if I moved my plane back to an airport on the west coast, it would be 3 hours too early, and I'd have to change the time. So if I want it to be synced right the first time in, then I need to reset my default airport to a west coast airport in my time zone. And I suppose everyone else here who uses computer clock time, needs to do the same for their own time zones. Only people who live in the U.S. Eastern Time Zone can get away with using the default Langley AFB, w/o resetting their simulator time and/or their default start point.

 

I'm sure I'll have other things I want to add/say/ask, but for now... that's it.

 

-- John