Clutch Cargo

How big is the 2nd Hotfix? Not sure if I should start now or let it run overnight? Nevermind, I read its 464MB in the MS Store.

We will be shutting down operations. To prevent double-posting, please read the thread titled 'simwest closing its doors' in the P3D forums. Thanks

Hi all. I wanted to get the word out that simwest will be closing its doors on September 1. We had planned to roll out 3D photoreal scenery across the USA but after the release of MSFS sales for our scenery has dried up. Had a fun time over the past several years with this part-time hobby/business but for now I’ll be returning just as a simmer. This notice is also a big THANK YOU to my patrons who enjoyed my products and beta testers who made it happen. For you customers, keep in mind that our servers will shut down on September 1st so attempting to install using the simwest installers will no longer work. You will need to make a copy of your installed version which is really quite simple: 1. Make a copy of your current, working simwest product folder and place it elsewhere for future use if needed. 2. Copy the main Autogen folder found in FSX, P3Dv1 thru P3Dv5 and also copy that to your backup location. 3. Make a copy of the AutogenConfiqurationMerger.exe file you installed when you used the simwest installer and keep it with simwest backup. The installer asked you where to install it so just grab it from there. 4. To reinstall, just place the backup files/folders where you originally got them from. See ya in the skies!

Since I haven't flown in the last couple of weeks I have not encountered the update fiasco as I have not updated my version. Think I will wait until Monday to see if this Hotfix is truly fixing what is "hot". Just reading all the issues makes me want to just wait.

I agree you don't need the most powerful, advanced PC to enjoy the platform. I have, what I would consider, a very "medium" based system compared to today's specs: a i7-2700k (how many years old is this GPU, ha!), running at 4.8GHz, 32 GB RAM with a EVGA GTX 1080 w/8GB on board combined with a relatively slow internet connection and I am seeing great results. I usually run a notch below the Ultra settings.

Looking forward to it but I hope we see South America as the next World Update after that.

That is wild. MSFS holds up quite well.

The update froze about 187MB into downloading. I pressed PAUSED (still was working), and restarted the PC to begin again. This time I got the endless loop of checking for updates and would never go beyond. The trick I learned... go into the main One Store folder and delete all the files that were dated for the day of my freeze up (the newly installed files). Restart PC, restart MSFS and sure enough the install started again without a hitch.

I performed a complete install. Haven't used the platform in months so I wanted to see what it looked like as a default installation. I liked what I saw. I saw improved performance on my system (subjective), I can now use the EA without cringing. The dusks and dawns are improved and no glowing water at night. The night lights are a nice touch. Still need to check out airports to see if the taxiways are missing in many-many airports. That's what finally made me move on. But it felt like a incremental update... nothing earth shattering to bring me back full time. :) Hope others feel differently.

I would luv to see a B727, B732, B733 or B735... something in that range. Nothing too fancy (not a "study" level), but something fun to fly above the default MSFS level but below a PMDG level in the $30's range. I would think those would be popular.

I would say: 1) Yes, to speed up load time you would still need to disable addons in Addon Linker. A simple test is to activate all your addons in Addon Linker and start MSFS. Time it. Then uncheck all addons, start MSFS and time it. I believe you will see a difference. 2) For me, rather than uncheck individual items in Addon Link. I kept them just the way I wanted them but I went over to my Community folder, renamed it to HOLDCommunity and created a new blank Community folder. Did my update, then deleted the blank Community folder and renamed the HOLDCommunity back to Community. Worked for me. :)

Have to agree my little "gripes" are what you described with the bridges and making all palm trees look like pillars. I would hope with these massive scenery updates they would include: 1. Fix bridges 2. Fix palm trees 3. Make trees smaller (certain types?) But I'll keep flyin'

FYI - I d/l and installed the latest version for the first time yesterday to try this out. What I noticed is I am losing what appears to be simconnect to my Saitek panels. My radio panel is going a bit haywire (working correctly for several seconds then unknown LED output for several seconds) while if I switch to the default livery all my panels appear to work correctly. This is repeatable every time I try to run the FlyByWire livery. This is uning their stable download... not the experimental download. My MSFS is up to date. Just want to throw this out if it helps. Really appreciate what they are attempting to do.

I've seen a few over the years but way to few and far between. I had one as a beta tester on several of my scenery products and she was an excellent tester as well as a pliot. I wish the hobby could recruit more. Tired of the "boys club".

Yea, I was having issues updating as well. Clicked on my Xbox icon and all I got was a blank window! Went online to the MS game store and after finally finding my download page (not very intuitive for me), all I got was the spinning dots (like when you start Windows), and a blank, black screen. SO I shut it all down, took a deep breath and waited til this morning to try again. WHOLA! All loaded and working again perfectly, ha! For me the update musta been only some 20 megabytes as it would take me like 20 minutes to update a gig of data as some have claimed it did for them. So I would suggest the same and let MS clear up its online fubars before trying again. If you truly started a complete re-install all I can say is bummer... :)

If you are looking for profiles for different hardware to work with different aircraft I would check out SPADnext. They have "profiles" (that's even what they call them), where you can setup say a C172 different from an Airbus. Great, simple user interface that works with all my old Saitek and CH Products for MSFS. Been using it for years. I think they have a free trial and they are several videos on the subject on YouTube. Check 'em out.

John (or any other simmer), Do you have the Saitek Switch Panel? I too use SpadNext and it crashes/freezes every time I use the Switch Panel to start an engine like on the C172 or C172 G1000 version. Have you encountered this? If not, maybe you have a profile I can use/try out? Clutch

Ha, you are not alone in learning the sim. I've had MSFS for a couple of months and still haven't even completed a single flight Having too much fun with the drone. To remove the instrument overlays I found a nice little free app over at flightsim.to. The name is 'UI mods and tweaks' by Mugz It's a collection of little apps. You just throw into the Community folder. The instruments overlay has an on/off switch using the Num Lock key. Real easy. Not sure about the POI's, he might have something there as well but I have not explored. Enjoy.

Not sure why adding the throttle quad would make a difference regarding your issue but I can relate as I too lost my settings after an update? And it required d/l the base 1GB again to get things working. It looks like the latest update has resolved this as I still have my custom settings on my game pad (using that for the drone). May I suggest trying out SpadNext. I use it for 99% of my custom settings, all my Saitek and GoFlight hardware and panels. Great, simple, graphical interface. Updated consistently. I use it for P3Dv5 and MSFS. I believe it has a free trial so I would check it out. Clutch

P3Dv5 (or whatever is the name of your main P3D folder)\Scenery\World\scenery folder.

Yep, sure did. Forgot I posted hear. I think it was the missing shaders folder that did it. A fresh install did not install several folders yet P3D said it was a success. All good now. :)

This seemed to happen out of the blue but I when I start P3Dv5 it has its opening screen for about 10 seconds then disappears. So I did a fresh re-install of P3Dv5 HF2 (full version, not an update). Same thing. I have no add-ons installed. Have disabled virus protection and firewall during install and when starting program. Have uninstalled and re-installed twice now... same issue. I know my d/l from Lockheed works as I have been using it before. Have gone through the list LM provides... still no go. Baffled... starting to search internet on ideas but maybe someone out there has had this experience and got it working. Ideas appreciated. Clutch

I have been using flight simulator since FS4 and bought every version on the day of release. Bought P3D on first day of release for every version. P3Dv1 was rough (but the basics worked), but after felt a little burned after MS closed Aces and FSX went bust, I held off on MS Flight and never purchased. When I saw how quickly MSFS went through Beta I decided to hold off and let others be beta testers after release. A simmer pinned it as a "scenery simulator" and I should be excited by that as I design scenery but I am still on a holding pattern until I see a full SDK. I'd say 6 months to a year for me before I jump in and things settle down.

Yep, the BIP. Sad they discontinued as its one of my favorites. GoFlight has a BIP type panel but on a smaller scale: https://goflightinc.com/product/gf-wp6-warning-panel-module/ Clutch

I think many will do the traditional "can I see my house" as their inaugural flight, ha!