Mac6737

Thanks. Clicking on this link resulted in hysterical warnings from Norton; "known dangerous site," strongly recommend not entering," etc., etc. I'm just sayin'. BTW, I also live SW of KGAI: Bethesda.

It's been a few months, and I still can't figure out the wind layer settings under Flight Conditions. You'd think the wind layers would be analogous to the cloud layers, with tops and bottoms. Apparently not. How does one establish boundaries of the layers? The SoFly so-called "Manual" has no info at all on wind (as on most things in the sim). I see how you set the speed and the variation with gusts, but that seems to assume a range of altitudes within which you have the wind. Is there a tutorial somewhere? Extra credit Q: When I am flying in even light wind (say 6 kts) I experience what I consider extreme turbulence, even in a fairly big plane like the CJ4. Is this normal? Thanks all, Mac6737

Sorry, I can't help with your problem, since I have not installed the Goose. I always had it in FSX and P3D, though, and would like to have it here. Where did you get the Goose?

Someone on the MSFS Support Forum suggested I check my Data settings for Bing and Photogrammetry. I did. They had been OFF. Turned them back on and I had the full range of NYC buildings once again. Oh joy! BTW, I would swear I never touched those settings before this morning. Something had turned them off when I wasn't looking.

As I said, the control settings remained as I had set them. I have since learned that Xbox stores those settings, so that they survive a reset -- contrary to what the Zendesk instructions explicitly state. Any ideas about why a "reset" does not restore the default scenery files?

I recently decided to do a “clean install” of MSFS to eliminate some corrupted or absent scenery. (Of particular concern was NYC – few buildings south of the Empire State, certainly no Freedom Tower, and most bridges missing.) I was following the Zendesk instructions, but they offered me another option: “Reset.” According to Zendesk, you can try this if the Repair function did not solve your problem; it says, “This app will be reinstalled and revert to its default settings.” So I did it. As far as I could tell, MSFS disappeared from my PC. No icon on the task bar, and no files where MSFS had been. Then I typed MSFS in the Start Menu, and I got a pop-up from “MS Store Package Dependency Installer,” asking permission to proceed. I clicked Yes. Then it did what I thought was a total reinstall of 153 gigs (about 6 hours). But guess what! On reopening the sim, the corrupted scenery remained corrupted. Also, my controls were as I had left them, not defaults. QUESTIONS: What’s the difference between a “reset” and a “clean install”? If Zendesk says "Reset" does a reinstallation, how could it NOT replace the corrupted scenery files? Can I get my scenery back to the defaults if I now do a “clean install”? PLEASE? (This is driving me nuts!) Thanks all, Mac6737

Thanks, Steve. Murphy's Law: "If something can go wrong, it will go wrong." First Corollary: ". . . and at the worst possible time."

I'm working up the courage to do a clean reinstall of MSFS. I have some corrupted scenery in NYC, and I have never had Las Vegas/Hoover Dam scenery at all. But how should I treat my Community folder, which is now where it should be, in "Packages" right next to "Official"? I have seen conflicting advice, and the Zendesk article on reinstalls does not deal with the issue. Someone said (I believe here) that you can just rename the folder Community.bak and proceed to reinstall, then rename it back the way it was. Seems to me you have to take it out of the MSFS file structure altogether, or else it will be deleted anyway. Can I just move it to the desktop, and put it back in MSFS after the reinstall? Or, must I move each of the liveries and mods out of the Community folder, store them someplace and then move them back in after the reinstall? Does a reinstall create a new, empty Community folder? If so, why can't I just delete it, and then move my backup Community folder with all its contents back into the sim? Thanks all, Mac6737

Thanks you Tiger. That is way above my pay grade. I'll wait for Henrik. Mac6737

What am I missing? I Googled it like you said, and found the Nielsen AI ship traffic in the Avsim Library, but NOT for MSFS. Are you telling us to DL it anyway and put it in MSFS? If so, where do you install? In the Community folder? Thanks for the lead, and the screenshots looked sensational.

Yeah, in an earlier (futile) post I mentioned the Golden Gate ships. The attached screenshot is from P3D with some add-on (I now forget what) that even includes carrier strike forces. And the wakes are really good eye candy.

I have no ships and boats, other than a few ferries in harbors. I asked before, and I see that others have asked this Q; one VIP member replied to another thread with a cryptic note: "Corrected." If so, they didn't correct it for me. Turning ship traffic set5ting to max has no effect. I believe I have a high-speed connection (Verizon FiOS). Thanks all, Mac6737

To be clear: I started this thread, and I hope and trust you are not referring to me. I am not a spy and have expressed no hatred here of anyone or anything. I post criticisms like the one I did in the hope that, in the fullness of time, corrections and adjustments will be made. Mac6737

1. All things are relative, counselor. 2. I admit that your Fiji clouds look better than mine in MSFS. (I am not running them in Ultra, though. Maybe that accounts for the difference?) 3. In any case, here are 2 fairly representative cloudscapes in P3D with Rex SoftClouds -- my stated basis of comparison. Perhaps we could stipulate that, were I to testify, my testimony would be that I've never gotten this degree of realism (yet) in MSFS. Moreover, Rex let's you choose the type of cloud in the various layers (cirrus, stratus, cumulus, etc.) If you can do that in MSFS, someone please let me know.

Always glad to get some agreement, but you're more negative than I am. (See my other recent reply in this thread.) Of course, you may have a somewhat different complaint than I do, but if the problem is what I have called "overexposure," one fix is to add lots of clouds and/or fly in early morning or late afternoon.

Right. But that's what MSFS often looks like from the pilot's seat when the sun is anywhere ahead of you. I have other screen shots from the cockpit view showing the same phenomenon. And BTW, if the pilot were in a second plane looking back at mine, my screenshot is exactly what that pilot would see. The "major beef" is that the MSFS palette is generally "overexposed." I know that some here disagree. But, as Groucho might say, "Who are you gonna believe -- them or your lyin' eyes?" I have screenshots I have modified in Picassa to compare with originals, but alas! the dramatic difference does not come through when reduced and uploaded to this forum. But you don't need those. Just look at, for example, the screenshots when you're waiting for MSFS to load. Like the Cessna 172 in the mountains with the glacier. I'm not saying that the real world never looks like this. I'm just saying it's a pretty smoggy day depicted! Don't get me wrong. As I indicated in the OP here, there are many terrific aspects of MSFS. Best of all, I would say, is the scenery in general: cityscapes, airport environment (grass!), rendering of mountains, etc. These are an order of magnitude ahead of FSX/P3D (I don't know X-Plane), and are why I have switched over. But I am right about the overexposure. And, as someone else here has said, the clouds are terrible, at least in comparison to P3D with Rex SoftClouds added. The clouds in MSFS look like those in the intro to "The Simpsons." (Check it out!)

I plan to post a six-month critique of MSFS soon, highlighting both the good and the execrable. Meanwhile, I couldn't resist posting this screenshot, which illustrates perfectly my major beef with MSFS. No pilot ever saw this . . . .

Glad to see that I'm not alone in my befuddlement. I believe this sums it up: 1. There is no simple answer to my "simple question." 2. You can't add a destination if you haven't entered a flight plan before takeoff. 3. A flight plan cannot consist of departure and arrival points, but must include intermediate waypoints. 4. To change the destination, you must first delete a waypoint and enter a new one. Both of these operations are, let's say, "challenging." 5. The manual recommended relates to a CJ4 other than the default that comes with the sim. As with most (maybe all) default planes, there ain't no stinkin' manual! Mac6737

Would someone please tell me how you set a GPS destination in the CJ4? There is no "Direct to . . ." button. So let's say -- (1) you haven't entered a flight plan at the outset; OR (2) you wish to divert to another destination. What do you do? I've been fiddling with this off and on for a few months, and am stymied. Other plane consoles present the same problem. Thanks all, Mac6737

Thank you. Not sure what I did, but I fiddled with it (as I had done before) and this time I got the knob to zoom. Not sure I could do it again, but yesterday I gave up too soon.

No BFD, but I just took my first flight in this plane. Everything AOK, but . . . I spent at least half an hour trying to find how you adjust the range in the display, which was set to 5nm at the outset. Most planes in MSFS, as in FSX/P3D, have either a knob you can turn or a +/- graphic at the upper right of the display. In this plane, I tried everything. None of the apparent soft keys functions for anything, nor do any of the tabs on the right of the display. By "display, " I mean the map thingy, not that other thingy. Mac6737

Thanks, Steve. I tried the Repair function. No effect. In my Data settings, Photgrammetry is "on," but the entire line is greyed out. Don't know what that means. In any case, all other urban area in the sim look fine. Something about that particular DL, combined with a mandatory update on Jan. 8, corrupted the NYC scenery. I'm afraid the only remedy is a clean reinstall. Infuriating that Adobo did not take into account a need to replace only a handful of texture files.

Last week, I downloaded from flightsim.to and installed an enhancement of New York's Laguardia airport (KLGA), a package that promised improvements to inadequate default bridges (specifically, George Washington and Verrazano-Narrows). I had previously downloaded other sceneries from the developer, "srivasman," and they worked AOK. But this time: disaster. Not only were the two named bridges much worse than before (no towers!), but much of the rest of the NYC scenery was degraded -- no tall buildings (e.g., the new World Trade tower) south of the Empire State, and virtually all of the shoreline with far less detail than before. So I removed the new scenery from my Community folder: made no difference. Then (on advice of a forum) I deleted my rolling cache: that made no difference either. I am attaching 2 pix, taken from about the same spot just N of the Brooklyn Bridge (which has remained unaffected). Note the absence of the WT tower in the bottom pic, and the difference in the shoreline and the buildings. I guess I need to get back to the default NYC scenery. Can this be done without deleting and reinstalling the whole sim? Also, I believe that one of the mandatory updates included enhancements of North America, after which NYC was VASTLY improved. Is it possible to reinstall that update (and hopefully repair the textures that were damaged, one way or another)? I'm a native-born New Yorker. This is killing me! Thanks all, Mac6737

Yeah, I've done that. I now understand the logic of purging the Rolling Cache: maybe deleting the scenery from Community wouldn't effect what was stored in the cache. But I'm back to thinking that the install somehow deleted default texture files and failed to replace them. What's weird is that the area south of about 34th Street has buildings all over, but not the tall ones, and not in the detail you see N of 34th. I'll try contacting the developer. Thanks for trying.

With great misgivings, but after due diligence and research, I deleted my RC. No effect on my problem whatsoever! I cannot fathom how a DL supposed to upgrade the NYC bridges (specifically GW and Verrazano) managed to actually degrade those two, plus eradicate many features along the waterline (e.g., the tennis courts built on the reclaimed land south of the GW Bridge), and almost all of the taller buildings south of 34th Street, including WTC. As far as I know, everything else in the sim is fine, and MUCH better than it was 4 months ago. Maybe I have a form of FS OCD, but the fact that I cannot enjoy flights in ONE city (OK, my natal city, but still . . . ) irritates me disproportionately. Any other ideas will be pursued with a passion.