loki

1 hour ago, oneleg said:

2. How come there are no LEFT and RIGHT limits as there are for FWD and AFT?

To get into the physics a bit, check out the Wiki article below and note the effects of weight and distance on the moment arm. With GA aircraft the pilot and passengers are quite close to the centre and have low moment arm, and thus low effect on the balance. You also have the wings on both sides providing lift, minimizing the imbalance caused with only one person on board. The biggest issue would be constantly countering the imbalance with manual inputs or rudder and/or aileron trim, as Tim notes. The fore/aft balance of the plane, however, is much more critical with the relationship between the nose heavy design of GA aircraft, the centre of lift, and the tail balancing out the nose. There is also more opportunity to load passengers and cargo further from the CG, causing a bigger moment arm, and getting the plane outside of its design envelope.

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Center_of_gravity_of_an_aircraft

The pilot isn't that far laterally from the CG, so in most aircraft it won't make a big difference, maybe not even enough to be noticed. An imbalance in fuel tanks in the wings, however, would be more likely to cause problems as they are further away from the CG.

Not sure if it's related, but I got a 504 error yesterday and couldn't get into the site at all. Think something's up with the hosting servers.

1 hour ago, deauxwolf said:

Loki,

You have FS9 installed but won't launch?

Can you go into your scenery folder and rename all your pay ware folders UK.bak

 

ts

I was responding to beroun's question.

2 hours ago, beroun said:

Perhaps it must be downloaded again from Flight1. Unless I did something wrong?

Yes, you will need to install using the Flight1 installers.

16 minutes ago, Honus said:

It still seems a question whether Steam every works in the Program 86 folder but I really hate starting this all over again.

The issue wasn't that FSX never worked in the Program Files folder, with a plain FSX install working just fine when installed there. It was that the increased security placed on the Program Files folder would interfere with some add-ons and editing any config files.

Flight1 has a registry repair tool for FSX that can help with moving the sim. This won't fix any registry entries third party add-ons may have created though.

https://www.flight1.com/view.asp?page=library

10 hours ago, jorgen.s.andersen said:

The Steam version does not install under C:\Program Files (x86)...

The default location for Steam games is under the Program Files folder.

4 hours ago, Honus said:

This was an issue on the older disc version and so I installed that one right into the  C root but this one wouldn't let me do that. 

Steam does allow you to install games into other locations, it just does it a bit differently. You must add a new Library location, which can be outside of the Program Files directory, or on a different drive. The guide below walks through how to do this, as well as how to move Steam games between libraries. I haven't tried moving FSX Steam Edition, but it works well with other games I've tried. My big concern with FSX SE would be add-ons that create their own registry keys on install that could be broken if the sim is moved. Add-ons, like aircraft and scenery, that you manually downloaded and installed into the sim are probably okay though.

How to Use Steam’s Storage Manager to Quickly Manage Your Games (makeuseof.com)

Definitely follow the Steam guide for moving the installation folder.

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4BD4-4528-6B2E-8327

7 hours ago, Honus said:

I may consider that.  Guess I was just reluctant to part with the many addons and planes I had built into FSX.  I guess you can't do that with Steam?  Maybe you could help me with the following and I'll quit nagging.  LOL

 

1.  Is there AI traffic and can you create your own

2.  Available Flightplanner

3  Can any other user planes be added?  I had the Boeing and Airbus collections from Simmer's Sky.

 

Thanks for any information and your help.

The Steam Edition is basically FSX Gold repackaged for sale on Steam along with a few bug fixes, and most FSX add-ons are compatible with the Steam Edition.

1 hour ago, jorgen.s.andersen said:

There's no limit to the usage of the DVDs, but there is a limit on the number of activations, if my memory is not too goofy.

There isn't any limit on the number of activations either, though one may need to call Microsoft if it thinks you've changed too much hardware or moved to a new computer.

On 10/1/2023 at 11:12 AM, jgf said:

 

Which is what I said initially.   Even with all the money and technology, for years they've not set up enough servers to handle a sh*tload of people trying to update simultaneously.  Even if a dozen more servers were $200k, that's chump change for MS.

19 hours ago, Nels_Anderson said:

No company is going to install servers for that one day a year when demand is 100x what it is on a normal day. They're going to install servers that handle their normal load, plus some amount of overhead. That's simply good business sense.

It's not even about adding servers in the traditional sense these days. Microsoft has their own Azure CDN (content delivery network) with multiple data centres across North America and  around the world. The choice is up to them how well they take advantage of that, or not, and increasing capacity for a few days shouldn't be hard, or very costly to do. And MSFS users in Europe and North America, or even the west and east coasts, shouldn't be hitting the same servers when downloading the update (I doubt they are).

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/cdn/

https://azure.status.microsoft/en-CA/status

We can now get some more ideas of what will be in the new sim via the MSFS 2020 development updates. Look for "Planned MSFS 2024" in the bug and wish lists below. Still not much detail, but might be a good place to watch for more details. A couple of things I didn't see mentioned in the original announcement:

• Shared Cockpit / Multiplayer
• Aircraft-Specific Control Profiles
• Access to Flight Planner Without Leaving Flight

https://www.flightsimulator.com/feedback-snapshot/

For anyone still getting stuck with the update, try the steps MS/Asobo has shared below.

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/update-resolution-of-sim-update-13-download-installation-issues/610903

See the release notes. There are a couple new options available to manage it.

Quote

For the AAU_02 update, we made a change to allow control of the cursor with all joysticks, and not only with gamepad. This change had the unintended consequence of causing the central white dot to display when moving the camera or when using a joystick/mouse at the same time. To address the issue, we’ve added 2 new options to allow players to customize the cursor behavior:

• You can access these new options from Options > General Options > Accessibility.
• SHOW THE WHITEDOT CURSOR IN FREELOOK (Default = ON): Display or hide the central white dot cursor when the camera moves.
• ALLOW 2D CURSOR ON ALL PERIPHERALS (Default = OFF) : ON will allow to display the 2D gamepad cursor when using other types of peripherals : joysticks, yokes, etc. When set to OFF, this will be the same behavior as before AAU_02.

https://www.flightsimulator.com/release-notes-sim-update-13-1-34-16-0-available-now/

27 minutes ago, Rupert said:

Really!  Will that work on the current 2020 version I already own? How and where do I get that info?? 

It was part of Sim Update 10 (SU10) and available for all MSFS2020 users. You will need to update the sim which will get you up to SU13. There are a few YouTube videos out that walk through how to enable and set it up.

Update: Never mind, the update is hung up on decompressing one of the patches again.

2 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

Ok, I understand the connectivity speed, but please explain the local machine matter at the end of your sentences. TY

The sim needs to decompress and install the patches after they are downloaded. For some reason, with this update on my machine, it gets hung up on the decompressing stage. Not sure what it's doing as it doesn't appear to be doing anything in when looking at the Task manager. Previous updates have downloaded and installed with no trouble, similar to Nels and others' experiences. Pausing the download and restarting the sim seems to have fixed it, but it hasn't finished yet. Sometimes it's better to wait until the day after the update is released, or let it run overnight while you sleep too.

And just to be clear on the internet connection, it isn't just the speed of your personal internet connection that matters. There are plenty of other places along the way that can affect your download too.

19 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

This tread, and all the 2020 treads, are being weighted into my decision of when to purchase 2020 or possibly 2024.

I know that a "normal" MS Windows update on my laptop with a standard HD takes between 2-4 hours; on my laptop with a SSHD between 15-20 minutes or faster.

Does this hold true with the 2020 users? HD = long update times, SSHD = short update times?

Just wondering if there is a correlation between HD type and update times.

Thank you,

Any time you're writing files to a drive, an SSD will be faster. The more data, the bigger the difference. Having said that, the bigger issue people run into here is likely to do with their connection to the MS content servers, the servers themselves (ie. what bandwidth limits does MS have in place, among other things) and/or how the sim processes those updates on the local machine.

1 hour ago, Rupert said:

+1!  My three panels side by side worked great and almost gave a 3d effect until the new sim along.  And I didn't lose hours getting "updates" on a regular basis.  Plus I often used a pad for a 4th view of either my instruments or controls.  I wasted my money of the new XBOX sim but don't plan on getting bit twice.

Asobo have been building in multiple screen support so you can setup three monitors MSFS2020.

To add a little more context, Sim Update 13 was just released. The release notes can be read below.

https://www.flightsimulator.com/release-notes-sim-update-13-1-34-16-0-available-now/

6 hours ago, Skywatcher12 said:

Patch should absolutely be run for FSX but won't solve the VAS problem.

If you have FSX SP2 or Acceleration installed you don't need the 4GB patch as the largeaddressaware flag is already set.

26 minutes ago, jgf said:

It is not an FSX issue (FS2004 is also prone to it, as was a video editor I once had) it is a windows problem.  As I understand it windows reserves a certain amount of memory for specific references, it doesn't matter how much RAM you have or how large the swap file, the reserve amount is hard coded and is usually large enough (according to the same MS that said "640k should be enough for anyone"), but apparently some software can flood the system with enough references that windows can't keep up and you get an OOM.

It isn't a Windows problem, but a limitation from the hardware of the time. The limit comes from 32 bit CPUs which had a limit of the amount of addresses (2^32 = 4GB) available to access every location in the virtual address space (this includes RAM, the page file and hardware like the GPU). In the 32 bit Windows days Microsoft split the address space between the operating system (including drivers) and running applications for desktop systems (32 bit servers were a bit different), so each half got 2GB to run in. One could use the old /3GB switch to change the balance if you knew what you were doing, but the default ensured the OS and (most) applications both had enough space to run. If the application filled up its address space and hit the limit (nothing to do with Windows not keeping up), you got the OOM errors we run into, though the OS and other applications would be fine as they have their own address spaces.

With the jump to 64 bit systems, the virtual address limit was significantly increased, so there was no need to limit the OS or applications the same way. However, 32 bit applications still couldn't access anything more than the 4GB, so are still capped. If the application was well written, a flag could be set so it can access 4GB rather the old 2GB of address space.

As much fun as it is to bash Microsoft, they do have some smart people working on the core of Windows who know what they're doing.

Did you install the FSX SP1 and SP2 patches? Being that it's a 32 bit application, it can only use a max of 4GB of virtual address space. Are there any add-ons installed? One cause of out of memory errors is a corrupted or buggy add-on. PMDG has a good guide to FSX and out of memory errors, linked below, that may be useful.

https://support.precisionmanuals.com/kb/a108/vas-management-stopping-out-of-memory-oom-errors.aspx

7 hours ago, jgf said:

Probably because the precedent is still "old fashioned" concepts of hard copy books and patents.  Laws still haven't caught up with the internet, so "rights" are to a degree whatever someone claims.

 

Strictly speaking, if you do not actively protect whatever rights you claim you have little recourse legally.  Hence MS' aggressive attitude towards their old software;  they no longer sell it (thus are making no money from it), no longer update it, no longer support it, but will come down on you with both feet if you openly hack it, crack it, or try to profit from it.  As opposed to the tons of "abandoned" software out there which you can freely download and use;  if whoever "owns" that software has not been actively trying to control its distribution (demand its removal from download sites, publish notices that it is not freeware, etc.) they can expect little sympathy from the courts if they suddenly decide to bring infringement suits against anyone.

 

I think the idea of "abandonware" needs to be addressed.  After a certain time of no support by the owner (statute of limitations for most things is seven years, though only three years for some civil matters;  either is feasible for this) the program is considered public domain ...abandoned.

You are right that intellectual property laws haven't entirely caught up, however, one doesn't need to actively protect copyrights (trademarks, I believe, do need more active protection). In most, if not all Western countries, you get the copyright the minute you create something, and keep it until either the time period runs out (which is far too long these days thanks to Disney and other large corporations), or you sign the rights over to someone else. There is no requirement to actively police it, and just because you stop selling it doesn't mean it's now open for others to use. Microsoft and Nintendo have the resources to go after people, whereas few individuals or small companies do, but this doesn't change the validity of the copyright. It's unfair to expect an individual developer or small team to devote the, often significant, resources to continually police download sites, and could even bankrupt them.

Abandonware is still technically covered by copyright, and the sites distributing it largely get away with it either by being in a different country, or they are banking on no one coming after them. One way of addressing this would be cutting back the length of time copyrights apply to software so they fall into the public domain much sooner. These days in many countries it's life of the creator plus 50 years, or more. Given how fast technology and computing changes, these time frames are far, far too long.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries'_copyright_lengths

43 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

I guess what I should have asked is can 2020 be run standalone, or must there be a internet connection?

It can be run in an offline mode after being setup to do so. However, you would be restricted to the base scenery, or anything you have cached, and loose access to the online streamed scenery.