|
|
Post by bigfish on Jun 3, 2021 12:13:40 GMT -5
Thanks so much for letting me join your forum. I've recently returned to FSX (I installed FSXSE) on my new-build super-PC designed for MSFS 2020, but the latter seems to be increasingly unlikely to provide what I want i.e flying proper aircraft with propellors, without GPS 'navigation'. Then I discovered this wonderful website! I'm presently flying Manfred Jahn's outstanding free C-47, with a view to installing A2A's Connie. So I've been thinking about how to introduce myself. This morning I was doing some gardening - I live in Nottingham, England, just about as far from the sea as you can get. Warm, light cloud. A strange noise, sounds like twin radials. Impossible of course. There's something with a high tail flying very slowly at @1,000 feet, can't get a good look at it. It disappears and I carry on weeding. Then that sound again, and over the houses at 200 feet, dead overhead, is Catalina G-PBYA, gear down on final for EGBN Nottingham. I can't believe it! So my wife and I made a flask of tea, hiking boots on, and walked 3 miles to the airport (normally GA only) just in time to see her take off after a refuelling stop, two circuits for us at low level, and away. So, a good day to say hello to you all. Thanks for this wonderful website and all its resources. Alan
|
|
|
|
Post by aharon on Jun 3, 2021 12:24:13 GMT -5
Bigfish,
Welcome to CalClassics forum and do tell us what configuration for your new pc that you bought for use of MS2020.
You can have fun recreating on your FSX or MS2020 the Catalina flight that you just saw and publish screenshots on screenshot subforum of CalClassics forums.
Regards,
Aharon
|
|
|
|
Post by Tom/CalClassic on Jun 3, 2021 12:28:47 GMT -5
Welcome, and I hope you have many happy days here.  |
|
|
|
Post by bigfish on Jun 3, 2021 14:39:08 GMT -5
Guys, thanks so much for that warm welcome! It's a great idea to fly my own Catalina, I'll certainly give that a go.
Since you were kind enough to ask, the PC I built to fly MSFS 2020 is an i9-10900k oc'd to @5.2GHz, watercooled, Asus Maximus XII Hero mobo, 32 Gb DDR4-3600, RTX 2060 (the idea was to replace this with RTX 3080 but bitcoin mining etc.....), Acer Predator X34 monitor, FSXSE, Honeycomb Alpha + Bravo, Logitech Pro Pedals, Win 10 Pro, Track IR, ASN & REX4 weather, Gen X photo scenery and hand-built airfields(UK). The previous PC was built specifically for FSX and was configured strictly according to NickN's 'Bible' for overclocking and optimising for FSX, took hours and hours to get it stable at 4.6 GHz. The bonus for running FSXSE on the new rig is that it overclocked to 5.2 GHz, stable, with maybe 2 clicks in the BIOS, 2 minutes' work, I just set every FSXSE slider to max, and that was it. Such is progress.
I read about the dreaded OOMs which might then create the dilemma, upgrade to 64-bit Prepar3d?, but right now it's running happily @60fps without breaking sweat. Maybe when I get to trans-Atlantic crossings in the Connie it'll be a problem (btw I just love the idea of the FSX Atlantic weather ship add-on!).
While MSFS 2020 is clearly pretty wonderful visually, nothing I've read suggests to me that basic stuff like 'flight models' and 'real weather' will be fixed any time soon. I also realised that as FSX is frozen in time at 2005, so are all its VORs and NDBs, whereas, I assume, in a modern up to date sim, who needs them?
I chuckled to note that some of you guys think FSX, never mind MSFS 2020, is a new-fangled invention that the world could do without!
Kind regards
Alan
|
|
|
|
Post by johnhinson on Jun 4, 2021 2:43:45 GMT -5
Hi Alan,
You will find almost anything you want here, whether help, tips, or pointers to aircraft and scenery.
I too am on FSX and until my very old PC died the other day, it ran FSX without getting much beyond 1.5 GB memory usage (OOM errors will occur around 3.5GB)so have concluded that is a myth created by those using too many poorly programmed add-ons. Keep your FSX under firm control and you will have no problems on that front.
My new PC arrives this morning and it will probably take me a week to get everything else set up before I can sit back and play but I am looking forward to more efficient graphics if nothing else.
Frame rates at big airports like Heathrow (if you have full levels of AI) were the biggest irritation for me and it will be interesting to see how things perform with a better PC. Its not on the power scale of yours, though, as MSFS has never been in my sights.
Outside your range in Nottingham, but where I am seems to be on the flight path of at least one An12 in both directions between Birmingham and seemingly insignificant locations in Europe, places in Spain, Slovakia and home to Belarus on a Saturday morning. It is such a treat to hear the deep rumble of a 1960s turbo-prop on a regular basis. I would really like to learn what the cargo is, possibly medical supplies as we didn't have these flights in the "good old days".
Best regards,
John
|
|
|
|
Post by stansdds on Jun 4, 2021 5:14:11 GMT -5
Welcome to the CalClassic Forum!
|
|
|
|
Post by aharon on Jun 4, 2021 11:23:01 GMT -5
I also realised that as FSX is frozen in time at 2005, so are all its VORs and NDBs, whereas, I assume, in a modern up to date sim, who needs them? Impressive pc system set up!!!!!!! Sounds like you are expert in flight simming!! Actually FSX was invented in 2008, not 2005 and as for VORS, NDBS, and waypoints in most outdated manner, there is free website offering update for latest and new waypoints. Do not remember where but somebody can tell you which website. Regards, Aharon |
|
|
|
Post by Pacific SMX on Jun 4, 2021 12:41:11 GMT -5
Hi there and welcome to the forum. CalClassic is undoubtedly the best source for everything dealing with classic flight simulation and flying propliners. Not only that, there's a heck of a lot of nice people here as well! Speaking of MSFS, I agree with you that it's not yet the venue for classic props. I did just see something today though that someone is developing a payware B-314 for MSFS and it should be out fairly soon. Be interesting to see if anyone else is thinking of expanding the propliner collection in MSFS. Well, regardless, we have al;l of the wonderful planes and scenerys offered here for FS9 and FSX, so enjoy. Once again, welcome to CalClassics.
Regards,
Phil
|
|
|
|
Post by aharon on Jun 4, 2021 15:00:22 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Jorge on Jun 4, 2021 19:14:47 GMT -5
I also realised that as FSX is frozen in time at 2005, so are all its VORs and NDBs, whereas, I assume, in a modern up to date sim, who needs them? Impressive pc system set up!!!!!!! Sounds like you are expert in flight simming!! Actually FSX was invented in 2008, not 2005 and as for VORS, NDBS, and waypoints in most outdated manner, there is free website offering update for latest and new waypoints. Do not remember where but somebody can tell you which website. Regards, Aharon Welcome aboard! Not sure if this is the website Aharon is talking about, but it does update the nav info if you want to do that. Flight Simulator Aircraft Dynamics and Nav DataIt also lets you do a bunch of other stuff as well. It's for FS9/FSX/P3D from what I understand. Also, something I did personally is copy the "magdec.bgl" file from its original place to it's own separate folder in the "Addon Scenery" folder. I created a folder called "FS9_Default_MagDec" with a sub-folder for the scenery. Granted, this is for FS9 in particular, but it didn't hurt when I did it in FSX-SE some time ago. It's in the FSX folder also titled "BASE". Mine looks like this: C:\FS9_Classic\Addon Scenery\FS9_Default_MagDec\scenery I then placed the copy of the "magdec.bgl" in the "scenery" folder above, then ensured the "scenery" was at the top of everything on my addon scenery listing. That way the magnetic declination doesn't change even if there is some addon scenery that may do it. When done it should look something similar to this: FS9_Default_MagDec <== Top Entry in FS9/FSX ... Any scenery you may have. ... CalClassic Traffic (year) CalClassic Core ... etc, as explained by Tom's instructions. I found out the hard way some scenery (pre-FSX) tended to have its own declination, so any approach you did was off on the CDI when you dialed in a VOR or ILS. I remove the magdec folder off the list and then add it back again every now and then just to "reset" it and make sure everything is still good. For some reason the FS9 one tends to "quit" every now and then. Just leave the original bgl file in the "C:\FS9_Classic\Scenery\BASE\Scenery" folder since the sim won't play nice if you don't.  Cheers and once again: Welcome! Jorge Miami, FL |
|
|
|
Post by bigfish on Jun 7, 2021 13:30:34 GMT -5
John, Starliner, Phil, Jorge, Aharon - well what can I say but thank you again for your kind and enthusiastic welcome! Jorge, that's such useful information and I will follow it up. Aharon, so FSX is even more modern than I thought! And really, I'm no flight sim expert - I think I just spent the last 20-odd years dabbling. I flew Falcon 4 and its successor BMS for some years, it became increasingly realistic and needed massive amounts of study to keep up (not a criticism, it's an astonishing labour of love given away freely). I acquired FSX around 2015 maybe, flew A2A's Piper Cub and C172 with VFR Gen X UK photoscenery, and got seduced away at some point racing Caterhams in Assetto Corsa. So I was all set to get back into flight simming when MS released the new one last year, built my new PC (it's not hard anymore, you just need cash, plug a few things together and let the motherboard overclock it for you!)and re-installed FSX (well I actually installed FSXSE which was only a few pounds and works better) and all my scenery, weather and A2A add-ons as a stop-gap; but I'm having so much fun with it I'm not sure I'll give it up anytime soon - certainly not until A2A start producing aircraft for it. The photoscenery is quite good enough for VFR navigation, but I've started teaching myself instrument flying (no GPS!).
Aharon - I followed your advice, I've installed the Aerosoft Catalina and a free skin for G-PBYA 'Miss Pick Up' which is the exact same Catalina which overflew me in the garden last week! Looks fantastic, makes a lovely authentic noise, and it's quite hard to stop the engines overheating. I'll see if I can post a couple of screenshots once I've got the hang of it.
Best wishes
Alan
|
|
|
|
Post by aharon on Jun 7, 2021 14:08:22 GMT -5
Bigfish,
Glad to hear you are having fun with FSX which is why I prefer to remain stuck with FSX despite introduction of P3D and MS2020, and I am amazed that you managed to find exact same livery that you saw in real life.
Regards,
Aharon
|
|
|
|
Post by darrenvox on Jun 7, 2021 21:46:28 GMT -5
Welcome
|
|
|
|
Post by warbaby on Jun 8, 2021 9:22:08 GMT -5
Hi Alan
Your PC sounds like my dream machine. But getting the ok from the Mrs is doubtful. Welcome.
-Allen
|
|
|
|
Post by bigfish on Jun 8, 2021 10:03:50 GMT -5
Darrenvox, Allen, thanks for your welcome. Allen, if full disclosure is a problem, remember the words 'module' i.e. you don't have to buy it all at once, and 'investment'.
I'm trying to add an attachment which is a 40 Kb .jpg image, but I keep getting a message that I've exceeded the attachment filesize limit, even though this is (it says) 1Mb. I must be doing something dumb. Anyone help?
Alan
|
|
