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Just flight has an Alabeo sale right now, 40% off which for flight sims I guess is pretty good. If you wanna buy that racing plane they made so you can have the experience of flipping the aircraft during take off now's the time I guess.
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Oct 8, 2015 09:29
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the DA42 is pretty good for a light twin.
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Oct 8, 2015 15:25
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Total noob, randomly bought FSX and I'm having a good time so far. I've been playing with my xbox controller which is not the best experience as you might imagine. I'm thinking about buying this thing: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16879337003 or maybe splurging a bit more and getting this one: http://www.amazon.com/Saitek-Flight-H-O-T-A-S-Throttle-System/dp/B00HHAIY72 But there are some bad user reviews for the Saitek online so I'm a little wary. Anyone have thoughts on whether it's good/worth the extra $$$? Also if anyone has suggestions for good add-ons for a new player I'd appreciate it. Free or paid is fine.
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Oct 8, 2015 16:22
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You have the day off? If so sub to VATSIM and lets go flying. We can talk hardware and addons while doing VFR in Cubs or something. EDIT: If not, here's the rundown from my opinion. For a beginner stick, I'd honestly start with a Thrustmaster T16000m or Logitech Extreme 3D Pro. I say this because a tiny stick with everything on one unit will possibly come in handy for other games like Arma or battlefield or little arcadey games that don't need much in the way of a stick. It'll be better than a 360 pad (unless the game is actually meant for a 360 pad). I like the button layout on the Logitech better but it has such terrible pots the stick is pretty much a consumable. For a 'better' stick, the sky is the limit when it comes to price. Because of this, I highly suggest you fly a bit with an el cheapo stick before spending even X-55 money on a HOTAS. You may find that you don't like sims enough to warrant more than your small stick or maybe you'll love the poo poo out of it and end up forking out for a Warthog HOTAS and a ton of stuff to go with it. Also, Head Tracking. For big rear end IFR planes this isn't as critical but for smaller aircraft and combat sims you're really ham stringing yourself by not having it. Apparently the free solutions (freetrack) now work pretty good and some people actually make almost professional grade kits so you don't have to do a lot of the soldering and bullshit yourself, or you might just say gently caress it and shell out for a TrackIR. For paid addons, once you get a HOTAS you'll probably want a paid sub to FSUIPC. It's also needed for some addon planes. For free, I have experience with FSRealWX which does an adequate job of doing weather and there are a lot of freeware planes in the first few pages of this thread. Check em out. EvilJoven fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Oct 8, 2015 |
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Oct 8, 2015 16:25
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Thanks for the effortpost EvilJoven, much appreciated. I'll pick up a cheap stick for now and see where things go. What's the story with flight sims and VR? I'm probably going to buy an oculus rift when that comes out regardless, will that make owning a trackIR less relevant? Also I flew from Indianapolis to Chicago when i got back from work. I cheated and sped up time during the boring parts, but I still felt accomplished so i took this screenshot. 
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Oct 9, 2015 06:48
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I'm yet to be convinced about VR. Not that i've tried out any of the contenders so you might want a bucket of salt to go with this opinion... For sims where I have pretty much full HOTAS control (So, DCS A10C and some other simpler sims) it should be fine. But if at any moment I have to find a key on the keyboard in a hurry while essentially blindfolded... I think it'll  RUIN MY IMMERSION
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Oct 9, 2015 13:21
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Here's the thing about VR. Let's say you're going to: do an IFR flight in a light twin with /A navigation equipment. This is a lot of workload. It will also require you to be looking at the following things aside from your virtual cockpit: Charts, either via website or paper copies. vPilot, your weather app, other things in the sim that you might want to monitor to make sure something important doesn't break and gently caress up your poo poo. An E6B, either online or real. The Internet, because a lot of time still gets spent flying straight and level and thats boring and that's the perfect time to read threads, IRC, watch videos and look at pictures of fit women. Your beer. The hockey game or whatever else is on TV. All this stuff is much better served by a multi monitor setup, not VR goggles. In fact, I think the VR goggles would end up getting in the way.
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Oct 9, 2015 14:39
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And monitors are pretty cheap, relatively speaking.
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Oct 9, 2015 15:41
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Colonial Air Force posted:And monitors are pretty cheap, relatively speaking. I respectfully disagree... But lordy do I want one.
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Oct 9, 2015 19:09
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I will most likely also buy the Oculus if the price is affordable enough, but like EvilJoven said I find it hard to imagine using it for airliner flights. I don't even use headtracking with airliners because plain EZCA is just much more convenient. That said, the Oculus will surely make low altitude GA flying a lot more fun. Even then you have to consider the beer and/or wine situation. There's always beer and/or wine when I fly. Maybe something like this would work? 
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Oct 10, 2015 10:07
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Considering the Oculus requires a resolution of 2160x1200, apparently preferably at 90 fps (I don't know how much of a hard requirement this is), who actually has the monster rig required to run flight sims at this sort of performance? Considering how badly they tend to be optimized it seems hardly possible. I certainly couldn't run any game at that performance so for me the Rift is something I might look into years from now if it's still a thing. Also, as I understand that 2160x1200 resolution is over both screens. Since they're both rendering the same scene but slightly different to provide the parallax effect for 3D, wouldn't the effective resolution be half that?
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Oct 10, 2015 11:50
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FSX/P3D will certainly not be possible, but X-plane can get good FPS with lighter settings (and stock aircraft with light cockpits). Sadly, OpenGL is not to my knowledge supported on the Oculus, not sure if that has changed. You might right that simmers shouldn't be too optimistic about VR at this point.
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Oct 10, 2015 12:28
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lobsterminator posted:FSX/P3D will certainly not be possible, but X-plane can get good FPS with lighter settings (and stock aircraft with light cockpits). Sadly, OpenGL is not to my knowledge supported on the Oculus, not sure if that has changed. Probably someone will build a sim within the limitations of Oculus, rather than try to cram in an existing one. The current sets can do some impressive stuff (Eve Valkyrie), so there should be a way to have decent flight dynamics behind the eye candy.
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Oct 10, 2015 12:47
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Is it normal that my plane slowly tips left in the air? I know this is normal on takeoff and taxiing, but is it supposed to happen when cruising too? Ive experienced this on 3 different prop planes. It's gradual enough that 1% aileron trim to the right is an overcorrection.
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Oct 12, 2015 03:22
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Are they single engine planes? it could be engine torque.
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Oct 12, 2015 03:34
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Captain Novolin posted:Are they single engine planes? it could be engine torque. 2 engines.
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Oct 12, 2015 03:38
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Joystick calibration?
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Oct 12, 2015 04:33
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That's what I was thinking, I looked at the axes in control panel and everything looked good. Do you guys use any programs for your inputs/sensitivity/etc?
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Oct 12, 2015 05:01
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Unless the aircraft has counter-rotating props you may still have to deal with this. What aircraft?
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Oct 12, 2015 06:16
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Is fuel properly modeled? If it's pulling from one tank would that cause this?
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Oct 12, 2015 09:08
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I can confirm from experience that if you draw too much fuel from one tank you can unbalance the poo poo out of your plane and have to fight to keep it level. On another note, I decided to give that DelanClip a try. I'll give a trip report when it arrives. I won't be able to say how well the entire ensemble works, though, because I just bought the clip.
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Oct 12, 2015 13:10
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EvilJoven posted:I can confirm from experience that if you draw too much fuel from one tank you can unbalance the poo poo out of your plane and have to fight to keep it level. The DelanClip is great, a thousand times better than the pos trackirpro clip.
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Oct 12, 2015 13:14
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EvilJoven posted:Unless the aircraft has counter-rotating props you may still have to deal with this. What aircraft? Beechcraft Baron and Beechcraft King Air (fsx defaults) were the last 2 I flew and they both had the problem. I have no idea about whether it could have to do with the fuel. I have it set to unlimited fuel in the realism settings so i feel like it's not that.
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Oct 12, 2015 17:10
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Both those aircraft, IIRC, don't have counter rotating props and a little roll to the left is to be expected. That being said, you can always download DXTweak2.exe from here (my upload) http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=19569805142302066237 and check to see if your stick is naturally off center.
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Oct 12, 2015 17:32
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Does fsx allow you to set a dead zone?
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Oct 12, 2015 18:37
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Jonny Nox posted:Does fsx allow you to set a dead zone? Yes, and the FSUIPC add-on offers even more control config ability.
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Oct 12, 2015 18:42
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Thanks for continuing to help with my newbie questions guys. Got another one: Is it worth learning how to use VOR navigation? In the few cross-country flights i've done so far, I've just used GPS, but if VOR (or NDB?) navigation is considered a good skill to have I will give it a shot.
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Oct 12, 2015 20:32
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if you're ever flying something ancient and want to be all authentic with no gps it can be handy, also it just feels pretty cool after it all snaps into place and you can fly around point to point like a pro using crappy little dials.
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Oct 12, 2015 20:36
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Jmcrofts posted:Thanks for continuing to help with my newbie questions guys. Got another one: I think it's great for the personal challenge. I'd recommend this website as a resource for that type of flying, even if you do not intend to log on to the VATSIM/PilotEdge networks to complete the practical exams. The instructional material is quite good, and pared down for sim-level accuracy. http://pilotcerts.laartcc.org/page/ratings.html
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Oct 12, 2015 20:52
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VOR navigation is fun and easy once you figure out the quirks. Also, if you fly on VATSIM/IVAO you really ought to know it. Speaking of IVAO, has anyone tried it? How does it compare to VATSIM?
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Oct 12, 2015 21:30
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I haven't tried it, but it can't possibly be any worse.
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Oct 12, 2015 22:27
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IVAO and VATSIM started as the same thing. IVAO split off because it wasn't  enough.That should tell you everything you need to know about IVAO.
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Oct 13, 2015 14:11
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The best part about the goon nights on Vatsim was Ferret telling Vatsim stories. "I said speed 250 kts!" "I AM going 250 kts" "Negative it's showing 270kts on my scope" "But I have it set to 250kts on my autopilot" etc etc
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Oct 14, 2015 00:43
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LordPants posted:The best part about the goon nights on Vatsim was Ferret telling The best part was 6-10 of us flying GA and making GBS threads up some event night filled with big planes.
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Oct 14, 2015 00:46
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LordPants posted:The best part about the goon nights on Vatsim was Ferret telling One Alaskan controller told me to maintain IFR separation with the guy ahead of me. Man, if that's how that really worked, ATC would be a piece of cake.
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Oct 14, 2015 02:03
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Speaking of events, Cross the Pond Eastbound is the 24th, and tomorrow (14th) at 2200Z (6pm EDT) is the time they open it up to pick your departure/destination. http://forums.vatsim.net/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=69371 Departures: Newark (KEWR) New York JFK (KJFK) Boston (KBOS) Montreal (CYUL) Miami (KMIA) Atlanta (KATL) Arrivals: Amsterdam (EHAM) Manchester (EGCC) Paris CDG (LFPG) Vienna (LOWW) Berlin Tegel (EDDT) Personally planning on Boston-Vienna, the two easternmost airports on their respective sides of the event, in the 777-300ER
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Oct 14, 2015 02:06
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Just got Microsoft Flight Simulator X reinstalled. I played around with 2004 a ton as a high schooler, but X never worked well on my old computer. Today though, I'm an adult with a new joystick!
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Oct 17, 2015 17:52
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chitoryu12 posted:Just got Microsoft Flight Simulator X reinstalled. I played around with 2004 a ton as a high schooler, but X never worked well on my old computer. Today though, I'm an adult with a new joystick! All the cool kids play Prepar3D now.
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Oct 17, 2015 19:43
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Unless you want to fly something that doesn't work in it. But yeah if you have the option look at getting Prepar3D 3.
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Oct 17, 2015 19:47
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Will Prepar3D let me slew the Wright Flyer up to 1 mile and let me tumble it to the ground?
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Oct 18, 2015 03:44
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