DTG – new sim based on Microsoft Flight Simulator?

It is old news that DTG are developing a new simulator. The point that has (maybe) been unclear, was what kind of simulator DTG are developing. They have been gathering information and are planing for release in 2016.

I found following information on the Steam Forum:

We do indeed have a global licensing deal with Microsoft, granting us the rights to develop and publish all-new flight products based on Microsoft’s genre-defining flight technology.

You can find out more here – http://www.dovetailgames.com/news/2014/jul/9/dovetail-games-licensing-deal-with-microsoft-takes-flight

– Martin

http://steamcommunity.com/app/314160/discussions/1/620712999976416330/

From these two facts, release in 2016 and based on Microsoft’s flight technology, I can go into speculating as to say:

– DTG is developing a successor to the Flight Simulator, maybe even that much compatible with FSX, that it won’t be much of a problem for developers to adapt to it

– they are definitely not writing it from the base up, but most likely doing the job similar to LM – with a different approach

It is all just a speculation, I just found the above statement a very interesting one.

Reshade – very impressed!!

I’ve never been a fan of ENB, SweetFX etc. I never seemed to be able to get it to work properly, stable and really good looking. Besides, with permanent reloading, it was pain to set up.

Yesterday I came over a relatively new shader called Reshade (http:\\reshade.me).

At first, honestly, I thought it is the same thing as the others. With ENB I have seen performance drops, SweetFX never really caught me eye quite as much (see reason reloading). At first I almost trashed Reshade, until in some post I came across someone saying you don’t have to reload… wait, what? How? At first, I didn’t even want to believe, until I just tried that what someone has said…

Basically, installed the Reshade module and Mastereffect file into my FSX folder, I opened the config-file and mere saving of the file triggered a reload in FSX. I was hooked.

I immediately put my FSX on the left side, config-file onto the right side, and started changing values. Now, put aside the fact that there is no more need for reloading, the Bloom effect is WAY better than it ever was with ENB or SweetFX. What has always bothered me with ENB and SweetFX was that Bloom caused very nice skies and good looking horizon, but it made cockpits look very dark and unnatural. Now with Reshade, things are different. First it’s way easier to set it up, there are couple of values, and for me, the user, correct and understandable values, which change on the fly as you save the file.

Adding vibrance and curves to the shader, I can remove the bleak and boring look of FSX original and add a lively look to the sim, somewhat like P3D, even a bit more.

These are my first results after a bit of trying what it can do:

This was a simple quick test of flying around and trying different settings.

Now onto how to:

http://reshade.me/ -> Download -> Reshade x.xx.x (only the Reshade, without Framework and/or SweetFX). Follow the manual for the installation (I use the dxgi.dll for my FSX:SE DX9).

http://reshade.me/forum/shaderpack-mastereffect/161-mastereffect-reborn-official-thread -> ReShade Mastereffect File -> as instructed place into FSX folder. (I use the “current”, v1.1.190)

Start FSX and it should already say compiling shader… success when you loaded the flight. If it does not, you have done something wrong.

Now, find the mastereffect.h file, and open/edit it with the notepad. As you activate a function and save it (no need to close), you will notice FSX reloading the shader automatically. That’s it! Have fun!

Btw. I guess the same goes for P3D…

AND, before you swarm me with DX10 questions – no idea. I tested DX10 somewhat, found it offers some advantages but also many disadvantages, I decided against it and the decision will remain there for now. So no, I did not test it. According to readme, it should work.

Maybe it’s time to finally switch… (first v2.5 vs FSX:SE test)

Hello everyone,

Has been a while and FSX being an oldtimer, while P3D advanced, I was caught in the middle of world, not really knowing which way is right. FSX is what is, tweaked stable/unstable platform like it always was, and P3D kinda worse performing but quite stable.

I was also waiting for NGX/P3D, as this is my main aircraft I fly. In previous versions I also saw quite worse performances from P3D than in FSX with same scenarios. To be correct, there are still many, including no having the right anti-aliasing in P3D. However with DSR, that can be a bit compensated.

Now that NGX is out for P3D, I was able to do a small test on the VAS usage in both sims, which now include the same installation. I removed the FSX for good, it’s gonna be either FSX:SE or P3D, but I reckon P3D, as you will see in following screenshots:

FSX:

The FPS in this screenshot fluctuate from 23 to 33 (with occasional FPS at 37 as in the screenshot, but it was not a rule) according to the progress in  the task manager. When the CPU usage is at about 33% (lower), FPS are steady at 33, but as the usage goes up on all 4 cores to 100%, the FPS start to fluctuate from 23 to 33 FPS. VAS also starts with about 2520MB and climbs up to 2624MB. And a piece of climb happens each 100% CPU load. After a 2nd or 3rd climb, it steadied at 2624MB.

In P3D however:

The CPU is stable!
The VAS is stable!
The FPS are stable! 29-30.

After the same amount of time P3D has 2591MB, same VAS it started with and CPU doesn’t have those strange 100% loads. Of course, the Core0 is doing 100%, as my FPS is set to 60fps in both sims.

I also have to note that I use no BUFFERPOOLS in FSX:SE in this test, and my P3D is set with FFTF=0.01, which apparently is working fine on my system.

Of course do settings play a role when doing such tests, but I didn’t concentrate much on that, as I didn’t want to compare what FPS each sim gives, but that will be one of my next tests. Then I wish to continue through airport tests from addon devs which make addons for both platforms.

With 2.5 in my eyes, LM have created a milestone, which will probably make a good migration platform for many users.

Currently installed addons (in both sims, all same settings in all addons):
FSUIPC
EZCA 1.17 P3D-beta
FSGUX
FTX Global 1.30
UTX V2.0 EUROPE
PMDG NGX 800/900

P3Dv2 Nvidia Profile and Support Request

I would like anyone whom I can reach and is using Prepar3D, to fill in a official request to Nvidia via Geforce Experience. This program is usually installed with a driver and is a support for Nvidia drivers. To make a request, please do following:

Open Geforce Experience and on the right lower side click “Send feedback”.
In the window, go to:
1) Game detection and support
2) Suggest a game we should support
3) With + add the path to P3D
4) Write something useful

Btw. all those threads on the Geforce forums are completely useless. Nvidia itself wrote on one thread, if you want a game support, the only and best way is via Geforce Experience.

So let’s keep those requests flowing in! Maybe they’ll listen…

To say I am disappointed is a huge understatement

Weell…..
LM team was telling me I had a weak card (GTX580).
Supporting users were telling me my GPU sucked for P3D.

I knew what I was doing, I wasn’t overloading my GPU.

Now I got the GTX980 (no, P3D wasn’t the sole reason…).

And did something I wasn’t expecting change? Do I have more performance in non-GPU-limited scenarios? NO! I do not. The sim is the same slow sim with big airpots, I have some from FSDT and Aerosoft. They are all P3D officially compatible.
Yet none of these scenarios, not even those where my GTX580 VRAM was peaking at 1500MB are faster with GTX980.

OF COURSE, if I pick the scenario where the GTX580 was at GPU Load 100%, I see HUGE improvement in P3D. Obviously. However, airports, aircraft and basically ALL that matters, is still highly CPU-dependable. Also I can load more new “features” into the sim.

A clean reinstallation of the driver has been done.
Shaders deleted.

In the end, I find it soooooo funny, that I was simply saying that my GTX580 isn’t as weak as everyone was pointing out. Now, when I load a bigger airport with the Majestic Dash, I still see the same FPS as before. Granted, now I can crank 2x or 4x SGSS and still be able to fly. At least something…

If I would be selling my flightsim computer…

Would there be anyone interested out there?

I actually never wanted to do this, and have a friend who would also like to get it (not for flightsim), but being a quite good FSX configuration and running FSX quite well, I thought maybe some of you might be interested.
The computer is in Austria, so Europe applies 😉

(Optionally we can talk about me giving you a working tweaked setup, provided all prerequisites are fulfilled)

What is being sold:
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V PRO
CPU: Intel i7 2600K @ 4.6Ghz (watercooled)
GPU: Nvidia Zotac GTX 580 1536MB
RAM: 8GB Corsair CL9 1866Mhz (CMX8GX3M2A2000C9)
(Optional: full configured and tweaked computer, tower only)

Used addons (just to paint you a picture of my setup):
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
FSX: PMDG aircraft (NGX, 777), Majestic Dash Q400, Accusim Effects, EZCA, FSUIPC, REX4 – Texture Direct, ActiveSky Next, ORBX Global Textures, Global Mesh, Ultimate Terrain X, airports by UK2000, FSDreamteam, Flightbeam, ORBX, Aerosoft… and many other various addons.

Contact:
Just post here, I’ll contact you per your registered email.

Buyers beware – 32-64bit converter scam @ Flightreal.com

I just wanted to alert people about a tool (thanks to Ben from Airline2Sim and Majestic), for which I am very sure it doesn’t do what is advertising itself as: expand the RAM usage of FSX. It’s just not possible to covert an EXE from 32bit to 64bit without a source code, and probably breaking any and every compatibility with any addon out there.

http://flightreal.com/32-bit-to-64-bit.html

I see a big thread on AVSIM, and also lots of replies, and they also agreed it is a fake and a scam. Anyway, buyers beware, make a wide circle around it!

And, I just read it dumbs down the fsx.cfg with lower settings, thus “reducing” your VAS usage. DUH.

Majestic Dash Q400 + Airline2Sim Tutorial Videos

Well well,

Although I never thought of myself flying the prop, being a massive jet-tubeliner junkie, I have to say, I have been massively surprised in the last couple of days.

Since I’ve been planing on getting into Austrian Airlines Virtual yet again, I decided it was time for something new. I received the Q400 and the Airline2Sim videos to start with my “training” of the Q400. I have always been somewhat impressed with the turboprops, but never really dove into them.

I can’t say much about the aircraft yet, as I am now up to the Video #3, which is just prior to take-off, but until now, I have to say, as a NGX junkie and since that aircraft is basically my bar of flight sim quality product, the Dash matches it quite nicely. It is just a mere point in cockpit quality below the NGX, but with somewhat better performance! It’s not magic, but I will say with certainty it is about 20-30% faster. Which is, in an FSX world, a lot.

Now, from the 3 courses I made until now (and I will give you an update when I continue further), I must say I am very impressed with the aircraft and the videos!

You can feel, from the moment you enter Q400 cockpit, that there is a basic difference to any other aircraft out there. Starting from the performance, going over the sounds, how it moves, how it reacts to commands. Wow. Because Q400 basically runs completely independant of FSX flight modelling, it’s allowed to use everything custom, at least that’s my understanding of it. All parts of the sim are outside, and that makes the whole Q400 a whole new experience! Mostly impressive for me are the sounds and how they are controlled. I know FS9 and FSX now for years, and the sound modelling was always the same. Same old boring “problems”. In Q400, I have a feeling it’s completely different – it’s like being “in-there”. Engine sounds respond correctly, they sound like I remember from the Dash flights around Austria… and I hope the aircraft flies like the one I flew recently.
One of the coolest things though, the sounds play externally. It’s like the P3D function of external sounds, but this is in FSX 🙂 Love it. Can calmly switch to another app if I want, without sim breaking off the sound.

Now, the videos…
Thank you Ben!! This is by far the best collection of videos I have come across in a long long time. Not only the fact that they are very detailed and give a lot of information, they are very clear and understandable. It’s always nicely shown what you have to do and where the button is. With a brief explanation of the function. And then there are detailed parts which explain the FMC or whatever else, but I am not yet that far… For me as an experienced 737 sim-pilot, I am able to follow the videos without a single problem. Pausing, setting, listening, pausing, setting… really really great. Beats the PDF reading any day.
And did I mention, Ben actually had a F/O with him in the videos, so he’s the one actually giving the tutorials. So, you are basically learning the Dash off the first hand experience of a real world Dash pilot. I don’t know what else to say, except that the videos are well worth the buy if you are interested into the Dash – and you should be!!

Anyway, while I continue with the videos, I suggest you check both, if you didn’t already:
Majestic Dash Q400
Airline2Sim Q400 Cadet Training Program

All in all, a must have!!

And here is the video of the next day’s landing:

First Landing Q400

Breaking news: New VATSIM client

Weeeell,

Finally, after the simple vpilot client, here comes a full sized new client for VATSIM.
So as the presentation goes on, I made couple of simple pictures to show you what is coming on.

It is called swift. And it is not vpilot 🙂

It is going to be system independent and will even work with xplane!

Some of the design goals are:
– model matching via database
– open source, except for the VATSIM code which is NDA

so why open source?

It will also be a cross platform program, so by theory you can run it on windows, Mac, Linux… Any that supports Qt and dbus.

Write a plugin and you can use the client! Basically, as simple as that!

Modules:

The dbus system will allow you to run it in many environments and in different setups, and you will have freedom what you run where.
Dbus will allow it easily connect any external programs to it, for example position updates for maps.

Risks:

Screenshots seen may or may not be the final version!!

Linking call signs with names is really nice, so you see who you are talking to or flying with!

Model matching:

What goes from here?

So, they do need help!!
They need people who know what they are doing, and are ready to dive in.

As you can see, no release date. Only guesstimates depending how many people help as it is a joint venture…
It’s gonna be this decade 😉

Credits:

W14 Vatsim Conference

Very interesting, informative and lots of cool guys. Finally having a chance to meet some guys I was talking online only.
Unfortunately initially I wasn’t planing on going, but I got the last minute opportunity, so thank you Morten!!