Video Games

[john70t]

For a few years I've been working on making the 32-bit dead horse FSX flight sim come back to life. Microsoft mostly abandoned the business but it is still being carried by an active aftermarket community. There are the P3D and OrbX add-ons which turn the world into something acceptable and there are some gorgeous add-on cities such as from drzewiecki-design, but it is still a buggy and old engine at the core. It's like sticking a 427 in a Model T and trying to race competitively. There is only so much one can do before the stack of bandaids falls off.

So far I've converted this much over to photoscenery. The map coverages available are often bizarre. Retailers/creators will offer only half of a small island when it's just as easy to do the whole thing. Or detail up a single fence to max out the CPU but then ignore the rest of the more 3D objects. I am also working on getting FreeMeshX set up for correct and more detailed landscape horizons, but it is a manual process and many of the original airport heights have to be corrected one by one when elevated or sunk in the ground.


64-bit X-Plane is far better right out of the box, but it still creates an 'artificial' world.
I want to fly the 'real thing'.

Google Earth has an online flight sim which is incredibly realistic (created by all satellite data) but still with some glitches. Many internet connections like mine can't handle the huge amount of data transmission needed in real time and AFAIK there is not really any aircraft dynamics or weather.

Now Microsoft is returning back to flight sims using Google Earth data and it looks like they might seriously nail it this time. MSFS 2020 is still in beta stages but looks promising:

[berettafan]

my goodness you guys are gullible.

sheesh.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by john70t

For a few years I've been working on making the 32-bit dead horse FSX flight sim come back to life. Microsoft mostly abandoned the business but it is still being carried by an active aftermarket community. There are the P3D and OrbX add-ons which turn the world into something acceptable and there are some gorgeous add-on cities such as from drzewiecki-design, but it is still a buggy and old engine at the core. It's like sticking a 427 in a Model T and trying to race competitively. There is only so much one can do before the stack of bandaids falls off.

So far I've converted this much over to photoscenery. The map coverages available are often bizarre. Retailers/creators will offer only half of a small island when it's just as easy to do the whole thing. Or detail up a single fence to max out the CPU but then ignore the rest of the more 3D objects. I am also working on getting FreeMeshX set up for correct and more detailed landscape horizons, but it is a manual process and many of the original airport heights have to be corrected one by one when elevated or sunk in the ground.


64-bit X-Plane is far better right out of the box, but it still creates an 'artificial' world.
I want to fly the 'real thing'.

Google Earth has an online flight sim which is incredibly realistic (created by all satellite data) but still with some glitches. Many internet connections like mine can't handle the huge amount of data transmission needed in real time and AFAIK there is not really any aircraft dynamics or weather.

Now Microsoft is returning back to flight sims using Google Earth data and it looks like they might seriously nail it this time. MSFS 2020 is still in beta stages but looks promising:

You ought to check out FlightGear. Both Free and free, has world maps that you can load individual sections/squares of....

[Deschodt]

Good to hear about FS2020. I recently bought X-plane11, and while it's good, it takes a *LOT* of extra work to make it palatable, downloading planes, paint schemes, airports, ATC, objects, scenery files, tree replacements, cloud replacements.... All this crap I was fine with as a student 20 years ago, but now I've got a career and kids and my play time is limited. I want to be able to jump in and fly, or drive, and not spend hours updating or trolling forums for the right combos... I wish developers would understand that, we got more $ and less time, build for us too, please. Similar rant on Xbox games - I'll play twice a month if I'm lucky, and when I sit down in my rig, I gotta wait for an hour for Xbox to upgrade, then for the game to upgrade, reboot, and 1/2 my free time is gone. Bastids ;-)

[john70t]

That FlightGear looks pretty good for a free one. Thx for the tip.

My FSX ratio of flying:tweaking is at least 1:10 or more and was soured by bad software and a non-responsive company. I jumped in both feet and followed good money with bad like a gambler. Now that it's all set up I no longer have the time to spend in it and get my moneys worth. The upcoming cold season will be better. It was a busy year.

(edited: For every hour of actual flight, I have spent at least ten hours to download, install, reinstall, reconfigure, tweak, adjust, and figure out what caused that last software crash.)

X-Plane 11 even without with photoreal Ortho4XP is seriously impressive.
The default road locations look almost exactly the same as the sat maps.
What a wonderful way to explore the world from a home computer.

[Deschodt]

Originally Posted by john70t

X-Plane 11 even without with photoreal Ortho4XP is seriously impressive.
The default road locations look almost exactly the same as the sat maps.

All I can say is it looked really good on the demo, then I bought it and downloaded North america and europe sceneries, and even the golden gate bridge was 2 grey lines on the water. SFO looked like it did after the 1900s earthquake, flat.

It took a LOT of separate research and downloads to get a decent city, bridge, roads, trees, and a populated airport, so that I can land my buffalo DC3 with one engine feathered on the main SFO runway with some suspension of disbelief ;-) I don't understand why they don't package all this free stuff into a big bundle and sell it for $20 more or what have you and pay the freeware guys a little... I must have loaded it 20x in a row per add on just to get all the error messages to go away "you're missing joe blow's add on for this other add on to work"...
Also, while the flight model seems excellent, I'm not entirely convinced by Xplane's load/failure of the airframe. I did some crazy $hit with that DC3 and never lost a wing. Odd... Maybe it's a really strong aircraft ;-)

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by Deschodt

All I can say is it looked really good on the demo, then I bought it and downloaded North america and europe sceneries, and even the golden gate bridge was 2 grey lines on the water. SFO looked like it did after the 1900s earthquake, flat.

It took a LOT of separate research and downloads to get a decent city, bridge, roads, trees, and a populated airport, so that I can land my buffalo DC3 with one engine feathered on the main SFO runway with some suspension of disbelief ;-) I don't understand why they don't package all this free stuff into a big bundle and sell it for $20 more or what have you and pay the freeware guys a little... I must have loaded it 20x in a row per add on just to get all the error messages to go away "you're missing joe blow's add on for this other add on to work"...
Also, while the flight model seems excellent, I'm not entirely convinced by Xplane's load/failure of the airframe. I did some crazy $hit with that DC3 and never lost a wing. Odd... Maybe it's a really strong aircraft ;-)

If you have a strong GPU the default stuff looks pretty good in XP11. The airframe load/failure might be off in the settings as well. Along with overspeed issues with the airframe, gear doors and so on.

All that said, I am glad they finally have TrackIR support in X-Plane.

[rattlsnak]

Originally Posted by Dmitry at Pelican Parts

Buy a wheel and some pedals and pick up Assetto Corsa.

Originally Posted by WolfeMacleod

And an Oculus Rift.

iRacing with the Oculus.. PCA has a sim racing league now that started with my region.. Tons of fun!

and yes I know this is a bogus thread.. lol..

[john70t]

Originally Posted by Deschodt

I don't understand why they don't package all this free stuff into a big bundle and sell it for $20 more or what have you and pay the freeware guys a little...

Totally with you on that one.
Everybody would win then