Looking for some input on skycrane

[XLR8]

I know there is a thread about the sky crane,but I really would like some input on a few questions before buying it . Between the simflight forums and the SOH forums I have try-ed to get as much info as possible about it . I have read good and bad reviews for it,but the great people here at SOH seem to have very good and honest words about add-ons .So here I go with a few questions .

1> Dose it fly well ? Is there a lot off work to keep her flying .
2>How is it on frame rates ?
3>On the fire fighting helo,do you actually have to fill it up with water to drop?
4> I fly with a x52 flight stick. Between the keyboard and the flight stick,I use those buttons instead of the cockpit switches . Can the keys and buttons be used/programed .

On a scale of 1 to 10 10 being the highest. Would you recommend me buying it .

As always thank you for your time and comments .

[Roadburner440]

I will leave my opinion out since I am an impartial party. But you do not have to fill the tank with water first before dropping it. It is just an animation and as such the water continues forever until you turn it off. I also have the X52 Saitek, but I also have the Saitek Pro Flight Rudder Pedals. I use general FSX key commands in the simulator. If there is a key command for cargo shear though you could in theory program the water to the key, but there is also a switch on the center console that must be set as well. See the videos in the Skycrane thread... As far as frame rates go I lock my frames at 20, and I get no stuttering in any area. My FPS would drop to 15-16 when I made the videos with FRAPS. I have a i7-950@ 3.2ghz, Nvidia GTX 285 1GB RAM, 6GB memory, an Asus PT6 Deluxe V-board, I run FSX on a 10,000RPM 150GB Raptor drive, and on Win Vista 64 bit. If you watch the videos you can see the type of settings I have it on. They are fairly high though. Hopefully this helps even if it is coming from the dev.

[Roger]

I wonder how many devs would have chosen the Skycrane as a money earner? I'd say if you want one buy it. Milviz/Nemeth have released some great stuff so what's to wonder about...wait until the next FsX Skycrane comes along???

[XLR8]

I will leave my opinion out since I am an impartial party. But you do not have to fill the tank with water first before dropping it. It is just an animation and as such the water continues forever until you turn it off. I also have the X52 Saitek, but I also have the Saitek Pro Flight Rudder Pedals. I use general FSX key commands in the simulator. If there is a key command for cargo shear though you could in theory program the water to the key, but there is also a switch on the center console that must be set as well. See the videos in the Skycrane thread... As far as frame rates go I lock my frames at 20, and I get no stuttering in any area. My FPS would drop to 15-16 when I made the videos with FRAPS. I have a i7-950@ 3.2ghz, Nvidia GTX 285 1GB RAM, 6GB memory, an Asus PT6 Deluxe V-board, I run FSX on a 10,000RPM 150GB Raptor drive, and on Win Vista 64 bit. If you watch the videos you can see the type of settings I have it on. They are fairly high though. Hopefully this helps even if it is coming from the dev.


Thank you for your input .The filling of the tanks I thought was as you described,but you people are so talented that I thought you may have made it possible . I understand FSX is limited and I use my imagination to keep me occupied with it . Your videos are great,very help full .

Since your a DEV ,Ithink I read where there may be a patch . Any ideals what it might address .

[XLR8]

I wonder how many devs would have chosen the Skycrane as a money earner? I'd say if you want one buy it. Milviz/Nemeth have released some great stuff so what's to wonder about...wait until the next FsX Skycrane comes along???

I have never bought a Milviz/Nemeth product . I am sure it will be a great addon, and when I do buy it (probably today ) I will be a life long customer,as I am with Alphasim,Iris and a few others .

I fly the Hovercontrol sky crane but it works but barley in the sim .

[gajit]

I wonder how many devs would have chosen the Skycrane as a money earner? I'd say if you want one buy it. Milviz/Nemeth have released some great stuff so what's to wonder about...wait until the next FsX Skycrane comes along???


Well said Roger. I have moaned about Milviz a bit in the past as they produce great products but have had poor fps on my PC - yet the recent products including the skycrane have been very considerate to my old PC and have been as smooth as a carenado product.

Im very pleased with the skycrane.

[ColoKent]

...and I am not normally a helicopter guy. I bought the S-64 late last week. Here is my input:

- I found framerates to NOT be a problem (and I'm running FSX in Bootcamp-- on A MAC, for goodness sakes! Overall, I have graphics problems, but they are NOT with the Skycrane [ATI 4850 with 512K]!)
- IMHO, the S-64 flies like a dream....
- As noted in other posts in this forum, the manual is "less than optimum"
- I have not yet played with the Sky crane's water system...but I plan to do that
- I had never bought an ND/MILVIZ product before-- and within a day of buying the Sky Crane, I bought the MD 902 Explorer-- it flies like a dream too.
- Not content, I then bought the AS 332 Super Puma...however, I am not impressed (2 out of three ain't bad?)
- I will buy more ND/MILVIZ products in the future
- One thing I can't stand about ND however, is the lack of paintkits for EVERY title they offer (the MD 902 has one, but not the AS 332 or the Skycrane thus far)

Overall...it's a niche helicopter...but fun.

Kent

[Roadburner440]

I will say that the Super Puma, and Explorer are not Milviz models (to my knowledge). The Nemeth's still do some projects on their own. They just assist us with making flight models/programming for Milviz helicopters which helps a great model be a great product overall. They assistance has been invaluable to us in that department cause helicopters are kind of difficult to get right. We apologize for older models being FPS intense.. Like with other developers as time goes on we figure out how to do more with less poly's, and less resolution but still make it look very nice. We will work harder on the manuals in the future. It is inputs like these that help us get better.

EDIT: Forgot to address the patch. I am not sure what is in that as of yet (this is the first I have heard of it). As soon as I get information on it though I will pass it along. I have been busy since the Skycrane's release working on the Stuka, and trying to get some flight time in on my Concorde-X/MD-11 before we start on beta for the 310R. Any issues you find though feel free to post here (or on the Nemeth's forums) and we will forward it over for any patch that is incoming.

[XLR8]

I picked her up a couple of hours ago,and have put in about an hour of flight time . This is a very nice helo.She flys pretty darn good ( I'm not a helo pilot ). Hovering is another story,I don't know if its me or its the way its suppose to be . Anyways great model,sound and company . Will most defiantly buy more from them .

[Roadburner440]

I suck at hovering in helo's myself.. I always wind up drifting backwards, and then over correcting. I do not have much patience for it really. I can take off, and put it back on the ground when I am done. Everytime I try to hover and put it down (like the oil rig screens I took) I always wind up over correcting and running into stuff. Definately takes practice. I downloaded that HTR program someone recommended and am going to give that a try to see if that makes the helo's behave more like their real world counter parts.