Old Newb

[Desert Rat]

Hello,

I just got FSX yesterday, held off due to computer performance issues and my love of GW3. Haven't got a new rig, but when FSX gold was released, though :censored: it, I'll get it and if it don't 'fly' then I'll keep it for later. Just bought TrackIR4 aswell, still waiting for it to arrive....

So, yesterday, loaded her up, took the first mission as trial, looked okay, 20fps, which was fine as it was locked at that by default. Then tried my home port, Dyce. Loaded her up, and to my surprise, no buildings, trees, nothing.... .....:censored:this, I'm sitting at the lock-out fps still, I'll stick the scenery up some. One nudge each for autogen and complexity, went back in.

BANG!

0.6 to 1 fps, thought, oh well, I tried FSX, so be it, back to FS9 and CFS2. Exited and found :censored:dy, :censored:ing, bas:censored: Norton running a scan!! Stops scan, goes back in and got a pleasant surprise, ran same nudged settings at 20fps again. So spent today nudging here, testing, etc. So far autogen is normal, scen den is max, AI is low (they just get in the :censored: way anyway, still at 20fps. :applause:

Will keep tweaking and testing, so far only stock installed, but I've got plenty that can go in, but later. I decided to go through all the missions, one of which gives you a bonus for doing some extra stuff. So after a bit of Googling found this helpul site...

http://www.fsxrewards.com/index.html

tells you all the stuff you can get from the stock/accel missions. Now, do I get anything for this, bonus planes, etc. I found some guy asking what he had to do to earn the Vietnam Helecopter, and that shift+z gets you a B747 air canada. Now while I don't believe any of that :bs:, do I get anything appart from self satisfaction and a warm fuzzy feeling?

Jamie

[Desert Rat]

Oh, yeah, and saw a bear wandering around, made my day, how cool is that!!

I knew they were in, but thought I'd have to run at full sliders to get them to show up.

[MudMarine]

Don't get used to seeing animals wandering around, they only appear in missions........

[Desert Rat]

Okay Mud,

thanks for raining on my parade, :costumes: Oh, well, next Q is how do you create missions? I envisage a dr Dolittle airlift scenario from an aircraft carrier to Madagascar via the South pole, maybe pick up some penguins on the way.

:ernae:
Jamie

on to the next mission....

[MCDesigns]

welcome to the dark side, LOL

if you are interested in making missions, you can go thru the SDK or try this utility out

http://secure.simmarket.com/fsaddon-fsx-mission-editor.phtml

[Desert Rat]

I remember the days when the dark side was FS9, so what does that make 8 now?:costumes: Infact I remember when CFS2 was the dark side, and then beyond, my first 'proper' sim was Gunship on my Spectrum, gosh those were the days.

Micheal, thanks for the tip, BTW, how is scenery design in FSX, I take it I need new tools :banghead:

Jamie

[Lionheart]

Hey Jamie,

Welcome aboard!

:ernae:

I love the car traffic and ships and boats. There is also a refueling truck, so you can boot up in a empty bird, dispatch a fuel truck, and it fuels you up before your flight like in real world flying.

Another thing is the glider package now features a tow plane. Not to mention the FSX glider is one brilliant piece of work. (Flexing wings...!)

The terrain details are quite lacking.. You think your town is rough, or empty, check north Phoenix! eeeks...! :isadizzy:


Awesome sim otherwise...!

:applause:



Bill

EDIT: Oh.. Try out space! Go to map mode and reset your altitude to 500,000 feet and click OK. :d

[MCDesigns]

Micheal, thanks for the tip, BTW, how is scenery design in FSX, I take it I need new tools :banghead:

Jamie

Not really, gmax still works fine even though the SDK mentions some things that are 3DSMax menu specific, but nothing major. I find I can get more detail in the objects with about the same hit or less than in FS9. If you are into animations, there is more to work with there, especially the bones parameters. Objects can have shelf shadowing like the aircraft, but it takes a hit on the resources.

It can be a bit more tedious as you have more material properties than before.

Welcome to the club! :ernae:

[Buddha13]

Hi Jamie,
Welcome to the dark side.
Yes I hang around here too.
If you are looking for a new machine take a look at the Dell XPS630's.Just ordered a highly customised one.Unlike some people I have had a Dell machine now for 18 months and when I have had to talk to Dell they have been very friendly and helpful.
They have started to do I7 processor machines but I do not like the choice of graphics cards you can have with them.

Buddha13

[Desert Rat]

Hi Bud,

good to see you, hope all is well.

I'm not really on the market for a new rig at the momment. I bought FSX just to see and to have for the future when I do upgrade. The bucks are being held back for the arrival of Junior #3 and a new car (have a 5-seat estate car at the momment, room for all and the dog, but it's not wide enough in the back for 3 kid seats/boosters. Gonna have to get one of those 7-seat people carriers).

I'm a long ways off from converting completely (if ever :d), 3 installs of FS9, several of CFS2, still got CFS1 installed, Lock-on, Apache V Havoc/Commanche V Hokum (still the best combat helo sim after all these years in my opinion), BoBII, SFP1, OFF, MAW, first eagles. That's just my flight sims. So FSX has just joined them. It runs okay, enough to be fun, I'm not bothered by to much traffic, I'll stick to FS9 with all the custom traffic for a while if I feel the need. I'm just gonna use FSX for it's strong points, carrier ops, missions, slow and low, etc.

I'm still sitting on a single-core P4 (a hefty one mind you) and XP, don't think I'll ever be in a rush for Vista, have it on our other comp and loath it. 'do you want to do this or that' questions all the time, of coarse I :censored: do, as my old boss used to say, JFDI!! I know it can be turned off, but it's still on to prevent my wife from doing something unfortunate, she's got it bogged down with Sims 2 and the 476.3 addons for it :isadizzy:.

It's been a long time since I kept up with computer Jargon, I used to be a whizz, lost interest in chasing it adum finitum. Now I just go for ignorance and buy stuff that's a good deal. Keeps me happy and sane(ish). Never had a Dell tho, but I have nothing against them, have used them extensively with work, past and present, trouble free usually.

Off to fly some more missions....

Jamie

[Buddha13]

Hi Jamie,
You can turn off that bloody annoying 'do you want to do' etc.
Go to Control Panel/Security Center/ then click on the 'other security settings' and turn it off.
Makes life a bit more pleasent.
As for a car I can recommend the Citroen Picasso.Got one at the moment.Seats 5 with ease and has a massive boot.They have some good deals on new ones or you can get a 3 year old one for about £5,000.

Buddha13

[Desert Rat]

Hey G,

I know it can be turned off, I guess I'm just a hold out. My wifes comp with Vista is still not updated with SP1, we tried, and all went south, took me hours to get it to boot, had to roll it back to pre-SP1, tried 2 times since, same results, same fix.

As for the car, I have a 5 seater, it's just that the kid seats I have are so bleedin wide that there's no room in the middle for a third. Need a 7 seter or a very fat car. So happens, a pensioner ran into my car recently, everyone okay, but my car had to go in for repairs. I got a courtesy car and it's perfect, a VW Touran, quite fancy getting one.

Had a few CTD with FSX tonight, with two missions that use the flour bomb, dunno for sure, but it seemed that the Logitech Wingman profiler may be the cause, I did turn down scenery a bit too, so can't be sure.

Jamie

[harleyman]

Gotta love Norton.....Loose it and you'll be happier......Even when not scanning its a pig......:censored: