Getting back into Flight Sim

[Firebar]

Hello all,

It's been about 2 years since I last posted on SOH and with FSX coming up on Steam for £4 I thought it might be time to get back into it. I used to be fairly active on the FS9 boards but this is my first foray onto "the Dark Side".

What I'm looking for is advice on setting up FSX for the first time, that's not in the guides that I will definitely read! If there are any must have add-ons out there. Any freeware gems that people know about. And advice on setting my sim up into a 1980s config (I do enjoy a good V-Bomber).

Hope to hear some good advice,

Cheers,
M.

[RyanJZ]

Best bombers:
-A2A B-17G with Accusim expansion pack- worth every penny.
-Iris Avro Vulcan
-Area 51 B-2
-Virtavia B-29
-Virtavia Tu-160

General Aviation
-Anything from Carenado if you're not big on systems depth
-Eaglesoft Piper Twin Comanche
-Iris Diamond DA-42 Twin Star
-Flight1 Beechcraft B200
-RealAir/Flight1 Beech Duke. (any of them. They are all amazing) (Really, you can't go wrong on this one)
-FlySimWare Velocity XL RG
-JustFLight Piper Warrior

Airliners
-Anything PMDG
-FlightSimLAbs COncorde X
-Level D 767
-JustFlight A340

Utilities
-Accufeel Version 2

those are all payware. There are thousands of freeware addons. Check out the Thomas Ruth An-225. And his Airbus series. Search Simviation, Flightsim.com, and of course the library here. Also, make sure you have a REALLY good system. Check out this link http://fsxgetstarted.com/

Also here's a very nice Tu-144D. It takes A LOT of setup, but its worth it. http://www.avsimrus.com/f/fsx-aircrafts-79/tu-144d-v3-5-44272.html
This thread was a MASSIVE help to me http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?86929-Flying-Supersonic-Tu-144-Charger-v3-5
Hope this helps!

[Firebar]

Those are some useful looking links!

System wise I think I'll be OK, I've moved off a Core2Duo machine for the first time in about 10 years and now have a custom PC with an i7-4790K, GTX970, and 8GB of RAM, though I do remember people complaining that FSX still tanked high end systems a few years ago.

Are there any reliable guides to converting aircraft from FS9 to FSX around? I have a whole bunch of distantly remembered models that I absolutely loved, one of the sets is the http://samdimdesign.free.fr/ ones. Lots of Soviet Heavy Metal. Then David Maltalby had http://www.dmflightsim.co.uk/ with stuff like the VC-10 and BAC 1-11. Then there were things like the Carousel INS http://www.simufly.com/ins/ that was fun to play with. I might even have access to a couple of FS9/FSX payware aircraft if I search back far enough in my email archive, I know I bought a TSR.2, and I think it was Virtavia :P .

[trucker17]

Any of the A2A products are great.....
Their is a good FSX tweaks section at the top of this forum......Check their for many great tips....
The Grumman Goose redux is a great freeware plane......

[RyanJZ]

Those are some useful looking links!

System wise I think I'll be OK, I've moved off a Core2Duo machine for the first time in about 10 years and now have a custom PC with an i7-4790K, GTX970, and 8GB of RAM, though I do remember people complaining that FSX still tanked high end systems a few years ago.

Are there any reliable guides to converting aircraft from FS9 to FSX around? I have a whole bunch of distantly remembered models that I absolutely loved, one of the sets is the http://samdimdesign.free.fr/ ones. Lots of Soviet Heavy Metal. Then David Maltalby had http://www.dmflightsim.co.uk/ with stuff like the VC-10 and BAC 1-11. Then there were things like the Carousel INS http://www.simufly.com/ins/ that was fun to play with. I might even have access to a couple of FS9/FSX payware aircraft if I search back far enough in my email archive, I know I bought a TSR.2, and I think it was Virtavia :P .
I don't know too much about converting planes, but there are a lot of people here that can help with that. Check out the designers workshop in the forum. Also I envy your system :P But you shouldn't run into any hiccups with yours. Just don't run a bunch of other programs at the same time, and if you have any issues, just restart your computer. That works for me usually. Also more payware recommendations: The Eaglesoft Citation X V2.0, the Wilco Piaggio P180, and the Wilco Tiltrotor

[Firebar]

Until very recently my computers all had Core2 processors and DDR2, that system was a Christmas present to myself.

I got my copy of the Virtavia TSR.2 from somewhere deep in the depths of a HDD. That's the first one to get working! Then I think the DM Xlassic British stuff. Not to mention Samdim.

I'm actually looking forward to this a lot! I wonder if I can find my old rudder pedals!

[Gibbage]

Shameless self promotion, but the Republic Seabee is a REALLY fun aircraft, and im having a sale to celebrate the Steam re-release.

http://www.kcflightshop.com/files/steamsale1.jpg

http://www.kcflightshop.com/?page_id=245

[falcon409]

. . . . .
Are there any reliable guides to converting aircraft from FS9 to FSX around? I have a whole bunch of distantly remembered models that I absolutely loved, . . . . . .
For the most part the closer the model was to the release of FSX the less problems. . .if it was an early FS9 aircraft you might find more. Basically two things caused problems. . .the glass and the prop blur. Both required some work on the alpha channels to get them looking correct. Banana Bob did a great set of prop blurs and they can be found in the SOH downloads section or you can simply find an FSX prop blur that suits the particular aircraft and swap it out. Also, FSX textures went to a dds format where FS9 was using bitmaps. That's not to say that FSX aircraft can't use bitmaps, but it's better to keep everything in the same format, just a HU if you decide to get into doing repaints, or swapping prop or glass textures.

[RyanJZ]

Another issue on really old fs9 planes is that some of them use gauges from fs98 and those aren't supported by FSX so you wont have any gauges. Fine for a slow plane though which you can fly visually. Like the Tupolev Maxim Gorky

[Firebar]

Nothing wrong with self promotion. Especially for an interesting aircraft!

Presumably alpha issues can require some source editing? If it goes beyond a texture issue? I remember CFS3 repaints having to be coded in in the model file. Hex editors still the thing? Also sounds like dxtbmp might be a useful thing to dig out again. That and the GIMP dxt plugins. From memory some FS9 aircraft used dxt files. I think the stock ai?

I suppose i shuld try and actually finish that CMC Leopard model I keep starting! :P any preferred modelling tools? I have acess to anything AutoDesk. Plus a couple of others.

FSX is downloading now. It's not a small one at 10GB but it's not the biggest one I've downloaded either. Still at 2MBps it takes a while.

Cheers,
M

[falcon409]

. . . . . .Presumably alpha issues can require some source editing? If it goes beyond a texture issue? I remember CFS3 repaints having to be coded in in the model file. Hex editors still the thing? Also sounds like dxtbmp might be a useful thing to dig out again. That and the GIMP dxt plugins. From memory some FS9 aircraft used dxt files. I think the stock ai?

Cheers,
M
Dxt is a file conversion format handled in DXTbmp, but it's not the file extension. FS9 textures were DXT1 or DXT3 usually, but they were still a bmp extension. As for the alpha issues in FSX, if they can't be corrected in DXTbmp then you're correct that it would require the source code and that, unless you are very good friends with the developer (and even then, good luck) isn't happening. There is a utility "MDLMatXX" which allows you to do some editing of the mdl file to facilitate changing colors of materials used in the model and also alpha channels, however, normally if the prop issue can't be corrected with simple alpha channel corrections then it would require coding changes in the source code which developers don't release.

The latest DXTbmp and MDLmatXX programs can be found here: http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/

[Firebar]

I had a little play with all the data I have on the CMC Leopard, thoughts? I think the fuselage is a bit too square but it's a complex shape!

http://i.imgur.com/q4M0iWr.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/Ayo3yDs.png

[kiki]

I don't have any FS9 portover aircrafts in FSX. Why would you? Visually bad, killing frames.

[delta_lima]

I don't have any FS9 portover aircrafts in FSX. Why would you? Visually bad, killing frames.

LOL. I'm assuming that's from your wealth of experience, right?

A perfect example of patently wrong internet here say.

On my mid-tier i5 system, frames locked at 30. All images raw/unedited.

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j187/delta_lima/FS%20screens/2015-7-10_23-31-19-791_zpsq8be9iwh.png (http://s80.photobucket.com/user/delta_lima/media/FS%20screens/2015-7-10_23-31-19-791_zpsq8be9iwh.png.html)

http://i80.photo bucket.com/albums/j187/delta_lima/FS%20screens/nasa20dc9_zpsghmsiv7g.jpg (http://s80.photobucket.com/user/delta_lima/media/FS%20screens/nasa20dc9_zpsghmsiv7g.jpg.html)

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j187/delta_lima/FS%20screens/2015-8-18_21-55-38-377_zpscaw6h2rk.png (http://s80.photobucket.com/user/delta_lima/media/FS%20screens/2015-8-18_21-55-38-377_zpscaw6h2rk.png.html)

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j187/delta_lima/FS%20screens/2015-8-1_23-22-38-430_zpswkqfovfj.png (http://s80.photobucket.com/user/delta_lima/media/FS%20screens/2015-8-1_23-22-38-430_zpswkqfovfj.png.html)

Funny when facts get in the way of deeply held opinions, no?

DL

[hairyspin]

Welcome back to the fold, Firebar! No recommendations from me 'cos the hardware is ancient but get some decent scenery for wherever you want to fly: nothing has contributed more to flying enjoyment whatever I'm flying.

If you still mean to finish a model, Gmax is still good. Since you have access to anything Autodesk, Max 2015 with the P3D sdk is the cat's pyjamas for any new project.

[Firebar]

Oooh I like the Sea Vixen! And I'm looking for whatever I can find with ETPS/AAEE colours at the moment.

Hairyspin, the model above is a couple of weeks of post work effort in 3dsMax so far, the gauges are all mine too, except the KLN-90 and the analogue ASI. I'm going to try and add more of the real functionality to the HSI soon too, like making the radar panel useful, and seeing if I can get the gps functionality right!

[Navy Chief]

I scanned the previous posts, and didn't see mention of Dino Cattaneo's most awesome creations. They are ALL great!!! Aircraft carrier ops are my favorite thing to do in FSX, so get Dino's Tomcat, Goshawk, Viking....and others too! You will have a blast! There's Javier's aircraft carriers, plus Team SDB's payware carriers. :encouragement: NC

[Blackbird686]

I know it has already been mentioned here but Samdim Designs has a little aerobatic gem called a Murdry Cap-10B. You will really like this one if you enjoy flinging yourself around in planes like the Extra 300S. The Cap-10B has 3D gauges, Smooth Gauge Technologies and a latent movement 3D cockpit. The visual model is eye candy and has landing gear suspension, along with all of the usual ani's. It's a real kick to fly. Here: http://samdimdesign.free.fr/

BB686:US-flag:

[Firebar]

I remember Dino's Goshawk in the FS9 incarnation I think? Lovely aircraft if i recall. And that Samdim CAP-10.

I've been having good fun playing around making things in FSX now. Back in the habit of spending 3 times as much time in 3DSMax as in the Sim! Unfortunately work precludes too much time for play. On the other hand I've been playing with airports as a break from aircraft! I'm learning all sorts about ground polys and how to make things look pretty, and that Bing Maps has some great aerial photos of the UK.

http://i.imgur.com/d3MZnGa.png