Flight simulator?

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

However, 30 FPS is the world you‘ll be flying in then. There is no such thing as a „fast“ computer for that sim.

 

 

As far as I'm concerned, this is the greatest problem. These flight simulators fail to progress beyond the "30 fps is fine" myth. I have always failed to achieve 60 fps without sacrificing too much quality (I did get close in X-Plane 11).

 

This can be incredibly frustrating. Il-2 and other modern games give ~100 fps on a monitor without much difficulty. Switching back to 30 fps is awful, especially initially. I do like the gameplay that flight simulators offer, but I can't handle the headache that their performance gives me. 

[ZachariasX]

These flight simulators fail to progress beyond the "30 fps is fine" myth.

You can go above that. Stock P3D runs at roughly 90+ FPS on my rig. But when I take off into this mornings sky over London with A2A's beautiful Connie

 

 

then I have about 25 (!) FPS on what you see above (1440p, these are NOT max settings), utilizing 10 cores / 20 threads mainly for autgen. Present geometry would allow ~55 fps. On a 7700K you'd get the same max. theoreitcal 50 FPS or so, but as soon as you are moving and autogen kicks in and starts using all available cores, that would maybe drop to about 10 FPS. (P3Dv4.1, ORBX England, Rex Texture Direct w. SoftClouds, FSGRW)

 

When just flying cruise, a lower FPS I don't find to be that bad, as long as they are CONSTANT and above 30. Below 30, it would make the v-synch drop it to 15, creating immediate stutters. same as 58 FPS make your FPS in effect 30 FPS on non-G-Synch (or whatever-synch) panels.

 

Eye candy comes at a tremendous price, and autogen as well. Autogen so far is the only way to supply a whole globe in a remotely convincing way. VFR maps (such als also in BoX with their static placement of objects usually run easier on rigs than sceneries that have to be "made up" on the fly. They simply leave all those cores idle that otherwise are under load for autogen. In this sense, P3D is parallelizing something that simply doesn't exist in BoX for example (or DCS). Trafic is also in a different thread, so that helps tremendously. Before, adding road vehicles and air traffic immediately killed your FPS. Now, I don't notice an impact at all.

 

The more complex you want your scenery to look, the higher the price. You can easily set sliders such that you get 60+ FPS on your system. Just comparing what you see then to what you pontentially could have makes people abuse settings.

 

Besides, as soon as you are higher up, FPS inrease drasitcally as lots of little stuff is not rendered anymore.

 

I am really looking forward how Arofly FS2 will progress, as so far, it seems to have a rather small terrain rendering overhead. How this will look like when world and their dog are making addons for it, that will be a different matter. So far ORBX is commited in producing scenery, so that gives a direct comparison between P3D and Aerofly FS2 on rendering overhead.

[DetCord12B]

Agree...that's insane to just sit there. There's a reason why real pilots get paid to do it, LOL.

 

I've just about finally given up on FSX, and may jump over to P3D v4 someday. If so I will probably buy and stick with the 64-bit Aerosoft A320s...have had fun with them in the past (and flying them with a joystick is legit).

 

 

 

I'm curious about that as well.

 

The whole long-haul thing isn't for me. You can keep it. I honestly don't know how anyone does it.

 

As for the addons in the screens, they're all payware. 

•  Aerosoft Airbus Series
• REX4
• Orbx
• Various addon airports.
• VFX addons

Getting FSX/P3D/XP to look like this costs money. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 6, 2018 by detcord12b

[Lusekofte]

 

 

Do people actually do the full flights or they fast forward most of the trip?

 

I did a cargo transport from Hong Kong to New York once, It toooooook a long time ,10 hours, cannot remember , I watched 2 movies and had a night sleep before I had to land it.  I remember not why I did it but found it amusing 

[ZachariasX]

Ah, you got the F-14. Must be a decent module. But I‘ll get that one for DCS, so it would be a bit redundant. Besides the A2A aircraft, that now should be ported to P3Dv4, REX Skyforce 3D is first on the shopping list for me. The weather effects look really good, even compared with REX4 clouds. The visuals when flying between clouds drastically increased.

[ZachariasX]

I did a cargo transport from Hong Kong to New York once, It toooooook a long time ,10 hours, cannot remember , I watched 2 movies and had a night sleep before I had to land it.  I remember not why I did it but found it amusing

 

I like doing long flights with A2As „Captain of the Ship“ series, the B377 and the Connie. Just take weather from departure location and only very basic from route and destination. in the 50‘s, you had less info at hand than today. Then you see how efficient you can fly. And let yourself surprise what you find at your planned destination. It really is a challenge, especially as reducing fuel weight might make it problematic in case weather is not how you expected it. Round the world trips are cool with these aircraft, especially if you select interesting places for your stops. Those aircraft feature an autopilot that can be set on a timer (or event, or altitude reached) until it pauses. Thus, long haul flights don‘t need your attention all the time.

[Hoots]

Klaus and Jcomm, have you checked out Condor 2 yet? It's goooooooood

[ZachariasX]

Klaus and Jcomm, have you checked out Condor 2 yet? It's goooooooood

How big is the landscape? The download is only 700 MB or so, is that correct? Is it all of Slovenia?

[Hoots]

Not sure yet, only had time to do a quick free flight. There are some add on landscapes already available.editited to say yes, about 700mb, it's a small one

Edited February 22, 2018 by Hoots

[6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann]

Klaus and Jcomm, have you checked out Condor 2 yet? It's goooooooood

March. But we have to do a Baby Race

[Herne]

In these civil sims can you have a kind of career mode ? start off flying freight working your way to bigger airliners ?

[6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann]

It's a very small Map, something like 150x150. The Grunau Baby is awesome. 

Edited February 23, 2018 by 6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann

[ZachariasX]

In these civil sims can you have a kind of career mode ? start off flying freight working your way to bigger airliners ?

They generally have no sort of „gameplay“ whatsoever. They give you a world where you can fly in. For added $$, you can buy airplanes, a nicer environment etc.

 

In some modules „gameplay“ is incuded. For instance in the A2A Simulation „Captain of the Ship“ aircraft. There you can show how well and how efficient you can fly. It’s great fun! In addition to that, there are addons that feature the „virtual airline“ mode.

[6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann]

Let's fly Competitions on Condor. In Civil Sims it's the most Challenging Thing to do.

[Lusekofte]

March. But we have to do a Baby Race

 

looks cool enough for me to buy it, I think I will like it

[6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann]

 

looks cool enough for me to buy it, I think I will like it

Do it. If you like Dogfighting, you'll like Competition Flying. 

[Flitgun]

In these civil sims can you have a kind of career mode ? start off flying freight working your way to bigger airliners ?

 

The vanilla base sim usually does not offer this sort of thing. Though one such payware add on is called Air Hauler (now there's an Air Hauler 2). Choose a region, fly small freight runs, make money, upgrade/multiply fleet. These 'missions' can be quite satisfying as a one ship business - maybe somewhere exotic, or extreme - possibly using something like the https://www.precisionmanuals.com/pages/product/P3D/dc6.html as your freighter. 

 

I'd like to dabble in this kind of thing again if VR was better implemented - to the same level as BoX, or even DCS. I don't use any civil sims presently.

Edited February 24, 2018 by Flitgun

[ZachariasX]

The vanilla base sim usually does not offer this sort of thing. Though one such payware add on is called Air Hauler (now there's an Air Hauler 2). Choose a region, fly small freight runs, make money, upgrade/multiply fleet. These 'missions' can be quite satisfying as a one ship business - maybe somewhere exotic, or extreme - possibly using something like the https://www.precisionmanuals.com/pages/product/P3D/dc6.html [/size]as your freighter. 

 

I'd like to dabble in this kind of thing again if VR was better implemented - to the same level as BoX, or even DCS. I don't use any civil sims presently.

P3D supports VR. You just have to set your gfx settings such that you get a high framerate.

[Flitgun]

How does the VR in P3D compare with the standard we get in BoX? 'Flyinside' (payware addon) was what one had to use with FSX a year or so ago, but that did not work well, for me.

[ZachariasX]

How does the VR in P3D compare with the standard we get in BoX? 'Flyinside' (payware addon) was what one had to use with FSX a year or so ago, but that did not work well, for me.

So far, I do not use VR. It is natively supported as far as I can see. But I would not say that it would work as in BoX, for the simple reason that P3D asks you really to know what you are doing to get "best" results. BoX just works.

[6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann]

Just did my First proper Baby Flight. It's fun.

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=12CznYZxgIrOm5MfMbkQBJaYcw_ByNAZc

[xvii-Dietrich]

So, I'm looking for a new FS, any recommendations?

 

I fly X-Plane 10 and it is pretty good.

 

X-Plane 11 has good features and graphics, but it is too slow on my computer. I'm also interested in Prepar 3D, as it has good scenery (OrbX) and aircraft (A2A). If/when I can afford a new computer, I'll upgrade to one of those. One advantage of X-Plane is that it is not too hard to build your own aircraft. I built my own He-115 for X-Plane 10 and have have many enjoyable hours flying it.

 

 

 

Here is a question I've always had regarding civilian aviation sims:

 

Do people actually do the full flights or they fast forward most of the trip?

 

I fly X-Plane 10 on the IVAO network-multiplayer server and everything there is real-time.

 

Flights are typically 2 hours or so. I've a few flights over 6 hours. My record is 11 hours.

[216th_Lucas_From_Hell]

I feel like a baby when people discuss their flight times on FSX/P3D/X-Plane. To me a 2h sortie with air-to-air refueling and/or a fuel stopover already seems like forever, I can't imagine how 11 hours would feel!

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

My average flight time is probably under two minutes.

 

I do like these sims, but I struggle to find compelling gameplay beyond admiring cockpit models and aircraft systems.

[OrLoK]

Just snaffled a reduced cost X-plane 11. Configuring it now for VR in the demo!

Another hobby *sigh*