Bruce (a.k.a. brian747)

Can't wait! The response to Rob's typically circuitous and calculatedly imprecise announcement that I liked the best was the one that simply said — "It's like an episode of Lost. You know more than before the episode but you are nowhere near having the answers you want. " The other post that made me smile was this one — "Release date is August 21st everyone. 7+7+7 = 21" But still, it's looking good for August..... (Hmm, or do I mean "probably by October...?") Cheers and thanks, Brian P.S. Still no videos at the time of writing this — but it's the we

Well, I've just worked out roughly what I've spent on fsx since it came out, and it turns out that there's no way I could afford to start again with another sim. Anyway, we've mostly tamed fsx now, so starting again with a new set of bugs somehow lacks appeal, TBH. So it looks as though fsx and I will be growing old disgracefully together, I reckon. Cheers, Brian

War games

Ah, but Windoze has proved to be a reliable cash cow for Micro$oft over the years, whereas dear old Flight Sim wasn't. Instead, Micro$oft had to look on from the sidelines grinding their teeth whilst lots of independent developers made a reasonable living out of it. So they had lots of meetings and decided to junk fsx and invent "Micro$oft Flight", in a fairly transparent attempt to lock the punters in. But the punters didn't want to play ball, so 'Flight got junked, too. No doubt the bean counters who drive these decisions defended them as being "justified by commercial realities", but d

> "Unless of course I become obsessed" <grin> That is a very real danger, in fact. I lost about three months of my simming life whilst messing around with the airport (I couldn't resist a few other "little" tweaks as well, of course), so be warned! Cheers, Brian

Speaking with all the scar tissue of someone with over 40 years' experience in the software industry, I think the main problem with Windoze is that a lot of its complexity comes from trying to hide its own over-complex nature from the users. I have used many O/Ss over the years, most of them ending in -IX in recent decades, and none of the rest of them have had shedloads of "security updates" every few weeks to try and patch the broken nature of their security design. But Operating Systems are complex beasts by their very nature, and what may seem to be random differences are in fact a con

Hi Steve! I found that the best way of all to achieve this effect is to have a friend who understands ADE (I have ADE, but I struggle with it). It's a learning curve, that's for sure, and it also assumes that you understand the structure of fsx scenery — hence my suggestion that you find yourself an expert who can help with the hairier bits. From my own experience, and his, it's not an exact science. ADE is also free, although I reckon it's worth paying a small fee for the ProKey, to encourage the developer, if nothing else. See http://www.airportdesigneditor.co.uk/ But the results can

Restores my faith in human nature. (Ours, I mean, naturally). Thanks, guys! Cheers, Brian

Great review, Rob — thank you! Dammit, now I may have to buy this bird, and I *hate* propellers..... Thanks, Brian

RESULT!! That's great news, Steve — well done! Hopefully, you're now on the up and UP! All the best, Brian

Christopher, Putting the Vista uiautomationcore.dll file into your fsx directory prevents a common problem whereby too many accesses to the fsx top menu bar, for example, result in a condition whereby the sim locks up visually even though it continues operating (as you can tell by the sound) — but you have no way of getting back in and usually have to reboot. Very frustrating, and there is a simple fix (once it was discovered). The existing (64-bit uiautomationcore.dll files in the Windows directory should be left alone — they are needed for use in various apps — and this is also why the V

Hi Steve! A few other things to check: Are you sure you have HIGHMEMFIX=1 in the [GRAPHICS] section of your fsx.cfg? Are you sure you have the Vista uiautomationcore.dll copied into your fsx directory (but not registered, regardless of what some well-meaning but mistaken folks suggest)? Have you set up a fixed ("custom") size paging file on a disk that doesn't have your fsx installation? Have you applied the Desktop Heap Limitation registry patch? (I regard all four of the above as essential — as in "don't go simming without them" — but YMMV. The last two are specifically anti-OOM m

Thank you, John. Whilst hugely depressing, that account goes a long way to illustrate the seeds from which such an accident might have grown. My own experience was extremely technical albeit not aviation-related, and on a different eastern subcontinent, but a lot of what "Capt Brown" said resonated strongly with me, especially regarding an over-reliance on rote memorization and a disproportionate respect for authority. In my own experience, there was also a widespread culture of cheating in order to acquire meaningless paper qualifications with no actual experience, but that might be inapp

OK, someone has to ask the obvious dumb question, I guess. 5.2 Gb..... "Best possible performance..." Frame rates?? Cheers, Brian

<grin> Twice is better than nonce: I hope you find what you need in there! Incidentally, after page 18 it gets a it weird — going into a lot of depth about DX10 and then a technique called delidding for taking a razor blade to your processor <gulp> : if you stick to the first 18 pages, though, you should be safe enough! (It looks a bit intimidating at 46 pages, but when you realise you're actually looking at 18 it isn't quite so bad). > "What I've done is let FSX load up a shiny new cfg file..." Good thinking. A fresh start is a great way of getting rid o

Steve, have you looked at the Avsim "FSX Hardware & Software Guide v1.0.4.8"? It's an excellent summary of current thinking on tweaks and so on, and a number of people to whom I have recommended it have been able to solve their problems after reading it (or one of its predecessors). And since Avsim revise it regularly, it has so far stayed up to date. You can find it here: http://forum.avsim.net/files/file/1-fsx-hardware-software-guide/ Good luck: I sincerely hope you can nail whatever it is that's causing you all this hassle! Cheers, Brian

Great pics, Mike — thank you! (I hope that bird in shot #6 had ATC clearance)! Cheers, Brian

Stunning shots, mate — well done! Cheers, Brian

*Very* moody and atmospheric, and great clouds: beautifully done! Cheers, Brian

<grin> Unfortunately, my main memories of the Isle of Man are a few trips over there as a boy (perhaps with the IoM Steam Packet Company?) during which I was horribly seasick. Maybe that's why I've never been back. Mind you, now there's rumours of some decent fsx scenery for it, I may virtually reconsider..... But great shots of a great repaint, James! (I liked your posts on the Orbx forum, too). Cheers, Brian

Absolutely! Happy and glorious.... Quite spiffing, actually. Cheers, Brian

Hootenanny

Oops.... what I was about to post is now irrelevant. Well done at finding the problem! Cheers, Brian

<grin> Considering the pain we have to put up with along the way in order to keep going, we must seriously love this hobby!! Cheers, Brian

Fantastic result, Steve, well done! (I've had a few of those heart-stopping moments here and there, so I feel for you!). Fingers crossed you're on the up and up from now on. Cheers, Brian