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Couple of questions on P3D v1.3


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Installed today (thanks to Joe for saving me the download) and bought the academic license no problems, after some thought decided to install on the same SSD as FSX, initially had some control problems in FSX after the P3D install but it turned out it was my trim wheel unplugged and FSX still expected it to be there, sorted now :thum:

1: Looking at the P3D set up screen it shows it might be possible to import a control set up, clicked the button and it defaulted to my FSX install folder but the only .xml control file I tried to import seems to make no difference in P3D and controls are still stock ... I'm pretty sure the control .xml file is actually in the C:\ drive for other basic FSX stuff like logbook, scenery.cfg ETC ... I could always set up my controller hardware from scratch but if anyone has successfully imported their FSX control file I'd like to know what file to import please.

2: I should really study the EULA, but am I restricted as to how many times I can install P3D v1.3? or even if I can try it on my second PC?

But so far so good, have linked the Prepar3d.exe to my Nvidia Inspector FSX profile and it seems to work fine, just a little more tweaking to do because I must admit I have got FSX looking and running pretty sweet now.

Good times :thum:

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OK I found the control.xml file to import, still had to set up my controllers axis manually, but I have my FSX control set up imported over now, the file I was looking for was in C:\Users\my name\App Data\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX\Controls\standard.xml This path is for win 7 of course.

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I agree Brit, but it doesnt always work like that :) DCS (for Black Shark and A10-C) only give you so many activations for example but apparently they are pretty good about letting you have more if you ask nicely and you have run out, worst example I have found is with Space Shuttle Mission 2007, great technical space sim for a space fan and Shuttle fan like me, but its very sensitive about hardware changes to a PC and for someone like me who upgrades a lot thats not much use, they told me after only one request for another key that I will only ever get one more, this was an expensive sim at the time too, so I told them I'll not be buying from them again ... pretty angry about that one because I know some are playing the pirated version for free.

I'll not try installing it on my other machine just yet, still need to do more tweaking and testing on this one, but I like what I see so far :thum: Also i intend to upgrade to Ivy Bridge later this year and might need the extra activation for that hardware.

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...you bought the product you should be able to install it a thousand times...

Technically, you probably bought a license to use the product, not a copy of the product itself. Under the license, the vendor still owns your copy but licenses you to use it under the terms of the license. It's a fine point but one that software vendors can enforce in court if they choose to.

There are a lot of variations on the theme, but most vendors are a little nervous about giving customers a full, unfettered version that can be installed over and over without jumping through a few hoops. Their worst nightmare is the guy who pays for a legal copy and then lets all his relatives, neighbors, friends and his friend's friends install it too, and then maybe uploads it to a sharing site. Probably only one customer in a thousand would do something like that but unarguably, some do, or would if they could.

Usually, if you bump up against the limit of the license and contact them, software vendors will cheerfully reset the limit for you - I've had this happen several times when re-installing after a hard drive failure or buying a new PC or something like that which required re-installs. They recognize the value of keeping honest customers happy and are almost always willing to help you if you need more reloads than the license allows. On the other hand, if asked to reset a customer's limit 12 times in a week, they might not be so accomodating.

John

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as i mentioned in another thread tonight, new eurolaws will take the power away from the software mafiosa in the near future it will be legal to sell your copy of fsx or whatever to anyone you want and the eula owner will have to allow access to the new owner.

quite right in my eyes as these shysters want their cake and eat it as well.

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I agree Brit, but it doesnt always work like that :) DCS (for Black Shark and A10-C) only give you so many activations for example but apparently they are pretty good about letting you have more if you ask nicely and you have run out, worst example I have found is with Space Shuttle Mission 2007, great technical space sim for a space fan and Shuttle fan like me, but its very sensitive about hardware changes to a PC and for someone like me who upgrades a lot thats not much use, they told me after only one request for another key that I will only ever get one more, this was an expensive sim at the time too, so I told them I'll not be buying from them again ... pretty angry about that one because I know some are playing the pirated version for free.

I'll not try installing it on my other machine just yet, still need to do more tweaking and testing on this one, but I like what I see so far :thum: Also i intend to upgrade to Ivy Bridge later this year and might need the extra activation for that hardware.

it will be interesting to hear what you think of prepar3d once you get it all working. especially the problems you experienced

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Yup John, there are all sorts of variations on the theme, some are more draconian than others as I found out with Space Shuttle Simulator 2007, in the case of Eagle Dynamics who are lenient on their allotted activations ... I think you get about 8 (and you can still get more apparently) for each sim off the top of my head?, you can also deactivate their software to save you an activation if you are upgrading for example, of course that wont help for a hard disk crash, but their policy I have no problems with ... I actually don't mind the policy of doing a quick check online before you play like you do with Rise of Flight either, some folk have complained about that, but in reality it is very much a multiplayer game for the best out of it and you need to go online anyway for that, this would only hurt (even if you play it solo) if your internet goes down, but that has never happened to me when I've wanted to play RoF since it came out and my broadband rarely goes down anyway.

But in saying this I still haven't looked at the finer points of Prepar3D's academic license EULA, I'll check it out later, don't envision any problems there though.

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I agree Brit, but it doesnt always work like that :) DCS (for Black Shark and A10-C) only give you so many activations for example but apparently they are pretty good about letting you have more if you ask nicely and you have run out, worst example I have found is with Space Shuttle Mission 2007, great technical space sim for a space fan and Shuttle fan like me, but its very sensitive about hardware changes to a PC and for someone like me who upgrades a lot thats not much use, they told me after only one request for another key that I will only ever get one more, this was an expensive sim at the time too, so I told them I'll not be buying from them again ... pretty angry about that one because I know some are playing the pirated version for free.

I'll not try installing it on my other machine just yet, still need to do more tweaking and testing on this one, but I like what I see so far :thum: Also i intend to upgrade to Ivy Bridge later this year and might need the extra activation for that hardware.

it will be interesting to hear what you think of prepar3d once you get it all working. especially the problems you experienced

I've been going back and forth to it all day, have sorted the controller issue with FSX being on the same drive, that was nothing to do with it, it was my fault for having my trim wheel unplugged, I've got it looking sweet now image wise, the menu fonts as mentioned are off though but I expect that will be a quick fix, frame rates are very good, as good as FSX on the same machine here, have not tried installing any third party add ons yet but will soon.

I definitely see me losing FSX once V2.0 and DX11 version is out in the same way I eventually moved away from FS9 to FSX, its good to have a future with a comprehensive sim like this again :thum:

What I do miss from FSX is you always seem to be started at the end of a runway in P3D, I guess I'm just used to FSX opening up to a sort of menu, you can still choose what you want to do from the drop down lists though.

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I am just happy to have a stable product at last! Meanwhile FSX keeps crashing for various reasons, P3D, its like a breath of fresh air! :cloudnine:

It reminds me of the Windows Vista saga, should never have been released, now Windows 7 is the benchmark.

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FYI - P3D checks your license key each start - e.g. to check it hasn't run out. First start it runs a setup. After that (if you follow what I and others have found - and the site says) you can download the same or new versions as you will. They hold the license purchased on their site as well - when mine ran out it reminded me and I bought another 6 months. When 1.3 came out just downloaded that, installed and it ran without further setup. I presume it holds the info against your machine details same as Windows or whatever. i.e. it doesn't "activate" each time you download . . . hope this helps

But I still want AH on it - though that would probably class as entertainment, 'specially with that Circus flying!

Oh BTW - if you've got registered FSUIPC for controllers etc., you can just copy the FSUIPC.ini from FSX to P3D, ditto the XML.exe for Saitek panels

Thanks for the info, good to know the Saitek panels will work too.

Was wondering what AH was? but I guess its Just Flights Air Hauler? that's something I've been meaning to buy for a while.

I'll try my VR Insight GPS 5 sometime soon in Prepar3D and report back.

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I am just happy to have a stable product at last! Meanwhile FSX keeps crashing for various reasons, P3D, its like a breath of fresh air! :cloudnine:

Thats very true Joe, I've had FSX since its release and had it installed on several different PC's here over the years, its blue screened on all of them at some point, not very often on this one but you know its going to happen again, usually when I demonstrate FSX on this rig to a friend :whis: it usually happens after extended play and even when I've not overclocked anything ... I always suspected it was ... I dunno? half finished or at least in need of one more service pack.

Good to hear from folk with more hours in on P3D than me that it seems more stable ... I'd be perfectly happy with P3D at V2.0 and seeing more add-ons available for it as it looks like is starting to happen, pity PMDG cant support it (read that here I think) but I've never been a bus driver, light aircraft types are my favourite.

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AH looks to be a no-go, if you try to fool it by editing the registry it just crashes.

If someone else can confirm this I will add it to the list of fails.

Just querying it with Duncan Murray, I will let you know if I get an answer.

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Their worst nightmare is the guy who pays for a legal copy and then lets all his relatives, neighbors, friends and his friend's friends install it too,

Just reading this again and ... I don't think there is much worry of that here John, none of my friends or family understand why I like Flight Sims and especially ones that don't let you shoot guns or drop bombs :)

And this lead me to remember something I saw on another forum the other day I thought I'd share here, apology's if its been seen before ...

fspilot.jpg

And that gag is not far off the mark here, heh :P

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I love it. That graphic is going in our newsletter next month.

One thing to try with AH is to invoke the Wide FS option. It doesn't care if you are really using WideFS or not - just pauses to let you manually launch the sim instead of trying to launch it on its own. What I don't know is if the FSUIPC connection will latch up correctly if you fire up P3D instead of FS. It may, and is certainly worth a try.

In any case, I'm pretty sure a permanent fix will be a piece of cake for Slopey - the downside is the boys at JF will have to put together another update and make that available. Slopey does not do that part of it.

I'm getting cautiously optimistic that P3D may indeed be the Next Great Flight Simulator after all. It's all done at the pleasure of MS, however. In the end, they own the code that P3D is using and modifying and suspect that the license agreement between them allows MS the ability to pull the rug out from under them if they don't like what's happening or if they believe that L-M is in violation of the license agreement. I sure hope that doesn't happen.

I suspect that if it really does come along and gain favor in the serious FS community PMDG will come around, unless they've been drinking from the same pitcher of Kool-Aid that Tom Allensworth has.

John

EDIT: I guess the left-hand pane in the bottom row is what MSF pilots do.

JDA

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Latest word from Duncan is P3D is not on his radar.

However, he did suggest (Like John) the WideFS option, and it does work, I have just tried it. It is certainly communicating with AH ok although I haven't completed the job.

(Make sure you have the latest FSUIPC installed with P3D support)

Cheers,

Joe

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Hi Mike,

Start AirHauler, load company

Click Options Tab > then on the Options spanner

Click on AirHauler Options tab

Second section ("WideFS / Manual FS Launch")

Check box for "Use WideFS and wait for manual Flight Sim launch!"

This just means you can start P3D first if you want. When you want to fly a job AH exports a flight plan, on first use you will need to specify a path i.e C:\Users\{userid}\Documents\Prepar3D Files. You have to load this flight in P3D and flight the route as normal. You should see in AH that it is communicating with P3D and you will get the on-screen messages in P3D the same as FSX.

Hope this helps.

Joe

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