2827

Weird one for you all. Instrument view buttons on Joystick won’t bring up instruments anymore. I can assign them and re-assign them, but they just don’t work. So odd because it worked great last night. Same plane, same routes, same everything. The buttons are confirmed to work in Windows and when assigning them.

2828

I noticed a bug with the latest build when trying to assign joystick buttons: You can tell it to detect a button and it will show the number, but it won’t keep the selection. But if you pick the same button number from the drop-down menu and assign it, it will stick.

Just flagging this in case you’re running into it, @jpinard. You’ll know it’s the issue because you’ll try to assign the button but when you go back it’s still assigned. Do the assignment from the drop-down list of button numbers and it will stick.

Looking forward to the day we look back and reminisce at how quirky the early versions of this sim were. :)

2829

Well done! In 2008 ish my wife got me a flight with an instructor for my birthday. Once in the air he gave me a few minutes with the controls and then basically decided I was good enough to fly the whole flight by myself. He even let me land (I mean, line up and stay straight to the runway, while he controlled engine and brakes once the wheels touched). I was surprised, not only because I was a noob, but because this was heavily trafficked airspace flying over SF downtown/ Golden Gate bridge etc.

Google Photos
Google Photos

I think he assumed I’d start lessons after that but the cost and travel to the lessons was beyond what I could allow at the time (somewhere near Redwood city I think, I was up in East Bay). But it was certainly an amazing experience… but it also made me realize how playing FSX already scratched the itch in a big way without going the extra mile.

That said… all I’m waiting for is Xbox Series X to announce VR support and that’s where I’ll go, can’t afford a new PC right now. But dying to play this damned thing already.

2830

Congrats…

This sort of reminds me of a heartwarming FS-related story.

Back around FS 2004: Century of Flight… MS included a coupon for a free flight at a flight school. I didn’t plan on using it, but I had a cousin recently immigrate to the US. He was a pilot in the old country, but didn’t have a pilot’s license in the US, and he was doing what he could to make a living.

I gave the coupon to him and he went to the nearby flight school for his free flight, and impressed them so much with his knowledge and skill that they hired him. Eventually he became an instructor and even took me up in the flight school’s planes when I was in town.

Today, he’s an FAA inspector. Federal badge and all.

And it all started with a coupon from Flight Simulator.

2831

What a great story.

2832

Woohoo, got my first promotion in Neofly. I think, if we aren’t going for a group FBO, I might spend most of my time in Neofly rather than FSE going forward. It’s nice to have it all in one app, it feels less grindy with lots of goals to work toward and AI pilots, and the mission planning is a lot simpler. FSE has the group stuff going for it, but for solo flying Neofly seems better in every regard.

2833

I’m still waiting to get started with one of these, and I wanted to go with the one that felt less grindy, immersive, but fun.

You like this better than OnAir?

2834

Haven’t tried it yet, tbh. If I get tired of Neofly I will, but I’d rather not get hooked on a subscription if I can avoid it.

2835

This is true by default, but it’s super customizable – if you want to just make it a giant single-panel map, you can.

This is what my main in-flight configuration is on my second montor.

Not too bad, I don’t think?

(I’m using the Google Terrain map layer there, found in the link earlier in the thread. I second it as a very worthwhile download.)

You can totally donate by PayPal. I’ve done it a few times.

https://albar965.github.io/donate.html

Alex is a really friendly and helpful guy, too. If you ever have any questions he’s always responsive on Avsim.

The magic phrase you want to search for is Google Earth Decoder. It’s how most of the large-area Google Earth imports are done. This is a pleasantly concise and non-annoying tutorial video covering the basics. Note that the basic output will be a bit rough – in order to make it look good you’ll need to experiment a bit and do some color correction.

(You can always tell the folks who just cram raw Earth2MSFS output into a mod and upload it, because everything has a horrible blue tinge that sticks out like a sore thumb.)

If you do go this route, one other thing to know about is the additional optimization tools for it. This is additional work by another developer that massively improves the performance of the decoder output. The person who created it, Thalixte, is responsible for some of the most amazing photogrammetry imports you can find.

And be careful, you’re about to head down a rabbit hole. :}

If you’re looking for non-grindy, NeoFly is just about as non-grindy as you can get. Especially since it’s an easy matter, if you’re inclined, to pop open its database (it’s unencrypted SQLite, you can open it with any basic SQLite client) and give yourself more planes or money or whatever. Or not. Up to you, it’s your game. That’s why I like it so much.

(If you get into it, I’ve created a few helpful automation tools like I mentioned up-thread that I’d be happy to talk about.)

Also in this field The Skypark was released into early access today. It’s very attractive and they have some cool features both implemented and planned. But it’s also ~$30, which may not be for you. I bought it today and have taken my tutorial flight in it, and like it well enough so far, but don’t have a firm opinion one way or another yet.

If you want to find out more about that before you jump in, here’s an hour long developer preview you can scroll through.

2836

By the way, if any of you fly the Working Title CJ4, we released an open beta of our next version this very evening. It includes our own custom built flight plan manager which replaces the stock FPM and works around a lot of the brokenness it has. You can now have full-featured RNAV capabilities, amongst many other things. There are other new features, like a from-scratch FADEC. It’s pretty awesome, if I say so myself.

(The new flight plan manager will be coming to my Garmin babies hopefully very soon. And we have an early release of our upcoming G1000 with a completely rewritten UI available on our discord for anyone who’s feeling truly adventurous.)

2837

I saw that on reddit just a bit ago. You guys have been very busy. LOTS of nav mode updates lately. I’m hoping you take breaks enough to keep it enjoyable. :)

I’ll be trying the CJ4 update this week.

2838

Huh! I was getting to a ‘Tipp der redaktion’ page in German, dunno what I was doing wrong. Donated, thanks!

2839

Looks pretty slick! I think I’ll give it some time to bed in, though, and see what the community feedback is like.

2840

Thanks for the tip on this! A mini review.

I’ve only had three flights so far (tutorial and two others.) Though ~$31 note that it is still being developed. I know some here have strong opinions on funding development so it is worth noting that. Especially so in comparison to NeoFly and FSE, both still free.

You have to sign up for an account on ORBX’s site to get started. That’s probably not a bad idea anyway as they develop a lot for MSFS and other sims and if you purchase things there, you get a one-stop for any of their add-ons/mods and a downloader to boot. No, I do not know how to integrate prior in-game ORBX’s purchases into your account. I’m not sure if there is a way.

The app itself uses an installed program which simulates a tablet. All the sub-screens are apps on the tablet. Since it is a separate program, you have the option to pin it to a monitor location. This is convenient to keep it up at all times while flying, but you can still minimize it and bring it back as needed. Note that the same MSFS rules apply, if you want sound to continue when playing with Skypark, you have to enable sounds outside of focused mode in MSFS 2020.

The tutorial is rather easy as it only really gets you up to the finish point of the first flight. There is no aircraft rental or ownership as of yet. You only have aircraft recommendations per flight; piston, turbo, jet, etc. I don’t know development plans yet but it was the first feedback I gave while playing using the in-game feedback. You gain levels and money from flying, similar to all the other meta apps. Unlike the others, there isn’t much to do with money or experience at this point, something I’m sure they have plans for. Unlike the other apps, there is a concept here of karma. You can gain good or bad karma and from what I understand, it looks like you get jobs related to which path you choose. There is even an adult content warning upon loading about those said missions, so I’m guessing you run drugs and/or sex workers or something, who knows.

Missions are fairly straight forward and I think this is the current sweet spot for Skypark. They include an in-game flight tracker within the app itself which pulls really good data from the sim and displays it as an ongoing map along with elevation data and other items. By far it has better tracking than others I’ve played, though I can’t comment on NeoFly as that is still on my to-do list. The app itself is so useful, I wonder if they will develop a tablet or mobile version too, since it lends itself to that very well.

Flights are pretty straightforward. It notes the, “location,” you load or are in as the start. You load up cargo prior to taking off, there did not seem to be a need for cold-and-dark, etc. Upon landing it again notes the location to see if you are in the correct area but you are supposed to taxi to an appropriate area to unload cargo, then shut off the engines, which gives the successful flight notation. Experience, karma and reputation are calculated. Of the three, reputation is this vague item you cannot see and requires you to apparently fly out of a specific airport, taking the airline office administrator out, who will then relay what people really think of you. If that sounds vaguely too interpersonal and gossipy to you, I had the same thought, and I’ve avoided trying it out yet. Not much point of it at this time anyway.

So in summary: great little application for it that automatically senses and gives great flight data feedback. It’s still a work in progress though and has quite a few things to flesh out, notably … why do I even want to make money if there isn’t anything to spend it on yet. Assuming they mimic the route of the other meta apps, this should fit the bill very well for a fun add-on to MSFS 2020, especially so since it appears to cater directly to it versus an all-in-one approach to multiple flight sims. Airports are only ones directly in MSFS, making things easy. You can fly any of the missions at this point from any location, meaning this is a great way to allow you to pick up flights in a region you aren’t normally seeing and get some airtime in. There do not appear to be negatives to poor piloting nor upping sim speed. There also don’t appear to be any limits to in-app time, meaning you can fly out of the US for one mission and then directly out of Europe for another, etc.

My apologies for no screenshots. I took plenty but apparently my capture key isn’t working correctly on my new gaming rig. I’ll add them in later.

2841

Very nice write-up Skipper; much appreciated. Definitely one I’ll keep an eye on. The big advantage is not being restricted to where your plane is based, so if they can get something going on the reward/earnings side, I’m in.

I’m still away from my pc but I intend to spend the next month or so catching up on the various bush trips that are available now.

2842

In other news, Companion App got updated as well.

https://flightsim.to/file/2828/msfs-mobile-companion-app

List of new features:

  • FLC autopilot implemented.
  • Added GPS track line for the VFR map.
  • Added light controls.
  • Added pitot heat and deicing controls (deicing controls may be limited depending on the plane, windshield deicing is not yet supported by SimConnect).

This is slowly becoming a must-have app to run in addition to MSFS if you have a free tablet around.

2843

To the best of my knowledge, no, there isn’t, the shopfronts don’t communicate at all because ORBX have no way of knowing who you are or what you’ve purchased on the Marketplace at this point. ORBX Central is a fairly decent app, much better than most companies’ integrated installers, and I definitely recommend buying from ORBX directly, both so you can be sure to get updates quicker, and to quality for upgrade discounts and other offers they sometimes make. (Plus, that way they also get the full purchase price without another storefront taking a cut, if that matters to you.)

That’s a really good writeup, thanks for sharing! One of the developers has been active on Avsim today and has given some good information on what their goals and philosophy are. This post is probably a good place to start. I left my own thoughts after some initial time with it there as well.

2844

I don’t know how the MSFS team plans to handle add-ons with the Xbox Series X|S, but as a precautionary measure I’ve decided to buy add-ons in the official marketplace if they’re available there. I’m assuming (and purely assuming, I don’t have any contact with the FS team) that PC Marketplace purchases will get cross-entitlements for the Xbox version, just based on how add-ons work with most Play Anywhere titles.

I’m really hoping there will be some way to put the contents of your Community directory on a thumb drive, but given console security concerns, I’m not gonna bet money on it.

Generally my purchase priority is:

  1. MSFS Marketplace – ease of updates and hopefully cross-platform capabilities. Downside: slow updates and later launches.
  2. OrbX – easy updates with OrbX Central, but not sure if content’s gonna work on Xbox
  3. SimMarket – if not avaialble in #1 or #2
  4. Publisher sites
2845

Ah, that’s a very good point if you think you’ll end up spending time with the Xbox version. That would probably invert the calculus for you, yeah.

Yeah, neither would I. I think that’s probably all I’m comfortable saying in that area right now. (Not saying I have any concrete insider knowledge there, just that I’ve discussed that topic with folks who do and don’t feel right sharing their own thoughts on the matter, just my interpretation of them. :) )

2846

One point to the plus side of that is that upon reloading recently, I entered my Xbox info and ALL of my purchased add-ons were available under my “profile” to re-download. Since that same account is/was my Xbox login, that -may- mean you’re good?

Nice write up! I agree with everything mentioned, I wasn’t sure where to send feedback to them so I did it in-app. It is indeed very slick, and IMO, portable to a full tablet or smart phone interface as an easy thing.

It needs more depth, but if they are still going with it, that is a very good thing. I loved how easy it was to get it going and find flights.