Editer
2867
Hah! I actually dug out my copy of Flying on Instruments with Flight Simulator a week or two ago, to see how useful it still would be. I picked up a copy at work at my first job out of college at Compute! Magazine – it was published in 1987 by Compute! Books, two years before I started working there.
Simon reports that much of it still applies despite its age.
I’m debating picking up FS Academy IFR. Has interactive missions for MSFS in addition to tons of documentation.
https://secure.simmarket.com/fs-academy-ifr-msfs.phtml
That’s the one I bought. It’s probably worth it although “tons of documentation” is a stretch. It’s a sparse 47 page pdf but I was capable of filling in much of the blanks. The lessons sometimes go a little fast and don’t really break down what you’re supposed to do in as much detail as I would have liked. Supplemented with some YouTube though, I’ve found it helpful.
Editer
2869
Ah, thanks for the review, Ike. Still sounds worth $20-ish.
Thrag
2870
Nice. Did you preorder from honeycomb? It’s not showing in stock anywhere I can find.
If you do please post impressions. That seem like the sort of thing I’m looking for.
jpinard
2872
Do they talk you through what to do? Or do you have to read steps to play along?
They talk you through it but sometimes not how to do it in a s much detail as I would like. You will occasionally have to refer to a chart.
For example, one of the later lessons has you track an ADF beacon but doesn’t tell you how to actually tune the frequency into the G1000. I found it eventually, but not until I was long off course and by then I had lost the track of the tutorial.
Pretty modest development update:
Main thing of interest is the VR preview, though Asia-based pilots may be interested to see landmark packs launched for HK and Singapore.
Skipper
2875
I decided to do some passenger hauling with the new rig today so I rented @Ginger_Yellow 's Diamond DA-62 for a jaunt from Frankfurt, Germany (EDDF) over to Quartier La Horie an airbase in Saint-Jean-Kourtzerode, France. It was an easy trip, a full flight of folks returning from a holiday break, and again, a few folks leaving there going back to Frankfurt for their holiday.
I tried to get my timing a bit better to catch the sunset but failed a bit. Instead, my flight out of Frankfort was at dusk.
And most of the flight went well:
But as dusk changed to night, I had a difficult time locating and landing at the airbase. There was … some bumpage of the plane … and I was just thankful everyone was okay, regardless of some puke in the back by the youngest guy.
I strangely misplaced my screenshot of it. Or perhaps I just didn’t want to Ginger to see the dents. Fortunately I know a guy who knows a guy who gave Philippe, the local fixer, a call. He did fine work overnight. You can barely tell anything happened, Ginger.
I booked the flight back the following afternoon, giving us a chance to see the sights:
And a clean run into the airport back in Frankfurt:
… wait, what’s that jumbo jet doing … tower? Tower?
One landing and a clean pair of pants and we leave for the pubs. Cheers!
Skipper
2876
I just noticed all of my Steam screenshots look white and washed out compared to the in-game view. I wonder what’s causing that?
EDIT: Nevermind, I found out the sad reason why. Apparently Steam isn’t capable of taking HDR enabled 4K screenshots. :( That really sucks, I mean MSFS 2020 Screenshot Generator should come with a warning.
Matt_W
2877
I just hit the Print Screen button on my keyboard and then paste directly into a forum post…
Ah, I see that HDR isn’t possible because it’s not stored in the screen buffer.
Editer
2879
The built-in Windows Game Bar screen capture seems to do a good job. (Windows+Alt+PrtScn)
Three days and counting, lads…
schurem
2881
oh my. It’s gon’ be gud! (well it better be, but likely low framerate hell).
And I’m getting my G2 delivered too! yay! no more screendoor. I will have to run the thing at half or even quarter res on account of my GPU, a 1070, being most likely incapable of pushing sufficient pixels sufficiently fast to let the G2 do it’s thing in all it’s glory.
Dejin
2882
FWIW I tried running X-Plane with a 1070Ti on an original Oculus and while it worked okay in the countryside, it chunked very badly in cities. I upgraded to a 2080 and it still wasn’t very smooth in cities, even at medium settings.
Microsoft has a much more modern engine than X-Plane, so it might go better.
I’m thinking MSFS VR’s going to be a bloodletting for anyone without god emperor rigs.
Nb. I do not have a god emperor rig. I fully expect my VR experience to be… suboptimal.
schurem
2884
My rig is partly potato, partly quite OK (I5-9600K) and it does fine running DCS at 45 frames, so I have some hope for MSFS. I reckon if I can get the G2 to do ok with about as many pixels as the rift asks, I should be ok for now, and due for a huge upgrade when the 3080 gets here.
Let’s see if their VR API is up to snuff.
Editer
2885
There have been a few versions of Meigs field uploaded, but this one is better than any of the ones that ever shipped with Flight Sim… Those of you who have been playing since the C64 days will appreciate the chance to relive this approach!
Skipper
2886
Because I needed it on my new PC, I had to hunt down the latest Liveries Mega Pack. For those looking or needing, it’s now on Discord:
http://liveriesmegapack.com/LiveriesMegaPack.zip
Once you link in on Discord, you add notifications for it, then you can grab it. I like browsing the individual ones here:
But let’s be honest. One big pack provides 90% of what I need for aircraft alternative coloring. Until I learn how to make these myself one day, this is good enough.
That being said, here is a copy of the latest Mega Pack:
