Airspeed Ambassador for FSX out now!

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Dev One
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Re: Airspeed Ambassador for FSX out now!

Post by Dev One »

Re: P3D - there is some chat about it over at SOH, it seems one has to pay for the priveledge & its also seems to need quite a powerful set up.
I'm having enough problems with FSX in that, for example, Robs Ambassador which I have just d/led only gives be 5fps! Hence my sticking with FS9! Nice model though Rob.
Keith

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DaveG
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Re: Airspeed Ambassador for FSX out now!

Post by DaveG »

I'm toying with getting P3D too. Most reports seem favourable, with a lot of stuff being compatible.

The "academic" license is $49.95 (around 30 quid) so it's not too expensive. ;) http://www.prepar3d.com/

Most people who have tried it seem to say it's performance is around the same, or slightly better than FSX, but smoother overall. Of course there are always exceptions, so "your milage may vary" :lol:

My FSX is working well ATM, so I don't really know if it's worth while :dunno:
Dave G.

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Re: Airspeed Ambassador for FSX out now!

Post by TSR2 »

I'm in the same boat DG. £30 is ok as you say, but the thing that appeals most is that if it supports the FSX stuff, then it might be a good way of keeping things going for the next lot of years. They seem to have put a few patches out for it, albeit small things, but it looks like they intend to keep it going.
Ben.:tunes:

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DaveG
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Re: Airspeed Ambassador for FSX out now!

Post by DaveG »

I think updates are free up until version 2, which is fair enough I think. Seems a better prospect to me than "Flight".

Anyway, apologies for the thread hijack :OT: :lol:

Downloading the Ambassador now :cpu: Looks like another fine model. Thanks Rob :cheers:
Dave G.

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Re: Airspeed Ambassador for FSX out now!

Post by robcarrich »

I agree Dave, although I like "Flight" and will no doubt try all the new add ons its just not a sim.
Being a junky for anything new I just had to try Prepar3d.
It runs a little more smoothly than FSX and all my add-ons seem to work OK including AI carriers, I have run into a few problems with gauges on the Venom not working properly but that's a small matter that can be cured.
As I see it Prepar3D ( to be pronounced “prepared”, so I understand) is at least in development with updates coming along all the time and as I have always liked FSX and felt Microsoft could have done a lot more with it, Its Just right for me.

Rob

PS sorry about the framerates Keith..Oh and FS9, your missing so much!
And yes AI is supported Ben.

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Paul K
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Re: Airspeed Ambassador for FSX out now!

Post by Paul K »

Rob, very fitting that you've released this now, as Friends of Duxford newsletter reports that the external and structural conservation of their Ambassador is approaching completion. Although the flight-deck fittings and instrumentation are yet to be installed, the public will have access to it during this years airshow season. :)

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Re: Airspeed Ambassador for FSX out now!

Post by robcarrich »

Went and had a look at it last weekend Paul, looks a long way from finished to me.
I rang Duxford first and e-mailed them a couple of times to try for permission to get up close and take some photos of the Ambassador but did not even get a reply from them and its quite difficult to get hold of anyone on the phone that even knows that they aircraft there, seems to me that unless you are the likes of The Duke of Edinburgh of Paris Hilton the best you will get from them is a leaflet and the “bums rush”, and then only after you have paid the extortionate entry fee!
The Ambassador hanger was deserted when I went in so I just climbed over the barrier and got all the shots I needed, without getting in it of course.

Rob

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Adrian Petford
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Re: Airspeed Ambassador for FSX out now!

Post by Adrian Petford »

robcarrich wrote:I state “acceleration” because thats all I had on my system and cannot fully guarantee they will work in other FS versions.
They also work just fine in Prepar3D, which is now my sim of choice, so much so that I have ditched FSX.
I have installed UK 2000 VFR airports, GenX, Treescapes UK and REX into the new sim and everything works to perfection.
As well as the Ambassador there is also a new Venom version for download, should anyone be interested.
Hi Rob,

Thanks for the new Venom, another fine addition to my DH fleet. I've had her for a couple of days and am already clocking up the hours. Superb stuff! One of my special areas of interest is New Zealand aviation (I spend a month there each year and always try to see an airshow or museum) so it is great to get another Kiwi-based variant. While researching this plane's "biography" I was sad to see she crash landed at Hood Aerodrome last year. Hope she's repairable and will be back in the skies again soon. I'd love to see this one in real life!

I've also grabbed the Ambassador and it's superb. Not a type I know much about in real life but it's interesting to fly and I love all of the old classic airliners. Nigel Richards' Centaurus soundset adds so much too. In the readme, you mention about it being easy to adapt the soundset (compiled for the FS9 Sea Fury) for the Ambassador? I've got it running fine with my Ambassador but is it easy to tweak the config so it represents two engines rather than one?

Thanks again for your work Rob,


Ade

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Adrian Petford
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Re: Airspeed Ambassador for FSX out now!

Post by Adrian Petford »

For those thinking about P3D, I'll repost my observations from another forum (sorry for the thread re-hijack):

I've been flying PREPAR3D for a couple of months now and would definitely recommend anyone to give it a try. On my system it's a huge improvement over FSX even at version 1.3.

Framerates are higher (a solid 40-60 as opposed to 30-35 for me in FSX) and, most importantly P3D is much smoother regardless of framerate. The stutters are gone and it performs well even if the actual framerate is low. There are no black graphical spikes over dense vegetation even with settings maxed. Autogen textures have been redone and are much improved. In fact the texture maximum size can now be set to 4096x4096, so no having to repeatedly reset that in the config file. Remember that amazing water you thought looked lovely in FSX but only tried once because it reduced your machine to a crawl? Well, it's the default in P3D and runs fast and smooth. The new P3D 1.3 adds two additional LOD levels as well (up to 6.5) and these result in a great visual improvement without much hit on performance. The interface in P3D is much nicer and more professional looking. When flying Aerosoft's Bronco (the only official P3D addon I have so far), I got 50+ FPS on this very complex model after using their supplied startup flight.

There aren't many downsides as I see it. As with FSX, you'll have to spend some time tweaking P3D for your set up as out of the box it didn't impress. I found I got a massive improvement in performance by disabling bathymetry. P3D always loads straight into a flight which can be very annoying (apparently a full GUI is coming) although I think this can be changed to whatever you prefer. Some of the default aircraft from FSX were not licenced to Lockheed Martin and so are missing by default, although I believe everything can be ported in. The current upgrade procedure involves a total uninstall and reinstall which could cause major problems if you have a lot of addons installed. The download is about 9Gb across three files so getting it will use a lot of your quota if you are capped.

I took the month's free trial (with Computer Pilot) and then a monthly developer subscription, as I was waiting for v2.0 before buying outright. On the strength of P3D even as it stands now, I would have happily paid the $500 US for it so at $49 US the new academic licence is an absolute steal. I'm about to move over to it myself. At present I am not flying P3D with any addons installed as I am waiting for official support but can well see myself based exclusively on this platform in a year or so. It really is very exciting for the future.

Test rig:

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66GHz (overclocked to 4.00 GHz) 64-bit CPU
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Intel X58 PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Corsair XMS3 6Gb (3x2Gb) PC3-12800C9 DDR3 RAM
Enermax Galaxy DXX 1000W PSU
MSI GeForce N580GTX OC Twin FrozR II 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Lockheed Martin PREPAR3D 1.2/1.3

Hope that helps,

Ade

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Re: Airspeed Ambassador for FSX out now!

Post by DaveG »

Thanks for the summary Adrian. I bought P3D yesterday & am waiting for the downloads to finish ATM. I'm going to post a new thread with my experiences as I go, so others can see if it my be suitable for them.
Dave G.

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