Classic British Flight Sim

Vancouver, are all the bugs sorted out with that ? We need to know before we dispatch Speedbird on another exploration mission.

TSR2 wrote:Yep, certainly looked that way to me. I'm about 20 miles south east of EGNT and the clouds looked similar in type to what I was seeing outside.

Ben, and this was using Rex Essentials Plus Everything Else ? What sequence do you use ? Do you start the REX weather engine then start up P3D separately and force REX to inject weather into P3D, or do you start P3D from within REX ? ( Hope that makes sense. )

Hi mate,

I haven't been using P3D mate, the benefit in "smoothness" isn't enough over usability so I've only really been using FSX recently. I would offer to try it tonight, but its pitch black outside and I can't see what the clouds are doing

Righty, just taken the Hunter up from Newcastle in P3D and it looks the same as FSX (although I can't verify the clouds tonight)

What I did was:-
Go to the textures button in REX and select the texture sets I wanted, saved them and installed them (Only need to do this once)

Open the same and went to Newcastle setting the time to 15:30 (Hunter already selected as my default aircraft)

Click on the weather button in REX, clicked on real world weather, typed in EGNT. then submit. Then clicked on "Fly Now"
Once the weather radar screen loads up, click on "load Weather"

Hi Ben, thanks for that. Its pretty much the sequence I follow, though after doing that big initial texture swap, I later allowed the weather engine to load textures.

More playing, coupled with more manual reading, is required before I'll be 99% confident its doing what I think its supposed to be doing.

Paul K wrote:Vancouver, are all the bugs sorted out with that ? We need to know before we dispatch Speedbird on another exploration mission.

I'm ignoring this REX Essential stuff on the grounds that it's trying to intimidate me. I hated the confusing interface and incomprehensible manual of the original program and the time it took to set up a flight, so I just set a texture theme and ignored the weather engine, setting the weather theme in the sim. The textures are lovely, though. I am not looking forward to going through this upgrade so I think I'll just ignore it in the hope that it will go away

As for Sim Launcher. We want it so badly to work, don't we? Well, if you remember, v1.0 didn't work at all so it was quickly followed by v1.2 which started the sim paused with no fuel or weather and that was quickly followed by me losing interest. So I've revisited the Avsim forum on an exploration mission and it's all been happening with new versions coming along as fast as you can install the last one following bugs, errors and trojan reports. But the developer, bless him, has been undeterred and has spewed out version after version and the latest is, as Vancouver says, v1.8. So I thought I'd have another go and installed it. As soon as it started it suggested upgrading to v2.0! So off it comes again and v2.0 is installed. This version actually works the way it should and loads a live aircraft with fuel and weather where you want it. BUT - for me it's freezing on the aircraft selection page. If I'm quick enough to select an aircraft before it freezes and jump to another selection screen it all works fine but if it freezes before I can do that - all is lost

Nobody else has reported this so it may be just one of my aircraft that's causing it. Or the fact that there is a lot of AI in the folder at the moment. Other than that, I reckon it's worth a look as if it works on your setup it could save you a lot of time.

simlauncher18.zip

Ian

Don't remember if it was like this before (like you, all the setting up prior to kick-off put me off using it) but now I don't mind.

I set up a nice weather scenario using the random function and now I use it every time I feel like it.

Even use it in Air Hauler, because it takes no time at all to get going now. You don't have to go through all the rigmarole you used to - just start REXE and click on the fly button - nothing more, nothing less.

That opens another window which stays in the background when FSX is starting - you just click on 'inject now' or similar (haven't flown for a few weeks) and that's it all done.

Completely changed my opinion on using it.

Paul K wrote:Hi Ben, thanks for that. Its pretty much the sequence I follow, though after doing that big initial texture swap, I later allowed the weather engine to load textures.

More playing, coupled with more manual reading, is required before I'll be 99% confident its doing what I think its supposed to be doing.

Hi Paul,

I think I may have been lucky the first time round. It seems to be that the best way to do it is on the weather tab, put in the ICAO of the airport, hit "submit" then click on "WX textures" then "OK", then "Fly Now"

much better results, although it does take a few minutes to set the textures up.

[quote="speedbird591"][quote="Paul K"]
Nobody else has reported this so it may be just one of my aircraft that's causing it. Or the fact that there is a lot of AI in the folder at the moment. Other than that, I reckon it's worth a look as if it works on your setup it could save you a lot of time.quote]
I keep my AI in a separate folder that way there is no confusion. viz-

[Main]
HideMenuFullscreen=1
HideMenuNormal=0
SimObjectPaths.0=SimObjects\Airplanes
SimObjectPaths.1=SimObjects\Rotorcraft
SimObjectPaths.2=SimObjects\GroundVehicles
SimObjectPaths.3=SimObjects\Boats
SimObjectPaths.4=SimObjects\Animals
SimObjectPaths.5=SimObjects\Misc
SimObjectPaths.6=SimObjects\Ai_Other
SimObjectPaths.7=SimObjects\FS2004
SimObjectPaths.8=SimObjects\Testing
SimObjectPaths.9=SimObjects\UT2 Aircraft
SimObjectPaths.10=SimObjects\Aircraft
SimObjectPaths.11=SimObjects\HJG
SimObjectPaths.12=SimObjects\CalClassic

I know SimLauncher has crept into this REX thread. I can't remember who's fault that is. Not mine, I'm sure

If you read my post of yesterday about how SimLauncher's developer was pumping out updates quicker than I could install them, then here's the latest! I posted on the Avsim P3D forum, where he lurks when he's not developing new versions, and mentioned my problem with the aircraft selection screen freezing in v2.0. Ah yes, he says, that's been fixed now in v2.2! Two hours later he announces v2.3 which fixes something else

But to be honest, he's very nearly there and it just about does everything you could want from a startup screen. So Prepar3d is pretty much viable as an everyday sim now, in that you can just start up SimLauncher and setup your scenario and let it start the sim for you, ready for your PFCs.

By the time we get to v4.0 it will probably do the flight for you and shut it down afterwards so you can go to the pub instead

Ian

TSR2 wrote: Hi Paul,

I think I may have been lucky the first time round. It seems to be that the best way to do it is on the weather tab, put in the ICAO of the airport, hit "submit" then click on "WX textures" then "OK", then "Fly Now"

much better results, although it does take a few minutes to set the textures up.

Thanks for that also, Ben. I'm going to persist with Rex. Once FTX England is here, the idea that it can replicate the weather and draw a reasonable approximation of what the sky looks like over Cambridge is too appealing to ignore. I'll be able to see what its like outside without even opening the blinds.