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Life interrupted my hobby, but I used to be a frequent poster here. So I thought I would say hi to my friends here, both posters and the wonderful folks at Captain Sim.

I am thinking about resuming simming, and would appreciate any big Captain Sim news from the last couple of years. I see they have a 777. What stage of maturity is it at, and does it have any cool new features? How about the 757 and 767? Any significant updates? Did they ever get rid of FSUIPC and did that solve the occasional glitches some were having.

Those who remember will know I loved Captain Sim products, so if someone could just mention a couple of highlights it would save my tired old eyes from sifting through many months of posts. Thanks!

Welcome Back Tim!

Great to have you back in the fold.

I think Mark will give you a better overview, but all the planes I have need a bit of work to be perfect, but I still have a lot of fun with what I have.

C-130, 707, 727 & 757. I never got the 767 and I'm waiting for the 777 to be tweaked and also the L-1011.
These are what I use the most. I never got into the shooting stuff, but I do have the B-52 as well.

Hope all is OK, and look forward to your posts.

Lou

Thanks, Lou. Everything's fine. I just got laid off unexpectedly. (Yes, even lawyers get laid off. I was a state death penalty defender, and suddenly my state got rid of the death penalty!)

I like all the products, but am most interested in the 757 and 767. They seemed "so close" to perfection and I was just curious if they've been updated and the remaining niggling problems resolved. Of course the 777 looks tempting, too.

I was in Kansas City, and they have an L1011 they are restoring at a small museum, which was cool to see, but she was still quite rough. (They also have a Connie that used to make the airshow rounds, but was grounded last I heard.)

I don't even have a (gaming) computer at this point, but am trying to decide whether to join the madness again. So I'm collecting my old purchase codes and checking out the FSX scene. I have three interests: Captain Sim is one.

Welcome back Tim. ;D

Sorry to hear that you were laid off. :(

I look forward to your input in the forums, you have been missed.

Welcome back on board, Tim. �:)

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I don't even have a (gaming) computer at this point, but am trying to decide whether to join the madness again.

Now don't make it sound like you need a Cray supercomputer or something. �:P Well, you do, but if you lower the sliders just a bit.. �;D

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How about the 757 and 767? Any significant updates? Did they ever get rid of FSUIPC and did that solve the occasional glitches some were having.

Yes, some updates which got rid of the FSUIPC dependency and I'd say that the 767 is a good plane now. I'm mostly sticking with the steam gauge CS planes though while all of them might need that extra service pack to be bug free. No doubt about that. Even with your long pause in mind, this might not have changed to be honest. :-/

Thank you, Tanya, for the very kind and unexpected welcome. :) You guys are the best.

Welcome back Tim, wondered where you got off to!

My new computer arrived today -- Alienware 18. But nothing was installed. So I got the OS (Windows 7) but am stymied for lack of a network adapter. Didn't see one on the drivers CD. So no internet, and we all know what that means. Kinda baffled...

Tim Capps wrote on Oct 23^rd, 2013 at 3:39am:

No network connector (RJ-45) on the back? Weird! Maybe it has a WiFi connection for the internet. :-/

[edit]According to this website: http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-18/pd.aspx, they all come with WiFi AND an RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet IPv6 connector! :o[/edit]

I think he needs the driver package which then enables the onboard devices in case the default (and most likely old) Windows DVD drivers can't. This work might involve using another system and an USB stick, Tim. At least until your main sys joins the Net and the world of Windows updates. �:D

Just head for the Alienware site and download all relevant drivers you can find onto that USB stick.

When you get it, everything should already be installed on it! If it isn't, I'm not so sure I would be buying it. I'm referring to Laptops and not Desktop PC's, which I always start from nothing, then build them, THEN install everything on them! ;D

Don't they usually have Function Keys with a secondary control? So you press the special Func key, then the F# (i.e. F8) that would perform the function you want it to do (like WiFi)?

Well, it was weird. I woke up the day after I had given up (no wireless, nothing installed except what I did with the recovery disks) and MIRACLE: everything was perfect! I guess it quietly sorted itself out overnight without further human intervention.

So now I have a smoking laptop and spent the evening downloading my Captain Sim collection. It was like meeting old friends again. And I can't say how much easier Captain Sim's system is than some.

I recall having to execute some tweaks re: sound and possibly battery. Are all of those sorted out, or do I need to dig through the forum for the drill?

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Windows must have a mind of its own, but at least it's working now. [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

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I recall having to execute some tweaks re: sound and possibly battery. Are all of those sorted out, or do I need to dig through the forum for the drill?

They're still there, so you'll need to dig through the forum for them.

Well, shouldn't be too hard to find (since I know I, as well as others, passed the lore on multiple times.)

Mark, what would be your recommendation to start with? I have the 757, 767, and 777. I need something relatively easy and mature to get back into FSX. And are we still counting ticks to get the COG? So much I've forgotten!

So airplanes are installed, but haven't done anything with liveries. I've only had time to look at them at the gate lol. How wretched is that? I can see I have some work to do on the 777 cabin, unless it really only works for KLM. I haven't checked the documentation yet. Working and grad school is kicking my tail.

Welcome back to Flight simming, Tim :)
Too bad that you got laid off, hope you will get some good compensation until you have a new job.
So, the good thing now is, that you got plenty of time for installing and tweaking Windows, FSX and addon's, because it could become a long hairy affair.

I am relatively new in CS aircraft, so I may be in the same boat as you. I found the easiest way to start off is the 707 and 737, using conventional VOR/NDB navigation. Next step is navigation with the CIVA-INS in the 707.
And finally, using FMC in the 757,767 and 777, where I still am on the learning curve. I read the 757 tutorial in here, and also the 767 tutorials by Mark regarding missing end of route and missing top of descent, very, very helpful!
Last but not least, you should read Nick N's Hardware and FSX guide over at simforums. His guide helped me to get descent performance out of my older rig with all CS aircraft.

Best Regards
Anders

I am past the layoff and back with my private practice, thus the Alienware 18 laptop ;-) but thanks.

And thanks for the reminder about Nick's setup advice. I had totally forgotten about that! I'm reading it right now. First things first, as much as I want to get in the air.

I have the 707 and 727. Both worthy, and not a bad thought to start over with the basics.

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Well, shouldn't be too hard to find (since I know I, as well as others, passed the lore on multiple times.)

And they are still going around these days too. :(

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Mark, what would be your recommendation to start with? I have the 757, 767, and 777. I need something relatively easy and mature to get back into FSX. And are we still counting ticks to get the COG? So much I've forgotten!

In all truth, the 757 and 767, which are almost identical, would be the best to start with.
Having said that, I do love the way the 777 "requests" the info, and providing the ZFW, which sure beats going to the Fuel and Payload section of the menu and adding the pax and cargo weight to the empty weight to come up with a ZFW. I must be getting slack in my old age! :o

EDIT: I still suggest the 757/767 as a starter, but only because they are better performing aircraft. AND the 767 is still my favourite out of the the 757, 767 &777!

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So airplanes are installed, but haven't done anything with liveries. I've only had time to look at them at the gate lol. How wretched is that? I can see I have some work to do on the 777 cabin, unless it really only works for KLM. I haven't checked the documentation yet. Working and grad school is kicking my tail.

There are too many polygons in the Pax cabin of the 777 to allow it to be included with the VC of the 777. We have "wished for" a reduced cabin (like what is found in the 757) so that we can at least get the first/Business Class included. Because there is no VC included in the CS_B777_PAX model, I don't fly it. I only load it to "wander around the cabin and marvel at Captain Sim's handiwork". Too hard to fly. IF Captain Sim were to include 2D panels, it might get up in the air. Although I am a huge fan of "VC only", I do understand why there is a need, by many simmers, to have them.

I optimized my computer, then did some very minor changes to the fsx.cfg file. Then the horror: the scenery was "tearing" in the middle of the screen. I set vsync ON through Nvidia's control panel, and it worked! (I am controlling the sim's graphics through the sim otherwise.)

With fairly demanding settings, I'm getting 50-60 FPS with Captain Sim's 7-Series. (That's with no traffic, but still...) It is smooth as glass. Alienware has a neat way of shutting down unnecessary stuff when you launch a game. (Yes, I know there are programs for that.) The profile even includes the mood colors on the computer lol -- the ultimate frivolity! Still, it does look cool. I may use it in court ;D

I researched the old fixes for sound and electrical problems. But when I loaded the 757, there was blessed SILENCE. No "phantom engines." Moreover, the cockpit sounds all worked perfectly. I did not do a full flight yet, but those are the kind of niggling little things that drive people crazy about Captain Sim... and they appear to be fixed.

Same with the 767. Bravo.

But it was the 777 that was jaw-dropping. The virtual cockpits in the 757 and 767 were true works of art. But the 777 was just so crisp it was a joy to behold. I could not resist taking off just to see one of these birds in the air. It was a pretty harrowing experience for the passengers, but a joy for me.

Best of all, I am remembering more than I thought I did. I started the 757 from the APU and managed to get both engines running. All from memory. I even told the stewardess how much I have missed her... my wife looked up from her knitting at that one.

So if you've stuck around, improvements might seem too slow. But if you're coming back after two years absence, you can notice a big improvement.

So the 757 will be the first airplane I start to work on. The Captain Sim 757 and I go way back... I wrote the AVSIM review for her. (And the 767.)

The only negative is the livery section has far too many dead links now. One of my favorites -- the Avianca 757 by Jadethar is gone, as are most (all?) of the McPhat freebies. Now you get taken to their website and I did not find Captain Sim among their free airplanes. It looks like we no longer have any South American liveries.

But I am feeling very positive about Captain Sim at the moment. I know gremlins may lurk within the FMC, (I remember wrestling with the TD bug back when I was active before, and it still seems to be around.)

Even my dog is a Captain Sim fan. Back when I worked for the state (the job I lost) I had to live in an apartment in a different city than my wife. But I had my yorkie Buster. I spent a LOT of time simming back then (just me and Buster... not much else to do). When he heard the familiar sequence of sounds signaling engine start-up, he came over and sat next to me, looking at the laptop. (Of course he may have been mesmerized by the subtly changing mood lighting.)

I don't have the free time I used to. I have a criminal defense practice and am a grad student (theology). But I'm looking forward to getting reacquainted with these wonderful works of art created out of programming code (and the contributions of a talented community of painters).

Tim Capps wrote on Oct 27^th, 2013 at 5:45am:

Even my dog is a Captain Sim fan.

:D Multi crew!

CoolP wrote on Oct 27^th, 2013 at 11:24am:

Tim Capps wrote on Oct 27^th, 2013 at 5:45am:

Even my dog is a Captain Sim fan.

:D Multi crew!

;D Definitely! Although he paws at the joystick in the belief my hand would be better employed petting him. something you don't want your FO doing on short final. (One bark for V1, two barks for V2, and roll over for rotate?)

Tim Capps wrote on Oct 27^th, 2013 at 7:49pm:

(One bark for V1, two barks for V2, and roll over for rotate?)

CAPTAIN SIM FORUM
General >> Hangar talks >> Back after couple of years https://www.captainsim.org/forum/csf.pl?num=1380134546 Message started by Tim Capps on Sep 25^th, 2013 at 6:42pm