Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - Looking for some payware suggestions...

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support | Looking for some payware suggestions...

DVA10723
Captain, B737-800
OLP

Joined on May 10 2012
50 State Club
Globetrotter
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Two Million Mile Club
US Capital Club
Flying Colonel
Carolina Club
Everett 1500 Club

Myrtle Beach, SC

1,547 legs, 4,986.4 hours
19 legs, 27.1 hours online
1,525 legs, 4,930.9 hours ACARS
2 legs, 4.6 hours event

Posted onPost created on August 31 2013 21:29 ET by Josh Martin

Interested primarily in the best of these three different areas:
1. Weather
2. Scenery
3. Cockpit atmosphere (something besides default ATC or vatsim primarily)

FYI: have the I5 3770k CPU and MSI 7850 GPU. in case you think any of your recommendations may cause my fps to suffer. Thanks so much!!

Josh Martin

Captain, B737-800

DVA8502
Captain, B757-200

Joined on April 13 2010
Double Century Club

"MOCHA HAGTDI."
Folkston, GA

251 legs, 575.3 hours
65 legs, 139.7 hours online
241 legs, 558.8 hours ACARS
2 legs, 4.6 hours event

Posted onPost created on September 01 2013 00:04 ET by Timothy Thomas

OPUS is the best for weather in my experience. but outside of the US its only okay. Active sky is a good one to.

Anything from FSdreamteam is good. as for world wide. FTX global if you want to shell out more money than its worth. UTX is a great landclass update, and GEX enhances it even more

OPUS comes with camera options for enhancing the views. Accufeel is probly the best enhancement addon ive purchased.

as for performance. Scenery is a big Preformance hit byitself. FSdreamteam optimizes thire scenery very well thoue. OPUS can hit the frames depending on what textures and weather settings (in particular cloud range and density) you use

Timothy Thomas

Captain, B757-200

DVA8752
Captain, B767-300

Joined on January 01 2010
50 State Club
Triple Century Club

Sedalia, CO

338 legs, 1,236.8 hours
31 legs, 181.3 hours online
37 legs, 232.7 hours ACARS
2 legs, 8.4 hours event

Posted onPost created on September 01 2013 14:13 ET by Brandon Howell

Weather;

Opus: http://www.opussoftware.co.uk/opusfsi.htm
REX: https://www.realenvironmentxtreme.com/
ASE: http://www.hifitechinc.com/products

Scenery;
-Airports

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/
http://www.flytampa.org/

-Land

Orbx: https://www.fullterrain.com/
Mega: http://www.megascenery.com/
GEX: https://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=gexusacan

Cockpit;

VOX: http://www.voxatc.com/Home.aspx

Brandon Howell (DVA8752)

DVA11221
Captain, B777-200
OLP

Joined on January 01 2013
50 State Club
Century Club

Issaquah, WA

114 legs, 423.9 hours
37 legs, 94.4 hours online
114 legs, 423.9 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on September 02 2013 00:28 ET by Shaun Oneil

I'm really surprised nobody has mentioned Flightbeam yet ... www.flightbeam.com ... right up there with FSDT and FlyTampa! I'd also add UTX (USA: http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=utxusa) for landclass / vector data.

Shaun Oneil

Captain, B777-200

DVA3520
First Officer, B747-400

Joined on September 07 2006
Double Century Club

"Feelin' good is good enough!"
Riverside, CA

280 legs, 834.6 hours
120 legs, 384.6 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on September 02 2013 13:03 ET by Bryan Lee

Everything Brandon listed, and yeah, dont forget UTX(Ultimate Terrain X). Cant go wrong with Opus set to download VATSIM weather, its brilliant. Use REX for textures,but their weather engine is complete junk and thats where Opus comes in. For ATC I recommend Aerosofts Pro-Flight emulator. Better than RC4 in my opinion and waaaaay better than FS ATC.

Bryan Lee

First Officer, B747-400

Posted onPost created on September 02 2013 13:52 ET by Josh Martin

Enjoying visiting this thread for ideas, PLEASE keep them coming and chime in on anything that has been mentioned so far!! I do have UTX but none of the others! Does OPUS only generate weather, or does it enhance the visuals to make it look realistic as well? What exactly will REX do when it comes to textures? Does OPUS and REX work together to create a better experience?

Josh Martin

Captain, B737-800

DVA3520
First Officer, B747-400

Joined on September 07 2006
Double Century Club

"Feelin' good is good enough!"
Riverside, CA

280 legs, 834.6 hours
120 legs, 384.6 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on September 02 2013 16:31 ET by Bryan Lee

OK, REX is a full on texture enhancement program that installs HD quality textures for the sky, sun, clouds, taxiways, runways, water, everything! You can pick and choose what textures you want installed and let me say it works great and looks fantastic. OpusFSX is, basically just a method for injecting real-world, accurate weather data into FSX. Whatever textures you have installed will be used by Opus to depict the weather. REX and Opus work together perfectly, and I would imagine Opus would work with whatever texture program you use.
The short answer is yes, Opus and REX work together brilliantly to create a better experience.

Now, the bad news. If you want both REX and Opus it is going to cost you somewhere in the range of $40-$50 American each. If you want both textures and a weather engine for about $45 then you can look into ActiveSky 2012. In my opinion Opus is a superior weather engine and REX is a superior texture program, but again, this solution may be costly depending on your budget.

Bryan Lee

First Officer, B747-400

Posted onPost created on September 02 2013 18:27 ET by Josh Martin

Bryan, active sky does NOT have a real world conditions feature, correct?

Josh Martin

Captain, B737-800

Posted onPost created on September 02 2013 20:21 ET by Timothy Thomas

active sky 2012 is weather as well as textures. its weather is pretty accurate but OPUS has some feachurs that blow it away. its hard to really explain but think of it like this. both have accurate weather but OPUS depicts it more realisticly.

I just looked at flightbeam. thire KIAD looks great and is dephinitly on my buy list now. as for KSFO its on the avoid list. for the simple fact that it requires AES for working jetways. I belive AES is a thing of the past and needs to go away. but KIAD is a example of how scenery should be done. and after I browsed the fourm they are breaking new ground with thire upcoming KDEN (they have hills in the middle of the airport its not entirely flat). any thing from FSdreamteam is good especially GSX.

Timothy Thomas

Captain, B757-200

Posted onPost created on September 02 2013 21:22 ET by Josh Martin

Well I made one purchase tonight, OPUS, but am lost on how to get the most out of it. Anybody who is fluent with the program, I'd greatly appreciate some help!!!! So far, I haven't noticed one shred of difference...lol

Josh Martin

Captain, B737-800

DVA3520
First Officer, B747-400

Joined on September 07 2006
Double Century Club

"Feelin' good is good enough!"
Riverside, CA

280 legs, 834.6 hours
120 legs, 384.6 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on September 03 2013 14:35 ET by Bryan Lee

There are many factors in the Opus set up, I would strongly recommend reading the documentation on the weather engine that is included. Also make sure you are updated to the latest version, but the biggest help will not be from any of us here but from just reading the manual... I know, reading sucks but you must READ THE MANUAL!

Bryan Lee

First Officer, B747-400

Posted onPost created on September 03 2013 17:11 ET by Timothy Thomas

I concur. read that manual. specificly on the weather engine.

Timothy Thomas

Captain, B757-200

Posted onPost created on September 04 2013 09:07 ET by Josh Martin

My computer is NOT liking OPUS so far. Several times since installing it the computer is crashing, and I don't know where to begin to fix it. I have read through the manual and tried to make sure settings are accurate, but I may be doing more damage than good... :-/

Josh Martin

Captain, B737-800

DVA3520
First Officer, B747-400

Joined on September 07 2006
Double Century Club

"Feelin' good is good enough!"
Riverside, CA

280 legs, 834.6 hours
120 legs, 384.6 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on September 04 2013 13:37 ET by Bryan Lee

Wait, your computer started crashing just randomly at any time or just when using FSX? Do you know how to access the Microsoft Event Viewer? If you can post the entire error log file here and I will have a look to see what may be causing the crash. Also make sure you are using FSUIPC 4.90 or higher, this is critical.

Here is how to access the microsoft management console
1. Open the windows start menu and type mmc into the search box and hit enter
2. In the mmc click on file in the upper left corner.
3.Click add/remove snap-in.
4. From the list of snap-ins click on event viewer then click add.
5. Click ok and the EV will open. Wait for the lists to populate and then look for the recent errors in the first box.
6. You will see a list of error for the last hour, last 24 hours , and the last 7 days.
7. Expand the Error list and see which errors occurred(look for application level errors).
8. Find the error corresponding to your crashes(use some common sense for this part) and post that log here. Thanks.

Bryan Lee

First Officer, B747-400

Posted onPost created on September 05 2013 07:43 ET by Josh Martin

Bryan Lee wrote:

Wait, your computer started crashing just randomly at any time or just when using FSX? Do you know how to access the Microsoft Event Viewer? If you can post the entire error log file here and I will have a look to see what may be causing the crash. Also make sure you are using FSUIPC 4.90 or higher, this is critical.

Here is how to access the microsoft management console
1. Open the windows start menu and type mmc into the search box and hit enter
2. In the mmc click on file in the upper left corner.
3.Click add/remove snap-in.
4. From the list of snap-ins click on event viewer then click add.
5. Click ok and the EV will open. Wait for the lists to populate and then look for the recent errors in the first box.
6. You will see a list of error for the last hour, last 24 hours , and the last 7 days.
7. Expand the Error list and see which errors occurred(look for application level errors).
8. Find the error corresponding to your crashes(use some common sense for this part) and post that log here. Thanks.

Hey Bryan, thanks so much!! I never made it back to the cooler yesterday so I just saw your message now, and am at work for the day.

First, computer is only crashing in FSX. I never accessed the "FSXServer" (OPUS), and did a LAX-MIA flight in the new 777 with absolutely no problems. Every time I try doing the OPUS weather though, it starts getting messed up. As far as the FSUIPC 4.90, are you talking about the free version or does it need to be registered?

Thank you!! I'll try to post the event log ASAP! Helping coach my fiance's son's football practice every night from 6:00-7:30 these days isn't helping my spare time...heh

Josh Martin

Captain, B737-800

DVA3520
First Officer, B747-400

Joined on September 07 2006
Double Century Club

"Feelin' good is good enough!"
Riverside, CA

280 legs, 834.6 hours
120 legs, 384.6 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on September 05 2013 14:47 ET by Bryan Lee

Glad to help if I can Josh, yeah the free version of FSUIPC should do fine. I run a registered copy so I'm not sure if the freeware version has this feature. Open FSX, start the default flight and the press ALT to bring up the menu. In add-ons, or FSUIPC it is seperate, open FSUIPC and check your version. Then, if it has this feature on an unregistered copy, click "Disable all weather settings" or whatever it may be. Opus doesnt use FSUIPC for any of its operations so you want to make sure there are no conflicts. When you get a chance post that log and we will try and get it figured out. You may also want to make a post in the Opus support forums as it is their product and they may know what the problem is straight away without all this fuss.

Bryan Lee

First Officer, B747-400

Posted onPost created on September 05 2013 16:26 ET by Josh Martin

Bryan, the most recent "error" was Tuesday night at 7:00pm. Here is what it says:

Faulting application name: fsx.exe, version: 10.0.61637.0, time stamp: 0x46fadb14
Faulting module name: uiautomationcore.dll, version: 7.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x4a5bdb1d
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000e52a
Faulting process id: 0x20c
Faulting application start time: 0x01cea8f0e9dc38da
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\fsx.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\uiautomationcore.dll
Report Id: 8274544c-14ec-11e3-a6e9-c86000ddacf7

Do I have an out-of-date .dll? I think I remember seeing a site that said the fix for that was this file...just dont want to do more harm, ya know?!

Josh Martin

Captain, B737-800

Posted onPost created on September 05 2013 16:26 ET by Josh Martin

this...

http://www.ramoonus.nl/2010/01/01/the-fix-to-microsoft-flight-simulator-x-crash-on-windows-7-x64/

Josh Martin

Captain, B737-800

DVA3520
First Officer, B747-400

Joined on September 07 2006
Double Century Club

"Feelin' good is good enough!"
Riverside, CA

280 legs, 834.6 hours
120 legs, 384.6 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on September 05 2013 17:10 ET by Bryan Lee

I have never needed to use the UIAutomation .dll, but i have it installed anyways just in case. Yes, go ahead and download a newer version of that file. However, I notice the path to your existing module is in the system folder, make sure you place the new UIAC .dll in your main FSX folder. Give that a try and see what happens. At least we know Opus is not the cause of the crash, I didnt think it would be.

Bryan Lee

First Officer, B747-400

AFV656
Senior Captain, B737-800
OLP
E-MAIL

Joined on June 22 2012
Diplomatic Mission
50 State Club
The Penguins Of Madagascar
B737 Two Fifty Club
Millenium Club
Online Five Hundred Club
Million Mile Club
Globetrotter Extraordinaire
GVA 10 Year Anniversary

"Acta non Verba"
Aarhus, Denmark

1,234 legs, 3,028.7 hours
596 legs, 1,149.4 hours online
1,158 legs, 2,768.2 hours ACARS
45 legs, 228.9 hours event
18 legs dispatched, 14.2 hours

Posted onPost created on September 05 2013 17:21 ET by Zacharias Dupont

Josh is that 100%??

Posted onPost created on September 05 2013 17:41 ET by Josh Martin

Zacharias, what exactly are you talking about?

Josh Martin

Captain, B737-800

Posted onPost created on September 06 2013 08:10 ET by Josh Martin

Bryan Lee wrote:

I have never needed to use the UIAutomation .dll, but i have it installed anyways just in case. Yes, go ahead and download a newer version of that file. However, I notice the path to your existing module is in the system folder, make sure you place the new UIAC .dll in your main FSX folder. Give that a try and see what happens. At least we know Opus is not the cause of the crash, I didnt think it would be.

Bryan, I DL'd the new UIAuto file and placed it in the fsx folder. Do I need to delete the one in the c:system32 folder?

Josh Martin

Captain, B737-800

AFV744
Senior Captain, B747-400
OLP

Joined on April 27 2012
Diplomatic Mission
Globetrotter Extraordinaire
50 State Club
The Penguins Of Madagascar
Online Five Hundred Club
Event Century Club
Double Millenium Club
Historic Quadricentenary Club
Five Million Mile Club

Wellington, NS Canada

2,468 legs, 10,374.5 hours
752 legs, 1,426.3 hours online
2,468 legs, 10,374.5 hours ACARS
238 legs, 466.0 hours event
3,528 legs, 15,773.5 hours total

Posted onPost created on September 06 2013 08:18 ET by Bill Gardiner

Josh, FSX will use the one in the main FSX folder if it's there. All of your other programs will still look in the system32 folder and use that one so you're only changing it for FSX.

Bill Gardiner

Senior Captain, B747-400

Posted onPost created on September 06 2013 08:29 ET by Josh Martin

Thanks Bill!!

Josh Martin

Captain, B737-800

Posted onPost created on September 06 2013 09:46 ET by Zacharias Dupont

Josh Martin wrote:

Zacharias, what exactly are you talking about?

Is that working 100%

Posted onPost created on September 06 2013 11:45 ET by Josh Martin

Zacharias, not sure what you're referring to. FSX? OPUS? I DL'd/replaced the uiauto file, but haven't had a chance to do a flight with OPUS running

Josh Martin

Captain, B737-800

Posted onPost created on September 06 2013 11:59 ET by Zacharias Dupont

I am referring to the FSX CtD fix you found.

DVA3520
First Officer, B747-400

Joined on September 07 2006
Double Century Club

"Feelin' good is good enough!"
Riverside, CA

280 legs, 834.6 hours
120 legs, 384.6 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on September 06 2013 14:20 ET by Bryan Lee

Hey Josh, did you get a chance to test that out yet? Problem fixed? Let me know.

Bryan Lee

First Officer, B747-400

Posted onPost created on September 11 2013 11:30 ET by Josh Martin

Hey Bryan, I wanted to let it go for a little while before responding. Last night I did LAX-San Jose, Costa Rica, and it was flawless. There was a lot of rain coming into San Jose, and you could definitely tell that it was NOT fsx default weather!!! biggrin

Josh Martin

Captain, B737-800

Posted onPost created on September 19 2013 09:00 ET by Josh Martin

how about suggestions for payware ATC? What program is the best in your opinion, and why? Thanks in advance!!

Josh Martin

Captain, B737-800

Posted onPost created on September 19 2013 15:12 ET by Timothy Thomas

As for ATC your not going to find one really.

some people say proATCx is good. I don't want to try it after the sheer show of carelessness involved with its release. but from what ive heard its working good now.
Radar Contact probly dosent even need to be mentioned these days.
Pro Flight emulator is another one. bout the same as radar contact. few minor diffrences. and one major
VoxAtc. this is the one programe that has a demo. id say try it.

really when it comes to ATC you got the programs I listed above, Default (if you know what your doing with a few tricks and EVP, default is the best), and online VATSIM/IVAO. id say look into the programs read thire manual watch gameplay videos of them and see what you think. but don't buy one until you are shure you want it.

Timothy Thomas

Captain, B757-200

Posted onPost created on September 20 2013 16:35 ET by Josh Martin

Timothy Thomas wrote:

As for ATC your not going to find one really.

some people say proATCx is good. I don't want to try it after the sheer show of carelessness involved with its release. but from what ive heard its working good now.
Radar Contact probly dosent even need to be mentioned these days.
Pro Flight emulator is another one. bout the same as radar contact. few minor diffrences. and one major
VoxAtc. this is the one programe that has a demo. id say try it.

really when it comes to ATC you got the programs I listed above, Default (if you know what your doing with a few tricks and EVP, default is the best), and online VATSIM/IVAO. id say look into the programs read thire manual watch gameplay videos of them and see what you think. but don't buy one until you are shure you want it.

I do have EVP, but what are those "few tricks" that you referred to??

Josh Martin

Captain, B737-800

Posted onPost created on September 20 2013 20:43 ET by Timothy Thomas

well the most usefull one is VFR flight following.

say your flying KATL to KJAX. you can depart IFR out of ATL, once airborne cancel the IFR with ATC and get VFR flight following. Default ATC handles Flight Follow the same as IFR minus the altitude clerances, and it dosent care that you fly into class A airspace as VFR. this means you can do what ever and still get separation services (well traffic alerts anyway).

Another is tune no contact.
using the auto tune feachure with default ATC press the buttons to tune a new Freq, but don't contact it. now you can listen in but you don't have to worry about loseing IFR or VFR services. very usefull for being AFK at times.

then theres SIDs and STARs.
Most sid can be flown IFR or VFR in default ATC, only the runway dependent Sids pose a issue, but as long as you take off from the same runway you planed, you will be fine. Stars on the other hand are different. only certin STARS can be flown with default ATC. a good example is the AMG2 Star into KJAX. notice the corssing restriction is 12000 at OHDEA. with Radar vectors after that point. to fly this under default ATC IFR. you need to set the Flight plan altitude as 12000 (or what ever you want the corssing altitude to be.) then use ATC until your cleared up to that altitude. once you are use the Tune no COntact method on your next Freq Switch. now you can fly whatever desend as planed. and once your at OHDEA just contact the controller and they start giving you vectors.
NOTE: don't use that for any crossing restrictions below 10000 it leads to issues. and you must be at the flight plan altitude you set (in this case 12000) when you contact the controller.

make shure to use EVP to to keep the voice pack uptodate, and make it give you wind reports on takeoff and landing. theres also a mod for it that will give you speed restrictions on the ILS clerances but im not shure where its at.

Timothy Thomas

Captain, B757-200

Posted onPost created on September 20 2013 20:46 ET by Timothy Thomas

note OPUS is also the best weather for FSX since it dosent use a global weather function like Active sky. this meanes ATIS reports are accurate, and you wont get opposite runway issues ither. if you can get AI smooth working, I recommend it to. also ive noticed World of AI traffic seems to sequence itself better than my Traffic X traffic ive actually flown Visual approaches into KATL sequenced with AI so none of us had go arounds. not even the plane behind me.

Timothy Thomas

Captain, B757-200

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