Well, I did it! So far so good.

[Jack Sawyer]

I finally did it, I opted in to the OF2 Beta and installed all of my airports, then ran Vector AEC.  After that I spent about an hour meticulously placing them all in SCA which is Scenery Config Editor so you can only run areas you want.

 

I want to thank @Nick Cooper for his help and convincing me to do it.  Now I can fly without OOM's and make all those little flights in the PNW I've been wanting to do.  And LOWI, and KSAN, and well, you get the picture.

 

Then I did a test, I promised myself when it was announced that my first flight would be to Meigs.  It was a HUGE success.  I did what I used to do a long time ago with FSX and earlier sims, land a 747 at Meigs.  It was a breeze.  Least amount of fuel and empty.  Sorry for being silly, it was JUST a test! 

 

But, I have to say Meigs looks flawless in OF2 and 64 bit and I'm VERY VERY VERY happy!  Now I have to test the fifty million other Orbx airports I have but that's fun.  But it won't be with a 747.  

 

So this is Orbx Global, Vector, N/A L/C, Trees, and of course Meigs.  AS4, PTA, P3Dv4 not 4.1 yet, and everything was totally maxed out.

 

I started at O'Hare

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Wakashi]

Excellent Jack, it all looks grand!  I opted in a couple of weeks ago (since I now have "unlimited internet") and that is what made the decision for me.  Like you I haven't had any major problems, the change over was as smooth as Tennessee Whiskey and I am still trying to figure out where to go next.    I did the 4.1 Client today no trouble there either.  Enjoy! 

[VH-KDK]

Well done Jack and good on yer for taking the plunge.

Doesn't it climb like a rocket with the minimum of fuel and no payload.

You are not being silly either, just enjoying yourself and anyone who doesn't like it can go and jump!

We get a good laugh out of your amazing antics too, thanks for brightening our days.

[Adam Banks]

Great pics, Jack!! Meigs is rather special, isn't it (for those of us with long memories!)?

 

I'm intrigued about Scenery Config Editor. I was under the impression that P3D only loads what it needs (as and when needed) and disabling "out of area" scenery didn't actually achieve anything - other than maybe speed up the initial load time - and it maybe just placebo.

 

However - if that's something Nick has researched then I'll bow to his superior knowledge! If you happen to have a link to any of his advice then I'd love to take a look.

 

Adam.

[missleman01]

23 minutes ago, Jack Sawyer said:

  Now I can fly without OOM's and make all those little flights in the PNW I've been wanting to do.  And LOWI, and KSAN, and well, you get the picture.

 

 

Another nice set of heavies. Im glad the OOM issue was solved. Id hate to have to be the UPS pilot explaining OOM to customers why their package didn't make it  

[Jack Sawyer]

1 minute ago, Wakashi said:

Excellent Jack, it all looks grand!  I opted in a couple of weeks ago (since I now have "unlimited internet") and that is what made the decision for me.  Like you I haven't had any major problems, the change over was as smooth as Tennessee Whiskey and I am still trying to figure out where to go next.    I did the 4.1 Client today no trouble there either.  Enjoy! 

It took me about an hour or less to install them all into V4 from 3.4 on another SSD.  Thanks Roger!  And it's good to have you back my friend!  Hope all is well.  

1 minute ago, VH-KDK said:

Well done Jack and good on yer for taking the plunge.

Doesn't it climb like a rocket with the minimum of fuel and no payload.

You are not being silly either, just enjoying yourself and anyone who doesn't like it can go and jump!

We get a good laugh out of your amazing antics too, thanks for brightening our days.

Thanks Martyn!  Mate, you have made my day!  

Just now, Adam Banks said:

Great pics, Jack!! Meigs is rather special, isn't it (for those of us with long memories!)?

 

I'm intrigued about Scenery Config Editor. I was under the impression that P3D only loads what it needs (as and when needed) and disabling "out of area" scenery didn't actually achieve anything - other than maybe speed up the initial load time - and it maybe just placebo.

 

However - if that's something Nick has researched then I'll bow to his superior knowledge! If you happen to have a link to any of his advice then I'd love to take a look.

 

Adam.

Thanks Adam!  SCE works great, Nick has a post here on the forum, in it he and I go back and forth about setting it up.  I use it in 3.4 and V4.  It's great because if I'm not flying in Oz why do I need to load it?  I dunno but I trust Nick's judgement, been using it a long time in 3.4 and it really helped with VAS because I did a lot of VAS tests with it.

[Jack Sawyer]

1 minute ago, missleman01 said:

 

Another nice set of heavies. Im glad the OOM issue was solved. Id hate to have to be the UPS pilot explaining OOM to customers why their package didn't make it  

Thanks missleman!  I'm 58 and I get OOM's all the time!  

[JMBIII]

24 minutes ago, Jack Sawyer said:

Thanks missleman!  I'm 58 and I get OOM's all the time!  

Nice landing!   Wait 'til you're my age before starting to worry about OOM's.

[Jack Sawyer]

Just now, jmbiii said:

Nice landing!   Wait 'til you're my age before starting to worry about OOM's.

Thanks JM!  I'd tell you about my family history but here's not the place.  I have to try to constantly stay sharp.

[mikewies]

Jack  -- Great series !  Glad you took the jump. Keep them coming. I see a big improvement in the image quality.

[lifejogger]

Amazing series of shots, just amazing!!!!!!

[flyingleaf]

Awesome Jack. But did you see all the people you scared the crap out of on that beautiful little airfield and running away when they saw that huge 747 coming at them?

[adambar]

Alright Jack, that wasn't so hard now was it, now lets see those PNW shots, great job!

[Jack Sawyer]

39 minutes ago, mikewies said:

Jack  -- Great series !  Glad you took the jump. Keep them coming. I see a big improvement in the image quality.

Thanks Mike!  Starting tomorrow I'm going to check each and every airport one at a time.  Of course I'll be using a more sensible plane but I want to make sure they all work.

37 minutes ago, lifejogger said:

Amazing series of shots, just amazing!!!!!!

Thanks John!

11 minutes ago, flyingleaf said:

Awesome Jack. But did you see all the people you scared the crap out of on that beautiful little airfield and running away when they saw that huge 747 coming at them?

Thanks Karl, yep, I saw 'em but they wern't afraid, they were all dedicated plane spotters, not unlike most of us! 

1 minute ago, adambar said:

Alright Jack, that wasn't so hard now was it, now lets see those PNW shots, great job!

Thanks Adam, coming up soon my friend.  Hey, I saw your other post, no more PTA?  I'm not ready to make the change to ENVTEX, I like PTA a lot.  So now without your modified PTAbsolute preset I'll be lost.  Dang it.  

[MZee1960]

Great shots, Jack !   The future of sim flight definitely looks very bright !  Looking forward to my jump to P3D next year ..... hopefully will be a smooth transition.

 

 

[Jack Sawyer]

3 minutes ago, MZee1960 said:

Great shots, Jack !   The future of sim flight definitely looks very bright !  Looking forward to my jump to P3D next year ..... hopefully will be a smooth transition.

 

 

Thanks MZ!  Absolutely, thanks to Orbx and a new 64 bit sim we're at a place I never would have dreamed of in the 1980's, never in a million years.  I can now really just lose myself in the immersion of flight.  I can only imagine what it's like in VR.  That's my long range goal, VR, I'm sure it'll be stunning.  I think you'll find it to be an easy transition and less concerning about VAS.  I no longer think about VAS, as before it was always on my mind.  It took a lot of enjoyment out of it and detracted from actual learning.  Now with no OOM's there's a new found freedom where I'll never go back.

[BradB]

That's good news Jack :

 

Cheers

 

John

[European Mountain Man]

Wow what a super set of screen shots Jack looks like you have been having loads of fun regards stewart

[adambar]

1 hour ago, Jack Sawyer said:

Thanks Mike!  Starting tomorrow I'm going to check each and every airport one at a time.  Of course I'll be using a more sensible plane but I want to make sure they all work.

Thanks John!

Thanks Karl, yep, I saw 'em but they wern't afraid, they were all dedicated plane spotters, not unlike most of us! 

Thanks Adam, coming up soon my friend.  Hey, I saw your other post, no more PTA?  I'm not ready to make the change to ENVTEX, I like PTA a lot.  So now without your modified PTAbsolute preset I'll be lost.  Dang it.  

I'm still fooling around with Absolute Jack and PTA, actually i'll use both PTA and Envshade, it's easy to switch back and forth.

[paulb]

Well done Jack for taking the plunge! . Congratulations!

Meigs looks great. Gosh, like you, it brings back so many good memories. 

BTW, I spent some more time on the 717 last night. Gosh the FMC etc was making my brain hurt! I don't know how you manage with PMDG. Fantastic, but they would end up as hangar queens for me! 

[andy1252]

Welcome to Beta World, Jack! Surprisingly painless here, ain't it? I've not had any problems - I certainly haven't been methodically testing everywhere but anywhere I have been in Orbx world has been fine.

 

And I'm with you on SCE. Still using it, mostly so I can keep track on all my scenery. I can't tell you how much I hate the "approved" LM way of installing add-ons with all that xml carp and the addon menu. It removes all real control, particularly of scenery, so I just won't let it on my system. If they ever enforce it absolutely that'll be the day I go no further with P3D. So all my scenery gets installed the old way (as do all my aircraft) and I rig things back to how I want them with SCE. No idea if using just single SCE defined areas actually reduces load times, but it feels like it. But it's not why I use it. P3D v4 is a giant leap forward in most ways, but like every single software supplier on the planet, they'll sometimes get an idea in their heads that doesn't get translated properly when coded, and for me, the add-on system is a total ****up.

 

Still, end of rant. Happy flying Jack, enjoy hurling that beast around all those previously unavailable areas. I'm guessing a flight between Seattle and KSFO can't be far away <grin>

[Neptune6]

Hi

he do to Meigs Wahhoooooo,  did you drop an anchor to stop your Jumbo 

 

Patrick

[Jack Sawyer]

7 hours ago, BradB said:

That's good news Jack :

Thanks John!  That was a cool clip, I haven't seen that movie since I was a kid.  Think I may have to find it.

6 hours ago, stewart1 said:

Wow what a super set of screen shots Jack looks like you have been having loads of fun regards stewart

Thanks Stewart, it was fun but very challenging.

6 hours ago, adambar said:

I'm still fooling around with Absolute Jack and PTA, actually i'll use both PTA and Envshade, it's easy to switch back and forth.

Thanks for that info Adam, I'm really keen on seeing if you can recreate PTAbsolute Natural in 2.60.

5 hours ago, paulb said:

Well done Jack for taking the plunge! . Congratulations!

Meigs looks great. Gosh, like you, it brings back so many good memories. 

BTW, I spent some more time on the 717 last night. Gosh the FMC etc was making my brain hurt! I don't know how you manage with PMDG. Fantastic, but they would end up as hangar queens for me! 

Thanks Paul!  Yeah, Meigs, the iconic, memory laden place to be.  I had to go back to the roots and it was great.  But did you notice what I noticed?  There's no runway shadows.

 

As far as FMC's go, it's a steep learning curve but it's easy with flight planning software, I use PFPX and Navigraph charts.  But all you really need to remember is the weights.  Winds can come later and all that other stuff like diversion, step climbs, etc.  It's all baby steps.  I'm still learning a lot.

3 hours ago, andy1252 said:

Welcome to Beta World, Jack! Surprisingly painless here, ain't it? I've not had any problems - I certainly haven't been methodically testing everywhere but anywhere I have been in Orbx world has been fine.

 

And I'm with you on SCE. Still using it, mostly so I can keep track on all my scenery. I can't tell you how much I hate the "approved" LM way of installing add-ons with all that xml carp and the addon menu. It removes all real control, particularly of scenery, so I just won't let it on my system. If they ever enforce it absolutely that'll be the day I go no further with P3D. So all my scenery gets installed the old way (as do all my aircraft) and I rig things back to how I want them with SCE. No idea if using just single SCE defined areas actually reduces load times, but it feels like it. But it's not why I use it. P3D v4 is a giant leap forward in most ways, but like every single software supplier on the planet, they'll sometimes get an idea in their heads that doesn't get translated properly when coded, and for me, the add-on system is a total ****up.

 

Still, end of rant. Happy flying Jack, enjoy hurling that beast around all those previously unavailable areas. I'm guessing a flight between Seattle and KSFO can't be far away <grin>

Thanks Andy!  I don't like xml either, it's just too foreign to me, I never learned it and don't understand it.  but what is the "approved" method?

Absolutely, taking an A2A plane from Seattle to Friday Harbor will be a real test.

3 hours ago, Neptune6 said:

Hi

he do to Meigs Wahhoooooo,  did you drop an anchor to stop your Jumbo 

 

Patrick

Thanks Patrick!   Yep, I had the F/O toss out a huge anchor!

[andy1252]

1 hour ago, Jack Sawyer said:

but what is the "approved" method?

Hi Jack, there's a long explanation from Elaine somewhere in the P3D forum here, but essentially it involves XML files and placing the scenery, simobjects, effects, sound and other folders in the "\My Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons" folder and then activating them within the sim via the menu. I'm ok with the concept of keeping stuff out of the core LM folders (I try and do that anyway) but the way they've done it removes real control of your scenery and hangar, in my opinion. You can't create scenery groups, changing the priority of individual sceneries is real clunky, and there's no real control of the hangar at all. Once you start to get to grips with how this whole thing hangs together, which is probably the case with most of the folk here in the forum, you probably have complex enough environments that you need to retain control over such things, and the "new" method rather cripples that (again, that's just my opinion - not looking for a war with anyone here).

[Jack Sawyer]

23 minutes ago, andy1252 said:

Hi Jack, there's a long explanation from Elaine somewhere in the P3D forum here, but essentially it involves XML files and placing the scenery, simobjects, effects, sound and other folders in the "\My Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons" folder and then activating them within the sim via the menu. I'm ok with the concept of keeping stuff out of the core LM folders (I try and do that anyway) but the way they've done it removes real control of your scenery and hangar, in my opinion. You can't create scenery groups, changing the priority of individual sceneries is real clunky, and there's no real control of the hangar at all. Once you start to get to grips with how this whole thing hangs together, which is probably the case with most of the folk here in the forum, you probably have complex enough environments that you need to retain control over such things, and the "new" method rather cripples that (again, that's just my opinion - not looking for a war with anyone here).

I understand Andy, it all seems so complicated.  Me, I'm keeping it as simple as possible.  I have very few planes and maybe only 7 non-Orbx airports.  Everything else is just Orbx stuff as I like the way they install things from FTX Central.