So many add-ons! Today's rant!

[jpreou]

Am I the only one frustrated here? Ok, I'm going to point the finger at REX a little here, which is a shame because I think they make great products. These rants / musings are in relation to the global look and feel, *not* to airports or areas covered by specific add-on products.

It is acknowledged that default P3D is pretty bland.
So what do I need to do?
Well...
REX Texture Direct is a great production for additional and better textures for runways, water, sky, sun & clouds.
But wait.
It doesn't do buildings ... ok, so buy HD buildings,
Ahh, but it doesn't do trees ... no problem ORBX HD Trees has that covered,
...and the weather engine and dynamic injection isn't as good as it could be,
ok, so Active Sky is considered a better engine, but you also need Cloud Art for dynamic injection
oh, and by the way, Texture Direct also has Soft Clouds which give better clouds ... in comparision with CloudArt so you choose
Oh, and their is an "Enhanced textures" pack for it too

Ok, So REX TD, pus the Enhanced, plus Soft Clouds, plus Active Sky, plus Cloud Art, plus HD buildings, plus HD trees.
Ok got it.

BUT WAIT ... REX has Skyforce now and the CBs are GREAT!
Excelllent, so I'll get that and ... oh wait, it doesn't include water or runways or...
So I still need Texture Direct then, and the enhancement pack? Right
Oh, and the weather engine and dynamic injection still lacks in Skyforce, so I still need ActiveSky (with CA for the dynamic injection).
Ok, I think I have it...

So, how are your shaders? My what now? Shaders ... have you looked at PTA ... makes the colours in P3D look great! Ah, ok, I'll look at that.
Good, and your rain? My what ... my rain, isn't that what weather packages do ... well, a bit, but perhaps you want to check out PrecipitFX
Ok

Looking good now, huh? ... except.
Except what?
Well, if you want to get some good screens and videos, then maybe you might want different camera views and controls ... have you looked at things like Opus, and ChasePlane, and...

Ok, now you're getting silly ... but ok, I'll check those out.
Ahh, we're getting a good sim here ... but ... I can't help but notice the skys and airports seem to be devoid of life. Am I the only one flying out here?
Well, what traffic package do you have? Wait. What? Traffic?
Well, yeah, you don't want empty skies do you. There's MyTraffic and Ultimate Traffic and ORBX do some traffic and...
...aaarrrrgggghghhh

So ... what aircraft do you have in your hangar?
Bugger off brain... let me *play*

Ok, but don't forget your scenery areas, mesh, airports, hardware controls, ATC...

[Splitpin]

Well said ...and so true.
I spend so much time , tweaking, tuning, adding, etc , I hardly have time to actually enjoy the sims (I have 12 ...that's sad)
Being out of work has made me stop spending on stuff I "need" ... but the urge is still strong

Your post is a great read ...well done again.

[Fozzer]

..... .... .... ....!

Excellent read, Jeff!.... ....!

Flight Sims!

I've been doing all this stuff for the past zillion years, since firing up my 1982 Sinclair Spectrum 48k, Commodore C64, Amstrad CPC 464, Amiga 500+1200, and various Computer builds courtesy of Mr. William Gates and boxes of Computer Games.

For the first time, for a long time, I have put my trusty Saitek Joystick on one side for a while and replaced it with a pair of handlebars, two wheels and an engine, and taken up touring the countryside at ground level for a change.....

.... been riding motorcycles since 1950..... ......

...and following lots of my Biker Chums on Youtube!

I have spent/wasted far too many years sat on this chair in front of my Computer Monitor slowly losing the use of my legs, that I really have to get out and about for a change!... ....!

At least I can sit down on my Motorcycle(s) and watch the REAL scenery pass by now!

...mind you....I still haven't given up entirely on my various Flight Sims (or computer games)!

...and I still do my amazing cooking every day!... ....!

Paul..... ... ....!

[WarHorse47]

Ahh... This touches a nerve or two.

I don't have Rex nor a motorcycle, but I can relate. I do have FSXA with tons of addons and feel guilty spending too much time before the computer. Guilty as charged.

My rant addon is about the patches and service packs. There are just too many of them!!

I don't mind a patch that fixes the product I downloaded and installed, but these days patches are put out in order to make the product compatible with something I don't have.

The trend these days are to issue a patch that requires a reinstall of the full product. Make that a complete uninstall and reinstall while protecting and reinstalling any addon textures or cfg tweaks. Some days all I do is update addons.

To add insult to injury, there's the added component of "distributor" policies. I had one or two products that were updated by the "developer" but the links expired on the download page of the "distributor" and the only way to get the updated install was to pay.

With all the addons available I'm a lot more selective these days on updating my products.

Cheers


--WH

[toprob]

I'm not inclined to rant about this (in some ways I'm part of the problem), but I can certainly see how we can get to the time when it becomes a major issue. I tend to try anything which might improve the look of my sim, but this does result in a mix 'n match sim -- so much so that I can never really be sure which addon I'm seeing when I'm looking at textures etc. This isn't normally a problem -- I try things, if they improve something I keep it, otherwise I drop it. Of course when I need to reinstall, I tend to get into a real mess, not knowing what I need, and of course there are all those patches which are inevitable with a reinstall. So I tend to start from scratch, and build an entirely different sim.
I do think that REX is particularly annoying, far too many 'products' over the years, and any update is marketed afresh, with a new name...

Sometimes I feel the need to fire up PTA, so the look of my sim is always evolving, but as this is done in little steps over a long time, I don't realise what I've done until I need to fix something!

A lot of developers are moving to an automatic, seamless update process -- Orbx does this particularly well. If you buy a new PC, just sign in with FTX Central and it'll bring you up to date. Same with Steam, really. Here in NZ we tend to see the redownload process as a bit of a nightmare, as a lot of us still live with bandwidth/speed limitations, but this is slowly improving.

I've been doing all this stuff for the past zillion years, since firing up my 1982 Sinclair Spectrum 48k, Commodore C64, Amstrad CPC 464, Amiga 500+1200

Whenever I am showing someone how to use their computer these days, I am very much aware of how difficult it can be if you didn't go through this from the beginning. I started with the Commodore VIC20, although the ZX80 was very popular here in NZ. I've never owned a Sinclair -- I can recall squishy keypads -- but I did have the C64. Back then if you bought a new controller (I'm talking something like a mouse, which wasn't very common back then) you would be better off writing your own driver, so learning to program was a natural progression.

[Fozzer]

Rob....

..when it comes to programming, Sinclair BASIC was/is wonderful for the Sinclair Spectrum 48k Computer together with Zilog Z80 Machine Code!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_BASIC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zilog_Z80

I still have all my old computers and all their hardware and software, and crates of games, in my spare bedroom!

And I can still program, (and run all my old games), using my Spectaculator!...>>> http://www.spectaculator.com/

Bedroom programming with 8-bits has never been so much fun since the 1980's!

Now we have all this 64-bit stuff...and no Bedroom Programmers!

Paul.....Happy Spectrum Memories!.... ...!

[jpreou]

Most of you have hit on additional elements here also...
- when you install these bits and pieces over time, you tend not to notice the cost, the hassle, the complexities, the tweaks, the sometimes many service packs, the time, etc. When you have do do everything from scratch, as I am now, you do notice. I do like the way ORBX have gone with FTX Central though ... nice and easy! (installing SI and NI as we speak)

- some products are worse than others for rapid fire fixes and service packs, sometimes rapidly after release. Error and omissions we understand, but if you are on service pack 3 within a few months, then I'd suggest you review your release procedure and quality testing ... if I had three attempts at my job, I wouldn't have a job! (and yes, I am in IT)

- I too spend too long in the seat in front of a computer, both at work then at home. I should probably rectify that. I'd like to get into paragliding / paramotor but having just moved into a new build home there is no budget left!