Hi, my name is Maurice and I am a tweakaholic

[Maurice]

It all started very innocently a few years ago when someone discovered a performance enhancing FS tweak and put it out on the market. The appeal was irresistible especially since we were told there was no risk involved and we could quit tweaking at anytime and even reverse the effect of that first tweak.

Little did I know on that fateful day that this was enough to get me hooked on tweaks and that this was but the beginning of a long dive into the tweak inferno.

At that time, little was known about the side effects and interactions of any tweaks and there were no TV commercials outlining the dangers, nor are there any tweak doctors we could consult before trying a new tweak.

The more tweaks I tried, the more they would affect my system resulting in more acute cravings while hoping for the perfect high (altitude flight that is). Nobody ever talked about those side effects and the tweak pushers multiplied like rabbits. Anybody and everybody had a favorite tweak that they were only too eager to peddle in order to get respectability and admiration from their peers.

We were warned about trying more than one tweak at a time but the craving was just too powerful. I could not resist trying several at once only to end up with severe tweakingestion that only a tweakenema would fix, followed by a tweaknoscopy just to make sure there weren't vestigial tweaklyps hanging around and rearing their ugly heads the next time visitors came to visit my old sim.

Unfortunately, after cleaning up all the remnants of those tweaks, my system was just too damaged internally and I performed a radical tweakerectomy just so the tweaks would stop breeding and multiplying. Formatting the disk drives did it and once I got things re-built and under control again, I sold my simulator and proceeded to set up a smaller and simpler desktop version with the hope I would not suffer from tweakdrawals.

Everything was ok for a short while, but then P3d v2 became available. With a twinge of sadness mixed with renewed arousal, I smothered FSX and relegated it to the dustbin of history. I vouched to never make the same mistakes again and to resist the promise of faster & longer lasting performance with the new tweaks soon to be available.

Sadly, the will power was lacking and within a few hours of P3d v2 release, I eagerly started scouring the web sites for any promising performance enhancing tweaks.
Although the new contender looked very appealing on the exterior, the interior suffered with some of the same ailments as its predecessor that only new tweaks would cure. Based on the flurry of activity in the tweak market, the gestation of a whole new generation of tweak junkies is already well under way.

As for me, I am trying hard to quit cold turkey but I fear the only real cure will be a radical simputation and finding something else to aggravate the rest of my days. Macrame or basket weaving is sounding awfully appealing to me right now. The technology for those two is pretty stable by now and it is not too likely somebody will come up with tweaks to make their assembly faster and without stutters.

Incidentally, if you are still reading this mindless jibber jabber, let's face it, you too are a tweakaholic. Who else would be wasting so much valuable sim building time reading about the trials and tribulations of an old tweakaholic who is trying to do a public service by warning others about resisting the temptation to inject that first tweak?

The only hope for simmers will be if some kind soul starts a Tweakaholic Anonymous organization with worldwide chapters to slow down the spreading of this contagious and extremely virulent tweakidemic. Perhaps what is also needed now is a tweak clinic where one could go for a tweakfix to fend off the next tweak craving.

Maurice

[blueskydriver]

Hey Maurice,

As I read this, I just couldn't stop replacing the word "Tweak" to "Twerk" as in Miley Cyrus Twerking. Talk about ROTFLoL! You try it...

Still, what you wrote is very, very true.

John

[rhysb]

Maurice,

Brilliant! I too must admit that I am a recovering tweakaholic! It all started many years ago when the attraction of FSX over my beautiful FS9 setup became too great to resist. I was doomed and found myself descending into a hell of rubbish buggy incomplete software and the endless tweaks to actually make it work! I fought hard to battle my addiction for many years!

Finally last year I found that there is such a place as tweakaholics anonymous and I finally for my sanity decided to admit to myself that I needed help and checked myself in!

One prescribed course of Xplane later and I have to say I'm cured!!

[jackpilot]

       

[Maurice]

One prescribed course of Xplane later and I have to say I'm cured!!

Hmmm!!! XPlane? Meth or cocaine?  I heard this is a wonder drug that has it's own share of junkies. I fear I could just be jumping from the fire to the frying pan.

Maurice

[rhysb]

One prescribed course of Xplane later and I have to say I'm cured!!

Hmmm!!! XPlane? Meth or cocaine?  I heard this is a wonder drug that has it's own share of junkies. I fear I could just be jumping from the fire to the frying pan.

Maurice

No definitely a cure!

[blueskydriver]

Hi Maurice,

My joking aside, I seriously keep thinking of just throwing my towel in as well, as sometimes I get so frustrated with it all. I really get what you always said before; I was just too stubborn to listen.

John

[Maurice]

Hi Maurice,

My joking aside, I seriously keep thinking of just throwing my towel in as well, as sometimes I get so frustrated with it all. I really get what you always said before; I was just too stubborn to listen.

John

It's probably already too late for us John. I'm just trying to save some young unsuspecting souls 

Maurice

[Maurice]

No definitely a cure!

Perhaps Rhys, but at what cost? Hundreds of dollars of useless FSX addons wasted and now hundreds of dollars of new addons needed to get the same or similar high.
Is it really all worth it?

Maurice

[fsaviator]

Mau,

I have the solution to your FS Tweak issues:

[ebay]141075935549[/ebay]

[blueskydriver]

Hey Warren,

That is so funny, but scary! Why? Because I purchased the Train Simulator over the Bus Simulator about two weeks ago. Maybe, the Bus Sim was what I should've got...

John

[rhysb]

No definitely a cure!

Perhaps Rhys, but at what cost? Hundreds of dollars of useless FSX addons wasted and now hundreds of dollars of new addons needed to get the same or similar high.
Is it really all worth it?

Maurice

Oh yes I promise you it is Maurice! I have my xplane setup working like a dream! I add more and more scenery addons and all is good! You just cant break xplane! plus being all in one folder its simple to backup!!

I agree with you on the FSX addons etc as I like you have invested loads of money on this (and fs9 before that) but all is not lost! I am useless when it comes to most computer stuff but so far using FS2xplane I have around 60-70% of my FSX addons converted over to xplane. Some tidying needed but if I can do it anyone can! Obviously you can do the math as 40% doesnt convert but some of the freeware airports I have found on x-plane.org are as good as payware! Plus there is loads of FSX/FS9 freeware airports that other people have converted over to xplane as well!

I love it! im starting to think I have another addiction... to a working sim!! 

[FredK]

Hey Warren,

That is so funny, but scary! Why? Because I purchased the Train Simulator over the Bus Simulator about two weeks ago. Maybe, the Bus Sim was what I should've got...

John

And just think.....It would also be much easier to build a "bus cockpit" as well!

Fred K

[blueskydriver]

Hi Fred,

I agree with you, a bus cockpit would be easier. Look at this, I could get a bus right here in Wisconsin...notice the price so far?

http://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/auction/view?auc=1030896

Then again, check this out for train simulator:

http://www.raildriver.com/

For me, it really doesn't matter, I always find a way to get into something that leads me to the crazy phase. If only I could go from crazy phase to normal...uh, not likely anytime soon...then again, I will someday wake up from it all like Maurice has been doing... Although, he still has the PTSD of tweakville, and he'll need just a little bit more to be fully awake.

Sometimes, I think it's all like Neo waking up in the Matrix movie; he realizes the machines are the ones who really are behind it all. Thus, FSX, Xplane, P3D, Truck Sims, Train Sims, Bus Sims, Farm Sims, Race Sims and even the game "The Sims" all have us...

John

[Nat Crea]

LMFAO Mau!


Nat

[FredK]

Hi Fred,

I agree with you, a bus cockpit would be easier. Look at this, I could get a bus right here in Wisconsin...notice the price so far?

http://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/auction/view?auc=1030896

That is a steal......For only $504 you could buy the bus and just drive it around town eliminating the need for spending that money on expensive scenery add-ons!

Then again, by the looks of that bus it would seem that you would be back to doing some endless "tweaking".

Fred

[Maurice]

Hey Warren,

That is so funny, but scary! Why? Because I purchased the Train Simulator over the Bus Simulator about two weeks ago. Maybe, the Bus Sim was what I should've got...

John

As much as I love trains, I just can't see myself sitting in front of a screen for hours watching fields & cows go by. But wait... maybe it is better than sitting in a cockpit for hours at FL390 watching nothing go by.

Hmmm!!!

Maurice

[Maurice]

I love it! im starting to think I have another addiction... to a working sim!! 

Okay Rhys, after enduring several more crashes in P3d v2 while doing mundane things, I decided enough is enough and I ordered XP to give it a shot, at least until LM releases a service pack. When they do, I will re-evaluate P3d unless by then I have fallen madly in love with XPlane.

But I seriously doubt it will be love at first sight. After watching countless XPlane videos on YouTube, I still think the FSX visuals with many addons of course is superior to what I have seen with XP, with the exception perhaps of night visuals although FTXG made them much nicer in FSX. This is very subjective of course and I'm sure XP lovers will be incensed by my evaluation, but I know what I like 

Of course, I am not talking about the flight characteristics of any model. I'm sure XP is the undisputed king in that area, but that part is not that important to me as I am permanently grounded in real life anyway and I don't need to practice my Cessna landings anymore 

Besides that, I am running three 32" TVs with a total resolution of 5760x1080 on one PC and this is probably what is seriously affecting P3d, although the performance with FSX was quite reasonable under most conditions.

I don't know how XP is going to work with that same resolution on one PC but we'll see. I'm keeping an open mind about all this and if I can't get a good enough performance with either P3d or XP, then it will truly be the end of flight simulation for me. I guess in that case, I will have to come down to earth and investigate train simulators after all

And sorry Jack, I am NOT going back to FS9 either 

Maurice

[rhysb]

I love it! im starting to think I have another addiction... to a working sim!! 

Okay Rhys, after enduring several more crashes in P3d v2 while doing mundane things, I decided enough is enough and I ordered XP to give it a shot, at least until LM releases a service pack. When they do, I will re-evaluate P3d unless by then I have fallen madly in love with XPlane.

Maurice, proud of you! its the first step

Give xp a good go! I think it will win you over. Like you when I had FSX and REX all running properly for the 6 minutes it did work it looked amazing but then in xplane I found something quite amazing...getting to a cloud and you can fly through it rather than being just a texture!

Regards your performance. What I suggest with all new xplaners is to go into the rendering options and turn everything down. Then slowly creep things up until your happy. I use 3 computers for 3 screens but i have used one. I suggest HDR off on one PC but not sure of your spec's. Also good thing about xp is that it is all in one folder so you can put it on its own hd if you want etc.

Have fun and im here to help and sure scott will be too!

Rhys B

[blueskydriver]

Dog-gone-it! here I was hoping to see the new "TrainpitBuilders" .com started by Trevor and Bob because Maurice went to Train Simulators; thus, starting a whole new trend with many of the other members on CB following suit...oh well.

     

John

[simlady/ Karen]

Dog-gone-it! here I was hoping to see the new "TrainpitBuilders" .com started by Trevor and Bob because Maurice went to Train Simulators; thus, starting a whole new trend with many of the other members on CB following suit...oh well.

     

John

Oh Boy! here we go again... 

[HarryZ]

Hi Maurice,

Haven't you heard of TT?!!   That's the tweaking group that meets like AA does 
Not sure it will help your flt sim performance but may help your soul!!

When my sim suffered a major partition drive failure a few months back, I had to re-install my FS X.  This time, I did not mix and match my add-ons but stuck with all Flight 1 products...Ultimate Terrain, Flight Environment and Ground Envirnonment...and that seems to have settled things down.  I use certain tweaks in my FS X config file that have help my sim as well as others and also use the Nvidia Insptector tweaks.  I pretty much get as much as I can out my system.

And yes, I can consider myself a twekaholic as welll :-))