Jack P.'s visit to my sim

[Maurice]

Jack spent several hours playing in my sim and I must say, I have never seen a grown-up so excited about playing with a 'toy'. It was like watching a 5 year old at Christmas. I'm sure he will post his impressions when he returns home, but all & all he was more than seriously impressed with the visuals despite the flaws that I see and that I complained about.

He was aware of the pixels but that did not dampen his enthusiasm any way at all especially since he spent little time looking out the window. Jack is very much a manual flyer and he seldom used the A/P except after reaching cruise altitude. The rest of the time, he was too busy following procedures and he impressed me with his navigation & procedures knowledge.

That is also my goal some day once I finish most of the build but right now, I'm still very much in the construction phase and I just ordered an overhead kit so that will keep me busy for a while.

Anyway, it was fun having him here and that also helped me renew my own enthusiasm which sometimes takes a dive when I run into problems. But that is keeping my brain cells working during my retirement and that is definitely a good thing. That also keeps me out of my wife's hair and she is happy about that   

Maurice

[jskibo]

Hope he brought beer with him

[Trevor Hale]

What the heck, where was my invite lol . i cant wait to get to try it

[Maurice]

What the heck, where was my invite lol . i cant wait to get to try it

You missed your opportunity last time I invited you so you are banned . But next time you venture to the 'deep South', give me a call and I may be generous & give you another chance

Maurice

[jackpilot]

Thank you Mau, too nice!
Maurice Visual sytem:
Amazing immersion Guys, this is The way to go. I was even dizzy at one point!
Will report more in details later
Right now in Wonderland FDS, picking up my DSTD and having fun with Pete, Steve and all the crew!!
Great Life and great Hobby!
Jack

[Maurice]

So Mr Maurice, pleased to see that you are all fired up again but with Genes post does this mean you are going to change your visual system again? 

Lucky for me, I have a sane wife who will pound some sense into my head or knock me down flat 

Maurice

[Trevor Hale]

Glad you all had a blast..  (Banned..) What do you mean Banned...  ROFL.  Well, if I come armed with a 2-4 of Canadian, maybe you will reconsider

I am not sure when I will be south again, but I will be sure to come pop over if you will have me. 

Trev

[Maurice]

Glad you all had a blast..  (Banned..) What do you mean Banned...  ROFL.  Well, if I come armed with a 2-4 of Canadian, maybe you will reconsider

I am not sure when I will be south again, but I will be sure to come pop over if you will have me. 

Trev

2-4 of Canadian...no way. Diet Coke on the rocks is all I drink. I guess I'll have you over if they let you in Gravenhurst as long as you don't have a cloud of black flies around you (we have our own slightly smaller & tamer brand here)

Maurice

[Trevor Hale]

LOL.  No blackflies here yet!  Still a way away from them for now, so I think we are safe   Possibly mext week, but I will let you know.

And I got it.  2-4 of Diet coke

[Maurice]

LOL.  No blackflies here yet!  Still a way away from them for now, so I think we are safe   Possibly mext week, but I will let you know.

And I got it.  2-4 of Diet coke

Any time bud but make sure you give me a bit of advance notice so the sim is ready and I haven't dismantled anything since work is still in progress.

Maurice

[jackpilot]

Just got back home tonite ...phewww
..anyway Trev ....we all think  Mau is not into anything but Diet Coke...Well ,on my visit, he managed to treat me with...a 12 years old Scotch, carefully stored since the 16th Century !!
Must say that after driving a solid 6 Hours to his place, that brew was like a silky landing on an Nthusim warped Tarmac!

Just to say that we had  more than a great time!!
Thanks again Mau!
Jack

[Maurice]

Just got back home tonite ...phewww
..anyway Trev ....we all think  Mau is not into anything but Diet Coke...Well ,on my visit, he managed to treat me with...a 12 years old Scotch, carefully stored since the 16th Century !!
Must say that after driving a solid 6 Hours to his place, that brew was like a silky landing on an Nthusim warped Tarmac!

Just to say that we had  more than a great time!!
Thanks again Mau!
Jack

OK Jack...don't exaggerate. It was a 12 year old Scotch but it was bought about 30 years ago, so only 42 years old and not from the 16th century. And you forgot to mention the coating of dust on the bottle which carefully preserved the contents.

Also, didn't know you were so poetic "that brew was like a silky landing on an Nthusim warped Tarmac!" Mighty nice sentence from a sim junkie! 

Maurice

[jskibo]

Yeah, what he said.....

Now post some pics of your new sim parts and those other pics marked secret that you took in the FDS Skunk Works.....(Though I prefer the term Phantom Works being a former McDonnell-Douglas employee)

[jackpilot]

The FDS Security Dept did'nt allowed the Camera in.....
NO, just jokin'.
Actually I was very very nicely treated, as usual, by Pete , Steve , Taylor and all the nice guys who create, adjust, check, paint and ship our Sims!!
.
Just let me tell you that FDS is  working on very serious projects which will benefit big time to our ""Enthusiast "community.

In the meantime, John, this is how the new stuff looks like this morning:

[jackpilot]

Bernard:
Yep!


John:
Started unpacking at 10H00.

CDU Box done at 11H00.....

[jskibo]

Very nice.  You're faster than me

On a side note, Maurice's sim is now worth considerably more since he can now claim that Jack has flown it should he ever be in the market to sell it.

That ebay FDS gear in Australia looks tasty, sigh, but local pickup only

[Maurice]

Very nice.  You're faster than me

On a side note, Maurice's sim is now worth considerably more since he can now claim that Jack has flown it should he ever be in the market to sell it.

Make me a reasonable offer and it's yours, but local pickup only 

Maurice

[jskibo]

LOL Maurice

You should get a bronze sign made for the Sim "Jack Flew This"

[jackpilot]

Watch out, Maurice' Sim is nothing short of amazing!!

Dynamite PCs organized on a very pro stack make FSX fly hyper smooth, home made motorized throttle, hellish visual, ambiance lighting, everything built cannon proof, ....Mau is too modest and I was just a salivating test pilot.

[jackpilot]

Bernard:

$$$$$$

I leave the tech side to Mau

Hey guys 4H00, coming along.. (should have Tea, but will settle for a glass of red)

[Maurice]

Jack or Mau  would you please be kind enough to explain how it is hyper smooth for FSX because this is my next port of call
thanks
B

Don't take Jack's word for that. I told you earlier he was as excited as a 5 year old at Christmas and what does a 6 year old know about flight smoothness?    Me, I find it just adequate for most purposes but take the plane to JFK with 20% traffic and try & turn while taxiing and you'll see a lot of mini stutters. Looks quite smooth while taxiing straight if you don't look out the side and Jack wasn't looking out to the side as he was too busy trying to keep the plane going straight ahead.

The important thing though is that take-offs & landings are fairly smooth most of the time. Jack did not fly under extreme conditions so his experience was better than what I have experienced at times.

Bottom line, get as much cpu power as you can afford. I went overboard with an I7-980X Extreme processor with water cooler overclocked to 4.6 Ghz, GTX-480 also overclocked as far as I dared,  the fastest memory I could get and 2 solid state drives (80 & 256 Gb)

But from what I read, this is overkill since there are much cheaper CPUs than can be over-clocked just as much. SSD's are very nice for fast booting & loading FSX but they are no better than fast SATA drives as far as frame rates are concerned. The one thing I really like about SSD's is that there is no need to ever defrag the drives.

I also run Sim-A server software on another fairly high end PC (Quad 9450) and 4 other low end PCs for everything else

Anyway, it is possible to have a reasonably smooth FSX with 3 undocked windows and 3 projectors. No idea how using 3 LCD screens with higher resolutions would affect the flight smoothness. But don't think you will ever have a stutter free experience with FSX. & certainly not if you want to play with different weather conditions and a reasonable amount of airline traffic (~20-30%) and any car traffic (I use 0 car traffic). 

Notice that I did not mention my frame rates as these are irrelevant in FSX. If you are able to take-off & land smoothly, you will be laughing because things are always better once you are airborne.  Just ask Jack...I couldn't get the grin off his face all night. 

Maurice

[Trevor Hale]

should have Tea, but will settle for a glass of red)

Bet you wish you were having more scotch

[jackpilot]

yep Trev later, later...too early
Well,  at 5H00 PM the whole structure is up and solid.
Kudos to FDS design.
You basically need one Phillips screwdriver and one size socket as 99% is size 8 bolts/nuts.
Components line up perfectly and the whole thing can be assembled in a few hours.

Tomorrow the detailing will be fun (panels and bezels)
Jack

[jskibo]

yep Trev later, later...too early
Well,  at 5H00 PM the whole structure is up and solid.
Kudos to FDS design.
You basically need one Phillips screwdriver and one size socket as 99% is size 8 bolts/nuts.
Components line up perfectly and the whole thing can be assembled in a few hours.

Tomorrow the detailing will be fun (panels and bezels)
Jack

Nice job...

.....you obviously haven't gotten to the part where you need the worlds smallest allen wrench   I did at midnight when the stores were closed....GRrrrr

[jackpilot]

That should do...