P3Dv4 questions

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P3Dv4 questions

Postby Turambar » Sun Aug 27, 2017 8:41 am

Hi Steve,

After my first few launches of the brandnew Pro version, I've met a couple of issues:

1. When I launch IF and prepare a flight, everything goes smoothly. Then I press Fly Now and P3D is launched by IF. A second after 'Loading Scenery' duringi loading screen P3D disappears from the screen and hides itself in memory. I have to Ctl-Alt-Del to remove it there.
2. The previous versions of IF - as I recall - checked if P3D was already running. Now it launches a new copy of the program, wether it's already open or not. Thus the message appears: A copy of P3D is already running...
3. When - ad random - IF succeeds in launching Prep3D and everything seems ok, things go wrong when I load the Co-route, created by IF into the FMC -> crash to desktop of P3D. This could be a problem of exporting the flightplan within IF; there are 5 (!) different .rte options to export a PMDG FP file. Which one to choose?
4. Does P3D have to start with or without the Scenario menu?

PS: Both P3D and IF are run as administrator.

As you can see I've not been able to use IF with P3dv4 and PMDG yet. I haven't tried other planes yet, I'll let you know of course!

Have a good and healthy sunday!

KR Theo

PS: The Alabeo C207 (addon plane) works fine with IF! So maybe it's a IF-PMDG problem?
The Bechcraft Baron 58 (P3D4 plane) works fine as well.
Turambar
 
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Re: P3Dv4 questions

Postby Steve Waite » Mon Aug 28, 2017 10:55 am

Hi Theo,

1. You should make P3D v4 a window on the screen where you want the main window to appear, then close it. Now open P3D, fullscreen it, now close it again. This ensures the desktop location is stored by P3D - This is standard procedure after P3D or FSX position data is not saved. This can happen if it has crashed before.

2. If P3D is crashed or stopped and started quickly some processes may have not finished closing. And so it may not start properly. Remember IF starts P3D from the command line same as you right clicking on a .fxml flight file and choosing Start with P3D. Close P3D and restart the flight proper.

3. Your random crashes with the PMDG the FMC file maybe a problem with your installation. PMDGs working fine here. Perhaps you are trying to load the wrong kind of FMC file for your PMDG but you have not said what aircraft you are using.

4. The Fly! button as you know starts P3D and FSX right in the cockpit. The P3D icon on the bottom of the IF main screen starts P3D to the menu. You can start P3D and then from IF start the flight, or you can start the flight with IF and when P3D is not running it will be started from the command line (hidden).
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Re: P3Dv4 questions

Postby Turambar » Mon Aug 28, 2017 1:58 pm

Hi Steve,

I think I figured things out now, thanks.
To run IF and PMDG smoothly I have to launch P3D first with a default aircraft (F-22). Then I launch IF and prepare a flight, which I export as PMDG .rte v1. Starting P3D with Go Fly Now! button resolves in a very succesful flight.
It took some time to figure out (I don't understand the differences between the PMDG.rte exports. Exporting as v1 I can put it in FMC (of the B737). Do the 747 and the 777 require an other version?

Thank again!

KR Theo
Turambar
 
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Re: P3Dv4 questions

Postby Steve Waite » Mon Aug 28, 2017 6:15 pm

You need at least v3 for the 777 and 747, v4 and v5 carry different capabilities.

Starting the sim first: I'm not sure that's entirely necessary but if it works around the problem then great. There's usually some way to do it with IF if the aircraft doesn't follow the rules...

You can use IF to start the default flight for you, see the Config.ini:

C:\ProgramData\Ideal Flight Professional\Config\Config.ini

[FSSetup]
EnableInternalReset=False
EnableStartupReload=True
EnableStartupReset=True
LoadDefaultFlight=True

This way always allows the PMDG to come up fully but takes a little longer to start the flight.
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Re: P3Dv4 questions

Postby Steve Waite » Mon Aug 28, 2017 6:26 pm

Regarding FMC files. Remember that IF can produce routes with waypoints unknown to some aircraft systems. TOC and TOD would usually be omitted from the plan with the PMDGs for example. The PMDGs are good at handling missing waypoints or user waypoints when the FMC file has the coordinate. You need to know the planes and their FMC files and capabilities, they are all different and outside the scope of the IF help system. Although most important stuff can be found in the IF Pro help.

Other aircraft systems may work differently, take the MJC Dash 8 for example. The SQL database can be amended prior to the flight to include missing waypoints like APP1, TDWN, TOC and TOD. IF has a special export command for this. IF has export commands and export files.
software architect at codelegend.com
equipment: i9-9980Xe 64GB 2xRTX2080ti NVLink 2TB M.2 NVMe,
i9-9900X 64GB RTX2080ti 2TB M.2 NVMe, i7-3960X 32GB GTX680 4TB RAID10,
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Re: P3Dv4 questions

Postby Steve Waite » Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:31 am

IF attempts to be aware of how any aircraft will work, past and future. Most aircraft are totally compatible with each other and work within the technical capability envelope of the sim. For a few they have to find inventive and very clever ways for the aircraft to do more than usual within the sim. They do this so that they still appear to work within that technical envelope of capability that the sim ordinarily can handle. Aircraft from PMDG are extremely well thought out, most are. Even so there's a couple of things that Prepar3D does that drops them just outside that envelope. Ideal Flight has settings to adapt if required.



Theo, did you set up for "LoadDefaultFlight=True" ? Thanks for letting me know your flights are OK.
software architect at codelegend.com
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Re: P3Dv4 questions

Postby Steve Waite » Fri Sep 01, 2017 11:24 am

When the aircraft are read-in the weight is compared and small aircraft are assigned "Prefer Loose Runways" and "Prefer Soft Runways".

This means that when the airport has an available grass strip that can be used in the current weather, that grass strip may be used for computing the takeoff or landing and the corresponding Computed Approach and departure IDF will be from and to the grass strips.

Turn the features off in the Mission Page, at the top of Surface Types.
software architect at codelegend.com
equipment: i9-9980Xe 64GB 2xRTX2080ti NVLink 2TB M.2 NVMe,
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Re: P3Dv4 questions

Postby Steve Waite » Mon Sep 04, 2017 5:17 pm

The original way IF starts P3D was to load the default flight first to aid aircraft like the PMDG 737. Some didn't like it and wanted the sim to go straight in. However some aircraft types such as the PMDG 737 may not be able to load this way the only answer is to load the default flight first.

The current P3D versions of IF start the flight with the Internal Reset, this ensures the AP and other functions load correctly even though the sim goes straight in without a default flight loaded. This is not the same behaviour as FSX.

The final builds of IF10Pro and IFPro will set up the LoadDefaultFlight=True method. Reverting to original IF10Pro defaults this way all aircraft will load into P3D. The user then has the option to drop back to InternalReset mode for more simple aircraft and a faster startup. InternalReset is a recent addition to P3D versions of Ideal Flight.

Config.ini

PMDG and some other complex aircraft:
[FSSetup]
EnableInternalReset=False
EnableStartupReload=False
EnableStartupReset=False
LoadDefaultFlight=True

Simpler aircraft:
[FSSetup]
EnableInternalReset=True
EnableStartupReload=False
EnableStartupReset=False
LoadDefaultFlight=False
software architect at codelegend.com
equipment: i9-9980Xe 64GB 2xRTX2080ti NVLink 2TB M.2 NVMe,
i9-9900X 64GB RTX2080ti 2TB M.2 NVMe, i7-3960X 32GB GTX680 4TB RAID10,
NAS @7TB RAID10 (16TB)
Steve Waite
 
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Re: P3Dv4 questions

Postby Steve Waite » Tue Sep 05, 2017 3:59 pm

...I'm improving the startup sequencing with load time reduced by 15% when pre-loading the default flight and investigating some other options...
software architect at codelegend.com
equipment: i9-9980Xe 64GB 2xRTX2080ti NVLink 2TB M.2 NVMe,
i9-9900X 64GB RTX2080ti 2TB M.2 NVMe, i7-3960X 32GB GTX680 4TB RAID10,
NAS @7TB RAID10 (16TB)
Steve Waite
 
Posts: 5055
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 12:02 am

Re: P3Dv4 questions

Postby Turambar » Tue Sep 05, 2017 5:31 pm

Nothing is stopping you from improving your program, Steve. Some dedication :P !
Turambar
 
Posts: 118
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:15 am

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