Problems with X-Plane 9

[davidncalvert]

I've been helping my friend Bob Mazet with his X-Plane for a while now.  Bob has 2 versions on his computer: X-Plane 8 & X-Plane 9.

X-Plane 8 configures well, recognizes the hardware he has attached to his computer, namely his joystick, monitor, etc. and otherwise operates well although it does appear to have serious memory issues.  When I first started helping Bob, a friend of his showed me how to manual configure his joystick so that X-Plane 8 would recognize it, which was pretty straight-forward.  X-Plane 8 works but because of its age the software doesn't really take advantage of the hardware he has.  In the natural evolution of any software, because its assumed that newer versions will take better advantage of newer hardware and make the program run better and faster, I suggested that Bob grab the newer version if it wasn't too expensive. 

A few months back, we were at Fry's Electronics in Tempe and I saw they had the new X-Plane 9.  It was less than $50.00.  I think my computer experience clearly qualifies me as a geek.  I've done Alpha and Beta testing for thousands of pieces of software over the years, I've run a computer consulting business for over 20 years and I just love working with them in general, hardware and software.  I think that, in general, I'm really good at solving computer problems.  In the scheme of things, I didn't expect for a second that it would be hard to install X-Plane 9.  Beforehand I would have thought it would be a 2 or 3 on a scale to 10.  In almost every other instance where I've upgraded software, a newer version looks for certain files on the old version to tell them how to set up the new software.  It's how good programmers work.  This ability to morph the new version from the old has been a standard component of every piece of software I've ever worked with since the early 1990s, so I assumed and told Bob that it would be a piece of cake to get X-Plane 9 up and running (thus proving the assume metaphor *lol*). 

To-date I've installed the software and all the updates that were available through February 2010, but we're still having problems.  No matter what I do, I still can't get this thing to run right.  When first installed, X-Plane 9 was unable to recognize the hardware that X-Plane 8 had found easily and set up the controls that come with it.  I found that shocking, since Bob had bought the exact hardware that was recommended by X-Plane 8 developers, and it sure looks to be the same person/company developed the new version.  Although pissed and seriously disappointed by this failure, I expected to be able to solve the problem since I had already been shown how to configure the controls manually in X-Plane 8.  Manual configuration of X-Plane 9 was different, but very similar.  But no matter what I do, numerous controls which worked just fine in X-Plane 8 are either not working or unavailable in the new version.  The biggest problems is getting the brake to work.  In the previous version, when X-Plane 8 initialized, the engine started but the brake was on, which kept the plane from running down the runway by itself.  In this version, I configured a key to toggle the brakes on and off, since that feature wasn't recognized.  I can see that I've configured that properly from the display when I operate it, which clearly shows it turn on and off.  It does not, however, stop or even slow down the plane.  When I start the program, the plane starts taking off down the runway and eventually does a great crash-and-burn imitation.  In the old version that toggle switch worked and all Bob had to do was top-off the tanks, release that brake, take off and enjoy.  Now it never gets off the ground.

I thought the problem must be that X-Plane 9 is not recognizing the XP-64 bit drivers on the Bob's computer for his joystick, etc.  My guess is that this is a problem specific to XP-64 bit drivers.  Enthusiasts run XP-64 bit systems because they recognize and are thus able to use more memory than 32 bit systems.  But writing a driver for an XP-64 is much more work than the standard 32 bit driver, thus the fact is that there are just not a lot of drivers written for XP-64 bit systems.  Standard ethernet cards, for example, rarely come with XP-64 bit drivers.  One of the possible solutions that I've suggested to Bob's problem is to move to Windows 7 to see if X-Plane 9 will recognize its drivers.  One of the many reasons people have hated Vista is because of how poorly written its base drivers are written, which is one of the things Windows 7 supposedly has addressed.  I've been using Windows 7 for a few months now and, although I don't like everything about it, its light years better than Vista.

Lastly, the person who was helping us before isn't able to at the moment and might not be for a while, if at all.

My Questions:

Does anyone here who is running X-Plane 9 run Windows 7?

Does anyone have any ideas why X-Plane 9 doesn't recognize hardware that X-Plane 8 seemed to easily identify?

Can anyone give me any ideas on how to make the brake functional so that we can get X-Plane 9 out of the current crash-and-burn trend its working on?

Thank you for taking time to read all of this.  I apologize for being so long-winded, but I've worked in the legal field for a long time now and its an acquired disease *s*.

I can be reached via my email at: dcalvert@neutronenergyinc.com 

[Cameron]

Hi, there,

Many of us are running Windows 7, myself included. To add to that, my version is 64-bit.

Theoretically, if something works in version 8 of X-Plane on the same machine, it should work straight away in version 9 as well.

The main thing I gather here is that you mention the brakes not helping to slow the plane. To me it sounds like there is some movable axis on the joystick configured to operate the throttle, but it is not set correctly. Have you set it to work in reverse by checking the check box to do so when in the axis property section for joysticks? You may need to do this, as it sounds like your 0% throttle is acting as 100% and 100% may be acting as 0%.

[Kesomir]

I also run Windows 7 X64 and x-plane 9.

Like Cameron, my first thought is that something is assigned to throttle axis. Full throttle will normally not be stopped by brakes.

It might help if you state what hardware this is you have connected.

I have to manually assign all my hardware to x-plane axis / commands.

Changing USB devices breaks the setup too.