diamonddriller

Hi Goran, I was not quite sure whether to post under Ben's GIzmo forum or here, because it appeared that the crash was a clash with v20 - but, if you have not had any other complaint on this, maybe it is just a particular problem with me. However, it's also possible that many others are still on v18 of Gizmo, without either realising it, or not taking the option to try the v20 beta when buying or updating a newer product, when Cameron has added the beta option. I'll substitute the v20 beta again later, and submit the logs (if it's a problem once more - you never know, it may just work), both for you and Ben.

Sorry Ben. I thought maybe Goran would know why v20 (or the option to use it) wasn't in the installer, as in most of the newer installations. I even, later, had a few further problems with the plane, in that it would seemingly load OK, but the "Crash Bar" would not stay up, there was no way I could access the Gizmo option bar from the right of the screen (it wasn't there at all), and all view keys - the arrow keys and the numeric pad - would not work! Thinking this might be an activation problem, I immediately loaded another of my X-Aviation fleet, to see that it (the just loaded) was activated. Yes, it was , and the Gizmo bar was there. Also, I could then check my licenses, and the TBM (and all others) were shown to be activated. All view keys worke as normal - and all of this , without restarting X-Plane. However, after another X-Plane reboot, I got the TBM working normally, but it seemed to be a bit hit or miss. I'll try all this again, later. I thought, perhaps, my extracts from the console, would give you a clue, but obviously not. Unfortunately, when one has these sort of problems, it is easy to overlook saving the logs each time, as the efforts to clear things up are foremost in the mind. I suppose I could reinstall v20 of Gizmo later, and (if this all happens again!), save and post the logs. In the meantime, I wonder whether Goran is aware of any problem with v20 and the TBM. Or, is it just that Cameron hasn't modified the installer yet, as he is expecting another update soon, and that would include the Gizmo option? I don't think it's related to Apple's security, as I had authorised any mac.xpl files after going through the fleet when I was forced to use Catalina, because my new iMac came with it! I did not see any warnings from Gatekeeper yesterday, but there seems to be a reference to it in the red text.

Hi. On an iMac, running Catalina. X-Plane 11.51. Tried to run the TBM today (and I hadn't for a while), and it crashed X-Plane virtually as soon as the plane opened. Undaunted, I rebooted. Same. So, I re-installed (v1.1.12), and it worked just fine. However, I noticed that the installer had replaced my beta of Gizmo 20 with the older version (18?). I replaced the Gizmo with v20 and it crashed the TBM. BTW, that beta has given me no trouble with the SR20, 22, and numerous other X-Aviation planes! BTW, the TBM also crashed in OpenGL with the beta of Gizmo, so it isn't just a Metal problem. Anyway, I re-installed the TBM, and accepted the older Gizmo. The installation does not ask whether I want the 20 beta, which other planes have. So, I'll stay with the older version for now, but am interested as to why this should be happening. Also, Gizmo 18 hung on redoing my authorisations, and I rebooted X-Plane again, and then Gizmo did the authorisations in couple of seconds! Most odd. However, the Gizmo log does show some errors, and I'd appreciate it if they could be explained - particularly the reference to a file "outside the X-Plane folder". Thanks.

This is going to be a problem, as the current release of Navigraph's data (AIRAC 2014), which was released on December 31st., is the last time they will release data in the 11.41 format. Of course, Laminar is now only updating their released data in the 11.50+ format, and they assume that vendors have had time to adjust their models to accept that. I presume Hot Start will have a fix for this, but I am not sure whether other designers have the same problem. I am now using the 11.50 data (as from the day of the latest release), but haven't yet had to "fly" any ILS approaches in X-Plane, as I have been on PilotEdge with only visual approaches to my destinations - which were SKC in the RW! I'm not even sure why the data fix causes a problem, if the G1000 (or any GNS530 or 430?) is the Laminar program mainly, with some coding added for the intro pages, and synthetic vision, etc. Can someone explain what the problem is, please? Is it the alignment of the synthetic vision's runway? I haven't flown the TBM since the change, so I am hardly in a position to criticise! Just curious, and confirming Navigraph's position. Happy New Year.

Recently got a new Intel iMac, and have kept it on the Catalina OS it was delivered with. I put Big Sur on my laptop, but that doesn't have any difficult programs on it, so nothing untoward would be noticed. X-Plane runs nicely on the iMac, as does everything else I have, so I'm going to wait a bit before pulling the trigger on Big Sur. What is undoubtedly going to be amazing is the next generation of desktops with M? chips in them - but Apple did say it won't be for a while, and I couldn't just wait. I also wanted to have Boot Camp, but there would not seem to be any indication that something like that will be available on Apple silicon. I would expect the M2 or M3 generation of these chips to be in their top of the line desktops. Some of the results on these new M1 laptops are amazing, and they don't have any discreet graphic cards! I'm just waiting to see some enterprising experimenter try X-Plane on a new M1 MacBook Pro!

@Lon No. Shut down properly. Also, tried recharging the battery to no avail! @Coop I'll let you know. So far so good, so I'll leave things alone ;-)

Just because I'm an awkward b--ger, I "cleaned" my airframe and renewed it. Then, closed XP. The next day, I opened up XP and reselected the SR20 (or resumed the flight - whichever), and switched on the batteries and avionics. Nothing......... screens remained blank. Pressed fuel boost, but heard nothing. Tried starter. Nope..... Looked at the menu. No starter type highlighted, and I couldn't select anything. The chocks, etc, did work. There were no figures of any kind in the Hobbs windows. So, I just re-installed from scratch, and all was well - it would be. Any ideas? (On an iMac) P.S. Cut the mixture at 1500', and did a forced landing on a road. Spot on. It's a great plane.

@Coop On the altimeters, fair enough. I think the crashes may well be solved in 11.51 - just read the beta notes.

Lovely plane, Coop. First minor problem noted: see attached screenshot. 5000' on 30.13 on the PFD. Steam gauge altimeter is around 30.08 for 5000'. Has crashed XP if I try to reload the SR20 from another plane, or do a developer re-load, but the SR22 often did that as well - no big deal. On an iMac in Catalina (and in no hurry to go to Big Sur - let someone else sort out the problems !).

"you can hit the Replace airframe button" Sorry Coop. Never noticed it.......... Also, I was looking for a log file (or similar) somewhere, but never thought to look in Output! Thanks.

I may have read, somewhere, that one can reset the plane to brand new by deleting a file (probably the preferences file) - but I may be mixing this up with another plane, or even another sim! Anyway, can you confirm how I can do this with the Cirrus, if I want to? Thanks.

@Steve Hunnisett I was amazed that you get such good frame rates - and then I got to the sentence where you say you have little or no add-on scenery! That's the answer! Alpilotx meshes, or ortho, and complex airports - well, they add a lot of load on the system. Quite why the PT-19 is giving you trouble is tricky, but it is down to the coding, which is probably different to Carenado's or Thranda's, etc. I found that with the TorqueSim Cirrus, and that was explained to me then. Now, with the new iMac, those problems are gone. You say you will run your current iMac for a good while longer. These iMacs go on for years. I gave away a 2009 27" one to a friend quite a while ago. No, it won't run Catalina (actually, I think there is a hack...), but he still uses it daily. Of course that oldie had the built-in CD/DVD drive, and had 3 fans, not just the one of the newer models. It was thicker, and ran cooler..... On a desk, who cares if it is half an inch or more thicker? The most likely failure is the hard drive, but sometimes the display goes, or the logic board.

@Steve Hunnisett As an afterthought, and you may well be doing this already, run the screen resolution at 1920x1080 (it seems to default to 2560x1440, not the 5K setting), and even 1280x720 when you are just doing a longer stretch on autopilot - no good in the PT19! 1920x1080 is acceptable. Turn off HDR and anti-aliasing. Also, use planes which have lower resolution liveries available. You can also reduce the size of 4K liveries by reducing them to 2048x2048 in Photoshop. Unfortunately, the 2015 iMacs were still on Thunderbolt 2, as the newer ones, with Thunderbolt 3, can run an eGPU.

@Steve Hunnisett Steve, you are really going to struggle with that 2GB graphics card. I was having a hard time with a late 2015 27" with the fastest i7, 32GB ram and the 4GB 395 Radeon. X-Plane 11 would often have the fan running flat out, with processor core temperatures spiking to 100°C quite often..... With a lot of ortho or Orbx (and even the Alpilot mesh and little else), frame rates could beat 30 fps, but a slide show could happen, and 25 fps or slightly less was common. I often used X-Plane 10, as it ran cooler and quicker, even with the ortho, etc. The planes are a bit less demanding, and many of the earlier types will run OK in X-Plane 11. You only have to look at published recommended requirements for scenery or planes on the .org store to see that a 4GB graphics card is often stated as a minimum, and 8GB or more is recommended. Maybe Cameron would consider putting this sort of info. on the main page of the appropriate product, as it does give one a clue as to whether one can expect to run things with a computer below that level. Remember, if they suggest a 4GB card for a plane, you also have to load and move the scenery and clouds, etc. So, keep your textures lower, and I found that Metal was not as good as OpenGL on the 2015 iMac. Also, don't run any "heavy" scenery, and (unfortunately) not Skymaxx Pro with 2GB. Note that SMPro will not run on Metal, sadly. I loved it, but they can't make it run in Metal at all.

Maybe cut the textures down a notch??? Also, knock the reflections back, and (perhaps) the hdr. After all, in VR, do you really care about the textures, reflections, etc.? You are already looking at lower resolution displays, and spending most of your time in the cockpit - like a real pilot :-) If you can get around 30fps, that's faster than a movie, so should be acceptable. In 2D, if you see 60+ fps, that's probably about as good a it's likely to get, particularly if you wind the settings up. You do, after all, have a great rig! Or are you going to go for the $1500 3090 (none of my business, of course! Just having fun!)?

@giaco Oh. As you said you had the same issue, I thought you were also on a Mac! I'm amazed that your very highly specified PC is only seeing 30 fps. However, you are in VR, and that's not an option on Macs yet. I'm sure that the VR setup slows things down - doesn't it? @Cameron Yes. I also think it's a GPU issue, mainly. It's largely the amount of VRAM, but will also be a driver issue. I'm now (at last) running a 2020 iMac (27"), with the Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16GB graphics card, and all my slide-show issues have gone! It will run Coop's Cirrus at 60 fps in Metal, and the PT-19 is also giving me at least 60 fps too. The machine also runs way cooler! Also, no "tearing" when I pan around. I'm even getting 60 fps in dense scenery, like FlyTampa's Las Vegas. With some planes and less dense scenery, I can see 100 fps! Ridiculous

Thanks for the explanation on how you wanted to simulate the braking system. It is a bit awkward trying to slide the lever, when (quite often) it is not in sight - but now I know how things work, I'll set up a view. Also, to be frank, it's no big deal to accept using "v" to stop the plane from running away! I agree that it's better to show how things actually were/are, and not allow "v" or "b" to incorrectly move the lever. Once one understands the logic, it's fine. Your manual did not address brakes - well, not that I could see. At the end of the day, we use brakes when taxiing, or to get off a runway, so they have no effect on the enjoyment of flying.

Steve and giaco - how old are your iMacs, and what CPUs and GPUs (VRAM especially) and RAM have you got? When I read the specs., I'll relate my experiences.

Thank you for the info. that you will give us a PT19B! As I said above, I am perfectly happy to tinker with and just bimble around in the original version, because there are no distractions! However, I would like to do some online work in this wonderful plane, now and again, which is why I asked for the facility. No chance of doing 1941 on PE - don't worry

I also can't seem to see quite what the parking brake actually does - if it is, indeed, a parking brake. The slider with, "emer brake" written on it, seems to move the toe brakes, but is not linked to either the "v" or "b" key commands - and I seem to need to use those. My toe brakes (or the keys I allotted to them) work perfectly as differential brakes or just for stopping! The control lock does work, but the joystick can still waggle the control stick completely out of the red "stop", but then it jumps back into the stop. You can see the ailerons and elevators waggle and snap back to neutral! A bit odd, but not a disaster!

Actually, I guess to really make it legal, you also would need an ELT. A landing light would be good, and anti-collision light (although, as this built before 1996, you could get away with not having one!). If you are flying around farmland, away from major areas, you don't need ADS-B either. This plane is such fun to fly and manage. Without any extras, I guess I can be happy pretending it's 1940, and fly around the countryside

Hi Yes, I know the originals didn't have any electrics, and it's fine to fly without them in the "country" areas. I'd love to fly VFR in PilotEdge, so would need a radio and transponder. Nordo in Socal is not a good idea........ I note the restored plane, seen in a few YouTube videos, has had a retro fit of some old radios, etc. - and even a starter! I don't care about the starter, as it's fun doing it the original way, but it would be nice to be able to have an option to "fit" a battery, alternator (or generator) and a basic comms radio and transponder. All of this to be as a clickable option - i.e. you load up in the default non-electric way, but just have the option to "modernise" it a bit Thanks for a wonderful plane.

OK Cameron. I'm really mystified by this, because I had no problem either till rc3, but no matter. What is a pity is that my SMP will only be used by me in OpenGL. Unfortunately, other weather plugins seem to be Windows only. I may eventually see what is happening, but we all have such a mixture of plugins and scenery, etc. that it's a minefield! I will have a go to see if it's RW, or maybe XPNOAA weather interacting badly with SMP in Metal. No problem in OpenGL. I'll mess about tomorrow. For most of the time, I get good performance in OpenGL, but there are times when the frame rate dips to a slideshow, and it is going to be interesting to how metal copes in similar situations. I have already seen some great improvement here and there, but (for example, with the SR22) on my current rig, OpenGL is actually often faster. New iMac on its way, and I am very hopeful that it will make a huge difference.

Are there any plans to get SMP working in Metal on the Mac? Just disabling it in rc2 seemed OK, but I think it is now preventing me loading up anything in 11.50 final - although it might well be another plugin, and nothing to do with SMP at all. I see you mentioned Xjet above. Is that a known issue? To run metal, I've moved a load of plugins out, but working out which one is the culprit is so tedious, because XP takes forever to load each time So, for metal, I run with minimal plugins, which is a bit annoying but, as life is now in the Covid world, perhaps the least of my worries! UPDATE P.S. I realised that I had not updated 4.9.6 to 4.9.6.2, so installed that (knowing it was still incompatible with metal, anyway, but thought it worth doing for the OpenGL use), and the flight would not load in metal. Moved RWC and SMP out, and all worked - so it is SMP, sadly......... I'm sure I could load and just disable in earlier 11.50 betas.....

@airfighter Sorry, I didn't seee your post till today. I actually did see the autopilot video lately, because I had fallen foul of a similar a/p in another plane. This prompted me to double check on what I was doing! In the RW, so many of the old bangers I flew had inoperative autopilots, so a lot of my experience has been in sims. Of course, most of the newer planes, in X-Plane, have more modern A/Ps, and the latest digital ones are even better. RW, I fly (mostly) in G1000 equipped planes with, occasionally KAP140s, but mostly with GFC700 autopilots. So, once I realised what I was not doing properly with the A/P in the Sundowner, I was fine :-) Although I see what you are getting at with the radios, if anyone retrofits a Garmin, they will definitely assign and wire the old existing radio to be COM2. Why wouldn't any avionics installer not do that? In fact, if you think about it, how could you "mate" an old radio to the Garmin, so that the frequency in one would mirror the other? I have doubts that this is doable - and it would be pointless! As for frame rates, my new iMac is still not with me, as the first one that was built was lost by the carrier......