kentwerickson

The Power levers should work with a regular axis. Nothing was actually changed in that. Have you tried re-assigning an axis? For the benefit of anyone else having the throttle control issue I reported above, I finally figured out a work-around by assigning custom commands to my trigger axes -- "throttle up a bit" and "throttle down a bit."

I am not seeing any engine exhaust heat effect in v1.61. Running XP11.51+, Vulkan. Tested with all 3rd party plugins disabled. (Please forgive me if this issue has been reported elsewhere -- I've had a look and did not see it). EDIT: I'm not seeing the effect running OpenGL either.

Oh my goodness this is even better! Thanks very much!

That did the trick; thanks very much! EDIT: For others who may be interested, I just discovered that the plugin below also works (a bit better in my opinion because the brakes are applied more smoothly using the "gradual" option. https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/9487-progressive-braking-plugin/

Got it, thanks for clarifying.

This would be the next best option if you know how (I lack such skills), and so long as it doesn't interfere with other functionality. Yet I'd much prefer to have this functionality native to the 340A logic -- doesn't seem to be problem for other aircraft developers. But maybe it's a Gizmo constraint introduced by changes in XP11?

Thanks for the feedback. This I know, because the joystick button I have mapped for the parking brake (Toggle brakes max effort) still works with the newly updated 340A. This is the unfortunate/unexpected news, especially for me also being unable to control the power levers with my joystick; e.g., I cannot conveniently control my speed during taxi by easing the power levers into the beta/reverser range. I can still perform this action with keyboard assignments, but then it becomes difficult to track the exact position of the levers without constantly watching them -- just not conducive to a sim environment. But thanks for confirming.

Thanks Goran, for your reply. The triggers on my Xbox controller are treated by XP the same as (regular) joystick axes. They can be reversed, response curves set, etc. There are several throttle control options available from the pulldown menu, including "Backup Throttle," "Throttle Vertical," "Throttle Horizontal," and then individual controls for Throttles 1-8. I have tried each of these options with the 340A but no luck -- no throttle movement at all. As I recall from the XP10 version of the 340A, I had to first move the levers with my mouse just a bit forward of ground idle before the Xbox triggers would work (I think maybe to overcome a detent). But once I'd done this I could then control their full range of motion using the triggers. I've also tried this with the v1.61 update but still no joy. Now, I am still relatively new to XP11 and do not fully understand the difference between the pulldown options mentioned above. But I have been using "Throttle Horizontal" for all of my other twin engine aircraft, which again works fine -- I use one trigger to simultaneously move both the left and right throttle/power levers forward, and the other trigger to move them both backward. And so it seems clear that the 340A is "unique" in this respect. I can control the 340A levers with the mouse, and via keyboard mappings (using XP's default throttle commands). But both of these options are pretty awkward when trying to fly the plane by hand (e.g., during takeoff and landing, and even while taxiing). I also have a pair of spare joystick buttons that I can use to control the condition/fuel levers (forward and backward) -- these work fine with the 340A. But I don't have any spare buttons for the power levers; just the triggers which again until now I have been using without issues since XP10. It would be really nice if we could map the toe brake function (at least) to a joystick button (if this is possible via "commands"). Otherwise, it's again super awkward to apply brakes, say during taxi and upon landing, using the keyboard. As for the sound issue, I plan to do some more testing because this could quite possibly be a problem on my end. Thanks again for your help.

Firstly, thanks very much for the update! A few things I've noticed immediately (tested with all third-party plugins disabled): 1. It is possible to close the main cabin door with the stairs deployed (don't recall if this was possible in the XP10 version, or even whether this should not be possible in the real world - I'm guessing not). But either way, not a big deal -- just an FYI. 2. More critically, I can no longer control either the power/thrust levers or the brakes (hold brakes regular effort) with my Xbox 360 controller. In XP10, I used the left and right triggers for power control (forward and back, both engines simultaneously), and pushed down on the left joystick to apply momentary braking. My 360 controller works fine for these purposes with other sophisticated XP11 aircraft; e.g., the AFL King Air, the Zibo 737, X-Crafts E Series, etc. 3. All aircraft/systems sounds are often completely muted upon sim startup. My Gizmo sound settings/sliders are all maxed out (and I've reset the widget a few times), and nothing wrong with my XP system sounds -- when I load a different plane, the sounds work just fine again. This seems to be an intermittent problem, as on some loads the 340A sounds work, at least initially. For on one trial I paused the sim for a few minutes. But when I resumed the sounds were gone. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

I had roughly the same problem. When I first downloaded the SMP v5.05 installer, SMP installed fine. On first launch, I then checked the configuration box for volumetric clouds -- nothing happened/changed, and afterward I was unable to clear this setting; i.e., the checkbox was "stuck" on. So I tried to re-install v5.05 (several times) using the same installer and began receiving the error above. After reading this post, I re-downloaded the v5.05 installer and this fixed the installation problem, but not the stuck checkbox problem. EDIT: I now see that the volumetric setting is mutually exclusive with other cloud type settings -- you apparently can't have both checked at the same time. The volumetric clouds definitely don't help my FPS.

In other words I'm SOL. Well, I certainly don't blame Sundog -- you guys have been among the few notable exceptions over the years of standing by your products and offering timely fixes/updates, and I applaud you for that (as for the others, just one more reason I am still on XP10).

Can you then post a link here, or send to me by PM, the v4.9.5 installer so I can try that? Thanks.

No. This is among the first things I checked -- turned off all external aircraft lights (they are turned on in the images here because in order to save time while testing I had XP set to load the plane with the engines already running and ready for takeoff). Also tested to see if time of day matters -- e.g., day/dusk/night. No difference. Variety of reasons, including that I could not afford to repurchase all of my payware for XP11 (plus, I was not initially all that impressed with what I considered to be mostly incremental improvements in XP11). The Dash 8 is payware by FlyJSim, and from what I understand was eventually updated for XP11 (but not in early versions). The problem I am experiencing appears related, maybe, to the normal maps of the prop objects. Not sure that this has changed from XP10 to XP11, but perhaps someone else out there knows... I should add that the props on the Dash 8 with SMP v4.9.6.2 look normal when not wound up -- it's only when the engines are running and the props are spinning. I just now tested with my LES Saab 340A and the weird effect occurs with this plane as well. Follow-on question: I still have the installer for SMP v4.9.4. If I run this installer, will I get the older version or does X-Aviation always push the latest version? This way I can test to verify whether or not the problem is related to something that has changed between these two versions. UPDATE: I just tested my Dash 8 in the latest XP11 Demo version with SMP v4.9.6.2 installed, and as the image below shows the weird effect does not occur here. So it seems that you are right that this appears to be an XP10-specific problem. UPDATE 2: I re-ran the SMP v4.9.4 installer (in my XP10 installation), and the problem disappears in this version as depicted below (I've lost the v4.9.5 installer). So it appears that this problem was introduced by changes either in SMP v4.9.5 or 4.9.6.

I've just discovered a strange anomaly with SMP v4.9.6.2. Compare the lighting on the prop blades in the two attached screenshots; the first is with SMP enabled, and the second with SMP disabled (no other changes). The second image is how the props should look. I only now just noticed this issue because I haven't flown the Dash 8 for quite awhile, and it took me quite awhile to narrow down the culprit to SMP -- or so I believe, and who'd have guessed??? (at first I had no idea what could be causing this issue, and tried lots of other things before realizing that the last SMP update was the last change I'd made to my XP installation in quite some time). I am running SMP with XP v10.51 (with HDR enabled) on a Windows 10 machine (Intel Core i7 7700HQ) and Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics card.

Thanks very much! View from Half Moon Bay (CA) with evening fog rolling in is close to sublime! (XP10)