Hello! Introduction

[flemon]

Hello to everyone on these very helpful forums!

I'm a flight-simmer who's big project is to create a hybrid (not fully simulated but still somewhere that is satisfactory) airbus cockpit for use in my office. I fly primarily on Vatsim and with the Aerosoft Airbus A320/321 (waiting for the A330!).

I have a smallish budget but if needs must, be willing to spend an amount on essentials.

My specs are:
i7 CPU @ 4.2GHz (OC to approx. 4.4GHz)
GTX960 2gb
8gb RAM

I fly on P3D v3 and my system is pretty fine on this. With real-world weather, flying into Gatwick (addon scenery-UK2000) with the Airbus, I can easily get around 30-40fps with not so bad weather (blue-ish skies).

I've noticed that the Airbus does not have 2D panels apart from the MCDU which I will use on my iPAD. But, if I'm correct, it has 2D views which can be undocked and moved around. I'm always a perfectionist and hate the look of <20fps. It just ruins the immersion. But with 2D views, I've heard that your performance can be affected quite a bit. Am I correct, or am I getting muddled up with multiple 3D views running at the same time.

I use my PC in my office on a large desk that fits my monitor (1920x1080) and with the printer and box at the back. I'm looking to get some small monitors to act as the PFD, ND and upper and lower ECAM. Preferably 3 monitors, 2 for displaying Captain and FO and 1 for the ECAM's.

From the way the desk is layed out, I can fit the throttle pedestal in the middle and put two chairs either side.

I own a Blackwidow Joystick (going to upgrade to Logitech 3D Pro in the near future!) and a Saitek yoke and throttle. The throttle only works through a PS/2 cable into the yoke, so I'd quite like to get a USB throttle when Saitek actually start to manufacture again!

I hope to start a website to post my progress or maybe even YouTube some stuff, but I will post pics of my office and my initial thoughts on where I should place stuff. This is a project which I want to have flexibility over - I want to make it possible to fly at every stage of the project, so I can't have my sim out of action for weeks on end.

I've heard about you guys as being basically THE BEST out there for flight deck creating, so I'd quite like to say a HUGE THANK YOU in advance for your help. My dream is to be a bus pilot, so this project will take one step close compared to just sitting in front of a screen and clicking. It might not seem like much but actually flicking switches and using rotary knobs and hardware is oddly satisfying and immersive at the same time.

Thanks so much!

Fraser

[OmniAtlas]

Have you considered Jeehell FMGS for your project?

3Dvirtual cockpit is the most intensive.

[No Longer Active]

Hi Welcome To The Forum.

You are better off like OmniAtlas said and download JH FMGS which is free and network a few cheap pc's and keep your i7 as the main FS pc. I heard that the ND uses thousands of lines of code so you will probably need a PC on its own to run the ND and PFD and then hook up more PC's to run the OVHD, ECAM, MCDU and FCU. You can use a VGA splitter to repeat the Capt side ND and PFD without another computer. Also FMGS has a starter app that will launch all the displays across the network from one app.

Running FS and all the displays from one pc will be a massive strain on CPU and memory, especially P3D/FSX. Some have done it however, every system is different, everyones settings are different and pc configurations are different. I personally would play safe and hook up multiple cheap pc's and free up your i7 just for FS alone.

Remember JL FMGS is free!

Where in UK you from by the way?

Welcome to MC.

Alex

[flemon]

Hi, thanks for the replies!

I have looked at and researched the Jeehell but I might not have stated my intentions well enough!

I don't really want to use this suite because I just really like the Aerosoft bus that I'm using. I plan to build a desktop cockpit that only uses a few screens that I will hook up to my PC. I plan to get a new graphics card to use for the small display monitors and use my existing GPU for my main monitor.

I'd quite like to make a few switches with a USB card and some wiring, but apart from that, I'm absolutely fine to keep clicking the stuff in the cockpit with the mouse. I just want to display the main screens, maybe add a few panels (pedestal and maybe the gear lever) and that's about it.

So whilst this suite is BRILLIANT for full cockpit builds, it isn't really for me. Thanks for the headsup about it though.

The real aim for this is to be able to have two people flying at the same time, one with the radios and one flying. I can use FSUIPC for all the hardware mouse macros and stuff.

Any help about how I can get the best performance with multiple monitors displaying the panels would be a real help. It's just the performance I'm worried about, but P3D has exceeded my expectations in terms of performance.

Alex, I live in Bucks, near London. I plan to go to Cosford for the Flight Sim Show and pick up a few cheap stuff for the build.

[OmniAtlas]

Then, I would wait for Flight Sim Labs A320 (releasing soon) which has undockable panels and is a more realistic simulator than Aerosoft Airbus.

[No Longer Active]

Well good luck with your desktop sim, in terms of performance, I am not qualified enough to give an honest response. However, TripleHead2Go adapters seem to be very popular in the home cockpit fields, and I am not too sure what the drop in performance would be using one. If you use the TH2GO for your PFD/ND/ECAM etc then you will be fine, no problems whatsoever, just use your main GPU on your i7 for your visuals. This way you could hook up everything on one PC.

Im old school, im still on FS9 but for a reason, FS9 on a 4ghz PC gives me very high setting and good frame rates. But the downside is....its 12 year old software. I've always said I would rather have (and still would have) the VERY BEST of old technology than the VERY WORST PERFORMANCE of new technology. Just shows the contrast between simmers in this day and age. Anyway back to your questions, I would give the TripleHead2Go a shot (3 monitors as 1) or even the DuaHead2go (2 monitors as 1). Great for displays!

I know Wilco Airbus you can undock displays but I dont think you can on the Aerosoft Airbus X.

Have you tried Wilco?


Alex

[flemon]

I haven't tried Wilco purely because before I've had this idea, I was loving the Airbus with its nice cockpit and its well-modelled (but not a study-sim) systems.

You can create 2D popups for the displays, by editing the cfg, but this could cause a decrease in fps or an increase in VAS usage. I might take OmniAtlas's idea and wait for the FSL A320.

But until then, I can get a start in creating the panels (maybe start with the gear lever?) and work up from there until FSL release a P3D version of the A320. I honestly can't wait for it (remote MCDU access from the iPad - one less thing to worry about!) but concerned at the price.

Anyone know what the price wil be approximately?

Thanks for the help so far!

[flemon]

Also, what GPU would you recommend to run three monitors? Early 2gb Nvidia? I'd quite like a cheap one that I can easily install into my computer when the time comes.

I will create a website soon to display my concept, my initial drawings and to update people on the progress. If you check that out you might understand my idea a bit more easily!

[OmniAtlas]

FYI - you don't need a triple head to go for the latest Nvidia cards. They support spanning out of the box. You would only use spanning for your visual generator - e.g the P3D machine.

[flemon]

So I would use the TH2Go for the cheaper GPU to group all the display monitors, apart from the actual view outside the VC whihc is just powered by my main GPU?