May 19, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments
It’s been 10 days since the covers were battened down on the new GBS Beast v5 (my new gaming PC) and I couldn’t be happier with how she’s been performing. All the simulation based games I truly love and enjoy playing perform flawlessly. Since v5 first booted up with a brand new install of Windows 10, I’ve been feverishly getting everything reinstalled, configured and operational. I’ve managed to resume (and almost catch up) with getting videos recorded for the GrizzlyBearSims YouTube Channel. For me, my simulation gaming is a huge stress reliever for me from the hectic days of real life and I feel that life and my sanity are back to normal, or as close to normal as can be expected in my life. I’m very pleased.
Baby Steps
Much of the time I spent with v5 in the first few days could have been considered baby steps. As previously noted, I spent some time playing FS17 and recording content for the YT channel. I also began the daunting task of getting all my flight sim add-ons reinstalled and configured. In addition, spending time getting Prepar3D v4 dialed in with the new system. While P3D v4 is not new to me, the configuration settings with the new performance hardware is drastically different that how I had it setup with the previous gaming machine. But thankfully, the new hardware in the Beast v5 is allowing me to really crank up the graphic settings and both the GPU and CPU are working well together to deliver a spectacular visual experience which I couldn’t be happier about. But with almost 10 days of taking it easy on the new machine, I felt the need to really stress her and see just what she could do.
The True Test
As my long-time readers will know, I’ve been a flight simmer for a very long time. Quite honestly, it’s because of my passion for virtual flight which served as the requirements for the new PC build. I could have saved a lot of money if I were only building the new rig to play FS17, ETS2, ATS etc. But to achieve the stunning levels of immersion and eye-candy I wanted from Prepar3D v4, I needed the CPU/GPU and other elements. But how would this new system perform. Would it, could it deliver the level of performance I really hoped it could. I new of only one way to test this and it would involve pretty much an entire day of my time. Of course, time spent gaming is never a waste of time. Right???
Now, I must admit that I rarely have the time or real desire/interest to commit to a full international long-haul flight in the sim. In my earlier years, spending a full day flying from the US to the UK was something I did quite frequently. But as one begins to settle down and all that…then sacrifices must be made and for the most part my virtual flying generally consists of shorter haul flights in the 2-4 hour range. Also, until the GBS v5 was born….I had difficulties getting the type of performance that would allow a full international long-haul flight without a system crash or really slow performance at the very end. I had hoped this new rig would solve those issues and let me say once again, I couldn’t be happier.
On Saturday, I booted up GBS v5 and loaded up Prepar3d v4.2 with the PMDG 747-400 (Queen of the Skies II) and placed her at the gate at KDEN (Denver International Airport). I set the sim time for just before 1900 hours and began to perform all my pre-flight setup work to ensure a prompt departure for 19:35. I would be simulating British Airways flight 218 which operates daily between Denver and London’s Heathrow Airport. This is the very flight my wife and I will take in a few months. While in the past BA operated the Boeing 777-200 on this route, for the past few years they have operated the Boeing 747-400. The Queen of the Skies won’t be around many more years and it’s truly a joy to have the opportunity fly on this wonderful aircraft.
The real life flight time for this route is approx. 8 hours, 35 minutes and I’ll be doing my best to simulate this down to the very minute. After all, “As Real As It Gets” right?
Push-Back and Departure
Unfortunately, the first few screenshots which I captured while on the ground, pushback, taxi and take-off didn’t get saved. But despite one family being a bit late arriving to the gate, Speedbird 218 Heavy pushed back at 19:36 and began the short taxi to runway 36R.
Speedbird 218 Heavy climbing through the clouds just as the final minutes of sunlight was visible to the west. The four Rolls-Royce RB211 engines provide all the thrust we need to reach our cruising altitude of 37,000.
A near full moon is visible just off the starboard side of the aircraft. Wing shots are some of my favorite to capture.
The flight deck of the B747-400 (view from the jump seat)
Here comes the sun. The sun rising in the east, but we still have many hours to go.
A port side wing view. PMDG simulates wing flex very well with their aircraft. It’s truly amazing just how much flex these large wings have.
The Queen of the Skies is a thing of beauty. Note the heavy cloud cover over the Atlantic ocean. Not much to see.
Land Ho….just approaching the cost of Northern Ireland. Almost time to get to work getting this bird safely on the ground.
One more body of water to cross before reaching the coast of England. At this stage of the flight we’re beginning our descent from FL370 and experiencing a lot of turbulence.
Somewhere, down there….you’ll find Thornton Farm, Coldborough Park Farm. Love the details
It’s pretty soupy in Old London Town today.
Gear down and fully configured for landing. Speedbird 218 Heavy is joining the ILS for runway 27R. The Thames River is visible in the background.
Cleared for landing on 27R and just seconds before this shot the end of the runway was in full sight.
Summary
The total flight time from push back at KDEN to engine shut down at EGLL, was just a little over 8 hours, 45 minutes. So about 10 minutes late, but this was mainly due to heavy traffic as we entered the busy London airspace. But the GBS Beast v5 performed just as expected during this entire time.
This long flight pushed the new machine hard. Night time, heavy cloud cover and flying from and to heavy detailed airports were all tasks which would have been difficult with the old PC. It handled it all with flying colors (pun intended). I’m going to spend a few weeks flying some European routes before eventually heading back to Denver.
Until next time….
Jerry
May 15, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments
Aerosoft Airbus for Prepar3D v4 Release Date Announced
Ladies and Gentlemen…the wait is almost over. Earlier today, there was a not-so-public announcement regarding the date which we could expect the highly anticipated release of the Aerosoft Airbus A318/A319/A320 & A321 series for Prepar3d version 4.x.
The announcement was posted in the Aerosoft forums by Mathijs Kok (see below)
What? You didn’t see the release date? OK…hang on, let me try this again……
Is this any better?
LOL Yes, it was hidden in white text and one needed to simply highlight the area to see the special hidden message. But just in case you still can’t see it, the target date for release of the Aerosoft Airbus A3xx series for P3D v4 is 26 June.
This is really great news for the flight sim community. Especially those who have made the move to P3D v4. It feels like a mini-lifetime since I’ve flown the Airbus. I’m mostly a Boeing guy, but I did purchase the Aerosoft Airbus series for FSX and used it in P3D up to version 3.x. I must admit that I was never that proficient in the Airbus and I’ll certainly be starting over from scratch at learning her once again. But I’m really excited for this release for a few reasons.
First, while I’m mainly a Boeing fan, I do enjoy flying a variety of aircraft and truly enjoy simulating many different airlines both in the US as well as in the UK and Europe.
Second, I’ve been following the progress of the Aerosoft Airbus for P3D v4.x from day one of the release of the sim platform. While others managed to get their older 32 bit versions of their aircraft converted to 64 bit compatibility, Aerosoft took the approach of practically rewriting the entire aircraft series (or much of it) and states that many aspects of the Aerosoft Airbus A3xx Series will be the most advanced you’ll see.
Third, and this is the most important. Upon installing the Aerosoft Airbus A3xx series we won’t have to worry about any malware being hidden inside the installer. The same can’t be said of the FSLabs version as reported here.
Fourth, while pricing information hasn’t been made public just yet. Mathijs Kok has stated multiple times that Aerosoft does not charge twice for the same code. In other words, if you purchased the Aerosoft Airbus for FSX, you’ll only be charged for the code which has been modified to ensure it’s compatibility for P3D v4. This is extremely fair.
So 26 June is a Tuesday. I’ve already marked my calendar to remind me a day or two before. Between now and then I’ll re-watch some of the older procedure videos and be ready to purchase, download and install both packages (A318/A319 & A320/A321) into my sim.
I can’t wait…
Until next time…
JT
May 5, 2018 / admin / 2 Comments
WOW…what a whirlwind the past two weeks have been. Just before 22 April, my gaming machine (Beast v4) had issues with installing Microsoft Windows 10 updates. It finally reached a point where I had to reinstall Windows 10 (which I did). But soon after I just wasn’t satisfied with the performance so I did a clean install of Windows 10 and was in the process of getting all my games installed and configured when the machine suffered a motherboard failure. I was absolutely gutted. It’s never a good time for a PC just to die like this and especially when I had hoped I could get another year of use from her. But best laid plans and all that….
Need a Plan
I quickly put a plan together and began looking around my collection of antique radios and other gadgets I don’t use much. I also went ahead and gutted much of the v4 PC and realized the market is quite good for used PC parts at the moment. I managed to sell the 980Ti GPU, RAM and a few other components which I determined were fully functional. With the available cash on hand, I began ordering all the pieces and parts needed to build v5. They began arriving on Wednesday with the first batch of parts being the new case, motherboard, CPU, RAM and liquid CPU cooler.
v5 is honestly the most powerful gaming machine I’ve ever designed, built and owned. While other builds (including v4) originally had a few less than optimal parts which down the road I upgraded, v5 will roll off the assembly line (my workbench) most likely the same way it’ll head into the sunset hopefully 5+ years from now. Meaning….I’m cutting no corners in this build. The pride and joy of this gaming machine is the Intel 8th Gen i7 8700K CPU and the 11GB GTX 1080Ti GPU. It’s funny to believe that when I first built v4, I installed the GTX 780 TI (3GB) and about 18 months in upgraded to the GTX 980 Ti (6GB) GPU. Now I’m jumping to a whopping 11GB of GPU goodness.
The Build
The build of v5 took place over two evenings. I started assembling the parts which had arrived on Wednesday, 2 May and finalized the hardware build on the next evening (Thursday, 3 May). I’ve updated the full breakdown of v5 which can be found here. Thankfully, my build partners (Fedex, UPS and Amazon Prime) all managed to delivery everything on time and in the order I needed them.
New ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero Motherboard installed inside the NZXT S340 Elite ATX Mid-Tower Case.
Keeping my Cool
When I initially built v4, I installed liquid cooling. I admit I didn’t choose wisely on the brand and model I purchased. Within about 6 months of use the water pump mechanism failed and thankfully I caught it in time and shut the machine off before I had a full meltdown. I did my homework this time around and went with a more trusted/reliable brand of Corsair. The install was super easy with the units radiator mounted at the front of the case. The fans draw air through the radiator. The other three case fans are configured to vent the warm air out of the case from the top, bottom and rear.
With the CPU safely installed, it’s time to mount the Corsair Hydro Series H100i v2 CPU Cooler in the case.
An Open and Shut Case
I absolutely am in love with this new case. If anyone is interested, its the NZXT S340 Elite ATX case. It’s amazing and relatively easy to work with. I love the cable management features and absolutely love the SSD drive mounting options. The power supply mounts at the rear and under the red metal cover. This really helps to keep all the cabling coming from the PSU tidy or at least just out of sight.
Cable management is made super easy with this case from NZXT.
The SSD drives mount onto a metal tray which clips in and held in place with just one screw.
Speaking of Drives
At the heart of the v5 build is a superfast 1 TB Samsung 960 EVO PCIe NVMe M.2 Internal SSD drive. I’ve never installed or used one of these in the past. But OMG…this thing is fast. Yes, fast…but also expensive. For comparison, this NVMe M.2 SSD has a read speed of up to 3.2 GB/s and a write speed up to 1.9 GB/s. Compared to a standard SSD drive (as pictured above) where read speed is around 550 MB/s and write speeds of 520 MB/s. I thought Windows 10 booted fast on a standard SSD…but literally after POST, Windows 10 is ready to go in the blink of an eye. I’m super impressed.
The moment of truth
With the final component installed and most cables tucked out of the way, it was time to test the build. I grabbed an old monitor, keyboard and mouse and fired up v5. She roared, actually whispered to life as she’s super quiet and a quick rap of the F2 button and I was in the BIOS. I made a few tweaks mainly consisting of setting correct date/time and just verifying everything was set correctly. I shut v5 down so I could properly secure all the visible cables and batten down the hatches on the case. By the way, if you’re not aware….you never want to operate a desktop computer (especially a high performing one) with the case covers open. The design of the cooling features in most modern cases depend on the case being closed down for proper air flow.
Let’s get Windows installed
The fun can’t begin until Windows 10 has been installed and patched. As this is not the first time I’ve installed Windows 10 in the past week, I’m old hat with all that needs to be done. This also allows for a more peaceful break in period for all the components in the machine. The first software application I installed was CAM by NZXT. Yep, same folks that make the case. CAM is a wonderful monitoring tool which I’ve used from time to time. After installation, I launched CAM and moved the application over to one of my secondary monitors so I could keep an eye on v5 while she was taking updates and installing software. Most likely I’ll rely on CAM and keep it open and active on my system for the first several weeks (at least) just to keep a watchful eye on my new baby.
A Lot of Work To Do
I still have lots and lots and lots of work still yet to do on v5. Of course this is all software installs and configurations. But to all my extremely loyal and wonderful Farming Friends, FS17 has been installed and tested. I’ve verified everything is just as I left it (not by choice) with Green River and even ran a quick test for about 10 minutes where I drove around the map and had OBS recording. The machine performed just as expected and GPU/CPU temps all stayed nice and cool. I plan to record episode 10 of GreenRiver on Saturday, 5 May (Cinco de Mayo) which won’t actually be released on YouTube until the week of the 14th of May.
Something Old, Something New
Some of the funds that went into helping purchase the pieces and parts to build “the Beast v5” came from selling some old AM radios I purchased and refinished. The illuminated USB thumb drive is made from an old analog tube. I don’t know the exact age of the tube, but its most likely in the same age range as a few of the old radios I sold (circa 1940). This is a 16GB USB thumb drive which I used to install Windows 10 into the new machine. Sort of cool huh?
The GBS Beast v5
As previously stated, I still have many hours of work installing and configuring software. My flight sim setup is quite complex and takes many hours, actually a few days to completely get setup. But in the mean time, please allow me to introduce you to the new Beast v5. Yes, I’ll eventually peel that caution sticker off which is just a warning that the main case cover is real tempered glass.
Thanks for reading and sharing in my excitement. This build (like all the others before it) was a lot of fun both in the planning and building stages. I’m confident this new machine will provide me many, many hours of enjoyment as I continue to play FS17, ATS, ETS2, Flight Sim and many other games.
Until next time…
Jerry
May 2, 2018 / admin / 1 Comment
Well…after all the time I just recently put into rebuilding the OS, reinstalling most of the software on my gaming rig, it has died. Yes ladies and gentlemen, the four year old rig seems to have died on me. All worked fine on Wednesday evening. I had spent some time flying in P3D and on Thursday morning before work it booted up fine and I installed a few more airport scenery add-ons. I came home on Thursday afternoon and attempted to boot up the beast and it briefly powered on, but immediately shut off.
The root cause appears to be a failure on the motherboard. I removed the 1000w Corsair I had installed in the gaming rig and quickly replaced it with a known-good 750w I had from another machine I have. Same issue. I must admit that I’ve been really lucky with my self-built gaming rigs. This one is the 4th rig I’ve built and the only one that has actually just died on me. The others just simply become outdated as time goes by and usually get moved into other duties when I build a new generation machine. But unfortunately, this one has died and at the current moment in time I have no other machine which is capable of playing the games I play.
To Repair or Replace
I really don’t feel repairing is a valid option for me. First, the machine is 4 years old. While replacing the motherboard is an option, I’m left with a 4 year old CPU (if that even still works) and most likely would just be delaying the inevitable. While this isn’t a good time for me financially, I feel my investment will be best served by completely building a new PC based on today’s technology.
More about Finances (or lack thereof)
So as not to reveal too much personal information. I’ll just state that at the present time our disposable income just isn’t in a good place right now for this project to be considered. Fortunately, my wife and I had an opportunity to pay off our mortgage early. In the long run, what we’ll save on interest payments if we had continued with our home loan was reason for us to take some of our retirement nest egg and payoff the loan. I’m a home owner! YEA!!!! Again, while we’re not broke….we’re just not in a situation for me to immediately point my browser to Amazon and start buying parts.
What does this mean for the GBS YouTube Channel?
Good question. If you’ve been watching any of my recent videos, then I’m sure you’ve heard me ramble on about the backlog of videos I have already recorded, rendered and uploaded to YouTube. I have content already in the pipeline through 15 May. This includes 9 episodes on the new map “Let’s Play” series I have recently started. Unfortunately, I really don’t believe I’ll be up and operational before I burn through that content. For this, I’m very sorry.
As I often say, and I know my loyal viewers also understand, hobbies must take a backseat to real life issues. My wife and I had been going back and forth the past few months on deciding whether or not to pay off the mortgage early and as I mentioned, the amount of money we’ll save just in interest payments over the next 10 years will really mean a lot for our retirement. Remember, I’m 51 (turning 52 in the fall) and I really only want to work as long as I need to.
The Next GBS Beast
I’ve already started planning the next generation GBS gaming beast. The initial plan is to go with the Intel i7-8700K CPU. This won’t be an off the shelf CPU, but a delidded version which is rated/certified to overclock to a screaming 5.1GHz. The benefit of the delidding service is typically the CPU temperature will run anywhere between 12°C to 25°C cooler which ensures greater stability and longer component lifespan. In addition, I’ll also be upgrading my graphics card from the 6GB 980Ti to the 11GB 1080Ti.
As with my four previous gaming machine builds, I’m building the machine to meet the gaming needs for not only today but also tomorrow and hopefully the day after that. Meaning, I would rather wait, save up the money and install the parts I feel are needed versus going with lower end parts and upgrading later.
ETA?
Ahhh, the million dollar question. At this very moment in time I really can’t answer this question. My initial plan right now is to sort through some old “stuff” I have laying around and see what I can sell and how much I can make from that. After all, one man’s junk, is another man’s treasure. According to my wife I have a goldmine of “stuff” laying around which I never use. To her credit, this is actually a true statement. I have enjoyed a wide variety of hobbies over the years and some of these hobbies no longer interest me and some of the equipment related to these hobbies are just sitting around collecting dust.
Update
So I began writing this article during the week of 21 April and as of today, 2 May I have made significant progress on obtaining the funds I need for the new build. New parts are arriving as early as today from Amazon, Newegg and CDW. Essentially the first parts to arrive are the ones I need first to start the build. New case, motherboard, CPU and CPU cooler will arrive today and I’ll begin the process of installing the components into the new case. While I’m really beginning to feel withdrawals from being able to play Farming Simulator and Prepar3D, I also very much enjoy this stage of PC building. So I plan to take my time and truly enjoy the moment. Hopefully by next week I’ll pickup the new graphics card, RAM and the remaining parts I need to fully complete the build.
Once the new machine is built, tested and fully functional…I’ll get FS17 installed and begin recording content. If all goes as currently planned, there will not be any gaps between my video release schedule.
Stay tuned….
Until next time…
Jerry
May 1, 2018 / admin / 2 Comments
At the end of the day, are we to blame? Did we, the flight simulation community play a role in the demise of Dovetail Games Flight Sim World? For the record, while I only spent about 12-15 hours in Flight Sim World and most of these hours were spent playing back in the June/July 2017 timeframe…I have made every effort to keep my eyes and ears open to the news regarding updates, future plans etc. From much of the information I read prior to the announcement FSW would be cancelled, I found both the progress and the direction the game was headed to be mostly favorable. While I personally don’t mind owning early access game titles, I never saw FSW (in its current state) as a viable replacement to Prepar3D which is my flight simulator of choice. But this certainly doesn’t mean it couldn’t at some point became a replacement for P3D.
A Brief History of Flight Simulation
For me to truly do this article justice and hopefully communicate my thoughts appropriately, especially considering the title of this blog post. I would like to briefly share the history of this wonderful hobby. I promise it will be brief…
Really it all goes back to the late 1970’s and early 1980’s and a game developer called subLOGIC founded by Bruce Artwick. The first generation subLOGIC Flight Simulator was originally offered for the Apple II (1979) and TRS-80 (1980) computers. The second generation came about in December 1983 (again for the Apple II) and eventually for the Commodore 64 in June of 1984. This was my first experience AND when the passion of flight simulation hit me as a teenager.
In the early 80’s (81-82), Microsoft obtained the license to port the subLOGIC Flight Simulator to IBM compatible PC’s. This would be called Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0 and was released in November 1982. I’ve often heard this was at the direction of Bill Gates and this is an important fact to remember as I’ll reference this again later in this article.
Between the release of MSFS 1.0 (1982) and the year 1995, Microsoft released versions 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 and 5.1. Between the years of 1996 and 2012, Microsoft released Flight Simulator 95 (mid 1996), Flight Simulator 98 (mid 1997), Flight Simulator 2000 (late 1999), Flight Simulator 2002 (October 2001), Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight (FS9) (July 2003), Flight Simulator X (FSX) (October 2006) and finally Microsoft Flight (February 2012).
The year 2006 is an important year to focus on during our little history lesson. Not only was Microsoft FSX released in 2006, but it was also the same year Bill Gates announced he would transition from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time.
Each of these official Microsoft releases, spanning over 30 years, continued building on the progress from what subLOGIC released in 1979. We can argue that really FSX was the final true simulator Microsoft released….but that is a discussion for another time. The key point I am wanting to make here is between MSFS 1.0 and MS Flight, 30 years of development, 30 years of improvements and simply…30 years of enjoyment passed by.
Remember… THIRTY YEARS!
Before we depart from our walk down memory lane, let me just throw out a few additional dates. In 2009, we learned that Lockheed Martin purchased the IP and source code for Microsoft ESP (commercial use of FSX) and in 2014 we learned that Dovetail Games had a license agreement to distribute FSX Steam Edition and develop further products based on Microsoft’s technology (spanning 30 years) for the entertainment market.
Now Prepare Yourself
When Lockheed Martin released P3D version 1.0, it pretty much was a rebranded FSX. While we can assume LM may have applied some fixes which hadn’t been addressed in the FSX SP2 update, very little was done to the core application. Actually, almost the same can be said for P3D versions 2.x (2013) and even to some extent version 3.x (2015). The major shift didn’t really occur until 2017 when LM released the 64bit version of Prepar3D version 4.x. But let’s now add another 5 years to our original MSFS timeline and we get a total of 35 Years.
Remember… THIRTY-FIVE YEARS!
Born Yesterday?
While we’re still somewhat in our history lesson, let me just remind everyone that X-Plane wasn’t born yesterday or even the day before. Interestingly enough, when researching information for this article, I have found it somewhat difficult to nail down exactly when the first version of X-Plane was released. Even Wikipedia fails to provide any exact dates. I did find one fan created website which identifies X-Plane version 1 with a release date of 1994. X-Plane v2 released in 1996 with v3, v4 and v5 releasing in 1997, 1998 and 1999. X-Plane v6 through versions 10 released between 2001 and 2011.
Even most die-hard X-Plane fans admit that it wasn’t until the current release of X-Plane 11 (May 2017) when X-Plane really began to shine. So if we calculate the amount of time in years for X-Plane we have 23 years between X-Plane v1 and the current version 11. 23 Years!
Are we responsible?
Yes, I believe so and here’s why. I’ve just spelled out 35 years of blood, sweat and tears which have passed by from MSFS version 1.0 and Prepar3D version 4.x. Everything that is wonderful about P3D v4.x is tied back to MSFS 1.0, actually further…but for the sake of this article we’ll start with 1.0. All the goodness, all the beauty, all the awesomeness is THIRTY FIVE YEARS in the making. As I just pointed out, even X-Plane’s development spans over 20 years.
So Dovetail Games comes along and announces they are developing a next generation flight simulator, it’s released (early access) in May of 2017 and less than 1 year later the project is mothballed. Why did this happen? How could this happen?
Some will tell you it was because Dovetail Games refused to listen to the flight simulation community. Not true! There is evidence (lots of it actually) that this couldn’t be further from the truth. We the community asked Dovetail Games to include missions. Dovetail Games did just that. We the community asked DTG to include jetliners and DTG was working on adding jetliners. We the community asked DTG to include helicopters and DTG was also working on adding helicopters. Many more examples of DTG actually listening to the community.
In addition, some in the community were led to believe that DTG were forcing 3rd party developers to market their add-ons exclusively through Steam. This has also been proven to be false. At the time I wrote this piece, I could purchase add-ons for FSW directly from any of my preferred online retail stores. For the sake of full disclosure, I checked both JustFlight and The FlightSim Store. Both online retail stores have add-ons available to purchase for FSW.
In the end I believe that we the flight sim community killed Flight Sim World and that my friends is a bad, bad thing. The reality of it all is we have two major players now representing the flight sim community. There are a few other titles which have been around for a number of years but I don’t see a lot of 3rd party development support available at the present time. I think AeroflyFS is gaining some momentum. Orbx has a few add-on airports for the platform and I believe a few add-on aircraft have been developed by Just Flight.
Controversial
I know this blog post will be viewed by some as controversial. Many will agree with me and many will not. At the end of the day, we’re all in this together. We all share a passion for flight simulation and we’re all striving to have a platform that will not only be around for many years to come, but also striving for a platform that can help introduce this wonderful hobby to the next generation of virtual pilots. Unfortunately, with Flight Sim World ending the way it has….we’ve potentially shut the door on some of the newcomers and to me this is the saddest part of this story.
Until next time…
Jerry
April 25, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments
While I’m sure you’ll find many differing opinions on Microsoft’s current OS, I must say that Windows 10 is perhaps the best thing that has happened in the PC gaming industry since sliced bread or a pocket on a shirt. But the Windows 10 update process does lack a lot to be desired.
My PC gaming experience dates back to the early days of Windows. Over the past couple of decades (geez, I’m getting old), Microsoft Windows has released some excellent operating systems and a few not-so-great versions. In more modern times, Windows XP (with service pack 3) was a fairly reliable OS and performed well in its day. Then there was the infamous Windows Vista (barf) followed by Windows 7. Windows 7 (64bit) was also a very reliable and solid performer. In my real life day job, we still have a fairly large number of workstations still running Windows 7. However, over the next 18 months most of these will be decommissioned. After Windows 7, we endured the Windows 8 fiasco (big barf) but thankfully Windows 10 came along quickly became the go-to OS.
You Get a Copy, You Get a Copy and You Get a Copy
Sometime in the summer of 2015, Microsoft began handing out free copies of Windows 10 much the same way Oprah handed out cars many years ago. Licensed users of Windows 7 and Windows 8 could download/install Windows 10 without charge for one year. I must admit that I was a bit reluctant to upgrade my gaming machine to Windows 10. After all, I had a pretty reliable process for building/rebuilding my Win 7 system and everything (including all my Steam games and Prepar3D v3.x) was dialed in pretty solid.
However, I had been testing Windows 10 at work and had also updated one of my other home PC’s to Win 10 and was starting to see that Windows 10 was going to be the future of PC gaming. My current instance of Windows 7 was starting to slow down and things were getting cluttered on the system. I wanted to take the free Windows 10 update, but didn’t want to hassle of inheriting all the little issues I had been having with the Win 7 setup. So I formatted my main SSD drive, reinstalled Windows 7 and then applied the Windows 10 update.
Time Flies when you are having fun…
For the past 18+ months my gaming machine has performed flawlessly. Prepar3D version 4 (64 bit heaven) worked beautifully and all my Steam games performed like a dream. While this particular gaming machine is approaching 4 years old, I built it with the future in mind and pending no hardware failures, should still handle my gaming needs for another year or two.
Windows 10 Updates
Having the IT background I do, I’m a firm believer in applying updates/patches etc. in a timely manner. I began experiencing an issue shortly after the new year where my machine wouldn’t/couldn’t install Win 10 updates. I did some research and tried all the usual things. Nothing I did worked…but it was only a minor nuisance until about a week ago.
Last Saturday morning, with coffee in hand I went down to my basement office to play a little Farming Simulator 17 and record an episode. I guess Microsoft was hell bent on changing my plans, because for the past 2-3 months these updates wouldn’t install, but magically they did…but to my fear it left my system in a terrible state.
I did manage to repair Windows 10 to a point where most things worked fine, but I ran into issues with Prepar3D and I just can’t live with that.
I’m a Perfectionist
I really don’t know if being a perfectionist is a good trait or a bad one. I think it can easily go both ways. In my real world job, I suppose it’s a good thing as I typically don’t settle for anything less than perfection. In my personal life…well…it absolutely drives my wife crazy. But the problem with little nagging issues is they can quickly become really major showstoppers and as I have just less than three weeks worth of recorded content ready to go, I figure now is a good time to fix this mess.
A Change is a coming…
Shhhhh, don’t tell my wife….but I’m about to plop a new 500 GB SSD in my gaming machine. As I previously mentioned, I did build this machine with the future in mind. At the time, I installed three 250 GB SSD drives in the machine with the idea that SSD #1 would run Windows, SSD #2 would be for all things P3D and SSD #3 would be for Steam Games. In addition to the SSD drives, I also have one 500GB SATA drive that I use to capture my video recordings and also use it as a backup drive.
The new plan is to rebuild Windows 10 on the current 250 GB SSD. The primary Windows drive doesn’t need to be massive and I feel 250GB will be fine. The new 500GB SSD will contain all my Steam games as I’m quickly approaching the point where 250GB won’t hold everything. P3D will continue to live on its own 250 GB SSD and finally, the older 250GB SSD will contain nothing but the Documents folder. After all, so many of the games I run utilize the “Documents” folder to save files, mods, aircraft, scenery etc.
Tick Tock, Tick Tock
After backing up my precious game saves for FS17, ATS, ETS2 and other important items I began the process by kicking off the built in Windows 10 reset tool and selecting the option to delete all personal data, files, settings etc. After all, I’m wanting to start from scratch. This is a excellent feature of Windows 10 and it worked just as intended. Less than 30 minutes later, Windows 10 was perfectly reset with all patches and updates safely and securely applied. I then proceeded to update my Nvidia GPU drivers and a few other critical device drivers. Another 30 minutes or so and I was ready to start installing games and other applications.
Steam – I love it!
I know a lot of people loath Steam and Steam games. For me, I absolutely adore it and in a rebuild scenario it is your best friend. As my primary recorded content on my YouTube Channel is FS17, FS17 was the first to get installed. I changed the install directory to the new 500GB SSD drive and allowed Steam to download and install FS17. Once FS17 was installed, I launched it so it would create the appropriate folders in the Documents directory (living on its own SSD drive) then shut down FS17. Next I copied over the saved folders/files from the previous Documents installation. This brought over all my mods and the appropriate game save folders. It also pulled in the much appreciated keybindings file which worked perfect. I fired up FS17, loaded up my new map game save and everything was just like it was on the old setup. Love it!
Next I installed ATS and ETS2 and followed much the same procedure as I did with FS17. I’m pleased to report everything is 100% like it was when I last played. Fantastic!
Finally, I got OBS, TrackIR and a few other things I need to be able to continue producing my video content on YouTube. I highly recommend you backup your OBS configurations as it is super easy to import these back into OBS when performing a rebuild like this. I’m now 100% ready to resume recording my game content for what I’m currently featuring on the channel. From start to finish, I’d say I reached this point within less than 2 hours from the time I started the rebuild process. Awesome!
Are we there yet?
My gaming rig wouldn’t be complete without my flight sim setup installed and dialed in to perfection. While it only took me about two hours to completely refresh Windows 10 and get the rig back to a point where I could play and record FS17, ATS or ETS2. Two hours is merely a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of time required to get fully airborne. In February, Lockheed Martin released version 4.2.x of their 64 bit Prepar3D Flight Simulator. I had been running 4.1.x so I took advantage of this re-birth to go with the latest and greatest. I installed P3D v4.2.x onto its own 250GB SSD drive and verified all was working by loading up the sim and choosing a default aircraft. Success!
Next comes all the add-ons. Now for those of you who enjoy FS17, ATS and ETS2 and enjoy those games with mods, you know we simply need to find the mod we want, download it and drop it in the mods folder. Launch the game and a few clicks the mod is enabled and hopefully it’s everything we had hoped it would be. The process for flight sim just isn’t that simple. Every, single, add-on has its own .exe or some can only be downloaded/installed via a central application (as is the case with Orbx). Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the new Orbx FTX Central. Not only does it automate the download, install and updating process…it’s just really cool. I’ve already praised this new application in a blog post last year.
But to put things into perspective. In FS17, I have well over 150 mods. Most likely closer to 200. Getting FS17 downloaded, installed and running again just where I left off only took me about 2 hours and this included the Windows 10 refresh process. But Flight Sim is much, much different. On my mod spreadsheet for P3D, I have approx. 100 add-ons. Again, each of these are .exe’s that need to be checked if they are the latest versions, downloaded if not, then installed. With scenery add-ons, it’s advisable to restart the PC and load up the sim between each install. I would estimate (and this really is a guess), but it most likely takes me well over 24 hours (I really don’t think this is an exaggeration) to get P3D running with absolutely everything I own running and dialed in. This also includes configuring all my external controls including yoke, rudder pedals and various button/switch panels. Very little is simply “plug & play”.
My typical approach to reinstalling P3D (which I do every 18-24 months) is to do a little at a time. I typically install all the Orbx ground texture applications (base, vector, openLC etc.) then proceed to the Orbx regional terrain (Cen. Rocky Mountains, Southern Alaska, NoCal etc.). Then I install the other add-ons like Weather, Sky Textures, VATSIM etc. Then I proceed with payware aircraft. Typically I always install the PMDG 737 NGX first along with add-on airports of KDEN and KDFW. Then I typically begin installing other airports and aircraft as I fly around the virtual world.
Whew….well, I need to get busy again installing scenery and aircraft. After all, it’s not gonna get done all by itself.
Until next time….
Jerry
April 24, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments
Before anyone gets too excited, let me state for the record that I don’t have any official information regarding the release date for Giants Farming Simulator 19. But we all know the saying, “History repeats itself” and today marks exactly 6 months to October 24, 2018. What’s the significance of this date? Well…Giants released Farming Simulator 17 on October 24, 2016. Of course, we must also keep in mind that FS15 wasn’t released until October 30, 2014. But that adds an extra week of waiting and I’m sure none of us want that. Right?
But seriously, at this point in time, only Giants truly know the date they are marching towards. We can certainly hope in the coming weeks/months Giants will ramp up the marketing hype (as they did with FS17) and share more details, hopefully with actual game play video and all the specifications of any new equipment/features we can expect to see. But we also know the agricultural simulation gaming space is becoming quite competitive, so perhaps Giants will be a little less likely to release all the details.
We do know a few things we can expect in FS19. Based on earlier communications from Giants, FS19 will introduce new farming activities, new animals (including horses), brand new mechanics and new crops. In addition, improvements have been made to the Giants gaming engine to allow a much more immersive “eye candy” experience including shadows. All very cool stuff and all reason enough for me to give them my money. But what about the things we don’t know…or the things we hope will be included?
Unfortunately, we’ll just need to wait and see what happens. Many will argue and say there wasn’t much difference between FS15 and FS17. But I have a feeling FS19 will surprise us all in many ways. While it may still not tick all the boxes for all players, I really am excited and can’t wait to learn more and of course experience it all first hand on release.
But for now….I’m headed back into FS17 to do a little field work. Oh I do love this game….
Jerry
April 23, 2018 / admin / 2 Comments
Earlier today, Dovetail Games announced “with great sadness” the closure of Flight Sim World (FSW). It’s been slightly less than one year since I first discussed FSW on my blog site and in late May of last year I wrote about my first impressions after having spent a little bit of time exploring the simulator. I recorded a few YouTube videos which you can find on my channel. During the initial few weeks after release of FSW I did manage to spend several hours flying and I must admit I enjoyed my time and felt like FSW had some promise. After all, Dovetail Games was finally fulfilling their commitment to bring their flight sim to market albeit a few years late.
While I must admit I haven’t followed the progress of FSW in the past 6+ months, I’m actually surprised it took Dovetail Games this long to realize this was never going to get off the ground and compete with Prepar3d and XPlane. Especially knowing how Dovetail planned to limit 3rd party developers. As with many of the simulation based games I enjoy playing, 3rd party developers, modders etc. are the lifeblood of these types of games. When you begin to restrict what they can do and how they do it, you’re going to suffer and I guess they finally realized the writing was on the wall.
While I have many additional thoughts/opinions regarding this news, I’m going to keep those to myself for now. It appears Steam will continue to sell Flight Sim World through May 24th. After May 24th the game and all DLC will be removed from Steam, but will still be available in the player/owner’s Steam Library.
Future of Flight Simulation
The future of flight simulation is extremely strong. Lockheed Martin’s Prepar3D (P3D) version 4.x and Laminar Research’s X-Plane will continue to serve as the flagship titles to support this wonderful hobby. Both titles have a strong following and both enjoy excellent support from the best 3rd party add-on developers. After all, we know the saying….two is company and three’s a crowd.
Until next time…
Jerry
April 18, 2018 / admin / 0 Comments
More than likely you’ve been a long-time YouTube viewer and perhaps you have often thought to yourself, “I’d like to record my game play and upload that content to YouTube for others to enjoy”! This is exactly the thoughts that entered my head a little over two years ago and I’d like to share my journey.
The Fine Print
LOL…yes, there’s a little “fine print” I would like to throw out there for your consideration. First, this is not meant to be the definitive guide to getting started with YouTube. Far from it actually. This is simply my journey, my thoughts, my opinions etc. on the subject. Anyone…yes, even YOU can record your video game play and upload that content to YouTube. The process isn’t rocket science once you gather a few key pieces of software which I’ll discuss later. But is that all you need to do? Can you then call yourself a YouTube Content Creator?
If you Build it, they will come
If you enjoy classic movies, then most likely you’ve seen the film “Field Of Dreams” starring Kevin Costner. The premise behind the movie was if the character played by Kevin Costner built a baseball field in the middle of his corn field, the players from the 1919 Black Sox Scandal would return to play baseball. He built the field and low and behold, the players showed up including Shoeless Joe Jackson. Nice story, but is running a YouTube channel as simple as Field of Dreams? Meaning, if I create a YouTube channel, will viewers flock to it and will I become a YouTube sensation overnight? I’ll return to this question in just a few minutes.
First Things First, WHY?
I just want to get you thinking about one simple word…WHY? Why do you want to start a YouTube channel? Again, this blog posting is not meant to be the definitive guide to getting started with YouTube. I’m merely sharing a few thoughts, ideas, concepts etc. with you which I’ve learned over the past two years. While you are contemplating on your own reasons of WHY, I’ll share mine…
My Journey
I’ve been a huge fan of YouTube since it all began back in 2005. I began producing content on YouTube in 2007 under a different user account and completely different topic than video gaming. I produced and created “how to” content supporting the hobby and service of amateur radio (also known as ham radio). Amateur Radio is another hobby I’m passionate about and I enjoy speaking to fellow hams all over the country and world. Anyway, the entire idea behind my early start with YouTube was in an effort to share my knowledge with others.
Having a face for radio, I soon moved away from YouTube and started my own audio only podcast talking about and sharing information and knowledge. When I began my audio podcast, it was one of only two or three in existence related to the hobby. When I finally ended that show almost 8 years after it started, there was well over a dozen different podcasts related to amateur radio just in the USA alone. But after producing an average of two episodes per month, I felt I had talked about and shared just about everything I started out to do and felt it was time to move onto greener pastures.
But just like you, I had been watching many YouTube content creators producing excellent content on some of the simulation based games I also enjoyed playing. It felt like a good time to see if I could create a channel with more or less the same concept I used for my podcast so the GrizzlyBearSims YouTube channel was born.
Of course, I thought long and hard about what could I do that was different from some of the others. After all, regardless of the video games you choose to play/record…the general idea is going to be the same. Flight Sim videos will be about flying. Truck Sim videos will be about trucking and Farm Sim videos will be about farming.
Finding Your Niche
Yes, it helps to be different. I had been watching a lot of Farming Simulator 15 channels in an attempt to find one or two things which I could somewhat capitalize on and say this is how the GrizzlyBearSims channel will be different than everyone else. The first was to establish my channel as 100% Rated G. If you are unfamiliar with the motion picture rating system, a “G Rated” film is considered to be suitable for all ages. Regardless of anything else….I wanted the content I created for my channel to be suitable for all to enjoy.
The second area which I felt important was to be helpful. Now this doesn’t necessarily mean that I needed to become an agricultural expert and know everything there is to know about farming. Or worse, pretend to be that expert! No, I’m simply talking about being helpful to those who are wanting to enjoy the game and get more from it. I often talk about the fact that I’m just an IT Guy…I’m not a real life farmer. While I grew up in rural Texas and have had many agricultural experiences which I often reflect back on (including four years of FFA), I don’t actually know a lot about modern day farming. Nor do I really need to know a lot about it. What I know and what I strive to share with my viewers is simply agriculture based on the way Farming Simulator 17 depicts it. Part of this goal of being helpful is keeping an updated list of all the mods I’m using in my game play. Of course, there is nothing wrong with gaining real-life knowledge and applying that to the virtual world. I’ve learned more about real-life farming and I do strive to apply that knowledge as much as I can within the limits of the virtual world.
The third and final thing I’ll mention is remain humble. I really didn’t do much in the early days of my channel to promote it. I stuck to my plan and just produced the sort of content that I desired to watch. Yes, subscribers came and my numbers began to grow. Some stayed and some left. In time, the dozen or so subscribers I had became two dozen, then fifty, then one hundred, then two-hundred, five hundred etc. But each and every time I sit down to record an episode, I’m recording and producing that content based on the original dozen or so subscribers I had in the beginning. It is also why I try very hard to acknowledge each and every comment viewers leave for me on my videos.
Do you need to base your channel on these same principles? No, absolutely not. You’ll need to decide what works for you. But I do urge you to give the subject some thought and once you figure out your niche, stick to it and make it your own.
The Tools I use
At a minimum, you’ll need a method of capturing your game play so it can be uploaded to YouTube. Like most things in life, you’ll find there are a few different solutions for this task. Some GPU’s (graphic cards) may have the ability to capture/record your game play. Nvidia is one of these and provides a solution called Shadowplay a second very popular solution (and the one I use) is called OBS (Open Broadcast Software). OBS is super easy to setup and does an excellent job in capturing your game play (with voice audio) and also livestreaming. I recorded a video about a year ago regarding my specific OBS settings I use. You can view that video here. There are two varieties of OBS at the moment. The first is OBS Classic (that is what I discussed in the video I mentioned) and the second is OBS Studio. I’m now using OBS Studio, but I haven’t had the chance to record a video on that, but will try to do that at some point in the future.
As previously stated, OBS will capture the game video and game audio. But what about your audio. Do you plan to provide commentary while playing? In my opinion, the answer to that question should be YES! Some only upload their game play video without commentary. But very few YouTube content creators can do this is such a way to keep me engaged for the entire video. I personally believe it’s important to have audio commentary as part of your videos. This can be role play based or just talking about what you are doing, the weather, things going on in your life etc. But to do this, you’ll need a good microphone.
I won’t lie to you. I have a $500 microphone mounted onto a boom mic stand which I almost never use. The reason for this is I get pretty good audio from a brand of headsets I’ve used for years. The brand is Plantronics and they are designed for VoIP audio applications. I currently use a Plantronics USB headset model Blackwire 720. Now these won’t be the most expensive, nor will they be the cheapest headsets you can find….but they work very well and most importantly they work very well for me.
I simply have my headset audio configured to capture/record by OBS. OBS records my game play video/audio as well as my headset audio commentary into one file. If simplicity produces a quality product, then why overcomplicate it?
Are there other ways to do this? Yes, absolutely. But remember, this isn’t the definitive guide…this is the GrizzlyBearSims guide or way of doing things.
A Few more thoughts about audio
All things being considered, OBS (or even ShadowPlay) will do a pretty good job capturing your video game play. But you’ll need to do a little experimentation where it comes to audio levels. Most of the simulation based game titles I play (and record content from) have a few different audio controls to adjust audio/sounds from the game. If able, you’ll want to turn any control you might have for controlling music to ZERO. Any music which gets captured and included in your video will be subject to copyright rules. Leaving this audio in your final edited/rendered/uploaded video will most likely get you into trouble with YouTube. This includes the intro music for games like ATS, ETS2 and even Farming Simulator 17. Ask me how I know this? Yep…I learned the hard way.
You may also need to individually adjust audio controls for other sounds including vehicle engine noise, birds singing etc. You don’t want your audio commentary to be lower in volume than your tractor sounds. There is a happy medium and experimentation will help you achieve the perfect mix.
To Record Audio During or After….that is the question!
OK…one last comment regarding audio. I personally record my audio during game play and I allow OBS to capture/mix both the game audio and the audio from my headset at the same time. This process works well for me and I believe I receive acceptable results. Some will use an additional piece of audio software called Audacity to capture their voice audio then they mix the two together during post production. While I personally believe this process will give you more control over your spoken audio, it is an extra step which I simply don’t believe fits into my own workflow.
Finally, some folks will record their audio commentary completely after they have recorded their game play. Almost think of this as being similar to a play-by-play sports broadcaster. Again, this extra step most certainly will give you better control of the spoken audio. But it is another time consuming step which doesn’t fit well into my workflow.
So you have a video file, now what? Am I done?
Congrats! But now what? Can I just simply upload the video file OBS created to YouTube and call it a day? Yes, of course you can. After all, it’s what many others do as well. But should you? I say no….
Up to this point, I’ve given you the basic information you need to record your game play. But if you truly want to set yourself a part from those who just simply upload their raw, unedited OBS output file….then please keep reading.
If you’ve spent time thinking about why you are wanting to start a YouTube channel and you’ve formulated a few goals you desire to focus on for channel success, then take it a step further and edit your videos for a more professional appearance.
I use a relatively inexpensive video editing software called Cyberlink PowerDirector. You should be able to purchase this for around $50.00. I actually use an older version from 2014 and find it still does the job I need it to do. But I believe its very important to edit your videos for YouTube.
Like many I suffer from seasonal allergies. But just because I suffer, doesn’t mean you must suffer along with me when watching my videos. Meaning, I do everything possible to edit out my coughs, sneezes and sniffles in my videos. The other benefit from editing your videos is the benefit of time which I’ll discuss next.
Time Waits for No One
If you are familiar with my channel and my videos, then you know I strive for a finished video to be in the neighborhood of 30 minutes in length. In my opinion, anything longer than 60 minutes is just simply too long and most of your viewers will think so as well.
Just like me, you’ll have lots of competition on YouTube. You’ll certainly earn fans who will watch just about anything you produce and hopefully they’ll sit at their PC’s or on their mobile devices refreshing the page until they are alerted that you’ve just released a new video, but you may not find many who only watches your content exclusively. Well except for your wife, your mother etc. But even then….don’t assume they are not watching other content as well.
Everyone has a limited amount of time. The time I spend watching YouTube videos is part of the available time I have for gaming, recording game play content, editing etc. In the very early days, I used to watch a lot more YouTube videos…but sadly I’ve had to cut back as I have many other commitments. So you must also think about your viewers in the same way. Most likely, if someone is watching your FS17 videos (as an example) they too play that same game. They may also have time commitments of school, work, family etc. This is why the 30 minute video length works for so many.
To Stream or Not To Stream
While the subject of this blog post has primarily been devoted to creating/producing recorded content for YouTube, many enjoy livestreaming as well. When time permits, even I really enjoy livestreaming as it allows me an opportunity to interact with my viewers in real-time. But if you are seeking my advice (and you must be if you’ve read this far down the page) there are a few cardinal rules you must follow.
First, be engaged with your livestream audience. You’ll need a way to view the livestream chat while you are playing and streaming. A game like Farming Simulator (in my opinion) is one of the best simulation based games which allows you the opportunity to stay engaged with your audience. The pace at which you are driving is slow enough that you can glance at your chat, read comments and easily provide commentary and answer questions. Games such as ATS/ETS2 are just a little more difficult, but still very much doable. The key is if you get your audience interacting with you, your livestreams will be much more enjoyable and successful. If you fail to stay engaged with your viewers during a livestream, then you will fail at livestreaming.
Second, This is just a pet peeve of mine. But don’t clutter up the livestream video with a bunch of chat boxes, cheesy animations etc. Yes, I realize a lot of folks like the self gratification of seeing or hearing their name when they subscribe…but to me (and perhaps this is only because I’m of the older, more mature crowd) it just causes a huge distraction and takes away from the main subject. I subscribe to the philosophy of less is more.
Third, operate your livestream the same way you operate your video feeds. Meaning, if you are running a G Rated channel and only producing G Rated content, then you need to ensure that your livestreams follow these same guidelines. Recruit a few of your loyal, trusted viewers to act as moderators. This will help to ensure your chat remains clean.
Getting Rich Quick
With the new rules governing YouTube Partnership and monetization, if you are just beginning your YouTube journey, then don’t count those chickens before they hatch. You’ll be disappointed if you do. Now I didn’t say that because I don’t believe being a YouTube content creator is not a real job. While there are lots of people who have become quite successful in producing content for YouTube and earn a nice income from it, I have a feeling these individuals would find it a little harder to recreate what they have today based on the new rules. But that’s not what this article is about so let me force myself to get back on target.
Once you meet the criteria to begin to monetize your videos, you have the potential to earn a little money. I use the word “little” because until your channel grows and all the other factors grow along with it, you will only earn a little bit of money in the program. But don’t let that discourage you from starting a channel if you desire and certainly once you start a channel, don’t let this discourage you from monetizing it if that is also something you desire.
Be Prepared for Criticism
Unfortunately, haters are gonna hate. There are some YT viewers who make it their daily job to surf from one channel to another writing crude, rude and generally obnoxious comments just for the sake of getting under your skin. For the most part these folks are not even watching your content. They just write these comments and move to the next video. While this is an issue, don’t let this stop you from seeking comments from your viewers.
The Power of Suggestion
Do you ever wonder why fast-food restaurants always ask “would you like an apple pie with your order”? It’s because most of the time when you step up to the counter (or drive thru) and order that burger and fries combo, you are only thinking about burger and fries. You may realize they also sell apple pies, but you aren’t thinking about that. When that person utters the words “would you like an apple pie” your brain goes, oh…yea…that’d be nice and you say YES! Well the same somewhat applies here. During my videos (when I can remember) I generally always ask my viewers to “Like, Comment and Subscribe”. Because if you don’t ask, you may never receive.
In Closing
Hopefully I’ve provided you enough information to help you get started. Once again I just want to remind everyone that this isn’t meant to be the definitive guide to getting started on YouTube. These simply are just a few thoughts of my own based on my own experience. While I must thank many individuals for helping me start my YouTube adventure, over the past two years I believe I’ve also mentored a few as well. It’s all part of the “give and take” of life. I hope this article helps you and if I can be of further assistance, please reach out to me via my Discord channel.
As always, Thank You for your time. Please consider sharing this blog article on your favorite social media platforms using the buttons below. I appreciate it and I’ve just proven how the power of suggestion actually works. Funny huh?
Until next time….
Happy Simming!
Jerry
March 22, 2018 / admin / 2 Comments
While much of the content I publish in written form is to help others, I also write content for my blog site to serve as a reminder or simply an electronic organizer to myself in the event I need to perform a particular game uninstall/reinstall or even a full PC rebuild. The topic for today will once again serve both purposes. Today we’re going to discuss the sorting/loading order for mods in American Truck Simulator. In theory this should also apply for Euro Truck Simulator 2 as well. However, there are a few different requirements/recommendations due to ProMods. I most likely will cover ETS2 in a separate blog post sometime in the near future.
I absolutely love mods, after all they make the games we already love even better. I suppose you could call it an addiction, but I certainly don’t plan on stopping. At least not anytime soon. Before I get into the meat of this discussion, allow me the opportunity to plug my mod spreadsheet. I keep a fairly extensive listing of all the mods I’m actively using for game titles such as Farming Simulator 17, American Truck Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator 2 and even Flight Simulation (P3D). While my YouTube channel focuses mainly on my FS17 game play, I do occasionally record my game play on other titles and publish those videos on YouTube. Essentially it’s important to me, that if you take the time to watch one of my videos and you see a mod, or you hear me discussing a mod…that you can easily locate where you can download that same mod. It’s one of the reasons why I limit using private mods or mods that aren’t generally available to the public in my game play to only a select few. Typically these will be FS17 maps I’ve been allowed early access to use, but release to the general public is imminent. If you are interested in viewing my mod spreadsheet, just visit my blog site and click the link for Add-on and Mods Directory. This will open a Google Docs Spreadsheet. Just look to the bottom and select the tab for the game which interests you and you’ll find a list of all the mods I am using along with links where they can be downloaded. Also, if you have a spare 5 minutes….please read a blog posting I wrote last year titled “Reputable Mod Sites for Farming Simulator Mods”. In this article I discuss a few issues our gaming hobby faces and perhaps what we can all do to try to prevent it.
Order Matters
With all that out of the way, the number of mods I’m running in American Truck Simulator (ATS) is beginning to rival that of Farming Simulator 17. However, the games themselves treat mods a little differently. Unlike FS17 where we don’t need to worry about any specific order, with American Truck Simulator (and Euro Truck Simulator 2) sometimes the order in which we have our mods sorted does matter. Having all of our ducks….err I mean mods in a row can mean the difference between a fun experience with mods versus a nightmare experience vowing to never download/install mods never again.
Differing Opinions
Just like many things in life, if you search long enough you’ll find many different theories regarding the sort/load order for mods in ATS and ETS2. I’m simply going to share with you the order and method I use. This same methodology should also work for you, but you are certainly welcome to do your own research and devise your own plan.
Order….Order in the Court
In a nutshell, here’s the sorting order I use. I’ll spend some time below explaining what each of these categories mean and some mod examples, but I’ve been using this process for sorting my mods and it provides a nearly trouble free experience. From top to bottom, this is how I sort/order my mods in ATS and ETS2.
Environment Mods, Sound Mods, Real Company Logo Mods, Map Mods, AI Vehicle Mods, Wheel/Tire Mods, Trailer Mods, Truck Tuning Mods and finally Truck mods.
Everything Explained
- Environment Mods – These would include mods such as the No Boundaries or Immersive Symbols mods. These are the types of mods that change some of the default SCS game behaviors. The “No Boundaries” mod simply removes the barrier icons for roads which SCS haven’t developed yet. In other words, the roads you can’t drive down. The Immersive Symbols mod removes the load/unload icons and replaces these with cones or man-hole covers. Very cool…very immersive!
- Sound Mods – The Sound Fixes Pack is a good example of a sound type mod. These would go here.
- Real Company Logo Mods – If you are like me, you understand why SCS used company names like Wallbert (Walmart), 42 Print (Vista Print) etc. but you also want maximum immersion when playing and you really would rather see the real company names. Mods like this fall into this category.
- Map Mods – Any modded maps for ATS would fall into this category. But wait!! It may not be as simple as that. In order for some maps to work with other maps (Coast to Coast for example) you may need to sort the maps in a specific order to avoid any unnecessary frustration. At the present time, the most common add-on maps for ATS should be sorted in this order Project Going North, CanaDream, Tonopah Reworked, US Expansion (formerly US 50/CA 99 Map), Rick’s Interstate 10, Coast to Coast, Mexico Extremo HBS Resources Model Package, Mexico Extremo, Viva Mexico.
- AI Vehicle Mods – These are mods which enhance the default vehicles we see driving around the ATS map. Mods which fall into this category might be the AI Traffic Pack by Jazzycat or any of his other wonderful AI traffic packs including Bus, Truck and Classic Cars traffic packs.
- Wheel/Tire Mods – Any mod that changes the tires/wheels will need to be sorted in this order.
- Trailer Mods – Mods which add different types of trailers to the game would be sorted in this order. Examples might include SISL’s Trailer Pack, Real Company Box and Tanker Trailer packs.
- Truck Tuning Mods – Engine mods, light tuning etc. would fall here.
- Trucks – Ahhhh, my favorite category. This is where I place my awesome Pete 389 by Viper2 and my Volvo VNL670 by Aradeth.
Well…there you have it. If you use a different sorting order and that works for you, then I see no reason to change it. However, if you are experiencing issues…then perhaps compare this order with what you are using and make small adjustments then test. It could very well come down to a little trial and error to get it just right.
I hope this helps you. If you are interested in supporting the GrizzlyBearSims blog site and YouTube channel, please consider becoming a Patron. Full details available at https://www.patreon.com/GrizzlyBearSims Thank you!
Until next time…
Happy Trucking!!!
JT
