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Ignorant newbie

Need help getting up and running? Installing FlightGear, add-on planes, sceneries etc.
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- what FlightGear version do you use?
- what graphics card do you have?

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Ignorant newbie

Postby firemechjeff » Sun Dec 27, 2020 3:17 am

I really want to learn how to use a flight simulator. I just bought a Dell XPS 8940 and had Dell set it up with a gaming graphics card. I have absolutely no experience with gaming, and I don't know what Dell installed. On the build sheet Dell lists a NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 1660 SUPER (TM) 6GB GDDR6. Is this the graphics card? Anyway, the new desktop has windows 10. I was able to fly the 172 4 times, and I had no rudder control. I bought a Logitech Extreme3D pro joystick to use with FlightGear. I attempted to configure the joystick, and I have not been able to fly since.
I live in Arizona, so I really only want the scenery for that general area right now. I can't get that to load either. When I launch FlightGear, it spends 10 minutes trying to load scenery and I am still not successful. I purchased a FlightGear version 2016.3.1 DVD disc from a seller on ebay that has been less than helpful.
My goal is to learn to fly the 172 and transition to military jets, but I don't think I have the computer savvy to make this goal happen.
If any more info is needed to help me get off the ground I will be happy to supply it.
Thank you in advance,
Jeff
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Re: Ignorant newbie

Postby wkitty42 » Sun Dec 27, 2020 11:21 am

firemechjeff wrote in Sun Dec 27, 2020 3:17 am:NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 1660 SUPER (TM) 6GB GDDR6. Is this the graphics card?

yes, also known as your GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
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Re: Ignorant newbie

Postby Johan G » Sun Dec 27, 2020 11:38 am

firemechjeff wrote in Sun Dec 27, 2020 3:17 am:On the build sheet Dell lists a NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 1660 SUPER (TM) 6GB GDDR6. Is this the graphics card?

Yep, and it should be quite decent. :)

firemechjeff wrote in Sun Dec 27, 2020 3:17 am:I bought a Logitech Extreme3D pro joystick to use with FlightGear. I attempted to configure the joystick, and I have not been able to fly since.

While there probably was some drivers included with the joystick it likely will work just as well without installing them. Some basic joystick configuration can be done in FlightGear from Main Menu > File > Joystick Configuration. Much more advanced configuration can be done by editing XML files (text files), but lets not go there quite yet.

firemechjeff wrote in Sun Dec 27, 2020 3:17 am:I live in Arizona, so I really only want the scenery for that general area right now. I can't get that to load either. When I launch FlightGear, it spends 10 minutes trying to load scenery and I am still not successful.

Another way to download your local scenery could be to use the TerraMaster graphical scenery manager. Scenery is often relatively heavy, which could explain the slow download speed, with the whole world being about 70-90 GB is size.

firemechjeff wrote in Sun Dec 27, 2020 3:17 am:I purchased a FlightGear version 2016.3.1 DVD disc from a seller on ebay that has been less than helpful.

If your Internet connection is not too slow you could download the latest version from https://www.flightgear.org/download/. The installer is about 2 GB though.

firemechjeff wrote in Sun Dec 27, 2020 3:17 am:My goal is to learn to fly the 172 and transition to military jets, but I don't think I have the computer savvy to make this goal happen.

That is a good goal. :)
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Re: Ignorant newbie

Postby firemechjeff » Sun Dec 27, 2020 5:55 pm

Thank you all for the advice I will set about trying it.
Jeff
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Re: Ignorant newbie

Postby wlbragg » Sun Dec 27, 2020 6:29 pm

Hi Jeff,

If you get stuck, it may be best to start over and do your upgrades one step at a time with help from users on this forum. Then you ask "specific" questions. For example...

"I installed FightGear and all I have is the default scenery in Hawaii , how do I get Arizona"
In which case someone here would have replied.
"Turn on automatic scenery downloads in the GUI and then startup at the airport of your choice in Arizona"

When you go about it not knowing what to do, make some changes and then ask for help it is hard for us to help because we don't know what steps you took to get to where you are.

Most things are automatic, like the scenery, if you turn on automatic scenery downloads. What kind of connection speed do you have? there are a couple tools available for downloading scenery manually and that is definite;;y an option TerraMaster as Johan said being one of them.

When I plugged in my Joystick for the first time the basic controls just worked, for more custom mapping there are instructions and documentation available in the Wiki and in the readme documents in the fgdata folder in FlightGear installation or here https://sourceforge.net/p/flightgear/fgdata/ci/next/tree/Docs/README.Joystick.html

Go slow and steady unless you are an experienced hacker. Don't get discouraged, it's not that hard once you get a little experience.
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Re: Ignorant newbie

Postby firemechjeff » Sun Dec 27, 2020 7:35 pm

Thank you wlbragg. I uninstalled FlightGear and tried starting over and it goes right back to where I was?!
Anyway, I am going to try to start over and do one thing at a time. I deliberately did that and still got jammed. My background is with automotive/HDtruck computers so I am trying not to apply any of that to FlightGear.
Thanks again,
Jeff
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Re: Ignorant newbie

Postby The epic chicken » Mon Dec 28, 2020 11:24 am

above the home button there is 3 dots. click there and click restore default settings
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Re: Ignorant newbie

Postby firemechjeff » Mon Dec 28, 2020 8:02 pm

OK, so I uninstalled everything or so I thought, and loaded the disc again. I am right back where I was, with a message "simulation has been paused" . The location of my starting point is Las Vegas which is what I selected originally and I am fine with that.
Thanks again,
Jeff
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Re: Ignorant newbie

Postby wkitty42 » Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:16 pm

turn off the "start paused" option in the launcher settings...
when you are in-sim, you can hit the P key to pause and unpause the sim...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
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