445: SIMAV8 CNT1 COM/NAV Radio Review

In any construction of a realistic cockpit, high-performance avionic instruments can be said the next most important equipment next to the control stick, rudder pedals and gauges.  However, choices available on the market are limited, especially to those designed for general aviation simulation purposes.

The CNT1 COM/NAV Radio by SIMAV8 is a new avionic equipment that is designed and built with this intention in mind.

Layout

In contrast to the bulky Saitek Radio Panel I have been using since 2000, the CNT1 Radio has an appearance of a real replica of a true-to-scale Bendix King Radio unit commonly found on most general light aircraft.

444: A Temporary Measure to Restore Enhanced Textures

Although the program architecture of Prepar3Dv4 has moved from 32-bit to 64-bit, one should not henceforth assume that its associated environment (sky, cloud, sea, ground) texture data would have been upgraded accordingly.

Actually they are largely the same as those used in previous P3D versions, and in FSX as well.   Only a limited number of files I found so far have been changed or converted into a different format.

This is good because it means that it is possible for me to restore my previously saved enhanced environment texture backup (put together from different addons) onto P3Dv4 now, without waiting until those addon programs becoming version 4 compatible later.

443: AS Cloud Art or REX Soft Clouds ?

HiFi Simulation’s Active Sky Cloud Art and REX Game Studios’ Soft Clouds are two popular cloud texture products that are fully compatible with P3Dv4 so far.

Although it may not justify to compare the two products head-to-head as AS Cloud Art comes with additional features rather than just pure-enhancement to the cumulus clouds in Soft Clouds, I think it would still be interesting to find out what the two products bring in terms of cumulus clouds improvement only.

This is the default cloud posture with Coverage Density set to Maximum under Orbx Weather 7 Theme.  (Click image to zoom bigger)

442: B737 Backup Altimeter with AS Indicator

Here’s the Backup Altimeter with Airspeed Indicator developed for the B737.   It is the third in the B737 gauge series and it comes with the back light effect.

Explanation of its altimeter and airspeed features is not necessary, I believe.

Although the gauge is customized for the B737, I found it’s fun to include it to some other gauge setups as well, as it contains two of the core six instrument.

To serve this purpose better, I will include an extra black-panel version in future update.   Anyone interested in this gauge could click on the image above or click here for order information.

 

 

 

441: Cessna Wet Compass with Back Light

Here’s the updated Cessna Wet Compass implemented with back-light effect after the B737 gauges.

The feature applies to both the default and A2A models, but not the X-Plane one as it uses a different set of codes.

440: My Cockpit Rev #05 – Glare Shield

Not much progress in my cockpit rebuilding.   Part of the reason is the time I mostly put on the Prepar3Dv4 in the last few weeks.    Also, there are still a few more parts and accessories I am waiting to get.

Here’s the Cessna glare shield I received earlier today from UK.

The quality of it in ABS plastic is good.   But

439: My P3Dv4 Setting Up #05 – Orbx Additions

With the new FTXCentral 3, all Orbx Global and Continental Regions are added to P3Dv4 without any difficulty.   However, since none of the airports from the company is available for the new version at the moment, I therefore installed (copied) my favorite airports — Bowerman (KHQM), Concrete Mun (3w5) and Darrington Mun (1S2) — straightly from previously ripped backups.   No issues spotted so far except control panels for the airports no longer function.

In addition, since I used to set the “Detail Bump Map” as “Fine” via FTX Aero, and because the FTX Aero feature is still not compatible with P3Dv4 yet, I also manually replaced the default “detail1.bmp” in

• “\Scenery\World\texture” with the one copied from
• “\ORBX\Scripts\Aero\Source\Scenery.World.Texture.detail1.bmp.Fine“