Recommended Flight Sim Addons

Hey Robert,

I agree, but it's always good to do some online checking regarding the addon and the related virus warning. I've found that some anti-virus programs start giving warning just because the program contains code to contact external sites (like SPAACARS does). In fact, I started to get warnings from SPAACARS when I included a Microsoft routine to handle international Date/Time formatting to avoid the database errors where some systems were sending us commas as separators rather than periods, etc. As the developer of SPAACARS I was well aware that it had no virus or dangerous code included.

Also, some of those warnings listed as "PUPs" stand for Potentially Unwanted Programs. Of course, some of those - perhaps most, are actually "wanted" programs.

Another example is the now often-used FSHost replacement, JoinFS. This program, after one of the many changes, began causing my anti-virus software to start sending warnings. I continue to use it without known issues (as far as I can tell anyway). I'm actually more concerned about the FSHost and TeamSpeak servers offered here at SPA that run from one of my local systems. One of them - most likely FSHost I think, generates somewhat frequent attack attempts that are caught by my Malware Bytes anti-virus software. I only know because I see the warning message from Malware Bytes pop up on the screen while I'm working at my other system - my 'regular use' computer. I never see a similar message on my 'regular-use' system unless I browse to an Internet site that as potential threats - even though I try to avoid obviously suspicious sites.

John

Yes Robert, I've been using it for some time now. I haven't really explored all the possible options inside and out. I basically load it up with the default options (but adjust traffic amount settings). It works just like the older versions for my purposes - adding those real-world colorful AI liveries and making things seem more real. I believe that UT-Live is the required replacement for p3dv4 and other simulators - as they show UT2 no longer supported.

John

Let me add GSX to the list. I see Bill C. has it with his latest pic of de-icing of his plane. Ok...that was just too cool for me to pass up. I looked into it and I had that too with my latest GSX version for P3dv4. I guess I never tried the pushback option during freezing conditions to have the option since my latest install. Anyway...I was inspired to add to my GSX with the Level-2 upgrade that includes all the moving gates that were no longer active from the default with the GSX version (which I really like because they're numbered so you know what gate your at). Anyway, in addition to the moving gates and other eye candy, they come with moving passengers and aircrew boarding the plane - unless it's at the gate where you can't see them boarding - but you can hear them from within the flight deck. If boarding from non-gate you can see the passengers and flight crew as shown in my latest pics.

For those simply interested in the flight aspects of simulation - this is a bit over the top, but otherwise - its a fun addition if you aren't in a hurry to get off the ground or park that thing and shut down at the end of the flight.

John