SeaHawk and JayHawk issues

[FSXNoyes 0]

I have read through the forums here and perhaps I have missed the topic. If I have I am sorry and please move this thread.

I LOVE what you guys have done with this! The package is beautiful and really captures the Hawk in all her glory. However, there seems to be some minor issues.

Issues I have noticed.

1. Cannot fold the blades. I will try about 4 or 5 times and it never works. I have gotten it to work sporadically using the VC. But when it does work the aircraft jumps like it is loading a new model.

2. The collective does not move when I move my throttle. It seems that the collective has been set to a static position while our throttles will manipulate the power levers for the engines themselves. This may not be an issue, but it sure is odd.

3. There is a jumping issue. I will be using the outside spot view and the aircraft will occasionally jump like it is loading a new model as I am rotating around the airframe. the aircraft will also jump when I am in VC mode as well.

4. The main flight information display showing altitude and speed does not work at all for me. Nothing in that display changes no matter what I have tried.

5. I cannot find any control at all that lowers the winch in any of the models. I realize that the up and down does not work in the winch operator but there should be some sort of control that allows control of the hoist.

6. Perhaps it is just me, but I am having a heck of a time getting auto hover to work. I will stop the hawk and manually bring it into a hover. I then get SAS1 and 2 ON and then rdr alt ON and then hvr mode ON it seems to have done nothing. I will usually begin tilting backwards and loosing altitude eventually hitting the water. However, I do have no control of the aircraft while this mode is active. What, is my co-pilot drunk?

Now I have not tried the ships yet, but it seems that you guys have that all under control now. Can we get some more love shown to the Hawk?

[curlee 0]

I have not attempted to reproduce any other issues outlined above, but I would like to confirm the "jumping" issue. Every time I load any of the models the aircraft jumps 3-4 times while I am going through startup procedures. It is accompanied by the sound of the wheels hitting the pavement, so it is not a video issue.

Thanks,

curlee

[FSXNoyes 0]

Okay, I have a work around for the PFD and the auto hover issues. I also found something out perhaps it is unintentional but hey...

When you start your flight and your PFD (Primary Flight Display) is not working. Meaning you have red bars extending down the PFD like the color is bleeding from the red in the torque gauges. Go into View and select the 2D panel option. When you close this 2D panel your PFD in your VC will work great. Also your autohover mode will work now as well.

When pressing Shift + E to open the main cabin door. I have noticed that the collective lever comes up as well.

[FSXNoyes 0]

I may have found a work around for the wing folding issue....

1. Go about folding the wings as normal via the pedestal view. This will make some default beep and cause the model to re-load.

2. Go back into the pedestal view and click on the on/off switch to turn on the wing folding systems. The fold switch should be in the fold position. Click near the middle placing the switch in the OFF position. Exit the pedestal view.

3. Go into Virtual Cockpit mode and pan around down to the pedestal and locate the wing folding control panel. Make sure that you see lights indicating that the power is on to this module. Click the toggle switch that folds the wings (This switch should still be in the unfolded position)

This procedure worked for me last night. I will re-test again tonight.

[gwolb 0]

I have been using the fix of going to the 2d view to fix the gauge issue, and this also seems to fix the folding issue. I have not had a problem folding or starting at any location after using the switch to the 2d view. This does seem to be only available in the VC view, at least thats the way I can get it to work. This also seems to almost eliminate the hoping issue also.

This gives work around for most of the critical issue, and since I can land on both the Valley Forge, and Xcraf Iam happy with these as temp work around. Hope this gets fix soon though.

[Finn 873]

Hello gwolb

You say You can land on the Valley Forge and Xcraft. Am I right that You have disabled crash detection inside FSX ?

Wothan

[gwolb 0]

Yea, I had to disable crash detection, but I can land on them fine with this turned off. Sounds like they found some type of issue with some hidden object but once you turn off the crash detection, you can land on those two ships fine. It been a blast landing on them especially at night.

[gwolb 0]

Other good temp fix is to switch to 2d view to fix the red gauge issue. THis fixes that right up.

Also noticed after using the 2d view switch I can not fold the tail, and blades, could not before. Think you also have to be in VC view to do that correctly.

Hope this helps.

[Finn 873]

Yep I did know that You could land on the Valley and the Xcraft with crash detection disabled. I just had to verify that it You also had to do disable it :-)

Wothan

[FSXNoyes 0]

Are there any other issues that we have over-looked that need work-arounds for them?

I believe that threads like this are far more beneficial to programmers and the community as a whole.

See a problem...develop a work around for the problem...wait for a patch.

See a problem...complain about the problem...gripe when it is not fixed by the programmers immediately. Does nothing for anyone.

[intrepid 2]

I second that last statement FSXNoyes

Randy

[jerm138 0]

See a problem...complain about the problem...gripe when it is not fixed by the programmers immediately. Does nothing for anyone.

For minor problems, I agree with you.

But for major problems that would have been caught had they properly tested it (or even tried it out!) before release, I disagree. Not being able to land on the ships is a pretty big, and easy to find problem... not some little detail that nobody caught because they didn't use some off-the-wall combination of keystrokes that causes something strange to happen.

The way I see it, there are only 2 ways this could have happened.

1) Nobody on the development team actually tried the software before releasing it. I find this quite hard to believe. That would be like building a car and not trying to drive it before selling it. Which means that the more likely scenario is...

2) They knew about these problems and knowingly released faulty software. This seems to be the trend these days among software developers, and our "roll over and take it" attitude is what enables them to do it. If developers start getting bad reviews and bad press over it, they'll change their ways.

As I said in another post, I have heard a lot of good things about Aerosoft, so I am doubly surprised that they actually released this software in this condition. And even more surprised that they are not communicating with us more about their plan of action to fix it. The last I heard was last week when they told us there would be a fix on Monday or Tuesday. Now it's Thursday, and we still haven't heard anything.

To steal an analogy I saw on another blog...

Imagine you buy a sports car. The dealer tells you it can go from 0-60 in 5 seconds and tops out at 120. So you buy it, take it out, and find out that it tops out at 50, the radio doesn't work, and you have to open the door a few times to get the speedometer to work. You tell the dealer and he says "really... well, we never actually drove the car before making the ads... you're gonna have to wait a while for a fix."

That wouldn't be tolerated, so why should flight sim enthusiasts tolerate it?

Everything I have heard so far makes it sound like this is the exception for Aerosoft and not the norm... so perhaps I became a customer at exactly the wrong time. Perhaps you think I sound too demanding. Perhaps my griping won't have a direct effect... but I don't see myself doing business with them anymore. And if enough people talk about it, and enough people feel like I do, then it will have an effect, because the customers are the ones who pay their bills.

[Finn 873]

I had a small conversation with Aerosoft today.

They said that it would probably not be before next week an update would be ready.

I also got the "to do" list, but I don´t think I can post it here.

But there will be numeruos enhancements and fixes, both in the virtual cockpit, as well as the exterior of the Sea / Jay Hawks. Also other fixes mentioned elsewhere in this forum will be included.

I think it is better to give them the time they need to make it right. Rushing out fixes never helped anyone.

Wothan

[jerm138 0]

I think it is better to give them the time they need to make it right. Rushing out fixes never helped anyone.

I certainly agree with you there. I have no problem waiting a little longer for a better product. It's just that whole "lack of communication" thing that gets me.

At least now we know the story with it. Thank you for filling us in. Perhaps they could give you a job in their PR department

[Finn 873]

The lack of information might be caused be the fact that they are at the "Flug Simulation Conference" in Germany.

I´m not trying to defend them, but honestly, Aerosoft is one of the addon developers and publishers, who uses most time helping their customers.

Shaun and Mathjis (among others) are present almost every day in the forums, helping folks out.

Aerosoft might be one of the biggest flight simulator addon companies around, but it is still a niche. No one get rich developing or selling these products. If they do, it´s just good for us, the enduser, since that will make it possible for them to develope even better products.

I do agree that it is frustrated to by a product that afterwards has some bugs. But all the addons i have bought (and that is many from FS98 to FSX) has always needed a patch or even multiple patches. So theres is nothing new regarding that.

At this time, just be happy that they are looking into it and are planning a patch that will be released soon.

Wothan

[Infin8lives 3]

Man what a bad time to go to a conference and NOT check the forums or talk to the people who spent $42.88 US on a broken product. I'm as surprised as Jerm138 because I, like he, was so SURE that Aerosoft would deliver a flawless product from reading all positive press/posts. Whatever the case I'm certainly not going to "just be happy that they are looking into it and are planning a patch that will be relesaed soon." I bought this product for the ships and the ship placement tool, not the Helo, and the ships are broken, so at this time I feel like I waisted 42 bucks. I'm also upset with myself because I seriously debated waiting to make sure this product was what they said it was before I purchased it, and I didn't. They should have at least spent a few minutes to post updates to those of us who spent money telling us what's going on after they didn't release the patch when they said they would. Are they still selling the downloadable version with out telling people who don't take time to research the forums that it's not working as advertised? This post is going to sound like I'm Aerosoft bashing, but I'm upset, especially after reading wothan's "just be happy" post, and I personally beleive that I have a right to be. Yeah yeah, complaining like this isn't going to get the ships fixed any faster, and evidently it doesn't bring the Aerosoft staff to the forums either, but I need to vent, and venting here is better then venting on all the other Flight Sim forums I'm registered at.

[FSXFAN 0]

well if you read the rotor animation thread on the 16th october Mathjis said

We solved the crash above the Xcraft. Do NOT ask me what caused it (we don't know, there is nothing there and we just removed the crash code of the whole object (additional value, 4 fps more on my system)).

The hardening of the decks is complex, there are a few ways to do it and all of them have serious issues. FS2004 was a lot more flexible here. I need another 24 hours to know how to move on this.

We also found an issue that makes the chopper jump on the ground. This is a weird one, as I can recreate it on all of my Vista test systems and on none of the XP systems. Anybody can confirm this?

To test:

- load the hover training hard flight, unpause

- let all engine gauges climb to green

- to go to spot view

- to go to tower view

- on vista I see the aircraft jump after 2 seconds, on XP I 'think' I see a movement, but not sure. Please let me know any results.

[Finn 873]

Mephix I was not saying that You should "just be happy". I was saying that You should "just be happy , that they are looking into it and planning to release a patch soon".

I´m also frustrated when I by a product that doesn´t deliver what it promise. I actually bought the Navy Hawks X and are having the same bugs as You. But I have bought alot of addons during the years for the different flight simulator versions, and I have never bought a product that didn´t had an error or a few bugs. Mostly thedes bugs and issues are resolved sooner or later by the developers, but I have also spend money on products that never was fixed.

The reason I stay calm with this product is because I´m confident that Aerosoft will fix the bugs. Otherwise it should be the first time they let me down.

But I do agree that they should have posted an update on what is going on.

But with the "to do" list I recieved from them, I´m sure You will be happy when it is released and also come to an understanding why it will take few days more before a patch is ready.

Wothan

[jerm138 0]

I have bought alot of addons during the years for the different flight simulator versions, and I have never bought a product that didn´t had an error or a few bugs

Having a few bugs is much different than selling a product that SIMPLY DOESN'T WORK.

The fact that the product actually made it to the 'shelf' without them knowing that the ships were not landable is just ridiculous and very amateur. If I could send it back for a refund, I would. Unfortunately, I just have to wait for the 'fix.' I'm done paying for faulty software that's was obviously never tested before release. Fortunately for me, it only cost me $42 to learn that lesson.

[gwolb 0]

jerm138, I would take a look at some of the other post. We have posted several different work arounds for the issues that they are working on. Sure it sucks that this was not perfect, but you can land on the Xcraft and Valley forge after taking off crash detection, and you can fix the red bar issue by going to 2d view and then back to VC.

Trust me, I wish I did not have to use these work arounds, but been having a blast with this since it came out all the same.

[Infin8lives 3]

I'm sure he's read your work arounds gwolb. I know I have, several times in fact, while searching these threads for an official update from Aerosoft, which hasn't appeared. They did get to update the front page of thier website with all the awards they just won in the recent voteres poll.

[jerm138 0]

I'm not really looking for workarounds at this point. I'm looking for just a little bit of customer service in the form of telling us what they're doing to fix the broken product that we paid for. This whole debacle has tarnished my opinion of this otherwise great product so much that I really don't feel like flying it anymore. Like I said, it was a $42 lesson learned, so I don't feel too bad about it... there are much worse things in life.

What really boggles my mind, though, is that they're still selling this product to customers, knowing that it doesn't completely work as advertised. The product page doesn't mention the problems (which are pretty major.) Why not? Every poor sap who buys this product based on the advertisements and screenshots is being MISLEAD. You shouldn't expect customers to comb through forums to make sure that the products work as advertised. For two weeks now, the company has been knowingly selling a product that does not do what the advertisements say it does. At a minimum, the product page should say that you can't currently land on most of the ships (as depicted in the screenshots) and a fix is in the works.

I don't, by any means, expect software to be "perfect" when it's released. That's an unrealistic expectation (even though this problem is a little beyond the realm of "imperfect.") I do, however, expect communication from the persons responsible for the broken product that I paid for. And every consumer should expect some semblance of truth in the advertisements for the products they're paying for.

[Infin8lives 3]

I by no means consider myself a “rivet counter”, nor do I profess to know a great deal about helos or naval ships. I appreciate the fact that Aerosoft has enhanced my Flightsim Experience with the Beaver, FDC Live cockpit, and in the near future this product. I also understand that developers like Aerosoft don’t make a fortune developing these add-ons for us. I was under the impression, by reading SAF’s post, that a fix for the landing pads was going to be available last Monday or Tuesday, and when I didn’t hear anything I was a little disappointed, not to mention that the lack of communication after a patch wasn’t released is uncharacteristic of the Aerosoft customer service I’ve become used to. I’m certain they’re working of a fix, I’m just really curious as to what’s kept SAF and mathjiskok silent for this long, as these are two people whom I’ve seen countless times on this forum answering questions and helping customers. I apologize for my earlier post venting my frustration and hope that everything is ok, as I’m starting to think that the lack of response from Aerosoft personnel may be a serious indicator that something is wrong. I was thinking that they might just be waiting on the release of SP2 before they put the patch for the landing pads up, but still no official announcements from the team is concerning. I hope all is well guys.

[Finn 873]

I just got news from Aerosoft that the patch was in the testing phase and they hope to release it on friday, if all goes well.

The reason for the delay was due to one of the developers got sick.

Wothan

[jerm138 0]

This was posted in another thread today:

Gents, sorry for the delay, I was in Germany to help out with the German Flight Sim Conference (http://www.fskonferenz.de/links/bilder.html) and one of the main developers was off-line to fight a virus (the non digital kind). So we are late. But major parts are done, most is tested and when we are real lucky we got it online on Friday, if not early next week. I think we got most issues fixed in this update. If there is more let me know.

Ships

1 ) Xcraft has crashing invisible object above deck removed

2 ) LHD has not blurry textures on some systems

3 ) LHD tractor has incorrect texture

5 ) LHD has effects problems

6 ) LHD has landing deck issue

7 ) Cutter has landing deck issue

8 ) LCS1 has landing deck issue

9 ) CG50 Valley has an invisible crash object

Shipyard2

1 ) The F122 should be renamed to F220 Hamburg

2 ) Correct save path

Model

1 ) The fuel switches did not fully function as expected

2 ) The rotor fold work intermittently, should be moved fully to VC

3 ) The rotor (main and tail) animation more smooth

4 ) Collective now animated

Gauge

1 ) The PFD can show a problem in some conditions (can be solved by cycling through views).

Flight model

1 ) Reducing jumping effects (might not be fully possible to maintain the strong damping the gears of a ship based chopper needs)

_________________

With regards,

Mathijs Kok (on behalf of Aerosoft)