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JG300-Stoopy · Last edited by JG300-Stoopy on Thu Sep 20, 2007 5:05 pm; edited 7 times in total

In response to more than one comment regarding the possibility of a tutorial on using FS-Recorder, below is my best effort in providing a walk-through on using this fine freeware utility for FS9 and FSX. If you're not familiar with what this great tool does and can be used for, well, I can't think of a better way to demonstrate that other than the below, so enjoy!

I've been using it for a long time now and have a lot to say about it but will TRY to be brief and not too wordy. I do have some pointers here at the start that I believe should be said, however.

There also are a LOT of screenshots (59 in all) just to fully demonstrate all the fine points, etc, so I'm going to break this up into different multi-part posts and make them "sticky" so different major steps can be easily viewed without having to load all those images at once.

Here in Part One, we're going to review some basic yet important settings of FSR and then fly - and record, for playback as an AI plane later - a simple, easy flight from an airfield, circle around a nearby point of interest, and then land. Then we'll fly in formation with that recording, and record that flight too. By the end there will be a total of 3 aircraft recorded in the flight, all flying in a close "Vee" formation to give a just a small idea of what you can do with this to make some interesting screenies - as well as have a heck of a lot of fun flying in formation, or group aerobatics, or simulated dogfights, or whatever. Letâ€™s get started!

To follow along and do this you'll need FS-Recorder of course, which is freeware and can be downloaded from Matthias Neusinger's excellent website - go to "Downloads" and download the flavor of your choice, version 1.31 for FS9 or version 1.3 for FSX. Don't forget to register in the forums and thank Matthias for his excellent contribution to the community!

fs-recorder.net/

It's a self-installer so no tutorial help needed there, other than to point out that once installed, the FS-Recorder options discussed below will be in a new drop-down "Recorder" menu inside Flight Sim, just next to the "Modules" menu. Install it and get ready to rock!

Step One: Some important settings for FS-Recorder and FS9/FSX:

First - I like to make sure that Prop and Engine effects, as well as smoke effects, are turned on for both playback and record, otherwise you won't see the prop turn or see smoke effects if you use 'em. Also make sure the Recording and Playback status are turned on to be displayed, at least for now.

Also, you can go to "Recorder Settings" on that page and make sure the recorder is set to record every 1/4 second. You can do 1/8 or 1/2 second but 1/4 seems to work just fine.

Last important setting is to make sure that Aircraft Collision detection is turned off in FS, and this is important if you plan to do formation flying since the playback aircraft act as AI "Scenery" and you'll collide with them as if they are scenery, not just planes...so turning off aircraft collisions won't help you. Gotta turn off all collision detection:

ONE MORE THING: You need SOLID and CONSISTENT frame rates to ensure smooth recording. NOTE that this doesn't mean you need HIGH frame rates, you just want them to be consistent. 20 FPS is just fine for flying and recording. I cannot suggest, strongly enough, that you set your frame rate to 20 and/or temporarily dial back your graphic settings when recording. If your system "skips" frames during the recording, the effect will be that the aircraft will jump around a bit and "skip ahead"....which you don't want. When you are just playing recordings back, then you can go hog-wild and crank the settings and frame rates up. So you'll see the examples are all done at 20FPS and it didn't impact my ability to fly and stay in formation in the least. This is important and worth doing.

STEP TWO: Let's record a flight!!!

For this example I picked an airfield at random (somewhere in Pennsylvania) and used the Cessna 182 to keep it simple. But the first flight is the most important of course since it drives the rest of the remaining flights so PLAN your flight well! I like to start on the ground and do a group takeoff, so that's where we'll begin.

It turns out there's a nuclear powerplant just beyond the airfield I picked, so the plan will be to take off, depart out straight ahead, climb to about 1500-1600 feet and then when near the powerplant make a GENTLE left turn followed by a GENTLE right semi-circle around the cooling towers to turn around and set up for a group formation landing at another nearby airfield. The cooling towers in the background will make for an interesting bit of scenery for a screenie, and with luck I might be able to think of a fitting caption. Smile

The planning is an important step but so are some details that the first flight should adhere to, and believe me, these are golden rules I've found out the hard way that really must be followed:

Rule 1: Set up a SIMPLE forward view (to keep your frame rates consistent) and DO NOT spend the flight panning around or switching views. Every time you do this when recording, you can cause a "skip" in the recorded data since FS incurs a small micro-second "burble" when switching views or panning around. You'll have plenty of opportunity to sightsee later when viewing the recording, so keep your eyes forward and focus on the plan.

Rule 2: DON'T fly at 100% throttle! This is self-explanatory to anyone who's been involved in online formation flying attempts with people who can't throttle back even a little bit. The leader just runs away from everyone and no one can catch up - pointless, and it sucks. I don't even TAKE OFF at 100% throttle, since most planes are more than capable of getting off the ground at 85% throttle or so if you don't mind using a little more runway and flaps. Once in the air, throttle back to 70% or so, or you'll have a recording that you just won't be able to fly alongside with.

Rule 3: BE SMOOTH and GENTLE. That is, IF you want to do formation flying and want your wingmen to stay in place. If you want to create a dogfight session, then by all means do what you want to. But for formation flying, the leader has a responsibility to not whip his wingmen around and loose them. That means no sudden throttle changes, no steeply-banked turns, and try to fly using trim only and just the smallest joystick movements you need to. Your wingmen (you) will thank you later.

Rule 4: Give your wingmen time and try to use visual cues when possible. For instance, at the start of the flight I sit still on the runway for 15 seconds to give myself time, later, to make any small adjustments to trim or view before takeoff that I might need to do as a wingman. Then, right before throttling up for the takeoff roll, I flash my NAV lights on and then off a second later. That'll show up in the recording and is a visual cue saying "lets roll!". You can use NAV lights to indicate gear or flap up/down changes, or even use scenery landmarks, such as turning on your airshow smoke (or whatever) right when crossing the runway threshold for instance, so it'll be easier for the later flights to synchronize with.

OK that's my preaching on the subject (I promise) so let's fly!

Set up your flight...easy enough. Airplane on runway, check:

Set up your forward view. Use the "w" key from the 2D cockpit (or "a" key in FSX to get to the 2D cockpit, then press "w") for the "wonderwoman" full-screen HUD mode. You're not out for realism here, you're out for VISIBILITY. So you might want 75% zoom for this view also. Later flights as wingmen will want to zoom out to 31% (you'll see why when we get to those flights).

Also, I strongly suggest turning on the "Axis Indicator" in the View Options menu so you have a reference point to lay against the horizon. This is CRITICAL for maintaining smooth turns and level flight so your wingmen won't be struggling to stay with you.

Next, SAVE your flight because you need a saved starting point for your wingmen to start from too. Plus, if you're not happy with your recording, you can come back any time and start from the same place to re-record it.

OK, now that you're ready and have everything set, go to the "Recorder" menu and hit record!

Hit "OK" to accept the default FSR setting of recording every 1/4 second of flight:

The "recording" status should show at the bottom-right of your screen. I wait 15 seconds (see Rule 4 above) then flash my NAV lights on and off (Rule 4 again) and throttle up SLOWLY to 80 or 85% throttle or so (Rule 2!).

Fly your planned flight, keeping your view forward at all times (Rule 1 above). When turning, ease slowly into the turn to give your wingmen time to see the change and follow, and keep your bank shallow (Rule 3). The "pipper" or Axis Indicator, that you turned on in the View Options menu, will help you keep a consistent bank angle and also help keep your nose on the horizon and keep your vertical changes in flight path to a minimum.

If you feel the desire to pan around and see exactly where you are in relation to landmarks, remember that doing so will cause "jumps and skips" in the recording. Doesnâ€™t mean you can't do it though.....just PAUSE your flight (recording will be paused too) then go look around to your heart's content:

Keep flying a nice smooth flight until you think you've recorded enough to make you happy. I like to have my flights end with a formation landing and "parade taxi" back to a wing-abreast shutdown on the ramp. If you want to do the same, just remember to land a little long, enough past the threshold to allow room of your wingmen to touch down without having to prune the trees on final. As for length of recording, mine usually go about 10-15 minutes (600 to 900 seconds).

I like to find a nice scenic place to park before shutting 'er down. Don't bother opening the door of the airplane, only because this is something that FSR can't record or playback. But it will record the engine and prop stop.

Press ESCAPE when you're done and FSR will pop up and ask where you want to save the flight. If you've choked and don't want to save it, hit "Cancel" and tell FSR you don't want to keep recording. But if you're happy (and hopefully you are) then go ahead and save it.....by the way you may have to make a "FS-Recorder" folder for your recording, and I find that a good place to make such a folder is in your "My Documents / Flight Simulator Files" folder. I've got so many now that I'm making sub-folders for certain themed flights.

That's it, youâ€™re done with this part! Now, on to Part Two where we play that flight back and fly alongside of it, and it gets REALLY cool!!!

To go to Part 3, click HERE!

Uhu_Fledermaus · Joined: Nov 27, 2004 Posts: 3681 Location: near EHHV GMT+2

This is absolutely wonderfull Stoopy !!

Chapeau !!

JG300-Stoopy

Glad ya like it Fled, Part 3 is done too and even more to come.

And I'm gonna say.....please, direct all positive comments to Matthias Neusinger at his site (listed above). He deserves all the credit in the world for making this great utility. I'm just passing the word along on some pointers as requested.

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