iFly vs PMDG
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2016 7:11 pm
So, I just finished my first flight in the iFly 747-400 for P3D and I figured I'd share my thoughts for anyone that's been considering P3D but isn't sure about the quality of the iFly 744 as compared to our beloved Queen of the Skies provided by PMDG.
Overall, it's a good airframe. The textures are beautiful and it's obvious that iFly put some serious thought into the product before releasing it.
There were a few things I noticed immediately however.
Number 1: The frames tank. Hard.
Before installing the aircraft I did some flights in some of the stock aircraft, just to get a feel for P3D and brush up on some of the basics piloting skills that tend to dull when flying giant automated behemoths on a regular basis. Now, stock aircraft are notoriously kind to frame rates as they are designed to operate well within the simulators capabilities to showcase it's quality, which makes perfect sense, but I ran the sim with moderate settings and was getting 40-60 frames pretty consistently. As soon as I started a scenario in the 744, I was getting 7 frames in the VC on the ground and about 15 in the external view, on the ground as well. In the air it wasn't much better; 7-9 and 23 respectively. I hadn't changed any of my graphics settings and since P3D is designed for modern systems, this caught me a bit off guard and I still need to fiddle around with the graphics settings in order to get the frames up again. That being said, I can't help but feel like I shouldn't need to with modern computing hardware.
Number 2: Get ready for 30-60 minutes of setup
When you start diving into the guts of the aircraft, you begin to see there is quite a few customization options. They can be accessed either through the FMC or through a dialogue box in the add-ons menu. Everything from HSI and FD display settings to which units of measure to use when. There is a lot to go through, which is good. Don't misunderstand, I am in no way complaining. Customization is the hallmark of a quality sim in my opinion, it just took longer than anticipated to go through it all.
Number 3: Auto-Spoilers are always on
If you're like me and have a separate throttle quadrant for the throttles, flaps and spoilers, you're accustomed to moving the spoiler lever into the "Armed" position on approach. In the iFly, the "Full Retract" and "Armed" positions are one in the same which is really only a nuisance rather than a problem. For all I know, that could be how it is in the actual aircraft so it's just something to be aware of so you don't unintentionally extend your spoilers on final instead of just arming them and get a very distracting alarm at a very inconvenient time.
Number 4: Wing Warping Polygons
Even in FSX, the wings of the 747 reach gracefully towards the skies in a beautiful and smooth parabolic arc. The iFly on the other hand, has 3 distinct wing sections that bend at clearly defined joints. I first saw it in a review video that was shot in FS2004 so I didn't pay it any mind. Much to my dismay however, when I first took to the skies in P3D, the same clunky and jointed wing warp was still there. I'm not sure if it's just an oversight on the part of iFly or if aircraft texture quality needs to be on Ultra but it looks shoddy and was a little bit of a disappointment for me.
Number 5: Load Manager
This, was more adjusting to something different than a demerit. Unlike the PMDG product, with its sliding scale fuel loader and large easy to use load screen, the iFly version is zoomed in and kind of drab. The fuel selector is on it's own screen, which is nice but it's text based. It does let you customize the amount of fuel in each tank individually, which is nice but it's not really for me. Call me lazy, but I don't like balancing the fuel myself. Thankfully it has an option to manually enter the total desired fuel load and it balances it for you. That's more of a personal preference though, and if you're the type where you like being able to balance the fuel yourself then I think you will enjoy this particular feature a great deal.
Number Six: Intelligent Cruise
This feature, I actually enjoy quite a bit. In the FMC, in the Sim menu, there is a sub menu called "Intelligent Cruise". In this menu you can tell the sim what you want it to do automatically while in cruise. Things such as; switch to "Tank to Engine" Automatically; Auto Step Climb; Pause at Top Of Descent; and other things of that nature. In my personal opinion, this feature makes flying long hauls much less demanding on time, especially when your work schedule does not allow you to sit in front of your monitor for 10 hours straight.
And Lastly...
Number 7: No random service based failures
I love the fact that PMDG included this feature in their products. I feel like it adds an impressive level of immersion that can test your skill as a sim pilot by requiring you to manage your airframe's flight time and make sure it gets in for scheduled maintenance, the same as our real world counterparts have to. So when I was exploring the failure section in the iFly software I was disappointed to see that this feature was absent. The lack of that feature is not a deal breaker for me, just something that I wish iFly had included in their model.
Well, if you've stuck around this long, thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts on the aircraft.
For anyone that already has it, if you noticed anything above that was incorrect, or if there's something that you'd like to add, please let me know and feel free to do so.
The last thing I want is to spread disinformation.
Thanks again everyone, see you in the sky.
Overall, it's a good airframe. The textures are beautiful and it's obvious that iFly put some serious thought into the product before releasing it.
There were a few things I noticed immediately however.
Number 1: The frames tank. Hard.
Before installing the aircraft I did some flights in some of the stock aircraft, just to get a feel for P3D and brush up on some of the basics piloting skills that tend to dull when flying giant automated behemoths on a regular basis. Now, stock aircraft are notoriously kind to frame rates as they are designed to operate well within the simulators capabilities to showcase it's quality, which makes perfect sense, but I ran the sim with moderate settings and was getting 40-60 frames pretty consistently. As soon as I started a scenario in the 744, I was getting 7 frames in the VC on the ground and about 15 in the external view, on the ground as well. In the air it wasn't much better; 7-9 and 23 respectively. I hadn't changed any of my graphics settings and since P3D is designed for modern systems, this caught me a bit off guard and I still need to fiddle around with the graphics settings in order to get the frames up again. That being said, I can't help but feel like I shouldn't need to with modern computing hardware.
Number 2: Get ready for 30-60 minutes of setup
When you start diving into the guts of the aircraft, you begin to see there is quite a few customization options. They can be accessed either through the FMC or through a dialogue box in the add-ons menu. Everything from HSI and FD display settings to which units of measure to use when. There is a lot to go through, which is good. Don't misunderstand, I am in no way complaining. Customization is the hallmark of a quality sim in my opinion, it just took longer than anticipated to go through it all.
Number 3: Auto-Spoilers are always on
If you're like me and have a separate throttle quadrant for the throttles, flaps and spoilers, you're accustomed to moving the spoiler lever into the "Armed" position on approach. In the iFly, the "Full Retract" and "Armed" positions are one in the same which is really only a nuisance rather than a problem. For all I know, that could be how it is in the actual aircraft so it's just something to be aware of so you don't unintentionally extend your spoilers on final instead of just arming them and get a very distracting alarm at a very inconvenient time.
Number 4: Wing Warping Polygons
Even in FSX, the wings of the 747 reach gracefully towards the skies in a beautiful and smooth parabolic arc. The iFly on the other hand, has 3 distinct wing sections that bend at clearly defined joints. I first saw it in a review video that was shot in FS2004 so I didn't pay it any mind. Much to my dismay however, when I first took to the skies in P3D, the same clunky and jointed wing warp was still there. I'm not sure if it's just an oversight on the part of iFly or if aircraft texture quality needs to be on Ultra but it looks shoddy and was a little bit of a disappointment for me.
Number 5: Load Manager
This, was more adjusting to something different than a demerit. Unlike the PMDG product, with its sliding scale fuel loader and large easy to use load screen, the iFly version is zoomed in and kind of drab. The fuel selector is on it's own screen, which is nice but it's text based. It does let you customize the amount of fuel in each tank individually, which is nice but it's not really for me. Call me lazy, but I don't like balancing the fuel myself. Thankfully it has an option to manually enter the total desired fuel load and it balances it for you. That's more of a personal preference though, and if you're the type where you like being able to balance the fuel yourself then I think you will enjoy this particular feature a great deal.
Number Six: Intelligent Cruise
This feature, I actually enjoy quite a bit. In the FMC, in the Sim menu, there is a sub menu called "Intelligent Cruise". In this menu you can tell the sim what you want it to do automatically while in cruise. Things such as; switch to "Tank to Engine" Automatically; Auto Step Climb; Pause at Top Of Descent; and other things of that nature. In my personal opinion, this feature makes flying long hauls much less demanding on time, especially when your work schedule does not allow you to sit in front of your monitor for 10 hours straight.
And Lastly...
Number 7: No random service based failures
I love the fact that PMDG included this feature in their products. I feel like it adds an impressive level of immersion that can test your skill as a sim pilot by requiring you to manage your airframe's flight time and make sure it gets in for scheduled maintenance, the same as our real world counterparts have to. So when I was exploring the failure section in the iFly software I was disappointed to see that this feature was absent. The lack of that feature is not a deal breaker for me, just something that I wish iFly had included in their model.
Well, if you've stuck around this long, thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts on the aircraft.
For anyone that already has it, if you noticed anything above that was incorrect, or if there's something that you'd like to add, please let me know and feel free to do so.
The last thing I want is to spread disinformation.
Thanks again everyone, see you in the sky.
