I finally managed to upload a video to YouTube after about a month of trying now and then. I don’t know why things didn’t work well for that time. But, I’ve managed to upload two videos recently. I’d been trying for ages to upload my V22 flying video. It’s now done.
Upload Frustrations
I have been flying in the Simulator recently and trying out a new aircraft. I’m learning how to use the V22 Osprey and this time, compared with X-Plane 11, I am actually reading the manual! There’s a really good plugin for X-Plane that shows an on screen version of the checklist and this has made it relatively straightforward to know how to start and operate this aircraft. When I say straightforward I mean it’s ok once you have learnt where all the switches are.
Because I love how X-Plane looks and how the aircraft operates I’ve been wanting to share my experiences via YouTube. Multiple times over the last month or so I have recorded by screen and sounds using OBS and then tried to upload the resulting video. It turns out that YouTube doesn’t seem to like this. I don’t know why but after an initial decent upload bandwidth the video stops uploading to YouTube. I’ve tried leaving the upload running for a while and although the percentage seems to increase the rate is very low. I can’t wait all night just for a video to upload.
When you search for help with these problems I love the way the websites reckon it’s my fault. Have you checked your wifi? Have you checked your broadband? Have you checked the firewall? All of these things I have already checked. I’m not stupid. I just want to know why my video fails to upload. I suspected it could be that the video is approaching 1GB in size but when I downgraded the quality it still stopped uploading. Maybe I should try a PS5 upload to see if it’s me.
I really want to share some videos covering night flying, the flares being released, landing, vertical take offs and the wing blade fold system, which is really cool. I will keep trying. I know it’s not really like my “followers” are demanding this but I do want to keep adding stuff to my channel. I like the idea of sharing things people would actually appreciate. Here’s a previous video I uploaded:
AOA Simulators
There’s a company who design aircraft for flight simulators called AOA Simulations and I have to say they have the perfect mix of aircraft I really want to fly and excellent quality so I have, over the years, spent some money getting their aircraft. The most recent addition to my collection is the CV-22 Osprey. I owned this aircraft before on a previous version of X-Plane and so decided to get it again. The company do have an F35 but I have other fast jets and I’m not fussed about that.
Look at how ridiculously pretty this aircraft simulation is. I’m not sure the actual aircraft is pretty, I will need to reflect on that.
I’m slowly learning how to take off and also control the direction of the prop-rotors. I needed to assign extra buttons on my set-up to make sure that everything was within easy reach.
Today I managed to transition to vertical flight mode from standard flight and I will say it is not an easy conversion, you spend some time in a stall actually!
I’m looking forward to spending more time with this aircraft.
Good Times Bad Times
I have numerous posts about how much I enjoy the game Gran Turismo in all its variations. However, there are times when it is rather frustrating. I’d spent about twenty minutes on this licence test and at one point this was my time:
My first and current thought was “fuck you”.
Then there’s some other games I play and this time it just looked so gorgeous, except I wasn’t sure who the hell would build a chest at the end of a log sticking out over the edge of a mountain. It does look lovely though.
Still Doing Proud Stuff
I’ve been trying to get the last car in Gran Turismo to complete the café menu. I need twenty million credits. I also need the car to be in the store. Every now and then I get distracted by other cars that appear in the shop or that are new in the dealer area. Hence, I’m not that close to the required funds yet. So, the weekly time trials is a good way of making money and also completing the daily marathon driving distance.
Here’s my time from one of the latest challenges. I’m just under 4% away from the fastest in the world. I’m still happy with this. It seems not too bad for someone who plays a little each day and not all day every day.
Interception!
I had a flight in X-Plane recently and saw a plane nearby so I thought I would check it out. It was and MD80 faffing around over Essex and Suffolk.
I had a fun time chasing this bird through the sky and trying to stay in formation.
Testing Flights
I’ve been testing the new PC set up by flying around places I’ve recently visited. It’s nice to see how these places are recreated in X-Plane. I think it looks pretty good, it’s good fun also.
I’ll soon write about a visit to this castle and some other places in Hampshire and Dorset. I flew over Hurst castle to see how it was created within the flight simulator.
I haven’t been to Portsmouth for quite a while but I am planning to head back there soon. It looks good in this early morning flight. Note the aircraft carrier.
Having stayed in the New Forest recently it was nice to fly over it. There’s quite a bit of air activity in the New Forest as it’s within the ILS of Bournemouth International. There are a few 737s, the odd Airbus A340 and some Draken Air Dassault Falcon 20s.
Recently Completed
I have recently completed a couple of nice little games that I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s quite rare for me to play games other than the “big three” – Gran Turismo, Minecraft, and Fortnite. These are my standard games and I probably play a little of them everyday. I tend to want games that I can jump in and out of and the time needed for a session doesn’t matter. GT7 I can play for a few laps or a longer race depending on how much time I have in the real world. Minecraft is a world contained on a server and so I get to play that whenever I want and I can do as much or as little as I feel like. Fortnight I play to be with the Legend and spend time with them.
I did recently play some other games and really enjoyed them. They weren’t too stressy and I knew they could be played for a little while and saved easily. Also, I didn’t really have to learn new controls – this is important to me as if I only play a game a little bit spread out over time I don’t want to have to learn a new control system.
Atomfall
This is a game of wandering around the Lake District in the early 1960s [it could be the 1950s I didn’t pay that much attention] and you have to survive and escape. I love the Lake District and had wanted to play this for a while, then I think the price was reduced and I had a half term break so decided I would go for it.
I played the game on easy mode and even then I died quite a bit! I really enjoyed the story, the scenery, and the gameplay. I think my favourite thing though was the occasional crashed helicopter and the militaria of the age. The whole game really captured the time period. It was a really nice game to play.
Under The Waves
This game follows Stan, a North Sea diver, and explores their journey after the death of their daughter. For me, the cut scenes were a little too long. I don’t really care about those things, but I know the story was important to this game. I enjoyed the pace of this game and each day I could swim around and do the jobs I was meant to do. There weren’t any time restrictions within the game as those can make things really stressful. So I was able to explore with ease.
I enjoyed the game. That’s the point isn’t it? To enjoy things.
Lake District Game View
I’ve been playing Atomfall and I’ve really been enjoying it. I am playing in almost-peaceful mode because I want to enjoy the game. I’ve still died plenty of times though! The developers set the game in the Lake District in the 1950s after the Windscale accident. I really like the look and feel of the game. It’s got proper sci-fi feels about it.
Gran Turismo – Rating Myself
Gran Turismo has weekly time trails using various cars around various tracks. I try to take part each time because it’s a good way to get credits and also rates your driving against the rest of the world. I normally get a silver award for these which means I’m within 5% of the time of the fastest in the world. Recently I got gold for being within 3%.
I’m also within the margin by over 1/10 second which I consider a good result. So, another 1.5 seconds knocked off my time and I’d be best in the world – highly unlikely. I only play for around thirty minutes a day so I’m never going to be the best. I’m also working on getting gold in all the master licences but that is taking quite a bit of time!
I go in phases with this game. Sometimes I play enough every day for the daily workout prize and then sometimes I leave it for a couple of weeks. I’m half and half at the moment because I’ve been playing AtomFall which I am enjoying a lot.