Sorry al,
both
JohnH and
beat578 already offered good answers while I was asleep on this side of the pond :-)
One thing I noticed when reading one of your posts is that you wrote:
"I had a couple of Router windows open, when I closed them it worked". Beware that in order for ExternalSim to work you have to keep the router running, not a couple but one router session.You can minimize it's LOG window, or it'll simply be overlapped by the PSX and P3D windows.
Very few times I used Aerowinx with FSX or P3D, first with PS1, the 1997 version, then with PSX.
I was more satisfied back then in the
Aerowinx PS1 era because the native outside view was so small that I really had problems, and in those days my close vision wasn't so bad, seeing "through" it .. PSX brought windows / Layouts that one can easily adapt, with 9 panes per Layout which you alternate through using the NUMPAD digit keys or some buttons in your controller(s). A good Tutorial -->
here <--.
Having multiple screens also helps and PSX can stretch across multiple monitors. I also used another sim - ELITE IFR XTS - with P3D, but in that case we have to use at least two screens, one for an external view of P3D maximized in one screen, and the other for ELITE.
With PSX I used what John suggested above. In one of the panes of a Layout, I reduce the size of the PSX window to half screen height, and do teh same to to P3d running in window mode. I then place the P3D window over the PSX, and in the PSX window I leave only the basic instruments.
I used
Always-On-Top to make the PSX window persistent,
Borderless Gaming Window to get rid of the P3D window borders, and also made sure I disabled the option to pause P3D when it is not the "focused" application ( one of the General options in P3D ). I also disable all keys and buttons / axis that might conflict between both sims, so that when I use those keys in PSX they don't start unwanted effects in P3D, as well as the sounds in P3D because I prefer PSX sounds :-)
This is what I also did with X-Plane 10 and 11, which is another sim you can use with PSX for the visuals, using XView. there are a few threads about it in this forum.
There was another application - VisualPSX - that could inject PSX weather into FSX/P3D. ExternalSim doesn't do it, so, your only option is to use a weather injector for P3D :-/
Well, honestly I usually end up getting back to PSX standalone, or, at most, use yet another application that can give you a "Map view" ( 2d ) of the Bing / Google World, preferably on a 2nd monitor. It's latest encarnation is called PSX_Wheramium.
PSX_Wheramium is very useful for maneuvering while at the airport, from gate to takeoff and the way around.
The suggestion regarding the use of 60/2 in the refresh rates of PSX is also a very useful one, and it worked beautifully last time I used PSX with P3d ( v5 ) for 2 long days :-)
PSX is like a very Sexy Woman you can talk to on the phone, read her mind ( as far as she let's you ... ). I say this because I do not have a smartphone, but those in modern days with their smartphones can ask her to show them where she's going through, problem is, she uses a very odd cell phone provider and image get's distorted, out-of-sync sometimes, and you actually revert back to simply talking to her :-)
EDIT: al, you mentioned you had a Windows and a Mac, and apparently your Windows rig is powerful enough to run P3D decently, so, why not trying to run PSX on the Mac, and P3D in the Windows box, and then use the networking capabilities of ExternalSim ? That would leave the CPU / GPU stress in the Windows box solely for P3D and ancillary apps.
