Microsoft Flight Simulator X

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Oh, the computer specs listed above is for a computer that I will recieve next month.
My current computer is a
2.3 GHz Celeron
512mb ATI RAdeon X1650
512MB RAM.

512MB RAM?


No wonder.

[TB666]

512MB RAM?


No wonder.

This computer is almost 6 years old.
It's was cutting edge when it came out (Or should I say built it)
Only thing changed is the graphic card.
Used to have a 128Mb Radeon 9800 pro

[edyzmedieval]

Beirut, what Aerosoft products do you own?

[TB666]

Well I just bought MFSX Deluxe edition.
Anyone that can recommend a good joystick that feels nice and not too expensive ??

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I have this

[TB666]

Looks good and cheap.
Might get that one since Logitech usually makes quality products.

Also, can someone please explain to me(because the lessons don't) how I'm suppose to get to the runway where there is a huge hangar right in front of me ??
I can't reverse and I hit the building if I go forward.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Also, can someone please explain to me(because the lessons don't) how I'm suppose to get to the runway where there is a huge hangar right in front of me ??
I can't reverse and I hit the building if I go forward.

Sounds like a bug. Which airfield is this?

[TB666]

Sounds like a bug. Which airfield is this?

Kastrup in Denmark.
I can't remember which parking slot I was in but I tried 2 of them with a 747 and both of them required me to either back the plane up or crash.
Now since I work at that airport I know that it can support 747 without problem and putting it on the actual runway isn't no problem, I can take off just fine.

[TB666]

A nice pic of my city's landmark

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

An Easter Egg, or was there really a ship like this in the Seattle area during the dev process?

[TB666]

Damn, the speed on that ship must have been high in order to get that far up.
Consider the size of the game, I wonder what kinda other "bugs" like this are in.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

It's on the San Juan Island Run mission, just a little off course from your recommended route.

[edyzmedieval]

I want to get the new Saitek X52 Pro. That joystick is HOTAS, and it's incredible.

[Beirut]

I want to get the new Saitek X52 Pro. That joystick is HOTAS, and it's incredible.

It's even more incredible if you can afford it.

Although the X52 Pro is a mighty sweet toy, you might want to consider a Saitek Force Feedback stick + a standard Saitek Cyborg Evo stick and make a HOTAS out of that. Not only is it less expensive, it gives you force feedback (which once you've flown with you can never fly without) and more than enough buttons and switches so you'll never have to go to the keyboard.

[TB666]

Well the one Evil Maniac used works like a charm.
Feels great and more then enough buttons for me.

[edyzmedieval]

It's even more incredible if you can afford it.

Although the X52 Pro is a mighty sweet toy, you might want to consider a Saitek Force Feedback stick + a standard Saitek Cyborg Evo stick and make a HOTAS out of that. Not only is it less expensive, it gives you force feedback (which once you've flown with you can never fly without) and more than enough buttons and switches so you'll never have to go to the keyboard.

Thanks for the tip. Can you combine a Pro Flight Yoke System, with a 6 lever quadrant from CH?

[TB666]

^Nearly killed me that bastard


^The love boat ??

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I think some of the collision physics may be a little skewed. Once I was going in to land and an aircraft went straight through me. Shortly afterwards, another aircraft approached from the same spot - and blew my plane to pieces.

There was also another incident, where I skipped the entire St. Lawrence River like a stone - in a 747.

[TB666]

Well haven't noticed anything like that so far.
I switched to a Learjet after that shot was taken and while I was taxing some guy in a cessna did this awesome slide with his aircraft right into my side.
Both of us blew up quite nicely.

[Beirut]

Thanks for the tip. Can you combine a Pro Flight Yoke System, with a 6 lever quadrant from CH?

If you are willing to fadoodle with drivers and such, you can mix and match most hardware.

On the other hand, Saitek, a company I like, makes all the hardware required for a good flight system and I figure it's better to stay with one company. Mind you, CH stuff is very good.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Well haven't noticed anything like that so far.

I found out why. My settings somehow switched in mid-flight.

[edyzmedieval]

Anyone still playing FSX around here ?

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Right here.

[edyzmedieval]

Some news about the FSX scene - Microsoft disbanded the entire ACES studio which was working on FSX so the future of flight simulation is uncertain.

Anyone still playing?

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Still going. I downloaded the World of AI packages, but I've been having some trouble with glitches - the screen turning white when viewing certain aircraft and so on. Nobody on their help forum has been able to help me yet.

[Zenicetus]

Some news about the FSX scene - Microsoft disbanded the entire ACES studio which was working on FSX so the future of flight simulation is uncertain.

Well, the future of the MSFS scene is uncertain, but civilian flight sims are still available, notably X-Plane (currently version 9). I bought that last November before the news about the MSFS studio being shut down, mainly because my current rig isn't really strong enough to run FSX.

It's not exactly a flood yet, but there are some MSFS refugees showing up in the X-Plane forums. The real question now is how many of the 3rd party add-on developers will migrate. Here's a quick tour of the pros and cons for X-Plane as a MSFS alternative, from what I've been able to tell in the last few months' flying it:

PROS:

• Runs on Linux, Mac, or Windows (although some custom plugins are Windows only)
• Not very expensive, currently $39 USD as a special offer for MSFS fence-jumpers.
• It's been around a LONG time, so the basic platform is stable.
• You can enable graphics and other effect settings high enough to bring the frame rate to its knees, but for an "average" configuration, I get the impression it's much less hardware-intensive than MSFS/X. I can't enable everything, but I can get an average of 30 - 50 fps on my 4-year old computer with a recent graphics card upgrade.
• Good enough flight model to be certified in advanced versions for FAA simulator training.
• Excellent "feel" of flight, landing dynamics, very good helicopter modeling
• Default scenery (terrain, airports, navaids) covers the entire world, minus extreme polar latitudes, with great-looking graphics at medium to high altitude. It's something like 60 gigs of scenery, although you can selectively install just part of it.
• Flight modeling is based on the physics of airfoils, not lookup tables, so it's a good platform for designing crazy-looking aircraft and then seeing if they'll fly.
• Rockets and spaceflight are available, and there's a basic Mars model for flying in thin atmosphere/low gravity.
• Commercial add-on scenery and aircraft are available, but there isn't much of it yet. I bought the "Inside Passage" scenery (west coast of British Columbia, Vancouver Island) and it's great for bush flying, seaplanes, etc. A fair amount of free user-made scenery is available, but most of it is "my local airport." There is a conversion tool for converting MSFS 3D objects like airports (not terrain), and that apparently works well.
• A good user support forum, although the feel of the place can be a bit "dry" and technical (lots of real-world pilots hanging out there).

CONS:

• X-Plane is the personal pet project of just one chief programmer/lead designer, supported by a staff of (I think?) four others for things like scenery development and graphics. He's a pilot, so that's good... but the sim evolves pretty much at the whim of this one guy. That's a plus when it works, but you can see the limits of that approach, if he's not including the features you want.
• The user interface isn't very friendly, and it isn't well localized for each platform. Plan to spend a week figuring out how to set everything up for optimum performance, and to figure out all the controls and settings.
• Default scenery has runways and taxiways only, no airport 3D buildings. You need to download airport scenery and there isn't a lot of it, outside a few major urban areas.
• The external appearance of planes isn't quite as sexy with surfaces and lighting as MSFS (X version)
• No real season effects in the scenery...it's always summer and icecaps on mountains don't always look realistic. There is a "Winter World" mod for snowy areas that sort-of works, but you have to manually swap file folders to enable it.
• No decent in-game ATC at all
• There is some support for online ATC and online flying, but it's not as well-developed as MSFS
• GPS support in-game is very poor, although there's a new commercial plugin that apparently works well. X-Plane in its current state is better for VFR and old-style VOR flying-by-the needles.

Bottom line: when I fly civilian flight sims, I mostly do bush flying and helicopters. Lots of short field landings and takeoffs, zooming through mountain valleys, etc. For that type of flying, X-Plane is great. ATC, advanced GPS/flight computers and the detailed modeling of heavies isn't as good as MSFS/X, so if you're into simulating the life of an airline pilot, you'll probably want to stick with MSFS for a while, and see where X-Plane goes over the next few years.

Here's the main site:

http://www.x-plane.com/

And here's where you can see some of the user-made and 3rd-party commercial planes and scenery:

http://www.x-plane.org/