FSX - whats coming?

[Kev367th]

Shameless plug for a small group I am part of.

www.militaryaiworks.com

Although primarily for FS2004 all aircraft seem to work in FSX. There is also a topic on the forums on getting the packages to run under FSX.
So start filling your skies with proper military AI aircraft. Even better - ALL FREE.

My latest AI aircraft, many many hours of hair pulling!!!!

[indy007]

Denholm, Indy, thanks for the links guys!   I may have to give VATSIM a try, heard it's good stuff.

VATSIM can be good. It sort of changed how I fly FS though. I used to just fly places that looked pretty. Now I look for places with the heaviest traffic. The events are good too. Flying a 747-400 into an airport staffed with real people working as center, approach, departure, tower, ground, and clearance delivery with hundreds of other aircraft streaming in us much more entertaining and challenging than the AI ATC.

The downside is all the damn charts to print out, and extra screen space taken up. Having 2+ monitors is required to keep the enjoyment level up when you've got so many add-ons running.

[Cobra516]

That sounds like fun! I think it'd be a good procedures trainer.  I'm about through with my instrument/commercial rating - VATSIM would be great for keeping my mind fresh on instrument flying.

[SFRT - Frenchy]

VATSIM was frustrating to me as a controller, too many sunday pilots out there wetting their pants with a "heavy" callsign that couln't even land on the freacking runway ... not even talking about a STAR clearance.

[Cobra516]

VATSIM was frustrating to me as a controller, too many sunday pilots out there wetting their pants with a "heavy" callsign that couln't even land on the freacking runway ... not even talking about a STAR clearance.

  That sounds like it might be interesting to just sit on the ramp and watch people land.   

[B17Skull12]

i caved in today got FS X.  Got a windows Xp this thing should run fine right?  Don't have a joystick at the moment.  Just going to use a xbox controller (yes i know it takes away from the experience).  My foot pedals are dying to be used.  Haven't used them since i quit AH about 3 years ago.  Anyone got any good deals on sticks?  Just need something.

[moot]

Sheesh.. imagine if we had those clouds, sky, and lighting quality...

[Chalenge]

I really like it when the clouds look realistic or anytime the sky just seems 'right.'

Kev I also use the MilitaryAI but its easy to forget you have it owing to the fewer chances of seeing MAI.

Clouds from ActiveSky (also GraphicsX and UltimateTerrainX and FSGenesisX and FScene4X) and Aerosoft F-16.

[indy007]

VATSIM was frustrating to me as a controller, too many sunday pilots out there wetting their pants with a "heavy" callsign that couln't even land on the freacking runway ... not even talking about a STAR clearance.

I like it when people connect while they're sitting on the active runway in the middle of heavy traffic.  Tower & Ground tend to crap their pants.

[Cobra516]

Logged into VATSIM the other night.  Loaded up the stock King Air at my home airport KRYY just north of KATL and filed IFR direct to the ATL VOR - was basically just so I could get in the air and get vectored around for a bit.  He set me up for the ILS 8L, I had my book of approach plates ready and shot the approach and landed.  It was pretty damn busy for one controller to be handling all those airliners.  I was really impressed with the professionalism and radio calls from everyone in there, you really couldn't tell it wasn't real, very cool stuff.

Just gotta figure out when everyone's on and the heaviest traffic times are, seems it gets pretty slow a lot of the time, but I believe KATL is one of the busiest airports in VATSIM.

So is X-Graphics the best sky / cloud add-on?  What about the best ground scenery for most of the U.S.?

Hey Chalenge, we should try the co-pilot option in VATSIM sometime for a short hop.

I think I'm going to try and make this get together this Saturday to see what it's like.

http://www.piperclub.net/?p=35

So far I can't find a Super Cub that works with FSX and DX10/Vista.    Guess I'll just fly some other single.

[Chalenge]

AVSIM has references to a Super Cub for FSX so it must be out there some where.

I think GraphicsX is the best but I base that on second hand opinions for the other products. I read around before buying and thats what I got.

Scenery is a sticky subject. If you go to AVSIM there is a freeware download for the grand canyon in photo real colors and 1m mesh details. Its the best I have seen and its free.

I use Ultimate Terrain X for the added features of night lighting but it dresses up things like roads and rivers and other water bodies (land class/water class features.

FScene4X is the general textures more specifically designed for land by regions.

GenesisX adds terrain meshes that are higher resolution than the default FSX mesh.

GraphicsX not only does clouds but the sun and how it flares and sky colors and water and waves and runways and taxiways... a very good buy.

Active Sky X allows you to tie your flight into real world weather. Im not sure it actually gives you both ends correctly but I can tell you that if I leave sunny Florida to visit Indiana when there is snow actually in Indiana it shows up in FSX. And the recreation of hurricanes will amaze you but I appreciate more the fact that Active Sky X recreates conditions like crosswinds and prevailing winds so even if the airfield AFCAD was designed incorrectly and the tower usually by default uses a different runway you will use the one active at that time in the real world. This is part of what is getting updated/tied-together if I understand what HiFi is doing.

SceneryTech puts together 'landclass' updates by region that are supposed to make actual city/urban/rural/water/etc cover the same area in FSX (to within 1km).

Put all of these together and thats what I use along with another freeware scenery of the Alps and Greenland and a few other areas. I usually grab the AFCAD fixes that are posted on AVSIM daily.

If you go to install this on a Vista machine make sure you install FSX to a disk off of your boot/OS disk and if you cant then at least dont put it in C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86).

[cpxxx]

VATSIM was frustrating to me as a controller, too many sunday pilots out there wetting their pants with a "heavy" callsign that couln't even land on the freacking runway ... not even talking about a STAR clearance.

I ventured into VATSIM once. I was a nervous wreck. Afraid I'd mess up some of the experts 'flying'. However the pilots and controller came across as really professional. More professional than many real pilots I encounter on my normal job, that includes airline pilots.

As for FSX, some great enhancements. Can it be too long before the visual realism competes with reality? Real flying will always be more fun and more scary. I don't see how any sim can simulate the heart stopping moment when you look out and see ice forming on the struts and leading edge as you took 'that little short cut' through the itty bitty cloud with a full load of skydivers in the back. 

Is there even an add on that simulates ice?

[indy007]

Just gotta figure out when everyone's on and the heaviest traffic times are, seems it gets pretty slow a lot of the time, but I believe KATL is one of the busiest airports in VATSIM.

www.vatsim.net   The link is to the left. There's a little block labeled Network with 4 options under it. Who's Online will show you, but Resources imho is a better link since you get all the links to chart tools & whatnot. I find it easier to read too. In game, depends a lot on your FL too. I cruise @ FL950 and of course never see anybody until I finish the descent leg.

[Fishu]

EXACTLY, dispite what the vista haters say, FSX runs far better in vista than XP thanks to DX10.. 

I couldn't use DX10 setting because it was way too slow.

[Chalenge]

DX10 makes almost no difference in performance unless you have water effects turned up too high. Otherwise there is almost no difference in frame rates but it does make it hard to use visual effects with AI and other addons that do not support DX10 due to invisible airliners and light effects that move off of respective objects (FSX bugs).

 Here is a couple of screenshots from the Canyon freeware I mentioned:





And one of nice cloud cover: