Flight Sims X/2004/lockon etc..

[scruffy 22]

I fly IL-2 and Lock On mostly in MP with friends and FSX in SP.

For anyone flying FSX (and I think it works with FS2004) I can only recommend Tileproxy!

With this small program you can use aerial pictures as groundtextures, for example from MS Virtual Earth, Google Earth or the Yahoo service.

Example of Celle, Germany. The screenshot was taken by Mondkalb, I believe it uses the MS VE photos with 60cm resolution (possible are 30cm).

Be warned though that the data easily gets huge. It best works with at least two seperate hdds, one for FSX and one for Tileproxy, as the textures alone are enough work for one hdd. The download needs time and a fast broadband, too. It works with slower ones (I have only got a 1mbit connection myself), but obviously not as good. Once you have the textures you don't need to download them again. There is also a small program that allows you to see which parts of the world you have downloaded, delete parts you don't want to keep or limit some areas to a lower resolution.

[USSRsniper 0]

- Modding scene is active, dont fall for the sites where you have to pay for content, the same is available for free.

E.g. http://www.simviation.com/simviation/index.php

Oh yeah

This is the one of my favourite sites where I can get addons.

I can direct You to also this sites:

Simnetwork

FS freeware

My opinion for other posts.

Its the same like me, before I have bought FS2002 and FSX I was thinking about Airliner sim's like a most boring thing in the world, no dogfight, no carrier landing etc. but I was wrong. I love traveling and since my biggest dream is to move to Japan it is a great fun to take a flight from Warsaw or Moscow to Tokyo or Osaka.

Well i still find it boring, even after i played? maybe doing something wrong? Did a flight from New York to Moscow last time i played FSX, didn't find it fun, except approach in Moscow, with almost 0 visability and at night... Also i find fighter jet physics in FSX and FS 2004 unrealistic, planes easily do 20G turns, and manuverable just like planes in WW1... But there is one thing i like in FSX, is to flying F-18 near AI traffic jets.

[ingram 258]

^^ whoaw, now i want that game!

Does it require any MS Service Packs ?

If you want to get only basic FSX you gonna have to download the Service Pack 1 for it. You can also download the new service pack 2 but I suggest to buy FSX: Acceleration expansion pack because it will already install SP2.

One thing. If you want to use addons with SP2 you will have to switch the bloom effect off.

It's because some addons are made by tools for FS2004 and Acceleration is using new renders so with bloom effect on addon planes will be totally white.

But there won't be any large differences in graphics, even more the game performance will be better.

P.S. I really love the afterburner effect at evening and night

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

That vid was friggin' awesome!

I must get FSX!

Any other recommended addons apart from FS Global?

I mentioned "FS Global 2008" before, that ones realy makes sense.

I would keep my hands off other expansion packs. I have three of them (mainly military) and most of them cause incredible FPS drops.

I believe FSX is something for people that love to travel and enjoy the air-passenger feeling. I fly around all the places I have been in the past.

Of course there is always a certain dissapointment if you found the GPS coordinates of your home, fly low and then only see a bush where there should be a nice middleclass mansion.

But sooner or later tile proxy (import google maps etc) will work. Anyhow, the autogenerated houses,cars,animals,ships etc work pretty good to stimulate the imagination. So I am fine with that.

To repeat myself, you only get the scale and perfection of FSX untill you invest time to learn about flying.  

For me the game started to be fun when I realy got into it. You dont get the level of accuracy and detail untill you learn about it. I bought a book to teach myself the basics of flying.

Suggestions & Screenshots: FSX Sightseeing

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Ah wait, I will make some before/after images myself! give me an hour!

[ingram 258]

good idea I am thinking about getting FS global

[Mr_Tea 0]

... Also i find fighter jet physics in FSX and FS 2004 unrealistic, planes easily do 20G turns, and manuverable just like planes in WW1... But there is one thing i like in FSX, is to flying F-18 near AI traffic jets.

You can do 20G turns without a problem, as long you have set the reality options to allow it.

I overstretched the capability's of a few planes, only for testing off course, and non of them could withstand that much G`s, they broke apart relatively easily when i tried to reach that point.

Maybe some addon planes are not configured correctly, but that`s not the fault of the program they are running on.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Top without using Nhance, bottom with!

pictures of FS Global 2008 (no other settings were altered). These were random pictures I took while flying over mountains. I had no clue what the images with FSGlobal would look like in comparison. I will try to make better ones tomorrow wile directly flying through cliffs.

real

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Quito, Equador

Neuchatel -> crossing lac de Geneve towards France

it just feels more real with FSGloba

one of my favourite choppers

[ingram 258]

Looks like I know for what I will spend my payday money

[USSRsniper 0]

I think best investment for Flight Simulator would be TrackIr, landing become much easier since you can keep focused when flying. Also are there any payware addons for FSX with TU-154? loved it in FS-2004, since it was very challenging to fly.

[Journeyman 0]

Hmmm I've been flying the FS series on and off for years now. I've had FSX for a while but only just upgraded to Vista and a decent machine and must say it looks a lot better esp. with the new acceleration pack. I havent played arround with it as much as FS9 yet but will try a bit more soon.

What exactly is this 'Nhance' feature? I find that normally selecting AA ingame makes quite a bit of performance drop so tend to disable it.

FS Global 2008 looks good I might go for that! Default grids on the FS series have never been that accurate!

[monty67t 0]

I just purchased FSX last week. I don't have any idea what or where all the good stuff is. Can someone please post what I should get as far as scenery, addon aircraft, etc. I'm starting from scratch here so explain it like I'm three years old please, lol.

[ingram 258]

Well the first thing everybody who has got FSX should get is:

1. FS Global 2008

2. Some non-freeware planes made by CLS, PMDG etc.

3. Also many great freeware addons can be found at sites I mentioned in my last posts.

[monty67t 0]

Thanks for the info, though I don't see any information about freeware stuff in your last post.

EDIT:

I found your freeware links. Thank you.

[ingram 258]

Here are the sites I direct you to:

AvSim

Simviation

FS-freeware

SimNetwork

If I find some new I'll post them

[super64 0]

This is a great thread, glad to see it going! FSX is an awesome "game". I have learned SO much about the actual details of piloting since getting it. The greatness of FSX is you can either just start the game, hop in a plane and fly. Or you can crank up the realism and control ever detail of your flight.

A book I can HIGHLY recommend is Microsoft Flight Simulator X For Pilots Real World Training. It walks you through flight training from the Cub to jetliners. You'll learn about flight techniques, air traffic control, navigation and tons more.

No you don't shoot anyone in FSX, but you'll be so engrossed in actually flying you wont miss it. And yes, TrackIR is awesome in FSX.

[ingram 258]

The best is that before playing in FSX my knowledge about civil airplanes, airliners etc. was very small but after that I beggined to read about many things related with it and I find it very interesting

Right now I can say that the airliners I like the most are the Boening 737-500 & 800 and Airbus A340-300 which is my favourite airliner. For me A380 looks good but not as beautiful as A340. Very interesting is also A300-600 Beluga for heavy transport which can be found also for FSX as a freeware addon or the one in A300, A310 pack made by CLS but not a freeware any more.

Beautiful autumn in Switzerland:

(God I can't wait when I'll will make the same flight but with FS Flobal 2008 installed)

[-Snafu- 78]

Do you fly with those graphic settings or is that just for screenshots?

[ingram 258]

Yep This are my graphics settings. I'm switching bloom effect off when I want to fly some addon plane but default planes with new skins with bloom effect on are just fantastic.

I am usually flying very high so this settings aren't making any problems.

I have totally turned off the ground traffic because I don't need cars on the roads when I'm at 10000 meters.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Do you fly with those graphic settings or is that just for screenshots?

I got a 8800GTS SSC and a Q9450. I can fly with some of the highest settings plus additional tweaking with Nhance.

The trick is to force the frame rate to be low at around 30FPS (you can do that in the settings) and therefore prevent heavy lags to occur. Also, since the second patch the game has become much more smooth and efficient. Only very complex planes and big cities (mexico city) make it dump to 11 frames forcing me to change the settings.

[ingram 258]

Mexico city...

I know this feeling

I've maid several pics from the trip around Oahu

(this one is edited since I wanted to make a nice atmosphere)

And for the end of the day a small gift for all virtual pilots

Greetings from Hawaii

[Staos 0]

This is BI forums, can't believe there hasn't been a Helo Jockey yet... I personally still fly FS9, simply because the helo models are a lot less arcadey than FSX's ones. Even then they're still quite unrealistic, but things like dodosim help to fix that.

[ingram 258]

Do you fly with those graphic settings or is that just for screenshots?

I got a 8800GTS SSC and a Q9450. I can fly with some of the highest settings plus additional tweaking with Nhance.

The trick is to force the frame rate to be low at around 30FPS (you can do that in the settings) and therefore prevent heavy lags to occur. Also, since the second patch the game has become much more smooth and efficient. Only very complex planes and big cities (mexico city) make it dump to 11 frames forcing me to change the settings.

I have a question.

Could you direct me to some enhance's?

I have got TreeX and looking for some other nice tweaks.

[Journeyman 0]

The best fun I had in FS9 was in attempting severe crosswind landings in various sized birds especially the big airliners. Inspired by This video clip from alexisparkinn.com of some Boeing severe Xwind test landings I thought I'd give it a go in FS9. Problem was that the due to the way that FS9 handled the rolling down the runway was not as it should be and tended to make planes continue to side slip too much even though we now had rubber on tarmac! There was a tweak that I eventually found from a modder that seemed to improve things quite a bit but it was still not perfect!

I've not had a chance to try it in FSX yet to see whether this aspect of the sim has been improved, but from what I've heard FSX has if anything has 'veered' more toward arcade in some areas anyway so I won't hold my breath when I give it a go! If anyone else has tried it I would care to hear.