A Screenshot Tribute to FS2000 Special Feature by Steve "Bear" Cartwright It's only been just a little over 2 years since FS2000 was released, which following Microsoft's usual pattern, was a serious upgrade of FS98—as MS has been pretty consistent at the evolution of their program Flight Simulator, rather than revolutionizing it! For the first time though, they (MS) now offered a Standard Edition and a Professional Edition, with the Professional Edition having a longer list of default aircraft. Even with their general evolutionary thought, many things were improved including: mesh scenery, ground texturing, better appearing aircraft, more aircraft choices (a Boeing 777, Mooney Bravo, and the Concorde were added), flight modeling was improved, the default panels were better, and they were now including 21,000+ airports as compared to FS98's total of 9,500 or so. Early on, FS2000 suffered from a number of performance problems, partly from the lack of available hardware powerful enough to run it and from some bug-a-boos, mostly relating to stutters and hesitations. Once Microsoft released their patches (2 1/2) and the faster hardware (800mhz processors and above) and less expensive RAM arrived on the scene, the majority of those annoying performance issues seemed to fall onto the back burner for the most of us and then we could concentrate on improving our own home version of FS2000, with new 3rd party scenery add-ons and an almost unbelievable improvement in the 3rd party FS Aircraft. Personally, I've been quite pleased with FS2000 and particularly with all the add-ons that became available (freeware as well as payware) and I have had hundreds of hours of enjoyment from FS2000 and I'm sure, someday, I will enjoy FS2002 just as much. So, with the release of FS2002 last month, I thought it would be interesting to look back at all the wonderful 3rd party add-ons that became available over the course or the life of FS2000. With this in mind, I decided to put together a collection of screenshots, showing a few of the wonderful add-on aircraft that so many have contributed to this really fascinating hobby and to show the wide variety of choices that are available. To complete this project, I don't want to even guess at the amount of hours I've got into this venture, but to give you some basic statistics please note the following: Nearly 600 individual screenshots were used from a total taken easily exceeding 3,500 to 4,000, maybe even more.   There are just over 475 individual aircraft shown here in my screenshots, which only represents 25% of the total number of aircraft on my hard drive (this demonstrates the number of aircraft that are available out there for FS98/FS2000).   None of my screenshots displayed here were enhanced or manipulated in any way, other than with size reduction, cropping; and sometimes I used Photodraw2000 to lighten the shot, as often times when you reduce a screenshot from it's original 1280 x 1024 to a screenshot size of less than 500 x 375 it becomes too dark to view.   The computers used to take these screenshots (there were 2) are described as follows: System 1 – Custom System, 1.2Ghz AMD Athlon, 512MB ram, 44GB hard drive, GeForce2 GTS video board, Altec/Lansing 5-way speaker sound system, 19" KDS monitor; and System 2 – Compaq 7110US, 1.3Ghz AMD Athlon, 286MB ram, 62GB hard drive, GeForce2 GTS video board, Compaq sound system, Compaq 19" monitor. I have a Saitek Cyborg 3D Gold twist joystick (with built-in throttle levers) attached to both systems (one each). So, lets take a look back at FS2000 and the many add-ons that were/are available for it! Click on your choice of any or all the four sections covered, or simply read straight through: Scenery Aircraft Panels Unusual FS2002 add-ons   The Sceneries! Two scenery types are featured: Mesh scenery; and Airport scenery Mesh Scenery and the new Textures: To start with, I first want to show the changes that occurred with FS2000, once the mesh scenery became available (initially it was Chris Fischer and Edde Denney doing all the mesh scenery add-on) and then shortly after that the replacement ground textures from Lennart Arrvidson showed up as freeware. The combination of adding the high resolution mesh and new textures was quite dramatic, particularly in areas like Canada, Central Asia, Alaska, or in the European Alps. Here are some direct comparison screenshots between the default FS2000 scenery and the add-on mesh/textures. Airport Scenery: The name list for the add-on airports is very long as is the list of names of those individuals and publishers that have released so many excellent packages. There are airport add-on sceneries for every continent on the planet, yes even for Antarctica—probably the best program for locating all of the available scenery add-ons is the "FS World" (fsw2000a.zip) download from the AVSIM library. There are so many extraordinary airport add-ons that my showing (in a comparison format of default/add-on) only 8 airports does almost an injustice to all that have worked so hard with their designs, but here are at least 8 comparisons for you to judge!   The Aircraft! Now for the aircraft and it's here were I concentrated my efforts for this Tribute to FS2000, because Flight Simulator is about flying—so here are the aircraft and as you can see they are broken down into groups: Bush & Float Aircraft (Click to jump directly to desired topic) Jetliners Propliners Light Aircraft Combat Jets Vintage Combat Aircraft Classic & Vintage Aircraft Government Aircraft Experimental & Top Secret Aircraft Business Class Jets & Props Working Class Aircraft Gliders & Aerobatic Helicopters Bush & Float Aircraft: It's no secret that my most preferred form of aviation is of course "bush" country flying. With the improvement in the mesh and textures, plus with all the additions of the bush airport sceneries that so many have made available as freeware, it was no surprise that the aircraft would soon follow and that they sure did! Just about everything that flies in Canada or Alaska was developed for FS2000. From Cessnas to Piper Supercubs to Maules and even Zeniths. There's Beavers, Otters, Porters, and even a Helio or two; you name it and you can probably find it somewhere! Jetliners: If you were to compare all of the categories of aircraft (similar as to what I have listed here) the one group that has had the most improvement and most certainly has the greatest range of choices are the Jetliners. With the design groups like: Project Opensky, Freeware Flightsim Group, International Aircraft Design Group (now closed), Allied Flightsim Group, Eurosim, Russian Flightsim Group, Project Freeware Group (closed), Dreamfleet, Phoenix Simulator Software, Meljet, CamSim, Russian Flightsim Group, Historical Jetliner Group—and I'm sure there are others I've failed to mention—you have quite literally the choice of about every jetliner that's ever been built. There have also been a whole host of individuals that have contributed to the list of Jetliners; all you have to do is to check the website libraries or go to the commercial websites and I'm sure there's the jetliner of your choice and most likely available in the livery of your choice as well! Propliners: Even though I have a very long list of jetliners on my hard drive, I do tend to lean toward the propliner, vintage or otherwise. There's just something about listening to the deep throb of a airliner with 4 radial engines beating the air with their massive propellers that gets to me! Once in awhile though I will jump into a newer twin-turboprop just for a change in pace: Light Aircraft: In reading through the forums over the last couple of years, I've noted a large number of individuals comment about their preference for light General Aviation aircraft. Now, even though FS2000 came with the Mooney Bravo, the Cessna 182 Skylane (both fixed and retractable gear), and their beautiful Beechcraft King Air 350, this was never quite satisfying to most—but by searching through the libraries, there were just about every light aircraft you could think of available! In addition there have been a number of fairly high quality GA planes from the payware folks as well (FSD and Abacus to name just a couple). Here's a set of screenshots giving you a brief glimpse into the FS2000 world of General Aviation aircraft. Combat Jets: Because of Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator 2 and the compatibility of the aircraft between that sim and FS2000, a rather large number of both Combat Jets and Vintage combat aircraft have landed in the FS libraries. In addition to that there are a number of commercial combat aircraft from Alpha Simulations, VIP Simulations, and Abacus, plus a couple of others that have shown up as well. These screenshots show a mixture of freeware and payware combat jets and in most cases they are outstanding! Vintage Combat Aircraft: As with the combat jets, there have been a high number of vintage combat aircraft hit the scene because of the compatibility between CFS2 and FS2000. The majority of these aircraft are in fact "freeware", which is nice, but Alpha Simulations has been the one commercial publisher that has also offered a lot to the combat flight simmer in regards to vintage combat aircraft. Classic & Vintage Aircraft: Though many of these aircraft are available in the various flightsim libraries, it's Simviation.com that seems to have pretty much cornered the market here! There's a certain feeling one gets when flying some of these really outstanding aircraft; there are even a few of them that have working virtual cockpits as well. There's just something about reliving history—and there are many here that will allow you to follow in the footsteps of many infamous pilots of years ago! Government Aircraft: This is a favorite of many, at least as I've seen in the forums and there are many excellent choices available for you to try in the libraries! Mostly these are military cargo aircraft or some other special use, but in most cases there are excellent panels and sounds available to enhance your experience at flying these in FS2000! Experimental & Top Secret Aircraft: Between the aircraft and the sceneries, flying the experimental aircraft was a real joy and yeah, a bit of an adventure at times too! Though most of these aircraft were conversions from FS98, they still flew well and with the enhanced scenery of FS2000 the immersion level was quite high: Business Class Jets & Props: The quality of the business jet or turboprops for FS2000 was pretty weak, that was until Abacus released their "Corporate Pilot" series and then suddenly we started seeing some really outstanding freeware business class aircraft as well. The recent release of the Falcon50 by Yannick Lavigne, Fred Banting, and Rob Young is testimony to how far a small group of dedicated professionals at the hobby of FS aircraft design could go with FS2000! Working Class Aircraft: I wasn't quite sure where to put these FS aircraft, but as I got to thinking about them, the term "Working Class" came to mind. These are the aircraft that haul the freight, fight the fires, and protect our food supply. Generally these aircraft are a bit rough around the edges, have a bit of paint pealing off, and they usually lack some of the creature comforts we would expect from an airliner, but they never let you down and they're willing and able to put in a full day's work! Gliders & Aerobatic: FS2000 came with the default Extra300 aerobatic aircraft, of which the flight modeling was developed with Champion Aerobatic pilot Patty Wagstaff's assistance, plus there was the Schweizer 2-32 Sailplane. Both of these aircraft were/are outstanding and provided a basis for the 3rd party developers to also release some really outstanding aerobatic and sailplane aircraft of all shapes and sizes. There's probably only a small niche of individuals that really do enjoy these types of aircraft and frankly, I'm one of them! Helicopters: Rotary winged flight is not exactly one of the skills I've perfected, but for those that do enjoy this, FS2000 provided an excellent platform for this type of aircraft and the 3rd party fellows did not leave a single stone uncovered when it came to available types!   Panels: When considering all the components of a flightsim, the true keypoint or center of that flightsim are the aircraft panels you have available to use. The default panels in FS2000 were pretty basic, not bad in some cases, but basic in their functions and appearance. This is where the 3rd party add-on individuals or groups have really come into their own with FS2000, particularly when compared to FS98; and even though the majority of the jetliner panels are payware, they are all extraordinary in their true-to-life functions and appearance. At the same time the freeware designers have also stepped up to the batter's plate with some very outstanding work as well.   The unusual FS2000 add-ons: Well, this is the category of those other items that I just couldn't think of where to put them. Some of these items are fun, others are quite interesting, while others are... well, you be the judge! Summary: In a few months I'm sure I'll be deeply involved with FS2002, but for now I'm going to keep FS2000 up and going on it's own dedicated computer. It's been fun working with all the wonderful 3rd party sceneries, aircraft, and panels and I'm sure the day will come where my copy of FS2002 will completely replace my FS2000 flightsim—just as FS2000 replaced FS98—but it's going to take a far longer time before that happens with FS2000 replacing FS2002! I say this because the FS2000 flightsim, with all the 3rd party add-ons, is a tremendously enjoyable sim that can still provide hours and hours of enjoyment of which I'm sure it will for some time to come! ...Steve (Bear) Cartwright Tell A Friend About this Special Feature!   Standard Disclaimer The special feature above is a subjective assessment of the work of the authors represented. There is no connection between the product authors and the reviewer, and we feel this feature article is unbiased and truly reflects the performance of the products in the simming environment. This disclaimer is posted here in order provide you with background information on the reviewer and connections that may exist between him/her and the contributing party. © 2001 - AVSIM Online All Rights Reserved