Thank you AVSIM for this forum to post our thoughts, FYI's, questions and frustrations! My thoughts may not be in the right forum catagory, however since I am a user of MSFS 2002, I thought this may be the right forum to express my concern as of this moment.....Forgive me for the length of this....As I sit at my computer, surfing the net for the latest and greatest "Tidbits" of information and downloads for MSFS 2002, I am am finding more and more sites than ever before, of Shareware/Payware products. Not that there is anything wrong with that, as I have purchased many!!! I even subscribe to a couple of Shareware sites, that for a yearly fee, I am entitled to the product(s) of that author. My concern is not of that. My concern is, I guess, is that we are winding down the use of MSFS 2002 and getting ready for the update...FS 2004. I am assuming, based on previous versions of every two years, that we should see it around November of this year. What is going to happen to all the Shareware/Payware that we purchased? Are the authors of Shareware/Payware on the "Bandwagon" to squeeze the last few drops of MSFS 2002, before starting all over again? Will these products that we are using now, work with FS 2004? Or, are we (consumers) going to have to start all over again? Is this what simming is all about? Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the hobby of Simming very much! I will probably continue to spend the money to satisfy my simming hunger!!At this time, I would like to state what I really wanted to say and that is; THANK YOU TO THOSE PERSONS WHO HAVE UNSELFISHLY GIVEN TO THIS HOBBY OF SIMMING, BY PROVIDING FREEWARE!!!! IT IS BECAUSE OF YOU, THAT THIS HOBBY IS WORTH PURSUING!!! WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS THE MANY HOURS OF ENJOYMENT THAT YOU HAVE GIVEN ME AND TO THIS HOBBY.Now, with that said, I would also like to thank those who sell their efforts, as it also provides enjoyment!Well, that's my thoughts for now....Thank you for reading this.Paul

Money rules the world......I've been simming on a high level since FS3 and have seen more and more of this....The devotion to a hobby isn't longer enough.Sad but true...So we'll just have to live with the fact that Micro$oft is depending on 3rd party sofware to be the sim we want.If Micro$oft had provided the sim with high quality aircraft and other programs,we didn't have to buy all the addons to make the sim good enough.....They sure have the money and knowledge to do so.Johnny"I'LL BE BACK"[div align=center]http://www.avsim.com/hangar/fly/josve/zone.jpg ][/div

Will we have to start all over again?Probably not, though you may have to wait a while for everything to be updated.Will everything be updated free of charge (or at all even)?Probably not, depending on when it was released and how complex the modifications are.Remember that for these people it is a commercial venture. Whether they upgrade or not and what they charge for that upgrade depends on economics and marketting.What does it cost to create the upgrade, and how much revenue due to potential new products created in the same period will you loose because of it?What would the implications for the image of your venture be if you don't upgrade (in other words, would you loose many future sales if you don't)?What will the upgrade BRING in potential sales from new customers for the old (now upgraded) product? Maybe that will be enough to recoup the cost of the work in itself.etc. etc.

MS has a stated policy of backward compatibility for two versions. That is, if the author has followed the SDK for the previous two versions, then it will be compatible with the following version. If they did something "different" than detailed in the SDK, then there are no guarantees. MS has made it perfectly clear that the onus is on the add-on developers to follow the SDK. Deviation from that will ultimately lead to incompatibility. So, in short, if the add-on followed the SDK for 2002, then it will be compatible for 2004.

>So we'll just have to live with the fact that Micro$oft is >depending on 3rd party sofware to be the sim we want.If >Micro$oft had provided the sim with high quality aircraft >and other programs,we didn't have to buy all the addons to >make the sim good enough.....They sure have the money and >knowledge to do so. Not true...............Microsoft (not spelled with a dollar sign....btw) provided a simulation that is quite good as a "stand a lone". It's the 3rd party additions that satisify everyone's particular "whim's", which are many!L.adamson

Besides the fact that in the pro version they provided GMAX free of charge...if you want something, make it! It's unfortunate that now it takes an enormous amount of time to produce an addon that people would consider adaquate. I remember reading in another thread how someone was talking about a payware plane, saying how they wouldn't even download it even if it was a freeware plane...people ask more and more of addons, even freeware, and it takes more and more time to produce it. Melvin Rafi took what, 10 months making his 777? I'm amazed it's still free. It's hard to keep up your motivation to produce free stuff when you KNOW it's going to be taken apart and critiqued with a microscope once you release it. When is the line drawn between when a project goes from "it should be freeware" to "it should be payware?" Lately I can't see it. It's happening already, less and less new aircraft being released because lots of people simply won't/can't dedicate all the time necessary to produce even freeware.-AV

Who says FS2002 usage is winding down? I'm perfectly happy with the current product, and with a ton of add-ons (both free and bought), I have no intention of trashing it because a newer version comes out. Maybe in a couple years or so, but my goodness FS2002 is one awesome product -- once you've tailored it to your machine's capabilities and your personal tastes.Oh yeah, another "small" reason not to arbitrarily hop the new train. I'm running a Pentium III 500Mhz with 640MB memory and a Geoforce II Ultra with 64mb memory. Don't see enough problems with the current setup to warrant forking over $$(for software AND hardware) just to get a wee bit better.Remember the old software and hardware addage. You're better off staying one version back for a least 6 months following it's release. Let the other folks flush out all the issues.Racartronit means something, but I just can't remember what.

And if you DO dedicate that time you're likely to be flames for every smallest (real or perceived) defect. Defects that previously not only would not be noticed but are in things that weren't even there (like the length of the lightning conductors on the rudder is 1cm too short, come on guys).

""Melvin Rafi took what, 10 months making his 777? I'm amazed it's still free""Good for Melvin. Unlike others, Melvin is still supporting the hobby!! Thank you Melvin. Got both your 747 & 777 and the many great liveries from the freeware specialists and they're awesome!!

I think that there is a change in the way that FS addons are produced and distributed -- whether this is for the best is yet to become apparent. As someone who charges for a FS product -- which some think should be freely available -- I have my own reasons for this change.First, there's the sheer size of the scenery I produce. I think that the web is ideal for distributing smaller files, but when you start to get up to 100+ MB then there has to be another way. When I have finished the four issues of Godzone I will have produced more than 1.4GB of scenery -- now many of you could download this before breakfast, but I think that nearly everyone will agree that the average web user is just not ready for this!Then there's the work involved -- I could spend a little time each week working on smaller projects, but my aim is to really make a difference to those who fly here in New Zealand -- a little scenery here and there, a couple of new ones a year, just wouldn't cut it. I need to put in more time, so I need to justify this somehow -- justifying it financially works for me.There are other reasons, but those are the two most important.

Maybe a bit off-topic, but I heard this from a knowledgeable friend. He said his info came from the court papers the Justice Department forced Microsoft to release:Microsoft makes money on Windows and Office. They lose money on everything else.So, why do they do this? And why do we complain about it? Well, they do it to maintain demand. How many of us would be sitting in front of an old 133, happy with Word 6.0 and Windows 95, if it weren't for FS2002? I would. I bought a new machine so I could play FS2002. Yeah, my wife thinks it was so I could work on compiling family photos, but how much of that have I done in the 11 months since I unpacked the new machine? None! But I've got HUNDREDS of AI aircraft. And of course I'm diverging from my flight plan...As for FS2004? Well, it will have to be awfully good to get me to plunk down the money for the product, let alone upgrade my computer to run it. I skipped FS2000 because that 133 wouldn't hack it, and I'll probably wait for 2006 as well. They've got a track record of good-sim, bad-sim, good-sim, so that might be adviseable from history, but don't count on it. Unfortunately, I think the next version will be a cosmetic upgrade, but will still require more horsepower than any of us have today to get the frame rates we want.We'll see about backward compatability. How many "land speeders" do you have floating above your taxiways because they were written for FS2000? Yeah, they work, but who want's em?I'm having a BALL with FS2002. I've got lots of add-ons, mostly freeware but not all. I'm not ready to shelve it yet. Maybe Microsoft knows that we haven't outgrown this one yet...