Maury,After reading your review i am still left with a few questions that hopefully you might be able to answer or include with any future mentions of FS9.0. You mention that ATC is much improved. That being said, can you inform us if ATC now provides seperation of a/c and will let a/c land on different runways other than the longest ones?Can we expect to see AI traffic do pattern work?Lastly, do AI still fly direct or do they now fly routes?Any other insight on improvements or additions would be greatly appreciated.KilstormAnyone else have a question that they would like to ask Maury please add to this thread.screenshot request would be a night shot, a cockpit shot, and an airport shot which might show these taxi signs we hear of.Unclear info was the mention of highly detailed airports of 12 but there are 2300? Does this mean they added 12 airports totalling 2300 all of which are highly detailed or theres now a total of 2300 airports and they added another 12 highly detail airports to the already detailed ones from fs2002?!

I would like to know can I keep my existing 1.5gig machine or do I need to upgrade??? Also have they adding gates to many of the international airports? Taxi signs are cool but I hope they've updated the buildings as well. Do you have any pics of the new lear??

>I would like to know can I keep my existing 1.5gig machine >or do I need to upgrade??? I dont think so (even with code optimizations), but you might wait and try, if not satisfied then upgrade...> Do you have any pics of the new lear?? go to the AVSIM main page, look for the anouncement about FS9 , click on the link to the MS insider page, on that page extreme left bottom is the link to screenies, there is a nice Lear looks upgraded..instrucitons>

Guys, be patient!Maury will be adding a fuller description of his trip later today!--M

This thread is just to offer a means of what some of the avsim forum readers might like to see included in the next review. Although I can think of many questions I am only asking that we provide some input so he can get an idea of what the majority of subscribers are looking forward to in his next review. An example might be with the new weather can we expect wake turbulance? That way he can supply a review and maybe provide deeper insight in certain areas all at once.Kilstorm

>different runways other than the longest ones? it seems the answer to this question is right on the MSFS web site which says IFR clearances to "different" runways in FS9. I think it is pretty obvious what it means.Michael J.

not quoting it word for word but its says approaches to different runway not all runways can now be active. It seems logical but at the same time you might be able to get cleared for appraoches to any runway but that does say AI will be landing on multiple runways nor ATC will now be assign parallels to have one for departing and one for arriving.Also an after thought to add would be if we can expect to see that ai now keeps a beacon on during day time flying?Kilstorm

First off, thanks to Maury for that preview, it gives us more details than the MS 'Press release'.I was pleased to read that the FS team have taken on board code optimisation, with luck that will mean more 'goodies' without having to invest in the next generation of hardware :-)I am pleased to see they have improved the weather engine but will reserve judgement until the real product is in use.One questiom Maury may be able to answer - were the FS team able to create the effects of weather on the ground?By that I mean will FS CoF have snow that actually falls on the ground and stays, rain that actually wets the ground, causes spray on runways, and even, perhaps, affects breaking distances?I see Maury mentions there are a dozen volumetric cloud types, will be interesting to see how these fill out the weather experience, or maybe they will give Chris Willis more raw material to add to Fs Sky World :-)Also nice to see that roads and rivers now follow the terrain.Is FS CoF at the stage of using correct elevations for airports so that 3rd party mesh does not put airports on sheer faced platos or in 300ft deep holes :-)?I am pleased to see they have changed the method of getting help for the sim, I thought FS2002 was a step backwards from FS98 & 2000.The new GPS looks interesting for those who fly GA's.Finally, do we know if the FS nav database will be able to be updated, similar to FSNav?Thanks Maury for the preview, look forward to any more instalments you may have planned.

After reading your review i am still left with a few questions that hopefully you might be able to answer or include with any future mentions of FS9.0. You mention that ATC is much improved. That being said, can you inform us if ATC now provides seperation of a/c and will let a/c land on different runways other than the longest ones?Yes, my understanding is that a/c separation is provided. And a/c can land on different runways--you request the desired runway from Approach Control.Can we expect to see AI traffic do pattern work?Sorry, I didn't think to ask about that.Lastly, do AI still fly direct or do they now fly routes?Again, I don't know, but I'll ask the team and post their responses in a follow-up article.Any other insight on improvements or additions would be greatly appreciated.Unclear info was the mention of highly detailed airports of 12 but there are 2300? Does this mean they added 12 airports totalling 2300 all of which are highly detailed or theres now a total of 2300 airports and they added another 12 highly detail airports to the already detailed ones from fs2002?!Actually, it's 24,000 airports in all (the error was in my notes). The 12 new airports listed in my full preview have detailed ground objects similar to those in FS2002's KLAX, etc.; they added another 12 highly detail airports to the already detailed ones from fs2002.

Vulcan, thanks for your kind words. The 'press event' I attended was pretty intense, but your question "were the FS team able to create the effects of weather on the ground? By that I mean will FS CoF have snow that actually falls on the ground and stays, rain that actually wets the ground, causes spray on runways, and even, perhaps, affects breaking distances?" didn't come up. I'll check with the FS team and get back to folks on that in this forum with whatever clarification I can get.

>By that I mean will FS CoF have snow that actually falls on >the ground and stays, rain that actually wets the ground, >causes spray on runways, Lets be real. The features should be balanced to the current level of simulation detail. Before seeing rain water on the ground I would rather like to see the .. ground first. I mean nice detail ground rather than some blurred see of mud that we currently get. I am glad the Microsoft seems to recognize the need to attack basics first - clouds and sky.Michael J.

My humble question is whether we get the return of moving cars on the roads at night time, like in FS2000.

Many thanks to Maury for the preview. What we've heard so far sounds very good indeed. The dynamic weather sounds great and I was very pleased to hear the ATC now takes account of weather and terrain - in FS2002 the ATC has happily directed me straight into the mountains more than once! I have one or two questions....1. Dynamic weather: is the local weather influenced by the terrain, for example mountain ranges? And are there realistic wind updraughts created by local terrain so that realistic gliding would be possible, as in Flight Unlimited?2. AI aircraft: do they move more realistically when taxiing and particularly when turning corners? In FS2002 they often spin unrealistically around the vertical axis and also tend to oscillate, rather like a very unstable servo mechanism!3. Textures: FS2002 has had many complaints about blurred textures, both static and dynamic. Are there any indications that the team have addressed these issues? Many people have said, me included, that a good solution would be a setting that allows the user to reach a good compromise between frame rates/smoothness and the speed of texture updates. Many thanks. Best regards, Chris

No questions from me for Maury but I wanted to say 'thanks' for the review which I found interesting - it added a lot of value for me over the Microsoft announcement.Cheers, John.4m NW of EGHI (Southampton UK)FS2002 Standard on Intel PIII 733 MHz, 256MB with 32M GeForce2MX graphics and Windows ME.

Thank you Maury for responding and stating you will try and provide a follow-up response. If we find out that AI does not fly direct that might mean we have more flexability in designing AI routes. Same goes for being able to fly an actual pattern for AI touch and go's. In the event that you are able to provide a follow-up article it would be nice to find out if FS now lets AI use a daytime beacon for easier traffic sightings and if they now offer volume knobs for the comm radios since the voices are all the same kind of tone in a way.Kilstorm