I feel this hobby has come to a standstill

[edetroit 933]

Well actually if you are a virtual pilot who likes flying heavies I would recommend getting a top end computer and putting FS9 on it!....all sliders to max .... you will be flightsimming as it was meant to be! ....heavenly! :-bigangel

regardsEdaka Capt. P[/font color]i[/font color]c[/font color]a[/font color]s[/font color]s[/font color]o[/font color]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640/edetroit100/eddd2.jpgMy FS9 Videos] AMD Athlon 64 3500+, 1024Mb PC3200 DDR, 300Gb HD 256Mb DDR Nvidia 7800 GTX PCI-E, Audigy 2 ZSCH Products Yoke, Pedals and Throttle Quadrant[/font color

[bkeske 0]

>I agree, Manny - a super part of the hobby is "shopping" (and>buying); the downside of that, of course, is that you don't do>justice to what you already have in the stable.Yep, and easy 'trap' to get into.For the last year I have created an Excel spread sheet Flight Log, which I import(ed) my FS Log into.I then 'separated' all my various aircraft, and started logging how much I fly each of them. I realized how many aircraft I have that I don't fly regularly, and should more often. I also realized which ones are my favorites to fly. Setting up the details, I then used the data to create a bar graph so it is easy to visualize how much each have been flown (by hours flown). I actually use that to try and 'spread my flying around' in various aircraft so I start using what I have in 'my hanger'. It also keeps me from flying the same aircraft flight after flight. Ridiculous huh? :DActually I have thought about purchasing a couple more aircraft, but then look at my chart, and realize I have more great aircraft than I have time to fly now.....so I take a look at a couple that need some exercise, and create flights for them ;) In fact, I just took a peek, and realized my Carenado Mentor hasn't been in the skies for a while, so it's time to put my sectional chart in my lap, and find some NBD's to fly an ADF route.I have enough to keep me interested for many many months.

[Guest DreamFleet]

Having only flown the real things for 32 years, you are SO correct, Ed!You don't need to fly heavies either. ;)On the other side...You'd be amazed what it is like taking a Piper Dakota down the Hudson River past Manhattan at 1000'(with 3 other real people on board), while talking on the river frequency (123.05), and watching / talking to the choppers going back and forth, and other aircraft, and banner tow planes less than 1/2 mile away (you also get a blimp near you now and then), while getting a TIS warning on your Garmin 430 with GTX330 every 10 seconds. Every time that voice says "traffic", you get another grey hair!"Dakota is Lincoln Tunnel, south-bound Jersey-side for the Verrazano, 1000."I'll take that any day over FL380 with a computer telling me what to do.Okay, that's not quite FS (would be nice if it was), but I've always felt that what most folks miss in FS is a good dose of imagination, and I feel that is most essential, and even at its best, FS is not even 50% real world, even with the best add-ons, and that includes mine!Do what I just described in FS, even in the default Cessna 172; just use your imagination, and don't worry worry about the simulated roll rate, or at what rate the brakes cool. Just fly and enjoy!Your imagination is a wonderful tool that we all have, and when you use it, it makes FS almost real.MS knows that. Anyone knows that the previous version will run like a Greyhound on a top end machine. Take avantage of that, plug in some imagination, and enjoy!http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/166384.jpgNow, that's flying! Regards,http://www.dreamfleet2000.com/gfx/images/F...R_FORUM_LOU.jpg

[JSACKS 0]

Well, Manny, dunno 'bout you, but FS9 has enough stuff to last half a dozen lifetimes. I personally have come to a standstill of sorts despite my ever mushrooming hardware setup for FS these days. I just bought the GoFlight pedestal and put all my GF units into it. Then I decided I really would like the GoFlight TQ6 throttle quad.I think that in all honesty it takes so much work to master a single good piece of commercial add-on a/c that there is a natural limit as to how much anybody can truly master. I've spent scores or hundreds of hours since 2000 on the PSS 747-400, PSS 777-200, PMDG 747-400, PMDG 737NG series, and the Level-D 767, and a lot less time on the CoolSky Md-80 and I tell you it's just too much ! No sane person can take all that on in 5 years and master it all at home perfectly although I have tried earnestly and honestly.I used to drive mesself bonkers about every new a/c in the old days and I had to have every type and panel and sound file too. No longer. I have more than I know what to do with. I've had CONCORDE on my HD for 2 years almost and never flown her properly. I had the Piper Cheyenne 400 and forgot all about her for 2 years...! As I type I know I have more stuff I have forgotten about.I am primarily burned out with the PC engineering gig and the tweaking. 10 years of it and I am done-in. I love FS9 just as it is and I love several plane types and sceneries and with 39 pre-developed weather themes for global application, I gots all I needs to have on a humongous PC for MSFS. Five foot wide screens and even a loving (ex-MAS) wife who calls me Captain as she serves tea to me in the cockpit. What more could you ask for ?!Anyway, the sim and the rig, it's all I need and it's still too much ! Ain't no way I am putting even more stuff on to this rig. Spent 3 hours wiring and cabling this past weekend. It all works--it always does--but it's a boatload of work. I've had enough. No more. Never.So, no, the hobby is not at a standstill. There's still masses to get. It's a question of your PoV and where you are and where you see yourself going. Do you want to be a master of FS add-ons or just a simple hobbyist and enjoy some eye candy and a whirl to FL410 and then zip down to landing again? There's a very big diff. I see myself lasting another 3 years with my FS9 setup, doing things real methodically, with a lot of focus and discipline and some child-like excitement (which I DO get, yeah, y'know?!), maybe even longer. I'll collect FSX boxes and line my shelves but likely won't use it.I need a PC engineer, a sim specialist, a test pilot, an administraive dogsbody with a log, and a backup engineer to run everything for me and tweak it and smooth it. Like Cap'n Tarmack used to have !I love this hobby-career but I am always coming to grips with it. Never being quite "there" is the primary reason to continue. You can always do more and do better.JS

[Manny 1,293]

You are right JS. I kind of agree with almost eveyone here. Its just that I need the Ultimate Terrain for FSX and airport sceneries (with custom runway textures). is all.:(I do have a few things to keep me busy in the meantime.. 1. I still have a single 24" widescreen. I am waiting for the ultimate Matrox. 2 X 20" + 1 24" widescreen in the center.2. hook up a second PC with the FSX running wideview for the left view.3. I am in the process of building a cockpit (GA Twin) with Flight Illusion guages. They sent me a few guages (VSI, ASI, Altimeter)..but there some issues with the attitude indicator which they recently solved...but its on backorder. I also need a DG. and I have almost all the avionics h/w that I need TR1 Radio stack and Go flight modules.4. PC. I have that completed...for now.5. I do fly FS9 in all its glory...... But i can do a lot more of that and take all the good advice and fly more in FS9.6. Like Lou said..nothing beats reality. Occasionally I fly for real too. Wish i could do more. so there..Its not all that bad as I originally thought!:)Manny

[ejoiner 21]

Excuse me, but didnt Project Fokker just release a brilliant F-28? Didnt Eric Cantu just release a great Embraer 120 with tons of paint jobs by folks like Steve Drabek and Daniel Halpern? Didnt we just get a FANTASTIC P-51 freebie from Warwick Carter?Dude, cruise the library here, starting with the "Whats New" button.I didnt even include scenery or payware.Eric

[Manny 1,293]

The only excitement recently was the AirlinersXP.Apart from that.. Its pretty much a dead zone. Not many addons for FS9...and not many addons for FSX.Its like being in a holding pattern.IS it just me? I got so addicted to new addons every other week to checkout and purchase. Hopefull the FSX fix would revive the excitement and hopefully they have fixed the Airport texture thing so Fly tampa airport sceneries can run in FSX and or, FS9/FSX sceneries could be developed together.For some reason, I am more excited about sceneries than aircrafts... even though a good PMDG ailiner type aircrafts is exciting.MannyPS Oh yeah.. I forgot about Megascenery. Yeah they are exciting. Maybe I am just greedy!:(

[Guest JeffPreston]

And what's more......butts are being kicked, people are wearing funny caps with antennae, ATC is listening and talking back, 1st officers are listening too... I hope I can say that something new and different is going on in many areas of this hobby, such as the evaluation of airmanship by our own new add-on. So now you can get *shouted at*, as well...RegardsJeff

[betelgeuse 41]

>There's talk of people in our community building a>sim from scratch hopefully on Apple/MAC machines to get of off>this Microsoft rollercoaster. The proposition is to build a>real sim not a sim that really isn't a sim because gamers need>to be interested. Roll on the day that we get a non-gamer orientated flight simulation be it on an Apple/MAC, Windows, or Linux platform. If we can get such an amazingly good simulation as FS9 for $50 what on earth could we get for $100 or $200? Lots of folks would pay this I reckon. Betel

[Noel 4,492]

>IS it just me? I got so addicted to new addons every other>week to checkout and purchase. >Manny>>PS Oh yeah.. I forgot about Megascenery. Yeah they are>exciting. Maybe I am just greedy!No Manny, it's not just you. But you definitely are addicted to the excitement of new add ons and all that entails. Perhaps it would be worth it to try to shift your relationship with it to just enjoy it for what it offers--as is. What if you had no FS at all? Compared to that, using this thing to have a pretty good virtual experience is still a pretty cool thing. Yes, I would like to see the hobby evolve as the hardware improves to the point of true photoreal, but who knows, it may even complete stall if MS decides against further development of FS series.

[JSACKS 0]

At this stage, given the competition for my time and the demands by family and office, I basically use my rig to do the PMDG 747-400 first and foremost. I set up very difficult situations such as thunderstorms with wind shear and then try to fly in for a safe landing (I am generally successful, phew!). I can tell you on my Triplehead set-up, it looks pretty fabulous. Spot view gives me a five foot-long jumbo jet in beautiful detail and color! It would be worth simming just for this and nothing more. But I have yards more variety when I wish and still think this could keep me busy for the next 10 to 15 years, no problem!No FSX for me yet--and maybe never.JS

[Gdavis0101 0]

I think I beg to differ also, I have the new one from Dreamfleet; the new T6 Texan and SE5 both from Alphasim; oh and don't forget the new Glacier Bay scenery... All in about the course of two weeks...Oh yeah, don't forget Helgoland or whatever it was from Aerosoft...And I am still trying to find time to spend with the MD-11 that was released..Standstill no!

[Noel 4,492]

JS that sounds awesome! Maybe some day but dang it I'd like to see some serious boost in performance first. When do you think I will be able to get a system that can DOUBLE the CPU/VIDEO performance of my current rig? 1 1/2 years? Now? 6 mo? When I can double thruput, then will I upgrade (like Yoda, I sound!)Noel

[maxter 0]

Mmmmm, I have just commenced my 5th around the world flight departing YPPH in a Carenado C182 in FSX. In the short time that I have been aloft (tracing the path of some of my previous flights) I am amazed at how much more realistic my default/vanilla scenery appears.My machine is pretty low spec for these days (see below), but I refuse to turn on the frame rate counter. I just enjoy my experiences as they appear.I hope to build a new machine after SP1 is released and when the add-on's start to appear, I will buy them, but until then, there is much to marvel at in the FSX default world.Cheers,Chris Porter:-outtaPerthWestern AustraliaPentium IV 3.0GHz (800FSB) Socket 478 pins CPU w/Hyper-Thread Technology MSI 875P NEO FIS2R, AGP 8X, i875P ICH5R Chipset with Gigiabit Lan2GB PC3200 Double Data Rate (DDR) RAM CAS-2.5- 400MHz RatedNvidia 6800GS 256MbASUS MW221u 21" Wide Screen LCDWestern Digital Raptor 36.0GB HDD IDE, for OS WD 40Gig HD for dataWD 200Gig HD for FSXHercules Game Theater XP, 6.1 speakers Dolby

[JSACKS 0]

Noel:It isn't necessarily a question of doubling PC performance because it seems that whatever MS puts out taxes all existing systems to the max and beyond even if they are "cutting edge" systems. I'll be curious to see whether FSX runs better on a VISTA based system than on XP as well.The PC to have for FS would be one that is AHEAD of MS--but that is by definition most likely impossible since MS holds most of the cards in this game of "leapfrog".I am sticking with my system (a hi end DELL XPS ) for now and for as long as it holds out and performs. I have MANY reasons not to migrate to FSX and my "old fashioned" system is only one of them. Meantime, I do enjoy my five foot long 747 in a good t-storm at dusk with lightning -- the visuals are dazzling and the feeling of "being there" very well simulated.JS