Panel problem with FU3 and Vista64

[Hans_Petter 1]

Have fun with FSX Chris :( Personally I'm having fun with FU III, FS9 and X-Plane 9. As I've stated many times before, FU III is the one that stays. Sooner or later I may be running other versions of FS or X-Plane but I'm not going to ditch FU III. Since I'm not into anything but flightsims as "games" are concerned I can handle three different ones.The fact that MS sacks the ACES team may be due to the current financial situation. They may pick it up later. However, FSX may not have been the success they had anticipated. A major portion of the FS community decided to continue using FS9. The reason is simple, FSX required more powerful hardware than most people were willing to acquire. Further, FS9 with lots of addons looks quite stunning.

[Christopher Low 5,324]

Hans,To be honest, it's the addons that make the big difference in FSX. If I had to make do with the default scenery, then I wouldn't have purchased it. However, it is very clear to me that the flight models of the Cessna 172 and Beechcraft Baron in FSX are significantly improved over their FS2002 counterparts. I have no idea if this was the case with FS2004, but it is a big relief to be able to fly these planes in the way that I enjoy. Another positive point is that they also move convincingly when on the ground. FS2002 was abysmal in that respect.

[Guest twsimfan]

Howdy Hans!Chris,I'm happy to hear that you will use a bit of trim now and again. The Baron is easy to land if you put down the flaps. I haven't tried any of the payware business jets for FSX. There are quite a few that look nice but they have a lot of involved code for their flight management computers and in FS04 I found that tended to get in the way of performance. Modern jets are basically flown with their FMS but I have yet to see a simulated FMS in FS that works well. I guess that is because MS never implimented one. The autopilot for the old FU3 BeechJet was about the best jet control I've seen in a sim. I was getting fairly good at flying the airliners in FS04 but I haven't really mastered them in FSX as of yet. Probably because I spent most of my time in the smaller planes.I'll have a bit more time in a day or two and I'll take a look at my aircraft inventory and tell you what I think is good in the way of addons.GTL is a great racing sim and I use the Mustang a lot myself. But the real fun with that program is figuring out how to get good speed with each type of car. But another great Mustang that you already have is the P-51 from the FSX Acc/Expansion pack. It is intended for racing but I like it for just fun flying. It does great aerobatics if you cut back on the speed some and it lands like a dream especially for a tail dragger. It is a job to taxi but if you use differential brakes it can be done. It lacks a 2D panel but the 3D cockpit is crisp & clean and works well.Well I need to get my stuff setup for work tomorrow and get off to bed.Later,Tom Wunder

[Christopher Low 5,324]

Modern jets are basically flown with their FMS but I have yet to see a simulated FMS in FS that works well.

This is something else that is drawing me towards the Flight 1 Citation Mustang. Apparently, it is a great small jet to hand fly. I'm not an autopilot kind of guy, but it would still be nice to fly a jet plane! I have asked one or two questions in the FSX forum, so hopefully I will receive the necessary information.On a side note, it would be nice to be able to fly a small airliner (I have downloaded the Elite Global Jet version of the Project Airbus A318), but I am probably extending myself a bit too far with that at the moment. I need to become familiar with the 172 and Baron first, and then work my way up! I'm not interested in the really large airliners. Ansgar's 747 in FU3 is cool, but I get the feeling that the large jets in FSX are way out of my league!O/T - do you race GT Legends online, Tom? If so, keep an eye open for Mogget. That's me :(

[Guest twsimfan]

Chris,I told you I would get back to you with a list of add-on planes worth buying in my opinion. I meant to do that a couple of days ago but even though I have been off of work my wife had other plans for how I should spend my time.I'd like to say that some of the Carenado fleet was on my list but I'm not at all happy with the 2 planes I have of theirs. What I have are the Cessna U-206 Stationair and the Beechcraft T-34B Mentor. I bought before they came out with their FSX specific versions. But I bought them only because they were supposed to be good to go in FSX. Each has an annoying bug in it (different bugs) and they wont fix them. I assume that the FSX versions have the bugs fixed but they not only wont give those to me they wont even give me a price break on them. I'm not about to pay full price for something that as far as I'm concerned I've already bought. So I've resolved to never purchase anything more from Caqrenado until they make good on it. They never will so they aren't going to sell anything more to me.The 2 best I have are both from RealAir. The very best is their SF-260. I've had payware versions of it going back to FS02 and I had freeware ones prior to that. It is a fast and nimble little single that is fully aerobatic yet flys with the stability of a Skyhawk. It looks great too. The other one is their American Champion Scout Pack. It isn't always called that but it is easy to find. It has 3 very similar aircraft. The Scout, Decathalon, & Citibria. There are also versions with amphibious floats and tundra tires. You might remember the Decathalon as one of the aerobatic planes from FU1. Neither the SF-260 nor the Scout have traditional 2D panels but both do have ways of doing 2D that work well. The Scout (all versions) also includes a 3D cockpit mode that is reminiscent of the FU style 2D cockpit in that if you use a hat switch to look around it will spring back to the forward view when you let go of the hat.The only other one I'd like to point out is "Beaver X" from Aerosoft. OK I know... FSX has a default Beaver. But it is float only. Aerosoft's has every configuration you can think of including my favorite with amphibious floats. It also doesn't have a 2D panel but I figured out how to make the default Beaver's 2D panel work in it. And that is one of MS' best ever panels IMO. It does make for a minor conflict if the interior you are using has other than a tan interior but that can be fixed as well. If you look around in BeaverX's config you will find that you can assign the interior color. If anything this aircraft comes with too many liveries. I've kept the best 2 or 3 of each type which still makes for a powerful lot of Beavers to have in your collection.Beaver X also comes with a small but detailed bit of scenery. The Fisherman's Wharf area of San Francisco. There is also a free download on Aerosoft's web site of a highly detailed Alcatraz Island. That can make for some short but fun flights ferrying passengers back and forth from Fisherman's wharf to "The Rock".I'm sure there are many more that I don't know about including no doubt some very nice small jets.The F/A-18 from the Accel pack is tons of fun to fly but if you can figure out how to land it properly on an airport I wish you would tell me how. The only way I can figure out how to stop it without doing a ground loop is to drag the arrestor hook on the ground and that can't be the proper way. The Hornet is especially fun to fly at dusk so the afterburners glow in the dark.A good A-318 or maybe A-319 would be nice. If it wasn't too complicated. The A-319 is the only Airbus I've actually flown on. And I "flew" a A-320 class IV simulator at United Airlines Training Center back in 2004 along with the 747-400 so that is another reason for my interest.I've just been looking over your Flight1 Citation Maverick. It does look kind of neat. I miss the old Flight1 Cessna 421 Golden Eagle. They don't seem to be carrying it over to FSX but I had it in FS02 & FS04 and it was one of my favorites. I've looked over their Cessna 441 Conquest but it just doesn't look near as much fun. Not to my eyes anyway.I've never used GTL online. I haven't done any online racing in a couple of years. FlyBert, Staggerwing, and I used to get together with one or two others and race a couple of different NASCAR sims and a lot of Rally Trophy online. Stag still does some but I think his current favorite is rFactor or something like that.I'm going to have to lookup your email address. This thread is getting really long and way off topic. :)Time for me to get to bed. I've been off for 3 days but that is over and I have to be up at 4 AM... YUCK!!Take it easy,Tom Wunder

[Guest CaptRolo]

Speaking of other Sims;I think I have found what I could call FU4 .It's X-Plane 9.2 you need a power house to run it ,but seems a lot like FU3 in a lot of ways and Tools similar to FLED.Real weather and air currents a plus,scenery is good.As technology increases for computers ,so do the programs that run on them.I also have FSX but uninstalld it.Capt Rolo

Tom,I'm not suggesting that any users abandon it (I still have '2004 installed) but that M$ will. I don't know what M$ will do with it though. I assume that they would attempt to sell the code rights, since they don't want to develop it any more but are still hungry for money... Still, good for add-on builders.I feel sorry for the developers though, and I wonder just what triggered the decision? I read the other day that the gaming industry is now a good deal larger (money and people) than the movie industry ever was. It seems that in hard(er) times, people are happier to stay at home and play the PS - or '360.Anyhoo, this is great news for X-Plane :(

[Christopher Low 5,324]

As far as I am aware, X-Plane lacks the AI planes and ATC that would be required for it to be considered as a candidate for "FU4" status. FSX has those two attributes, although I haven't really experienced them yet (Just Flight's Traffic X AI package has been ordered, and I will be starting flights from the airfield parking spots when it has been installed).

[Guest CaptRolo]

IT has ATC ,you have to file a flight plan to activate it .Also AI but not as much as FU3.Of course the more you add ,the more demand on processing power .you will not be able to tell anything from trial version.

As far as I am aware, X-Plane lacks the AI planes and ATC that would be required for it to be considered as a candidate for "FU4" status. FSX has those two attributes, although I haven't really experienced them yet (Just Flight's Traffic X AI package has been ordered, and I will be starting flights from the airfield parking spots when it has been installed).