Are you familiar with this situation:You have spent time and money to get Europe populated with Aerosoft sceneries, Ground Environment textures, AI planes by WoAI, you have multiple great addon aircraft, and then, when you think there is no more to buy, when you think you can sit and watch what you bought, it appears......that there still is a lot more to buy. And you ask yourself: does it ever end?I have stumbled upon this question once again. Part of the reason fore this, is because, while I really like FSX, still want to be able to use PMDG aircraft with more than 6FPS at busy airports. At Paris CDG (Aerosoft scenery) that's indeed what I get with the PMDG 747 in FSX. Now I thought to go back to FS9 for these complex simulations, but it appears I'll of course have to get the PMDG 747 FS9 version too. Now I also want to have the FS9 UT: Europe. It also seems as though REX for FS9 might be not too far off, so I'll buy that too. And then there are various Caribean airports I want because I have more and more Surinam Airways planes that beg me to be taken out of the hangar.And so, you see, it never ends. There is always stuff to buy. Is that bad? No! But it can be annoying now and then :-P

This is why I don't use FSX, don't have a single airport addon in my FS9 and only purchase what I consider truly excellent aircraft addons if I'm interested in their real life counterparts. This way I can keep my FS cost and maintenance under control and make sure everything in it is up-to-date, optimized and customized to function at its best. Flying is the only thing I am interested in doing with FS. I don't really get the point of pretty airport addons. If I love FS the best only when I'm on the ground I'd consider myself a virtual ramp guy rather than a pilot. Just my personal opinion of course.

I bought a new PC in August and messed around with FSX for awhile. Last week I re-installed "good old" FS9. Wow... everything old looks new again. It is like a whole new sim. It is like a whole new experience. I fly into complex add-on airports with lots of traffic without putting a dent in FPS. After all these years, I am finally flying FS9 at a high framerate. I bought FS9 the day it was released, and after all these years, I'm finally "there". I can finally turn off the FPS counter and just fly and not worry about how complex the airport is, or how much traffic is there. Years later and hundreds (thousands... eek) of dollars later... I'm finally "there".

I have to second Craig on that. I"ve also bought fs9 from day one -no, I did actually pre-ordered it back in 2003- and after all these years, I admit I had arrived to some kindof disgust because of eratic FPS, single digits FPS at major hubs etc... A month ago, I built a new rig, and yes...as Craig writes, I can at last enjoy fs9 the way it deserve, not fearing any slideshows anymore. Smooth like silk with heavy aircrafts at most AI busy hubs around the world.Of course, I'd be a lier if I said the I was never attempted with FSX. But, I dont want to fight again for frames, so never mind, I'll stay with fs9, relaxed.Thanks to some addon developers there still are interesting stuff available for our vintage sim :( Moreover, it's another pleasure to purchase stuff for fs9 being confident that it wont spoil you frames.

"does it ever end?"Gosh... I sure hope not. Having too much fun! Actually, I think our "vintage version" is enjoying its Golden Age of simulation right now. We now can truly purchase systems that run FS9 maxed out. And just look at some of the add-ons still coming our way. You can concentrate on flying instead of tweaking. :( There are 1000's of add-ons and 100's of aircraft still to explore. Not bad for a 10 year old game. I still think FSX has a few years before the hardware (and the amount of software), truly catches up. But that time will surely come. Not sure what I will do when I start implementing FSX into the mix. I will probably fly both for a long while and try to avoid purchasing duplicates for both versions (such as the 747 mentioned above). FSX will be saved for the new stuff - things I can't experience or don't have in FS9.But it's all good.Clutch

"Does it never end?"Yes, eventually. But Flight Simulator fun will always live on. There is a great library of free and payware that adds to the realism of the FS9 flight enivronment. You can get FS9 running and looking great without taxing any of the modern hardware out there today. This is one of the great things about FS9. I make this the main reason my travel sim is FS9 and my at home is FSX on my desktop. RIght now I'm on a very long stay away from my desktop, so I play and enjoy FS9 everyday now.In a recent update from PMDG they say that as long as there is still strong purchase, not just vocal demand for FS9 products they will be willing to continue development for FS9.

There have been a number of threads asking whether we intend to support FS9 with the NG2 product. The last time we evaluated platform support was over two years ago- and it was decided at that time to support both FSX and FS9. We have made no further evaluation or decisions on the topic, and will continue to monitor the marketplace. We DO know that the FSX version will be first to market and that we will evaluate the state of FS9 product sales as we near release of the FSX version. While we certainly have a large number of customers still supporting FS9, the global sales of FS9 products have fallen off a cliff during the past six months, so we need to constantly evaluate the trends. If we see that FS9 customers are still supporting the sale of FS9 products financially (and not just verbally) then you can expect an FS9 version.

The fear is that they mention a sharp decline in FS9 sales that has them developing the 737NGv2 on FSX first. They said that if the demand is still on a FS9 version they will develop it. I think this might be a trend growing in the furture. New FS9 add-ons might end from the major developers.The silver lining is that again there is already a great library of add-ons available.

I agree with most of the sentiments in this thread. I too hope it will never end, of course, but sometimes I think of all the stuff that I still "have" to buy. In the end, I want to have a situation where I don't have to see default FS9 scenery, aircraft, weather, ATC and whatever. Everything will be covered with addons. But it is exactly this point that I fear: I'm not sure FPS will be much better than my current performance in FSX. I have reinstalled FS2004 just now, and I will be reinstalling my most treasured addons, and I will buy some new stuff in the process to complete it all. Just got myself Mesh by FSGenesis (mostly because of the fact that I can choose what I need and thus cut costs) and UT Europe. I will probably and up buying the PMDG 747 for FS9 (What's the difference with the FSX version, actually?), but only after I have looked at performance of the Maddof 2008 at some of my Aerosoft airports. Because, my ultimate fear is this: the moment I have an advanced airliner, with UT, with GEPro, with overcast conditions at night, at some advanced Aerosoft scenery, I fear my FPS will be dwindling again, even though this computer isn't that old and should be capable, in my opinion, of running it well. I'll see, I guess...Still though, I have more addons to buy, which is because my interests change. I initially anted to fly all-over the world. After realizing that was impossible, I scaled down to Europe and Israel, and in that region only the places for which I had good sceneries or AES support, or both. Now, I have got myself some Surinam Airways planes, and I discovered the nice things about flying around south america and the caribean, so I will buy stuff for those places too.See? That's why it never ends. If my interests would remain the same, I wouldn't have the problem :-P

An interesting thread, and one I can certainly relate to at the moment. I've just built my first PC, specifically for FSX, but I still don't have the horsepower to really enjoy everything at full tilt, so I reinstalled FS9 and it absolutely flies!I originally resurrected FS9 so I could try out the new Airsimmer A320. Now I'm seriously thinking of buying all my old addons again, and some new ones, and sticking with the 'new' old sim. With REX 2 about to be released I know I can get the right look for the sky and water, and if I can pick up FS Global again I'll have some decent terain elevation. Then there's Ultimate Traffic again and....well, you get the point. I'm truly impressed with how FS9 runs now. It was such a pleasant surprise to be able to take off from Gary Summons' Heathrow Xtreme in some dodgy weather and fly along to London City airport with ALL sliders at max settings, and a steady 30 FPS. I love FSX too, but even on my new machine it's still all about compromises. With FS9 I just don't have to worry about performance at all.So, I'm going to have to go shopping again. You're right - it never ends... :( Ian

Another guy here who agrees with Craig.FS9 runs like lightening on my system with everything cranked up. FSX get used rarely and the only FSX addon's I have came for free with the FS9 version.Anything I'm still buying is for FS9.