FS2004 - First Impressions

[Guest]

I was able to get a copy of FS2004 this afternoon at, where else, Office Depot, in the Kansas City area. When I first called to see if they had it, I was told, "Yes, it's been out for a couple of days." Geez, so what was I waiting for...The install went smoothly. I've had it running for perhaps 5 hours or so, with no stability issues noted.Am I impressed? You bet. The clouds are great, the rain and lightning are excellent. I may be easily amused, but I find this sim to be visually stunning. I've flown in the Seattle area, Honolulu, Chicago, So. Cal., and Kansas City.For the most part, the sim runs very smooth. I have a pretty fast machine, but it can still be noticably slowed with lots of goodies cranked up, say, at SeaTac when taxing in a turn. Not a slide show mind you, but not exactly 'smooth'. Please don't blow this observation out of proportion. I doubt I have all the settings optimized at this point.Landing the 737 at Honolulu in a thunderstorm was spectacular. They seem to have modeled cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning well. The view through heavy precip is pretty convincing. If you don't have it yet, you're in for a treat!I've spent a bit of time tweaking without reaching any real firm conclusions. For what it's worth:1600*1200*32Most settings are 1/2 to 3/4 to the right.Cloud Coverage Density = High3D Clouds are at 100 %P4-2.8/8001 Gb RamATI 9800 ProAsus P4P800 MBNoel_W

[Guest cwra6]

Are you having any Radeon troubles like those below? I'm having terrible flickering when I hit "alt" and during the loading process. They also appear, though less violent, when I switch views in the 2D panels. I have a 9700 Pro. Colin

[Guest]

Hi Colin,Yes, I think I'm seeing what you're describing, and what I've seen mentioned in other posts. If I use 'Alt' to go to the menu for something, and of course we have to do that a lot to get the joystick, etc. setup with a new sim - the menu will flash on and off a few time. While not ideal, it's not too bothersome for me, because the sim is stopped already anyway, so it doesn't exactly spoil the 'mood' - heck, I'm in pause. I have seen this when first loading the GPS window - but after the first time (for a particular flight and aircraft), it stops, and works normally.My ATI drivers are dated 6-23-2003 - I have not searched for newer ones yet.Noel_W