FS9...a "low end" system quick look...it's a keeper!

[Guest]

Well after all my ranting and raving, found my Tin copy at Office Depot...Went home and installed it...takes a while. In my haste, I installed it in the C partition vs the planned E (a nice big empty 20Gb partition...)My system..Athlon 900, Asus A7V, 512 PC133 SDRAM,SB Live!, Radeon 9200, XP Home, WD ATA100 40Gb HDD.Was puttering around and then the screen went black with a "bong" signalling a XP crash...got restarted after a bit, had a second crash taxiing out of COS while trying to reposition that enormous GPS...uh oh, not looking good here.Tried at this point to uninstall FS9 to put it on E, same prob I had with uninstalling 2K2 a while back, it would freeze on the uninstall initialize screen. Ended up doing it manually as best I could. Defragged C, reinstalled on E, no problems since...Performance, I generally run higher settings than the "stock" settings. Highest resolution, 32 bit. No detailed clouds (yet, had 'em on for a bit, still tweaking). Frames are locked at 15, and usually am at 14-15. I found the absolutely fantastic nightime scenery at the major airports (DFW is so real you can smell the jet exhaust!!!) takes my frames to single digits, but, they are still smooth, not the 2K stutters...I do have a problem with lack of haze. My scenery is crystal clear out to the horizon (sometimes get haze below me in the local area) but the dark clear horizon jiggles and jumps around sometimes in a peculiar fashion. It's full of constantly jiggling "jaggies" even with AA on...Every so often, flying the 172 around COS I found the horizon "rising up" in a bizzare fashion...any way to cut this vis down (slider is at min) and get some haze in?Clouds do appear and disappear (or "get repositioned", it's kinda wierd...) on some settings...detailed clouds on, if I remember. I'm not sure, need to play with the wx settings, right now detailed clouds are off here.Even on this lower end system, it runs fine. Frame rates are lower, but usually unnoticable if I turn off that Shift Z! And the scenery has improved, mesh appears unchanged, but color/texture had changed. The sky color looks better. Lightning is downright scary now, especially at night! Night lighting is worth the price by itself. Taxiway lines/textures/signs are really nice. (see how they put the dark yellow on the edges of the taxiway lines...really neat touch!!) Airport beacons at night, lit up autogen buildings (a LOT of them!!!), airport ramp wehicles all over the place. This one is a keeper for me. Just need some help cutting the vis down and adding some haze. Any ideas here appreciated (still trying to decipher the Radeon control panel also, all those "TM" names they use...)Just for giggles, after picking myself up off the floor after the night landing and taxi into DFW, I did the same with FS2K2...absolutely no comparison!!!!! They really understated the nightime improvements!!!! (can't add enough exclaimation marks here!!!!!!!!!!!)Get it! It's worth every penny. Just someone, please send me some haze, smog, whatever...good vis is fine, but this is ridiculous!!Back to the races...more thunderstorms expected here today, want in on the action!You'll like it, I sure do, even on my "POS" machine!Dave JKCOS(Incidently, on the unrelated subject of counterfeit copys, as a computer tech, I ran into a surprising number of counterfeit Windows licenses. Easy to spot when you know what to look for. Go to howtotell.com for some good info...)

[LAdamson 240]

>the scenery has improved, mesh appears unchanged, I don't know what your terrain settings are at..But I'm beginning to find many mesh updates that are comparible to 3rd party for FS2002. I already knew the Caribbean was updated, but the Rocky Mountain region has been too.L.Adamson

[Guest Philip Olson]

Hi Dave, Just a quick question as I do not have COF yet, does KCOS look any better? Any improvement in Pikes Peak, Cheyenne Mtn., etc.?Thanks, Philip

[Guest]

COS looks "busier" (as does the world of FS2004 in general) Lots of different buildings, twrs, etc...I-25 kinda goes away in town, shows up again heading south...Cheyenne mtn and PP are pretty much the same, some mesh improvments, still no building on top of PP but a bunch of twrs on CM...It's better...not hugely, but better.Dave

[Chris Willis 8]

Hi, When you said disappear and reappears, it is because of your clouds percentage ar too low, shoudl be at 80% in detailed mode, and the clouds draw distant 40 from above.About the sky color, the sky change day by day, on dawn, day, dusk, try all day at the same position on you will see the wonderfull feature and realisme on the sky.ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

[Guest Philip Olson]

Thanks Dave! I was doing some scenery of the KCOS area for FS2002 and just did not have the time to complete it. Maybe I can convert what I have to go into COF and finish it because it sounds like it is still needed. Up to this point a have modeled the building on Pikes Peak, the Air Force Academy, some of Fort Carson, a good representation of downtown including the old train station ( can not remember the name or street it is on but it is the one with Guiseppe's Resteraunt), Palmer Park, Memorial Park (my lake is full though, lol!), the Broadmoor area, Van Briggle Pottery, a very detailed terminal, Peterson Field, US Olympic Training Center, the Country Club of Colorado, and many other things. If anyone has any requests of something that they would like to see in this scenery let me know and I'll try to get it in there. Once I get my hands on COF I'll see what I need to do and maybe I can get it done in the next 2 or 3 months.Thanks again, Philip