FS2004: Some positive First Impressions (P4 2.4/Radeon)

[Guest]

Just fired up 2004, and did a few circuits around Thun Field in Pierce County, WA.At first blush, it looks awesome. Some comments:- The clouds look great. All of the new weather options are terrific. You can look at individual reporting stations on the map! Awesome.- Running at only 1024x768 with 2xAA via my Radeon Tweaker, the virtual cockpit is MUCH sharper than with FS2002. All of the gauges and radio numbers are now easily readable. In FS2002, I had to run at higher resolutions or zoom into the cockpit in order to read the instruments.- Flying the 172 is definately different than the last version. It has a feeling of weight and inertia which will take some getting used to.- Clickable VC is awesome. Worth the upgrade price by itself.- I haven't done any torture tests around busy airports yet, but things stayed locked at 20fps so far in varying weather situations.- I did not notice any signfigigant problems with my Radeon 9500 pro. There is a bit of flashing in and out of the menus, but I Really don't understand how this is a big deal. It's 1 or 2 flashes, and the menus still respond very quickly. The kneeboard works fine. In terms of image quality, I am using the same settings via my Radeon Tweaker that I used with FS2002, and eveything looks great. No excessive shimmering.- The whole thing just shines with enthusiasm and polish.Back to flying!

[Guest]

This is really amazing me.I just did some stress tests around KSEA and KLAX.- My fps is much improved over FS2002. I can actually fly around KLAX with a solid fps, at dusk, with thunderstorms. I'm pinching myself a bit on this. All sliders are in the 3/4 to full range.- Glideslope lights are much sharper through the VC than in FS2002.- Raindrops on the VC. This makes me happy.- It's nice being able to see water reflections. This was an fps killer on FS2002.- The variety of sky color is gorgeous.- Still no big problems with my Radeon. Perhaps I'm lucky.

[Guest]

What is the Radeon Tweaker and where can I get it, how do you use it. I'm in framerate problems even with 9800 pro 256

[Chris Willis 8]

Hi mackenson, At least you are able to use and saw this is new sim with your reports and improvement, compare to some that's quickly take conclusion after 5 min and repost here tons of time.ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

[Guest]

>At least you are able to use and saw this is new sim with your>reports and improvement, compare to some that's quickly take>conclusion after 5 min and repost here tons of time :-lolWell, I am certainly keeping an open mind and I am really impressed so far.In terms of the complaints ... I think that people might be running into trouble with frame rates using downloaded weather. I tried anchorage with real weather a little while ago, and my computer definately dropped a few frames (still very flyable, though) trying to display a ton of scattered cloud layers.If someone can create an add-on that takes real-world weather and "simplifies" it a bit so that it still emulates that weather without perhaps as many cloud layers or whatever--essentially optimizing it to maintain good performance ... well, I think that would be a pretty popular add-on.

[brucek 38]

I think he means the control panel- but if there is a tweaker I'd like to know too,BTW- have you been to rage3d.com? Some good info there. I have an 8500 Pro 128 card.Bruce.