I just installed FS04 and am pleased so far, but I'm just curious about one thing I noticed. In FS2002, I was getting around 20 fps in the air with mostly sky and a little ground texture and as I neared the ground with detailed buildings taking shape, fps dropped as expected. In FS04, the opposite seems true. I had 12-19 around the ground and while in the air looking at mostly sky, it seemed to be around 9 12. I even had clear sky. One thing that disappointed me was the hydrography. My local river (Susquehanna in Pa) still is inaccurate, overly fat and instantly a trickle through my hometown. It seems they used the same textures from FS02. From what I can see, the flight video seems to be improved over 02s.

I hate to say this, but I think I like FS2002 better than FS2004. It looks like to run FS2004 I need a new computer, because the FPS drop down to like 4-8 in cloudy skies. I loaded up real weather (which was out dated), and I could not fly with clouds in the sky because of poor frames.On the other hand, I love to see all the taxi signs at airports, better taxi lighting at night, and better ATC functions. Also now when in the 2D panel view, when you adjust your view (ie shift-enter), it remains in that position after switching from a side view etc..

Good point. I hear you on the fps issue. Another strange thing is that over the Chicago skyline in a nice left bank over the city out of Meigs rwy 36 I get nice fps and the view is beautiful. I'm at 2000 ft or so and get lots of detail. I went to check out KORD with the same left bank in the Cessna at 5000 ft (not much detail, a few cumulus clouds and I noticed it got quite jerky. Checked fps and I was at 4-6!!! I had several addon aircraft and also FSGenesis 32.8 terrain textures installed in FS02. I think I'll hang low for a while as far as installing any addons. I'm afraid my fps will really bottom out. I can't believe I have a P4 2.8 with 1 gig ram! Cheers, Tom:-beerchug