Overall impressions of 2004

[Guest B52Drivr]

Hello All,Well, I've been playing with this new toy, on and off for the past three days . . . and have come up with some interesting conclusions.I think if you had 2002 running well . . .within a short time, (short time meaning when the developers get our patches for our favorite aircraft in the works, we learn all the in's and out's of 2004 and there are some additional addon's being offered), we will find that this is a great step forward for flight simming.Frame rates are what I expected, I run a 1.8 P4 overclocked to 2.2 with a Ti 4600 and in 2002, with everything maxed out I was locked at 30 and always running at 25 or so. Now with this new offering, I have most of the sliders maxed out, locked at 20 and run between 15-18 frames per second and the sim seems to run pretty smooth. That's to say, I'll live with it until I get my new 3.0 G P4 with 800 FSB in month or so. This baby seems to like the horsepower to fuel its pretty assortment of eye candy.I've tried to install a few of my favorite aircraft with equal failure and success . . .time, trial and error. But I am very impressed with the details, weather, lighting, clouds and overall appearance, along with the better ATC. I am also really impressed at what the really great 2002 aircraft look like in 2004 . . .much better in every respect than the old sim.So, it's a keeper . . .not to say that I won't still fly 2002 until I get this one 'just the way I want it', but a keeper for sure . . . with tons of promise for the next year or so, until Microsoft up's the ante again and gives us more toys to play with.In truth, I haven't even scratched the surface of 2004, but am convinced that it is a great step forward and am very glad for it to be in my puter.Best to all,Clayton T. DopkeMajor, USAF (retired)"Drac"B52Drivr@aol.com