I'm looking for more feedback from users of the VRS F-18 Super Hornet?

[sbclark 55]

Hi All,I've been anticipating the introduction of this product for a number of months, as probably many of you have been.Unfortunately, the introduction of the "Super Hornet" got botched, which has dampened the enthusiasm it probably deserves. It certainly has diminished mine. But, it appears the issues were serious enough for the development team to essentially pull this product off the market for a few weeks. Now that the product has been fixed, I'm quite surprised that there have been so few comments out on the forums about users perceptions. I've only seen, maybe three very short positive comments, even though there has been one or more patches released and the product is back on the market.So, I would like to suggest that those of you who have the VRS F-18, please post your comments about your experiences.....include some details. Also, I would like to recommend that the VRS team get someone to write a review of this product quickly, so your potential user base will get excited again. Because VRS has a "closed" forum, most potential customers have no clue about what is going on. BTW, I have no problem with a closed forum, as it is a good mechanism to thwart piracy. Right now, I sort feel everything has just STALLED and ground to a halt. Hopefully your sales have not.I will purchase this product in a "heart beat," if the posts are indicative of the hype prior to the initial introduction!!!Bill ClarkPS - Our hobby depends on the success of small companies like yours!

[Guest 747-fan]

On a Dell XPS 420 E8500 Core 2 Duo (3,16 GHz)4 GB 800 MHz dual channel DDR2 SDRAM512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT2X 500GB (7200 rpm non raid) S-ATAMy post in a closed VA forum:

Well I haven't really experimented with the settings yet, it seems that you can adjust pretty well whatever you'd like. I've unchecked canopy glass, mirrors, control stick, external stores and HUD Camera, leaving only fuselage checked. VC detail's been turned down to level 2/5.I don't really want to see "individual screws in 3D" in the VC if that means I have to wait a millisecond for the view to load, so I've turned that down a few notches. It still looks great I think. Vapour effects are on, engine smoke is off. Avionics are maxed out, you can if you need to disable some avionics but I for one would rather have less eye candy and more avionics.I turned down to that because that's all I think I need. It's absolutely smooth like this, no effect on framerates, load time or scenery blurs at all. Unbelievable as it might seem - it's comparable to the acceleration F-18.I'm guessing I could comfortably turn things quite a ways up before it bogging down my system, but as it is now it looks great, flies great and I think I'll keep it this way. For once I'm perfectly content.The thing I love the most apart from the great avionics is the FBW system. Point the nose somewhere and it'll keep flying there. It's the first FBW I've tried that feels plausible, after what I've read about it. Wilco's Airbus feels like a "Boeing with trim problems" in comparison.

I also wrote this in another thread here:

I'm loving it too, but I still hate the closed support forums policy. Nothing scary inside it though, the odd controller problem (I'm using an X52 and it works just fine) and the usual RTFM questions. Support seems to be fast and efficient.Excuse me, I've got some reading to do... I could jump right in to the PMDG MD-11 when it came out and sort of figure my way around the systems by trial and error, but this one is advanced in a different way. Not really second nature at all. Strange military logics. Accurately modeled I think, but very strange to get your head around.

So in short - I love it. Feels great, avionics are great (the little of it I've figured out so far), totally scalable performance for your rig/preferences. I think the "no unregistered access to support forum" is an absolutely despicable and senseless decision, stuff like that makes "pirate suspects" out of us all and will ruin the spirit of the FS community in the long run. I love parting with my hard earned money to some companies, I buy it with pleasure and hope to support them. this is not one of those companies.As much as I hate to admit it though, they've made a damned fine aircraft.

[trisager 2]

I managed to get it on day one, before they shut down sales temporarily. It appears they ran into two problems simultaneously at launch, (a) a relatively high proportion of users with joystick problems, and (b ) a hosting service that shut down their support forums without warning when the traffic volume exceeded a certain threshold. Not a good thing to have happen simultaneously!The only major problem I've had with this product had to do with activation, and that was entirely my own fault - I chose a very secure password during the purchase process, and I managed to make a mistake when writing it down. I sent an email to support, and had an response with the correct password about six hours later. The other problem I had was controller related - my throttle was only active over about half its range, going from idle to full afterburner over a short throw. This has been corrected, along with some cosmetic stuff.The plane is very good looking and flies really well. The only complaint I have is that when using TrackIR, the display on the HUD can move outside the boundary of the HUD itself when I move my head left/right. This is apparently a tradeoff that has been made, because eliminating this problem also removes the visible trails when you fire a missile. I've gotten used to it now, but I'm hoping that this is something that can be fixed later on. I like the missile trails, though.The aircraft systems are complex, and I find the learning curve rather steep (I'm still climbing it). There is an extensive manual (352 pages), and a detailed tutorial flight that covers some basics on flying the aircraft and some of the weapons and defensive systems. Flying it is easy, though, so you don't have to read a lot before you can get airborne. By default the aircraft loads in an almost-ready-to-fly state, so once you have learned how to arm the seat and set flaps and trim for takeoff (flick one switch and push one button) you're ready to go. There is also an option to load the aircraft in a cold-and-dark state.From what I've experienced myself and seen on the forum, support is absolutely first class. The section of the forum where support is provided is only open to registered owners of the product (similar to the policy on the Level D and Flight1 Mustang forums). I have no particular feelings for/against this policy, but there is at least one advantage - every single post gets a response.Performance is good enough that it has been a non-issue on my somewhat average system (Q9650 @ 3GHz). I'm REX'ed, GEX'ed, UTX'ed etc etc, but the Bug has been completely smooth. There are options to reduce settings to improve performance, but I have not had to deselect anything.One thing I am having to get used to is that control axes must be assigned through FSX, and not through FSUIPC (something to do with implementation of the fly-by-wire system). Up until now I have been using FSUIPC exclusively for control assignments, since that makes it really easy to change assignments and calibration settings between different aircraft, but this is not possible with the Superbug.If you have any interest in modern, military jets, this one is worth a look. I have not had any reason to regret spending $49.95 on this one.

[JHepburn 0]

Hi All,I've been anticipating the introduction of this product for a number of months, as probably many of you have been.Unfortunately, the introduction of the "Super Hornet" got botched, which has dampened the enthusiasm it probably deserves. It certainly has diminished mine. But, it appears the issues were serious enough for the development team to essentially pull this product off the market for a few weeks. Now that the product has been fixed, I'm quite surprised that there have been so few comments out on the forums about users perceptions. I've only seen, maybe three very short positive comments, even though there has been one or more patches released and the product is back on the market.So, I would like to suggest that those of you who have the VRS F-18, please post your comments about your experiences.....include some details. Also, I would like to recommend that the VRS team get someone to write a review of this product quickly, so your potential user base will get excited again. Because VRS has a "closed" forum, most potential customers have no clue about what is going on. BTW, I have no problem with a closed forum, as it is a good mechanism to thwart piracy. Right now, I sort feel everything has just STALLED and ground to a halt. Hopefully your sales have not.I will purchase this product in a "heart beat," if the posts are indicative of the hype prior to the initial introduction!!!Bill ClarkPS - Our hobby depends on the success of small companies like yours!

I've owned it for about 48 hours. Initial impressions are excellent, and the systems fidelity is very deep. My frame rates are great with all they eye candy turned on, and I even managed a carrier landing.This is my first military jet for FSX (or any other version of FS), and there is a real novelty with going fast especially on the deck. It's a really fantastic airplane, and their support has been absolutely top notch.

[magentajim 10]

It's outstanding. I waited until the initial launch bugs were worked out and have been flying it since I installed it. The fidelity is wonderful, the systems are extremely deep and the things it can do are simply amazing(TACAN, ACM against AI aircraft, shoot missiles, etc). It is very impressive and I consider it the best jet fighter sim out there. I also own the CaptainSim FA18D, The Iris F-14 Tomcat, Razbam A6, and the Aerosoft F16 so I do have some comparison material. Performance on my computer is really good, and it integrates wonderfully with the AI Carriers2/Javier's Carriers set. Most all the VC functions are incredible and accurately operate. As someone who has worked around F-18's, I was tremendously impressed and overjoyed to hear the wonderful startup howl the F-18 produces. The Manual is outstanding and covers everything. Overall this is one fine aircraft and it is Absolutely worth every penny. It is the 'PMDG' of the military flightsims.

[markturner 0]

Hi, without a shadow of a doubt one of the best value and well modelled add ons you can buy for FSX. Outstanding detail, wonderful support, great community of fliers, awesome graphics and effects ( they are shorly releasing an update that introduces explosions and damage as well... drooooolll..!!!) I can tell you that I will be flying nothing else in FSX for some serious amount of time.Do not have any reservations, its absolutely great.Cheers, Mark

[tazz 16]

Hi All,I've been anticipating the introduction of this product for a number of months, as probably many of you have been.Unfortunately, the introduction of the "Super Hornet" got botched, which has dampened the enthusiasm it probably deserves. It certainly has diminished mine. But, it appears the issues were serious enough for the development team to essentially pull this product off the market for a few weeks. Now that the product has been fixed, I'm quite surprised that there have been so few comments out on the forums about users perceptions. I've only seen, maybe three very short positive comments, even though there has been one or more patches released and the product is back on the market.So, I would like to suggest that those of you who have the VRS F-18, please post your comments about your experiences.....include some details. Also, I would like to recommend that the VRS team get someone to write a review of this product quickly, so your potential user base will get excited again. Because VRS has a "closed" forum, most potential customers have no clue about what is going on. BTW, I have no problem with a closed forum, as it is a good mechanism to thwart piracy. Right now, I sort feel everything has just STALLED and ground to a halt. Hopefully your sales have not.I will purchase this product in a "heart beat," if the posts are indicative of the hype prior to the initial introduction!!!Bill ClarkPS - Our hobby depends on the success of small companies like yours!

If you enjoy flying military jets, like an absolutely perfect, highly detailed, visual representation of an F/18 Superbug plus a lot more ... I can't say enough about this product and the hard work VRS put into this thing for the money. You will not be disappointed!

[Lenny 5]

I already had the FS9 version but was glad to buy the FSX version last weekend. Even though I already knew what was possible, I'm blown away by the FSX version! So, if you like military airplanes and if you are looking for PMDG style systems depth, BUY IT! :D

[peteg22 1]

VRS sets the benchmark for customer service and quality. Their innovation in FS can't be matched. I bought the FS9 version and was blown away with that. I preordered the FSX version 2 months before release and it's worked flawlessly since day one. Don't take our word for it though, there are a couple of naval aviators on the VRS forum who speak it's praises as well (One former F-4 pilot as well as current F/A-18 C pilot). IMHO, it's the best military sim available for the civilian market. Pete

[Guest CDR_Shark]

I just installed Super Bug, and it looks and flies fantastic! My current issue is that I cannot download the latest patch and cannot reply to the posts on the VRS forum. Also, is there a trick to using ACE to upload new liveries? I've downloaded, unzipped, and loaded with ACE but they do not show up in the FSX hangar.