After Two Weeks of FS9.

[Guest daveg4otu]

After Playing with FS9 for two weeks,I feel I would like to air my feelings about it.There has been a lot of "anti" comments both here and in other places but also a fair amount of praise.I've spent most evenings the past 14 days tweaking and poking away at it and I find that it runs just fine- there have been a couple of program crashes,both of which were down to me ,not the PC or the software.However I do have some critisisms(and some praise)Aircraft:Not a very exciting batch IMHO,I've tried them out but I've mostly been flying with FS2002 Addon aircraft- (with no problems except that one or two seemed to have a bad effect on the frame rate)Scenery: An improvement over 2k2 but there are problems(EG The bridges etc)which I've no doubt someone will write fixes for very quickly.I'm not to sure about the water textures- the reflections look a bit odd at times but the clouds are fantastic.Cockpit/Panels etc:Not much to say except that,at first I didn't like the GPS but,after using it and finding out more about the options available in it,I 'm rapidly coming to like it.Installation: No problems at all in either XP or ME and it runs perfectly in either.I think the installation options are a bit ambiguously worded but otherwise everything is straightforward(and quick).Interaction with other programs:As I fly online a fair bit this was where I really had to work hard initially.There were some problems getting SBRelay/SB and FSUIPC to work together but this was not the fault of FS9.After sorting that out all runs OK and online flying is going well.For the record- when flying online(with Vatsim) I use AOL/SBRelay/SB/Servinfo and RogerWilco(on XP) AVC Beta (on ME).Given that there have been some connection/Server Problems the past week or so with Vatsim ,all has gone pretty well.I believe that,in a few months,by the time lots of addons have appeared,FS9,like my copy of FS2k2 before it,will bear little resemblance to what it is today.I think it's certainly a good base to build on.To those who seem so very disatisfied with FS9,-Give things a chance- I'm willing to bet that for many of the problems aired on here,the cause of the troubles lies not in FS9,but in either the PC or the user( the nut behind the keyboard).Making sure your system is up to the job,and that there are no underlying problems with other software etc that may effect FS9 is important.Also not expecting too much out of either your PC ,or from the program itself.To sum it all up,I think it(FS9) is marvellous.I remember my first ever flight simulation program ,nearly 20 years ago,run on a Spectrum 128K ,just basically black and white lines not really graphics at all.I thought it was bloody fantastic at the time- how can I possibly complain about this one?Lastly- thankyou to everyone else on here,I've been reading the posts everyday and it's certainly helped me get my FS9 setup running sweetly .And thanks to MS(I'm not biased against Bill G) for producing this program for about the same as it would cost me to take my wife out for a meal.Cheap entertainment if you look at it that way - whatever flaws it may have..Good flying Dave

[Guest SoarPics]

Hi Dave,I've been a bit perplexed recently by all the folks who are ready to dump FS9 from their hard drives. I believe it's just too soon to do that.This latest iteration, like all that came before it, is not perfect (I've yet to encounter ANY piece of software that is) but like you I think this one is a keeper. Especially considering all the talent this hobby has. We're already seeing some add-ons to improve the sim. And two years from now we'll all go through the same process again. It's the nature of the beast.Another thing we'll ALL have to wait for is new video card drivers. Fortunately, both nVidia and ATI know that many of their customers use this sim, and I'm hopeful we'll soon start seeing drivers that will resolve some if not all of the video problems most of us are experiencing.Hopefully, those who are having problems will press on and find solutions that work for them. One of the great things about all this is sharing the ideas/solutions with each other. Much of the unhappiness we're seeing now reminds me alot of what we saw when FS2K2 was released... yet it was (and still is) generally heralded as a great flight sim. I think two years from now most will be saying the same thing about FS9.Regards,

[Guest RichD]

After a week of solving problems I finally got it running well. I agree this is a good simulator. Not quite as bug free as 2002 but I can't find any show stoppers. I moved all of my favorite planes and scenery from 2002 and everything works. The only problem I had was I lost the prop on the FSD Commander but I don't have the GMax version. Flight models are better and the scenery is improved. All in all a good value for 50 bucks. Richard

[Hornit 3]

Im really not so sure about the FM issue here, anyway, with the sceneries you moved did you have to reinstall things like the VOD, NOVA and Apt2.X textures to FS9? Or did you not have any sceneries using these textures? just curious, thanks.Hornit

[Guest RichD]

I create my own scenery with FSSC and keep all of the textures with the scenery. I duplicate some textures that way but it makes installs and uninstalls much easier. I keep all of my custom airports in a folder outside the sim so when I added them to FS9 I just went to the scenery library and pointed to the folder. Very easy.Richard