The Screen Savers & X-Plane/FS2004 on Directv

[Guest Id Rather Be Flying]

Tonight on The Screen Savers on Techtv (ch. 354 on Directv) @ 7PM EST they will talk about X-Plane and it's approval with the FAA and comparison to MSFS. Just a heads up for those interested.

[Steve Cannell 4]

Thanks CarmineI appreciate this as I only catch the show occasionally. I'll certainly watch tonight.Steve

[Guest Id Rather Be Flying]

A follow up: Austin Meyer WILL BE ON THE SHOW!I didn't realize that the AUTHOR of X-Plane will be on to discuss it! That should be interesting!!No problem about letting others know because as far as I'm concerned that's what I am doing here anyway!! ;-) And of course every once in a while I get something back in return through sharing of announcements, tips, etc...Here is The Screen Savers Announcement: X-Plane Flight SimulatorMicrosoft's competitor offers up free demo of its flight sim.Watch today at 7 p.m. and tomorrow at 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. Eastern. By The Screen Savers staff While most flight-sim enthusiasts still cuddle up with Microsoft's Flight Simulator, others, including the FAA, are discovering X-Plane. Developer Austin Meyer credits the Internet with X-Plane's marketing success. Today he joins "The Screen Savers" to demonstrate why X-Plane turns heads. Fasten your seat belts and get ready to take a high-velocity tour of the program, its planes, and its environments. Free demo Mac and Windows users can enjoy X-Plane's numerous environments and airports, flying any one of more than 40 planes. Free demo versions are available for both Mac and Windows. Before you start, make sure you have the right equipment, including plenty of RAM, a good joystick (according to Meyers, "Pedals make your experience seem more realistic"), and the latest drivers for your video card. Windows issues "The drivers included with Windows XP do not include OpenGL support, and X-Plane uses OpenGL," Meyers says. "I can only assume this was on purpose by Microsoft since OpenGL is a competitor to Microsoft's Direct 3D." Windows users should also know the demo is a self-extracting executable that creates an x-system folder on your hard drive. It installs files only in the x-system folder, so if you want to uninstall, just delete the folder. Buying the game Navigating the full version of X-Plane ($79.99) isn't quite like tinkering with the demo. When you buy the full version you get four scenery CDs labeled NW, SW, NE, and SE. These correspond to the Earth's hemispheres, not to regions of the United States. You can find the U.S. scenery on the NW CD. You can also order Mars (yes, the planet) scenery for an additional $10. X-Plane never gets old When you tire of flying (yeah, right), design your own aircraft or challenge yourself by downloading a plug-in to hack X-Plane. Posted August 20, 2003Modified August 19, 2003