I just had to take a moment and comment on current state of my favorite hobby, flight-simming, and more precisely FSX. I switched to FSX, like many of you, when it was first introduced. And, like many of you, I doubted whether I had made the right move for a long time. Things were pretty rough there for some time but after the Sevice Packs it seemed like we were on the right team again and things went on as usual but developers were faced with the problem of which platform to develop. Then disaster.......ACES is broken up!!! Oh man, now we're totally (insert expletive). But you know what, looks like that was the best thing (not for the ACES people of course) that could of happened in a weird kind of way. I think that now developers who were worried about what Microsoft might come up with next were more comforatble to spend their time and effort on a "known" and "final" platform. Anyway, whatever the reasons, I can't remember when there were so many quality developers grinding out planes and other add-ons at a pace even remotely close to recent times. Man, I'm in flight-sim heaven!! I mean I have about 25 sites (of course AVSIM is one of the best) that I visit every day and I can hardly keep up with all the new and coming releases. My credit card is melting :( and I love it! I would really like to know if you all feel the same.StevePS Please don't turn this into a FS9 vs FSX, that's not what this is about, thanks.

My next video card upgrade I will finally see FSX running at good frames and then I will agree about best of times. All it takes is $$$$

Steve, good post, and I think you have captured my sentiments on your thoughts. I went to FSX right after it was released. Due to some problems with my rig, I could not get FS9 to reload, after I bought a ton of addons. I can't tell you how sad that made me, but not withstanding the loss of my addons, FSX has been a pure dream. I have lots of friends on this forum who won't move from FS9 to FSX due to good performance. Now having said that, I loaded FSX up, yes I have done the tweak thing and using my LDS 767, ASE and of course Radar Contact, I have just a wonderful simulation experience. I get great frames 40+, good weather depiction now with ASE and a complex plane that works like a dream. I have watched with interest all the developers adding things and that is great for the community. We now know that MS is working on MS Flight, but we don't know what that is and when it will be released. For me FSX is for now just wonderful and I am a VERY happy camper. Could things be better, of course that will always be the case, but at this moment in time FSX is GREAT IMHO.Bob

I agree with you both.FSX development is in it's prime both on the payware and freeware fronts, and hardware is now up to speed to make FSX perform well with all the eye candy you would expect.Good times. :(

Could not agree more!Taking off from CAM3 (which is about 15 mins from my house in real life) and flyingout over scenery from Orbx PNW and freeware Victoria+ in the Carenado C152, or flyingout of CYYJ in the Bonanza, or in the RealAir Duke...WOOOW!! It looks real and beautiful and the planes work great with GPS LPV approachesinto CYVR or CYCD... (courtesy of RealityXP).I could not be happier :(

Life is good. Planes to enjoy now, planes to look forward to and FSX only gets better.

I think ALL you guys should get a room   :(

Life is good. Planes to enjoy now, planes to look forward to and FSX only gets better.

Hey Tim, I've noticed your avatar many times before and wanted to give you a shout-out. I live up in Florissant and work at Boeing on the north side of KSTL. Made many short hops over to KBLV trying out new planes in FSX.@Tierborn, we're not gay HONEST (Not that there's anything wrong with that)but we do have a crush on FSX :( Steve

Hey Tim, I've noticed your avatar many times before and wanted to give you a shout-out.  I live up in Florissant and work at Boeing on the north side of KSTL. Made many short hops over to KBLV trying out new planes in FSX.@Tierborn, we're not gay HONEST (Not that there's anything wrong with that)but we do have a crush on FSX :( Steve

I have the same crush  :(

Hmmm, maybe it's time to return to flight simming and FSX.....

Yes I agree.  Things are going well for us simmers.  Especially since hardware has the stuff to run FSX the way it should be run.  But also big thanks to all the developers and the likes of Bojote and the ORBX team.  Can't wait to see what the next few years bring.Cheers

Hey Tim, I've noticed your avatar many times before and wanted to give you a shout-out. I live up in Florissant and work at Boeing on the north side of KSTL. Made many short hops over to KBLV trying out new planes in FSX.@Tierborn, we're not gay HONEST (Not that there's anything wrong with that)but we do have a crush on FSX :( Steve

Yep, I'm headed to the Scott AFB airshow in a bit. Anyone in the St. Louis area might see a stealth bomber which is due to flyover.

Yep, I'm headed to the Scott AFB airshow in a bit. Anyone in the St. Louis area might see a stealth bomber which is due to flyover.

Yeah, been there in the past. GREAT show :( HORRIFIC traffic jams :( . The blue angels usually park on our flight ramp (Boeing). I was lucky enough several years ago be be assigned to the photographer that was taking some shot right at sunset and he was nice enough to take a shot of me and a couple of buddies standing by the planes :( .Steve

Heheh, that post on the Hangar Chat won't be the last for the week after all! The Internet here @ Pangkal Pinang is just awesome!Anyways, I'm with you. Being that there's new techno around FSX, and with the limitations aside, I can only say that FSX is now enjoying its heyday.Let's just hope those Project Fokker guys actually realize how wide the gulf is between FS9 and FSX, of which the latter makes ultimate realism actually come to life! Besides, we FSX folks are now VC flyers, particularly because the sim directs us into flying from inside the virtual cockpit, and that VCs are more common in aircraft nowadays, I suppose that would make the perfect switch!

It's ironic that the closure of ACES was actually a blessing in disguise for MSFS enthusiasts since it ensured a stable (as in unchanging) platform for 3rd party developers to work with.