I must admit I am enjoying my latest toy. This time around I decided to save my pennies and build a 3ghz P4 with mostly all of the good stuff I could afford, yoke/pedals/TrackIR, when FS2004 came out. As I got the rustiness out and got back into flight SIM shape (I have been off and on since FS98) and having everything tweaked to my liking I want to start adding 3rd party essentials! What are your recommendations on the essential must haves? Maybe this could be a topic for the TIPS section?I'm looking more along the lines of utilities for weather, flight planning, scenery/aircraft changes, etc. I have read a bunch today and now just want to hear from the flight SIM community on what you like.I don't mind paying for apps if they are worth it.Further down the line I would like to get into vatsim, but I'm a ways off from feeling comfortable in that.Thanks!PS: Anyone into the flight SIM magazines? I never subscribed to one but I have purchased them from time to time when paroosing a bookstore and found them fun to read. I think it was Computer pilot. Any recommendations on your favorite SIM Magazine?

For me, there are a couple of add-ons I find essential.First, there is the Mesh and Landclass from www.fsgenesis.net I believe it is on sale. Yes there are other sources of mesh and landclass, but Justin's are some of the most comprehensive are continually being updated.Then there is Active Camera 2004 . It allows a flyby view, as well as the ability to walk around your aircraft, change views and zoom in and out in the virtual cockpit via the mouse. You can even walk through the cabin if it is modeled in the aircraft you are flying. It is payware, but there is a free demo available that lets you try out all the functions. Be sure to read the manual or things won't work right. You can find it here in the Avsim Library.Tony

>For me, there are a couple of add-ons I find essential.>>First, there is the Mesh and Landclass from www.fsgenesis.net >I believe it is on sale. Yes there are other sources of mesh>and landclass, but Justin's are some of the most comprehensive>are continually being updated.Thanks for the tip! I'm at the site now reviewing it. Question, do you feel there is much of a performance hit using this product?

Active Camera only allows the user to explore new views and cabins. It doesnt do anything else really so a performance hit is dependent on what you do with it ;)Excellent product and really one of those Must have'sJohnP 2.53 GHZ512 RAMWINXPGFORCE 4 128MB Ti4600http://homepage.eircom.net/~eamonnmca/images/logo_ba.JPGwww.bavirtual.co.uk Senior Captain Simflight.com Staff Reviewerhttp://vatsim.pilotmedia.fi/statusindicato...tor=OD1&a=a.jpg

How about the scenery from fsgenisis as far as performance hits?It apears I have some researching to do. I dont really understand what the differences are between Landmarks, Terrain Mesh, 76.4m Terrain, 38.2m Enhanced Terrain, 9.6m Terrain, and Photoreal categories :-(

I don't see much if any performance hit from either product. Others may disagree. With your new machine, I don't think you will notice and degrade in performance.Tony

Has anyone had the opportunity to compare fsgenesis with MegaScenery?

Mega Scenery includes a mesh along with actual satellite imagery. It is very large and beautiful. However, Justin's stuff improves EVERYWHERE you fly, not just Socal.Let me explain.Mesh is basically the wireframe underneath the textures of the scenery. It is what creates the shape of mountains, hills, etc.Default MS mesh is roughly 152m mesh. That is, it is made up by sampling elevation points that are roughly 450ft apart.This can cause some serious rounding of mountains, and some monuments, such as Devils Tower, Stone Mountain, or Meteor crater can be left completely out.Justin's mesh comes in 76m, 38.m and 9.6m. The lower the number the more "complex" and accurate it is.Also, the lower the number, the larger the file is. 9.6m is good for really specialized areas in the world. Such as Grand Canyon, or Hawaii, because of the very complex topology of those areas.38m mesh is a good base mesh. It offers 4x the accuracy of default mesh and is very reasonable.Stay away from the 76m stuff as Justin admitted to me that the data used for the 76m is not as good as the 38m stuff.Most of us, once we see the difference, can't go back, but you should be aware of some of the idocycracies of mesh. Airports in Microsoft are all perfectly flat. Airports in the real world are not. Thus some airports may have several different "elevations" on it depending where you are. The "posted" elevation of an airport is the highest point. Thus that is where the airport "sits". However, the first dataset right at the end of the runway, may be 75 or 100 ft lower. This results in many airports that are rendered on "mesa's" and it a quirk that you have to live with until MS allows runways to have slopes.If mesh is the wire frame.Landclass is the pattern. A landclass determines whether a section of land is farm, residential, forest, grass, urban, etc. etc.Microsoft's landclass is very coarse, which causes the Flight sim to fetch the same texture over and over again. This causes the dreaded "repeating" pattern you can see at altitude.The landclass from Justin is much more varied. Thus the rural textures are often broken up more by groves of trees and such, breaking up the repeating pattern. Land class can even be used to designate small little "towns". Land class is not specific, it still uses "generic" textures, but it "feels" more real because in general, fields are displayed as fields, neighborhoods as neighborhoods, and urban areas as urban areas.I highly recommend both the US Mesh 38m (all 5 regions) and the landclass. With 6 files, you will get 45% off of you order, and that makes it a total must buy in my book. And you will be amazed.

Don't forget FSNavigator, it's a must and get FScene textures for that added realisim.Dave FisherCYYZ

wathomas777, great job on the reply.. I loaded up on fsgenesis product. You really CAN'T blow it off with that bundle discount deal. Highly recommended. Spent a couple hours it seems there between this morning and last night. Going to be downloading a burning CD's like a mad man this weekend. :-)SO..Scenery done.FSNAVIGATOR seems the way to go with flight planning.ActiveSky seems to be the way to go for weather.CHARTS? I forgot to ask about CHARTS? Is the Jeppeson SIMCHARTS worth the cost? Thanks thus far!

While I agree with all the suggestions so far, my No. 1 recommendation is FS Navigator.This program, along with even a cheap second monitor and video card makes the sim a whole lot more fun. It's marriage to the autopilot, makes flying so much easier. Further, you always know where your at, where your going, and you can easily move to any new location. And all the navigation and airport information you could ever want is right there before your eyes.This program was done "right".Bob (Lecanto, Fl)AMD, Athlon XP, 1800+MSI, K7T266 XP ProPC 2100 DDR, 1024 MBXP, Home Edition Elsa GLadiac 920, GF3/64Mb andPNY, Verto nVidia TNT 2-M64/32WD, 100 MB, 7200, Ultra 100Sound Blaster, Audigy MP3+CH Prod, VPP Yoke - Sound CardCH Prod, Pedals - Sound Card

I recommend FSHotSeat. It gives you:A copilot & stewardessCopilot takes you through checklists or performs them himself and tunes all the radios along the route.Fly by view which is nearest tower when taking off or landing (so dont need activecamera)Radio that plays your mp3sEnroute weather reportsPermanent log and grading system.Good for both GA & Commercial.Fsterrain has also lowered their prices on mesh. The whole USA is a 6cd set for $35 and free shipping. I ordered it yesterday so I'll let you know how it turns out.I also have the dreamfleet C310 & C152 which I love.Next is probably Ultimate Traffic when they finally release and then the next incarnation of weather center.Speed.

I have to admit the dreamfleet C310 & C152 are nice add-ons. I have recently been flying around in a Cessna Centurion II from carenado.

I must also put my reccomendation in for FSGenesis. There is not a real framerate hit, and if you are on slower machine, there are ways to improve it if there is...If you want to see screen shots of before and after, just go to my website. I just made it Monday, and still in the early stages, but I have included alot of before and after type pics. Especially for the landclass section. If you are a low and slow kind of guy, then in my opinion, the 38.2 mesh and the landclass are a must have. Once you buy it you always get free updates. And he is constantly updating due to user request.