If both sims support GMAX or FSDS or whatever tool has been used for development, what exactly differentiates the difference between a FS2002 and a FS2004 file without any SDKs out yet? I guess what I am getting at is will the FS2004 aircraft and scenery in the library work in FS2002, or are they FS2004 only? I'm still on FS2002 after a fresh install and all the tweaks and still bogging down.Thanks,Chris

A couple of months ago I heard that FS2004 aircraft don't work in FS2002 ... it's something to do with the extra functionality i.e. clickable VC controls etc.http://album.atomic-systems.com/showPic.ph...rbus_Advert.gif

hi,i dunno,but fwiw:i've used several aircraft (dash 7 ice recon,767 ifdg,etc) in my fs2k2 installation,other than changing the airfile for a true fs2k2 airfile i did not have to change anything,they work okay.scenery is different,iirc ms used slightly different lat/long's for a lot of the airports,meaning they're not in exactly the same spot they were in fs2k2.hihTom.

This reminds me of when FS2002 came out and everyone was talking about how FS2004 wouldn't be backwards compatible with pre-2002 scenery/aircraft. All of that turned out to be speculation, since MS never said anything of the sort.>If both sims support GMAX or FSDS or whatever tool has been>used for development, what exactly differentiates the>difference between a FS2002 and a FS2004 file For the most part, things are the same. There are a few notable exceptions, however. There are lots of post in the Aircraft and Scenery design sections of the forum, but I'll briefly points out some things that were noticed.Most aircraft and panels work fine. There was some discussion about the airfiles being slightly different, but I haven't noticed this, and I think that these must be the purists - hard core guys who could pick this out (I'm not that good). The "dynamic shine" that we added to aircraft seems less powerful too. Also, certain gauges didn't size properly in FS2004, but I think these were custom gauges - all of my .cab gauges work fine and I personally didn't have any issues with the models I created.Third-party aircraft that designed their own modules for interfacing with FS2002 usually don't work, because (I think) the developers sometimes went beyond the SDK when designing the modules, or those parts of the SDK have changed.For scenery, again, most seems to work, with some minor exceptions. The most notable is probably the change in AFD files, which is why we are patiently waiting for Lee Swordy to create a new AFCAD, which will let us modify these files. There are some changes to the autogen, and VTP layers, but these are smaller things that I think we have worked out for ourselves. I can verify that all the scenery I designed will work with some minor changes, and a new AFCAD file.Well, maybe that was more than what you were looking for. A significant point is that some designers may no longer be supporting FS2002 since even those small changes may not be deemed to be worth the effort to support an older sim. However, if you see an add-on listed for FS2004, try it out on your older FS2002 if you are using that.- Martin

I have to pretty much agree with Martin... at least about scenery. I have installed a few FS2004 sceneries into FS2K2 that worked just fine. But it doesn't always work out.... I tried the new FS2004 version of Timberline Lodge recently released but as I approached Mt. Hood (where the Lodge is located), I got a 'Scenery Object Missing' error window. This isn't a complaint because, after all, I KNEW it was FS2004 scenery, it's just an observation.So if you find some FS2004 scenery that you think you'd like, you lose nothing except some time by trying it out. (If the description indicates it's exclusively for FS2004, I probably wouldn't waste my time installing it in FS2K2 though.) Good luck-Lindy