I recently installed FU2 and FU3 for the first time on my Windows Vista laptop thanks to the posts in this forum, I can't believe they both work pretty well lol. I bought both new when each came out, and haven't flown them in years. Especially enjoying FU2 again, for some reason I like it more than FU3. Can't say I'll do much to modify them, I'm just happy to have them going again to fiddle around a bit, but I'm experiencing a few annoyances, which I have seen mentioned and not resolved in previous posts, just checking to see if there are any more thoughts on them:1. FPS drop when ATC menu opensThis actually wasn't an issue for me back in the day, any drop in framerate was barely noticeable. But on my current system it makes a huge difference, drops from 30 or 40 fps to 10-15.2. 'Skiddish' airplanesI saw mention of airplanes skidding sideways when taxiing here:http://forum.avsim.n...__1#entry622042I'm seeing this in FU2 as well, in all planes in all locations, not continuously but at random. This is something else I can't recall being an issue back in the day. At least I spend most of my time in the air!These may just be graphics issues, don't know if there's anything that can be done about these either:3. AI TagsThe AI tags (Alt+L in FU2) don't seem to be showing up very well; only viewable from a few perspectives, and flickering at best. Did the key combo for that change in FU3? Because I'm not seeing them at all there.4. Haze in FU2Changing the visibility in the weather menu doesn't really seem to change the flight visibility in the game very much. I do recall having this issue even on an old setup with a Voodoo Banshee card. With that card's original drivers, the game seemed flawless graphics wise. But I lost that CD, and when I first installed newer drivers for that card I noticed this visibility issue. Same thing on newer systems. Taking it down to 1 mile does increase the haze, but can still see a good 5-10 miles. No problems with FU3 haze, though it's always seemed oddly yellowish/pinkish to me rather than white/gray?Any thoughts?Some info on my current setup:Dell XPS M1530 (laptop)Vista 32Intel Core2Duo T8300 2.4 GHz4 GB RAM256 MB Nvidia GeForce 8600M GTThanks and (almost) Happy New Year!Ray Davidowski

Hi Ray, and Happy New Year to you too.I have a heavily modded FU2 + FU3 combination on XP3 with an Nvidia 7950 and also get a FPS drop when comms text shows, though not as severe as yours. I don't find it's much of a problem unless I'm on base / final with a lot of AI about, with labels showing. Then it's enough to make me think (again) 'Should have reduced the AI before starting this flight...' I haven't found a solution but I don't think it's graphics-card related as I had the same problem with my previous card, an ATI 3650.The label hotkey command is still Alt+L, on a toggle. I'm not certain that this is what you meant but if you have clouds in the sky on the same part of your monitor screen they will obscure the text regardless of where they appear to be in terms of perspective.There was once a heavily customised and annotated fu3.cfg available in the library which had a number of alternative weather settings for giving different colours of sunlight and a huge number of other improvements, not just weather. Personally I prefer the golden effect as it makes sunsets far prettier. If no-one else can direct you to the file (assuming it's still here) I'll post an extract in the next few days. I can't do it now as my internet comes courtesy of my employer...Later,D

Hi again.This is probably a little late now, but that's the drawback to having internet in one town and FU3 in another.I was wrong-- labels show with Ctrl+L, and at the weekend I noticed that some 3-d scenery objects can obscure the text too.Apologies for the mistake and the tardiness,D

Okay, yea Ctrl+L does it in FU3 and the labels do show (not sure how I missed trying that the first time).Had an interesting hiccup in the meantime. One night I had both programs working, the next morning they both threw up 'reference memory' errors, not even getting to the home screens. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling several times, same thing. Then tried the only thing I could think of that would change the startup behavior at all, I added the "nomovie" line to the .cfg's and they both work again. And my Windows Updates are set to manual, so I don't see how anything could have changed from one day to the next. Weird...Ray

The "no movie" fix is a must these days since recent versions of Windows don't come with the video codec to run the FU III intro movie. The other option is do download the codec and install it (indeo codec).

Hey pasture pilot & Dave (+ anyone else......)i'm also experiencing issues with the 'slidding taxi planes' .....did you have any luck?Cheers

Nah...Couldn't get any joy at all out of a clean FU2 installation. Not even any 2d panels so I gave up in short order. I suppose there may be a keyboard command to make them appear. Dunno...I'm not sure what the sliding AI problem actually is; aircraft in FU3 seem to go where they should. My AI behave a bit strangely where there's a sharp corner on a taxigraph node; they pivot on the node but that's understandable so I suppose the problem to be something else.Sorry.Regards,D

It isn't an AI issue, Dave. This problem affects the plane that you are controlling. It "slides" slightly left or right when moving along certain taxiways. In fact, when I used FU3, I noticed that applying a very small amount of rudder opposite to the "slide" didn't make any difference...until a certain point was reached. Then the plane would suddenly "snap" back in the opposite direction, resulting in an annoying "snake like" movement when taxiing. As a person who likes to nail the centreline of taxiways and runways, that was very frustrating!

Hi Chris.No, I don't think I''ve ever noticed such an effect. I can imagine it would become irritating very quickly. The nearest thing I've noticed is when taxilines behave as though they're an inch or two above the ground on which the aircraft is rolling-- they often give a sort of parallax movement as I roll by. I don't suppose that's the issue either as my planes always seem to roll ok relative to the ground; it's only the taxilines that seem to be faulty and I'm sure that wouldn't affect the effectiveness of the rudder. (They also disappear regularly, or only appear when on very short final).Is the problem apparent when using the spot & VC views, or only over the 2d panels?Does anyone know if the problem is confined to specific taxiways or to specific airports? I wouldn't mind experimenting. ... I suppose I ought to read through the other threads too...Cheers,D