What improvements does Flight have over FSX?

[armchairpil0t 0]

I have to admit I am very disappointed by Flight, be it a free download or not. I knew it was limited to Hawaii, had almost no choice of airplanes, no support for add-ons and was mostly about flying missions and earning points. No problem, it is a different genre after all.But I fail to see significant improvements over FSX/Prepar3D in the graphics department, and over 5 years since the release of FSX I did expect some bloody new and absolutely stunning graphics.I see the same horrible default clouds as in FSX, I see the same autogen scenery as in FSX, a little improved water with the same reflections as in FSX (DirectX10). And where for God's sake is the AI traffic??? This reminds me of the lonely days with FS2000!So what are the actual improvements Flight offers over FSX? I sure overlooked something.Because the only really really cool improvement I see is the ability to walk out of your plane.

[alainneedle1 97]

No popping autogen, no stutterings, no BSOD, improved cockpit and all around shadows and more.......

[Sam Nicholson 0]

little improved water with the same reflections as in FSX (DirectX10)

All of FLIGHT is Dx9..?And well, I think the best improvements are the ones which allow it to be played by people like me.... a teenager with a medium-end laptop Improvements from this will build up, and i'm quite sure they'll at some point add AI traffic.

[Novation 534]

The lighting is quite a bit better... autogen receives lighting, which looks good. autogen also receives terrain shading, so they don't appear brightly lit in the shadow of a hill. Autogen trees move and they cast realistic shadows.AC interiors also have shadow effects.Yes, the clouds look poor... they really need some high resolution textures, to stop them looking like blobs.I still see some agn pop-up and the LOD radius is too low for my liking... has this changed since the beta, as I have not tried the release build.The beta was untweakable, even using a devs advice; has this changed?... do cfg changes stick using custom=1

[HiFlyer 9,361]

Well one of the things I suspect people miss, because the sim carries it off so well is the number of objects! A zillion trees and buildings with shadows. High quality water reflections, cockpit shadowing, improved runway illumination by landing lights, smoother frame rates, no extreme texture stretching and distortion on sheer rock faces, complete lack of blurries.........All things that require max settings in Fsx, and done so smoothly by the improved engine that we barely notice it.

Edited February 29, 2012 by HiFlyer'

[armchairpil0t 0]

Glad you are enjoying it, because I am not.I installed it on a 4 year old PC (AMD AthlonX2), and Flight produces a lower frame rate than FSX. I only get fluid movement with no discernible individual frames if set all graphics to low. With FSX, I get decent 25-30FPS with medium graphics settings, no chance for this in Flight. So I am certainly not getting a smoother experience than with FSX.Even worse, I see very little improvement in the graphics quality. Nice water reflections, ships and clouds reflecting in the water - we had all this in FSX too, and with DirectX 10 the reflections were as amazing as in Flight. It obviously looks stunning compared with FS9, so I wonder if those having a WOW experience are coming directly from FS9.I would say Flight has much less graphics improvements over FSX than any MSFS version since FS95 had over its predecessor - despite the gap between MSFS versions being 2-3 years only.With FS98, we got 3D graphics acceleration.With FS2000, we got realistic elevated terrain instead of a flat world.With FS2002, we got AI traffic and autogen scenery.With FS2004, we got a vastly expanded ATC, improved and climate zone-specific autogen scenery, weather themes and real-world weather.With FSX, we got stunning new ground textures, road traffic, a real abundance of autogen (at the cost of FPS), and in the DirectX10 mode, amazing-looking water. We got aircraft with bumpmaps, new reflections, flexing wings and shadows. Oh, and we got an SDK out of the box.With Flight, we got... the ability to walk out of the plane and a slightly better lighted autogen???I am just wondering if Flight limits the graphics features even at the highest scenery setting on slower PCs, so that I am not seeing anything. I remember a demo screenshot from 2011 that seemed to depict cloud shadows on the ground - but I don't see them in Flight.

[japascoe 98]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned flight dynamics yet, isn't that what flight simulators are supposed to be about? You can control the Icon's pitch using the throttle due to the thrust line being above the centre of gravity, which I thought was pretty neat. Stalls also seem to be modelled much better, though to be fair it's been a while since I've tried one in the default FSX planes.

[Gibbage 199]

Glad you are enjoying it, because I am not.I installed it on a 4 year old PC (AMD AthlonX2),

Were you expecting a miracle? In Flight, you CAN walk on water, but Flight is no miracle worker. What video card do you have? Did you check Flights min specs?

[armchairpil0t 0]

Were you expecting a miracle?

No, but after reading posts here about how much smoother the Flight experience is compared with FSX, I expected at least a similar performance to FSX.

[n4gix 4,947]

Being a "lighting fanatic" I'm enormously pleased that at long last, landing and taxi lights actually ILLUMINATE any object on which they fall, even in the daytime! The vc cockpit lighting is phenomenal as well. I'm still trying to figure out how it was done so I can duplicate that in FSX... :LMAO:

[Gibbage 199]

Sorry for my rude reply. You didnt earn that. FSX works GREAT on old hardware. IF you have an old X2 and an old ATI 9800 or so, youll get 25-30FPS if you tweak it right. Flight works great on new(ish) hardware. On my system, FSX gives me 25FPS at 1280x720 with a lot of settings maxed. In Flight, I get 60FPS at 1920x1200 with EVERYTHING maxed. Thats the key. If you have really old hardware (below the min spec) then it will not work as good, and may not even look as good as FSX.

[Canuck55 0]

You get what you pay for from MS. Zero outlay = Zero product. I tried it, full realism etc, I'm no novice btw, been simming since the PSION sim of the early 80's, the flight model is dire, the graphics are comical. And as for getting online? I have a MSLive account, but would it recognise the fact, I will leave y'all to guess the answer to that question. I have removed it from my HD. Thanks but no thanks.

[Guest firehawk44]

I like the fact you can actually walk around. FSX has always had difficulties with that capability.Best regards,Jim

[DrumsArt 270]

@ Canuck55Off topic, but I started with PSION too on Sinclair Spectrum. I have always in working order ;-) Btw I agree with your post...Regards,Richard Portier

[SpiritFlyer 987]

I like the fact you can actually walk around. FSX has always had difficulties with that capability.Best regards,Jim

Hey Jim,How do you walk around? I have been trying to see the battleship, but can't get close with a plane. :Nerd:Kind regards,