Today it occured to me, as I was at 37,000 feet in my:PMDG 737-800/900, looking at myUSA Roads, set on "Major", with myActive Camera and FSUIP keeping things humming, playing on myP4 3.2 gig with 1 gig memory, and my800XT Pro ATI Radeon with 256 meg frame buffer, viewing it all on myViewSonic 19" flatscreen monitorit occured to me that what I was seeing was as good as anything else out there. The graphics are truly state of the art, and the function of the aircraft systems is good enough for practice...good enough for me.We are really at a turning point in flight simulation with this release. I offer that the next incarnation of flight sim will be released in a regular and a pro version once again...The only thing about pro will be it will be a true PCTD, and a myriad of physical cockpits will become available from third party folks catering to the PCTD market.Nirvanna is closer that we may think.My 2 cents of course.bt

I'm with you on the Nirvanna thing-but of course many others prefer to see only hell... :-)Simply astounding what we have now-the future boggles the mind.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg

Hm, it occurred to me as I smoothly brought the throttles up to 2.1 EPR and began my takeoff roll. Right on cue at Vr, I smoothly yanked the yoke back (we're flying on cables, you need to put in some muscle), before calling on my first officer to bring the gear up as I pushed the nose forward to gain a bit of speed. At this point, I shunted the lever on my DC-9's throttle quadrant forward, opening up the valve to pressurize the cabin as I simultaneously armed the A/C Auto shutoff and switched off the landing lights, before stowing them with another flick of the switch. Completely satisfied that everything was in order, I lowered the nose to pick up even more speed as I retracted the flaps, spooled the engines back a bit to 2.0 EPR, and began using the trim to regulate speed as my "lead sled" slowly gains altitude. At 10,000 feet, the nose was smoothly lowered with pitch trim, until eventually reaching cruise altitude. As I engaged the autopilot servos and set V/S to zero on the dial, I smoothly manipulated the throttles until I finally hit the 'sweet spot' and the airspeed finally settled just where I wanted it. We are now tracking the VOR I wanted to track almost precisely, only needing me to bank a bit every few minutes to correct course.At this point, I turned off the seat belt signs, breathed a sigh of relief, and switched to external view to take a look at my ship. The pressurization looks good, our speed is good, our course is good, and my bucket of 1967-vintage bolts is holding together after 30 years of faithful service. For now, I can take it all in, until I have to tune in to the next VOR on our path. The aircraft and sounds I made myself. The panel was made by a DC-9 captain. The FDE was made by the best in the business.Cost to me? Nothing.Life doesn't get much better than this.

The new economy: everyone has money but me. And Erick.

btacon says:"it occured to me that what I was seeing was as good as anything else out there. The graphics are truly state of the art, and the function of the aircraft systems is good enough for practice...good enough for me."Repeat:"...good enough for me."And therein lies the secret. Some people are never pretty enough or rich enough or famous enough or powerful enough or see a high enough FPS level on their flight sim to satify them. Others do the best that they can, with what they have, then they accept the result and are happy with it.My system is less powerful than bt's but FS9 performance is, "...good enough for me." Would bt be happy with my FS9 performance, would you? Who cares! It is "...good enough for me."R-

The level of Nirvana is directly proportional to the size of your wallet or the amount of available credit on your card!;)

And imagination. Let's not forget imagination. For all the sim gives, or doesn't give, us, it all means nothing if you can't 'live' the situation you're presented with.My wife stands at the back of the room sometime mumbling to her friends "He thinks it's real, he thinks it's real". What she doesn't understand is that, in my mind, it is, and that adds the extra dimension that no hardware or software can ever give me.Immerse yourself. And for those with RadeonNvidia980000000000005600UltraX cards who have no idea what I'm talking about, that means reading the book occasionally instead of only watching the movie.Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

I agree, except for the PCTD thing. Not enough demand to outweight the certification costs.

"I agree, except for the PCTD thing. Not enough demand to outweight the certification costs."Why would you say that? Look at X-Plane. Somehow I think this certification for PCTD is not so difficult.My 2cents.bt

Mark,Imagination? Ditto squared and well said.I am on a RTW at present on my 737,(with Bruce Beneways panel) and look forward to the planning and execution of the next flight.I have to throw out passengers and baggage to make some fuel loads last me, but I am tied into the fact that I am taking ME in my imagination around the world again. So I use a 737! Why not, its my plane my sim my Fs World.Yeah, its all so good.