I didn't want to hijack another topic here in this forum, so instead decided to start a new one.Credit to L.Adamson for posting his reply in that thread. I will quote his reply below:-----------------------------------------------------"Over my many years of sim flying, as well as being a "real pilot", I've had numerous situations in MSFS, FLY/FLYII, X-Plane, CFS2, Flight Unlimited, IL2 Sturmovick, and even the old Pro-Pilot that have seemed very real!There are many aircraft for MSFS that have an excellent movement of dampening in pitch & roll, which gives it the effect of riding on air. Just have to be at the right place & the right time......I guess!L.Adamson"-----------------------------------------------------To L.Adamson and all:You know..I've read your post a few times and know you are on to something- and I completely agree! Thing is- just WHAT is it that gives us those moments of "realism" while flying our simulators? Maybe it's something in my coffee lol but seriously there is something that happens every once in a while that brings out the "wow" in what we are doing when we get in front of the computer to fly.The wow effect happened even back in the sublogic days for me, but not nearly as often. Then came my first real batch of "wow's" in ATP by sub logic. That sim had me hooked for life.Years later in a more advanced sim (can't remember but I think it was FS98...Perhaps it was the first time I flew into a cloud, albeit a solid block of gray back in the day, but the strobe "flash" effect that made the view completely white outside the aircraft window really caught me by surprise and all I could think at that time was "WOW"!Or yes- the same white flash effects in the original X-plane while taking off into a thunderstorm, this time by lightning not the strobe.You mention FLY!- Now that sim had numerous wow's.I don't think it's the coffee, but the things that catch us by surprise that give us those "moments". The things we don't expect get the prize. Randomize MS...randomize! Clouds that look different all the time-never the same shape, never the same thickness.If we know and expect that as soon as ATIS comes alive on the radio ATC calls EVERY SINGLE time at that exact moment to give us our landing clearence instructions, that gives me no surprise. I expect it and know it, therefore I probably get bored of it sooner or later.

First WOW ever, with a PC flight simulator was "turning - around a point" over San Francisco with Pro-Pilot & a low wing single. I just don't remember what airplane it was :)But as I moved the aileron control, the look & percieved "feel" of dampening as the wing bobbed up & down against the horizon was near perfect! Just seemed very real!L.Adamson

A lot of things in FS2004 gets me to say WOW. The scenery is one. AI Traffic is another, especially with the addon TRAFFIC 2004.I just think it's pretty neat to be landing at San Francisco and see a United Airlines 747 landing on runway 28R and me landing on 28L.

I was remembering my first WOW moment, and it too was with Pro Pilot 99.It was amazing the first time I approached a cloud layer and saw "puffy clouds" or the first time Mount Rainier looked as if it could reach out and grab you.Similar WOW moments occured in FS2002/FS2004, when I circled Mount McKinnley in Alaska.I realized that recently, with FS9, I have had very few WOW moments, and discovered that it was due to stutters, texture loads, and other things that would rip me from the suspension of disbelief.So I did one of the hardest things I have done in awhile.I moved some sliders left.First came the traffic. Running UT in 100% traffic, I had no idea of the hit I was taking, so I moved it back to 75%Next came autogen. I moved that back to normal, while scaling back scenery complexity one space to Very Dense.The resulting flight qualified as a WOW moment, as I flew a Beech 1900 in my VA's colors from TriCities to Portland Intl, at sunset.The flight was smooth the entire way. Some real weather did make the clouds come in, and if I looked the right way, I could tell some FPS was dropping, so I maintained a straight ahead view most of the time.The resulting approach into 28R at KPDX was smooth as silk, and I don't remember a single stutter.Looking back at PP99, I was amazed at its smoothness, but also realized that the scenery complexity of this sim was simplistic in comparison to FS9. Even with Autogen at Normal, I had a much more complex environment with twice the visibility of PP99.The difference: PP99 had it's complexity at max. I was trying to do the same with FS9. Once I dialed back some settings, I found a much more immersive flight environment, with higher resolution, and much more complex graphics.The verdict: Do yourself a favor and push some of your sliders left, you will get a pretty good performance hit, and eliminate much of what deprives you of enjoying this sim.A 2.0 Ghz (2400+) Athlon CPU with a 128MB 5200FX Geforce graphics card is entirely capable of giving a pretty convincing simulation of flight. I must remember to set my graphics and trafic density to allow my card to perform at it's peak efficiency. Driving my FS9 settings too high, will simply frustrate me, and keep me from truly enjoying the sim, by having me eternally search for that "sweet spot" so that I can have a couple more buildings or trees on the ground, or a couple more aircraft in the air.Moving sliders left, is not a sign of weakness, but simply a tool to help you optimize your flight sim experience. Even Microsoft's "ULTRA HIGH" setting doesn't max out scenery complexity and autogen sliders.The day will come when you can buy a rig that will let you run FS9 full tilt, just like we can run FS98 right now. But until that day, compromise your ego a bit, and adjust the sim to fit your CPU. Stop trying to squeeze every FPS to get that little extra bit of eye candy. You'll only take away from your experience, and frustrate yourself in the process.

My "flight simulation wow moments" have been going on well before the "computer days"... First one was this giant arcade machine in the '70s, and it was probably older than that.... You stood and used a joystick and throttle to control this giant... model.. thing... of a terrain with buildings, land features, and enemies I don't quite remember. The model was actually built on a large treadmill, which constantly went around - when you pushed forward, it tilted away from you to drop your eye level near the ground. When you banked, it tilted and moved to the side. I guess you got to shoot at stuff, but I felt like I was doing 300 mph over the rooftops. WOW.There was this little tabletop game in the '70s too - I seem to remember it being called "Jet Pilot" - A little joystick and throttle, a little plane on a stick, and another treadmill-type rolling landscape. I wanted one so bad. I got one, and did my first flight - it WAS like I was over the treetops. But it broke in about 10 minutes, and my mom brought it back.In the late '70s, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, which features an Aviation wing, had a physical flight simulator - you had to be 13 but I snuck on when I was 11 - it was little, open cockpit seat with a joystick and a control panel. You wore headphones, and the operator told you what to do - when the speed got to be enough, you pull back, and the cockpit - seat - thing you're on rises to about 15 feet. Very cool.A "WWI Aces" toy which had a sheet of mylar with planes printed on it; it was fed into a "machine gun" which projected it on the wall, and as you shot, it marked the mylar, while making machine gun noises. HE11 YES.Lunar lander on TRS-80.747 Simulator on the Timex Sinclair. (Hey, whatever.)Rendezvous and Flight Simulator on Apple ][...It's funny how, and I'm guilty of this, people complain about the lack of realism. That's true, to a large degree - realism is good... But always, simulation is a test of how far you can suspend your disbelief. How easy it used to be, and how in many ways it becomes harder as time goes by. To find joy in moments of simulated flight is why we do it, I suppose... to scratch an itch. Sometimes as you turn toward a winter sunset's glare as it flares across your screen, with rivers reflecting the sky, and clouds seemingly chasing it away, and you feel the warmth on your face and of the cabin heater for a second.. Oh, nevermind.

Only been using fs for a few years since downloading an Atari ST emulator and later buying Fs98. Was just getting into it and had downloaded the Fs98 'Norway98' scenery package. Was flying in the north and within the same minute discovered two things:-There was something called 3d acceleration and I could turn it on in Fs98-There was a setting called scenery density which I could set to maxSuddenly I was flying in these huge mountains with hardware rendering. Man, that was a moment!P

A recent night flight from Hyannis Ma. to Albany NY. with the Aeroworx Beech 200 and USA roads!

Takeing off, i know its just a sim, but i just get a good feeling when i lift off, that im free. Just floating in a beautiful blue clear sky above everything else, especially with a sunset, knowing that the day is just about to begin, and what a better way than in a plane. Its even a better feeling in real life, and i think about how much i want to be a commercial pilot in real life after i finish HS and college.Adam

Yes- good point too. Something about watching out the "wing" view and lifting off, seeing the wings "flex" and hearing the engines roar. And it's really interesting reading what everyone has to say here!

I have lots of "wow" moments in FS9. I'm not a RW pilot so my moments tend not to be sparked by any sort of "recognition" of anything. Often though I will be struck by something that simply feels authentic - something that feels the way it seems it should feel. It might just be hitting a bit of turbulent air and seeing the world outside the window start bobbing up and down. Or it might be loading up a flight at dusk - the lighting is often just drop dead gorgeous. Or loading up real world weather for my area, taking a flight, and then going outside and noticing the sky looks uncannily like what I'd just been flying around in in the sim. I've had FS9 wow moments watching TV too - I've seen shows about flying that have featured "pilot's eye" footage and I've often been struck by how much it looks like what I see in the sim. Or photos of panels in magazines that look nearly exactly like what I've been flying in FS9 - that always brings a smile to my face. I often find myself thinking "man, is this ever cool." :)

Nice thread this one:)Had many wow's during the years.The latest i can come by was the first time i tried PMDG's 737.(Advertising:))I remembered plotting in the route,and watchin perfect non-jaggy curving lines with the fligth route popping up on the ND.This has been one of those things highest on my wish list regarding to glass cockpit addons.None had done it before,and when i finally got this bird in my hands,that was a WOW:)

Two major events over the years.1. GPS within flightsim.2. First time I heard "voice" using SBThere are "wow" things for this hobby in the future. For example "shoot" (search in library) gets a present day "wow".Regards,Ed

My first real "WOW", of many, was over LA, while looking back into the the passenger area of a small jet, and seeing all the outside scenery properly coordinated in every little window.Bob (Lecanto, Fl)

Many small "WOW" moments over the years, but by far the biggest one at the beginning of the year.I bought a PFC Jetliner Yoke (some lbs weight on each axis) and simultaneously tried Project Tupolevs Tu-154 with its custom input routines.There it was, what I really missed before : The feel of a big and heavy "hydraulic" jet with a bit delayed reaction of the control surfaces. Still unbeaten. Michael

One of my first "WOW's" was playing "Death Maze" on a TRS-80. That was followed closely by programming my own "Flight Simulator" as my first program on a Vic-20 in 1981. It was so great to see a green ground and a blue sky with slash characters ("/") defining my runway and being able to go up. I soon ran out of my available 5K memory though and had to wait to get a C-64 which I then learned assembly language and wowed myself writing raster/plasma routines as well as a version of Donkey Kong, followed thereafter by the Amiga and writing even slicker assembly plasma/graphic/raster demos. Oh yeah not to mention F/A-18 Interceptor by Bob Dinnerman.Carmine http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/Images/wave.gif