Three years ago I was quite active here, a reviewer for a bit, but sometimes life has a way of slapping us right out of our hobbies. Anyway, I am once again in a position to consider pursuing flight simulation. I have deliberately not read anything before reporting back in with my "retrodictions" -- things I would have expected to have happened during the last three years. So if I hit any sore points, it is entirely innocent,

 

So, these are my retrodictions

 

1. After a slow start, Microsoft Flight has gained a respectable following as third party add-ons enhance its appeal to the sim crowd.

 

2. Level D released its 757 to rave reviews and is the exclusive add-on for a large and vocal segment of the hobby, (This brings the current number of 757 releases up to 18, by the way.)

 

3. Aerosoft released an advanced version of their Airbus X, but it remains plagued with problems while an ambitious new project has been announced, generating much buzz.

 

4. Captain Sim released a brilliant new product to howls by those who swear they'll never buy another Captain Sim product because of something they didn't like in an FS9 release.

 

5. Ariane sank into oblivion without ever releasing their mapping add-on.

 

6. PMDG 737s remains the standard by which all else -- not just add-ons, but everything -- is judged.

 

7. The mean age of the hobby is 68.

 

8. Advances in computers over the last three years mean virtual aviators now need only spend 30 hrs./ week talking about new wonder-tweaks and fiddling with their computers in order to run FSX to their satisfaction,

 

9. Several much-anticipated (and hyped) projects have fallen by the wayside.

 

So, now I'll hit the forums and see how I did.

 

Tim

Welcome back, Tim. I'd say your predictions check out, mostly. :-D

 

/ sent from a mobile thingy /

 

 

Best keep your day job.

This was one of the funniest and most enjoyable post I ever read on AVSIM :lol:

Three years ago I was quite active here, a reviewer for a bit, but sometimes life has a way of slapping us right out of our hobbies. Anyway, I am once again in a position to consider pursuing flight simulation. I have deliberately not read anything before reporting back in with my "retrodictions" -- things I would have expected to have happened during the last three years. So if I hit any sore points, it is entirely innocent,

 

So, these are my retrodictions

 

1. After a slow start, Microsoft Flight has gained a respectable following as third party add-ons enhance its appeal to the sim crowd.

Unfotunately no, MS has dropped Flight like it's hot and the sim crowd still refuses to see that the underlying flight model is actually very good.

 

2. Level D released its 757 to rave reviews and is the exclusive add-on for a large and vocal segment of the hobby, (This brings the current number of 757 releases up to 18, by the way.)

LevelD 757 is still in development (one assumes). I think for FSX the current payware total stands at 2 (CS and QW?)

 

3. Aerosoft released an advanced version of their Airbus X, but it remains plagued with problems while an ambitious new project has been announced, generating much buzz.

Actually the problems have been fixed and new features have been added. For what it wants to do (be a mid-range, medium complexity sim) it is excellent.

 

4. Captain Sim released a brilliant new product to howls by those who swear they'll never buy another Captain Sim product because of something they didn't like in an FS9 release.

Nope

 

5. Ariane sank into oblivion without ever releasing their mapping add-on.

I don't know if they ever released their mapping add-on. They have released a range of 737s, but you don't hear much about them, so I'll give you half marks for the sinking into oblivion .

 

6. PMDG 737s remains the standard by which all else -- not just add-ons, but everything -- is judged.

Check (assuming we can accept the NGX as the PMDG 737)

 

7. The mean age of the hobby is 68.

Don't have the demographic survey results in front of you, but you're probably right. Might be a couple of years lower though as we have more 20 year olds than 100 year olds.

 

8. Advances in computers over the last three years mean virtual aviators now need only spend 30 hrs./ week talking about new wonder-tweaks and fiddling with their computers in order to run FSX to their satisfaction,

Check

 

9. Several much-anticipated (and hyped) projects have fallen by the wayside.

Check

 

So, now I'll hit the forums and see how I did.

 

Tim

4.5-5 out of 10, not bad. Welcome back to the community in any case and enjoy catching up on all the good stuff you have missed.

Very glad to see Airbus X Extended has been largely well-received, since I really wanted to like Airbus X, but it just wasn't quite right. If I decide to get back into this hobby the first thing I'll do is upgrade my Airbus X to the AXE. (I was also pleased to see iFly still up and running, since I thought very highly of their collection.)  

 

The thought of relearning a thousand things I used to be able to do without a second thought is the obstacle now. In my AVSIM heyday I lived alone (due to work) and had lots of time. When my state abolished its death penalty, I lost my government job defending spree killers and the like and moved back in with the missus (yay) but had to rebuild my practice from scratch.

 

Sometimes it looks more like work than fun, but I've got an Alienware 18 spec'ed out awaiting my credit card. (Not soliciting computer advice here.) Still haven't decided to pull the trigger, but's fun to be back browsing the forums.

Very glad to see Airbus X Extended has been largely well-received, since I really wanted to like Airbus X, but it just wasn't quite right. If I decide to get back into this hobby the first thing I'll do is upgrade my Airbus X to the AXE. (I was also pleased to see iFly still up and running, since I thought very highly of their collection.)

 

The thought of relearning a thousand things I used to be able to do without a second thought is the obstacle now. In my AVSIM heyday I lived alone (due to work) and had lots of time. When my state abolished its death penalty, I lost my government job defending spree killers and the like and moved back in with the missus (yay) but had to rebuild my practice from scratch.

 

Sometimes it looks more like work than fun, but I've got an Alienware 18 spec'ed out awaiting my credit card. (Not soliciting computer advice here.) Still haven't decided to pull the trigger, but's fun to be back browsing the forums.

 

 

I will say it just because it has to be said build your own system you'll be alot happier in the end. I use to think store bought systems were the best but now that Ive built 6 pc's Id never consider buying an off the shelf system too little bang for your buck with those. Anyhow welcome back!

No doubt about the computer, but I just don't have the time or the know-how to build a computer.

No doubt about the computer, but I just don't have the time or the know-how to build a computer.

As Ive told others Id be happy to walk you through it step by step and as for time Ive built whole systems in under an hour. If you want to try a build PM me how much your wanting to spend and I can put a system together for you and tell you how to put it together. I don't charge anything for this kinda stuff since I really enjoy planning/building systems and such so if your interested PM me and we can see about saving you some $$$$

Thanks for your kind offer. If I change my mind, I will definitely PM you.

Last night I tried out a simple airplane on my Dell Inspiron laptop. It actually worked, although with significant trade-offs in graphics, of course. It was one stumble after another. I remembered things that could be done -- bring up menu bar, go to full screen, etc. -- but I had forgotten how to do them. Then I found out Airbus X required a mouse wheel. When I dug up that, I was baffled by even the Airbus X's simple overhead and other controls. I never even got off the ground (it got too late).

 

I'll try the tutorial and see if I can manage to get from Frankfurt to Vienna. But, wow, when you're using FSX regularly, you take a lot for granted. I'm surprised at how much I have forgotten.

 

So I'll will play around with the Airbus X for a bit, then think about trading up for the Airbus X Formerly-Known-As-Extended. I already have the Captain Sim 777 for when I'm ready to take the training wheels off.

You picked the perfect time to return to the hobby.  FSX is going to what I call a Renaissance period, as some game changing products have been released: PMDG 777, Orbx Global, PFPX.   The future will bring Orbx Global Vector, and what I think will be the most revolutionary product ever for FSX if it developer keeps it's promises, is Active Sky Next.

 

Sometimes a break is needed.   3 years is pretty long, but I had a bit of a break from January to May this year, and even last year there were some months I never touched the sim.  I suppose it was burnout, but also resignation that addon development had hit a dead end.   Not so anymore, I'm happy to declare!

 

I'm also looking to update my 3 year old system to the latest standard (Haswell), so that is another activity I have to look forward to.

I am looking forward to the new DC-9, too. I too, think this is a good time for the hobby. Last night I started a 767 from memory, so I haven't forgotten everything, at least.

Okay, FSX running the best I've ever seen on my new computer, I've installed my very favorite airplanes (CS, 757, 767, and the as-yet-untried 777 + iFly's 737 NG + a new kid, the airplane formerly known as Aerosoft Airbus X Extended). Gradually re-learning a lot of things and preparing for the Airbus tutorial flight.

 

One thing I am NOT going to do is to go crazy installing everything add-on under the sun. Must... have... discipline. I want to have a good baseline before I add scenery, weather, effects, etc. There is so much that is undoubtedly cool, but let's face it: when you limit your flying to tubes, how much do you really need in the way of scenery?

 

So here I am, back in the friendly skies!

Hey Tim, sometimes starting from scratch is the best approach.   I have embarked on building the new Haswell system, and at this time I have decided to take a more simplistic approach to the addition of addons, specifically, airports and other scenery, to the FSX library and the FSX drive.  In the past, I would spend weeks making sure I added every single scenery I owned freeware and payware to the sim, under the premise that I want to have the complete collection installed so that when I run all the NickN prescribed defrag routines I have captured all my collection in one fell swoop.   With experience, I have realized I really only use 1/3 of my airports, so why go to all that trouble?  Not only do the unused sceneries/airports take up hard drive space and take a long time to install, they use up valuable VAS resources and prolong FSX loading times.   For instance, for all of last year, I never once left the United States in FSX as all my flying in the PMDG NGX was exclusively in the U.S.   The previous year I had flown a few times in Europe, but the point is, I had installed tons of payware airports, photoscenery like products, etc, that just took up hard drive and RAM resources for no reason.   Now that I have bought the PMDG 777, I of course will stray outside the U.S. more often, but I don't envision flying to some of the European destination I was so sure I was going to visit in the NGX in 2011.   So, with this new install I have only installed airports I know for certain I will likely fly to in the 777 in the near future.  If I change my mind, I can always just add piecemeal additional airports from my backup dvds, but it's really wasteful for me to have my complete addon collection installed at once.

 

This rebuilding my FSX installation from a clean slate is the perfect opportunity to do something I have always wanted to do, to declutter all the extra baggage in my sim and only install what I'm actually using.   I think we all go though the "hoarding" phase when we start out in the sim, installing every scenery we can find like a drunken sailor, but with time one figures out there is a price to pay for all that bloat and overhead.   With so many new resources at our disposal now that we didn't have a few years ago, namely, the AVSIM hardware/software guide and NickN's new bible thread at his forum, we are blessed with the new found knowledge (to me at least) that the minimalist philosophy to addon installations in FSX is the most efficient way to get the most bang out of the sim, especially with it's dated code and inability to take full advantage of the robust hardware we now have.   If you haven't checked it out, google Sceneryconfigeditor, it is a utility that allows you setup multiple scenery.cfg files that allow you to load only the scenery you want into the sim.  You are more likely to avoid the dreaded OOM with less scenery in the library.  Some folks go as far as to only load their origin and destination airports in the sim, especially if you are tubeliner fanatic like me who spends 95% of your time heads down in the cockpit!

 

Good to have you back in the forum!