Let's say I have a payware a/c that none of the other players in a multiplayer session have. What external model will they see when they look at my a/c? Will the external model of my payware a/c be sent to them, cached and displayed or will they see some generic replacement?

Hi! My understanding is that 'other' players will see a standard MSFS aircraft. If you start FS in multiplayer using the Cessna 182, then switch to the PMDG 737NG, your multiplayer buddies will be flying Cessna 182s (even if they switch to the PMDG 737 they have).The only way to get MP to display the same aircraft you have would be to have your MP buddies literally have a copy of your aircraft folder (and maybe some other folders as well, not too sure). I think there is really no other way Microsoft can improve on this either, since there are so many third-party aircraft. Maybe in FS2006 the basic aircraft textures would be 'sendable' to the MP server (or host) and you would see other third-party aircraft in MP. I don't know how that would work or whether it would be worth the effort Microsoft would have to expend to make it useful.Hope this helps!

The way I understand ,and what I've seen using mutiplayer, If you don't have the aircraft that they are flying in your aircraft folder, you will see the aircraft that you are flying as theres. Does that make sense?:+

Hang tight guys. When SB3 is released, it will ship with two different model sets. One set in particular, the VIP3 model set will show you exactly what your fellow pilots are flying. If you say are on the ground at SFO and some other guy is there flying an Atlas cargo 742, you will see an Atlas 742. If he is flying at Atlas cargo 743, you will see an Atlas 743. Darn near every airline in the world with every model aircraft flown by that airline is represented. It will be 100 times better than what we have. For those that say, "I have a bunch of AI planes with quality models", you will be able to substitute individual airlines models with those from your AI collection to get the multiplayer planes to look even better (which will cost you some frame rates along the way as the VIP3 models are of a low poly count to help with FR's).

Can't wait, I haven't been on vatsim in a long time.:-jumpy