Still, I love flightsimming and last night I flew a lovely flight with my A2A civilian Mustang from Catalina Island (aerosoft/limesim freeware) to 29Palms....KTNP. True flightsimming nirvana, I just wish there was something new and great on the horizon...

 

 

 

Maybe the something new and great will come from the addon vendors, like Orbx, RealAir, Flight1. 

 

Not from Microsoft or LM..

 

B)

Yes...

 

I have fond memories of playing any number of combat simulators as well as Microsoft Flight Simulator through the 90's.  Flight Simulator 2004 was far and away my favorite of the MSFS series.  Since then it has faded.  Nobody I simmed with back in the day continues to participate (3 out of 4 of us have a PPL).  It's not that we lost interest, it just that FS stopped getting increasingly better.

 

To be fair, if I were to install and play any of the old simulators, I'd probably scratch my head and ask myself what I was thinking.  By current standards of a fully upgraded FSX, they are all antiquated... but they were fun.  I miss the fun.

 

I guess the closer we get to reality (and there is still a long way to go), the less impressed I am with marginal improvements.  The "wow" is gone.

I guess the closer we get to reality (and there is still a long way to go), the less impressed I am with marginal improvements.  The "wow" is gone.

 

 

Coming back to flight simulation, after the private pilot thing, building high performance experimentals, etc...................I do still find some "wow" factor.  Between X-Plane 10 mountain visuals at sunset, Orbx (FSX) scenery for the Pacific & Central mountain states, and planes such as those from RealAir, combined with a fast computer, it's "wow" all over again. Now.............I need to get into a few combat sims.

Unfortunately the person that ran the service passed away a few years ago, and there is no one to replace him. I live in fear that someday my system goes down and he's not around to fix it :-(

Mike was my friend, I sure miss him :(

 

When mike passed I bought 2 EXACT same PC's and cloned the drives - I figure that they should last ten years or so!

no

The amount of choice out there for flight simming has never been better. Although, this brings other considerations to the fore. I have FSX, P3D v1.4 and 2.4 as well as x plane 10 global. Throw in il2 sturmovic - cliffs of dover and f16 falcon and you can see all bases are loaded. The decision I have to make is which one do I throw my money at. I fear to even calculate the amount of money I have devoted to fsx over the years and now I will need to do much of it all over again, once I make the decision where to invest my time and cash. 

 

I believe fsx is still viable as a very good flightsim but think it is realistic to call it a dead rubber. So no more dough there. P3D v2.4 still has the limitation of being 32 bit program but is much more stable and smoother on my system than fsx. I can but have not yet upgraded to 2.5 due to incompatibility issues for some add ons. X Plane 10 global is an excellent flightsim. It is also 64bit and one would think the decision was a no brainer but I have not got to the stage with it, where it ' floats my boat'. We also get the 'teaser' from LM that the P3D platform will be re-written for 64bit, which I applaud but no guarantees as to the compatibility of existing 32bit add-ons. So, even though we have a plethora of choice, consumers like me are twiddling their thumbs in confusion as to which way to jump.

 

Jon Shearer

Hi Jon,

 

Yup, we are all waiting to see what will happen with a 64bit sim. I am taking it forgranted that, as it will be something new, there will be compatibility issues, & thus we MUST regard it at a totally new sim & start off afresh with no add-ons.

 

P3D is obviously worth looking at, as the developers are constantly updating & patching it, unlike FSX, where there has been nothing for the last 8 years. FSX:SE.... Well, as it is basically FSX with mods to allow it to run on probably the largest gaming network, I humble opinion is that, being an on-line re-release, with DLC's (all quite old, with 1 exception), It seems to me, as it is released on Steam, to be targeted at the newbies & gamers out there that want an easy plug 'n play solution. The benefit, of course, is that a whole new gaming market has been introduced to a non-combat flying sim (well, X-Plane 10 is there as well). But, it is still an 8 year old game.

 

So, where are we now.. Thanks to all those developers, A2A, Aeroplane Heaven, JF PMDG etc., as well as the many freeware guys... You guys have enhanced the basic flight engine that MS & LM have given us!  :Applause: :im Not Worthy: