With all the improvements available for FS9, I really don't see the point of buying it?If the only thing extra, not available YET are nodding Giraffes and running Elephants then whats the point?I don't need missions to fly, I concentrate on real 'Bus driver' and VFR flying so, FS9 fits my bill.What Microshaft haven't explained is how, using FSX with 64 bit and DX10 will make things better?Is it an answer to the age old problem of FPS?Is it an answer to the age old problem of fluidity?How will dual-core processors benefit Flight simmers and FS10?How will we all know what specs; we need to run FS-10 with all the above mentioned things running smoothly? Last question: Why do Microsoft write a game that is almost impossible for the majority to run smoothly? Have they got equipment thats not accessible to anyone else?Comments appreciated please?

FSX is 32-bit only. The rest of the questions have been answered on the FSX forum.

With DX9 - the screen shots show that FSX will be a stunning visual improvement over FS2004.However, I certainly don't blame anyone for waiting.I'll keep my FS2004 up and running for quite a while after buying FSX - I'm sure.

You have to compare apples to apples... and in that case, comparing FSX to stock, unaltered FS2004, it looks like FSX will be a huge improvement given all the things I've seen in the previews available out there. One can also see how Microsoft are actually driving the product development based on all of the groundbreaking new features 3rd party developers have managed to add to FS2004 - in particular where roads, terrain, and landclass are concerned.I definitely won't be immediately removing FS2004 from my machine, but I can tell you this - I certainly am not running FS2002 right now. :)

Comments?It'll run perfectly well on most systems.It'll represent excellent value for money.You'll buy it like everyone else will.

If it (i.e. *your* sim experience) ain't broke, don't fix it.Or - be happy with what you've got.Or - well you get the idea...Matt

>Comments?>>It'll run perfectly well on most systems.'Perfecty well' is a highly subjective phrase.>It'll represent excellent value for money.Most likely, yes.>You'll buy it like everyone else will.Probably...eventually...perhaps.Matt

Dave I'm going to add to your post by saying 'What's the Point???' as well.All I'm hearing at this point is visuals, better visuals, awesome new visual techniques, better shading on visual aspects, etc... What about ATC improvement, Weather improvements, water dynamics on float aircraft for more realistic water landings, and SID/STAR implementation. I'm tired of hearing about eye candy. Is that the only selling point of FSX??? :-boom Tell us what's better concerning the VC over the 2D panel this time around. If I hear another post about visuals I'm going the throw up... :-boomIt's time we heard about the real meat of the sim. What's under the hood per say. From the reports at Oshkosh 2006, the Beta 3 version of the sim (like I thought) is going to require everyone below a 3gig processor to get a new machine for the XP version (not to mention 2gigs of RAM). All that for better visuals??? I look for visuals to that degree from games not a sim that before it's over with will have pounds of add-ons on top of it. If FSX is requiring 3+gig processors right out the box, add-on scenery/aircraft is going to bring many users experience to a virtual slide show... I'm sorry but I'll wait for Vista before investing in new hardware to once again tackle these kinds of problems. I guess there

All agreed. In my opinion if all FSX was was FS9 tweaked so that no matter what addon,etc you bought it would run smooth as a baby's bottom I would say it would be worth getting. MS should focus on the problems with FS. Low FPS, crappy fluidity. I really dont give a rast a** about atc and all that mission crud. that can be left for the pros that develop 3rd party addons. I have all the bells and whistles for scenery on my computer (FSGenesis, cloud9, you name) and all the 3rd party panels and I guarantee you fsx out of the box would not compete with what I presently have. In my opinion FS is broken. No one can usually play the sim out of the box with perfect fluidity. When that is fixed THEN focus on the other eye candy and things.

>Dave I'm going to add to your post by saying 'What's the>Point???' as well.>>All I'm hearing at this point is visuals, better visuals,>awesome new visual techniques, better shading on visual>aspects, etc... What about ATC improvement, Weather>improvements, water dynamics on float aircraft for more>realistic water landings, and SID/STAR implementation. I'm>tired of hearing about eye candy. Is that the only selling>point of FSX??? :-boom Tell us what's better concerning the>VC over the 2D panel this time around. If I hear another post>about visuals I'm going the throw up... :-boomI think I've read around these forums that alot of the MSFS code is quite old. So I guess it's easier to tart up the visuals than redesign a flight model, for example.Eye candy sells. True to life flight modelling is maybe a niche market and not profitable enough. Maybe thats why there are so few new sims around these days, civ and military.I guess the bottom line is 'those without NSA spec hardware need not apply'. How old is FS9? 3 years-ish? And does it run smooth on a mid-level system?Matt

I bought FS9 on the first day of the release, had FS2K on my HDD for another 2 months and never looked back. FS2K has been since collecting dust on my shelf. Same with FS98, 95, 5.0. I bought WinXP on the first day of the release and never looked back. Same with WinME, Win98, Win95, Win3.1. Why would FSX be different? FSX will offer significantly more improvements than any previous release of FS: Graphics, weather, AI ground traffic, ATC, multiplayer, new models, missions - just to name a few. FS9 is great, but only with many hundreds of dollars in add-ons that FSX will provide out-of-the-box.Why in the world would FSX be no advantage over FS9? I don't get it.Pat

Isn't all this a bit pointless and premature?Until the demo is out or FSX is in the shops and on people's systems how can anybody decide it's not for them? :-roll

"FSX will offer significantly more improvements than any previous release of FS"Are you crazy!!! :-eekFSX is only improving Visuals, Multiplayer gaming, and Missions. Everything else is basically the same. Read the preview by Hornit on SimHQ... To put it more correctly FSX is shaping up to be one of the least improved sims in FS history.If there is no major improvement in weather, ATC, and/or FDE (water dynamics for realistic amphibian landings for example) then you can't compare the advances we've seen in the past to this.Thanks to sims like Fly and Pro Pilot we saw FS98 improve into FS2000. FS2k2 brought ATC to the table and FS2k4 saw the coming of age of the Virtual Cockpit better flight dynamics and improved ATC. All FSX is giving the hardcore simmer is more of the same. Gamers will like the visuals but nothing much after that is any different than FS9. ATC won't even go as far as to scold you when you fly above 250kts under 10,000ft. No holding patterns when things get busy at airports like KLGA. What improvement is that??? For another $2,000+ and the cost of the sim, ATC will once again vector me into mountains coming into airport like KLAX. I'll have to nose dive into KLAS on approach to 7L or 7R. I guess I'll have better looking mountains to run into or maybe setup a mission for myself where I crash on this approach and have to get rescued by the default Cessna 172...Come on Guys... We saw more going from FS2k2 to FS2k4... :-roll

Did someone just press the "replay" button on some forum posts from last month?

It's not pointless if people are writing articles from hands on experience with the sim. I agree with Dillon that if all that's improved in FSX is the Visuals (Multiplayer and Missions are irrelevant to me) then we have nothing more than another resource hog in the making. What I mean by that is there's already speculation that anything under a 3gig machine might not do well with FSX. Why would I abandon FS9 for pretty face that's more of the same under the hood??? I won't be buying this sim until well after Vista is released. At least by then I