I got to play around with FSX at the Canadian Aviation Expo. ( www.canadianaviationexpo.com ) I snapped some pics and shot some video. It was a beta 1 build so I'd expect some changes between now and release of course. I got to talk to Hal Bryan from the Microsoft Flightsim team for a while too. As you can see in the one picture there will be a deluxe version of FSX. Hal said the extras aren't finalized, but to expect a full SDK right on the DVD , extra high res scenery and aircraft to be included. For the show's display you could only access 5 different missions, including an oil rig helo rescue, landing a Cessna in Sitka, the Red Bull time trial, a flour bag dropping mission from the ultralight trike, and an approach into a mountain airport in the Learjet. The missions look like quite a bit of fun, and on the Learjet mission after the one person flew around too long an engine failure kicked in and he had to deadstick it in (see the videos). Here's the pics, I'll be uploading the videos to Putfile and will post the links once they are up. (Just a note, for the Red Bull pic I had turned the graphics way down to get ultra high framerates to clock a better time) http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/151654.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/151655.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/151656.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/151657.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/151658.jpg

Dangit I was there, but got to the hanger too late, they had closed up shop. In any case it was an awesome show, much better than last year!!I look forward to next year![hr color=#000000][table border=0" width="98%" id="table1" height="4" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="2][td width=500]Jason[br /]General Aviation Fan[br][/b]P4 3.2Ghz, 1GB Ram, FX5900 128MB, XP SP2.[br /][br /]

Video links... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4smEEetqDY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzoPbXWnw8o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPG4-AmR5uQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8CnwGANP6w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sap5_0ZnfDI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3u2tkMoI08 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI08YOs-tYU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i33fvjysAY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft6ybzkpT5k

Thanks for sharing, it looks great! I love the helicopter vids too :)

"Deluxe Version"? Sounds like deja vu all over again...As the old song says, when will they ever learn.....Doug

oh, no, not Standard/Professional versions again.Pay extra money just for some "deluxe" stuff. Not a good sign.

I like the idea of the deluxe edition. However I hope by paying the extra dollars they can include a 64bit exe for Vista. Its only fair :-)

ACES, I think it's about time to say something on Deluxe vs Regular edition, at least. I hope Beta testing goes great and you can share some new features with the rest of FS world!Regards,

Thanks for the pics and vids. Wish we could get one vid with everything spliced together, too much work for 3 sec vids.

Deluxe version - great!Peter Sydney Australia

Sorry about the short videos, I wasn't sure how big a 30 second video etc. would be so I shot it in shorter clips to make sure size wasn't a problem for posting online. I forgot You Tube lets you post 100mb 10 min videos. If anyone has a tool that can merge quicktime videos send me an email.As for the wet surface, yes there were effects. The missions were very well done, with constant voice dialogue, big sound effects from the oil platform explosions etc. You can even choose different options, for example in the helicopter mission you could choose whether or not to perform the rescue yourself or leave it to the coast guard.

As for the Deluxe version, I really don't see a reason to complain if you consider just how many hours we get out of the sim. I probably have 3000 hours or more in FS2004 already, even if it was $200 it would be money quite well spent, so an extra $10-20 for a fully featured DVD with extras is next to nothing if you look long term.

Hi,In the next post about the books they is also an offer on the dvds for FSX and the basic and deluxe are offered at the same price, which seems kind of weird! More than likely I misread something.Andy.

If you buy the Quicktime Pro key for $30, you can splice them together as easy as cut and paste and export...

EEWWWW Quicktime, YUCH! (personal experience, will never use it again)David, thanks for the report and the vids. Was that you flying the lear?? Need to flare more, LOL. 2 versions huh? Wonder if one is for the basic gamers and the pro version for the hardcore guys like us?Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/tfbeta.jpg