>>I fly in real life and never ever saw a single bird from the cockpit.<<I confess, I haven't logged that many hours in real life (1,200 to 1,400 or so), but I must say that I've seen litterly hundreds of birds while flying. I even on one occasion had to make an emergency landing (Sacramento) because of a wayward Canadian Goose.Bear!

Wow, i'm sold on it. I get excited about any new version of MSFS, but this one really does it for me.I love the roads, higher res textures, vehicles (other site), water and autogen placement, all just brilliant.I would love to see next, the airport environment, night time and more details about any FDE enhancements.Well done MSFS team, thanks for the insight and please keep the information comming.Cheers, Chris Porter:-outtaPerthWestern Australia

Yes, I can agree with that. I fly out of Elstree in the UK and it sits right next to a resevoir. Often whole flocks of birds cross the final apprach. More than once I have descended towards a large flock of birds and had to go around to avoid.Would be fun to do that in the sim!Ray Keattch

The screenshots of FS X looks incredible-the terrain and scenery seem to have improved immersly.

>> I agree. I'm underwhelmed. I can't believe were goiong>>to use up CPU cycles generating seagulls. Goats and lamas I>>can understand, but seagulls?>>Doug,>>If they give you seagulls this is indication they failed to>push and make progress in areas where it would really matter.>I fly in real life and never ever saw a single bird from the>cockpit.I would love to know where you fly, because I have to avoid birds on regular occasions on take-off and landing. Recently I passed a Wood Pidgeon at a 1000 feet - a bird normally seen near the ground. I had a gull turn its head and look at me before folding its wings up to drop out the sky to avoid the prop!Ray Keattch.

I'm curious to know about the airport elevations. Often times in FS2004 with a high quality terrain mesh, you'll get cliffs at one end of the airport and the other end will be in a valley if you get what I mean. For example, take a look at KLAS (Las Vegas) with at least 38m terrain mesh scenery for the area. In real life, the runways are on a rather steep incline while in FS2004, the runways tower over the surrounding neighborhood at one end of the airport. In real life, you taxi down a taxiway and you can actually see the altimeter gauge increase or decrease (and it's not because of the weather either) while in FS2004, the altimeter stays locked close to the airports official documented elevation. IMHO, I've always hated that the airports in FS were always perfectly flat. So, I can only hope that in FSX, the airports are more dynamic when it comes to the airport elevation.PS: The screenshots look awesome!Regards,Joshua Robertson (creator of FS Real Time)3D Softworks Design Studioshttp://www.3dsoftworks.net

I fly in a fairly busy area (CYVR) and I have had more close encounters with birds than other aircraft. Mind you the birds in Canada aren't transponder equipped...Overall, for all the griping i see here, I am pretty darn excited about this. And the constant bellyaching is going to be around whether or not MS release a new FS, or don't, or don't release it soon enough, or if they release it to soon, well you all get the point :-lolLet's just enjoy it!http://www.dreamfleet2000.com/gfx/images/F...s/Goodale01.jpg

Did they show us some FS9 screenshots with bumped up autogen by mistake?It looks like the same old stuff with backwards compatibility way back to FS 2002.Well, let's wait and see final version, thanks to AVSIM for coverage!

I'm getting a major deja vu reading the ranting about how it looks just like a slightly revamped FS2004.The EXACT same thing happened when FS2004 was announced, guess the kids here and elsewhere haven't learned a thing.

Looks good is all I can say! Pics look pretty sweet!

Well, after seeing these shots for the first time, i'm not really that impressed.I was expecting something major concerning the changes with the current sim and this upcoming one.The graphics look pretty much the same (instead of a few sea like/reflective effects) along with the clouds, all looking exactly the same as we have now.I'm not going to rush into this one and be biased, but i'm not overall impressed and was expecting a massive improvement (after yeaaaars of knowledge in this industry).This is going on the screenshots, and I haven't read the questions section yet.

I hope we finally get a decent simulation of a bird strike !! :DSeriously, what I can look on the screenies all of this can be accomplished in FS2004 with various addons available :S (we even have AI-Geese now).Hopefully they MSFSTeam have improved other aspects of the sim than just the graphics engine (weather to me is the most important of all + a functioning weather radar) as I am reluctant to pay 60$'s for a graphics update...Jani

The images I just saw of FSX were impressive.....but alot of the shots I saw have been matched in certain fs9 sceneries. There is obviously a big difference, but the big questions to ask is - will fsx be more performance friendly? Will I be able to fly PMDG standard add-ons or AI and still be able to fly into Heathrow or JFK with the high level of scenery detail I saw in those screen shots? Will FSX accomodate the latest graphics technology? Because even the highest end systems are limited by fs9 and add-on programmes. Those screenshots are great, but they are no use to me at 10fps. CheersTristan

With a few good add-ons that I already have with FS9 and some nice scenery that I alrady have, I don't see anything really earth shaking about FSX. I guess if you are running default scenery, aircraft and weather in FS9, it is a dramtic improvement.

I can't believe what I'm reading in this thread :(. You people must be blind, as FS9 is nowhere near as good as those screenshots! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v615/Dar...300/tut-tut.gif. Just look at the water .... FS9 water has always looked FAKE to me. From some angles FS9 water looks like an oversized swimming pool ..... the reflections are totally wrong!FS9 looks distinctly old hat now! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v615/DarrenA300/smug.gif