I really want to finally buy FSX but I have some questions that I'm worried about. My biggest worry is the amount of money and time I have spent on ad ons and AI traffic to get FS2004 to be as real as I can make it will be wasted. Does anyone know if the AI Traffic I have manually installed work in FSX? All of my AI is done via sites like Project AI or flight plans that I have downloaded and assigend the aircraft myself. Any help in this area would be appreciated. Thanks.Greg

Kinda funny.I spend over a thousand on addons and had FS9 running perfectly.FSX came out and I walked away from it completely.Deleted it all and jumped into FSX 100%Now after all this time and around $500 in addons, I GIVE UP!Im running bleeding edge high end stuff and Ive had it with FSX.I just NOW decided to reload FS9 and start over and BAM!Disc one hangs up on a file. Probably one of the many scratches.FSX HAS CURSED ME.......Sorry but you are running towards FSX and Im running away.

Please note these comments reflect my personal experience with my computer. I am not speaking for the community or you or you or you. Just me. :) I'm running the same direction with JimJam. And recently re-installed FS9 and many many add-on's. The return to FS9 amplifies the significance design shortcomings of FSX relative to performance.I also gave up on trying to improve FSX. You will need a computer that is currently not available to run FSX with enough AI to realize AI is running. You will need the patience of a saint to get under the hood of FSX and tweak stuff like Fiber Frame Time fraction and Texture Bandwidth Multiplier. (what ever the heck they do). And that is just to get the thing working without autogen and AI traffic and big cities. There are of course those who have the opposite experience (six at last count). FSX was reported a poor performer in the early demo's. It was reported to have terrible performance in the final demo before release. It was released with no improvement in performance. There is zero overhead for add-on's without removing the last of the FSX features, so why bother?I regret buying it and wasting months of time trying to a keep a product alive on my hard drive that should have been declared dead on arrival. I don't recommend it. Bob...

Thanks guys. I don't want to bother if all my AI and Add Ons don't work. What is intruiging me is the default scenery. I was watching some videos on Youtube and the graphics along with the moving vehicles are sucking me in. No matter how many add ons I buy or download, I still crave more detailed cities with more autogen buildings and the vids of FSX looked pretty sharp. With all my add ons and AI Traffic, and all my sliders set to Very Dense, my FS2004 works fine, so I'm confident FSX wil run good. But again, I also demand realism with my AI and if it doesn't convert to FSX ala FS2002-FS2004, I'll stick with FS2004.Greg

Hi Greg,There are thousands of people successfully running FSX everyday. All your FS04 traffic will work and in fact, if you point FSX to your FS04 aircraft folder all you need to copy over are the traffic .bgls.Install SP1, turn off the FPS counter and have fun!Thanks,Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/banners/hifi-community-sigbanner.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/

If I were you.. I would use both.Fly the routes and aircrafts that are good in FS9 and then fly the aircrafts and sceneries where its good in FSX.Manny

I agree with Manny. If you think you will like FSX, then nothing is stopping you from running both FS9 and FSX, except the cost of the product. What I hear is a certain amount of, for a lack of a better word, "bereavement" over leaving a sizeable investment in FS9 in favour of FSX. One thing you will have to judge for yourself is how comfortable you want to be with that. Shifting over your AI flights from FS9 to FSX can represent a lot of hard work. Not just a few sim pilots will fly FS9 to get their "heavy" fix, like flyimg PMDG, Level-D, and such, and then go to FSX for low-level scenic VFR flights. Apart from the products I install for reviews, I actually prefer to keep FSX as close to the just-out-of-the-box (well, SP1) version as I can, and keep the tweaks and enhancements to a minimum. FSX, in my opinion, does have some broad limitations that prevent some types of sim pilotage from working out well, but on the other hand, I have found that flying within the bounds of a relatively un-tweaked FSX to be entertaining and enjoyable. Jeff ShylukSenior Staff Reviewer, Avsim

I use both two, and have purchased seven addons for FS9 since I loaded up FSX last Novemeber.I just treat them as two different simulations, and find no reason to run only one. For my own special purposes, I prefer FSX for mountain/cityscape flight across the western U.S.A. But this is mostly for default airports and areas using FSGenesis & Ultimate Terrain.For the specialty stuff like FlyTampa, FlightScenery Portland, Glacier Bay, and numerous aircraft addons I'll fire up FS9.My preferences for FSX are due to higher resolution textures, and features such as bump mapping, some interesting air mass features, and so on.edit: and FSX just FEELS more like flying!!!!! :-jumpy :-jumpy L.Adamson

Come back to the fold my brother. Only $20 (I'm guessing Microsoft will charge you more for a replacement)http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Flight-Sim...83326327&sr=8-1

I don't normally chime in on debates like these. Usually there are passionate people on both sides. I will state my experience. I consider myself an average user with an average to above average computer. FSX RTM for me was awful. SP1 was amazing. Now I am flying with the following add-ons and loving FSX sooooooo much. Level-D, ASX and ASXGraphics, Ultimate Terrain, Ultimate Traffic and soon PMDG 747-400 PAX & F. I just can't get my head around all the FSX complaints. I have seen some performance drops with these, which is to be expected. Overall I am amazed at FSX. I loved FS9 and I was very sorry to loose all my add-ons and silky smooth performance, however FSX is such an amazing sim that I have switched over. I have looked at all my add-ons and I will eventually have all my airports back and I will eventually upgrade my computer and have amazing performance again for about two years and then somewhere down the road MS will release FS11 and this cycle will start all over again, and guess what, I love it. Bottom line for me: in order for me to fly a Boeing 747-400 I would have to spend 228-260 million vs. a few thousand dollars. hmmm

I think the best way for me to convince you of my view of the inadequacies of FSX is to encourage you to go buy it...then you can have a "Dr. Phil" moment:Greg: "I left my happy FS9 world and bought FSX last week"Dr. Phil: "And how's that working for you??":-)CheersBob ScottATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VSantiago de Chile

" If you think you will like FSX, then nothing is stopping you from running both FS9 and FSX, except the cost of the product."Well said! There need not be any debate past this statement-if I had room I'd put it in my sig! :-)If you have invested that much money in add ons for fs9-look at fsx as another add in. Things like shared cockpits, and missions alone make it worth that add in cost-not to mention a bunch of other improvements like the moving traffic you mentioned.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

Hmmm... Bob I wonder if there is a problem with your setup? Did you install SP1? With SP1 installed my fps hover around 20 (where they're locked).I use AI and road traffic set at 10% (using XTraffic this is ample) and have most of my sliders set at 3/4 full, with the exception of autogen which is turned off -I fly heavy metal almost exclusively and I find the improved textures in FSX look better without it. I got FSX as soon as it came out and I never looked back.FS9 was good in its day but FSX is just so much better its worth getting it tuned right to run on your system. For me that only involved a clean install of FSX/SP1 and adjusting one perameter in FSX.cfg (texture bandwidth = 400) and that was it!Regards,MarkP4 @3.4 GHZ1GB 400DDR RAMGS7600 AGP video card