I was initially critical of FSX's poor performance 10 months ago when I, like many here no doubt, tried in vain to get any semblance of performance from the program after it's initial release. Well, after SP1, and after several months of slowly, carefully, and deliberately applying the various tweaks offered up by the the many intelligent and patient souls who frequent the forums and support blogs here and elsewhere, I have now attained a level of performance quite similar to that in FS9. And I have to say, wow....how nice, and what fun. It's not perfect, but I have yet to upgrade to Vista on my flightsim rig (a 18 month old dual-core Dell XPS 600 with 4 Gigs of RAM and an nVidea 8800 GTS videocard displaying on 3 Dell 19" flatscreens via the Matrox TripleHead To Go expander). I've learned to port over a few FS9 favorite aircraft (I happen to be fond of the Overland and Carenado aircraft) and I'm just having a ball with the Missions (nailed Princess Julianna and Innsbruck approaches,the amazing photo-real scenery, and pretty smooth weather engine, to the point where for the first time in many months with FSX, and see a smile kreeping over my face. The potential of the sim remains untapped, which excites me to no end, and I have barely scratched the surface. Space flight, online cockpit sharing, the tremendously cool looking features that the soon-to-be-released acceleration pack has to offer....So, my thank yous and apologies to Phil and company at ACES and anyone else I may have offended in past expressions of frustration in these forums. And a heart-felt thank you to the wise old stalwarts here who have done all of the hard work by offering advice, remedies, files, fixes and suggestions to improve the quality of my flightsim life.This screnshot is really about 3 times wider in aspect ratio, but given the limitations of oour uploads it will have to do.Humbley Yours,http://www.my-buddy-icon.com/Icons/objects/red_3d_plane.gifAlex ChristoffN562ZBaltimore, MDhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/178475.jpgSpace Flight...at last

Very nice!!Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/banners/hifi-community-sigbanner.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/

Thats great. Now watch it all go to crap when you try to add a complex 3rd pary add-on and AI traffic.

With all kindness Alex, shut up! :)

What a MUCH needed comment...can't you just keep things like this inside your head. There are MANY people here including myself, running 60% plus traffic, along with a LevelD, no problems at all. Crying about FSX died quite a while ago with the processor price cuts, at least I thought it did. Danon --

Please, enlighten me as to why FSX is such a great sim when a year after it's release PMDG is still releasing add-ons for FS9. Not every user shares your pleasant experience.

Maybe it would come as a shock-but I only have a vague knowledge of PMDG. I just have absolutely no interest in that type of simming. Sounds like you do-this may not be the place for you.To the Op-nice to have you on board!http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

>Please, enlighten me as to why FSX is such a great sim when a>year after it's release PMDG is still releasing add-ons for>FS9. Not every user shares your pleasant experience. Because it's a beautiful sim in it's own right and there's more to the whole schmiel than some add-on aeroplane-thingy from one company. True!

>Please, enlighten me as to why FSX is such a great sim when a>year after it's release PMDG is still releasing add-ons for>FS9. Not every user shares your pleasant experience. I didn't realize that PMDG is THE Standard for judging Flight Simulators.Pete S.

I guess you could say that. After you've spent $1500 on a new system, $70 for ASX, $40 for FEX, another $40 or whatever for UTX, etc etc. Then it looks somewhat better than FS9 in some instances. Whoop dee freaking doo. But if you can't afford any of that stuff, you get to look at blurry textures, but it doesn't matter because half the world is covered in desert anyway so it doesn't take a whole lot of imagination to figure out what that blurry mess is supposed to look like. Yes, I enjoy learning the procedures and the in and outs of complex aircraft. That is why FSX dissapoints me, and a lot of other users. There is zero overhead.

I think you have made it clear in three posts that you hate fsx. Let's move on.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

That's unfortunate that you can't use/enjoy FSX, but why dump on the original posters enthusiasm?Ian.

Well it is, at least for those who take heavies seriously. That said I sympathize with the OP ... FSX is really starting to show its potential. Lighting is so much better than FS9. No going back. I ran it (SP1) last night on a Penryn (new 45nm / 1333 bus OC) test rig and its fantastic - steady 38 fps in the New York area with 100% AI - in the Level-D 767, which is NOT optimized for multiple cores at all. DirectX 10.1 cards are coming in January. It'll be amazing!

You dont have the cash, dont condemn others about it. Just save up for a few months, and build the same system I did now, for about 300 less than I did. Thats what my plan was, and it worked. I planned and saved for over 4 months to get where i am now. or......stay with FS9 You don't see my crawling into the FS9 forums saying it is outdated.Everything is like this, you want the next best thing, you have to make a judgement call to pay up, or sit and watch. If it is a serious hobby to you, which it is to many here, you save some cash up, cash in and enjoy yourself and the company around you. 1500 bucks plus some addons is so little to invest, when I needed a new box anyway, from my 4 year old one. I always buy behind the tech curve and save a bundle, you should try the same. maybe build at christmas and make my system for under a grand. That would be a good buy.good luck, and try to stay somewhat positive, it is only software.d - -

>Please, enlighten me as to why FSX is such a great sim when a>year after it's release PMDG is still releasing add-ons for>FS9. Not every user shares your pleasant experience. Initially, I did not have a pleasant experience with FSX, but I can see that it has potential much like FS9 had when it was released.However, I do not see the need to cast bitter thoughts on someone elses success with it, do I? You are entitled to your opinion, but I do not see the point on you pi**ing on someone else's fire...