I miss FS9

[Patco Lch]

Though I don't have FS9, since I started the hobby in 2007 with FSX I have enjoyed reading this thread. I just admire folks who can resist the pressures from developers as well as peers to be reeled in constantly like a fish with a hook in its jaw buying the same stuff over and again because there's a new platform out and you don't want to be left out of the party. IMHO contentment is great gain. As stated already there is a lot more to life and living then a computer game as captivating as it is.   

[Skywatcher]

5 hours ago, JonP01 said:

No, after using FSX for 18 years and FS9 for 3 years before that I am not confused. You did, however, fail to read my post properly where I pointed out that it was the scenery pre-loading occuring on the additional cores. And my experience is as I stated - FSX was able to maintain better performance than FS9 because that scenery loading was handled by cores other than the main one handling the main game thread.

Sorry, scenery does not use extra cores as it's a limitation of FSX. Anything that is running through FSX uses a single core be it scenery, an aircraft or anything else.

[ViperPilot]

6 hours ago, Patco Lch said:

Though I don't have FS9, since I started the hobby in 2007 with FSX I have enjoyed reading this thread. I just admire folks who can resist the pressures from developers as well as peers to be reeled in constantly like a fish with a hook in its jaw buying the same stuff over and again because there's a new platform out and you don't want to be left out of the party. IMHO contentment is great gain. As stated already there is a lot more to life and living then a computer game as captivating as it is.   

I started out with FS2002 right around 2008, and made the jump to FS9 in 2010. I knew right off that I'd never have the $$ to get a suitable computer and make the move to FSX, so I stuck with "Nine" all these years. I went through three separate computers (all hand me downs) and rebuilt my Sim World every time. Chances are that I'll have to do it again, and will stick with the same formula; get a hand me down and do it one more time.

Far from being 'pressured' by fellow Simmers, I look at using Nine as a badge of honor, and am proud to call myself a "Niner". 😁

[Wobbie]

I'm not the one to fly Boeings & 'Busses, so FS9 still ticks all the boxes for me. 

It's the immersion factor that works. We have fun driving a Porsche, sailing a yacht or aircraft carrier, flying space ships and even driving a train in some unique 'worlds'. Garry Smith's Blackhawk scenery & all the other whimsical scenery he has given us, including circular runways & ramps. We can even fly the Red Arrows in formation. And 'Golden Wings' gives us a fascinating world wherein to play. FSX? Nope.

I still find new stuff out there in the libraries. But our FS9 world is getting smaller, as so many sites have closed.

I agree with our friend from Denver.. We can all relate to his story, as most of us have gone down that road.

Niner's Rule!!

[darrenvox]

i also feel this same sentiment...two of my computers packed it in and i dont know when im gonna get back in the saddle but i find and hear that the new sims arent as labour intensive as fs9 is. do you have to add ai  manually to newer sims?, the short answer is no. its all done for you...phew but dont you just harken a day back to when you did it yourself and took like 20mins to copy and paste all thats required of you...and miss connecting to servers that are part of the game/program/sim...

yes i miss fs9 and id be flying lots of new paintjobs and aircraft as i miss checkin out the sites for new files...am using fsx demo, yes you heard that right...fsx demo on my dads computer so i dont get to fly much but when i do i try to post them here...

anyways hope you are having a great day and see you back in the saddle someday..

 

[Wobbie]

Keep up the good work, & we will see you soon.

[JSMR028]

I don’t miss it. Because I’m still using it!! Nothing has come along that has bettered it.

No sim is as versatile as FS9 for covering just about every era of aviation. 
 

 

[davies87]

On 8/17/2024 at 4:57 PM, JSMR028 said:

I don’t miss it. Because I’m still using it!! Nothing has come along that has bettered it.

No sim is as versatile as FS9 for covering just about every era of aviation. 
 

 

Can I ask what machine you use? is it a laptop and specs. Is it easy to run on windows 11? 

 

 

[JSMR028]

25 minutes ago, davies87 said:

Can I ask what machine you use? is it a laptop and specs. Is it easy to run on windows 11? 

 

 

I’m using W10. Desktop. I5-10400. 8GB ram. No GPU currently. 
Runs FS9 like a dream. 
 

[Wobbie]

True words, FS2004 runs on anything! (more or less)

I've just done yet another new install 'Platimun Wings', a revitalized Golden Wings based install, and have deleted my existing Golden Wings. I'm populating it with period aircraft, and the great thing is that the scenery library has been modded to only show period airfields.

I still have my "Silver Wings' install that I've thrown everything into, such as all the Ford Tri-Motor scenery, Misty Moorings, Emma Field etc. This takes up 208GB on the portable drive

I'm using an Asus Ryzen 7 laptop, 16GB RAM & Windows 11, and my sims, the 2x FS2004's & P3Dv4.5 run off a 2TB portable drive. 

I would have thought that running from a portable USB drive would slow things down, but I'm pleasantly surprised that this is not so.

The beauty of FS2004, even at 21 years old, is just as immersive as it was years ago.

[Luis Hernandez]

208 GB in a single FS9 install? Wow 😱

I never reached over 40 GB, as far as I remember.

Edited August 21 by Luis Hernandez

[Wobbie]

I tend to get carried away, at times. 😁

[darrenvox]

interesting

[Daube]

I have used FS9 for many years before switching to FSX later on, and then P3D, and then others.

FS9 is basically the sim in which I started to make "beautiful" screenshots, thanks to the quality of the scenery and related addons (sky colors, cloud textures, autogen textures etc...) we had back at that time. At that time, I was already performing the same kind of flights that I still perform in today's sims: mostly VFR and bush flights in small aircraft and helicopters, often some military aircraft flying around, and from time to time some IFR flight in a liner or private jet. I had a short go at gliders, but at that time I couldn't find any tool to simulate thermals, and fixed thermals in addon sceneries were not my cup of tea, so I quickly gave up on thermals.

I really enjoyed the sim at that time, and often spent hours flying around just to explore sceneries (with or without photo-sceneries). I clearly remember the most impacting discovery for me was thanks to Holger Sandman "North Cascades" freeware scenery (actually landclass) which was in fact a very early sign of what was to come later in FSX with the OrbX regions. Flying VFR around Concrete and that region was a true joy for me, in any kind of aircraft. Ah, and nice virtual cockpits too, which made me abandon 2D cockpits forever... yes, that was in FS9 🙂

However, contrary to what other members reported, I do not miss that sim. It's probably due to the fact that I was too much annoyed by its shortcomings which were interfering with flight enjoyment. My experience would be described as follows:

- VFR flight were kind of nice, and yes they were a few nice addon planes and sceneries to enjoy in that context. However, these addons were too few for me. With time I got a bit tired of the lack of details in the scenery. Photosceneries compensated a bit but their ground texture resolution were too low (5m/pixel) for low level flights, and the autogen density was too sparse. Later sims, starting with FSX, benefited from higher detailed sceneries and more realistic aircraft which made VFR flight much more enjoyable than in FS9,  and same went with later sims, so I don't see anything I could miss from FS9 in that area.

- Bush flight suffered from the very same shortcomings as above, but to a higher degree, since the flying altitude was much lower, making the limitations even more visible and disturbing. So again, nothing I could miss from FS9 in that area either.

- Military aircraft free flights: While FS9 offered excellent performance for this kind of flight, the range of aircraft to enjoy was extremely limited. There were a few nice aircraft, both freeware (Dino Cattaneo Tomcat and similar examples) and payware (but I didn't dare to go payware yet at that time), but even at that time the shortcomings in the 3D modeling, interactivity/systems and flight models were a bit annoying to me. Later sims did all of that better, on all levels, so here as well, nothing I could miss.

- IFR flights in liners or private jets: This is an area which didn't suffer from the shortcomings mentioned earlier as much as the other areas. As I used only freeware addons, my possibilities were of course very limited for very good quality aircraft, but that was just my choice, not a limitation of the sim itself. I should have gone for payware addons, but again, at that time, I didn't dare to do that yet. I started buying payware stuff much later in FSX. That being said, I do not see anything that was possible in FS9 but not possible in later sims, even just FSX. Performance at major airports was an issue in FSX (and at least the 4 first versions of P3D), so yes I can understand why somebody might prefer flying a liner in FS9 rather than FSX or P3D, alright. But on the other hand, more recent and powerful hardware eventually solved that problem a long time ago. Addon airports were numerous and more detailed than in FS9. Same applies to addon aircraft. AI packages exist in later sims as well, so you see populated airports and skies just like in FS9. Appart from very distinct addons (Golden Wings and such) I hardly see why I would go back to FS9 there ?

I had actually reinstalled FS9 (and CFS2 😛) several years ago just for the sake of remembering. I took the time to reinstall a few addons I still had on some external hard-drive, etc... But it didn't last long before I uninstalled it.

[JSMR028]

FS9 with the smoothness, great FPS, longest list of ads-ons both freeware and payware of most if not all sims, upgraded ground scenery textures, made it an easy choice to remove FSX from my system ( P3D no better).

I love FS9 for any choice of flight, modern, retro, vintage, classic. IFR, VFR. It covers all needs. All day every day.  

There was and is simply no need to go to anything else. Maybe they‘ll catch up one day.