"I could care less if I see flocks of birds, I avoid them like the plague when I fly my airplane and it is the last dang thing I want to see in front of my windscreen."I experienced something rw today I hadn't before.I saw a flock of seagulls walking on the numbers while I waited for my release from Bar Harbor, Maine today to come home.I was hoping they moved by the time I took off-but another twin came in before me. Right as he was over the numbers the birds flew up suddenly-he gave it full power to go around and the next thing I saw were bird bodies and feathers flying around. He then cut the power and landed-I hope he was ok-I was in shock experiencing the whole thing. I had to dodge bird bodies/feathers lying all over the runway on my takeoff. I also had notams of moose on the runway in my briefing but never saw any. I have had lots of encounters with birds but never saw anything like this.In any case-I am one that wants to see things like this in the sim-I do find it "immersion" (used one more time). It certainly was today-along with severe tstorms and other things I would like to see in the next version-all which got my attention. :-)http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1b5baf...b9f427f694g.jpgMy blog:http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

>Gee I can

>...or did you simply decide to use this thread as an excuse to>say something snarky? :-lol No not at all, let

Lets be real here.No matter what Aces/MS ships out, most here who are regulars are going to end up replacing the ground textures,the mesh,the sky,clouds,water,ai,ATC,landclass and even the people waving their hands.The .cfg will almost immediately be butchered.MS might as well sell us the stripped down version that looks like the surface of the moon.All the default sim does is give us something to #### about until the addons arrive.:-lol And if out of the box it looks incredible, gets 100 fps and runs smoothly, it is our sworn duty as hardcore flight simmers to do our best to do whatever it takes to beat it down to the teens. Bonus points for stutters and CTDs.The horror of only needing a store bought med performance computer to run a flight sim sends chills down my back.

>The horror of only needing a store bought med performance>computer to run a flight sim sends chills down my back.I

Yes-it is a basic inalienable right that everyone should experience the complete reality of flight for a single one time cost of $300-$400-though that cost would barely pay for 1-2 hours in a real bird.Of course nothing has ever been "optimized" yet...what is the deal?http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1b5baf...b9f427f694g.jpgMy blog:http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

Being a real world pilot, although I only have 55 hours in a C152, I am also for more of the "immersion" factor. That is one of the things I like about FSX more than I did with FS9. I hate the sterile feeling that I get when flying into and around cities and airports with no moving cars, baggage trucks, etc. Feels like the movie the Langoliers. I really like seeing moving cars, boats, birds, etc. Although I have only seen the birds when flying around Monaco, it was nice feature, made me feel like I wasn't alone. Since I use the sim mainly for procedures training and for fun, I am pretty satisfied with the flight dynamics. I wouldn't mind seeing more improvements in weather and ATC, but I think that all the cars, boats, birds, and people add a lot to it. I am sure some disagree and only care about the flight model and dynamics, but for me the more eye candy the more real it feels. I feel like ACES is moving in the direction of making flight sim more like living earth sim and that is fine with me. I am excited about what the future holds for the flight sim franchise.

Great Post Jim,There are many that would agree with you, except many of them have left from discouragement. Lets hope they do finish the textures this time with some halfway decent coastline roads and rivers right out of the box. >>>Finish developing the weather.<<<<< To not have fully developed weather that includes the option of basic cloud shadows and the dimming of the ground textures under overcast is stupid....its 2008..its a flight sim.......you know...flying.....in the sky....sighwoo hoooo moving people....wooo hooo they probably pee and make the ground wet...woo hooo

Your post-especially the last sentence sounds pretty juvenile to me....Then I only flew rw many hundreds miles today so I might not be in the right mood for your last sentence...http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1b5baf...b9f427f694g.jpgMy blog:http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

Do not kid around about a X-BOX version.I am amazed MS has not already at least came out with a dual platform version.I recently wasted $150 on some PC shooters,2 refusing to run at all. Rainbow6 Vegas2,Gears of War, Orange Box.I threw them in the trash an bought a PS3 and have not looked back.FSX is the only "game" on my PC.I finally actually finished a game without hours of tweaking,driver hunting,reinstalls and black magic to run.Its all about the gameplay.When you are being shot at and being attacked from all sides, you do not notice that the bushes are a little jagged or the glass in the window is not shiny.I figure that by the time the new FS sim comes out, I would not be surprised if the minumum req to run it were 2 ,6 ghz quad core proc,2 gig vid cards in sli, all needing enough power to blow a fuse at the power station.

>Your post-especially the last sentence sounds pretty juvenile>to me....>Then I only flew rw quite a few hundred miles today so I might>not be in the right mood...>>http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1b5baf...b9f427f694g.jpg>>My blog:>http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/Maybe we can just stick to the sim Geof, no need to make personal. Ok?

Look at your last sentence-then stick to the sim...http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1b5baf...b9f427f694g.jpgMy blog:http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

In Phil's blog there is a link to a YouTube video (bottom one) that shows an animated character in the train.The person recording the video seemed very impressed by the animated character. I was impressed.That's the point: Animated people will help sell boxes at Walmart, which ultimately is what it's all about.Sure the hard-core purists will grimace at the apparent frivolity of it, but let's be honest: the hard-core purists are less than 1 percent of FS's target demographic.And I'd even dispute that animated people are frivolous: unless you're flying by yourself on the moon, flying is just as much about interacting with people as it is about interacting with a piece of machinery.Bryan

>the hard-core purists>are less than 1 percent of FS's target demographic.You

So how come some rw pilots like me don't see it that way?By the way-fs1 which I used in 1981 before I was a rw pilot had a ww1 shoot em up...http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1b5baf...b9f427f694g.jpgMy blog:http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/