Flight Unlimited 3.5

[Christopher Low 5,353]

I have just been reading an old review of Flight Unlimited 3 on the internet. The reviewer's conclusion at the time (2000 January 24) was that FU3 was an average flight simulator, but not the great leap forward in technology that FU2 was. The overall score was given as 77 per cent.This may surprise you, but I agreed with a lot of the comments in the review. When I look back to how FU3 was in the days of the Pentium II, with its jerky framerates and texture shimmering, I have to agree that the graphics could have been even better. I have always said (and still do) that the San Francisco scenery in FU2 is actually higher quality than the Seattle scenery in FU3. There is more variety to the landscape, and the urban textures in particular seem clearer and more realistic. The fact that this scenery can be used in FU3 was one of the better decisions made by LGS at the time.However, we are now nearly three years further down the road than when the review was written, and things have changed considerably. FU3 is now installed on far more powerful systems, although even these can struggle at times :-) Vastly more powerful 3D graphics cards have now smoothed the jagged edges exhibited by textures, and the shimmering problem has virtually disappeared, thanks to advanced anti-aliasing techniques. Add this to the dramatic upgrades that have been made to the existing airports and aircraft, together with some impressive new flyable aircraft, new high resolution scenery areas (I'm thinking UK here guys), Laurie Doering's magnificent weather effects upgrades, and significant AI upgrades (including the return of Concordes, Blackbirds and F22 Raptors.......thanks Jouko Huovinen), and you can see that FU3 is a considerably better product than it was when first released.In short, thanks to the dedicated efforts of everyone here on the AVSIM FU3 Forum (and probably many others), we are all now the proud owners of a new Looking Glass flight simulation product..............Flight Unlimited 3.5Chris Low,ENGLAND.PS. I wonder if we can go another .5 ?

[Guest jonpoint]

Chris,"... you can see that FU3 is a considerably better product than it was when first released.In short, thanks to the dedicated efforts of everyone here on the AVSIM FU3 Forum (and probably many others), we are all now the proud owners of a new Looking Glass flight simulation product..............Flight Unlimited 3.5"I agree wholeheartedly :-) After doing a re-install on a friend's PC and testing it out 'out of the box', the weather FX looked primitive, the aircraft choices limited and the scenery rather plain. If only we could do 'something' to the engine to allow more use of modern 3D techniques. It is rather disappointing to take a 3DS model with reflections and hi-rez graphics, then strip it all back to a wireframe to import it into FU3 :-(That said, if this is all an upgrade, it has been one of the most pleasurable ones I know.BTW, mine's 3.52 - it has OT AND the yet-to-be-released racer packages :-hahJon Point*************************(effyouthree@hotmail.com)*************************