data65

Honestly, FSX is showing it's age now. X-plane has completely accurate roads, actual overpasses , real lighting...I mean lights are the only thing that light the scenery.....no illuminated textures. The lights at airports aren't just colored dots...they are actual physical objects. It is stunning!

It will be your main sim! I've been on MSFS since 98 and though it took some time to get used to, it definitely beats FSX by a mile. The milestone for me was 10.50. The visuals, especially at night are amazing!

I have a working knowledge of 3dsmax/Gmax, and Blender. I created The Ampjet for FS2002 in Gmax and also a few scenery projects. I was then given an outdated copy of 3dsmax and ultimately got into Blender. I can tell you that compared to Blender, Gmax/3dsmax are clumsy and underpowered. Once you get into Blender you can really see that it is unbelievably powerful, not only for a free, open source program, but for any program. Plus there are many more add-ons,modules,and scripts for it than for Gmax/3dsmax. Also it's much easier to learn due to the fact that tutorials, in particular video tutorials, are at around a 20/1 ratio in favor of Blender. It is updated almost on a monthly basis and has a following that is on par with MSFS. So it seems to me that Blender and FS Next would go hand in hand. Of course this is all just my opinion but it is fact based. Thanks for the indulgence .Below are some of my Blender creations from awhile back. They aren't that great but they will show you what blender is capable of.

This feature is quite cool if you set it correctly. My favorite thing to play with in FS is weather so I've ofcourse put it through the ringer. The biggest thing to realize is that the weather engine in FS responds to atmospheric conditions pretty much as the real world does. So.. to see a rapid change,first clear the skies by setting the weather theme to clear, then set the "weather changes over time" feature to the fastest setting. Then go to any airport that has a weather reporting station. Do a custom weather setting for only the station you are at and set the temperature to around 90F , the pressure to something low like 28.75 and the dewpoint higher than the temperature in this case 91F. Park your aircraft and shut off the engine so you can hear the thunder. How it works. Ok, because the temp is set high, there is energy via heat. Because the pressure is low all the surrounding atmosphere will be "sucked" into your area. ( You will see clouds coming in from all directions). And because the dew point is set higher than the temp, rain can form. With these settings, clouds will start forming in about 2 or 3 minutes. After that you will start noticing thunder heads in the distance. Within 30 minutes or so(if all goes right) you will have some nasty weather forming. Have fun and I hope this explains things. Also you can do this at multiple weather stations so you can set this to happen at your destination airport and fly into a wet windy mess.Good luck

It's good to see some up and downs and no flaming. Thank you all very much for expressing some very constructive comments. I hope nobody got the idea that this was a commercial for X-plane. I owned x-plane 7 and I didn't keep it long. It had, and still has, a long way to go, but that was my point. If Austin can bridge this large chasm between MSFS and X-plane, he can write his own ticket. Thanks again all for a flame free discussion. Let's keep it going. If we can stay united as a community then that is half of the battle.

Regarding the Avsim article on the future of MSFS. All I can say is, I've had it! I will continue to fly FSX as long as MS supports it and allows future activations. That's fine with me, and if they ever pull the plug on that then I'll revert to FS9. However, having said that, no way no how am I gonna buy an XBox to fly any future incarnation of FS, nor will I be forced to pay for every extra plane or scenery area! In my opinion Microsoft has gone way too far here! I suppose that thier thinking is that they could make more money that way, but in reality, again in my opinion, the money made from this move will not be for Microsoft, but rather for Austin Meyer the creator of x-plane. If I were him I would hire whoever he needed to and pounce...pounce hard!!! It will take years for Microsoft to pull any Flightsim out of the ashes of ACES Studios and in that time Austin could pick up 100% of the Flightsim market. Think of that. One guy has the chance to corner a market that he barely had a fingerhold in a month ago, and he could do it virtually overnight! If he doesn't act now he will be missing out on the chance of a lifetime! Austin if you are reading this, I can't speak for the whole community, but i can say this. From what I've seen, all you need is detailed cities,airports and a few more little extras and you have MS beat for good! Don't blow this oportunity to beat the big boys and make a buttload of money in the process! I guess this is a call for support of X-plane and Austin Meyer! I don't even own it yet...but I will if it is developed to modern eyecandy standards. Honestly I am outraged at Microsoft's behavior in this matter Do I seem miffed? I am!!!!

Rub it in man. Still I downloaded at 435 kb/s...not bad.If I every had to go back to 56k I think you'd see a grown man cry! John

Look. If you've spent any time on any game that supports add-ons. You begin to realize that it's hard work keeping it running properly, and FS is no different. It degrades after time, especially when you add a drastic change to it. It's like when a person gains weight. It happens so gradually that it's hard to notice for that person, so they doubt that they are really getting any bigger, and go into denial. But someone who hasn't seen them for a year, upon seeing them say's "oh my god, you freakin' blimp!" . It's the same with games...a fresh install never hurts, because they do get slower over time. If you wanna do it right the time is worth it. John

Ok, here's an early performance report. I spent about an hour and a half putting it throught it's paces on a strictly performance basis. First off I have seen no bad effects. The only addons I have are aircraft. I am using a clean install, scenery wise. Here's the biggest thing that I noticed. I restored the autogen default.xml and I am getting the same frames as I was getting with the little barns and powerstaions disabled! No more jitters with the extra autogen enabled. Second. Textures seem to load quicker. I never once saw the "blank texture" problem when textures are loading. I am maxed on settings with the exception of 75% terrain mesh and no anti aliasing. All other sliders are maxed out. I have frames locked at 24fps and that doesn't budge with clear weather anywhere. The scenery density doesn't matter. Flying over New York City with heavy clouds, I was getting 18-20 fps, but it would dip to 12-15 if I was panning around. Clouds still take the framerates south but not as much now..I guess because of the autogen fix. My recomendation is that I don't think the patch will do you any harm. When you have the time, do a fresh install of FS and then reload all of those add-ons. If you have no problems with FS now,then don't install it. I personally like seeing the little cows go by underneath. Now I can see them with no framerate hit. Yippeee! Well, that's my take on it. John Specs: P4 2.66 1 Gig PC 2700 RAM FX 5700LE 128meg Vid Card Running FS at 1024x768 16 bit Vid Card Settings: 8x ansotropic filtering enabled Slider to quality setting no anti-aliasing

here ya go!http://www.simviation.com/fsgauges6.htmJohn

Hi, I am trying to have the sim play a continuous .wav file when my aircraft reaches a certain latitude and longitude. I know the conversion formula for the coordinates, but could somebody please show me an example of an abl code that would acomplish this. For reference what I am wanting to do is give sound to a rumbling volcano using one of the default thunder .wav files. Thanks for any help that you can give, JohnP.S. this is for FS2002