TheFamilyMan

Default FSX textures => A sharp stick poked into your eye GEX textures => Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick! As a quick, massive area improvement over the default textures, GEX is excellent but not perfect.

If MS steps anywhere with Flight, a very wise next step would be to implement TrackIR. For me it's a 100% deal maker/breaker. For this reason alone I lost interest in Flight within the first few hours I tried it (though I'll be back the day TIR is supported).

Using UTX night street lighting is a major FPS killer. I doubt that disabling all other UTX features will this help very much. Car traffic is another FPS killer, especially when coupled with UTX's extended car traffic. I avoid using both of these features for this reason, though an urban low 'n' slow flight at night with UTX car traffic enabled is quite a nice experience. GEX ground textures products are on my essentials list for not only do they look a lot better than the default, they are tuned to be less of an autogen strain on FSX.

I upgraded a gtx 275 to a 560ti more than a year ago. For FSX, the upgrade did very little to help overall FPS but it did allow higher levels of AA/AF to be used. I also fly in Rise of Flight, and for that sim the upgrade was most worthwhile. Games such as Skyrim will also benefit greatly with that upgrade.

The term CFS is an "overloaded namespace". MS did release MSCFS3 with was OK for its time, but definately not anymore. "IL-2 1946" (which technically is a CFS) though a few years old, had its latest offical rev, 4.11, released last year. It still has a very active community, which some produce excellent free mod packs.

Just a head's up: The context of "CFS" here is "Combat Flight Simulator" (not Chronic Fatigue Syndrome...I hope the two aren't related ;-).

If you are really aching to fly WWII war birds, the CFS "IL-2 1946" is an excellent and inexpensive sim which has several aircraft out-of-box (check it out at amazon, super cheap!). Not only can you fly them, but the armaments are functional and accurately modelled along with nice damage modelling of those target aircraft (which can easily be yourself). The "hyperlobby" app is an online portal to IL-2 public servers, which is also highly recommended. The only downside of IL-2 is its graphics are primitive by todays standards (but definately adequate), but once in combat that's the last thing you are concerned about. BTW, if you never done a CFS expect a huge learning curve to get the gunnery down, for IL-2 models its realism decently well. Carrier take-offs and landing are modelled as well; works fine on Win7 too if you don't load it in the default "program files" directory. And finally, stay completely away from the "Cliff of Dover" release; it is amazingly awful and never should have been released!

Smoothness with max eye candy (i.e. realism) is all that matters for me. I only check FPS if smoothness out of whack. A jaw dropping 20 is far better IMO than a sparse 30+.

I've found that with hyper-threading enabled, FSX does the right thing on its own to manage the cores properly. Only in cases where one needs to restrict FSX from executing on a specific core should one specify a fsx.cfg affinity mask. With the configuration I use I see no benefit when hyper-threading is disabled ; but then again top-end overclocks may need HT disabled for stability.

Thanks for all the above info gentlemen. I lowered FFTF from .33 to .2 and it really cleared a lot of microstutters when landing and taking off, though it still isn't 100% perfect (say about 92%). Any lower caused side effects with my now aging system. I also use internal limiter @35, and TBM=100 and BP=0 as my only other tweaks and its pretty darn sweet right now...so back to flying! I only fly GA, somewhat low and slow...confirmed prop head. IMHO the key is to tune for what/where/when and obviously everyones needs differ here. (Just bought orbx SNZ...now off I go).

TrackIR is like the cigarette of FS. Some try it and think "Too much yuck for what you get out of it" so why bother (one of my flying buddies had this impression). But once you are hooked, quitting can be impossible. And considering there are no long term health risks, why quit anyways...

:Applause: I hope TIR support comes out at least by the end of this year. I'm still betting that they will also support Kinect; seems a perfect fit for their fledgling PC product. When TIR support arrives I'll inform my ground crew to wash off the accumulated salt spray off my long term parked Stearman...and, oh yes, I'll start the paperwork to get a Maul.

My basis...connecting the dots...that is all. It's 100% speculation, after all it is only an "impression".

To further ride out this hijack...My impression is that TIR support for Flight was shelved to allow time for developers to work out Kinect for PC integration issues. After all, Flight is the perfect platform for demostrating the excellence of using Kinect (as all us TIR know all too well, much to our dismay). Along this same reasoning, I would not be suprised if MS is sandbagging us on TIR support, as in if Kinect is integrated, why would their business interest want to support a direct competitor for a product that they have just launched?Here's the future: http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-L6M-00001-Kinect-Sensor-Windows/dp/B006UIS53K

Sorry, but I got to call you on this: no version of the P-51 ever had an air cooled engine. BTW, the Packard Merlin was the BEAST!!!!Edit: The P-47 was air cooled, and a great high alt flier too. Maybe that was what you were thinking.

I too am suprised by the low level of TIR enthusiasm in the poll.Just a warning for the un-TIR initiated:Using TIR programs your mind for the FS experience such that you really think you are turning your head to look over your wing while on your downwind leg, or glancing down at your gauges for a quick look. It becomes so natural that you don't even think about, you just do it and believe that you really did 'look there'...hence why I'm addicted to it (and why Flight sucks for me without it). The effect has become so pervasive that while watching FS clips on youtube I find myself trying to change the view by moving my head.

IMHO without TrackIR support, no other improvement really matters.

Great interview, you covered all the important concerns with directness and tact. :Applause:Thanks for putting a direct question out for TIR support; it's really appreciated. TIR support is my only beef with Flight....to bad it's use considered is a "minority" . For this reason alone, I've shelved Flight (and not out of 'principle', but because it's too frustrating viewing the VC and surroundings without it).I hope this thread doesn't go "south"...

Here is the basic problem with flight: The Elephant is still in the living room, i.e. regardless how MS want to dress up Flight, it's still a SIM (yes, that dirty word which causes glazed over eyes and muttering in the gaming masses). IMO MS is attempting to do something in the gaming market with Flight that's about as popular as having a Jehovah's Witness knocking at their door. (Please, no offense towards Jehovah's Witnesses is intending by this).BTW, I've put about 3 hours of flying into Flight. I quit flying it because I'm addicted to using 6DOF TIR and, plainly put, flying without it is very irritating for me.

Crud, I can't vote; no choice for "other" in the case catagory :oYou see, I had this really beefy cardboard box and these giant tie wraps I've been saving for a really long time now... :Just Kidding:

The lack of TIR kills Flight for me, simply because I don't want to waste such a top rate experience without it!!!! So I'm waiting, and have sent my courteous but compelling email explaining my position to MS....and will do so every two weeks or so until they deliver. Heck, I pay $10 for 6DOF TIR if they required it.

REX 2 with Flight! = more 2D billboard clouds (though they are excellent). I'd hope that Flight would soon ditch this cloud modelling

It's nice to read that TIR is at least on the Flight long list though I've decided, that without TIR, Flight will have to wait. Thankfully I still have lots of FSX content left to fly, all fully loaded with excellent 3PD addons.

Just a bump to remind everyone:Let MS know that 6DOF TrackIR is an absolute must for Flight!!!!Send your email NOW (I thank those who've already done this).Even if you are not a TIR user, do it for the sake of the community.msflight@microsoft.comI tried the mouse emulator work around...IMO 2DOF TIR isn't even close to good enough.Thanks for reading.

Crud....I am soooo crushed by the lack of TrackIR. Complete loss of immersion and enjoyment!!!! I can fly without it but it sucks so badly pushing that hat switch around....lost that talent years ago and I can't/won't go back. DLC will have to wait