Flight Simulator - Which one???

paddyblue

I have been researching Flight Sims recently with a view to purchasing one but i don't know what suits best to my system.

In November last year i purchased a Dell Inspiron 1520 Laptop. It's vital statistics are as follows;
Processor: Core 2 Duo T5450 1.66GHz,667,2M
Memory: Dual-channel 2048MB (2*1024) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Video: Intel Integrated GMA X3100

After looking up various forums & reviews on the web i quickly realised that Microsoft FSx is much to big for my laptop. Next i looked at FS2004. According to Microsoft Minimum requirements i can run this at full detail. But i've read numerous reviews that say you need a high spec system by todays standards to get the best out of this version (minimum 1.8GHz, 256MB Video, etc). This left me thinking i would have to play this game in low detail or i would suffer a reduction in frame rate. So maybe FS2002 would be best for me. I have no real problem playing an older version if it guarantee's me a smooth gaming experience.

Some of you guys seem to know a lot about the various sims and their performance requirements so i would appreciate any help on this.

As a side - are there any good alternatives to Microsoft for flight simulators? Any i've looked at seem to be combative games rather than pure simulation, which is what i'm looking for.

pclancy

You've got plenty of RAM and a decent cpu for FS2004 so give it a whirl and see what you think, you should be able to pick it up for only €20-30 now that FSX is long out. Graphics wise your laptop will be okay, not full detail levels I would imagine but it should be decent enough.

You can also have a look at X-Plane (www.x-plane.com) looks very good and is FAA approved for training. I'm downloading it at the moment to check out the demo, you have to buy it on DVD to see the full thing but screenshots and reviews make it seem a lot more professional then Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Checkout www.flightsim.com for forums, reviews and downloads for all flight sims too...its a great site.

Kevster

Wow, you've got pretty good specs there. I might as well add that I have a slightly less powerful machine than you but FS2002 works just fine on mine. It's a 'Game of the Year' and is very cheap. It has my favourite airplane: 747-400

pclancy

I finally got a go at X-Plane yesterday. Very comprehensive sim and certainly feels realistc but I dont think i prefer it graphically over FS2004 or FSX even with them at low settings. Realism wise it looks spot on though, especially for type training on a GA aircraft.

paddyblue

Thanks for the info

I have looked at reviews on x-plane. From what i can gather it offers a more realistic simulation experience than MS Sims with very accurate 'aircraft handling', but the graphics and especially the useability suffer by comparison. One reviewer - who claimed to be a pilot - used the word 'mindboggeling' when describing the vaiables involved to accurately configure your plane saying that it is more suited for 'aeronautical engineers and the like'. Other reviews weren't so dramatic but most did comment that the sim is not as easy to use as the MS versions.

I think the Microsoft sims are the best option for the beginner & casual 'simmers' with good all-round playability & graphics. I will be picking up a copy of Fs2004 at the weekend & hopefully taking to the virtual skies soon after.

One last thing i forgot to ask - any recommendations on a good Joystick? I'm looking for something relatively simple with good enough spec to use for Flight Sims - twist for rudder control, throttle lever, hat switch, etc. The Saitek AV8R Retro appears to be the best i could find & it's quite cheap (approx £25)

pclancy

Yeah the Saitek ones are cool, I'm still using a Microsoft Sidewinder I bought about 6 years ago without any hassle check them out as well.

Or have you seen any of the CH Stuff? They're really nice!

http://www.chproducts.com/retail/index.html

Plus some other stick reviews here Flightsim.com reviews

paddyblue

So i bought & installed FS2004 & its working fine, no jumping screen etc. Ihad the detail level set approx half way so i might increase this a little & see if my laptop can handle it.

One thing i find very annoying is the fact that the material in the 'learning centre' must be read from the in-game screen. Ideally i would print all of this material out & have a hard copy i could study in my spare time. It is very inconvenient having to study this material on a monitor (& damaging to my eyes - considering i already spend 8hrs a day in fron of a screen at work). What i am doing at the moment is taking brief notes on subjects such as 'instrument controls' 'engines' ATC' 'GPS' etc so i will have something on paper to reference back to in the future if i need it.

I am aware there is a 'print' option but the printer needs to be connected directly to my laptop. I don't have a printer so i normally copy to word, save on an external device & print it in town.

Does anyone know where there may be a downloadable version of this that i can print?

FlutterinBantam

Don't know how far advanced you are, but there is a book on fs2004 annotated sybex-official strategies and secrets. comes from microsoft.

perhaps this might get you off to a start if that is what you require??

benbulbin

I really enjoy X-plane. It's a different sort of simulator, all updates are free between versions and every month brings new features and improvements, but it is still easy to just get in and start flying, you can turn on an off systems/failures etc, it's up to you how detailed you want to be. The rendering features can be tuned to get very good frame rates on most recent machines. I've been using it for almost 2 years and keep discovering new things, you have to get used to looking online for scenery and aircraft, often buried in obscure sites (I’ve linked a few below to save you time!).

The live weather updates really add to the realism. World wide airport layout/navaid database is accurate and regularly updated, doesn’t include terminal models but you can download them for most airports. You can design, build and fly your own aircraft and tools for scenery are included, with a great new airport editor WED in beta. Space shuttle re-rentry and space flight are cool, you can even get complete Mars scenery based on NASA imagery.

The standalone X-plane 9 DVD (still beta) comes with basic scenery for the world which doesn't look brilliant, but if you add the Global Scenery v9 pack (7 DVD / 70 GB) you get extremely accurate topographical and land class coverage for most of the earth which looks beautiful (link below). If you download the demo it includes gorgeous sample scenery for LOWI - Innsbruck to give you an idea. Not many photo packs available though. The 3d cities and buildings are good in the USA, there's no autogen as in FSX, the building types and locations have been generalised and manually positioned! ATC sim is basic but you can get plug-ins for VATSIM or IVAO for realistic online ATC flying.

It's not as big as MSFS but there is a dedicated development community churning out great free aircraft with accurate flight models and scenery. The default heavies included wit hthe sim are poor but don't let that put you off, some excellent models available, some with full 3D cockpits, engine/reverser animation etc (X-plane freeware 757-200, MD-80). Some lovely pay ware aircraft also.

Nice new Dublin scenery with Pier D update just added:
http://homepage.mac.com/cormacshaw/xpih/scenery/content/index.html


Heavy Aircraft:
http://www.xplanefreeware.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=156 752 (3d)
http://www.xplanefreeware.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=3414 A319 (3d)
http://www.xplanefreeware.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5327 737(3D)
http://www.xpjets.com/aircraft/777/ 777
http://www.eadt.eu/xplane/Aircraft.html 737 (Ryanair)
http://www.reitter.de/galaxy/index_E.html A332 (Aer Lingus)
http://forjets.netfirms.com/ Tristar/DC8/707(EI) vintage

Light:
http://www.c74.net/xplane/_xpo_coop.html (Cirrus jet/Piper/Gulfstream/ Cessna CitationM/)
http://shadetreemicro.com/ (Various)
http://myvirtualhanger.com/ (Vintage)

Scenery:
http://www.xplanefreeware.net/tom/InsidePassage/Home.html (BC - The Inside Passage /seaports)
http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?showforum=7 (forum)
http://www.hatsuon.net/sydneyscenery.html (Sydney NSW)
http://www.horizonsimulation.com/shopeu/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=72&zenid=36f416d614e541e90ecc6c36c180e3ec (UK – Photo)
http://www.x-scenery.de/scenery.htm (Germany)
http://www.x-plane.com.br/index2.html (Rio – Brazil)

General sites:
www.x-plane.com (for demo)
www.x-plane.org (News, forum, aircraft and scenery search / downloads)
www.xplanefreeware.net (forum, free aircraft etc)
http://www.global-scenery.org/ (v8 global scenery, no site for V9 yet)