Buying a Flight Sim

[tl8]

Hi guys

I am looking for a detail comparison between Flights Sims

I will want to but one with in the next few weeks.

I would like details on:

• The quality of free addons
• The number of free addons
• ease of use
• Joystick support
• Graphics quality
• Overall Rating

I have considered X-Plane, Flight Gear and FSX, but I am not sure which one to get (I have flight gear, but I am wonder if I should buy one)

 

[liber]

You could check and this one.

http://www.hangsim.com/mf/

 

[Cobalt]

While FSX has some excellent eye-candy, the autogen is a massive issue that hurts framerate. Here's an excellent blog post about why.

Long story short, FSX attempts to render 250,000+ trees per cell when set to max. So even lower settings are still trying to render an unncessecarily huge amount of trees even if you're miles away.

Though, the FSX multiplayer is a big plus. I'd say FSX if A) You've got a decent rig, and B) you want multiplayer.

 

[James.Denholm]

Let's see if I can do this without tread-jacking...

While FSX has some excellent eye-candy, the autogen is a massive issue that hurts framerate. Here's an excellent blog post about why.

Long story short, FSX attempts to render 250,000+ trees per cell when set to max. So even lower settings are still trying to render an unncessecarily huge amount of trees even if you're miles away.

Holy frame rates Batman! That's why FSX lags so badly on my machine! (Then again, I only get 30 - 70 fps on Orbiter...) Thanks for that link, as it has a sort of "fix" on it. Time to re-install FSX...

Though, the FSX multiplayer is a big plus. I'd say FSX if A) You've got a decent rig, and B) you want multiplayer.

Remember, though, you will probably want a fairly good internet connection for multiplayer. Otherwise, your kamikaze runs on people while they're landing will be rather ineffective. :lol:

 

[gawinnard]

If you want the peace and tranquillity of gliding, then Condor Competition Soaring Simulator is a good buy. 95% of the sceneries are free, however the Glider packs (one so far, a second pack in the process of being created) are not, but are very cheap at 10 euros. For Glider packs, user can create gliders and submit them to the dev team. The reason for this is so that the quality of the flight model is consistent with its RL counterpart and as part of the security system, it stops people from hacking the configuration file, ensuring fair online racing.

 

[unussapiens]

I would recommend microsoft flight simulator 9 for general ease of use. It has good graphics, plenty of addons and you can learn how to use it easily. What has been said so far about FSX is true, it's not much more than expensive eye candy. As much as I like flightgear, it's no competition for MSFS9.

 

[Capt. Speirs]

FSX has a problem with add-on prop planes. The props are very difficult to get transparent so the clouds don't cover up the props. This has only been acomplished by just a few add-ons correctly. I had FS9 and was happy with it, now I have FSX and I am very happy with it, truly amazing eye candy. My FSX runs at 30 fps consistantly with everything turned up. Here is my rig;

Viewsonic VX2240W
ASUS Maximus Formula
Intel Core2Duo E6850
EVGA 8800 GTS 512
Crucial Ballistic Tracer DDR2 PC2-8500
WD 500 GB SATA2
OCZ 700W
Cooler Master CM690
DVD ASUS|DRW-2014L1T LS SATA
Saitek X52Pro
Logitech G7, G11
XBOX360 Controller
Naturalpoint TRACKIR Pro w/Trackclip Pro
Ultimate Defrag Pro 2008
NOD32 Antivirus

 

[Kyle]

Google Earth Flight Simulator?

 

[Pilot7893]

FSX was the first MSFS to get rid of the 100,000 feet altitude limit. So if you want to go into space and back in an X-15...