Flight Sims, which one?
 

Read all about it.

Microsoft Flight Simulator X Review for PC - GameSpot

Have a look at this thread, there's some useful info.

You might get better information from a dedicated flight sim site (google is your friend). I had a list of some of them in a previous post a while back, but I can't find it.

SD

Depends on the spec of your machine. MS can be a real resource hog.

The two main ones in my opinion are MS Flight sim and X-Plane. For all you can get out of a sim they're as good as each other. Get some good add-ons and you can have some fun.

X-plane is better for overall flight dynamics due to it's method of developing the flight model. I find there is a better feel for speed in X plane as well. It's not as user friendly as MS though. I use MS more frequently.

There are rumours that MS are pulling out of the flight sim market.

substantiated where ?

Here

BBC NEWS | Magazine | Journey's end for Flight Simulator

They haven't said so, but did make a bunch of people redundant at the flight sim studio.

Ahhh ok, so that means its a goner, I guess that means cause RBS (royal bank of scotland) made 9,000 people redundent they are not a bank no more. I guess cause GM have laid off a few thousand people they are not making no car's anymore.


Get real, in the current climate - people are cutting costs - it does not mean anything so far as product direction unless they actually state it.

If you want to second guess companies then look a little further than their actions as to why and the reasoning behind. It hurts all of us to see people being made redundent but please dont be so niave as to think thats a statement of product or corporation direction - it is normally just to make things economical (as harsh as it sounds).

p.s. Sprogget although I quoted you it was by no ways directed at you.

I do like to potter around in Flight sim X occasionaly I also have the acceleration expansion pack. Pretty good package for the money. It is however very resource hungry and you'll need a high spec PC to get the best out of it. I have all the variables (Traffic/realism etc) set to Max and my new super PC handles it with ease.
Max Traffic is a bugga at LHR, had to taxi for 15mins then wait another 20mins for take off clearance last week:{ now that's 'realism'!

Are the sim's worth doing ?

Sorry never done one but wonder if they are near reality

I think that's been done before, too, Jofm.

They don't offer the peripheral view or the "feel" of a real aeroplane, so they are nothing like the real thing in that regard. I can fly an SEP reasonably well, and land it safely. I can NOT land a PC sim safely - sometimes it survives, sometimes there's a smoking hole in the runway.

Where the sims do start to have some relevance is in instrument flight practice. In the real world, there's no peripheral vision anyway, so it works well for that. Once I've broken cloud at 200 feet on the ILS, the practice is over anyway so the landing bit is irrelevant.

I tried MSFS and X-Plane. No contest: X-Plane is far more realistic in terms of how the aircraft handles, instruments behave, etc. It's a bit less user-friendly to set up, but well worth the extra effort in my view.

The major objection to PC sims for those who are going to fly for real is that they teach you to fly "head in the cockpit". Lookout goes for the chop. That is, in my view, the major danger with using one.

Jofm5, the fact that it is a rumour means it's not substantiated, if it was it would be a fact.

M/S FSX is a goner
 

Jofm5, if you have never bothered with flight sims why are you posting in this thread? Sound like a bit of a troll to me.

With regard to M/S laying people off, they have done more, they have totally disbanded the development studio that handled FSX (and predecessors) and the official FSX site acknowledges that. No crumb of comfort is offered.

However, there are loads of 3rd party developers out there bringing out add-ons.

To answer OP, it depends what you want to do, do you want a game or to learn certain aspects of flying? As Keef says, FSX is OK for certain bits and X-Plane others.

If you want a game, I suggest IL2 1946, also has good flight models. It's a hard call between FSX & X-Plane for learning - I veer towards FSX.

For controls, buy a Cyborg Evo j/stick until you decide if you want to stick with it.

Thanks all for the info.

It probably does what it says on the box, but what's an add-on? Are you talking expansion packs? You mentioned alternative companies make them for the machine? Is there a website I can look into this?

My computer is HP pavilion vista premium two years old, no upgrades other than auto downloads. That is the limit of my knowledge.

As far as what I want, a bit of everything, learn aspects of flight, and 'play the games'. I will look into the games and stick suggested.

Thanks again.:ok:

1000tintoys
 

The add-ons I refer to are NOT expansion packs. When you install FSX you have several a/c provided, almost all of them AFAIK flawed ie simplistic. You may have the shape of the a/c and some of the flight deck but nowhere reality. The add-ons are the ones that people have laboured over, some of them free and some payware, generally the commercial offerings are better but I dont mind being corrected. FSX provides a basic a/p and FMC (in some cases) but if you want to feel like you are flying a 738, buy the add-on. Even better, treat yourself to some time in a proper sim but good prep is using FSX to understand the workings of the a/c. I have no experience of X-Plane.
If you want to get a feel of things you can download a demo of FSX, it limits your flight time to 30 mins, buy it you get the code to turn it into fully fledged.

I asked why you want to know because NO flight sim can give you the experience of flying, even with those full motion used to check out pilots have no bottom line ie you are not going to die if you make a mistake.

There are quite a few sites out there to check out for info, Google it. PM me if you wish, dont know how soon I'll get back to you.

I would also be careful on here as some will look through your posts and decide that as a 'simmer' you have no valid point to put forward, not all as some ATPLs also use sims. Just thought I'd alert you to that. Happy (chairbound) flying.

Regarding MS FSX -

The program has it's own built-in interactive flying lessons. Very helpful for a new user.

For an idea of what products are available try AVSIM Online - Flight Simulation, Flightsim, flight sim, flight simulator, fsx, fs10

You will need a joystick, too. Try somewhere like amazon and don't spend too much to start.

For helo's there is DCS Black Shark (a new sim).

Cheers!

I read the highway code before learning to drive... does that make me a troll ?

I read alot about what I am not qualified to respond on and typically I dont respond on such items unless I can add some value. When I do I try to respect those in which I am I am responding to.

My question about whether a flight sim is worth investing in is because my computer is a vehicle to make money and improve my studies. If a flight sim is a worthwhile investment that would aid my aim to get a ppl then I may invest in one - as pure entertainment I would not bother. In my line of work I find it important to deliniate between work and pleasure - otherwise I would be playing games when meant to be working.

I am quite able to admit when I was wrong and in this case it appears I was, when I looked MS was denying the discontinuation of flight simulator but have subsequently retracted this and confirmed it. I apologise for being wrong but as I could not believe it to be true I looked and from what I saw at the time it was just a scaling down of operations.

Jofm5
Hi, you'll know from some of my previous posts which you've replied to, and many thanks for your expert advice, that I also use my PC mainly for my business activities.
I'm not a 'gamer' by any stretch of the imagination but I do enjoy a bit of relaxation time occasionally plodding around in Flight Sim X you make of it what you want, I think it's a lot of fun, the 'missions' inculded with X are great fun.
If you Google Microsoft Flight Sim you'll get a decent potted history of its development it's interesting how much time and effort the developers have put into the programme.

Try it I think you'd like it:)

Don't be wasting your money purchasing FSX if your machines arn't fast enough to run it.

Microsoft state on the back of the FSX DVD case the minimum specifications to run the game which is absolute crap, them specs would barely load the dam game up nevermind run it. If you want the best out of fsx you need a fekn fast machine, FSX will gobble your memory if you don't have enough!

Basically your looking at:

A good Dual core processor or Quad Core, Not sure how the latest cores work with fsx.

At least 4GB of Ram

ATi Radeon HD 4xxx series or NVIDIA GeForce Graphics card

A good size hard drive, 500GB is good thou not required.

............................

Anybody looking some decent FSX helicopter addons have a look here:

Nemeth Designs Development Group - Products