As I said, I'd proven myself stoic beyond the dreams of any Roman soldier, with my decision to hold off on buying FSX. So naturally, I was at the store right at opening on October 17, having taken the day off in order to assure grabbing the product and having the day to fiddle with it. To be sure, being the provider of home and hearth, meals and clothing is important. But this is flight simulation we're talking about, and despite all my rigid mental preparation and resolve, I was the first on line and bought the damn thing. Way to go, Mr. Spartan Warrior.

Have you taken a stroll to the FSX forums? Such wailing and gnashing of teeth! And small wonder, I've decided. Sure, to those of you who have been running FS2004 on the default setting, with no add-ons at all, FSX is a wonderful achievement! The scenery has improved greatly, and the addition of active backgrounds such as highway vehicles, ships and airport support are a wonder to see. And the aircraft! I got my wish, with overhead panels and greatly improved flight characteristics. As usual, there are performance issues. Can you think of a FS release that didn't have performance issues?

So, there is a silent group out there who are not posting on the forums, or at least very little (difficult to post when each one is met with replies questioning one's ability to reproduce) as more than likely, they're all off flying. So, from where cometh the naysayer and the whiney?

Well, first realize that the forums are usually filled with simmers with a long history with FS. And, as one would expect from anyone who has even a passing fancy with FS and a charge card, the forums are filled with those who fly the SuperSims and have hard drives overflowing with FSStuff, and all kinds of associated crap bolted to their desk.

Now, let's be honest here. For those of us who have spent many hundreds of times the original cost of FS2004 on tweaks, additions and hardware, FSX is, well, let's just say that the current incarnation of FSX is right up there. It has a great personality. Really. The ubiquitous Middle School date, promising much but delivering little.

It's not that I don't like FSX, because I do. It's just that I've managed to spiff up FS2004 to a point where at least for the moment, considering performance issues and available software, X just can't compete with 9. I'm getting performance that is smooooth as silk, even with weather, traffic and terrain maxed out while flying my beloved SuperSims. And flying the default aircraft? Hitting the shift-Z just results in the program saying "Don't be silly... I'm kicking ass and you know it."

How can X compete with that? For the moment, as nice as the scenery looks, enabling all the really cool effects like highway and sea vehicles (I haven't seen any birds yet, despite my attempt to ingest a couple just to watch the gauges go nuts), results in my system which is two years old struggling to give me performance that compares to 9. Bringing the sliders down results in nice smooth motion, but what am I seeing outside the digiglass? Nice as it may be, it's not UT or FlyTampa. And those I do see with 9, with the sliders where I want them to be and with good performance.

So it's not, as has been posted ad nauseum, that FSX is a lousy program (well, actually the predominant description is "sucks" but I can't write that). Quite to the contrary, it has got potential galore. It's just that for the moment, its younger brother when dressed to the nines is, for me anyway, outperforming it.

And something else I just have to say. Being the FSSicko that I am, I've got my Nostromo Gamepad and Saitek joystick/throttle combo set up just so. Believe me, there is poetic beauty in climbing out on a gentle turn and being able to enable the AP, heading, speed and flap retraction without taking my eyes off the screen and hand off the joystick (the Saitek joystick, you perverts). And when RadarContact 4 or default ATC issues me commands, the programmed Nostromo allows me to move barely a finger, and communication is complete. The Key2Mouse program has allowed me to program several functions that formerly were only available by mouseclicks (the PMDG AP enable, for example) into my joystick, so that when flying my beloved 736 Guppy, I'm watching the countryside and gauges rather than fumbling with the mouse in order to enable the AP.

Do you have any idea how long it took me to program all this stuff? Hours. Days. Weeks, in some instances. And guess what? FSX actually laughed at me when I tried using any of my programmed shortcuts. So for me, it's back to the keyboard to control most of the functions of X, at least until I find it within myself to take the time to reprogram everything. I mean, hitting 'S' then 'A'? Before I was able to find my way back to a cockpit view, I had introduced my CRJ to the interior of the International Arrivals building at KJFK. But it wasn't all a lost cause, as my son learned a few new phrases with which to impress his friends.

Despite all this, I am really excited about FSX. Sure, I expect there will be a patch in the future. And I also expect I'll be contributing to the MasterCard people's strive for wealth. But not just yet. It is ironic that just when I get FS2004 to be just the way I like it, Microsoft goes and throws a wrench into the turbine blades by introducing FSX. But that's OK. I figure any time now the developers will throttle back on the FS2004 add-ons and concentrate on FSX.

I also figure that by around this time in about 2008 I ought to be just where I want to be with FSX. Finished at last!

Three Green!

Chip Barber
rfbarber@optonline.net