Request for help choosing add-ons

[Gullwing91]

I recently bought FS2004 after years of playing military flightsims (which had started to lose their appeal) and I'm already having a lot of fun. I plan to add nothing to the sim for the time being and just fly it in its original form but I'm sure the time will come when I will want to add content so I was hoping for a steer in the right direction.

There are things I like about FS2004 and a few things I don't so I thought I'd try to add stuff that minimises the negative aspects (for me that is, I appreciate that a lot of this is about personal choice/taste). There are also a bewildering number of add-ons out there and I can see it's possible to spend a small fortune!

Things I like

1) the structured tutorial material e.g. flying lessons-very immersive.

2) the scenery at medium and high altitude

3) the clouds

4) effects like sunset and sunrise, rain

5) the external aircraft models.

6) performance (high fps even on my 2005-vintage PC)

I'm less positive about these features

1) the water (looks like crumpled blue polythene)

2) ugly textures at low altitude

3) the cockpits (2d pits are functional but flat and lifeless, 3d cockpits have poor graphics)

4) the feeling of flying in isolation (no dynamic world around you)

I've found a few add-ons that look good from my perspective. The aircraft by Captain Sim look amazing (I like the animations, the feeling of "depth" and the attention to detail), also the Just Flight package that adds traffic and FS Passengers also look very interesting. I'm less sure about the scenery: improved textures are probably of more interest to me than accurate elevations. I like airfield detail (especially if it has animated features like moving vehicles and taxiing aircraft) and as I've mentioned good quality water especially if it has movement and reflections is a priority if such an add-onexists. But I also have to be careful about my fps on this old computer (which I have no plans to replace at the moment-specs are 3.2 Ghz P4 Prescott 2m, 2Gb DDR2, Geforce 7900GS 256 MB). I'd be really grateful for any suggestions.

[Gullwing91]

I realise that I probably posted in the wrong place and/or asked the wrong questions hence the lack of any response. If so I'm sorry. At the risk of repeating the mistake and in case this is of interest to anyone else, here's what I picked.

Zinertek Ultimate Water FX (payware)
Real Environment Pro (excellent freeware)
AN-24 by Dimitri Samborski (freeware in Avsim library)
Traffic 2005 (by Justflight)
Traffic View Board (freeware in Avsim Library)

I'm very pleased with all these-they all work fine on my old computer-the AN-24 is amazing and the water and sky improvements are huge.

I'm trying the following demos

Heathrow Xtreme scenery by UK2000 (superb detail and fps friendly, will probably buy)
Justflight Cargo Pilot
Justflight Airliner Pilot
FS Passengers

The following didn't do too well on my system (access violations, graphics corruption or just stopped working)

Active Camera
Genix AI Timetable 2

but I can see they could be good if you can get them working.

And on my Christmas present list

757 Captain
Active Sky

[ppgstf]

Hi Gullwing

Here is my two pennyworth.

Firstly, your system should run FS9 to a more than reasonable level. My suggestions would be along the lines of Ground Environment Pro and Flight Environment for ground and sky textures, Active Sky 6.5 is a brilliant weather programme and for Traffic, I would recommend Traffic 2005 with the add on Plus packs.

Now, these are all payware and personal recommendations and not to everyones taste. I know of simmers who will not buy payware and use exclusively freeware products. The one freeware I would suggest is nHancer which will help you tweak you settings for AA and AF etc. I would also suggest you have a look at the many threads offering suggestions to the basic FS9.cfg file. Alastair helped me with mine ages ago and it helped performance greatly.

Let us know how you get on.

[Clipper24/7]

In the MUST HAVE category for FS2004 is:

If you are an airliner kind of guy,then
PMDG 737 and 747 (http://www.precisionmanuals.com/)
Level D 767
(http://www.leveldsim.com/sevensix_home.asp)
Like flying props?
Flight1 ATR 72-500 (http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=atr1)

Weahter
Active Sky (http://www.hifisim.com/as6.php)

Airports
Any from Fly Tampa (http://www.flytampa.org/)
Any from Aerosoft (http://www.aerosoft.com/cgi-local/re/iboshop.cgi?show270)
FSDreamTeam (http://www.fsdreamteam.com/)

Airport enviroment
AES from Aerosoft (http://www.aerosoft.com/cgi-local/re/iboshop.cgi?showd100!0,5036217860,D10333)

Scenery
Ultimate Terrain (http://www.scenerysolutions.com/UT.html)
FSGlobal2008 (http://www.aerosoft.com/cgi-local/re/iboshop.cgi?showd,,10335)

Textures
Ground Environment Pro (http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=gepro)

You can also await Real Environment Extreme (http://www.realenvironmentxtreme.com/) coming out sometime in the future.
With this list you come a long long way if IFR in airliners is your thing.

[Jhew]

If you're a GA guy, you can't go wrong with the Archer, A36, Baron, and Dakota from Dreamfleet.
http://www.dreamfleet2000.com/

If you like your wings on top, the Cessna 182Q from Carenado is excellent.
http://www.carenado.com/ecommerce/buscador.php3?id_producto=47

If bush flying gets you all twittered, then the Aerosoft Beaver is not to be missed.
http://www.aerosoft.com/cgi-local/us/iboshop.cgi?showd80!0,5036346280,D10336_1

For scenery, in addition to that mentioned in the previous posts, there are some excellent freeware offerings in the library here and at Avsim. Some of the best are developed by:
Mach-1 Design Group
FRF Studio
Holger Sandmann
John Loney.

Canuk Sceneries and Flight Ontario make some really nice Canadian sceneries as well

For Airliners, I too swear by the PMDG 737, 747, and the LDS 767, but there is one freeware bird that is outstanding. The RFP 747-200. It's study sim quality, former payware, and now available for free here:
http://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=108200
You'll find the manual here:
http://users.tpg.com.au/captaing//RFPManuals.zip

Just my two cents worth.
Regards,
Jeff

[HoratioWondersocks]

Hello
Good to see you are becoming a more peace loving simmer.Don't forget there are plenty of fine freeware offerings out there as well including AI packages, although you may find it easier to install a payware package at first.I use traffic 2005 and its a good add on (its probably been upgraded now ,my copy is a few years old)An ai package is the one addon thats a must really as your airports will come alive with the worlds airliners and GA aircraft,not just the MSoft rather yucky ones.
FREEWARE
POSKY (FOR YOUR BOEINGS)
PROJECT AIRBUS (318,319,320s)
PREMIER AIRCRAFT (TWIN OTTERS AND LIGHT AIRCAFT A PLENTY)
If i where you i would decide what type of sim flying you want to concentrate on and then get to grips with that,maybe before spending lots of cash and deciding its not for you.There may be nothing to shoot at in FS but there is a lot to learn(thats why its so good)i have been at it for years and i still have plenty to get to grips with yet.
PS be advised that lots of addons will slow your PCs performance somewhat ,but my setup specs are less than yours and i still get a good FS experience even with ACTIVESKY(payware weather recommended)FSGLOBAL(world scenery addon GOOD) JUST FLIGHTS TRAFFIC 2005(Decent AI a must requirement in my book)and other bits and pieces.
Cheers ANDY

[Gullwing91]

What a great set of links-thanks very much. So much to explore there and without bankrupting myself in the process. Here's how it's going.

I've already got some of the freeware aircraft to try. The RFP 747-200 is awesome (but that panel hits my frames a bit).

I had already discovered Nhancer and I sat down for a tweaking session (which took a lot longer than expected). These settings gave me great image quality at 1280x1024x32 and kept my fps pretty solid at or slightly below my target of 25.

AA: 16xS(Enhance),Gamma
AF: 16x
SLI: AFR [0x02400009] (predefined)
Perf: Qual
Trilin-
AnisoSam-
NegLOD: Clamp

Strangely, contrary to some advice I read, I could not get AA to work without checking the AA box within FS2004 settings.

As for payware, I'm getting on really well with Traffic 2005 (set at about 55% to keep my fps reasonable), but the water textures may not stay installed-the effects are good but the intense blue looks unnatural especially in places like the English Channel.

As for the type of flying I like, I'm tending at the moment to gravitate to props and I can see myself progressing from small to large. The big birds have a steep learning curve and I don't want to be overwhelmed early on.

Interesting comments Andy (would be an interesting subject for another thread). Yes qualms of conscience are pushing me away from the military sims but other things too. While the sims I've been flying model some things with great fidelity, they tend to strip out a lot of the detail of aircraft systems so that in multi-aircraft sims once you can fly one you can fly them all (the exception is Falcon 4.0 which however looks antiquated next to FS2004). So the complexity draws me to FS2004.

I'd like to explore the multiplayer scene too but it's early days yet. Back to the flying lessons in the Cessna. Thanks everyone for helping me on my way.

[Jhew]

I had already discovered Nhancer and I sat down for a tweaking session (which took a lot longer than expected). These settings gave me great image quality at 1280x1024x32 and kept my fps pretty solid at or slightly below my target of 25.

AA: 16xS(Enhance),Gamma
AF: 16x
SLI: AFR [0x02400009] (predefined)
Perf: Qual
Trilin-
AnisoSam-
NegLOD: Clamp

Strangely, contrary to some advice I read, I could not get AA to work without checking the AA box within FS2004 settings.

You have to disable the original FS profile that is installed with nHancer to get the AA to work right. You will find instructions for setting up nHancer properly here:
http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1208959973/0#5
Hope this helps.

Regards,
Jeff

[Gullwing91]

Thanks for that info Jeff, very helpful. One further question.

You and others have high praise for PMDG aircraft (the big jets). But is their Beechcraft B1900C also worth a look or is there a better option for this size of aircraft? I read the review at Flightsim, also found some posts by happy people who had bought it. I can see that it belongs to a line of less complex sim aircraft, but I assume that doesn't mean it deserves the dreaded description "lite"? Props appeal to me and I can see myself getting the ATR 72-500 in any event (hints to my wife as Christmas draws near!).

[Bucky]

For me personally I would get

GE Pro (Ground Environment Pro)
Flight Environment
Active Sky 6.5
FS Passengers
FS Global
FS Genesis
Any or all Fly Tampa
Flight Enhancer
Overland Boeing & Airbus packages. Not complex like PMDG or Level D
Ultimate Terrain USA, Canada & Alaska and Europe

[Jhew]

Thanks for that info Jeff, very helpful. One further question.

You and others have high praise for PMDG aircraft (the big jets). But is their Beechcraft B1900C also worth a look or is there a better option for this size of aircraft? I read the review at Flightsim, also found some posts by happy people who had bought it. I can see that it belongs to a line of less complex sim aircraft, but I assume that doesn't mean it deserves the dreaded description "lite"? Props appeal to me and I can see myself getting the ATR 72-500 in any event (hints to my wife as Christmas draws near!).

Sorry it took a bit to get back on this. I can't give an opinion on the PMDG Beechcraft B1900C as I've never used it. It seems that, as you mentioned, folks who have purchased it are very happy with it. It is several years old now and will probably not be quite as complex as PMDG's latest offerings.

I can certainly recommend the ATR 72-500 though. It's as complex an aircraft as has ever been released for FS. Be prepared for a pretty steep learning curve though. The PDF manual is over 700 pages. It is very faithfully modeled. If memory serves, the aircraft manufacturer commisioned its' developement. I've heard of ATR drivers using it to brush up before check rides.
If you want a really nice turbo twin, I recommend the Aeroworx King Air B-200 here.
http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?search=true&filter=all&txtsearch=b200

It's another aircraft that is very well done though, it's not quite as big as the 1900. The B-200 is one of my favorites.
Aeroworx has since stopped production but, the forum is still up and you can find lots of detailed info as well as a couple of patches should you need them. The forum is here:
http://www.aeroworx.com/smf/index.php

Hope this helps. If I can help with anything else, let me know.

Best Regards,
Jeff

[Gullwing91]

Many thanks for the further replies. Sorry to be late acknowledging, but I've been away from home. I took the plunge and bought the Beechcraft and it's great; I can see this being my default aircraft while I learn the basics and then I'll be looking for something more complex, the ATR being a likely candidate.