Suggestions For Best FS2004 Add-Ons?

[tcain]

Hello!

I'm new around here, so firstly I'd like to say hello! I'm Tom a relatively new flight simmer, and am currently a student in the UK!

I've been away doing some work recently in sunny Scotland and have been missing fs a lot! I was considering upgrading to FSX upon my return but after doing some research have decided against it given my less than awesome laptop (I have a mid 2010 macbookpro with windows 7 on bootcamp (Intel Core2 duo 2.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, NVIDIA Geforce 320M 256MB and a 1tb 7200 HDD running windows 7 32bit unfortunately))

I've also done a lot of looking up of addons and realised there are so many that can make fs9 into a much better world for flying! Currently I run it with no addons at all, not even any extra aircraft. So my question after that long ramble (Sorry!) is with my budget of around £50, which add ons would you suggest?

Many thanks for your time and knowledge,

Tom

[Adam24]

REX should be in the first place. What aircraft are you planning to fly? If small GAs, then you should see the Carenado products. If big airlines, then Captain Sim, PMDG, Wilco, Flight1, etc.

[T18]

I would suggest running a search in the file library and sort by downloads that will turn up alot of the award winning freeware.

[jgf]

There is so much high quality freeware available that it would be a full time job just reading the documentation, it all depends on what you are interested in. But there are, in my opinion, three payware products that are virtually indispensable for FS9: Active Sky, Ultimate Terrain, and Ground Environment Pro.

[HoratioWondersocks]

FSNavigator Flight planning tool.

An absolute must (imo)
Especially so if you want to get into passenger jet airline flying.
I certainly could not do with out it.
I believe its now free as well.
Whoever created that deserves a special lifetime hero of flight simming award.
A.

[Jim Robinson]

Mesh is a must if you fly in mountainous areas. Mesh, Ultimate Terrain, GEPro, and landclass are my top four.

For mesh I like these 19m meshes the best, I bought all the US states from Colorado westward and also british Columbia. I also have the FSGenesis 38m North America package installed for areas outside the 19m coverage areas and also the worldwide "buffer mesh".

http://www.fsgenesis.com/Merchant2/m...tegory_Code=9m

(you must set TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=21 in your FS9.cfg to get the full benefit of this mesh)




I like this landclass:

http://www.fsgenesis.com/Merchant2/m...Category_Code=


...but I set it as a backdrop and use UT's landclass for citys and towns as a transparency overtop with the help of this file:

http://www.scenerysolutions.com/UT/Patch/FsgPatch.zip




I don't have REX so I use a freeware alternative for clouds and sky textures (I also use these in FSX). "High Definition Environment" by Pablo Diaz, actually I like the cloud textures from HDEv2.0:

http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php...or=&CatID=root


...but I prefer the sky textures from HDEv1.0:

http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php...or=&CatID=root




After all that then there are some must-have payware & freeware addons: FSDT airports, KLAS, KFLL, PHNL, etc. Flightzone Portland and Rhode Island. FlyTampa Seattle, Boston, and San Francisco. Holger's Columbia River Gorge, North Cascades, and Glacier Bay (all excellent freeware). 9Dragons Kai Tak (freeware). RealAir Skyhawk (free). Carenado GA aircraft. World of AI traffic. FSNavigator. Active Sky Evolution or FSMetar (free) for weather. Gotta have the Eaglesoft CitationX v2.0, QualityWings 757, and of course the PMDG 737. (FSUIPC never gets mentioned in these types of threads, but without it most of the rest of this stuff wouldn't work).

I've got almost 100 Gb worth of this sorta stuff on my backup drive, the list never ends...

Jim

[teson1]

I've just wiped my disk and reinstalled fs9 from scratch. So I can tell you what I've installed, and in which preference.

I like to fly low in GA aircraft and enjoy the scenery flying VFR/pilotage all across the world, so priority for me is to have interesting and accurate representation of the scenery.
Preferences may vary, also depending on type of flying.

0) fs9 / fs9.1 Update

A) Payware - Here's what I would spend my money on, in the order I'd get it if I didn't have it already, including complementary /alternative freeware:

1. Mesh: Mesh is of prime importance to have interresting (and accurate) terrain, not only in mountain area. I hate the rounded hills that default fs9 places instead of steep peaks.
PW Mesh - FS Global 76m mesh or FS Genesis worldwide 76 m mesh - if you ever plan to fly low down outside the US that's some of the best bang for the buck you'll get IMHO.
FW Mesh - US - LOD10 - FSGenesis 38m mesh Rockies - Justin Tyme - avsim - fsg_rockies38m
FW Mesh - US - LOD10 - FSGenesis 38m mesh Westcoast - Justin Tyme - avsim - fsg_westcoast38m
FW Mesh - EU - LOD11 - Alps 19m mesh - Alain Ragot - c30s.alpes.gratisim.fr - Alpes_LOD11 - East, Center, West

2. Landclass: To have much more varied (and likely more accurate) represenation of land usage.
PW LC MyWorld2004 - worldwide landclass - worth if ever you plan to fly outside the US.
FW LC - US - FSGenesis Landclass US Beta 6 - Justin Tyme - portal.fsgenesis.net - lcus_09b6.exe

3. FSUIPC 3,999 - registered version for joystick sensitivity adjustment. Only absolutely required if you feel your joystick is too sensitive - indispensable to me.

4/5. PW Ultimate Terrain - get the one for the area you fly the most in for a start. Accurate rivers, lakes, roads and railways among other.
UT Canada/Alaska 1.12
UT USA 1,21
FW UT USA 1,30 patch
UT Europe
FW UT USA and EU City LC fix

4/5. Weather - For a start I'd probably first get Active sky, and use the HDE textures. Get REX later. Or use REX's clouds with its weather engine (never really tried as I have AS).
ASV6,5
REX (can be replaced by FW HDE High def clouds 2.0 - Pablo Diaz for a start)

6. TrackIR - very nice hardware to hugely increase the immersion for GA flying.

7. Ground Environment

Aircraft - these are the ones that get onto the system immediately, but choice depends on personal type of flying and preference:
RealAir SF260
RealAir Spitfire

B) Freeware:

1. Utilities
FlightSim Manager 2.8.5
FS2004 Start Flight Sim Manager - Scott Smart - flightsim - startfsm.zip + Edited startFSM.bat to work with Vista.
Flusifix v6.5 - Wolfgang Picheta - wolfgang-picheta.de - ff04_v65.zip - facilitates tweaking a lot of parameters in fs.
FS2004 RealTrim - Nils Meier - code.google.com - RealTrim16.zip - Its one-stroke trimming makes trimming the aircraft _much_ easier ! I've taken a few years to really try it out - love it !
Autower 2.4.0 - Christoph Rosenkeller - autower240.zip - places the tower at the nearest airport for approach views.

2. Navigation
Plan-G
Google Earth
FSX Airports for Google Earth - Ian Niblo - flightsim - fsxge.zip + other overlays for GE

That's more or less the state I'm currently at, and I can live with it for some time...

- Nice thread with freeware improvements to scenery, that may replace some payware:
FS9 Looks great using FREEWARE Environment files!
http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showth...ironment-files!

- Few threads discussing "best" fs2004 addons:

Freeware Gems (fs2004) at Sim Outhouse (422 messages)
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...-Freeware-Gems

FS2004 Best 100 Freeware Downloads EVER! - avsim
http://forum.avsim.net/topic/231225-...downloads-ever
List attached as .txt.

(And for completeness the fsx list here as well.
Absolute BEST freeware gems for FSX list...
http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showth...s-for-FSX-list)

BR

[teson1]

Ha! If it's about spending money, and for a relatively new flight simmer who is not scared to do some reading, an excellent "addon" is the book

"Microsoft Flight Simulator X For Pilots: Real World Training".
http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTi...764588222.html
http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Flig.../dp/0764588222
>700 p, teaches flying hands-on, tutorial style, and gives a profound basis from student to ATP level.
A real bargain at 18 USD.

You can preview a few chapters here:
http://www.avweb.com/news/avtraining..._196384-1.html
That book got me hooked on flight simulation and steered me through the initial frustrations learning to fly.

It would probably be addon # 1 or 2 I'd buy.

[jgf]

...."Microsoft Flight Simulator X For Pilots: Real World Training"....

But this is the FS9 forum.

[teson1]

But this is the FS9 forum.

The beauty of the human mind is to be able to abstract information and adapt it to new situations.

This book teaches how to fly, and in a very didactic and clear way if I may say so, not how to handle a specific version of flight simulator.

It does focus on teaching it with a simulator, and does point out clearly where real-world procedures/needs differ from the sim, but the objectives of the books are to teach a sim pilot to fly better in the sim, as well as help a real pilot use the sim to train for real-world-relevant training.

99% of the information contained is relevant to both versions of the sim.
No need to have FSX for the book to be of highest value.

I'd even say there is no need to have a flight simulator at all for the book to be of value. I'd venture to guess that probably even real-world pilots not interested in simming may learn a lot due the clear presentation of the material (in addition to formal training and other means of information of course).
One unique aspect of the book is that it gives a an overview/basics of the complete curriculum of pilot training from student pilot to ATP (focussed on what is relevant for sim flying/training of course). I'm not sure whether there's another training manual out there that gives an overview/introduction to such a wide range of skill levels. From how to keep the Cub in the air and get it back onto the ground in one piece to how to shoot RNAV approaches in IFR conditions to how to handle multiengine aircraft engine-out situations.

It has it all. In a compact way, focussed on the needs of the sim pilot, but in essence it's about learning to fly and become a better pilot. Whether in the sim or in a real plane.

The only point which is rather FSX-specific are the tutorial flights.
The saved situations only work as is in FSX.
However, it is rather easy to manually recreate a similar situation from the description of the flight, or even just digest the information and do training during free flights.
Furthermore I believe it is possible to convert FSX .pln into fs9 ones with Gerhard Berendt's FlightplanConvert.zip
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~berend...ims/index.html.

So in short - the book is 99% as useful for fs9 users as it is for FSX users.

BR