FSX is getting old, now what?

[AlexBl]

Hello!

Since this is my first post I should probably introduce myself.
I am a teenage guy who lives in Finland. I am planning on applyling for flight school next year for real world ATPL license and my dream is to be a airline pilot.

I've been using flight simulators for about 6 years and my current gear is great in my opinion. I have a great, new computer (i7 2600 CPU, Nvidia GeForce GTX 560, 12 GB of 1600MHz ram, Win 7 64 bit). I just (last month actually) bought the massive, beautiful Saitek X52 Pro (earlier I had a decent Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, It was really good actually, but oh my god, not even close to the X52 Pro.).
And I use two monitors. Fsx handles multiple monitors beautifully.

I have (Microsoft) Flight Simulator X Deluxe which is a beautiful game which is both fun and sometimes challenging and I have the expansion Acceleration installed. I also have a few freeware planes. (Some skins and a a380 bus)
FSX has been well enough for me, but now it starts to get a bit dull. I feel like it is very old and the graphics aren't that great. Comparing with the mainstream games' graphics, I started to look for a new simulator. I have the visual and realism settings on full in fsx by the way.


So, I would like to get a new flight simulator that has better graphics and still has the realism found in FSX. But I do love FSX and I am not sure if I want to throw her out just yet, but she feels old .

So, if we look at the newer somewhat large simulators there are Xplane 10, Flight Gear and Ms Flight.
I haven't even thought about MS flight, that doesn't really look like a simulator, that is a flying game gone wrong. I haven't tried it though, so please tell me if I am wrong.
Xplane and Flight Gear I do not know much about. I did try out Flight Gear years back before I got FSX and it felt good, but I've never ever cheated on her (FSX) since then.

I am the boring-airline-flight kinda guy. My last flight was Boeing 747 From Heathrow to Kastrup in full thunderstorm. Tricky, but a fun flight. I also like General Aviation a lot. It's more pure (than the huge airline-planes) somehow and I also want this in my simulator.
Although I do like boring flights I also like FSX's missions like "search for missing co-worker" and such. I am not really into military stuff, but I am willing to give it a shot! (I know, that was a terrible, terrible pun)

Bottom line:
I love FSX, she feels grat, the gameplay is great, but the graphics are kinda old. So,
Are there any modern Flight Sims out there that are worth it?
Are there any miracle-addons that could spice up my old, beloved FSX?


Thank you!
Alex

[lnuss]

Have you tried the ORBX sceneries from Full Terrain Software? They add a lot of beauty and details, including aircraft, people (sometimes) and improved mesh to the northern Rockies and Northwestern US, along with Australia. Sometimes I have to look twice, as the low level views often look almost real. See their web pages for more.

[mrzippy]

Right at the top of this forum is a forum search. Type in "Keeping FSX interesting" and/or exciting and check out the many different answers by the multitude of flight simmers out there.

[cianpars]

I'll second Larry's ORBX comment. It certainly adds a new dimension to FSX.

Alex, your description of 'Flight' as "flying game gone wrong" is about the best descriptionof 'Flight' I have seen, though it saddens me to say so.

If you are serious about applying to Flight Schoool, then I would consider buying some more complex payware aircraft, perhaps theones you are likely to be flying during your training.

IAN

[AlexBl]

Have you tried the ORBX sceneries from Full Terrain Software? They add a lot of beauty and details, including aircraft, people (sometimes) and improved mesh to the northern Rockies and Northwestern US, along with Australia. Sometimes I have to look twice, as the low level views often look almost real. See their web pages for more.

Thank you Inuss
Oh! That does look beautiful! Very nice one!
Thank you very much for this! I will definitely look into in!

Right at the top of this forum is a forum search. Type in "Keeping FSX interesting" and/or exciting and check out the many different answers by the multitude of flight simmers out there.

Thank you MrZippy!
I did look into that, and I will keep looking. Loads o' good stuff in here!

I'll second Larry's ORBX comment. It certainly adds a new dimension to FSX.

Alex, your description of 'Flight' as "flying game gone wrong" is about the best descriptionof 'Flight' I have seen, though it saddens me to say so.

If you are serious about applying to Flight Schoool, then I would consider buying some more complex payware aircraft, perhaps theones you are likely to be flying during your training.

IAN

hehe! Thank you!

That is indeed a great tip! I will have to google a little about exactly what kinds of aircraft that are used though. Thank you!

[Adam24]

OLD??? FSX OLD??? Do you know what you just said?
-Hundrets of payware developers, and probably millions of freeware developers are there, to make this game newer than it was after the release!
-Uncountable number of users, the ones you see in these forum are just a small part of them!
-Hardware that still cant run it! Yes, a new high end PC can lag with FSX!
-Even FS2004 has many, many users!
-When addons installed, FSX can be compared to the newest games, with spectacular graphics!
You want more? Because I think thats enough. And now, a personall example: I started using FS2004 (!) 2 months ago, and FSX will be in the box until I get a new PC, that means some 2-3 months. FSX is not new to me, for me its unreleased!

[Billbixby]

Start using your imagination man
I'm new to the game myself and I like to pretend I really have passangers that I'm trying to get from place to place. I don't ever see this game getting boring for me. I enjoy sitting back and watching my airliner fly through the air. When I reach my destination and land its even more exciting. As others have said try getting some scenery add-ons. Also I'm sure you haven't downloaded all the aircraft for the game. Theres a ton of aircraft you have yet to fly. Have you mastered the helicopters yet? It's like a marriage. It's up to you to breathe fresh life into it!!

Keep flyin'

[ftldave]

One thing I enjoyed about X-Plane was all the freeware concept and rare aircraft, like the Myashishchev M-53 SST, many aircraft that you don't see in FSX.






With an i7 rig, your computer could handle X-Plane 10. I stayed with version 9 and 8, didn't want to deal with the bugs in the early releases of version 10. Not to mention that my modest hardware probably would run X-Plane 10 like a slideshow, considering its hefty requirements for processor and gpu.

I prefer FSX for its better quality scenery and bigger, better support by third-party software vendors. Scenery has always been a weak area of X-Plane, IMHO.

[Billbixby]

Falcon 4.0 is also a good flight sim but it is military based. But it's a great F16 simulator. Make sure you get the original version and not allied force. That way you can get Falcon BMS addon (which is free). BMS greatly improves the game.

[MdMax]

X-Plane is my favorite flight simulator and you can read more about it here:
http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/tags.php?tag=x-plane
http://xplane10.wordpress.com/

You can also try the free demo here:
http://www.x-plane.com/downloads/x-plane_10_demo/

I'm using X-Plane 10 with a Core 2 / 8800GT system and it works great if you don't set all the rendering options to the maximum. But like other simulators, you'll really enjoy it with add-ons.

Happy flying !