Skywatcher12

32 minutes ago, johnhinson said:

Hi Mark,

 

If I remember rightly, the code you are issued allows a number of re-activations (ten, maybe) but you have to de-activate one before re-activating another so I guess that is a form of on-line activation. If you run out of activations, the developer willingly resets the allowance.

John

Ok, thanks John. Just thinking long term for when the developer disappears. Not keen on anything requiring online activation unless it's super good.

59 minutes ago, johnhinson said:

It is quite different to the default ATC system so I would hesitate to use the word "easy" for a new user. Nevertheless, it is a very advanced piece of software with a zillion options to suit all users. It works with default or custom AI traffic. I'm not aware it keeps AI planes separated but it might.

There are a huge range of voices and accents which link to parts of the world and airlines it recognises. The only issue there is that the voices were recorded many years ago and don't identify with newer airline callsigns.

I would recommend visiting their support forum OnCourse Software - Index page (ocs-support.co.uk) and also taking advantage of the free trial to get a picture of things. I have never seen a piece of software anywhere that has such incredible levels of support to help users on their way.

Even if it isn't your cup-of-tea, your original ATC and AI traffic will still be there and won't have been interfered with.

John

 

Do you know if it requires online activation?

4 hours ago, jgf said:

 

I got that once, after about eight likes.  I guess "they" don't want us to like too many things here.

Like restriction was Jim's doing. He hates us being so happy!

5 hours ago, JSkorna said:

But you continue to post in the MSFS 2020 forum.

Don't I know you from somewhere?
Oh, that's right!
From all the posts you've made over at the FS9 forum!
Heya, how are ya Jim!!!

P.S. Mate, kinda dead here considering you have this new plane game coming and all?
What's up with that? They might be giggling away about the new game on the console forums?

Come over and join the action in our forum any time, more activity!

26 minutes ago, lordhearteater said:

I have the complete LS2000; every course (38 total). If there were two words to convince the casual reader of the superiority of the Links 2003 course selection, they would be "Augusta National."

There are 39 btw.
40 if you count Latrobe twice for summer/fall.

14 minutes ago, lordhearteater said:

Links 2003 FTW; still one of the best golf sims out there, at 22 years old. It runs fine on Win 11, and courses are being made all of the time. There's over 250 real world courses available, and the fictive ones have the count over 2800 in total. Linkscorner.org is where to go. The game is under $10US to buy, and the enjoyment will surely go well beyond that value. Meanwhile, I have already begun work on Real Tournaments 2025, a Career Mode season of 24 weeks and 4 levels; real courses, real events, real purse amounts. My seasons are downloaded between 4-6K times annually every fall.

I have a VA concept mapped out, but have yet to attempt a launch: CLICK.

Played Links 2003 for quite a while but I prefer LS 2000 much more. My Links 2003 is retired. I'm sticking with LS 2000 for life just like FS9.
I can kinda relate the golf games to FS versions.
Links LS 2000 = FS2004
Links 2003 = FSX
Tiger Woods = MS2020
 

I don't remember this, never liked MP but do know the golf course.
Play Kapalua on Links LS 2000 to this very day but also have TW2004. Thought about a LS 2000 course tour in FS in the past so might just have to do it after reading this thread.

6 hours ago, Sweetd31 said:

So I noticed I don't have enough dedicated ram, by chance do you think that could be the culprit? I really want to just get a new pc at this point... 

No, I assume you are looking at FSX minimum specs. If it pops when a system window is opening before FSX is running it is a system issue. It really could be anything. Could be drivers, could be hardware, could be something else you have installed on your system that affects system sound. Could sit here and guess all day. 
You could try and track down the issue or uninstall things to see if anything gets rid of it or you could start with a completely fresh Windows. Depends how much time you have to kill.

3 hours ago, Sweetd31 said:

When you say rebuilding, do you mean delete and just reinstall?

It pops even when the windows chime upon the "do you want to run this program" pop up occurs, starting to think it is windows 10/realtek related.

You just delete the FSX.cfg and next time you open FSX it automatically rebuilds it.
However, on the second line I quoted, your problem would have nothing to do with FSX as FSX is not yet running.
From here a billion and one possibilities open up and simply not possible to go through everything. Google and see what you can find.
Having the appropriate drivers for all your hardware would be the first place to start.

Setting high fps causes such issues from memory and besides that, try rebuilding the FSX.cfg.

27 minutes ago, jgf said:

 

Only once did I buy into one of these "perpetual beta" games;  in the year I played there were nine "new version"/"latest build"/"recent release" issues (that's roughly one every six weeks).  Not patches, you had to d/l the entire 2gig+ each time, and about every third release rendered half the existing mods incompatible (several modders tired of spending more time updating old mods than creating new ones and moved on).  At this point that game was about four years old ...yet none of these new versions addressed any of the complaints players had been voicing during those four years.  I look on such projects as job security for the devs - if they ever actually finish the job they must look for new work.

 

"Incomplete"?  Remember when you could get a free demo of a game?  Play one level or drive one car or play for thirty minutes.  The norm today seems to be to sell you that demo, at a full game price, then nickel and dime you death with "DLC".  One railroad simulator sounded interesting, til I noticed for the $60 price you got two trains and two routes ...that's it;  yet their website was full of page after page of extras, from a boxcar for $1 to a large route for over $100.  Someone in the forum added it all up - there was $9000 of extras available.  Not saying all that should have been included, but certainly with that much "in stock" the base game could have had more.  Imagine if FS had only provided two aircraft and two airports.

It's insane nowadays but people keep accepting it. Just look here, the users were shafted only 4 years ago and will now happily pay for it again and stand up like Microsoft/Asobo soldiers for the new game.

The extras (DLC's) we once called "expansion packs" you would no doubt remember. You bought the game, then they might've released an expansion pack but it was usually considerably cheaper than the game itself and came with a reasonable amount of content. Today, they separate all the individual components of an expansion pack to charge more and as you mentioned, make it almost compulsory to buy some of the DLC's in order to have a base game with an acceptable enough amount of content.

It has all gone crazy and for myself, honestly, the new games bring nothing while the old games bring total enjoyment without the frustration.
FS2004 is rock solid and frustration free. I just load it up and enjoy myself.

13 minutes ago, Sweetd31 said:

They swear that 2024 is going to be on a ten year cycle, and that 2020 will get updates alongside. I sure hope they stick with that promise. 

2020 was also on a 10 year cycle and people assumed there would be nothing to buy for 10 years. SURPRISE!!!
2024 will be 2020 except with the updates that you thought you already paid for that should be in 2020.
If you want to continue the original 2020 10 year cycle, you have to buy it again in the form of 2024!
By 2028, maybe earlier, maybe later, you will buy it yet again! lol
Meantime, the wanting, wanting, wanting of features and the frustration of bugs will remain indefinitely!
This is modern gaming. MSFS is no different to any other game.

Magnificent aircraft! 
This is the panel I use. I added the extra gauge cover shown by the arrow and Penguins logo (bottom left) as the interior and exterior of my 500 are also NHL Penguins themed,

10 hours ago, jgf said:

So true of most game genres, and getting worse;  lots of eye candy, major "wow" factor, but ultimately little depth.

Yes, totally. Games died by 2010 imo. Now we just have lots of MSFS equivalents in every genre. Like MSFS, they don't ever finish the game, they give you an incomplete bug ridden version of the game. It's update after update and then eventually they release another version to make you re-buy the same game and you repeat previous process OMG! It never ends.     

On 5/6/2024 at 4:13 AM, bam1220 said:

Or how I strongly feel that MS2020 was dumbed down for XBox.

Sims like FS2004 no longer appeal to the modern market. Everything needs to be dumbed down for simple "jump right in" with a quick tutorial at best and then you play. Add lots of pretty things to look at and you'll have a winning formula!

Good luck to those who prefer this stuff but I'll stick with FS2004 and those awesome 2D panels!
 

10 hours ago, Digital_Aviator said:

What? Are you running a potato?

 

Ever heard of new hardware such as SSD's, CPU's and GPU's?  You know they release new ones every year...

By the way newer computers consume way less electricity than computers 10-18 years ago.  You'll recover your investment in just electric bill savings alone within a year.

You can pick a MSFS user from a mile away...just sayin.

21 hours ago, Digital_Aviator said:

So much misinformation and misunderstanding about MSFS 2020.

Multi-monitor support has been with us for over a year, more like a year and a half.

ATC in FSX/P3D has always been buggy, the only thing that changed with ATC is Azure voices, this was a process where Dovetail Games ported FSX code to 64 bit.  They wanted to implement more immersive AI type systems but the tech wasn't there years ago.  Asobo inherited all the work DTG had done.  I wrote a lot of game design documents and also the designs for DTG's ATC wishlist.  Now we have Say Intentions that has just come out and Beyond ATC which allow for speaking like a human and it will respond back.

 

Someone mentioned not being able to raise the seat height?  That's been possible since day one. It's arrow keys to move around and some require the shift key while others the alt key to pan etc.  By default to raise the seat up and down it's the up and down arrows.  You can also hit space and it will automatically lift you up higher AND you can set your default seat height view in the options settings, you can even measure yourself from the seat to eye level in real life and make all aircraft match your own height for viewpoint if you want to be that nerdy, which I am... 

Others talk about well I fly airliners etc so I don't need real imagery because I fly IFR.  Well when you're a real pilot you do look out the window for landmarks and stuff that doesn't exist in FSX or before.  It's a part of a pilot's situational awareness.

 

MSFS also handles VR native by default, fly inside was great but still presented challenges with VR.  I can't fly in 2D anymore, stepping inside aircraft I actually pilot in my Pimax 5K Super is 100% game changing.  You can look over your shoulder easily while flying the circuit to make sure you're at the right place to do your base turn.  Apart from motion and G forces, it's definitely as real as you can get until the Pimax 12K comes out.

Performance wise with computers, if you still have a 15-20 year old computer by all means stick with FSX, but sheesh, you couldn't set aside $100-200 per year the last 10-20 years for an upgrade to hardware? lol. Again it's like every version of FS that has ever been released, it needs new hardware and optimizations to stay within hardware limits to get high FPS and smooth flights.  There's nothing new under the sun there.

 

Clouds?  Has anyone not flown through GLOBAL cloud coverage with 5 layers of clouds and holes in between them that you have to weave around if you're flying VFR?  Also there's REX Weather and now Active Sky for MSFS.  So just like the FS2002 based cloud system in FSX, there are choices to change those clouds.

I uninstalled FSX/P3D a couple of years ago, and while lacking key aircraft I want and have experience with in real life like 727's and 767's (Captain Sim's is out but doesn't have proper gauges for the 767 especially the engines).  Other aircraft like the PA-38-112 or Vans RV-7, Caribou, F-5, F-14 Tomcats, and so much more are already in the sim.

Also there's been so many upgrades to MSFS in the last few years, that those who are basing their findings on a few years ago really should dive in to the latest version with all the updates.  You might just fall in love with it the way people did between FS2004 (aka FS9) and FSX.

 

FSX has had it's day, no PBR textures, low res graphics on aircraft, no photogrammetry cities, no aerial imagery by default (I pulled the plug on UltimateVFR development and seems PC Aviator has basically given up on MegaScenery Earth).  FSX doesn't have procedural approaches like MSFS where it uses proper SIDs and STARs, and you can turn off SIDs/STARs in MSFS have have ATC follow your flight plan.

Just to bring light to some of the issues raised in previous posts and sharing what MSFS is in response to those concerns.  MSFS 2024 will basically be FS2020 with upgraded graphics and "Something to Do" which is what FS11 was going to be.  i.e. you drive to the airport, do your pre-flight and fly a career, the code is there in the DTG stuff as well as can be seen in FSW.  It's been designed in game design documents since the initial work on FS11 before MSFT shut down ACES.

Regardless, there's exciting days ahead as more and more AI tools add to the capabilities of the simulator platform.

My problems with MSFS start the second you launch it.
I can finish a FS2004 flight before MSFS has me on the tarmac ready to take off!
Life is short. Each to their own. Enjoy.

11 hours ago, pf flyer said:

By the way, Skywatcher12, I see your logo... the playoffs this year have been fantastic! (Yeah, I know not for Pittsburgh...).

Agree on your MS2020 post and hockey. No Pittsburgh but been has been a fun series. Hoping for Panthers and Stars final.
On MS2020, I can't stand the clouds. They look sickly wrong. I'm surprised people so happily accept them. I'm completely content with FS9 and I'll stay there. Stopped moving on with many things in life and life has become much more enjoyable. Feel like I'm missing nothing.

15 hours ago, JSkorna said:

Memories, light the corners of my mind.

Reminisce about the 70's and 80's while you live in 2024.
With flight sims, you don't have to move on and can stay totally happy forever!

The new games, sorry, be something I'll be happily passing up this lifetime.
Flight sims went uphill till FS2004, then the decline started. I'll stay at the peak.

11 hours ago, scott_295 said:

Yes.

If you can turn those off and still run FS9 do so and see if the problem persists.

12 hours ago, scott_295 said:

I had that problem when using Airport Design Editor and "connecting" it to FS. For some stupid, inexplicable reason, my FS9.cfg file would be re-written to the default settings, forcing me to remap all my preferred keystrokes. Once I discovered the culprit, I stopped connecting to FS when using ADE and I've never had a problem since.

Are you running FS9 as admin and using a compatibility mode?

13 hours ago, igami said:

Also at my case ,
Installed other then system drive 
But also don't start from the FS9.exe

Copy the fs9.exe and run from that.
May feel strange but seems Windows are checking what they installed and blocked at my case.
The copied fs9.exe  worked.

That's one of the issues with Windows 10/11. I mentioned it somewhere.
Windows is not checking anything, the exe just doesn't work and the reasons for it are more than one.

15 hours ago, Richiemon said:

I purchased a new FS9 package off ebay. It was like $15 so I figured why not. I'm gonna see if maybe that works and if not, I don;t know, maybe new computer or some deeper investigation as to this one.

You will end up with likely the same problems but this time would've paid money to have them.

Uninstall FS9 if it is installed.
Install FS9 using the CDs.
Do not install FS9 to where the installer wants to install it "Program Files".
Create a new folder somewhere on your PC, even on desktop is fine and point the installer to install FS9 into new folder you created.
If CD2 provides any problems, tell us what is going wrong.
Once FS9 is installed, download the FS9.1 official patch and apply it.
Then install the FS9.1 nocd.
Launch the game.

Ask here for clarification on anything.

37 minutes ago, wobbie said:

My laptop has both internal AMD Radeon graphics as well as a GeForce RTX 3050 GPU.

My FS2004 Golden Wings I run using the internal AMD GPU & my FS2004 Silver Wings version I run using the RTX 3050 GPU. Both run perfectly, 2 years with this configuration.

I know in the past you were running internal graphics and this is why you used what you did or your FS9 would not function. The internal graphics were the reason it would not run and this is due to Windows 10 changes.

With your current system, you shouldn't need to run a compatibility mode or as admin at all.