Skywatcher12

FS9 + Win 7 = Happiness

VC flying is apparently the modern way of flight simming. I'm not very modern I guess. I hate VC's with a passion. lol

Basic controls, I would probably want something like this: 1. Brakes 2. Trim Up 3. Trim Down 4. Flaps Up 5. Flaps Down 6. Landing Gear After that you may want things like change view, zoom in/out. Maybe Kneeboard open, ATC window open/close, GPS open/close, altimeter reset. All things you may use or need to access. You have to figure out what you want at your fingertips on the joystick and what is fine on the keyboard as you progress. Basic controls would be the 6 listed plus some view controls. Anything else is personal preference and what suits how you like to fly. Others may chime in if I missed something glaring.

If it's running ok for you then all is fine. The issue will be if you bump up settings and start including add-ons. Big difference between default FSX and one with add-ons. It all depends what you will add to how much load it will place on your PC. Keep in mind, if you get to a point your PC is struggling and you are not happy, you can always drop back to FS9. I've found a custom FS9 will slaughter a default FSX in appearance and still need less PC power. To really enhance FSX to the max, you need a high end machine.

FS9 doesn't use a product key as far as I know.

Likely no replies because hardly anyone uses FS98. Unless you are running a really old operating system FS98 may give multiple issues. Looking at your specs, forget FSX, you really need a high end machine especially if you start throwing some reasonable addons in there. I'd recommend FS9 as up to this moment it is still a fully functioning flight sim. Masses of addons, real weather can still be added for free although through and external program which slaughters the inbuilt system anyhow, AI traffic is available, basically anything and everything. Tonnes of freeware and payware out there and FS9 will pretty much run on any operating system. You can get it off eBay quite cheap these days. If you really want to continue looking at FS98 or anything pre FS9 there are various forums you can explore for info on this site. I'd personally be running straight for FS9 in your situation. Best of luck! Edit: Regarding Saitek, no idea with FS98 but FS9 should work perfectly as long as what you have supports the operating system you are using.

GameRanger

As far as I know this sets the view to a default VC position which you can't change? If I ever did use a VC I would like to set a position and would like to have a shortcut key to go to my custom position. Anyhow, even if it can be done it's still nowhere near enough to even make me consider using one. Each to their own. Differences of opinion make for good threads.

No 2D, no buy or fly plane. I'm no real pilot but I've been in a real aircraft and flown one for a little while. A VC gives you more of an impression of what it's like in a real cockpit visually with things like lighting, seeing a prop spin in front of you, glass etc. However, to actually operate and fly the aircraft is much more realistic in 2D view imo. These are the differences for me and it's the operational side of flying that is far more important for me. Looking around is also preferable in 2D. Trying to use a hat switch to quickly scan around in VC is just slow, tedious and hard to get yourself back into a straight ahead view that you're happy with. I feel like VC is always about fumbling around with everything while 2D is just about flying.