Returning to flight sims after a decade. Where to begin..?

Hello all, and Happy New Year (which may be early for some of you, as I'm working of Melbourne, Australia time. So to you, I am speaking to you from the future!)

I am afraid I am going to ask a question which I imagine you have all seen far too much on this forum, but please bear with me: What are the best addons....

Before you understandably get the torches and pitchforks, let me be a bit more specific in the hopes of forestalling my own figurative lynching: while I am an avid simmer/gamer (my prime interest being in racing simulations, so playing a lot of Assetto Corsa for instance), it has been well over a decade since I have really done any proper flight 'simming' (I think MSFS 2000 was my last flight sim). It is quite clear that in the years since the release of FSX that it is all the addons that really bring it to life, and I really would like the best experience I can give myself, to help get back into flight simming as a hobby. Unfortunately, as effectively a complete newcomer to FSX, the huge array of addons available is simply mind-boggling and I really don't know where to begin! There are huge amounts of payware available, not to mention mountains of freeware, all of varying qualities. I don't know enough about these communities yet to be able to help filter this avalanche of stuff by company or individual reputation.

Having recently moved to Australia, I would be really interested in same quality Antipodean scenery, if anyone may have a recommendation in that area. I would also be hugely interested in good quality (ideally freeware) Dornier 328 and 328jet aircraft, if there are any out there, as my Dad spent a good portion of his civil aviation career working on these aircraft.

Additionally, if there are any addons in commercial jetliners that anyone consider a must-have or highly rates, I would be more than interested! Finally, I was wondering if there are any addons that are considered such a must-have that people usually immediately install them alongside FSX? (Like, for instance, one does not even bother firing up Planescape: Torment without sorting out the widescreen fix). Oh, and if I'm being an idiot (quite likely), and such a thread already exists, please don't hesitate to just point me at the thread.

Thanks for any and all help, and I would hope to eventually be a more useful member of the community.

Or at least ask more interesting questions :)

Flight Simulator has come a long way since FS2000 (I barely remember any details about it) but the answers from this ol' pilot:

The Dorniers with VC's are still available from the Premier Aircraft Design (PAD) site HERE with plenty of repaints. I love them - I've gotten quite a number of the 'regional' types here.

For OZ land there's nothing better than (payware) FTX scenery for Australia and NZ -They do awsomely good work and still getting better with each release. They have Tasmania, Iceland and the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State as FREE samples.

You're going to love the improvement since 2000 even if FSX has a few 'quirks' that you mostly have to live with.

Freeware FSUIPC and Plan-G are high on the Must-Have list. While you can still connect to Jeppsen for 'real weather', it is no longer accurate. I recommend FSRealWX lite; freeware.

Wellcome back to our shared obsession.

Loyd

To any newcomer to FSX I'd say DON'T begin adding addons until you know your way around the sim first!

FSX is beautiful straight out of the box, but can sometimes be prima donna-ish and liable to throw a tantrum if you add something she doesn't like.

Same if you begin dating a beautiful girlfriend, at least give her a few weeks until you feel comfortable enough to ask her to wear a french maids outfit or you might get a slap in the kisser..;)

Same if you begin dating a beautiful girlfriend, at least give her a few weeks until you feel comfortable enough to ask her to wear a french maids outfit or you might get a slap in the kisser..;)

Man, that's mandatory first date stuff!;)

I agree about taking it kind of slow to begin with. Try some of the Missions to start with and then carry on with Free Flights. The ORBX freeware scenery is outstanding, especially the PNW (Pacific Northwest). They do have some very nice Aussie freeware airports to try, also. Plenty of freeware aircraft of all types, shapes, and sizes in the File Library here and on the Web. If you have problems finding what you want.....Just ask. We're here to help.

Welcome to the Craziness!

I hate to throw in a wet rag, but what are your SPECS (CPU speed, Video Card, etc). Start there for 'best results'. Then learn to tweak your FSX.cfg (find it first - hehe). Good luck.

Chuck B

Napamule

PS: There ARE vehicles in FS9 and FSX. You just have to Google model name and add 'FSX'. But there are some here, and Simviation and SurClaro. I have FDEs for them. Porsche 911, Ferrari F1, etc. And also try BOATS (sail, power, military). But you ain't 'simming' until you learn to fly HELICOPTERs. And as far as 'add-ons' is concerned, I'll give you a year to 'catch up' and re-coop your losses ($$$) (ha).

Chuck B

Napamule

Take it slow to begin with. There are about 20 new controls you'll have to learn since FS2000 but most are the same.

As you already noticed, the more specific you are with your add-on requests, the more helpful the responses. The personal favorites of everyone here will fill a book.

As Chuck requests, let us know your system specs. There are some add-ons which require more horsepower than people expect. Although CFG tweaks are *almost* mandatory for those who demand the screaming edge of performance with all the eye candy, it's best not done by beginners. Learn what the sim can do and what it looks like first so you'll know when you've messed it up.

There is a list of FSX "must have files" already compiled for you in the files library here. I myself do not consider them all "must have" for me.

If you REALLY REALLY care about accuracy and coverage of weather, you'll want to invest in payware. If you only care that there IS some kind of changing weather once in a while, the freeware item suggested above is a place to start. Many people cannot get that program to work without FSUIPC and putting the realwx program in FSUIPC mode.

-Pv-

Thanks everyone for the replies & the welcome, I am sure you have to deal with the same old newbie questions repeatedly.

My current PC should have plenty of grunt for most add-ons I think, but as requested:

Core i7 4770K @ 3.5ghz, 16gb DDR3 RAM, 2x AMD R9 270x in Crossfire, Win 7 64bit.

Yeah, I've been working through the missions, and have been doing a few free flights to get the hang of the default 737 and A321, especially all the systems for ILS approaches, still finding it necessary to pause the simulation whilst I work through everything, but hoping to build up familiarity to do so in real time.

I would also like to do something to improve the AI traffic - I have come across freeware World of AI, is that something that is recommended? I believe Orbx also does an AI package for Australia, which is where I will, at least initially, mostly be flying. Again, there are so many options I don't know where to begin, haha.

Oh, and @ llivaudais, thank you for the link to the Dorniers - I actually found a repaint of one of the actual aircraft my dad worked on during his career, which is pretty cool.

A last question (so far), I have also come across REX, which has plenty of adherents as an 'essential' add to FSX, but again, I don't necessarily want to be swamping myself in too much payware this early in my FSX 'career' so to speak.

It's good you are being cautious at this stage. It's easy for us old timers to forget the sometimes years of frustration many of us struggled with when FSX was still relatively young.

"Core i7 4770K @ 3.5ghz"

This would be considered a medium high computer for FSX and a high end computer for most other 3D games. With careful tweaking (don't rush into that) you could get medium to high settings on *most* options sliders but for now, the default settings are probably getting you 95% there.

Many new users begin to get crashes when their flight times start getting longer and you accumulate a lot of mouse clicks in the sim. If that happens to you (it may not) you'll need to get familiar with the sticky at the top and the Event Viewer.

Be patient. There are solutions for everything. Best not to push your learning curve too hard so you do not get swamped and frustrated.

Many of us old timers want to push you into all the fun stuff (deep end of the pool) but I'd rather you got some fun time at the shallow end first. We know best if our efforts to improve the sim experience are actually working and not causing trouble if you have a FIRM grasp of what the sim offers right out of the box.

The reason I say all of this? FSX was not designed for today's hardware and there are compromises we have to make. Fortunately, with patience and careful application of options and add-ons, FSX will do EVERYTHING the original developers coded it to do and do it without crashing.

AI:

This is one of the first places off-line flyers throw their effort but it is also one the more risky trouble spots many people encounter. Problems caused are so divers and strange that it's tempting to think the AI has anything to do with them.

-Pv-

Thanks again for all the replies, everyone's been very helpful so far. In light of the above comments, I may well give world of ai a whirl, and see how that effects my experience with FSX.

Having done my own looking around the interwebs, I came across the Project Opensky Archive. Once I feel happy with the default 737, I think I would like to start flying longer range services, and as such a 777 appeals to me, ideally a 300ER, which they do indeed have a model for - does anyone have experience with using this aircraft, and if so, what do you think? :)

I'm also starting to think at some point I may well go for some orbx scenery - I installed their freeware Tasmania download, along with Launceston airport, and my word both are beautiful.

A minor word of caution on the many POSKY/Meljet, etc 777-300er models here in the File Library and on the Web. Many of the complete aircraft downloads are missing 2 or 3 gauge files that are needed so that all of the gauges on the control panels are there and working.

Be sure to post if you encounter one of these aircraft.

A minor word of caution on the many POSKY/Meljet, etc 777-300er models here in the File Library and on the Web. Many of the complete aircraft downloads are missing 2 or 3 gauge files that are needed so that all of the gauges on the control panels are there and working.

 

Be sure to post if you encounter one of these aircraft.

Thanks for the heads up, and indeed, as you predicted, this is indeed what has happened. I downloaded a 777-300er with Virgin Australia livery. It is a gorgeous POSKY model, with a very pretty VC, but on both the 2d panel and 3d VC many of the glass panels are not working - similarly, none of the switches in the VC work, though I am not sure if that was ever a feature. Flies great though, just have to get those panels working :)

Thanks for the heads up, and indeed, as you predicted, this is indeed what has happened. I downloaded a 777-300er with Virgin Australia livery. It is a gorgeous POSKY model, with a very pretty VC, but on both the 2d panel and 3d VC many of the glass panels are not working - similarly, none of the switches in the VC work, though I am not sure if that was ever a feature. Flies great though, just have to get those panels working :)

OK, now that I'm back on my home computer I can give further assistance. Download the 777-300 file name pt_b777-300er_fsx.zip from our File Library.

You don't need to install it but "Borrow" the Gauges folder from it and install those gauge files to your FSX/Gauges folder. It should solve your problem with ANY 777 out there.

Thanks mrzippy, got the 777's VC working perfectly now - time for some long-haul flights methinks :)

Hey, if you ever get the hankerin' to fly the 737 series, here's a link to a freeware 737 megapack on simviation.com. I use these personally and highly suggest it until you are ready for the big boys (PMDG 737).

http://simviation.com/1/search?submit=1&keywords=737+mega&x=0&y=0

I remember the time when FS2000 came out - it was 15 years ago. The visual qualities were impressive back then with a realistically looking atmosphere (sky, rain, clouds) and much better textures than FS98. However, the performance was so awful. To this day, I think that the FS2000 version has still the worst memories among long-time flight simmers when it comes to performance. With today's available hardware, an FSX that is enhanced with good add-ons is vastly superior to FS2000 with regard to graphics and performance, despite the fact that FSX itself is over 8 years old. So I think you have picked a good time to make a comeback to the FS scene.

As far as where to begin, I would start with a naked FSX and attempt to optimize it with your hardware. Try to apply some of the common tweaks and tips to make it run stable and smooth with your PC. ONLY THEN would I go ahead and install add-ons. Why? Because if you happen to experience crashes, at least you can isolate the cause to a specific add-on. If you install a pile of add-ons before optimizing the system, you may not know what could cause potential instability.

As for which add-ons are must have, I would say Active Sky Next. Weather is an important element of flight simulation, and the difference between the default real weather (I am not even sure it works any longer) and ASN is really night and day. If you want to have traffic on your airports (I would have a hard time not having them), I would seriously consider a worry-free all-inclusive solution, such as MyTrafficX or Ultimate Traffic. It costs money, but believe me, the savings in time commitment for package installation and troubleshooting is worth the cost. Scenerywise you should know that the default FSX has a poor landclass model and texture set. If you fly worldwide, I would recommend ORBX FTX Global and the landclasses (once they are available). If you fly regionally in Australia, ORBX' regional packs give you the best experience.

10 year hiatus here also. Jumped from FS2002 to FSX. Found this recently. Wow. Be sure to read ALL the instructions carefully and meticulously. You'll be in for a real treat.

United_777.zip - Here at Flightsim.com

jb777panel_rel_1_032.zip There (Avsim)

This panel is freeware. It's an award winner. You'll need to modify your aircraft.cfg according to the panel read me instructions. ("If installing in the project opensky aircraft, make the following modifications to the aircraft.cfg file".) Also full procedures checklists from pre flight to shutdown are built into the panel instrumentation.