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FS2002 "out of the box" experience.


MAD1

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I have my old WinXP with FS2002 installed "out of the box". Works perfectly. Great framerate. Have gone "back to basics", and applying self-discipline, am working my way through the Rod Macado training. Very good. Am learning heaps. Started with the Intro flight. Last weekend I wrote down the timeline of the video. Now ready to go back through the Tutorials. Have the FS2000 hardcopy manual, which is very enjoyable to study, especially with a glass of beer or wine in the back yard under the tree in the sun. Will post my results of my study in this thread ongoing. A sim is a sim, no matter what epoch and vintage. If you like your sim, just simply enjoy it. Happy flying simmers!
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FS2002 is one of those "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" sims. :cool:

Depending on your hardware (a fast CPU cures a lot of ills), you can run routinely at 60 Hz.

With an older i3 CPU (but a stock clock running close to 4 GHz), I can run FS2002 for over 12 hours of "real time" with no worries in Win10 (64 bit). Honestly, the hardware finally caught up to FS2002. :D

 

You need to be careful when adding scenery (most FS2004 scenery in FS2002 is NOT a good idea) but "land class" and "mesh" files for FS2004 run fine and make a nice difference for VFR flights.

 

There are many FS2004 aircraft you can run in FS2002 but you'll need to learn how to make some "conversions" using an .air file editor and maybe a texture converter. Its not that hard to figure out. :pilot:

 

I finally broke down several weeks ago and installed FS2004 for the first time. "Building" the "new" sim is a lot easier than I thought at first, I had years with FS2002 to figure out what I wanted to add. I'm not saying FS2002 is going anywhere on my desktop, I plan to fly it as much as I have in the past.

 

One thing I can say about FS2002, with modern hardware you can throw the sink at it and it does fine. I have something like 1,500 aircraft installed (including AI models) over the years and I like to dust off an old plane from time to time. Its no big issue.

 

The biggest problem for FS2002 was the loss of "real weather" but search the FS2002 downloads and you'll find a collection of weather files I saved for various times of the year (these are world-wide weather files, so you can fly from anywhere in the month of June or January).

 

So, enjoy the sim. :cool: There are still some of us FS2002 Geezers around so if you run into problems, we can help you out.

 

One thing I have noticed about FS2002 since I installed FS2004, while the ground textures aren't as sharp there are many times when FS2002 just looks better. Try a flight at dawn or dusk and you'll see what I mean.

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Thanks Bob for the reply and great tips. For some folks they want the "best possible" scenery. For others, like me, although that makes the experience more realistic and "pretty", but given the limitations of FS2002 "as is", I'm more interested to have the flying experience, i.e. the flight dynamics model, and just ignore the fact that 02 is much less pretty than later sims. (If I want to see reality, I use Google Earth to look at things, and if inclined, use it's built-in sim, and if you tilt the display until just before the instruments fade out, you get a good forward view.) My main focus is being able to climb in, start the engine, taxi, take off, do a circuit, land, more or less professionally. Still haven't achieved that and am still in the "out of the box" Cessna 172SP (yesterday I did a single circuit and went pretty well, however my altitude control is poor, was trying to do a 1000' circuit but drifted up to 1500' as shown on the flight analysis, but did use the heading bug for the first time (set to my takeoff/landing runway of 15) and gee, that did make all the difference in getting nice square turns, and could see the strip at the proper orientation through all legs. So the sim "out of the box" does "float my boat" or perhaps that should be tweaked to "fly my plane" (as the saying says "whatever floats your boat").

 

Being a returned newbie (have been a newbie for 15 years! But I say I'm just a "late developer"!) simming and new to FlightSim, but at 65 yrs in the "mature" category, I'm finding it very interesting to browse back through the forums. Wow, what a legacy, approaching 20 years of community! I've made contact with Chris Tarano, who seems to be active with FS2002, and he's sent me various scenery files, which I haven't had a chance to look at yet (still working full-time, got a house and wife to maintain, etc. etc.).

 

Like I said in my first post, I want to "this time around" with simming, do it "properly", take my time, and work my way through the training. Am more and more impressed as I go deeper into the sim "properly" about how well the Microsoft Flight Simulator group developed and presented their product range. It's just so good! The Rod Machado training, with the ground school support material is excellent. Being both a computer guy professionally, and a educator/trainer also, I know a quality product when I see it.

 

By the way, have finally realised my dream of setting up a somewhat decent sim booth. I have a semi-retired 1981 (yes, it's officially in the "classic" category, over 30 years old, and actually 40 yrs old in Jan 2) Mazda 929SL car in my garage under the house, and have put the gear in it. Being in a physical cabin adds to the feeling of being in an aircraft cabin. Plus I can lock the car, and it's so nice to be able to simply say to the wife "am going for a little fly...", unlock the car, plug in the power, start the PC, start the sim. Being Australia, the steering wheel is on the right side, so I have my yoke on the proper left front side, 1 standard desktop screen in front of me (I rigged up a little metal support stand for it), and to my right and below the dash, a second screen where I move the instrument panel to plus map view. On the front screen I enlarge the Cockpit view to fill the screen, zoomed full out. So it's quite a good surrogate setup. And cheap, cost me basically zero in money and only a little time. I just want to fly, I don't want to fiddle!

 

I did try getting multi-player going, and dabbled in the last few months with VATSIM (have dabbled in all these places over the years, but not seriously), but now they've dropped Squawkbox and gone to their newer comms software, I can't work in that space. I recently tried FlightGear again, but problems with that, although it's very good. So I've decided to simply stay alone, and it has the benefit of no internet required. Will post a photo of the setup sometime soon.

 

I hope to work my way, slowly, through all the training and get the various certificates. (As a young man I had six hours solo in a Blanik glider, and have dabbled in the past as a social member of my local flying club and got a number of free passenger rides in Cessna's etc. with the guys practising their circuits.) I have FS2000 also, and use the hardcopy manual that came with that. FS2000 training uses the Cessna Skylane 182S whilst FS2002 uses Cessna 172SP and the tutorials are slightly different, but as I only use the 2000 book and do the actual training in 2002 it isn't confusing.

 

Finally, here are my notes re the FS2002 Introductory flight: about 11 minutes long. Montgomery Field, San Diego, California, runway 10L, Tue 28 Aug 2001 local time 18:48 (dusk, I change this to noon). Student does takeoff and climb to 1000', 2m20s Rod takes over, does a turn, 4m20s turn right, 4m50s Rod turns left, 5m student turns left, 6m Rod finds airport, 6m20s flaps 5 degrees rpm 1900, Rod lines up airport and student lands it.

 

In the "Scenic Wonders" flights, interesting to note the two Sydney Australia items: FS2002 "Sydney Scenic" is dated 1 Feb 2001, whilst the included FS2000 flights (nice of them to have included them), "Sydney Harbour Tour" is 1 May 1997. This makes sense re the sim versions.

Edited by MAD1
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LOL, yep.

My over-all feeling about ground textures is .....DON'T HIT THEM! Make sure they stay UNDER the plane. :eek:

 

I started out with FSforWin95 and FS98. By the time I got FS2002, it was too late to get into the training and certificates. :pilot:

I still wish I had tried it, but they're hard to get into if you aren't a newbie. So, enjoy it while you can. :cool:

 

One neat trick I really like about FS2002, set your install up to run on "system time and date" (just tick the box) then set up a flight in the plane you like parked in your spot at your home airport and save it as something you'll remember (I use "current"). Save that flight with the "make default" box ticked. Its also nice to completely shut down the plane prior to saving.

 

Now, when you start FS, you'll start out in your plane at the current time and date. This is also handy if you're doing some texture or dynamics tweaks and you need to make a bunch of tests. One of the nicer things about this kind of set up is always saving your flight once you finish your session as "current". You'll need to check your fuel the next time you load up the sim, which is just an extra layer of "immersive".

 

My last Big Tip is getting used to . This toggles the display from full screen to windowed mode. Full screen (to me) looks better. The problem is that in Full Screen you'll lose the preview window when you're trying to load the right plane. Just toggle over to Windowed mode and it returns. That, and getting used to hitting the key to bring up the menus and hitting the key to automatically set your barometer/altimeter are the two key combos that will become as common as scratching your nose.

Edited by BobSeaman
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Hmm, more handy Bob Seaman tips! Today, Sun 22 Nov 2020, I installed the Brisbane International (YBBN) scenery from the FlightSim library archive (also available from VATSIM). I've seen it before, but must have installed it onto my other WinXP PC (which is inactive at the moment, got an erratic power supply). Anyhow, looks very similar to the airport as it is now. I've been in that place numerous times, in reality. The install went seamlessly (following the readme instructions). Also I have my regional area airports: Archerfield (a suburb of Brisbane) which is a very active GA training airport; Ballina (near me), and Coffs Harbour (a little south "down the coast" from me). So given Brisbane was a doddle, the others will be also. Will make my "home base" Ballina.

 

And yes Bob, that is what I do, I have as my default, my Cessna 172 parked off to the side of any location that anyone in multiplayer might come online at, and with everything shut down. Thanks for the great responses. More anon. Cheers, Mark.

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  • 1 month later...

Recently, I've been sitting in my C172 with engine off, at Gate 73 at Brisbane International YBBN which gives a good view of and quick access to the active runway (rwy 1), and was studying how the ATC AI traffic (built-in to the sim "out of the box", no add-ons). Learnt a lot. Have recently read through the ATC Handbook in the training section, also have read the Help. Got some questions, can't find any mention of this stuff. (Presume this is similar in FS2004, FS9.)

1. AI aircraft are parked at gates, they start up and taxi to and hold at the active runway (rwy 1). I see them taxing up, and queuing up, looks good. I hear them when my radio is tuned to Ground, then I learnt the trick, I request taxi for takeoff, get it, then allowed to tune to Tower, so then I can hear them waiting for take-off clearance, and approaching AI traffic on final, which I can see, and I see them land and taxi towards a gate.

Question: on the ground their callsigns are e.g. "Orbit 3750" but as soon as they lift off, the label appears above them as e.g. N16488. Hence:

Orbit 3750 > N16488

Airwave 3502 > N36808

and the landing planes are in the reverse

N16488 > Orbit 3750

N46472 > Orbit 7546.

All a bit confusing, why doesn't it have the label "Orbit 3750" above the plane once airborne? The ATC comms still refers to it as e.g. "Orbit 3750". Can someone give me an explanation of this, how this works in FS2002 (and I presume later versions FS2004 etc.)?

Is there somewhere where I can read up on this?

 

Q2. I thought it might be related to lodged flight plan IDs etc. So I went into the Flight Planner (I thought for the first time, but saw a saved plan, which I must have played with years ago, but have forgotten all about it). Neat, I read about and then did a short hop from Lismore YLIS to Ballina YBNA and could see the flight path on the GPS. So am overjoyed that I've learnt two new things today. But in the Flight Planner I didn't see any reference to "N..." id's etc.

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On Q1: In the aircraft.cfg file, for each "livery" you'll see, among other things, the following entries:

 

atc_id=N747K

atc_airline=Boeing

atc_flight_number=1123

atc_heavy=1

ui_manufacturer="Boeing"

ui_type="747-400"

ui_variation="Boeing livery"

ui_typerole="Commercial Airliner"

 

Note that the line atc_id gives the N- number and the line atc_flight_number gives you the flight number for each livery, plus the atc_airline entry gives you -- of course -- the airline, so you see the roots of what ATC uses for the call signs, and it seems that the in-flight label uses atc_id while the controllers speak the airline and flight number.

 

So this should give you an idea of what you can change if you want it different. You also could try (start with just one livery, of course) changing the order of the entries and/or deleting (save a backup copy) one or more lines to see what the sim does then. Or, you can comment out individual lines instead of deleting them, that is, start the line with a pair of slashes like:

// This is a comment

 

Good luck.

 

Larry N.

As Skylab would say:

Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science!

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Thanks Inuss, that helps explain stuff. As I have not bothered to "fiddle under the hood" and am content for now for the "out of the box" experience, especially re "... if it ain't broke ..." etc., what you say makes sense. Am happy to leave it as is. I thought the atc_id might be related to the inbuilt AI system whereby when a pilot lodges a flight plan, that a persistent unique identifier, the N number, might be assigned, and I might be able (somewhere, somehow) to look up the aircraft's flightplan: type, departure and destination. But I also thought, well, it might all just be random number generation stuff, and also of no particular interest to me in my flight, given that AI traffic really is pretend, within the pretend world of the sim itself (as opposed to say being connected into VATSIM with real people behind those aircraft). Once I've finished interacting with that AI traffic, even it's just to see it taxi ahead of me and take off, or am on holding short of the active runway waiting for a plane on final to land and taxi off the runway, it's irrelevant to me about that aircraft after that.

(PS: for anyone reading this thread and post #7 by Inuss, I cross-posted today in the Outer Marker forum, a new thread "Navigation: GPS v VOR".)

Edited by MAD1
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  • 4 months later...
I just installed FS2002 this afternoon. It's the first time I have "played" the sim since July 2003 when FS2004 was released! With NvidiaInspector I have it running full screen at 1080P, 120+ FPS with anti aliasing 32x and anisotropic filtering 16x. Looks crisp! I doesn't give me an option (in sim) or like it when I try to force 1440P in the CFG file. The sim runs but the screen is just black unless I go into window mode and shrink it down unfortunately.. because the sim looks great even in 1080P. Edited by joejam2
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Glad to hear that you were able to run your old friend FS2002 today without a hitch. Unfortunately for me, my old, reliable HP wp6400 Workstation has gone on the blink. Now getting on startup "927 - Non-fatal FSB error on Front Side Bus 0", "F7Err: detected MCERR from processor". Have done some investigation including net searches, YouTube etc. But too hard for now so have given up for now. So no FS for me for now. But it IS a nice "warm fuzzy" feeling when you try older software, thinking "this'll probably not work", and it does, perfectly. Enjoy your nostalgia. Why did you bother or get interested in FS2002 again after 18 years?
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I often revisit old games and like to see how far I can push the graphics on modern machines sometimes using emulation like dgvoodoo2, nglide.. ect. I love seeing those old graphics the way they were never meant to be seen in crystal clear 1080P or 1440P.

 

A few weeks ago I decided to take a break from MSFS (2020) and got some nostalgia for FS2000 just messing around with some scenery design and flying the 777. While doing that and trying to find panel upgrades and such I came across the PSS 777. I thought it would be fun to learn on but it is nowhere to be found online. I finally found a box copy on ebay that has the 747 and 777. To my surprise it has the installer for FS2000 and FS2002. After having marginal success with my modern Win 10 64bit machine running FS2000 I decided to try FS2002. :)

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