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Does FS2004 work as good now as 4 years ago?


Brodie

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That's how long since I've run it, I've had FSX and MSFS. I'd like to install it again. Is there anything that has come up in the last 4 years I need to know about or take into consideration? It'll be a major task to install the sim and all the addons and I don't want to find out about something after 20 hours work.
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I'd say FS2004 runs now much better than 18 years ago.

 

I have it on Windows 10. Several installs. I installed it outside the "Program Files" structure of the C: drive, and probably turned UAC off. My latest install was done a month ago. FS9, Service pack, the "patch" you can't talk about and the 4GB patch.

There are several threads here about it.

 

The only problem I've encountered is with some 3rd party commercial addons that require online activation, in the cases where their websites went offline. It happened on a couple of ocasions but, as a matter of fact, I was able to recover one of those... a FSD Cessna 337. In the meantime FSD changed something but I was able to recover my login in their new(?) website and activate the Cessna again.

 

Honestly, all went smooth and FS9 runs even smoother - I have it locked at 50fps on an old/mid specs PC.

 

It has been a pleasure to rediscover all my old addons and finally being able to fly without performance concerns. There's an incredible wealth of freeware and payware done for FS9, perhaps more than to any other sim...? At least freeware I sure believe so.

 

Aircraft-wise you have some addons that are top notch even, or almost, by today's standards.

In terms of environment is the same.

 

Just the ground textures and the autogen feel dated - specially when you see those gorgeous MSFS 2020 screenshots. But I totally can live with that because the flying part is so great.

 

Hope it helps ;)

Joao Paz

Alaskan Winds, L'Air Azur

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  • 7 months later...

Yes, the ground textures aren't great especially when flying low to the ground. But at any level and the flying, the many planes, the mountains like in Norway, the rivers and bridges, the whole world… Amazing. Then locally some cities with nice buildings, San Francisco, Great. Of course FlightSim 2022 is always better in the ground textures but when I see the Multiplayers on YouTube I prefer the planes from FS2004. Use a mouse to look around. See my Tours >>> Grand Canyon Tour and my World Tour 2022…

>>

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brodie,

 

In reality, how FS9 'works' is pretty much dependent on what you're expecting to see and get out of the Sim.

 

If you're looking for the same Visuals from the ground as FSX or MSFS 2020, you're not going to get them. Sorry, but that's the way it is. It's the limitations of the Sim. Heavy duty mods like The Natural World help a bit, but it is what it is.

 

You won't find tenfold FPS rates out of a new, 2nd decade of the 21st Century, hopped up PC with FS9, either.

 

All of the 'tweaking the CPU' tricks some are trying to do with their boxes will not get FS9 to magically run at 90 FPS with absolutely no stutters everywhere in the World, and using the most detailed Scenery or feature equipped Airplane.

Again, the limitations of the Sim itself. Like a 'one trick pony', FS9 is a one core Sim.

 

But, if you're willing to live with its limitations, and use the right combinations of Add Ons so as not to bring the Sim to its knees, then by all means have at it. It's always good to have more Niners around; Strength in Numbers!

 

On a side note (and I know that I'm late to the Party), I wanted to say hello to João Paz... it's good to see you drop in here at the Old Simmer's Home! Another old hand from days past, and the Creator of Alaskan Winds VA. Still have many of the AW reprints on FS9 airplanes in my Hangar!

 

:pilot:

"I created the Little Black Book to keep myself from getting killed..." -- Captain Elrey Borge Jeppesen

AMD 1.9GB/8GB RAM/AMD VISION 1GB GPU/500 GB HDD/WIN 7 PRO 64/FS9 CFS CFS2

COSIM banner_AVSIM3.JPG

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FS2004 runs as beautifully and smoothly as ever before. And with all of the visual texture advances in add-ons such as the environments, weather, landscapes, etc., it can look absolutely stunning. I still completely enjoy flying it. :cool: -Glenn

2021 Lenovo Legion 5 Gaming laptop. AMD Ryzen 7 4800H, 32GB DDR4-3200 G.Skill RAM, Nvidia GTX 1660ti 6GB GDDR6, 500GB and 1TB PCIe M.2 SSD, 144MHZ 1920×1080P 300Nits ISP screen,

Windows 10 Home 64-bit OS, (2nd Display) Dell 24" UltraSharp 1920x1200 TTF Monitor, CHProducts FlightYoke & RudderPedals, Logitech 3D Pro Extreme joystick

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Totally agree.

FS2004 rules. Got over 100GB now of free and purchased add-on scenry/aircrat including my own gauges added to cockpits (available for download here search Bendl). I am more into flying than scenery, but the scenery with add-ons is great also. As realistis as it can get. Flight planning, ATC, weather, approaches are very realistic. Perfect for someone who spent time in cockpits and slipped to boring retirement:)

I think FS9 developers were way ahead of its time.

Peter Bendl

ex. British Airways

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Answering the OP's question literally word for word, personally I would have to say... NO.

 

Primarily because 4 years ago, I was without a Computer. My Dell i5 laptop had bitten the dust in the Winter of '17, and was on the hunt for another one like it. It took me until just before the Pandemic hit to find another, and had to sacrifice Computing power for Price.

 

Fast forward to now, and the bottom line is that compared to my previous rig, I lost 10 fps because of Hardware. But you won't find me complaining, because life at 20 fps is still grand. And, I can finally land Jet fighters on the numbers 60-80% of the time now... something I couldn't do in the previous 8 years Simming! ;)

"I created the Little Black Book to keep myself from getting killed..." -- Captain Elrey Borge Jeppesen

AMD 1.9GB/8GB RAM/AMD VISION 1GB GPU/500 GB HDD/WIN 7 PRO 64/FS9 CFS CFS2

COSIM banner_AVSIM3.JPG

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Hi Brodie,

Yes, quite an effort to install FS9 again and the benefits are best defined by Joa Opaz post below. It is much worth it. Top sim. Few years ago I posted a procedure on how to reinstall FS9 and most points would apply to new install on W10 as well. Here it is if you are interested:

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?294277-FS2004-Complete-Reinstall&highlight=FS9+Total+Reinstall

Good luck.

Edited by beroun

Peter Bendl

ex. British Airways

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What there really needs to be is a type of "snapshot" program that takes three snapshots prior to facilitate in reinstallation of the Sim.

 

1) The main FS2004 program.

 

2) The registry.

 

3) The pertinent AppData folders.

 

That should do it for a complete 1:1 reinstaltion.

 

But I think in order to facilitate something like that this so-called "snapshot" program would have to run all the time to continuously monitor hard drive changes. Probably easier said than done. But maybe such a program could have a "smart move" option that can go by what it already knows to help build up the required profile for reinstallation in case the snapshot program never ran once or there was an issue sometime in the past and a current snapshot was never made thereby creating gaps in the snapshot profile. That's where the "smart move" would come in handy.

 

If I knew a fast code like C# or C++ I'd be apt to code it. Or at least test my idea and see how it goes.

 

Any takers? :D

 

 

Edit-

 

Actually, I see some people are installing old, incompatible games using VMware or VirtualBox in Windows 10/11. For those that don't know, these are virtual machines. They're software you interact with on your computer (the host) but act like a computer withen a computer (the guest). So, it's like running Windows XP in Windows 10 or Windows 98se in Windows 10. You can even run DOS.

 

Anyway, these virtual machines store their content (the operating system entire) in a file. For VMware it's a vmdk file. In this sense you now kinda have "profiles." So you could install Windows XP in VMware Workstation Player (Version 15 is the highest allowed for Win 7) and then install the Sim with all its add-ons and whatnot. Now you can copy/paste the vmdk file for backup or changes as many times as you want. I did precisely this with ten, count them 10 instances of XP for a project I did. I just installed Windows XP in VMware Workstation Player and copy/paste ten of the original vmdk file so now I had ten identical copies of XP running all at the same time. Don't believe me? Have a look. LOL

 

Just don't get the idea you can run more than one Sim at the same time. It won't happen. If it does it'll be very slow I'm sure. You'd have to use a server motherboard with more than one physical CPU. FS2004 and FSX are primarily CPU driven so running more than one Sim is going to tax your CPU like no other.

 

Edit 2-

 

=Extra Credit=

 

Check out Kubernetes and Docker.

Edited by CRJ_simpilot
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