Hi all. I have two ideas for add ons for FS2k4.
1. A ground marshall. With the new taxiway labelling I can follow taxi instructions to the vicinity of the gate, but can't discern which gate is which without finally turning on the (dreaded) progressive taxi magenta line. Some 3rd party airports have gate tarmac marking and labels of course, but I'm looking for something simpler (and without a frame rate hit). What I'd like is a little man (women) with flags who waves you in and who would appear with the press of a key at the point at which the progressive taxi magenta line would normally terminate (the gate or parking slot) but allow me to forgo turning on the unrealistic. He doen't even have to use correct flag signals, just stand there waving at my assigned gate.
2. METARs and processing. 3rd party programs like ActiveSky and FlightKeeper (I own both) do this (FS Flightkeeper gives a great report) but they do not get their weather information from within the FS world. They check with an external server which differs from the jeppeson one that 2k4 uses. You can use the weather map within FS, but you can only click on weather reporting stations and even then you don't get a METAR or TAF summary. Both also can choke the frame rates on your system. ActiveSky will create weather according to its real world data, but doesn't read weather such as the weather saved with a saved flight.
Okay talented people, get to work!