FSX: Making the transition from FS2004

[Xyn_Air]

Last summer I bought FSX with glee in my heart, drool on my lips, and dreams in my head.  Most of that came crashing down right after I installed it.  My woefully anemic system thought the start-up screen was difficult; flying was completely out of the question (unless you know how to land via slide show).

A bit later last year, I bought some more RAM for my system.  While no longer anemic, it barely lifted its way into the normal range.  And, even with the new RAM, FSX was beating my system like a red-headed step-processor.  Still, I used FSX now-and-again because my father also has it and really only uses it if we are likely to be doing multi-player.

This weekend, my father mentioned he just might be up to sit in the co-pilot seat and go along for a flight (this is probably because I have been rambling about FS a lot lately).  So, I begrudgingly dragged myself away from FS2004 and started up FSX just to shake the rust off in preparation for our upcoming multi-player flight.  With frame-rate and function in mind, I went to the settings menu to see what could be done.  On a lark, I hit the "restore default settings" just to see what would happen.  Instead of lowering my settings even further, FSX actually cranked them up a great deal.  I chuckled to myself ruefully, envisioning an impending crash of plane and system.  "Still, why not give it a try?" I thought to myself.



It works.



It works beautifully!



Whose computer is this?!?  I mean, it isn't maxed out quality, but . . . but . . . but . . . It's beautiful.  How . . . why . . . what . . . HOW did this happen?!?  I have changed nothing on my system.

Right after being shocked at how beautiful everything looks, I was shocked once more - by the cockpit!  AUGH!  What are all these controls?!?!?  FS2004 doesn't have all these controls!  (737-800, btw)

So, rambling story aside . . . now that FSX seems to be working for me, can anyone clue me in to significant differences between FS2004 and FSX that I really, REALLY need to be aware of?  For example, I have already learned that the cockpit has more controls that are more accurately modeled (so many buttons and lights!  :o ).

Shocked and awed,
~Darrin

PS
Any clues as to why my system is playing nice-nice with FSX now?

PPS
I feel so lost crossing the border between the FS2004 forums and the FSX forums.  Anyone here I know?

[garymbuska]

As far as the forums go no differance between the two. As for what happened to your system who knows do not look a gift horse in the mouth I say. As for the differance in aircraft there are quite a few but it just makes the aircraft that more realistic. If you feel a sensory over load  Just slow down and take your time getting familiar with everything. 8-)

[MattNW]

Likely one of your settings wasn't correct for your computer. I don't have FSX installed right now but there are some settings that have to be thought out before changing them. If wrong they will slow down your computer.

Back when FSX first came out there were a lot of tweaks posted here at SimV and other FS sites. Some of them were dubious in nature and some even hurt performance. Likely you tried one of those and didn't reset it. Easy to do when trying multiple tweaks (which is why you should only try one tweak at a time). By resetting all the defaults you reset that tweak and FSX is running better.

Like Gary said, "do not look a gift horse in the mouth". Just be glad it's working.  ;)