I was wondering...

[brettt777]

I saw on another website the other day how to make some of the older sims work with XP, so I dusted off my Janes F/A-18 and gave it a try. Low and behold, I got it to work. So as I was reaquainting myself with the controls, I was reminded of what an awesome avionics package this sim has and I was wondering if somehow it could be done in an FS sim like FSX. I mean, this sim is ten years old but it has an awesome HUD with several modes and tracking info, and the radar has AA, AG, mapping and even a funtional terrain avoidance function. I am sure most of you guys know this and yes I know, that sim is a competely different format. But if they did it ten years ago, surely we could do it with FSX now...?

[Travis]

Sure you could -- and eat up all your framerates at the same time.

Think about the F/A-18 sim: you had ONE flyable aircraft, with (I'm guessing) a limited area of flight and very few (if any) cities.  The AI were most likely very simple (no interior parts, etc) and the sim was GEARED precisely for running those very specific gauges and devices.

Now think about the FS structure: multiple flyable aircraft, with enhancements ranging from simple AI aircraft all the way up to full-immersion cockpit capability.  An entire world fully modeled, with thousands of airports and hundreds of modeled cities.  The sim has to be geared to accept multiple types of interfaces, from steam-gauges to PFD/MFD structures.  This inhibits the speed these systems can function at, and the ability of the sim to render them quickly.

You are by no means not going to find this for FSX either now or sometime in the near future, but you will be paying a pretty price for it, and you better have one heck of a machine to match.