Newbie

[sonic]

just saying hi But curious, I loved flying in FS98 but lost my free time thanks to my job and now I have some agian and looking forward to flying agian, I can get a good price on FS2004 But is it worth the jump from 98.
98 didnt have AI but do you actually see planes landing etc while your waiting to takeoff. also does the ATC talk or is it just scrolling across the screen like 98. Last quiestion how accurate is the landscape if I take off from the airport near my house can I fly over the city I live in. I now it cant be to  detailed but is it there. 98 it wasnt really Even though it is like the 4or5 largest city in NC.

[svenpurple7]

1.  No doubt about it.  Worth the upgrade.
2.  You can see planes landing, departing, approaching, flying by...whatever you have it set up to do.
3.  ATC talks to you.  You can respond to it.  It could be better, but what can you do?
4.  Scenery is ok, but what 3rd parties can do is amazing.  You can make it as accurate as you want.

In a nutshell, get it.  You will not regret it.

Happy flying,
Ben.

[beefhole]

Have you actually researched this? Like, seen screenshots?

FS9 is a colossal upgrade from fs98, and well worth getting.

However, if you don't have a decent comp, get fs2002-it's about as good.

[Rocket_Bird]

[quote]just saying hi But curious, I loved flying in FS98 but lost my free time thanks to my job and now I have some agian and looking forward to flying agian, I can get a good price on FS2004 But is it worth the jump from 98.
98 didnt have AI but do you actually see planes landing etc while your waiting to takeoff. also does the ATC talk or is it just scrolling across the screen like 98. Last quiestion how accurate is the landscape if I take off from the airport near my house can I fly over the city I live in. I now it cant be to

[MattNW]

No doubt about it. Upgrading from 98 to Fs 2004 is a must. Do you see AI planes? Try waiting for twenty minutes to take off behind a 747 or being told by ATC to go around three or four times.

The landscape is much more accurate than 98 for sure. It isn't perfect and some places they made hunge blunders but it's not bad. Some add ons however and it's breathtaking. Try USA Roads for example. It puts every road in the USA in the flight sim. Every city street and back country road within meters of their real positions. Terrain mesh add ons also enhance the realism. Some are amazingly detailed.

Only drawback to Fs 2004 is the computer needed to run it. It's a whopping drag on system resources so only the top notch computers can run it with everything enabled. Even with some things turned down however it'll blow Fs 98 away.

[carolina_ice]

My pc isnt the fastest but I can play halo,doom3,no prob.at around 1024x768 at high quility.

[BiggBaddWolf]

The only other Flight Sim I have ever had, prior to FS2004 is Pro Pilot '99  :o which I would say is somewhat similar to FS98 or FS2000, but after getting FS2004 I will never go back  :-/
And FS2006 will have to be DAMN good for me to buy it, which I guess I will have to upgrade someday, as FS2004 will probably someday become like FS98 is today  :(

[commoner]

Hi sonic (Not that Damned Hedgehog are ya )....the difference will amaze you..no doubt about that. BUT you will need a good graphics card, a fast processor and a Gig of RAM to join the madhouse....commoner

PS even then be prepared to gripe a lot like the rest of us do....

[sonic]

I tried it last night. pretty cool I have to say My main question is when I tried it I noticed when on the runway the tower building looked well crappy and was a little laggy I played around with the settings and noticed anti-aliasing was off I turned it on and cleared up the buildings and stuff and there was a setting called framerate it was at 20 I turned it up to 50 and got very smooth what does that setting do.  And there was only a few AI aircraft at greenville INT.  I did some reading on past threads and found something you all use called Project AI If I install these will It add more aircraft.   The game plays pretty good with a 9600xt and 1 Gig ram but it taxes systems as much as halo and doom 3 I was suprised I have my resolution at 1024x768 and the world on ultra high and plays really well,  my old system wouldnt have played it though. wow things change on pc games so quick.  The 9600xt isnt top pick but I really like the ati cards and the 9600xt is reallly good for 150 bucks.  Glad I upgraded a few months ago. I gig is really important with this game  I can tell already.

[Fly2e]

but do you actually see planes landing etc while your waiting to takeoff.

All the time!  ;D

Dave

[beaky]

Cool pic, fly- I'm curious: what traffic density percentage are you set at (or is that add-on stuff)? I've had to scale back to keep framerates up, and haven't seen anything like that yet.

[sonic]

My traffic isnt that dence I have it set at 95 I'm looking in to adding some pai stuff though.

[svenpurple7]

PAI has tons of stuff to add.  And there is other stuff out there besides PAI.  What you have to watch out for is too much AI can hit your FPS.
Also, you may want to keep your FPS locked at somewhere between 20 and 30 FPS.  50 FPS is too much unless you have  one heck of a system.