n Fri, 8 Aug 2003 14:23:55 +0200, "Checkkie!" < XXXX@XXXXX.COM >
wrote:
In around 20-30 hours of use I've had only two 'hick-ups'.
One case of unidentified lock-up when pulling on the
control-stick, changing the view back to 'cockpit' via button #2 on
the stick, and dropping the gear via the keyboard all at the same
time, with all displays (GPS, etc.) up in the cockpit view.
In the other case I was moving in and around the 'flight
planner' and FS said that my active flight plan was invalid and
couldn't be loaded, and it bounced me one screen 'up'. But I didn't
*have* a flight plan at that point, so no harm, no foul. (I've been
through the same screens without that error many times.)
But even on my lower-end, aging rig (1.1GHz AMD, 512Mb RAM,
ATI 7500, Win98) it's a *great* sim. Buy it. ($10 US mail-in rebate
on FS2002 if you own that.)
My suggestion? When you get the game start off by working
through all the historical aircraft in order. The 'write ups' for the
historical 'missions' by Lane Wallace are great!
Start with the Wright Flyer - set the flight settings on
anything but the easiest settings and see if you can get that thing
into the air. They have stone 'landmarks' (look like old
mile-markers) on the left, one marking your take-off point and four
others marking the distance of the Wright Brothers' four 'flights' at
Kitty Hawk. I've beat the three shorter 'flights' (hops, really) but
I have yet to quite match the longest flight. (There's no way to get
it anywhere near that far without correcting pitch, and almost any
control change either looses you enough lift to set it down, or you
stall it and 'set' it down. I can correct for a few seconds, but then
you make one small mis/over-correction and you are down.)
Then there's surplus WW-I 'Jenny' to barn-storom in,
Lindbergh's "Ryan NYP" to struggle with, and the Ford Tri-Motor to
bounce around Lake Erie.
After you work your way through the other aircraft, and are
zipping around your favorite airspace at .8 Mach on GPS autopilot at
30,000, you can drop back to the Wright Flyer and *really* be
impressed with what we've managed to do in 100 years.
(Then, like me, you can prove that, with GPS, a 747 can be
landed at night on an uncontrolled, unlighted dirt strip in the middle
of nowhere, but there is no way you are going to get that thing back
up into the air.)
Worst thing I can say? At high altitude, with 'speed
multiplier' on, running higher detail than my rig should really using,
and after I've been running it for hours so that Win98 and the FS have
had plenty of time to leak some memory, the sim can bog down pretty
badly - response time to key-strokes is *very* bad. If I turn the
speed multiplier back down all problems clear right up. If I stop the
FS and restart it, the problem doesn't exist for a while until the
application/OS pig-out on memory again. (Win98 is as much at fault as
the application, no doubt.)
And the explanation of some operational details in the
"Learning Center" is a bit thin. There's more to the avionic GPS than
is explained, for example. I've worked out several 'features' buy
playing with it - like entering an arbitrary airport/waypoint by it's
designation.
But, given that's the nature of the worst flaws I've found
(and software verification for a 'Big Name' is what I do for a living)
for my rig/OS FS2004 if a pretty darn clean release.