FS9 to FSX - question

[firstinflight]

Been with flight simulators since 1986 and have been at this sim building thing since 2002 - yes, I can't believe the number of years that have gone by and how many hours of my time I have put into this.

I am a happy fs9-based simmer. All my add-ons (and I have many many of them!) are for FS9. Decent wxr through ASE, Triple projector projection, NThusim, Prosim, overhead, dual linked yokes, a TQ (thanks Scott) - everything is finally coming together and More importantly, working together.

Just as I have arrived at this point, I also have this nagging feeling that I have this big move to FSX to make. I started setting up FSX on a different PC. Bought FSUIPC 4, installed it and then stopped. Thought I would check with you all...
After years of cutting wood, connecting wires, interfacing cards and setting up switches and annunciators, I am not sure I have the energy to go through another setup. I wish I could wave a magic wand get my transition to FSX done - well, not so easy..

My question -
are there benefits to moving to FSX?
Is it worth the time?
I realize FS9 is 8 years old and soon add-ons may not be available (I am surprised that so many add-ons are still being released for FS9). But I also feel that there is more life left in FS9.

It's a big undertaking and before I went any further I thought I would this group for thier input.

Your input is much appreciated.

Regards,
CPJ

[jackpilot]

You said it.....
I am a happy fs9-based simmer.
(Me too..!)

This answers that.

[Trevor Hale]

I am also still running fs9 and don't have any immediate plans to change.

Trev

[bussgarfield]

I moved over to FSX from FS9 but that was before I had started banging wood together with nails.

I now have the PMDG NGX and it is a dream to fly. I have managed to get the Opencockpits MCP and EFIS working thanks to outside help. PMDG are releasing the SDK very soon which will allow software and hardware manufacturers to adjust their programmes to suit.

I really do like FSX and the graphics are superior to FS9 but would I change if I already had a working pit - probably not - unless I was starting again from scratch.

[Maurice]

I'll add my 2 cents here. I have been using FSX almost ever since it came out of the closet  . While I still had only one projector, I have to say that FSX was well worth the aggravation it took to set it up & run well with many, many add-ons as well.

I found that the FSX graphics are much superior to FS9 in most respects and even though I had a PC that was not nearly as powerful as my current one, the fps and most importantly the smoothness I achieved was very good except perhaps in very busy hubs like KJFK when flying low & fast over the city (just for testing of course  .

But now that I have switched to 3 projectors with 3 undocked views, it is a somewhat different story. I am still able to achieve reasonably good fps & smoothness on most occasions but that is with a very high end PC overclocked to 4.6 GHZ (I7 980X) and a GTX 480 video card with all SSD drives.

Having said that, I can still bring FSX to its knees if I crank up the cloud resolution with Active sky 2012 or if I increase the traffic to more than 25% or so, and with no car traffic at all (real killer). But the good news is that even with minimum Active Sky 2012 clouds resolution, I still get magnificent cloud formations which are much superior to anything I had with FS9.

Also, anyone who says that a powerful graphic card is not really necessary is very wrong in my opinion. It may be true if you do not overclock the CPU very much but if you do, the graphics card cannot keep up especially if you use one of the very effective tweaks (UsePools=0).

Currently, I am thinking of replacing my GTX 480 with an overclocked GTX 580 just to try & eliminate the occasional white flashes or black areas that I see at certain times. I believe these indicate that the GPU could not keep up with the amount of data that the CPU is pumping out but I'm not 100% sure about that.

In conclusion, if you are going to be happy with many compromises in the FSX settings and if you have a very powerful system, then FSX is the way to go for sure. But if you want everything maxed, stick to FS9. I still believe that FSX with lower settings is much superior to FS9 maxed but that's me and I'm sure others may disagree. All I know is that I would never go back.

And I will add that everyone who has flown my sim has raved about how great the visuals are despite these minor compromises & occasional glitches. So they can't be all that bad 

Hope you are not even more confused now 

Maurice

[rhysb]

I recently built a monster of a pc to run fsx as been running fs9 for as long as its been out. Firstly moving to win7 and fsx I spent literally months getting bugs, glitches crashes etc, fsx is indeed an incredible bit of kit but even on a bohemoth of a pc it's just annoying!!

Fs9 reinstalled and using again! Plus with the new Rex 2.0 for fs9 you can certainly get clouds very similar to fsx in fs9!!

My conclusion fsx brilliant but flawed! Fs9 just brilliant

[Garys]

Im with Maurice on this one, but you have to build a fast system which is achieved quite cheaply these days in comparison to a few years ago. FS9 is great but the biggest difference besides the visual updates is the sound. FSX sound is far superior to FS9. Combined with a stereo reciever and good quality speakers the sound is immersive, far better than I could achieve with FS9. That is the biggest difference for me and the reason I would not go back to FS9 now.

Im waiting for the P3D to release the DX11 version before contemplating moving over full time. I evaluated the current version and wasnt impressed with it enough to switch over from FSX as performance was relatively the same.

@ Maurice, Dont rush out to buy that 580 just yet. The new 6 series are supposed to be released here pretty soon that will have better performance and bring down the prices of the 5 series as well.

Gary

[blueskydriver]

Did you guys try DX10 preview and FSX yet? You can and there is a fix to make it not have the bad graphics in around the airports, and in turn you get a 10fps increase across the board... I tried doing this over the weekend and it worked great. Give me a bit and I'll post the links on how to fix it...

BSD

[Maurice]

Did you guys try DX10 preview and FSX yet? You can and there is a fix to make it not have the bad graphics in around the airports, and in turn you get a 10fps increase across the board... I tried doing this over the weekend and it worked great. Give me a bit and I'll post the links on how to fix it...

BSD

Anxiously waiting for that link  I tried DX10 once and the graphics look like hell so never tried again.

Thanks,

Maurice

[Joe Lavery]

I'm also with Gary and Maurice on this having just spent about two months changing over from FS9. It quite an undertaking when you're juggling the number of machines and new files for some quality scenery. But well worth the effort even if you have to tone down the effects a bit.

I recommend Orbx anything, it's just awesome sceney.

[blueskydriver]

Maurice,

The DX10P issue has to do with adding a concrete taxiway anywhere to the airport (it can be under a hangar).

Start with this link:

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/267998-dx10-runwaytaxiway-flickering-fix/

Read it and follow the other links within it as well...

BSD

[Maurice]

Maurice,

The DX10P issue has to do with adding a concrete taxiway anywhere to the airport (it can be under a hangar).

Start with this link:

http://nthusim.com/forum-topic/multiple-undocked-views-fs2004-or-fsx

Read it and follow the other links within it as well...

BSD

Thanks. But in my case, it wasn't just a matter of flickering runway lines. The whole image was pretty crappy with very bad aliasing as well, so I may not have configured something properly in my graphics settings.

Anyway, will check those links and see if I can find anything useful for me.

Thanks,

Maurice

[Maurice]

Maurice,

The DX10P issue has to do with adding a concrete taxiway anywhere to the airport (it can be under a hangar).

Start with this link:

http://nthusim.com/forum-topic/multiple-undocked-views-fs2004-or-fsx

Read it and follow the other links within it as well...

BSD

OK either my eyesight is getting really bad or there aren't any links dealing with DX10 in the link you provided. I guess I'll try a Google search 

Maurice

[blueskydriver]

Sorry Maurice wrong link, here it is and I fixed the previous one:

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/267998-dx10-runwaytaxiway-flickering-fix/

BSD

[XOrionFE]

I recommend Orbx anything, it's just awesome sceney.

this last statement really sums it up for me.  Orbx is the best scenery IMHO ever made and unless you have FSX you cannot enjoy this great stuff.   I also don't know why some have so many issues with FSX.   I have installed it on 3 different computers over the years since it has been out and have never had issues and I run all the major addons with it.   Yes, it takes a while to setup everything but once set it has been fine.  I do recommend following Nick Needhams setup steps for windows 7 and FSX.  Another thing to note is that FSX can take advantage of multicore processors but fs9 cannot....(not that it needs to) but when you add all the addons and scenery it is really nice to take advantage of the extra cores.   Also never compare fs9 frame rates to FSX frame rates because they are not apples to apples.

My recommendation is FSX all the way....

Scott

[blueskydriver]

Hey Maurice,

If you're having flashes and flickers from time to time or more often than normal, I think it has something to do with a tweak you have in FSX.cfg file. Here's why:

I did the Nick Needham's tweaks and my frame rates were about 12-15 near major airports, then you posted a tweak that I used and the frame rates imporved 15-25, but I'd get flashes, flickers and triangle shaped (polygon) image flashes. However, if I remove the tweak you had posted, the flashing stops, but back to slower framrates...

I will have to look back into previous postings to find the exact data that is different via your posted tweak.

BSD

[Maurice]

Hey Maurice,
......

I will have to look back into previous postings to find the exact data that is different via your posted tweak.

BSD

I think we hijacked this post. Better to start a new topic I think,

Maurice

[blueskydriver]

Okay, I agree.

In regards to FS9 to FSX, do your homework on tweaks as they're a huge part of working with FSX in general.

BSD

[firstinflight]

THANKS SO MUCH!

I guess I was right as to my reasons for wanting to move to FSX but i am also experiencing most of the things you have echoed in this thread. Win7 glitches, fps problems, blackout areas with aerosoft airports in Europe (some of my favorite ones are so slow, they are unusable), the need to buy some of the add-ons again...


Well, thanks again. Will keep you all posted.

CPJ