Yet another FS2004 revue

	TooMuch Revue
	*Flight Simulator 2004* A Century of Flight

	YET ANOTHER REVIEW! by Peter Stark (wizard@toomuchfs.com) December 2003 I did it again. I opened my big mouth & made some comments about how "FS2004 did this" & "how much better that was" & "how much worse this is". Before I knew it, I had made an offer to write a review of the new sim from Microsoft for our little band. Note that this isn't a review of all the features, but rather a summary of what is new, the best it has to offer and, sadly, the worst! It has become more of a 'tips & tricks' list. I also mention many updates & alterations I have come across which attempt to rectify some of these problems. The first thing to sort out is what do we call it?! I have seen it written as FS2004, ACOF, COF, FS9 & Century of Flight. The confusion arises because Microsoft have even called it different names in different parts of the program! For the purpose of this review, let's call it FS9 (because it's quick to type!). Before I even bought the software I had read many magazine articles & websites to get a broader picture of how well it performed & if there were any major bugs that would really prevent me from enjoying it. I found that if you have problems, a thorough search of the forums at Avsim & Flightsim will probably provide an answer. In no particular order, here is an indication of what to expect: *PERFORMANCE* There is no doubt that FS9 is more demanding on your system than FS2002 (sorry!). On the brighter side, by pulling back the sliders you can dramatically improve performance. Many FS2002 users on older systems are used to that anyway. The forums I have been reading indicate that it is CPU speed that is critical, rather than having huge amounts of RAM. My system is a 2.4GHz P4, 512MB RAM with an Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti4200 128MB graphics card. I can easily get my target frame rate of 30fps during cruise in most weather with all ther sliders 'maxed' out. However, I can also get it down to 5fps in heavy, detailed cloud, intense static & dynamic scenery with sun glare & 'massive' aircraft textures! So there is obviously a lot of scope to achieve acceptable frame rates on slower systems by accepting less demanding graphics. *STUTTERS* Many will be horrified to learn that the dreaded FS2000 stutters are back to some extent! I almost beat my head on the desk when it started happening. It seems that in some scenarios (heavy, detailed clouds) that the sounds stutter. It can make ATC unreadable & your roaring B747 sounds like a motor scooter with dirty sparkplugs! I read every forum known to man & none really offered a solution that worked, so I resorted to playing with various settings to control the problem. In the end, I found the the easiest way to eliminate it on my system was to set the clouds setting in the Options>Settings>Display>Weather dialog box to 'Simple', not Detailed. The problem has rarely reoccured since. If the cloud cover is not heavy, you can alter the setting back to 'Detailed' & enjoy new detail. Note that you can also reduce this stuttering effect by switching to the virtual cockpit. If anyone comes across a better solution - please let me know!! *WEATHER & DISPLAY* The new weather engine is a hoot! The sunrise/sunsets can be stunning, the hues deep & rich. The new thunderstorm effects are incredibly realistic, especially at night when the clouds themselves illuminate with the lightning flashes. I couldn't get a decent screen shot but try this out when you can - it's great. Much noise has been made about the great 3D clouds, but I personally find that a very minor improvement over FS2002. They have, along with the 'Detailed clouds', such a dramatic impact on frame rates & the stutters mentioned above, that I only run them at at moderate settings, even with a fast PC. After the rather dark screens of FS2002, it also took a little time to get used to the rather bright & blue FS9! I have seen freeware utilities to both increase and decrease the intensity - both claiming they look more realistic. I guess that means that Microsoft got it about right!

	*WATER* Microsoft have 'updated' the water textures & effects & in the right conditions (low sun reflecting off the water), the effects are remarkable. But you must have a recent high performance graphics card to be able to use it. One thing they sure didn't get right is the water/ocean colours for most of the world! Even the mid Pacific is a milky azure blue that would be more at home in the Caribbean. Some of the first updates from freeware groups have been to alter this colour back to the FS2002 variant. The water textures have also been 'improved' by several groups including Bill & Lynn Lyons (fs9wtga3.zip).

	*ATC/AI* This aspect has also been dramatically improved in FS9. For the first time, I think it provides a reasonable alternative to using Vatsim etc. (But not as much fun!) (Note that it seems almost everyone is having trouble using FS9 & Squawkbox 2/SB Relay in the online ATC environments of Vatsim. SB3 is on the way but if an avid Vatsim person, you will want to use FS2002 for now.) New ATC features & improvements include: • ATC allow parallel operations so you will have aircraft taking off & landing on parallel runways. I have even had calls from ATC advising me that there was another aircraft landing on the parallel runway next to me - just so I didn't worry! • ATC will allow you to request an alternative runway on taking off or landing & select YOUR preferred approach, whether it be ILS, GPS, VOR/DME, visual etc. • You can request increases or decreases in cruise altitude to take advantage of existing weather conditions. • If flying VFR & the weather deteriorates, you can now request an enroute IFR clearance. • You can activate/deactivate Taxi Progress without a radio transmission. • AI aircraft taxi a bit faster than FS2002, & a freeware utility (taxispeed.zip) allows you to alter that to your desired speed. • Instead of being cleared directly to your cruise or approach altitude, you now are only cleared to varying intermittent altitudes, which is much more realistic. The only problem is that they only start to give you your ongoing clearance about 200 feet before - which means in a jet, your autothrottles will have already started reducing power & the autopilot levelling off. I get around this by adding 300 feet to the autopilot on climbs & subtracting 300 feet on descents. This way I have time to dial up the new clearance before you start levelling off. • ATC now vector you to give some separation from AI aircraft on approach - although there are some occassional 'near misses'. Sadly, they don't issue speed instructions, so you must monitor the speed of the aircraft ahead of you (see below). • You can alter the AI aircraft configuration (via fs9.cfg) so that the labels also display any or all of the following: callsign, aircraft type, heading, flight no., airspeed, flightplan, distance etc. This can be useful when you are number 2 or 3 on approach. You can see the airspeed of the aircraft ahead & so attempt to regulate yours so that separation is maintained & you aren't forced to execute a missed approach. Those that had heavily modified FS2002 to incorporate many extra airlines/ schedules/flightplans using sites such as Project AI (www.projectai.com) & similar will be pleased to know that I simply cut & pasted the relevant files & PAI aircraft into FS9, recompiled, & it all works nicely. While on this topic, it is worth mentioning that those who enjoy writing AFCAD files to add/change/improve gates, taxiways etc., will be pleased to know that the freeware AFCAD 2004 is out already & makes life a lot simpler than in FS2002. If you have FS2002 scenery files that are FS9 compatable, note that you will have to redo the AFCAD files in the new version for them to work in FS9. (So your Flight Club NZFC & PHFC files will need an update, which I will do as soon as I can.) GMAX It is common knowledge that FS9 will only display aircraft that were created using Gmax. This may effect those who still have FS2000 or earlier aircraft on the sim. There are increasingly large numbers of Gmax aircraft available on the internet so I don't think this is a major problem - maybe.... *HANDLING* I say 'maybe' because with the advent of FS9, Microsoft have changed the handling characteristics of the aircraft. Many forum users have reported problems with FS2002 aircraft not handling as well in FS9. I have seen this & I think it often stems from some so called FS9 aircraft actually being modified FS2002 planes. I have seen problems with overly sensitive rudders (tricky on takeoff or crosswinds) & porposing in cruise (this even happens with some default aircraft). Many of these problems can be corrected by trying different air files & simply searching for better handling planes from the library websites. I have also had some success by altering joystick sensitivities & null zones. *VIRTUAL COCKPITS* Most of you have probably heard that FS9 also allows you to click switches within the virtual cockpit. So now you can pan up to the overhead panel & use you mouse to click on the landing lights. You can then pan down, lower the gear, continue on to the throttle quadrant & arm the speedbrakes. While this sounds like a cool feature, I have found VERY few virtual panels that are of good enough quality to make this a good experience. Many VC's (including the default B737 that comes with FS9) are the old FS2002 ones with a few switches added in a rather poor & unattractive fashion. It looks like an after thought. The big exceptions are the Milton Shupe (et al) planes/panels such as the Aero Commander series (there is a God), Bill Lyon's collection & the brand new default Lear 45. These planes work beautifully in the new VC enviroment & there will no doubt be more as designers take advantage of this feature, so I can't be too critical.

	*PAN RATE* While on the subject of VC's - they only work really well if you increase the 'pan rate'. i.e. The rate at which the view pans around when you use the arrow keys or hat switch. It is very easy to change in your FS9.cfg file - Just find PAN RATE & change the value from 400 to 900. *GPS* I almost forgot to mention the new Garmin GPS systems. It is a big improvement on the earlier GPS systems with extra features such as such as coloured terrain maps indicating high terrain, airspace boundaries, restricted areas, nearest airfields, VORs, NDBs & Intersections etc. You can also investigate details of the nearest airfields, such as runway directions, lengths, frequencies etc. Probably the big addition is the ability to load both precision and non-precision instrument approaches for your destination. e.g. When you have selected & loaded your preferred approach, ATC will clear you to your initial approach altitude. The entire horizontal part of the approach is laid out on your GPS screen. If you execute a missed approach, ATC will now give you vectors for another shot at it & ATC is now much more terrain & altitude aware!(I haven't been vectored into a single mountain yet!) Alternatively, ATC can still vector you to the approach they choose while you load it into your GPS. This way you have the ground track displayed during your approach, including the Missed Approach procedure should you need it. This GPS upgrade was supposed to be a big improvement in FS9 but for some reason it has attracted very little attention. There are 2 models, one for lighter aircraft & one for heavies. It certainly is more complex to use & has a VERY annoying MSG (message) button that flashes whenever you are about to enter controlled airspace, have entered it or, it seems, whenever you are thinking about how you would like to do personal injury to the programmer who thought of it. Even if you 'clear' the message, it comes back immediately to haunt you yet again. (I leave the GPS closed unless actually wanting something from it to prevent me throwing my coffee cup at it.) While there is no doubt it provides lots of useful features, it is still no comparison to a good Flight Management Computer (FMC), so the heavy iron users might not be that impressed. It does have lots of fun features however. Also, I notice that Microsoft seem to have allowed for future additions of SIDs & STARs wihtin the Garmin environment - something to look forward to in a couple of years!

	*PANELS* THIS IS MY BIGGEST GRIPE!! GGGRRR!!! I am a self confessed panel junkie & had a wonderful collection of superb panels that NEED a manual to operate. I just love the cockpit management part of flight simming & it has come as a horrible discovery to learn that MOST complex FS2002 panels won't work in FS9. Some updates have started to appear & I am sure in time there will be more as well as some dedicated ones. Be warned that many co called FS9 panels I have downloaded & tried still do not function properly despite them supposedly being FS9 compliant. I really thought the FS2002 panel system was just great - WHY CHANGE THE BLOODY THING?? A nice aspect of panel views is that when you change a seat height, view, zoom etc., FS9 remembers it for the rest of the flight. The down side is that it is difficult to raise or lower the seat 'just a bit'. I am not sure if this is to do with my increased pan rate, but I have to resort to modying panel.cfg files to get the view where I want it as when I raise or lower the seat I get 100% sky or 100% tarmac! This is time consuming but does give more enjoyable approaches (i.e.you can at least see the runway). A last minute update: Paulo Pizzato from Portugal claims in his freeware file bugfix2.zip (from Flightsim.com) can cure the problem of gauge incompatability. It very simply involves using two dll files in the FS9 Modules folder. I have just installed the sugegstions & have yet to test it - it might be worth a try! *FSUIPC* That wonderful utility from Pete Dowson went commercial with the realease of FS9. At first I was saddened because many of the complex panels I love could only come about through using this brilliant utility. The I found two good pieces of news! One is that it is only 20 Euros to purchase the full version - a small price for what is a proven utility. Then I found even better news. You can continue to use a new basic freeware version that works perfectly well in FS9. The only people who need to purchase the full version are those that like the flexibility of making their own alterations & 'tweaking', and those people who actually design the panels etc. that utilise the features. The only down side is that there have been a few reports recently on the Forums that some users believe it is responsible for gauge recognition problems & possibly causing Sim crashes. Time will tell. ILS I find (as do many others on the forums) that the ILS or glideslope are more difficult to capture than in FS2002 - & even that was more difficult than FS2000. Our dedicated member Salina Chan hasn't had these difficulties so it seems it must be my heavy handed approach to flying aircraft! The only way I can get it to work well is to be slow & intercept a long way out. ATC often have me about 20nm out when intercepting the localiser rather than what I think is the standard 13nm. I also often have to decrease my intercept abnle to 20° to increase my chances of capture. Even then, the aircraft often overshoots & has to correct for most of the remainder of the approach. *MESH & SCENERY* The mesh from FS2002 is completely compatible with FS9 (phew!). I have read forum users stating that the mesh in FS9 is the same as FS2002. I disagree as I have found the it to be much more accurate in the areas I know well (to the point where I can sometimes navigate entirely visually by reference to local small hills & towns). Most FS2002 scenery seems to work well in FS9, although some does not. It appears that any scenery designed in Gmax is fine, while some macros originally designed for FS2000 & then modified for FS2002 does cause some problems. Hence if you add NZFC (the Club's New Zealand airfield scenery file), it will work fine, but PHFC won't. (As more FS9 compliant macros become available, those 2 club airfields will be updated.) To be honest, the airfield, runway & building textures are so much better in FS9 that in many cases it surpasses some of the freeware add-on scenery anyway. It's a case of try it & if you don't like the add-on changes - delete it & revert back to the default.

	OTHER STUFF Airfields now have much better flashing green/white beacons to find them in the gloom. The rotating beacons on aircraft now cause rotating reflections on the ground & aircraft surfaces. The landing/taxi light glare is way over the top & it makes taxiing at night very difficult. Fortunately, there is a brilliant free-ware utility available (fs2k4_II.zip) that corrects this & you may also find oblistv1.zip useful as it increases the distance at which the aerodrome beacons are visible. You will find that the Yaw Damper switch on the autopilots doens't work. This has been traced to an incorrect value in the aircraft.cfg files. It is very simple to fix & details can be found in the yawdmp.zip download. Many (like nearly all) panels I have tried seem to load with the Nav 2 radios not working, or Com 1 not working etc. Incredibly, FS9 does not add the lines below to the aircraft.cfg file. If you experience any problems like this, simply check the [RADIOS] section of your aircraft.cfg file. The most common Radio section configuration is that below. You may have to fiddle a bit to get it right but at least then you change change frequencies! // Radio Type=available, standby frequency, has glide slope Audio.1=1 Com.1=1, 1 Com.2=1, 1 Nav.1=1, 0, 1 <----- NOT 1, 1, 1 as you might expect Nav.2=1, 1, 0 <----- or sometimes 1, 0, 0 or 1, 1, 1 Adf.1=1 Transponder.1=1 Marker.1=1 *A FEW FINAL IMPORTANT THINGS* Where is fs9.cfg?! For some inexplicable reason (to me), Microsoft have moved the fs9.cfg file from its usual home in the main flight sim folder, to an obscure folder buried deep within Windows. If you run Windows XP, you will find it in the Documents and Settings\ (your user_Name)\Application Data\Microsoft\FS9. This is a hidden folder by default so you need to modify the folder options via the control panel: go to the view tab and check the "Show hidden files and folders" option! If you run Windows 98, you will find it in the Windows\Application Data\ Microsoft\FS9 folder. If you are like me & do make changes to use the full features available in the program, find fs9.cfg & then create a shortcut. Put the shortcut in your flightsim folder or desktop as desired. That way you can easily make changes without having to delve deep within the dark, secret parts of Windows. Where is myflights folder?! In another change, the Microsoft team have placed all the flightplan & weather files etc. in your My Documents>Flight Simulator Files folder. The F4U Corsair, C182RG & Sopwith Camel have dispappeared in FS9, but Microsoft have put the gauges in the Gauges folder. So you can add them by simply copying the aircraft folders from FS2002 into the aircraft folder of FS9 & they will work. (Note that if you try to do this for many other FS2002 aircraft - they may not work as there may be some gauge/panel incompatability.) If you do run FS2002 & FS9 together on the same system (and I'm sure you all will while you get FS9 running well) , note that FS9 MAY change a registry setting when you install it so that your PC no longer 'sees' FS2002. If this happens to you, will need to consult some Forums to find out how to alter the registry setting so that you can use both (it's quite easy once you find it). The various utilities mentioned here, and many others that may take your fancy, can be perused at Flighstim.com by searching for file name . in the FS2004 Utilities & Miscellaneous section in the File Library. You can check them out & download what you find relevant. *FINAL IMPRESSIONS* Like every version of flight simulator before it - once basic bugs sorted out & it is tweaked the way you like it - GREAT. Before you get to that stage it can be a little frustrating. It has taken me (without the benefit of this great article!) about a month to get anywhere near happy with it - but then I am fussy. In the early days, there is often no such thing such as a 'quick flight' as you want to experiment with slider positions, virtual cockpits etc. My advice is tor run FS2002 & FS9 side by side until FS9 is where you want it! I would appreciate any comments about tips & tricks you have found in FS9. I will do an update at some stage in the future. *Peter Stark*