New to FS2004...a few questions

O

OBIO

Retired SOH Admin
Received my copy of FS2004 from Newegg yesterday...got it installed. Fired it up....totally nice. Even in stock form...can't wait to see what it evolves into once I start tweaking it.

Got a few questions, which I am sure have been answered a million times before...sorry for asking them again.

1) How do I set things up so that the engines are off when I start a flight?

2) When in VC mode...if feels like I am right against the dash. How can I move away from the dash to get a better view of the VC and better visibility. In CFS2, you can zoom in and out in the VC using the left and right bracket keys...is there a similar command in FS2004? Or do I have to adjust the view point setting for each and every aircraft?

3) This question is more opinon based than the first 2: What replacement scenery package do you folks recommend. The stock grass could use a sprucing up.

Yep, have flown in FS2004 for a total of 10 minutes and already setting about tweaking it. And have already added planes...the Razbam Skyhawk Volume 4 package and the Razbam T-2 Buckeye Package (10 bucks for each package and got planes for CFS2 and FS2004....a very nice Christmas present if I do say so myself).

OBIO

To give you folks a heads up....I will most likely be a real pest for a while, picking the brains of you folks who have more experience and tips for tweaking FS2004.

My system is not the most modern, but it is still a pretty potent package:

P4 3 Gig
2 Gig Ram
512 Meg Nvidia 7600GS video card

With all details sliders on HIGH, I upped the Frame Rate lock to 50 and the system pegged it at 50 with no problems (other than a bit of lad in the scenery rendering....so I backed it down to 25FPS and every thing is super smooth).
 
Hi OBIO,

Welcome in the FS9 part off these forums.

1) The easiest way to start with the engine off is to save a flight as default with the engine switched off.

2) You can change your eye point by using Control-Backspace/Control-Enter end Shift-Backspace and Shift-enter. However permanent changes should be made in the aircraft.cfg file.

3) Ground textures and water are replaced with the Silver-Wing textures by Bill Lyons. Clouds are by FS Sky world and the water is a mixture of several sets. To make the world a bit less flat I have used mesh by several designers (BTW all freeware).

Cheers,
Huub
 
Tim,

Bill Lyons also created a great Golden Wings add-on package (Freeware) that's along the lines of the Golden Age of Aviaton CFS2 project you started a few months back. I don't have the link to the site currently, but it's not hard to find.



Cheers,

Geary
 
Golden Wings is cool. It creates a 'second' renamed installation of FS9 where alot of things are 'turned back on the clock'. Runways are removed for grass runways. Trees and houses are different (like back in the 30's). Some terrain blocks are 'old world' looking, etc.

FS9 has some great 'modularity' to it, enabling one to radically change it around.

Silver wings is another good one, with tons of vintage prop liners in AI traffic available to populate the skies.

FS9 is amazing. Its still ahead of its time.



Bill
 
Hi and welcome in the FS9 world :)

I will add some details to the above answers.
1) as said before, you simply need to shut the engines (and electric systems and everything) of your plane, wait for everything to be finished (prop rotation etc..) and then save your flight as default. The consequence will be that each time you will create a new flight, even in a different place with a differen plane, it will be OFF.

2) The zoom command is still there of course. Press BACKSPACE to select the zoom and reset it to !x, then use + and - to adjust it. You can also modifiy the default point of view position by editing the aircraft.cfg of the plane.

3) I'll let the payware addicts answer that, I cannot advise for the sceneries :)

In order to improve easilly the the sky colors at dawn, day or dusk, and also the clouds, there is a nice and very complete freeware package nammed FS Skyworld 2004 (on avsim) which will offer you a convenient interface for choosing your skies and your clouds. Higly recommended prior to any payware ;)
 
Hey OBIO and welcome. At one time I was a CFS2 junky!

Couple of suggestions for you that really helped me, and forgive me if you've already been there done that.

First if you don't have one, get and print an FS9 key map. I still use mine.
You can find one here.

[FONT=verdana, sans-serif]Category: Flight Simulator 2004 - Miscellaneous Files[/FONT] [FONT=verdana, sans-serif]FS2004 Keyboards Commands Table [/FONT]

[FONT=verdana, sans-serif]
sendfile.php
[FONT=verdana, sans-serif]File Description:[/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, sans-serif]Portrait orientated table in Word format listing the keyboard commands for FS2004. Zip contains both European A4 and US Letter size versions. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, sans-serif]Filename:[/FONT][FONT=verdana, sans-serif]fs2004keys.zip[/FONT][FONT=verdana, sans-serif]License:[/FONT][FONT=verdana, sans-serif]Freeware[/FONT][FONT=verdana, sans-serif]Added:[/FONT][FONT=verdana, sans-serif]14th September 2003[/FONT][FONT=verdana, sans-serif]Downloads:[/FONT][FONT=verdana, sans-serif]9060[/FONT][FONT=verdana, sans-serif]Author:[/FONT][FONT=verdana, sans-serif]Tony Smith[/FONT][FONT=verdana, sans-serif]Size:[/FONT][FONT=verdana, sans-serif]47kb[/FONT]
[/FONT]


Next visit the major sites and take a look at all the different tutorials, especially the ones re "tweaks." My system specs and yours are very similar and mine runs FS9 very well.

And finally, what you're already doing, ASK! A wealth of knowledge here as well as some mighty friendly and helpful folks.

BR,
LDF
 
this is from my masterlist of addons I keep as a reference...
[texture addons, no particular order]
Treegen
Silverwings detail1.bmp and autogen
REPro bright water and oceandetail.bmp
Aquarama water envmaps
FSSKYWORLD clouds and sky (at discretion)
OCEANSFX.ZIP, Medium wind, SE

[scenery in order to install]
1. Fsgenesis freeware Utah Mesh
2. Mesh, Landclass, and Excludes from the MAIW Hill AFB
3. LAGO Emma Field
4. Aerosoft Freight Dogs
5. Glacier Bay V2
6. Bella Coola and Columbia River Gorge by Holger Sandmann
7. Bill Lyons Luscombe, Travel Air, Tiger Moth and Stinson scenery
8. RealAir Spitfire Scenery
9. Contact Simulations Hurricane Scenery
10. Jesenicko v2
11. Lousiana Wetlands
12. FlightOntario Huronia CYEE
13. Touch the Sky Simulations Stearman scenery version 2
14. KPWT
15. EDTQ Pattonville
16. Valle de Aosta
17. Invercargill
18. Donationware Corsair Scenery
Click to expand...
 
Obio,....maybe you've done it already,... have you already installed the official MS FS9 update/patch yet? If not, you can pick it up at MS's flight sim sight.
 
Lionheart said:
Silver wings is another good one, with tons of vintage prop liners in AI traffic available to populate the skies.
Click to expand...

I believe you have "Silver Wings" (new ground textures from Bill Lyons) confused a little bit with "California Classics" from Tom Gibson. They work well together and make FS9 into another sort of time machine--taking you back to 1960 (or thereabouts).
 
Welcome to the best flight sim MS has ever done OBIO. There are so many quality add-ons, both payware and freeware, for this sim that I couldn't begin to mention them all.

Do get the 9.1 MS update Brad mentions, download and install it before you add any add-ons.

Go here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...8c-ea69-476b-a276-618c4ab52aaf&displaylang=en

The best thing for moving about in the cockpit and adjusting the spot view without any hassles is the little F1View Module here: http://www.flight1.com/view.asp?page=library. Scroll to F1View Utility for FS2004.

The VOZ tweaks are the best out there, go to this post and download the two Notepad text files srgalahad has attached.
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=6278

Read and study, then make the necessary changes to your FS9.cfg file.

Ask away, we be happy folks with this simulator.

Caz
 
Regarding replacement scenery I would highly recommend [FONT=verdana, sans-serif][FONT=verdana, sans-serif]Airport Environment Upgrade 7.0 which can be found at Avsim.
[/FONT][/FONT]
 
Agung said:
Regarding replacement scenery I would highly recommend [FONT=verdana, sans-serif][FONT=verdana, sans-serif]Airport Environment Upgrade 7.0 which can be found at Avsim.
[/FONT][/FONT]
Click to expand...

AEU 8.0 is there as well. Good choice.

Caz
 
Cazzie said:
AEU 8.0 is there as well. Good choice.
Caz
Click to expand...
AEU 8 is incomplete, and broke my sim (in conjunction with some other texture addons). AEU 7 is stable.

A grass texture I quite like for my LCD setup is Truegrass V1.3 at AVSIM, use the "Natural" texture, it gives a bit of grain without looking like a ploughed field.
 
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