Rarely Simming Simmer

falcon409

falcon409

SOH-CM-2026
I never imagined that there would be a time when I would turn on my computer and then never spend more than a few minutes on it the entire day. A time when loading up the Sim and flying for hours would be even rarer still, but it has come to that. Ironically it was my move to MSFS 2020 that started the downward spiral. The one move that I envisioned would spark new interest. That didn't happen! I was never overly impressed with airplanes that possessed highly detailed system integrations. . .I was, I guess, more of a stick and rudder pilot. Give me the basics, get in the air, fly wherever I wanted and get back on the ground with as few headaches as possible.

I think the setup for MSFS seemed less than user friendly and overlapping configurations by, throttle, joystick and the mouse were irritating. I used replay a ton but not with MSFS, if you forgot to start it before you loaded a flight you are out of luck. I guess I was so used to FSX and P3D that the changes were bothersome and left me wondering why I switched.

After I had my knee replacement surgery last December I actually started painting again. . .after 20 years (water color). In the three months I was sidelined I produced about 23 paintings and enjoyed every minute. Then, once recovered I went back to driving a Van to transport wheelchair patients from a local Nursing Home to Dialysis appointments, Dr Appointments, etc. I do that 6 days a week which also accounts for why simming has gone by the wayside. After loading and unloading patients all day in 110 degree heat (true/Texas) I have little energy left. . .flop down in the recliner and not move for an hour or so, lol.

Lately I've gone back to P3D V4.5 or FSX and enjoy flying to many of the sceneries I enjoyed designing. I realize they were actually pretty good, lol. I also enjoy the simplicity of the payware and freeware airplanes I have. . .many that simply will never find their way into MSFS (Tim Conrad's come to mind). Funny that the old stuff would be what brings me back to why I loved Flight Sim to begin with.

Have a great weekend!
 
Rob and I still fly online together 6-7 nights per week and you are more than welcome to joins us Ed. Willy even joined us for a few weeks when he got P3D v4.5 a few months ago and then disappeared again when he got into P3D carrier ops. We still use the SOH TS3 voice server and the SOH JoinFS server.
 
I never embraced MSFS nor the 2024 version. I have remained with FSX, albeit the Steam Version now, because of its versatility, all the pay ware and free ware add on software, and the ability to update and modify airports with ADE. FSX does all that I need a flight sim to do.
 
I agree with all three of you but since I got Prepar3D V4.5 as a Christmas present, I am using it and finding that almost everything I have since FSX all works beautifully for me. I like the versatility of the 64bit technology and no limit on the RAM or fps. Airports that used to tax FSX now are a breeze in P3D4.5 especially my NAS Alameda which couldn't be used by most of us 10 years ago but now in Prepar3D V4.5 I get 40's fps even with AI flight plans. Is MSFS 2020 graphics awesome, you bet, but at the sacrifice, it's not worth it at all to me either. KFOK (another thread) is being created for Prepar3D V4.5 since it's complexity will require that 64 bit technology not to bog down or stutter.
 
If you have any Orbx packages in FSX you can just switch sims in Orbx Central and re-download all your packages again for the new sim. If you have Active Sky you will have to buy the 64-bit version but it is worth it for the real WX options. A lot of the former payware birds from the likes of Milviz, AH, Iris are now free in P3D versions too and for the most part look way better that the FSX versions.

The other thing is no more OOM errors and where you get 20-30 FPS or less in FSX you can get 60-70 FPS in P3D with the same hardware!
 
Oh go on then, I have a P3D4 account, I'll go and give it a retry.. I hated the interface (aircraft selection) and I never quite grasped the thing about scenery etc sitting o/s the sim.. But here goes. So much so for thinking I had a free SSD. It might just re-envigorate me with the simming.
 
The one piece of software I really like, but won't run on P3D v4, is Ultimate Traffic 2. UT2 was made with FS9 AI aircraft and put a huge strain on P3D and the installer can be a problem for 64-bit versions of P3D.
 
Last edited:
I see what you mean Falcon.
But that's just a matter of "waves". The motivation comes and goes, that's how it is. Even in the FSX days there would be some long periods where I wouldn't touch the sim at all...
That being said, I can't agree with you about the pleasure of simplicity of aircraft. The thing is, FSX has never managed to provide me a suitable environment to enjoy simple aircraft. The flying environment was never rich enough (excepted with OrbX True Earth, but that came much later and was not really meant for FSX...) to enjoy flying a simple aircraft, especially the low and slow ones.
The perfect examples would be the A2A birds. I had almost all of them, but in the end I was flying exclusively the fast & high ones. I had the cub, tried it a bit, but flying a Cub in FSX was just... empty. Same went for P3D of course.

When MSFS arrived, yes the setup of controls (only the controls, the rest was way too easy) were indeed a little painful, but once that was done, I have completely switched my flight hours from "military jet/go as fast and high as you can" to "single props / see how it stalls" :) And suddenly I started to understand why flying a Cub can be fun at times. Something that never happened in the other sims...

In the end, it's good to have several sims satisfy our needs, no matter when they happen to kick in. Eventually you'll fire up your MSFS2020 (or 2024? ;) ) again because you'll want to check how this or that area of the world looks like.

The funny thing is, and I hope I'm not confusing you with some other addon maker here so I apologize in advance... I started exploring the region around Maine (or one of the other states around there) in MSFS because you had produced a small and very good looking airfield for FSX around there, and I started looking about how the area around looked like in real pictures then proceeded to explore it in MSFS because it looked really nice :D
 
Last edited:
This is why I am still using FSX:SE.

Florida-Air-Cargo-at-KFLL-09-09-2025.jpg


Highly customized KFLL, courtesy of ADE, Art Poole's airport buildings, MIAW objects, Active Sky 2012, and a little custom painting of FSX default Cessna 208B's and DC-3's.
 
Oh, I have purchased and installed P3Dv4.5. Not sure I can recreate what I have done with FSX. First thing I looked for was a suitable AI DC-3/C-47. Found that there is one, it can be downloaded from Flightsim.com... ohhhhhh... Lots of files hosted there, possibly gone forever too.

Before Conquest Air Cargo ceased using their Convairliners for regular freight hauling, I had three AI CV-440/C-131D's flying out of a highly customized and updated KOPF (Art Poole's). Now I have an AI CV-580 (there are no CV-5800 models available) and a SAAB 340F doing their cargo flights. Ultimate Traffic 2 is a powerful AI flight tool.
 
stansdds said:
Oh, I have purchased and installed P3Dv4.5. Not sure I can recreate what I have done with FSX. First thing I looked for was a suitable AI DC-3/C-47. Found that there is one, it can be downloaded from Flightsim.com... ohhhhhh... Lots of files hosted there, possibly gone forever too.

Before Conquest Air Cargo ceased using their Convairliners for regular freight hauling, I had three AI CV-440/C-131D's flying out of a highly customized and updated KOPF (Art Poole's). Now I have an AI CV-580 (there are no CV-5800 models available) and a SAAB 340F doing their cargo flights. Ultimate Traffic 2 is a powerful AI flight tool.
Click to expand...
This is ALL my personal opinion.

I just found that Flight1 has renamed and updated UT2 to Ultimate Traffic Live. I have a number of payware from other mfrs that are now all hosted at Flight1. I hate having to "jump thru hoops" on Flight1 to get a download back. Also at $44.95 I am not at all tempted to populate my skies. If you want to download real world flight schedules for free, use AIG Manager & TrafficController. For AI flight schedules, I prefer the simplicity of AIFP3. And although it does not load real world flight schedules, It works perfectly in Prepar3D all versions and will convert older FSX flight plans. AND it's free. Granted it does not access real world flight schedules, but I don't look for "cluttered skies". That's just me. I have left flying from major airline hubs for the peace and quiet of small GA airports. When one I don't find exists I have in many instances pulled it up on Google Earth and then created and shared it here like Falcon409 has. After having spent truly thousands of hours flying for multiple virtual airlines, I am like my now retired life just taking life in the air and on the ground simply and quietly. I don't have a lot of hours to spend flight simming anymore so I look for short GA flights.

BTW here is a link to an AI DC3/C47 from JYAI:

Use Model Converter X to convert the model you chose to native Prepar3D V4. They do not have an interior model, but for AI that is not needed so easy conversion. I have not looked at JYAI or AVSIM for any other textures for them.
 
stansdds said:
Oh, I have purchased and installed P3Dv4.5. Not sure I can recreate what I have done with FSX. First thing I looked for was a suitable AI DC-3/C-47. Found that there is one, it can be downloaded from Flightsim.com... ohhhhhh... Lots of files hosted there, possibly gone forever too.

Before Conquest Air Cargo ceased using their Convairliners for regular freight hauling, I had three AI CV-440/C-131D's flying out of a highly customized and updated KOPF (Art Poole's). Now I have an AI CV-580 (there are no CV-5800 models available) and a SAAB 340F doing their cargo flights. Ultimate Traffic 2 is a powerful AI flight tool.
Click to expand...
The only thing you need now really is decent scenery textures (ORBX global?), clouds and so forth, You can make P3D4.5 look damn good. But I have to refer you to @Tako_Kichi because I don't do legacy sims anymore. Hell, since becoming staff over here, I haven't flown at all.
 
Good information, gentlemen. I have looked at Ultimate Traffic Live, mixed reviews. AIG is free and I have their installers. As for textures and terrain, I have been using Ultimate Terrain X USA and Bahamas coupled with Ground Environment X. It is more accurate than default FSX, that's for certain. This morning I did a real-time flight from Pompano Beach (KPMP) to Daytona International (KDAB). I thought Active Sky was actively trying to kill me. Severe turbulence from the thunderstorms just north of Pompano had me bouncing all over the sky, stall warning constantly warning me of my imminent demise. Once I cleared the storms, smooth flying. An hour and 16 minute flight in Flysimware's Cessna 402C. No graphics glitches, no pauses, no stutters, everything was smooth and I buttered the landing. Would have had a bunch of screens to post, but FRAPS decided to go to *raps with the image capture.
 
I have similar feelings like you Falcon. For decades I have been busy with flightsim and at one point, I lost my interest in it. I still fly from time to time but it got much less. I'm still working and think about retiring but what will I do then? My longtime hobby flightsim has become boring and since I played some hours on trainsim, I really miss a better looking P3D. I thought, maybe it's time to go to MSFS at one point, but as you wrote, I probably also would regret it too. The visuals may be good, but the configuration and such things are not as easy as in FSX/P3D. I already made my experiences with flight games/sims who are not configurable with a flightstick, but by default a playstation controller.
 
Late to this conversation, but I agree with you guys. Before FC Scenery shut down, I bought the whole world, and although I'm not using the whole 15 terabytes of Fernando's scenery, I have a lot of it installed, and it can make P3Dv5 look almost as good as MSFS. And P3D is a better sim, loads quicker, isn't at the mercy of my current internet speed. I find myself loading it more often than MSFS now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top