The benefits of FS2004 are that there are many more addons for it. It has been around longer and is still popular. For a flight simulator (jump in and fly) it is still incredibly modern. FSX uses Gamespy for multiplayer which is utterly awful and very glitchy. FSX does have some stunning graphics (if you can run them well) and has missions which add interest and things to do which you might not have known about at first.

FS2004 is far more compatible with addons and to this day it still looks great. FSX has some compatibility issues with addons, most of which can be worked around.


So really, which is better? The one that suits you. If you're able to run FSX well, and want missions and some up to date graphics, go for it. If you want just to fly, want a less taxing simulator (as FS2004 is older, built for older hardware) and want the bulk of the addons, then go for that. Both are great though.

YES, FS2004 is much friendly to compatibility and almost no issues (it can run in a Pentium 3) and it still popular .

What FSX has its more Graphics,much more realism ,and better flight Dynamics..as machineman9 said "The one that suits you" you need to have a very powerful machine to run FSX decently

Ah sorry JBaymore, I should look at the older ones.

Thanks for the opinions, certainly I guess FS2004 would be a better choice if it is still available in the store... since photoshops and other video editior can make it look better if you ever wanted to put it in youtube.

cx826 wrote on Aug 30^th, 2010 at 5:45pm:


If you didn't succeed installing the POSKY in FSX, you probably won't succeed installing it in FS9 either.
The POSKY planes are usually a bit complex to install, there are a lot of steps to follow. They are no complex, but you have to do everything in the right order.

The difference between installing the 777 in FSX and FS9 is that in FSX, after the installation, you'll have to:
- disable a gauge that displays the fingerprints in the panel.cfg
- move the 777 FS9 gauges into the FSX gauges folder
- move a mscvr...dll file in the FSX folder.
OR
- edit the panel.cfg to call the gauges from the default 737 instead.
And that's all.

Now, when it comes to switching to FS9, it's probably the best choice for you. FS9 has more addons, since it exists since much more time than FSX. You'll find much more sceneries and planes to install in your sim. Also the performance will be better, but of course the quality of the graphics will be lower.

When it comes to realism, if we speak about freewares, you won't see much differences between those two, excepted that you won't be able to land on moving carriers in FS9.

When it comes to payware, some addons for FSX will be light-years ahead of anything available for FS9:
- sceneries with incredible ground textures and autogen (Switzerland Pro, OrbX PNW etc...)
- airplanes with amazing features, details and realism (A2A Accusim, etc...)

However, FS9 addons have already an excellent quality. The airport sceneries will be as detailled as in FSX, the landscape sceneries will look blurry but detailled nevertheless, and some of the planes will be mind-blowing (PMDG etc....)

So no, you probably won't regret your move to FS9. It will allow you to get more confortable with the FS environment much faster and easier, and after some years of fun, you will still be able to jump back into FSX to check the addons from the dark side 

Hagar, I confirm the msvcr.... err msvcr70.dll or msvcr80.dll, I can't remember right now, however I confirm this file is absolutely necessary, else the 777 gauge file from the default FS9 777 will not work in FSX Acceleration (like FSX SP2).

When I first installed the POSKY 777, I recognized that the default 777 gauges would not work, even after deletion of the fingerprints. My 777 gauges were copied in the panel folder as well as in the Gauges folder. I had to edit the panel.cfg to call the default 738 gauges instead, and that worked like a charm.

Later on, I read about this msvcr file and downloaded it, changed the panel.cfg back to original (with removed fingerprints, though) and I could finally see the gauges in the POSKY 777 (and in the FS9 777 too, by the way)

Having myself quite a lot of FS9 planes in my FSX hangar with .GAU gauges, they have all always worked flawlessly since the beginning, even before this msvcr70.dll file.

The 777 was really the one and only addon that caused a problem and lead me to install this dll. But this might be because there are not so much planes that use the 777 gauges. Most of them would use the default 737 gauges instead. Everytime I tried a FS9 liner in my FSX, I had to edit the panel to link to the 737_800, instead of 737_400

Forget the mouse control, you won't be able to fly this way.
Get a real joystick, no need to take the top of the top, a simple joystick with throttle control and rudder control will already be very good.

Concerning the above steps, yes they make the 777 work in FSX. I did that with my FSX Acceleration for example.