Right I've always wanted to play FSX with a lot of realistic add-ons for it. I downloaded FDC Live Cockpit but half of the time, it's out of sync. For example, when I'm on final, the co-pilot will say 'positive rate, gear-up' and the put the gear up.
This annoyed me so I just turned it off.

Anyway, there are a ton of video's of FSX video's on YouTube which portray really good realistic video's.

If there any payware add-ons I can purchase such as real sounds, cockpit chatter, camera views etc to increase my simulator experience?

Take a look at this video that I myself uploaded: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Qf3WXpq-o&feature=plcp&context=C4a8d372VDvjVQa1...

Now take a look at this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK2N6OYPRwU

It's more or less a similar landing however it is much more realistic. How the hell do I get it like that? What add-ons if he using? What scenery?

I myself have the FlyTampa Kai Tak scenery and I love it only everything is rubbish. The clouds on my PC aren't detailed at all and if you take a look at his video, the clouds are in good detail.

I really desire to have a realistic experience.

Any ideas anyone? I can't tell you how much I'd appreciate it!

PS: I'm recording with Fraps - How the hell do I upload my video in HD? It's always in low quality

Bass wrote on Mar 18^th, 2012 at 10:46am:



Thank you but I wanted some good payware one's so I can get the most realism out of my simulator.

I hate when people say that payware are like the highest an FS add-on can get in quality and ignore great freeware developers. Just look at Abacus' products and you'll see how wrong you are.
You want payware?:
PMDG
Aerosoft
ORBX
Iris
Lotus Sim
Virtavia
REX

Good freeware developers (at least the ones I can remember):
Dino Catteano
Alejandro Rojas Lucena (aka Alrot, here) (http://www.simviation.com/fsnd/menu.html)
Milton Shupe
And a lot more that are scattered around the internet.

For realistic terrain/clouds/water:
http://sites.google.com/site/aimecreations/freeware-fsx/grass-hd


Please never rule out freeware add-ons...

Also, the quality of the payware might vary with your computer's specifications...

No problem!
I kinda gave you a generalized list of add-ons.
Iris and Lotus make airplanes, more on the military side but Iris has small civilian planes, like single props and private jets.

If you are looking for good freeware, anything by Milton Shupe is as good as any payware plane I have ever seen.  His Spartan Executive is my favorite...

As for where to get them, there's this site called 'Simviation' and they have quite a few there. 

pete wrote on Mar 18^th, 2012 at 1:01pm:


I would be agree with such a list.
When the community talks about "payware quality", they actually refer to the best quality ones, not the Abacus crap. I'm a freeware lover and I know very well the names written above, but for some of them I would never call them "payware quality" at all, because that would be a lie.

That being said, there ARE some real "payware-quality" freewares, top of the notch planes that not only look beautiful inside and out, but also fly very realistically and have a very detailled avionic. But they are EXTREMELY RARE. Same goes for sceneries, there are really some gems here and there.

The best thing I would advise to a new simmer is simply to take the time to go through the "freeware screenshots showcase" and "payware screenshots showcase" sections of the forum, look at the screenshots there, and ask politely to the original poster what are the addons and what level of quality they have. This would be the best way to spot and obtain informations about the best addons out there. Just asking "what is the most realistic addon" will not get any precise answer.

Bass wrote on Mar 19^th, 2012 at 12:30pm:


Yes you misunderstood.
I am not being negative on the freeware stuff. As I wrote above, I am a freeware lover. Back when I was flying FS9 several years ago, I had ONLY freeware addons, for example.

Now what I'm trying to do is to avoid being "over-positive" on the freeware stuff. That's different. I also make my best to avoid being "over-positive" on the payware stuff. But nowadays I don't really like the meaning that some people give to "payware quality". There is clearly some clarifications needed here. Just like freewares, paywares have evolved in the past few years, so the expression "payware quality" has evolved too.

We can take a very simple example: the paywares that were made in the beginning of the FS9 era by Alphasim. These were plane that had nice interiors, and always a virtual cockpit, which was extremely rare for FS9 planes at that time. However, these virtual cockpits were often very limited in terms of functionnalities, and a lot of them were simply not clickable at all.

At that time, there were some well-known freeware planes that were said to be "payware-quality"... because they were actually payware quality ! For example, the F-16 and the Sabre from Kirk Olsson were the most beautifull aircraft models of that time: they had very good exterior models, and not only did they have virtual cockpits, but these cockpits looked good too ! They were not clickable but the Alphasim birds of the time were not either.

Today however, the comparison is not valid anymore. The Sabre from Kirk is not "payware quality" anymore. It used to be a long time ago, but today it's not. However, if you consider the more recent freeware "Section F-8" Sabre, which has:
- a beautifull exterior model, with fantastic photorealistic textures
- a beautifull and almost fully clickable virtual cockpit with photorealistic textures too 
- a very realistic flight model
- a very interesting sound set
- a realistic avionic with a realistic startup procedure
- etc...
This freeware Sabre is DEFINITELY payware quality. Sure, it's a FS9 model, but it still compares fairly well with some recent paywares that are said to be realistic too.

This was just one of the many examples around. And it works in the other way as well, some (a lot of) paywares can be extremely dissapointing, for the visuals or the realism, or both !! I just wanted to insist on the fact that calling some planes "payware quality" when they are not could be quite misleading for the newcomers. Thus the necessity to take the time to ask precise questions about a precise addon, to collect as much feedback as possible to finally take the decision to buy it or not if it's a payware, or to download it or not if it's a freeware.

Bass wrote on Mar 19^th, 2012 at 12:30pm:

Nobody would, but then you have to define precisely what "anything" is. Of course nobody would buy a product if they can find the SAME product for free. But this is not easy to find.

Let's say you want a good F-18 Super Hornet. You can have it for free! The Super Hornet by FS-KBT for FS9 looks nice, has a lot of variants and it has a virtual cockpit too. On the payware side, you have the VRS Super Hornet. Now, are you saying that you would never buy the VRS Super Hornet because you can have the FS-KBT Super Hornet for free ?

Thank you for the clearence, Daube, and i can follow you a long way.
But, as i can see, we are a bit different on the working side.
I dont care that much by clikking inside vc cockpit. Its too slow "when i'm flying at high speed". I do my clikking in 2d and enjoy scenery!
About the f18. Yes i would never buy the VRS Hornet. I can dl a free 2d cockpit for the stock f18 in fsx.
I get the scenery and thats what i'm looking for. Why flying if you only see instruments! Then its a work.