One of my usual haunts... ...!

A leisurely trip, following the Salinas River, and Interstate Highway 101, down the Salinas Valley, from Salinas Airport (KSNS) to Paso Robles Airport (KPRB) dropping off at the various little airstrips en-route, to collect some sample bottles from the Salinas Vineyards, with the venerable assistance of my little Cessna 150 Aerobat!

FS 2004...>>>

Heading down the valley...



Beautiful country-side all around!



Looking back towards Salinas and the  Pacific Ocean behind me...



Hills off to the right...



A stop-off at Mesa Del Rey Airport (KKIC) for some fuel...



...also excellent for its Summer Salad crops!

Paul.... ...!

Well worth a trip!....>>> http://www.seemonterey.com/salinas-valley-california

Flying Trucker wrote on Apr 20^th, 2012 at 3:21pm:


Ta, Doug... ...!

I thoroughly enjoy my little hops from one small airstrip to the next, at lowish levels, in familiar landscapes, in my little '150, on a nice warm Summers day, with hardly a cloud in the bright blue sky.... ...!

Exploring the scenery is what takes my fancy in the Flight Sim!

Paul...with a Picnic Hamper, a bottle of California Red, and a Tyre Pump.... ...!

jetprop wrote on Apr 20^th, 2012 at 3:55pm:


You asked for it...>>>

My copy of FSX!






Both shots taken in exactly the same location as my FS 2004 shots, taken as an example of the difference in the scenery quality between the two Flight Sims!......

All FSX sliders at, or near, maximum settings...
Same date, same time of day, same weather, etc...

I rest my case, Your Honour!... ...!

Do I really want to spend loads more money on my FSX to try and make it look as good as my present FS 2004!... ... ... ...!

Paul... ...!

jetprop wrote on Apr 20^th, 2012 at 4:38pm:


... ... ... ...!

There you go then... ...

You know, when your Dad says its time for bed, you know that he really means that its time for bed!

..NO arguments!.... ...!

Paul... ... ... ...!

Is that default FS2004?

Oh and Fozzer:
those settings are NOT max in FSX shot,the're bare minimum except autogen.

Hagar wrote on Apr 21^st, 2012 at 7:29am:



....FS 2004 with all sorts of nice little bits and bobs peacefully added over time...

But without all the misery, frustration, hair-tearing, forum fights, endless chats/arguments, etc, of trying to get FSX to the same standard of enjoyment!

Paul... ... ...!

..travelling further down the valley this afternoon...flying, instead of tinkering! ...!

My main add-ons to affect the appearance of my FS 2004 Scenery:

Payware FS Global Scenery SE Mesh....(one of the first to install, long ago!)
Freeware scenery meshes and land-class for local areas: (Sim V Library).
Freeware VOZ 1.8 for scenery colours, and the free, gorgeous "Koorbygen" buildings!.
Payware REX for various textures.
Gerrish Grey's free tree sets, (for my lovely, golden, Autumn trees!).

And that's about the lot, together with careful selection of
location, month, time of day, and default weather.

LAGO FSE; "Flight Sim Enhancer" gives me the opportunity to add various objects; HUMANS!, aircraft, buildings, etc, etc, to make my ground scenery come alive, in FS 2002 and FS 2004!..(you don't get that for FSX!)

(...and most very recent, days ago, for the USA: Ultimate Terrain USA and Canada, to show real roads, rivers, railways, coast lines, etc, for my explorations!).

All my FS 2004 settings, sliders, etc, are set at maximum, which my lowly computer hardware allows, (P4 Dual Core 2.8 GHz/n-Vidia GF 9500GT 1 GB), with little, or no effect on frame rates. Locked at 20-25 FPS. (You cant do that with FSX!)

FS 2004 contains everything I need for my particular purpose...which is wonderful.... ...!

Paul.... ...!

Oh...and I mustn't forget, the most important thing of all....FS Navigator for flight planning and Multiplayer Radar!...(You don't get that for FSX!).

I'm afraid I lost patience with FSX long ago, straight out of the box, with my available hardware at the time.
I had to reduce all my setting to run the sim almost to zero, so that it appeared little better than my FS 2000, whereas my FS 2004, straight out of the box, ran smoothly. It just needed a few add-ons to make it look prettier!

I still reckon that FS 2004 was an excellent piece of Microsoft flight simulator programming at the time, (following after FS 2002). They got it right, almost first time, with little or no problems from then on.
Whereas FSX was, and still is, a constant battle to get it to operate to our individual satisfaction, as can be witnessed in the various FSX Forums, ever since.

For newcomers, starting out with FSX, and very impressive hardware, there should be very few problems, and no doubt it is the version to continue into the future, but for me, progressing through the various versions since FS '98, FSX came as a serious shock to the system...including my hardware system, at the time!

I still have a feeling that FSX was programmed in Compiled BASIC, whereas FS 2004 was programmed in proper Machine Code!... ...(Sinclair Spectrum/Timex Zilog Z80 48K)... ...!

Life is far too short to re-program FSX all over again!... ...!

I will obviously keep my FSX for the future, while I enjoy my FS 2004 in the meantime, and my big bag of Chocolate Cookies... ...!

Paul...(The fight continues!)... ...!