Hey Soya
Just followed the link through to this thread from the screenshots thread. Awesome shots, keep them coming please
I don't suppose you know of any airport or scenery packs that have South Africa in them do you? I am from there and I would love for the opportunity to go flying around there at some point.
Speaking of which, I am just about to take the plunge and get myself Flight Simulator X, along with a new HDD and probably a joystick to get me started. I'm not sure whether to get the Flight Sim X Deluxe pack, or the Gold edition. What would you recommend for a newbie? Also, what stick should I be looking at? I don't think I am at the point of buying something massive, just in case I don't get into it as much as I hope, but I always see the benefit of buying better quality so I'm open to all suggestions
Thanks again for taking the time to post those shots, and for all the advice you've given so far
Thanks, glad you enjoyed the shots and happy to help anyway I can. From what I have seen so far, most sceneries tend to focus on either USA, Canada, Europe and Australia, there does not seem to be much on Asia, South America & South Africa, but we are talking payware here. As for freeware, that pretty much covers the whole world as most of it is done by users. Of course the largest user base will be USA so most of the addons and flying is done in the USA. Payware wise, I would recommend perhaps doing a google search as there are many 3rd party companies that do scenery for specific areas of the globe. Just the other day I found a company that is doing many photo real sceneries for South America for instance. Although, the cheapest option, as photo real can be pretty expensive, is to look into FS Earth Tiles, not used it myself but a link on it here
http://realenvironmentxtreme.com/forum/index.php?topic=3003.0. If you can get it to work, it a very cheap way to get photo real scenery for your area.
Airports should be easier to find, perhaps not so many payware airports about for SA but I am pretty sure if you look around for user made freeware airports, there will be plenty for SA.
As for which version of FSX, that is up to you, I would say go for the cheapest one (make sure you shop around on the internet for best prices, as this product is several years old, you should get some nice deals), which I presume is the deluxe version, the other one, the gold edition is with Acceleration, all that adds is a few more planes and some more missions. If the price difference is not much then perhaps both, but again, up to you. Either of these packs, I know the Acceleration is, should be with FSX SP1 & SP2, if not, just DL them, its free. Other addons I would highly recommend to get you started is, Alderney at
http://www.earthsimulations.com/ , and REX at
http://www.realenvironmentxtreme.com/. Also worth looking into are UTX & GEX, check google for links but make sure you decide which part of the world you like to fly the most and concentrate your addons for that area. Both of these will really make FSX a lot better and do not forget to tweak FSX for your system once you get it, check my other posts/links on that. The default FSX aircraft will be enough for the time being, once you feel you fancy some better modeled and accurate aircrafts, then you have plenty of free/payware to check out.
As for hardware, getting a new hard drive will be handy, whether that is a new main drive or support drive, make sure you install FSX and addons on that first, or OS first if it is your main drive of course. That way you will guarantee that data is stored on the fastest access point of the HD, plus try to keep the HD no more then 60% full, unless of course you are also using it for other data, but keep the FSX data, including addons etc, installed in the fastest partition, use perhaps a good defrag program which can control where the data gets put. Joystick wise that is tricky, to start with I got a Saitek X52, managed to buy one at OCUK for just £50, I would personally recommend it as it is a great all rounder, can fly planes and helicopters with it, has plenty of button controls/thrust control and rudder control. However, do some research, check google for best joystick with FSX and shop around for cheapest options. But X52 would be my recommendation.
I think that about cover it, hope that help and gimme a shout if you get stuck, but check the FS forums like at AVSIM and Flightsim as there is tons of useful posts there too.
I'm liking the Ka-50 very much, slightly different version than the DCS version, but looks fairly detailed, what are the avionics like in it? What is whirlybird flying in FSX like, flight model wise?
I might just have to get myself a copy of FSX.
Nate
Glad you liked the KA-50 pics, it is indeed a fearsome looking chopper. I had the pleasure of trying DCS Black Shark so I can give a reasonable good comparision of the DCS vs FSX version of the KA-50. All in all, DCS version is more suited if you purely want to fly the Black Shark, it is a very detailed model, highly detailed flight and accurate flight model and superb working VC(virtual cockpit). Plus the environment is more suited for this attack helicopter cause most of its missions are combat based, which is what this Helicopter does. Also the tutorials on DCS are in great detail but then again, the flight model is much more complex. The FSX version model is, IMO, better looking, but then again, depends on how detailed you can run FSX, plus there are more paints available for it, however, the flight model is not as detailed of course as DCS, plus, apart from a manual, there are no build in tutorials on how to fly it. The flight model is not as in depth as DCS but still much better then the default choppers you get for FSX. The VC, although nearly fully function and visually as good as DCS, is not as in depth either. Plus, you can only fly around in FSX, it is not a combat simulator, so there is nothing to blow up or any missions for it, but then again, you can fly this baby anywhere in the world, whereas in DCS you are restricted to the scenery & mission they give you. So both have pros and cons, all in all, I do like the FSX version of the KA-50, it is one of the best pay ware choppers out there, but then again, DCS is completely dedicated to the KA-50, but only the KA-50!
I have not spend to much time in the whirlybird so I cannot comment on that much, it has got a nice model, as you can see in the pictures, but not to sure how the avionics and flight model compares to the real deal. Again, the default planes/choppers you get with FSX have got the easiest startup/flight controls & avionics, many pay ware planes/choppers tend to be more detailed, some are highly detailed to the point where you can only fly it once you read the 300 page manual, although in fairness, a lot of them do come with tutorial manuals and sometimes tutorial missions too.
If you thinking of getting FSX to fly a certain chopper, like the KA-50, then I would probably recommend dedicated software like DCS, but if you fancy a pretty accurate sim of many different planes/choppers and fly around different part of the world, then FSX will be the way to go. I would recommend to take in some of the comments I have been making about getting into FSX, it is a beast to tame and it does take some time to tweak and learn to get the best from it, plus you looking at a small investment for extras as well, especially if you have not got a PC that upto running it, of course you can always turn the settings down.
Hope that has answered your questions, let me know if there is anything else.
Cheers both...
