NZFF

Afternoon All

Looking for advice for starting off at flight sims.

Would you guys/ girls suggest Microsoft FSX and maybe the Saitek X52 for a beginner?

Good Morning,

welcome to the forums.

I personally suggest going with FSX rather than FS9 if you have a reasonable computer system.

If you are into wanting to fly commercial jets, turbo props etc you may want to consider a flight joke (and possibly rudders if the budget stretches that far), in saying that, there is nothing wrong with the Saitek kit.

Regards Dave

tdjimmy wrote:

QUOTE (tdjimmy @ Sep 16 2010, 11:51 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Afternoon All

Looking for advice for starting off at flight sims.

Would you guys/ girls suggest Microsoft FSX and maybe the Saitek X52 for a beginner?

I'd say 'yes' to FSX provided you have at least a mid-range Quad core CPU, 4GB of RAM & a high-spec'd 512MB GDDR3 or 5 PCI-E 2.0 video card. FSX will run on fairly modest systems, but only with sliders turned down a fair way (if not all the way) - and in that case, a person might as well go FS9 (although it is technically "obsolete").

You will find a lot of opinions about flight controllers - my preference is CH: they are strong and reliable with a good warranty. I've heard that Saitek are ok, but whenever I've seen them "in the flesh" they always strike me as a bit flimsy (especially the pedals). One pays a premium for CH, and they don't have as many little extra bits and pieces as the Saitek's do (not that I personally would use many of those extras). If you're serious about getting good gear, see if there is a shop near you where you can "kick the tyres". And make sure you buy from them when you're done: it's a bit rude making use of their "try before you buy" and then giving someone else the business!

Would a yoke system be ok to start off with thou to suit learning to fly the planes that one would start off with?



i do have a quad core with 2GB DDR2 ram, and a Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 3870 512MB Graphics Card.

I would suggest that a joystick would probably be easier than a yoke for learning to fly but thats my opinion. I have an old MS Sidewinder ..had it for years and wouldn't swap it for anything..I will buy another one second hand one if it fails - if I could find one (they are long out of production). I also have a CH Yoke and pedals. Good tough products a well but don't tend to use the yoke much if at all (lack of room on desk and hassel when swaping with joystick)

Your specs look fine..I run FSX with very good detail (most sliders hard right with a few exceptions such as boat, car and AI traffic, water and auotgen) with a Dual Core AMD 4400 3 gb RAM and a 1gb 9800GT card..mind you I have done some minor tweaking

tdjimmy wrote:

QUOTE (tdjimmy @ Sep 16 2010, 12:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Would a yoke system be ok to start off with thou to suit learning to fly the planes that one would start off with?

i do have a quad core with 2GB DDR2 ram, and a Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 3870 512MB Graphics Card.

I personally find the yoke more realistic than a stick (I have and use both) - if you are flying aircraft that use Yokes, I believe that it's more realistic and accurate to use a yoke. That said, if you go Yoke, get Pedals too. There's nothing wrong with using a stick - it's just weird for me using one if I'm flying a Cessna, if you know what I mean! You'll find that flight simming can soak up a fair bit of money, so I hope you're prepared for that!

Your specs are ok - if you can stump up for the extra 2GB of RAM, I would. Also, your vid card will mean your settings will need to stay more toward the left than the right, as a 3870 is not particularly powerful in gaming terms. If you're using XP still, your computer will ignore the last 512MB of RAM, but there's no point going with 3GB as you'll miss out on dual-channel. While I'm thinking of that, make sure that whatever RAM you have is in pairs of the same size, same speed (and pref same manufacturer) so you eliminate any poss problems / slow downs in that regard.

Once you've got the hardware sorted (and I'd recommend something like a Radeon HD 5670 or 5770 - some on NZFF like nVidia: I'm an ATI fan myself - I think ATI provides better bang for buck and more stable drivers, esp for those of us on 64-bit) - you'll need to make sure your system is 'slimmed down': small AV (Avast - not Norton, TrendMicro, AVG or McAfee), get rid of all those crappy little "helpful" progs that so many people have running in the background (Acrobat speed-launch, quicktime, apple updater, java updater, itunes helper, bonjour, google updater, toolbar updaters, camera pic retriever: completely needless - there's a host of 'em), and make sure you defrag your hard drive at least once a week (use MyDefrag from www.filehippo.com - it thrashes the Windows one hands-down).

Ideally, you'd have a 2nd hard drive with FSX loaded on it for best speed, and a 3rd drive with just the windows virtual memory file on it.

Is that enough to get you on your way...

Yeah it is little weird using a stick where yokes should be but most of my aircraft have sticks anyway (L-39, Spitfire, Tecnam, Birddog, PC-6 etc)..many airliners have sticks now anyway Most Airbuses and some Cessnas even have sticks (Corvalis, Skycatcher).

As IB77 says your vid card might be struggling a bit...I suggest you eventually look at something with 1 GB. If you can afford it, the GTX460 or 470 seem to be setting the standard for FSX, although I am reasonably happy with my 9800GT

To get rid of all those unnecessary progammes in the back ground at the flick of a switch I have just started using this (seems to free up 2 or 3 FPS):

http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

sorry guys... i completely wrote down the wrond details of my computer.....
how are these specs for FSX :

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Asus P5Q Pro Motherboard
Corsair DDR2-800 4GB Kit 4-4-4-12
Gigabyte GTX275
Corsair HX520 520W PSU
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Antec P182 Case
2 x Arctic Cooling 120mm fans

tdjimmy wrote:

QUOTE (tdjimmy @ Sep 16 2010, 06:12 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

sorry guys... i completely wrote down the wrond details of my computer.....
how are these specs for FSX :

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Asus P5Q Pro Motherboard
Corsair DDR2-800 4GB Kit 4-4-4-12
Gigabyte GTX275
Corsair HX520 520W PSU
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Antec P182 Case
2 x Arctic Cooling 120mm fans

ok - the GTX 275 should be 896MB with GDDR3: looks like it performs well against the 5770 so no need to change that. The rest of your job is optimising your system. The iobit suggestion by Naki may or may not help: all the bits I'm thinking of have corresponding services which are permanently useless, so I would be learning how to slim down yr system long term, not with a "quick-click-fix". The iobit is ok to use - I use AWC on my customer's PCs. However, it's intrusive if setup wrong (and all the default settings for AWC are wrong) so one can end up with a different (or additional) memory hog than the ones one is trying to get rid of.

Also, a good Registry cleaner / defragger is a must. The best free ones are TweakNow Reg Cleaner 4.71 (not 5 - it's c r a p) with the option set to 'extreme' (although you need 2 b v careful about deleting the yellow-class of errors it finds, the green ones are safe, and you can make it re-scan the blue ones to see if they can be changed to green or not) and Glary Utilities (and again one needs to tweak Glary's since it has some settings wrong on install). The Registry defragger (which you should use after the reg cleaning) is Registry Clean Expert (the free one).

IslandBoy77 wrote:

QUOTE (IslandBoy77 @ Sep 16 2010, 06:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ok - the GTX 275 should be 896MB with GDDR3: looks like it performs well against the 5770 so no need to change that. The rest of your job is optimising your system. The iobit suggestion by Naki may or may not help: all the bits I'm thinking of have corresponding services which are permanently useless, so I would be learning how to slim down yr system long term, not with a "quick-click-fix". The iobit is ok to use - I use AWC on my customer's PCs. However, it's intrusive if setup wrong (and all the default settings for AWC are wrong) so one can end up with a different (or additional) memory hog than the ones one is trying to get rid of.

Also, a good Registry cleaner / defragger is a must. The best free ones are TweakNow Reg Cleaner 4.71 (not 5 - it's c r a p) with the option set to 'extreme' (although you need 2 b v careful about deleting the yellow-class of errors it finds, the green ones are safe, and you can make it re-scan the blue ones to see if they can be changed to green or not) and Glary Utilities (and again one needs to tweak Glary's since it has some settings wrong on install). The Registry defragger (which you should use after the reg cleaning) is Registry Clean Expert (the free one).

thats for the info...good to know i spent the money on a half decent computer.
i will look into those programs tonight.

now to get the sim disc and a controller.

thanks everyone for the advice. i reckon i will be back here soon with more questions

Further on this , if you do go the joystick , again the CH products F-16 stick , i have a cheap stick , still good for beginner but is one required for the A320 , the big one combat simming

If you are going with FSX, here is a great guide on how to install. It gets pretty in depth, but I would suggest following the way they suggest you install the disks at the very least.
http://www.simforums.com/forums/topic29041.html

This is the part I mean.

1. Install form the DVD, fire up the sim and let it complete the install and then boot the default flight.

2. Close the sim

If you have the Deluxe version and want the SDK installed, install it off the DVD now.

3. Reboot the computer

4. Install Acceleration which will install SP2 automatically. Boot the sim and allow it to complete the install and boot the default flight.

5. Close the sim

If you want the Acceleration SDK install it from the disk.

6. Reboot the computer

A big welcome from me as well!!!

Just regarding the yoke/stick issue. It really depends on what sims you have (or may get) *other than FSX*. You'd have a hard time "flying" combat aircraft with a yoke in IL-2, Falcon4, LOMAC (or whatever).

I started off life in the combat sims world, so don't mind using a stick for my C-172 in FSX. I have a Saitek X52 stick/throttle and can recommend it. Rudder pedals are a must, though ... the twist-stick thing just doesn't cut it! I have a (very spiky) CH set.

Be prepared for LOTS of conflicting advice concerning "tweaking" FSX for best performance. The only one I can absolutely swear to is the "FSL Texture Fix" util. That - and setting up your video card settings properly in general. My general philosophy (as FSX isn't a combat sim where losing a few frames could cost you your "life") is to just crank every single setting to *maximum* and watch the show! Only if it's utterly unusable do I start gradually working my way backwards

My only other bit of advice is to research one decent add-on aircraft to start with and get to know it. There's hardly a default FSX aircraft that I enjoy now, after having splashed out on (too many) commercial add-ons. Plenty of amazing freeware stuff around as well ... some of it way better than some payware.

I second the Saitek X52/rudder pedals combo. I picked mine up cheap on trademe and have had 9 months solid use with no probs, i love how you can slave the rotary dial to the elevator trim axis. Its so much better than pressing keys to trim. And in FSX you are trimming all the time just like in a real aircraft. After a while the rotary dial becomes second nature and you dont even have to think about it.

Follow venges install instructions as well or you will have major FPS problems. A defrag after all that wont hurt either.

AndrewJamez wrote:

QUOTE (AndrewJamez @ Sep 17 2010, 11:22 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i love how you can slave the rotary dial to the elevator trim axis.

I have trim on the little knurled wheel - then prop pitch and mixture on the two rotaries - plus reverse thrust on the slider. Can't imagine how I flew without these now!

BTW - I found one of the most *useful* bits of software to be a full-blown version of FSUIPC. After that, all you need are all Rob's RealNZ sceneries, VLC ...

If you still have any cash left after all that, TrackIR is fun - though I find I don't use it in FSX. I found it great for combat sims, though, when you need to keep scanning the skies for those nasty bogeys!