AFS4 Puttering around Te Anau

[emfrat]

This Corben Baby Ace looks like being a lot of fun

[Charl]

Now that's cute.
Mike what are the major benefits of AFS4 over AFS2?

[emfrat]

Mike what are the major benefits of AFS4 over AFS2?

Charl, as to benefits, many of them were not really visible, since AFS2 had been a pretty good sim experience to start with. For AFS4, the AFS2 'world' was expanded into the polar regions and we got a new global mesh. A lot of recoding was done with the aim of reducing load times and also to take advantage of newer processors. To that end, a new file structure and naming protocol was introduced. AFS2 could be purchased on DVD and stored locally, but it loaded the entire world every time it was started. AFS4 is only available through Steam and the global scenery is streamed relative to your choice of start location. Essentially you are always at the centre of a circle with a radius of 60-90 minutes flying time. New aircraft came with the package, including gliders and helicopters. That was back in mid 2020. We now have towplanes, winches, and pushback tugs and a lot of specifically modelled airports, the number of which is steadily increasing. Even the impressionist autogenned ones look the part.
Looking at the latest mcf (the main config file) there are some new parameters which are not active yet. 'Moon Phases' for instance. Why have that setting in a sim which currently has only two areas of 'real water' that you can fall into? Maybe so that tides can be part of a future weather engine? The future looks good.
This is a link to the original blog announcement: https://www.aerofly.com/community/blog/ ... team-beta/
ATB

[Fozzer]

Now that is my sort of flying machine, Mike!
I'm presently enjoying flying my MS2020; Classic Auster J1 Autocrat, and my various Ultralights; Cub Crafters collection of Cubs; Tail Draggers, Nose Trikes and Amphibians!
Proper aeroplanes, with simple instrumentation and controls!
It's just costing me a fortune with broken Propellers and shock-loaded Engines, with "nose-overs" in my "Tail Draggers", when braking to a standstill!!
...sometimes I need a; "Nose Job"...LOL... ...!
It's always loads of fun exploring the countryside at a low level, with Ultralights, Microlights, etc!

Paul.... :UK: .... .... ....!

[Charl]

Glad you got your FS20 sorted Paul, it's made for that kind of flight!

Mike my question came about because I had (yet another) holiday VR Experience.
Needless to say FS20 was a crash and burn, anything resembling proper resolution arrived with a mosh of jerkies and messages, terminating in at least 2 cases with a PC that needed switching off at the wall.

I then loaded up my 5-year old AFS2 and it ran exactly as smoothly as I remember it did.
The Sopwith Camel experience still remains a thing of amazement.

Of course nowadays we are spoilt with the rest of the world looking better than the best custom sceneries back then.
Much better, actually, and so you kind of fly AFS2 being careful what you look at.
SO I wondered if AFS4 was a giant leap forward for the environment.
I mean, your shots above aren't half bad...

[Fozzer]

Charl!.... ...!
Now and again I fire up my Microsoft FS '98, 2002, 2004, and 2006 FSX Flight Sims, to amaze at the realistic, satellite scenery in the latest FS2020!
A world away from my beloved 1982 Sinclair Spectrum 48K.... ...!
As I'm only really interested in the low-level scenery, rather than monster aircraft, etc in FS 2024, I think that my FS2020 will do the job for me, at the present!
Low and slow is the way to go...
...(as the Actress said to the Bishop).... ...!
Paul.... ... ... ....!

[emfrat]

I mean, your shots above aren't half bad...

Charl, you are too kind In NZ I use the third-party mesh and photoscenery by GeoffKiwi. AFS2 elevation and image files can be used directly in AFS4, provided they are in the User>Documents>AFSn path, and not in the Steam folder where they will be overwritten when Steam loads at startup. Same for third party aircraft addons. Kristoff recently updated his aircraft, so I added a couple more along with the baby Ace. I now have 62 planes to pick from. Third-party building models can be added as Points of Interest, although the AFS2 alignment coordinates may not work perfectly. When the Airport Creation Tool for the scenery SDK is released it should fix that.
As to screenshots, in AFS I can shift my eyepoint up, down, and sideways, zoom in for detail and out for a panorama, and move the Sun around to get the best lighting, all on the fly. I just press the key when a nice combination appears. Clouds are set from the start menu.
AFS can't match the ground-level detail that other sim shows, but for low and slow seat-of-the-pants VFR it is pretty good.