This may not be the forum for this, but......

[Navy Chief]

My father in law is interested in trying a combat flight sim.

I have SFP1, Wings over Vietnam, Wings Over Europe, CFS2, and IL2.

He does NOT have a lot of HD space left. Almost all of his current HD is taken up with FS9, which he absolutely loves.

But of all the sims I mentioned, is one of them less a HD space hog than the others? And is it easy enough for him to learn? He is 86, but he learns this stuff quick! Remarkable, considering he never touched a computer until about 6 months ago.

NC

[GZR_Sactargets]

HDs are relatively inexpensive these days. You could go for a larger or second internal or an external and solve the problem pretty quickly. :costumes:

[Motormouse]

I have IL2:1946, weighs in at just under 5GB, IL2 is a pretty easy
one to get started on

ttfn

Pete

[Tako_Kichi]

One that frequently gets overlooked in lists like this is BoBII-Wings of Victory but it does need a pretty powerful computer to run it at its best. It's set in 1940 and covers the Battle of Britain period. You get five flyable aircraft (Spit, Hurricane, ME110, ME109 and Stuka) and can play as a gunner in the German bombers. The AI are second to none and it has the best campaign mode of any combat sim out there.

He would need at least a P4 and preferably a dual or quad core (it really likes multi-core CPUs), a 256Mb GFX card minimum if he wanted to run the optional 'multi-skin' (MS) add-on and 1.2 Gb of HD space for the game and MS.

It's also unbelievably cheap at $20 USD and is under constant improvement by the BoB Development Group (BDG).

Here are some links if you are interested....

http://www.a2asimulations.com/bob/

http://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1732&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=1440

Of course some may say I am biased seeing as I am a member of the BDG. :icon_lol:

[stiz]

i'd say CFS2, mainly cos if you select the fs keyboard layout when you first install it he'll be able to just jump right in a play and the main things like gear, flaps etc are the same keys :wavey:

[Willy]

I've got an almost stone stock CFS 2 install (one add on plane) and it's at 866mb. Also there's been a lot of cross conversions between FS9 and CFS 2 aircraft.

[Navy Chief]

Now I need to find all my discs, and choose :banghead:

Thanks.

NC

[Buddha13]

Hi all,
CFS1 does not take up a lot of space.My install was stock except for the a/c.I changed them out for better models.
Now I cannot fly it because Vista does not like it.

Buddha13

[Dangerousdave26]

Well my thoughts

Buy and install a second hard drive as a slave as GZR_Sactargets suggested he is quite correct

I recently purchased CFS 3 in a Target but I also saw it at an Office Max for $9.99 US.

Install it and head over to the CFS forum and get the links for MAW, ETO, PTO and you may even want OFF2.

All are Freeware I have all but OFF2 and they are amazing. The Default CFS3 out of the box or CD slide case is not a whole lot of anything but each of these addons creates a new install of CFS3 taking it to a higher level. ETO especially amazing work by the Ground Hogs.

OFF3 is to be released some time in the next year maybe but it will be Payware. With the reviews of OFF1 and OFF2 the third release promisses to blow them away.

If you are curious on the acronyms

MAW = Mediteranean Air War (WWII)
ETO = Eastern Theater of Operations (WWII) This is a rework of the Default CFS3 but in no way can you compare the two.
PTO = Pacific Theater of Operations (WWII)
OFF = Over Flanders Fields (WWI)

My recomendations

One thing to note:

Because of the tireless work of the OFF team Track IR now works with CFS3. They submitted the Fix to Natural Point and they have released it as a Official Patch to Track IR 4.

How is that for Community Work

[OBIO]

CFS2 Hands Down! Much easier on frame rates, much easier to tweak and modify, tons and tons and tons of add ons, a bizillion and 1 aircraft available for it.

OBIO

[Navy Chief]

For years, all I heard was how horrible CFS3 is. Has it been improved somehow?????

I still have CFS2, but have not loaded it for many years.

Pete

[Dangerousdave26]

For years, all I heard was how horrible CFS3 is. Has it been improved somehow?????

I still have CFS2, but have not loaded it for many years.

Pete

Well as I mentioned CFS3 is nothing out of the box. Had I paid over $10 for it I would have felt ripped off. Very few planes, very few missions

The Campaign section is challenging but you are limited to the planes that are installed by default.

Add in MAW, ETO, PTO or OFF2 and this is completely a different game.

How is it on frame rates I run FS9 with all the sliders right scenery and all but the realistic clouds those I can only put right one click or the sim slows to a crawl in a storm. Storms look impressive but my system can not handle it.

In ETO sliders are set to 4 out of 5 or 6 sorry not going to load it to check now but it is 4 and it runs at about 56 fps with out a problem.

I don't even fly in CFS3 any more it is on the computer only so I can have a vanilla install to install the addons. You may not understand that but what they have done is each addon is a separate game. The installer copies the game CFS3 to a new directory then installs all of their modifications.

To give you a comparison here are the folder sizes on my disc all are stock unmodified

CFS3 1.40 Gb
ETO 3.99 Gb
MAW 4.75 Gb
PTO 1.92 Gb

I do not have OFF2 waiting on OFF3

I forgot to mention another gem Korean Skies by the Dogpatch crew

That also I do not have installed but is also freeware. As the name implies this is based in the Korean conflict era.

Like you I had always heard that CFS3 was Bad. After purchasing it and installing the add ons I found out that this is completely true of the default CFS3 it is really Bad but the add ons take it to the next dimension. This is what should have been sold out of the box.

Some screen shots

I crashed (is anyone surprised) my tank into the canal and must have thought it necessary to jump into a life raft and float away. I also got blown up by enemy fire and had to bail out another time.

My plane exploits have not been well documented in screen shots but I was messing around in the L5 Sentinel and blew up a Ammo Depot in Belgium. Then I high tailed it to the UK and landed at the first air base I came to. Unfortunately they were not expecting me and when I landed I got hit with Flak that blew the one wing off. I escaped uninjured.

[fliger747]

Dang! I still think CFS2 is great. Some of the latest addon aircraft etc are simply outstanding.

T.