New Guy to FS2004

[stoney]

I'm installing FS2004 in my new PC (always had FS2002 before) and was wondering if there are any essential patches or fixes that I should have and where might I find them? Thanks guys.

[Milton Shupe]

Hi Stoney :wavey:

Welcome to SOH and FS2004; I think you will like the crowd here. I have searched for the FS9 update 1.1 but cannot find it. Maybe someone here can point you in th eright direction.

[Dangerousdave26]

The FS9.1 update from MS

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=92cf4b8c-ea69-476b-a276-618c4ab52aaf&displaylang=en

After that

[stoney]

Thanks Milton, I'll keep checking back. I've been a CFS2 flyer for years but I'm really looking forward to FS2004. I just LOVE the Shike Commander!

[Dangerousdave26]

For Airplanes

see this thread

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=20503

And if you make it back

more to come :icon_lol:

[dandog]

Sooo many add-ons, so little time. Check out Miltons Pus Moth and AC500. My Favs.

Welcome Stoney. The Sim Out-House is THE place to be!

[stoney]

Hot dog! Now I'm really excited. My new rig has tons of space for add-ons. Thanks guys! Oh, and I got the 9.1 patch Dave, thanks.

[cheezyflier]

i like the no-cd patch even though some are against it in principle.

[Z-claudius24]

Hi,


though some are against it in principle.

This honour them.
I just hope they have some CD N°4 in a safe box ... or better .. in a special vaccum box in a dark place
Even if you don't use it .. a CD perish with time passing .. it's not eternal.
Personnaly I renew all my important backups on DVD's or CD's every 5 or 6 years.
I have some CD's aged of 15 years and they are sometime not easy to read (spinning)

[Sidney Schwartz]

The good news is that the amount of stuff out there for FS9 is staggering. The bad news that the amount of stuff out there for FS9 is staggering. :mixedsmi:

I would guess that pretty much everyone here has replaced the default FS9 land, water, sky and cloud textures with better ones. That's where I'd start. There are both payware and freeware options. Same with better mesh...there's freeware and payware options. Just the better looking mesh and textures will make a huge difference in your flying experience. :wavey:

[Cees Donker]

The good news is that the amount of stuff out there for FS9 is staggering. The bad news that the amount of stuff out there for FS9 is staggering. :mixedsmi:

I would guess that pretty much everyone here has replaced the default FS9 land, water, sky and cloud textures with better ones. That's where I'd start. There are both payware and freeware options. Same with better mesh...there's freeware and payware options. Just the better looking mesh and textures will make a huge difference in your flying experience. :wavey:
And what freeware addons would you sugggest?

:salute:

Cees

[stoney71]

Just thought I would say hi, I don't see too many other stoney's out there. There are so many GREAT freeware files out there I couldn't even begin to tell you which ones are the best, but half the fun of this hobby is finding the ones you like best. We are very lucky to have such a large and generous FS community that freely shares their many talents with us. I hope you have as much fun discovering all the wonderful add-ons as I have.

stoney71 :jump:

[OleBoy]

Hello Stoney..Welcome to FS04 land :wavey:

I'll try to get you headed the right direction for some great stuff. Have a look.

You better make sure you got enough space in your hard drives before you get started :icon_lol:

Right there's some of the best stuff there is available for the FS9 virtual world!!
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=20503

Be seein ya round the house :ernae:

By the way, if you get into any troubles, roses are bloom'in around the outhouse ;)

[Mick]

Welcome to FS9, Stoney!

First, get yourself some new water textures. There are many, many sets out there, and which one looks best on your system probably depends on what video card you use and what enviro bitmap you have. It almost doesn't matter which set you choose, since the stock water is absolutely terrible and any of the replacements will be a big improvement.

Also, find a replacement enviro bitmap. Again, there are many to choose from, and any of them are better than the original. If you want your shiny polished metal planes to look like shiny polished metal, the stock enviro bitmap will not get it done.

Next, get some terrain mesh. There's freeware mesh available, and it totally transforms the world of FS. Mountains will actually look like mountains, with crags and cliffs, instead of the shapeless lumps of the stock terrain.

I'll leave it to others to suggest planes and scenery, but I suggest you check out the two threads on favorite freeware planes and favorite freeware scenery.

Enjoy!

[Daube]

Thanks Milton, I'll keep checking back. I've been a CFS2 flyer for years but I'm really looking forward to FS2004. I just LOVE the Shike Commander!

One of the things you might want to do is tranfer the default CFS planes (P-38, Corsair, Hellcat, Wildcat, George and Zero) in your FS2004. They work great, they look great, and they have a nice clickable virtual cockpit. I used to fly them quite a lot in FS9, especially the Hellcat and the Zero. Sadly, they do not work at all in FSX :/

http://sapdaube.free.fr/fs9/daube_image139.jpg
http://sapdaube.free.fr/fs9/daube_image117.jpg
http://sapdaube.free.fr/fs9/daube_image111.jpg
http://sapdaube.free.fr/fs9/daube_image104.jpg

[Lionheart]

Welcome to FS2004! There are tons of awesome planes and scenery for this sim. I think you will enjoy it quite a bit.

:ernae:




Bill

[Tom Clayton]

Gentlemen, it is SOH "official" policy to discourage any discussions of no-CD patch/hack/crack files. I prefer not to delete posts or lock threads, so please take any further discussion of no-CD files to the PM side of the board. That said...

Welcome to the "civilian" side of Flight Simulation Stoney! If you can't find what you're looking for here, it probably doesn't exist - yet!:jump:

[Planes-11]

Welcome to this side of the stick, Ginger Beer. Oh forgive me, your handle reminded me of the much loved beverage....:icon29:....:icon_lol:

[Sidney Schwartz]

And what freeware addons would you sugggest?
I can't recommend any since I haven't tried any...all my environment upgrades are payware. BEV textures, Flight Environment and Ultimate Terrain. I use the free FSGenesis meshes. Maybe someone else can recommend some freeware textures....? :wavey:

[Daube]

And what freeware addons would you sugggest?

:salute:

Cees

For sky and clouds, I would recommend two freeware addons:
- FS Skyworld 2004: for sky colors during day, dusk and down, cumulus textures and cirrus textures, several choices for each category
- HDE package from Pablo Diaz, just like above, but only one choice. Definitely worth a try, nevertheless.

For water, I was using morewatr.zip back in the FS9 days, but I know there's another package with even better-looking waves. Morewatr.zip still has the best water textures (colors), though.

For ground textures, I have just three packs in mind that changed a lot of things:
- Alaskan Terrain Textures: was made for Alaska, but if you install it to the global folder, it will impact the whole world.
- Lennart's Textures: impacts the whole world, nice completion of the pack above
- US mid-east terrain textures: replaces the textures of the cultivated fields by new, more realistic textures.

For autogen, I definitely recommend a pack nammed Treegen. It replaces the texture of a giant tree by a texture showing 2 or 3 smaller trees.
- It makes your forests a little bit more dense
- it makes the trees look more realistic
- it totally changes the impression of depth/distance, since the trees are smaller, everything looks more distant.

That's what I remember from my FS9. Sorry I can't give more details, my FS9 died 2 years and a half ago...

[stoney]

Gee, Thanks alot fellas'. You've been a great help! I have transferred two of my CFS2 installs over now, so as to when I feel the need to blow something up.:tgun2: Bush flying is what I'm after, as I'm an old Alaskan Air Force guy.

[brad kaste]

stoney,
In FS9,...the game will not allow you to blow something up. Or shoot something down. I know,....the frustration of it all.

[Tom Clayton]

If you like bush and don't mind spending a few bucks on real quality, then you should check out the Quest Kodiak by our own Lionheart. You can do just about anything with this bird! I have it, and I gotta say it's my first choice for any trip into any hard to reach or short airstrip!

http://www.lionheartcreations.com/Kodiak.html

[Sidney Schwartz]

Bush flying is what I'm after, as I'm an old Alaskan Air Force guy.
You'll want the free Glacier Bay scenery, available on either Avsim.com or Flightsim.com. And, of course, the amazing, world reknowned, and even pretty good "Pete & Sid's Viva Scenery" volumes 1-4. That will give you hundreds of smaller airports mostly in Alaska, B.C., and the Yukon and NW Territories. Also available on Flightsim and Avsim. You'll need to also download and install lots of scenery object libraries, but that's just a one-time chore. :ernae:

[aeromed202]

Welcome aboard. My two cents to get you started...

For clouds HDE by Diaz can't be beat, easy on FPS too, a BIG plus for my set up.

For water try those by Bill Lyons or one called Vilk's Water (vater.zip) I think that is what I have up now. It seems to have virtually no detectable patterning. I think Vilk did the "morwatr" set mentioned earlier. Also try a wave effect (newwave.zip) by Michael Young. And better coast waves by Luiz Alvarenga (morwave2.zip)

For mesh search rhumbaflappy here at SOH. This tireless soul did pretty much the world, makes everything soooo much better.
Then there are scads of beautiful sceneries of small fields for bush flying, alone and in sets.

There are good ground textures already mentioned. I will only add that the file "detail1" in scenery/world/texture makes a big difference. Some will cause snow to be spotty, others strike a nice balance between whitish snow and summer dirt. I'll try to ID the one I use.

And ask if you need help where to put all these goodies.

[smilo]

how can you fly the bush
without a beaver?

[cheezyflier]

how can you fly the bush
without a beaver? :icon_lol:

with the coolest bush plane ever invented. the quest kodiak.

[TARPSBird]

Speaking of water textures, regardless of where I set the sliders I've never been able to get the reflective water surface to work in FS9 although I get reflective surfaces on the aircraft. Is it a DirectX or graphics card limitation???

[Z-claudius24]

Hi,


Is it a DirectX or graphics card limitation???

Can't answer if not specifications of your graphic card // DirectX version provided.

[Tom Clayton]

It's a graphis issue. Make sure you have the latest DirectX 9 files - I think 9.0c was the last released. If you have that, then it's a hardware issue - time for an updated graphics card. I had the same issue with my last PC's onboard graphics. I installed a new card and was amazed at the difference!

[TARPSBird]

My graphics card is ancient: Nvidia Riva TNT2 with a big 32MB of onboard memory. I thought we could all use a good laugh tonight. :icon_lol:

[OBIO]

TARPS...check your PMs.

Tim

[Dangerousdave26]

And what freeware addons would you sugggest?

:salute:

Cees

Cees

I have found these

Over at Simivation there is a 70m mesh of the whole world. Ouch its an 8 GB down load but luckily you can down load only the locations you want.

I will vouch that this is a very good upgrade over the stock FS9 Mesh.

Actually it works in FS2000, FS2002 and FS2004.

http://www.simviation.com/fsdterrainsrtm.htm

After that search Raimondo Taburet at www.flightsim.com

He made a alot of Meshes for FS2002/FS2004 and FSX covering a large portion of the world.

I have installed his 19M mesh of the Alps. The 38M mesh of all of the US and Alaska. Plus his 19M mesh of the West Coast States.

Its a great improvement over the default Mesh however it ends up with small problems. Myself I over look them its freeware and still an improvement.

The problems are in Alaska I found what looks like a Major Rift in the Terrain. It must be a line in the image he used to create the mesh.

In San Francisco MS must have put Alcatraz in the wrong location because there is a large Mass of water protruding above the Bay right beside where the model of Alcatraz is.

Like I said its still an improvement and its freeware.

:salute: