Main Area and Open Discussion > DC Gamer Club
Microsoft Flight Simulator - Free!
40hz:
Sounds works for me but I don't find the sound terribly inspiring - mainly just roaring noises of the engines.
-Carol Haynes (March 31, 2012, 11:09 AM)
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You're very polite about it. Not "terribly inspiring" is a masterpiece of understatement. My GF likens Orbiter's audio to the sound of roaring plumbing in a busy public restroom. ;D
I usually play it with the sound off and some Strauss playing quietly in the background. Blame that on me being imprinted when I first saw the docking sequence scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey when I was a helpless and impressionable child. In my poor brain, Strauss waltzes have been inextricably linked with space flight visuals ever since. 8)
For those too young to have remembered:
8) :Thmbsup:
tranglos:
PS: I have MS FlighstSim X and am just downloading Free MS Flight.
I have now discovered why they haven't gone for a new packaged version!
The base game is free but lots of stuff that was in X now has to be bought as an addon - and they are not cheap at all.
-Carol Haynes (March 31, 2012, 11:30 AM)
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True, and it's been a common complaint. Then again, the same can be said about third-party add-ons to FSX, without which the sim environment is rather bland.
The Hawaiian Adventure Pack gives you all the major Hawaiian islands and one (only one!) new plane - a small, fast, single-prop RV-6. Even that doesn't allow you to fly all the missions in the game though. To fly cargo and passengers you need the larger Maule, which is a separate paid add-on (but a very satisfying plane to fly, unless your main joy is in aerobatics).
I've actually gone and bought the pack and the Maule and I love them and I am seriously hooked, even though I don't like how MS is selling them at all. But, the sim experience is really cool; it's just bound to become very expensive in the long run. Ask me if there's anything I can help with. (If I can find the time, I may write a detailed review of MS Flight.)
In short, MS Flight cannot be seriously considered free, since the free package is extremely limited. It's no more than a demo.
A couple of those 'addon' packs would probably cost more than the complete MS FS X (which by the way still runs fine on Windows 7, including 64 bit).
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Yeah, but barely :-) It's another story. I bought FSX and MS Flight within days from each other. MS FLight, with all the detailed terrain, weather, lighting and shadows, runs fine at max quality settings on my system. In FSX, by contrast, I have to pull the terrain, weather and all other sliders almost to minimum just to get a frame rate that's usable but still not smooth. FSX really shows its age; I've read that it doesn't offload any graphics rendering to the GPU, so the CPU has way too much to do. Does it even use multiple cores? It feels as if it's running on one! In fact, with the generic airports, default terrain both ugly (water!) and boring (same everywhere), I am seriously underwhelmed. MS Flight only gives you Hawaii, but in an amazing detail and quality. I fly just to look around, and it's awesome. (And the airports and other landmarks check out against Google Maps in satellite view - there's a lot of actual terrain, not generic textures).
tranglos:
For Orbiter sound you have to download and install the sound bits separately. Not sure why they did it that way.-Carol Haynes (March 31, 2012, 11:09 AM)
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The OpenAL? The installer claims to be installing it. But, no joy.
Carol Haynes:
A couple of those 'addon' packs would probably cost more than the complete MS FS X (which by the way still runs fine on Windows 7, including 64 bit).
--- End quote ---
Yeah, but barely :-) It's another story. I bought FSX and MS Flight within days from each other. MS FLight, with all the detailed terrain, weather, lighting and shadows, runs fine at max quality settings on my system. In FSX, by contrast, I have to pull the terrain, weather and all other sliders to minimum just to get a frame rate that's usable but still not smooth. FSX really shows its age; I've read that it doesn't offload any graphics rendering to the GPU, so the CPU has way too much to do. In fact, with the default terrain both ugly (water!) and boring, I am seriously underwhelmed. MS Flight only gives you Hawaii, but in an amazing detail and quality. I fly just to look around, and it's awesome. (And the airports and other landmarks check out against Google Maps in satellite view - there's a lot of actual terrain, not generic textures).
-tranglos (March 31, 2012, 12:12 PM)
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Strange FS X seems to run fine on my system with everything cranked to max ???
Where do you buy the extras? I can only see Hawaii Adventure Pack and three planes. Is that all there is?
tranglos:
A couple of those 'addon' packs would probably cost more than the complete MS FS X (which by the way still runs fine on Windows 7, including 64 bit).
--- End quote ---
Yeah, but barely :-) It's another story. I bought FSX and MS Flight within days from each other. MS FLight, with all the detailed terrain, weather, lighting and shadows, runs fine at max quality settings on my system. In FSX, by contrast, I have to pull the terrain, weather and all other sliders to minimum just to get a frame rate that's usable but still not smooth. FSX really shows its age; I've read that it doesn't offload any graphics rendering to the GPU, so the CPU has way too much to do. In fact, with the default terrain both ugly (water!) and boring, I am seriously underwhelmed. MS Flight only gives you Hawaii, but in an amazing detail and quality. I fly just to look around, and it's awesome. (And the airports and other landmarks check out against Google Maps in satellite view - there's a lot of actual terrain, not generic textures).
-tranglos (March 31, 2012, 12:12 PM)
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Strange FS X seems to run fine on my system with everything cranked to max ???
-Carol Haynes (March 31, 2012, 12:23 PM)
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At max, I get maybe one frame per second :-) Win 7 32-bit, Core2 Duo 2.6 GHz, 4 GM RAM, NVidia GTX 275 GPU with 896 MB memory. Not the hottest specs today, but it still runs new DirectX 10 games well at close to max settings.
Where do you buy the extras? I can only see Hawaii Adventure Pack and three planes. Is that all there is?
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Two ways. When you start Flight, at the main screen there's a sliding image on the left. (Click the arrows to change). Maule should be listed there, as well as two other add-on aircraft: the Mustang and the Zero. (But they are crippled - there's no cockpit view).
In-game, click the Hangar icon. The pane at the bottom shows all planes: the ones you can fly and the ones available for purchase (marked with a price in MS points).
You may need to register an MS Games account first (frustrating! nowhere near the ease of Steam) and be connected to it in-game.
On edit: actually, scratch that. You did say you see the Hawaiian pack and the planes, sorry, I missed that. Yes, this is all there is for now. Four single-prop planes plus the two crippled ones (and who came up with the brilliant idea to fly a Mitsubishi Zero over Pearl Harbor?).
MS has announced an Alaska expansion pack, to be out in Spring. Hope they include some twin-engine aircraft there, and jets. Within Hawaii, there really isn't much to do with a jet, but the whole of Alaska rendered at the same level of detail would be nice.
But, yes, for now that's all there is.
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