Thoughts on retaining my legacy sims

[Michael Blakely]

I've been thinking about the evolution of flight simulation vs. my favorite sims. For example, I miss the Ready for Pushback 747-200 in FS9, and I'm dreading losing my PMDG MD-11 when I eventually move from FSX on Win7 to P3D on Win10. Since hard drives are so inexpensive these days, I've been thinking of adding 2 drives to my computer, for a total of 3 bootable drives.
1. Win 7 with FS9, allows me to fly the RFP 747-200
2. Win 7 with FSX, allows me to fly the PMDG MD-11
3. Win 10 with P3D, for the latest in flight sim performance and quality.

I see a couple issues I would have to deal with:
- As my computer platform evolves to newer motherboards, CPUs, and video cards, I expect there will eventually be no drivers for the Win7 OS. Once I reach this point, I'll have to keep my Win7 drives on an older computer, while the Win10 drive resides in the updated computer.
- FS9 and FSX applications that utilize vendor services and servers, such as Active Sky, will eventually reach "end of support" and then I'll have to downgrade the sim environment to FS9 and FSX defaults.

I figure I would fly these legacy systems and planes 2-4 times a year.

Questions for discussion:
- Is it worth it?
- What other issues do I need to consider?
- Any other thoughts?

[Theodore Martin]

Great discussion Mike. I too am planning a move to P3D but will be keeping Win 7. The idea of having additional hard drive is appealing since I will really hate having to repurchase my PMDG 777 and loosing my JS41, CoolSky MD-82, and not sure what else. I know I will have to upgrade my video card (and probably another update/increase in my power supply).

The point you brought up concerning Win 7 drivers in the future is one I didn't think about but I imagine there will be drivers available for a couple of years yet, and once I upgrade to P3D and new graphics card with the appropriate drivers I can keep them and prevent Win 7 from attempting to update them. I have an older graphics card now whose last "working" driver was released 2 or 3 years ago. There have been numerous driver updates released over the past few years from Nvidia that were suppose to be compatible with my card but when loaded they cause problems.

Anxiously waiting to see other's inputs to discussion. Also would like feedback on TrackIR from anyone that is using or purchased it and not using it now.

[Theodore Martin]

Went to FlightSimCon conference this weekend here in Dallas. There were vendors (though not that many) showing their wares and as you would expect some used X-Plane and some used P3D. Got to actually fly on both systems and really didn't notice much of a difference between the two. However sitting down doing a single flight with people standing around you is not the best test of the two systems. Did notice that X-Plane was very sensitive but that may have just been the way that vendor had it setup.

Talking to the virtual pilots there I got the usual debate with some doggedly standing by X-Plane and others doggedly standing behind P3D. In line with most of the online reviews for both, some of the people I talked with say X-Plane has a better a/c flight modeling capability. Again I didn't observe this during my single flights with each system.

Though it is nice to be as close to realistic flight characteristics as possible, I can't justify losing all my payware to go to X-Plane. So I will be downloading P3D tonight or tomorrow. Then I need to go buy a new graphics card.

By the wah, FlightSimCon got shafted by FlightSimExpo. They originally worked with the FlightSimCon people until they found they could not totally take control of the conference so they decided to start their own conference. However they took most of the FlightSimCon vendors as well as took the date FlightSimCon had scheduled their conference. Most all the vendors went to Vegas with FlightSimExpo.

[Harold Henderson]

One of my major issues with X-Plane 11 is the controller sensitivity. Planes are just waaaaay toooo sensitive. In one of the latest releases X-Plane introduced the ability to create different controller profiles (like in FSUIPC) and assign one to a specific aircraft. Have played some with this and it is a step in the right direction, but IMO the aircraft are still too sensitive.

[Theodore Martin]

One of my major issues with X-Plane 11 is the controller sensitivity. Planes are just waaaaay toooo sensitive. In one of the latest releases X-Plane introduced the ability to create different controller profiles (like in FSUIPC) and assign one to a specific aircraft. Have played some with this and it is a step in the right direction, but IMO the aircraft are still too sensitive.

Thanks for the reply Harold. That does explain the issues I had with the flying demo that used X-Plane.