Classic British Flight Sim

Hopefully, I've got the first VC10 in! My AI traffic was ready and waiting for me, too.



The details: This is the FS9 version. The FSX download is much bigger so probably packs more features. I already had the AI traffic directed to VHHX from VHHH as I had 9 dragons installed. 9 dragons uninstalled with no problems (I had the self-install version which had previously replaced the original manual install). The purchase, download and installation was quick and easy. The World of AI traffic didn't need any tweaking and my saved 9 dragons situations seem to work OK too. At the moment they are landing on Rwy 31 which is no fun, so hopefully Peter will come up with a tweak that closes 31 and allows all landings on 13 ;-) . 9 dragons had alternative .bgls that allowed you to choose. Or, of course, you can change the prevailing wind, I suppose, but not if you prefer to use RW weather.

One immediate annoyance is trees. There are pine trees all over the hills, but the hills in the real HKG are bare. It gives it an unreal atmosphere. Good things are animated traffic (yes - in FS9!) and the fuselage of the 747 that skidded into the harbor over by the HAECO hangar being broken up. I remember that being there!

I have only done one landing so there is a lot of exploring to do but I needed to get the first VC10 in quickly. I forgot to check the frame rates as I was coming in, but it seemed very smooth - perhaps even smoother than 9 dragons. My laptop is a 2GHz core 2 duo, 2Mb DDR2 RAM, GeForce 8600M GT and running Vista.

More pictures and reports later.

Ian

Here's my first 'controlled' landing. I forced ATC to use Rwy 13 by inputting a light wind at 135 degrees. I've shown the frame rates on the screenies - the laptop specs are on the previous post and the sliders are pretty well maxed out. With AI traffic at 100% the lowest FR was briefly around 16 but still very smooth.

VHHH is still there, but a bit quiet as I have stolen all the traffic










Ian

(EDIT: Don't know why I put a there - it's not that funny! Anyway, I meant to put a )

Nigel Edwards wrote:Peter,
what are the framerates like?

Frame rates are excellent, even though I'm now running it with 100% traffic (see latest post).

If their TNCM scenery is anything to go by then I will have to pic this one up!

One more screenie. I can vouch for the fact that this shot really captures the atmosphere of being on the ramp at Kai Tak in the rain. It is absolutely spot-on! I've now read the manual and apparently if you use RW weather, the runway will nearly always be 13. It was the same when it was operating - it was very rare to use 31.



Generally, this is an excellent bit of payware and is effortless to install and run, but I do have two criticisms. The pine trees on the hills are ridiculous. Not only are they several times too big when viewed from a distance (the hills are very high), there are no pine (or any other) trees on the hills of Hong Kong, although plenty of trees in the valleys. Also, the harbour seems very empty. The real thing has hundreds of ships and boats constantly crossing back and forth and thousands of sampans moored in typhoon shelters. I think more could have been done to populate it with static scenery. Purists may not be comfortable that it co-exists with Chek Lap Kok and present-day Hong Kong, which is not authentic. Whereas 9 Dragons was set in it's own era of 1996 with CLK uncompleted and therefore is a more authentic model. Other than those niggles, I can highly recommend it.

Ian