Classic British Flight Sim

Hi Chaps..

Getting into the nautical side of FSX and would appreciate your advice. I have FD4 (and3) so qualify for a cheapo upgrade to FD5. However.. having read through the blurb, I'm not sure if the 'moving ship' technology can be used on other ships or if it's restricted to Gerald R Ford :think:

Flip the coin and there's FSX Acc which, I believe, comes with software to enable carrier ops from any suitable platform

What are your thoughts on both/either? Obviously.. FD5 is a much cheaper option for me but if it's anything like FD3 and FD4.. the only good bit is the arrestor software so would FSX Acc be a better option?

ATB

DaveB :tab:

Dave,

I've never actually used the FD series so I can't comment on that, however FSX Acceleration makes it very easy to adapt any aircraft to carrier ops by adding a couple of lines to the cfg. Ships themselves have to be modelled with the latest SDK, however that's very easy, and they then operate 'properly' in that the arrestor wires are individually defined and have to be intercepted by the tailhook.
Personally I prefer the idea of Accel as it's fully integrated with FSX rather than being another add on. Obviously you also get a couple of other things with Accel like air racing (I suck) and load lifting with helicopters (harder than real life imho!) which Sketchy and I keep meaning to incorporate into a mission to get stores on/off the Ark.

Skippy

Hi Skippy

Tks for that. I'm a bit puzzled by 'ships have to be modelled using the lastest SDK' though. Does that mean you remade AR :o If so.. does that mean that the Alpha/DG Hermes will be a no goer unless it to is remade.. that is, for cat ops :o :o

I agree that it would probably (or not given M$ track record of late) be better to go with ACC as it does add rather more to the program itself than SP2 and a few helicopters. A recent experiment proved that the Merlin shipped with ACC will not work on non-ACC platforms and while testing some of Ben's RNAI routes.. my system spits out everytime I go near Ark Royal (the FSX jobbied one) so I think I'll probably end up going down the M$ route.. damn!

Tks for you comments anyway Skip.. food for thought ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

Sorry, when I say made with the SDK, you just have to re-export the model with the extra points to define the arrestor wires and catapult. I think remaking the Ark from scratch would have caused a sanity failure. To get cat ops with Hermes you'd just need to add the points to the original model and then export it using the latest converter. You can do more e.g. bump maps to give it that rippled look on the plating, more animations etc. but it's not necessary.

Ah.. cheers Skip. Understood

ATB

DaveB :tab:

Hi again Dave,

I have had both FD3 (which I liked), FD4 (which I liked less) and FD5. I am also a retired USN Naval Aviator. I was very disappointed with FD5, which must use a mission (with an AI ship). The biggest problem is that AI ships have NO navaids or radar return. Imagine locating the ship visually. Now imagine that in bad weather, with a low fuel state and beyond Bingo (divert airfield) range.

Actual carriers steam into the wind such that they create a 20-30 knot wind down the deck to lower your approach speed. This can be done very realistically with a static carrier (FD3 or FD4), but with FD5 you don't know which way the carrier will be heading when you find it (it does a racetrack out there). The forward motion of an AI carrier is over touted, as the greater relative speed of the airplane is such that it really doesn't enter into the equation. I removed FD5 from my computer, and don't recommend it.

I do not use Acceleration/SP-2 because of the effects it causes on a number of my older non-SDK compliant aircraft, but from what I have seen and tried, it certainly has the best carrier package available - if you can ignore some other aspects.

BR

Hi Bill,

Thanks very much for that

I've been 'less than happy' with other Abacus products in the past.. so much so that they offered me a refund on FD4 (prior to SP2.. the LOD required to actually SEE the carrier I was trying to land on killed the sim BIG time). I thanked them and refused putting it down to experience I DID like FD3 very much and still use it rather than FD4 on my FS9 install. Pity it all went downhill from there :-(

Appreciate your comments and acknowledge your judgement. Decision made ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

Ooo another quick question :roll:

I seem to remember Trev (Calypsos) mentioning a while back that he bought ACC for FSX and found it wouldn't install.. this because he'd bought the 'Standard' version of ACC when he had FSX Deluxe.. an easy mistake I suppose. I've only ever seen one version of ACC available so is Trev's summation correct??.. that is, is there (are there) two versions of ACC.. one for Standard and one for Deluxe?? :think: I don't want to fall into the same trap.. if there is one

ATB

DaveB :tab:

Not sure Dave but I thought that Calypsos had FSX DeLuxe installed and the FSX acceleration discs he THOUGHT he had purchased was in fact the 'Standard' FSX discs instead and consequently when he installed what he thought was acceleration, it most certainly was not the case.....naturally his installation went T***s up from that point on...

A mix up by the shop assistant if I remember.

As far as I know there is only one version of FSX Acceleration.......but I could be wrong.... :roll:

Regards.

Bridon Bear

Hi Dave,

trev bought Acceleration but the chavette in the shop put the wrong disk (FSX STD) in the case. When he got home, he slapped standard in and tried installing it over the top of his delux.... ouch. It was only when he looked at the DVD he realised it was the wrong one in the box. :-(