Hi all

I have the very original F4 Ring Binder Edition at home - never installed it.

Now, I want a decent jet sim. Thirdwire's stuff is nice, but not quite detailed. Tried LOMAC, the lack of dynamic campaign kills me. Besides, I like games with a small install footprint (running on a 128GB Solid State drive).

I don't care if I have to buy F4:Allied Force or if I can get a free mod for my original version.

What I want from a sim:

1) 1920x1200 (16:10 widescreen) resolution support without stretching, preferable also in the menu and campaign screen, not just in flight (in menu, stretching is okay).

2) 6DOF TrackIR in a 3d cockpit.

3) No DRM, preferable no CD in drive.

4) Must work on Win7 64bit with the latest ATI drivers.

5) Would prefer to never see a 2d bitmap cockpit in my life again.

Is there any version of F4 - free modded or pay-for which fills these requirements?

I think OF come closest to your needs, except for widescreen support.
see here: http://www.f4support.com/forums/index.php

AF doesn't have 6DOF and 2d is still needed for some stuff (GBU's, Mavericks)

Thanks for the link, they have a nice FAQ about the different versions here
http://www.f4support.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6330

I find references to widescreen using a "-hires" parameter in the .exe for OF 5.0. And the 3d cockpits are really clickable? That seems indeed most like what I need.

Check the 'READ FIRST - Which version of F4 do you recommend?' here for a really good overview of the various versions (probably the same one as you found elswhere - its so good everyone snaffled it.)

Great improvements nowadays on the install processes with 1 click installs for most of them.
Or an easy file replace + run Op 4.5 then 4.7 for OP Falcon.
No arcane PC voodoo or sacrificing Hardisks at midnight to get it installed nowadays.

You will find a lot of 'My version is better than your version' fanboys, and more 'splitters' than Life of brian, but take it all with a pinch of salt. Too many egos and chips in the Falcon 4 world.

The learning curve for Flacon 4 is steeper than Everest (think i've just about got to first base camp and set up my tent to recover for while), but is rewarding.
You will die a lot at first from missles you never even saw and will need an extra 30 fingers for all the buttons and switches, but it comes with practice. Think LOMAC on steroids for all the options and settings. But you can click the actual buttons themselves which helps a lot.
I find it better to focus on one small bit and get to grips with that first, then move on, rather than trying to absorb the whole manual(s) in one go.

Amazing to see how much it has evolved over the years though.

I tried OpenFalcon, it was OK. I tried FreeFalcon and liked it better. For some reason I always gravitate back to Allied Force. Visually, AF can't compete but there is something about it that I just prefer over F4.0 mods.

If it's mods, I guess try them both. My vote would go to the FF5.3 mod.

I'm leaning towards Open Falcon for the clickable 3d pit (I really want to avoid 2d as much as possible) but I don't like the fact that it seems to require a default install path. All my games go in C:\Games, not very tidy if I have to do a C:\microprose folder just for a mod.

Also I'm seeing errors reported with FSAA. I hope I'll find it working at the end of the day...

Honestly, I think that Allied Force is the best. It is stable and the only falcon, besides the original Falcon 4.0, that was released via retail. I, personally, gave FreeFalcon a try, and I can say that it's a buggy mess. I haven't tried Openfalcon, though; but, I bet it's probably pretty good. I just came off as an AF fanboy, sorry about that.

I think Open Falcon is the best Falcon version. I can't get it to work on Win 7 x64 thouugh, so I'm flying F4:AF. Even though I miss Open Falcon, F4:AF definitely delivers the true Falcon experience and works perfectly in multiplayer.

Why not make a dual boot with windows xp?
And use it only for falcon.

If your going OpenFalcon, also check out this site:
http://corp.assembla.com/wiki/show/lightningstools

The MFD Extractor is just what you need for 3D, but it only works for open falcon.

None of the Falcon installs meet all those requirements, it'll be best to move on and keep looking. Good luck.