I had to pick up a new hard disk the other day at Best Buy and on a whim bought bought FSX and X-Plane 9, because I wanted to see what they were all about. I'm mostly interested in combat sims, and that isn't likely to change, but there is so much neat civilian stuff out there and I do like to just fly, so I figured I should expand my horizons just a tiny bit.

The thing is, out of the box, FSX doesn't really impress me all that much, but I know that what you get out of the box is nothing like what the serious folks have on their computers. So, I basically want a nice sampling of what FSX can do without spending a ridiculous amount of money (I'm not married to the $60 figure, it's arbitrary but a reasonable ballpark). The trouble is there is a horendously, huge, ridiculous amount of stuff out there and I'm a little too impatient to do serious research for a civilian flight lark.

The ideal for me would be some nice scenery (doesn't have to cover a huge area, just a pretty place to fly), and a smaller single or two engine prop airplane to fly around it. I hear good things about A2A's stuff and their whole Accusim thing, so perhaps their Piper Cub would be a good choice, and likewise hear good things about Orbx scenery. In regards to that, does one of their airport packages (like Israel's Farm, etc.) include enough surrounding scenery to suit joyriding something like a Cub or a Cessna?

I'm aware that there is a good deal of high quality freeware content as well, but I'm probably too lazy/busy to spend a lot of time searching and trying things--I just want a lick of the cream, and don't mind paying a bit--but I'm open to suggestions there too.

As I mentioned I also picked up X-Plane, which seems to be a much better product out of the box, but is pretty lacking in add on content. Worth the purchase though, and turns out I needed that new hard disk to install it (60 gigs!?!).

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I'm sure these sorts of questions are asked ad infinitum, but trying to figure these things out for myself was proving to be too overwhelming because of all the choices.

Check out Carenado for General Aviation singles and ORBX for nice scenery.

Carenado (FSX/FS9/XP):
http://www.carenado.com/CarSite/Portal/index.php

Orbx (FSX):
http://fullterrain.com/

X-Aviation CRJ (for X-Plane)
http://www.x-aviation.com/catalog/



As far as XPlane goes, you do not need to install the entire 60GB. Each of the DVDs is broken up into a different territory. If you just wat the US for the time being, the original install DVD is all you need, IIRC. For XPlane add-ons check out XPlane.org. There are some real nice XP add-ons out there (Check out the CRJ by JRollon...can be found at x-aviation.com).

Hope this helps!

Since you are just testing the waters right now, try out some of the ORBX Full Terrain freeware:
http://www.fullterrain.com/freeware.html
(They used to offer a free terrain package representing all of Tasmania--which worked really nicely with the free AU YMLT Launceston package--as a demo for the AU series but it looks like that has since been withdrawn.)

If you just want a general enhancemement of generic ground textures and autogen, you might want to look into a payware texture replacement package. I use Ground Environment X:
http://gex.flight1.net/

If you want to take the details up a notch, you can enhance the rivers, roads, railways, waterways, coastlines and nightlighting of the FSX world with Ultimate Terrain X, which works very well with GEX (or as a standalone).
http://www.scenerysolutions.com/

And if you want to get really serious you can enhance the clouds, water and weather with Real Environment Xtreme:
http://realenvironmentxtreme.com/

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The A2A Simulations Cub is very popular and is really an innovative package, but I prefer aircraft with a little more speed and power. The Thunderbolt is more my thing but the Spitfire is also a wonderful and challenging plane to fly. All of their AccuSim planes are simply amazing and any of them will definately change your opinion of 'civilian' air simming.

I love operating the WWII planes from WWII bases. Ian's Dark Corner is an excellent source for these sceneries.

If you are looking for a modern series of airports, Take a look at what Project Ontario has to offer.

Thank you kindly for the suggestions. That helps to narrow it down significantly (although it's looking like my $60 might end up closer to $90, but in a good way).

FTX demos found!
http://fullterrain.com/product_demos.html

90 bucks is nothing. That's a drop in the bucket. If you want to get serious you'll need to spend several hundred bucks. Don't forget an A.I. Traffic Program so you can have real world liveries and flight scheduing at the airports instead of fake airlines. MyTraffic X or 2010 or Ultimate Traffic X are the biggest (the most liveries, the most airports, etc.). Right now I'm using just plain Traffic X. It's smaller but has some other features that are cool. Come on, Aero, get with the program.

Oh yeah, and I hope you picked up the Gold edition that includes Acceleration expansion for FSX. You have to have the Acceleration expansion. Some add-ons require it.

Actually I was going to ask about that. No, unfortunately I did not get the acceleration expansion pack. I just bought the bog standard FSX, which is what they had and has probably been on their shelf for years. At this point, it seems kind of pricey for what it would give me. Is the DX10 mode worth it? The DX10 "demo mode" or whatever setting in the standard package failed to impress me and I ended up just shutting it off (the only improvement I saw was the self shadowing in the cockpit, which was so blocky as to actually lower the graphics quality IMO).

I understand it comes with some more planes and such, but as I mentioned, the standard MS planes don't really do it for me. In retrospect, I should have just ordered the Gold edition. Thre doesn't seem to be a download version available anywhere, only Standard on MS's site. Does anywhere sell a download version of Acceleration? I haven't found one.

Given that Acceleration by itself costs more than the base product, I'd probably just buy that if and when I need to (or it might even be cheaper to just buy the Gold edition).

Don't sweat not having Acceleration -- the core improvements to FSX can be downloaded in the FSX Service Packs.

Some people will argue that the DX10 preview is the greatest thing since sliced bread -- and it might be so for some addons -- but my experience with the A2A Simulations planes is that you have to turn off DX10 preview anyhow. Many addons don't support it and that causes glitches like aircraft skins not showing.

Some addons might require some of the additional systems modeling that the three new aircraft in Acceleration introduced. Again, my experience with A2A Simulations (my favorite addon developers) is that they now build in their own systems modelling and largely bypass the default FSX/Acceleration coding.

In of itself, Acceleration is a decent addon that, because of the variety of content it offers, is a reasonable value. The three new aircraft aren't jaw-droppers if you compare them to top shelf payware, but they are slightly better in quality than most of the stock FSX planes. The additional missions and race courses increase the playability of FSX. You get an aircraft carrier for your new F/A-18. However, IMO the understated gem of Acceleration is the Edwards AFB scenery. I use KEDW's long runways for familiarizing myself with new aircraft. And, there are free upgrades for KEDW: http://www.things-to-come.com/downloads/

(Here's a strange teaser video for the Edwards AFB scenery upgrades, by the developers who created the original scenery for Microsoft: EDDIE Remove before flight.)

What Skycat said.

Acceleration is worth buying if you would like to try carrier ops. With mods, good collection of Navy planes (both payware and freeware) and high quality 3rd party carriers (freeware Clemenceau and Nimitz packs) FSX is the best simulator for carrier ops practices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZplmhTGObQo