Don't try the demo...

[Roger]

...if you know your system isn't up to it! You'll just be disappointed; I know I was. I couldn't see through the windows in the Beaver in vc mode and I got no aircraft reflections in water.

Clearly to enjoy the possibilities of Fsx then a considerable investment will be required by people, who like me, have a 2 gig system, with a reasonable 256meg vid card and a gig of ram.

[scubakobe]

True, Roger..
I would say minimum requirements are 1 gig of RAM and 256 MB Graphics card. Because, my computer has trouble with reflectivity.
The rain reflections is also a pain too, the water at St. Maarten flickers to textured, and non-textured dark blue. Then the ground textures flicker back and forth from high to low res textures.
Rather annoying, but I think I can fine tune it with some work and have it working great.
But, for those with 128 graphics card and 512 MB of RAM or less, I am not saying NOT to download it, I am just giving a word of warning as Roger has.
Sorry to hear you can't run it Roger, truly are missing out on it, but as long as you are happy with FS9 then everything is good.

[cmhodge]

I had mixed results with my middle-of-the-road system (see below). I got beautiful water effects up close, but annoying flickers in the distance. Sometimes I had a nice view and framerates in the mid-teens. The Beaver VC was nice, but I had the blackouts in the CRJ. I had trouble seeing out the windows of the Baron one time but not another. I wonder if this was some demo lock-out feature, because when I had the blackout I could see the scenery around the edges, as if black paper was pasted to the windows.
My system:
2.2 GHz AMD Athalon 3200+ processor.
1.0 GB RAM
128MB ATI RADEON 9600 AGP

[bhk]

I installed the demo last night on my laptop, which is SP2-compliant (my desktop isn't and therefore FSX-Demo won't install).

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could push the sliders decently into the bells & whistles eye candy graphics; not maxxed, mind you, but certainly into the 80% region in all cases.

I had set the target rate for FPS to 27 and achieved that 90% of the time when flying around St. Martens.
Water reflections worked but slowed the fps down, naturally.

So technically the product runs fine.

However.........and there's always a "BUT"............

I won't be rushing to buy this update, as it offers for me[/i] little over what FS9 already provides someone who is more into the sim for the ability to recreate real-life flights than for the super graphics.

I was disappointed to find that there is no improvement to the Map/Navigation suite........why they didn't adopt a similar method and presentation as FSNavigator, I do not know.

I was disappointed to hear the same voices for ATC and pilot.
I want to hear regional accents when in different parts of the world, not American-accented voices wherever I go. (Nothing against you Yanks, you understand! )

Whilst the VC cockpits were nice, I have seen their equal - and, in many cases, better - in freeware offerings that I have for FS9.

That's just a few let-downs from my perspective and whilst I will eventually end up owning FSX - just as I did every other previous version - I won't be falling into line to buy it.

Bruce

[Admin]

I think the main thought to keep in your mind is "your mileage may vary." I have the demo installed. It actually runs very well on my AMD Athlon 65 3400+ with 2 Gb Ram and an nVidia 6800 w/256. And so it should I may try it later on my other computer (P-4 2.66GHz/1gb RAM & nVidia 5700/128.) THAT would be a test. I may have some pictures later.

[pointman]

I'm sure it will be more stable and usable once the actual game is released. The demo while pretty good in my eyes is still just that a demo.

[scubakobe]

I am hearing about people with 2 gigs of RAM! Amazing!
I have one gig, but I guess I should upgrade to 1 and 1/2 gig because that evidently is creating a better experience for all of you.
It's actually nice to be able to read how it plays on another person's computer.

Guess I have some shopping to do now.

[bcbay]

Where do you get the demo

BW

[scubakobe]

If you just took a couple more minutes to click on the 3 threads stating "FS-X Demo Available" and so on, you could have found this link:
www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimulatorx/downloads.html

Good luck trying to play it!

[bcbay]

Whan I click on download I get this
BW

The page cannot be displayed
The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings.

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Please try the following:

Click the Refresh button, or try again later.

If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly.

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See if your Internet connection settings are being detected. You can set Microsoft Windows to examine your network and automatically discover network connection settings (if your network administrator has enabled this setting).
Click the Tools menu, and then click Internet Options.
On the Connections tab, click LAN Settings.
Select Automatically detect settings, and then click OK.
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Click the Back button to try another link.



Cannot find server or DNS Error
Internet Explorer

[scubakobe]

download.microsoft.com/download/4/7/7/477dcc35-0b98-42c5-b06f-7ded38a40491/fsxprereleasedemo.exe

There's a direct link.

[Kofi]

I know my system is strong enough to run it but I didn't want to tease myself; so I haven't downloaded it... ;D

[scubakobe]

kofi said:

I know my system is strong enough to run it but I didn't want to tease myself; so I haven't downloaded it... ;D

Kofi, when you get it downloaded (If you do) I would be interested in seeing if the right spinner on the Baron 58 is patchy to you. I am thinking it is a defect in the demo. I know there are some glitches because there are bare axles running around on the roads, so the developers purposely left out some files from the Beta, and the full version will have the textures to display the full car (not just axle).

Sounds like you will run the thing like a champ though, but FS-X hasn't delivered the expected, so don't expect it to be perfect!

Have fun with it when you get it downloaded, don't worry about it cutting away from FS9 time, the demo has a trial time so it will exit itself when time gets up....then it's on to FS9 again!

[bhk]

Ummm....has anyone else cranked the aircraft Realism settings to maximum and then flown the ultralight?

I did and found that it was capable of flying inverted and performing aerobatics that I wouldn't even think of trying in a Fokker DVII, let alone something with a loose parasol for a wing!

Bruce

[scubakobe]

Yes, somehow I got curious enough to send the trike in to a roll. ;DProblem was that the engine cut off when I got inverted.
If you want to try a real maneuver, but fun to do (If you do it smoothly it actually is fun,believe it or not), get the trike and crank full power. Then at 40-45 MPH, pull straight up, level off immediately (Try not to sink) then pull throttle back to 50% or less and look around!
Doesn't sound like much but I found it was actually fun to do, especially if you throw in a landing right after leveling off.
We did this in an ultralight a few months ago....

Shot of the trike I flew:



Have fun with it, usually I fly the trike because the Baron and CRJ are too fast for the textures...