Screenshot FS98 vs. FSX

[frumpy]

Hi guys,

reading the thread on a different approach to flightsim documentation,
I just want to show you a screenshot of FS98 and FSX trying to
do the same thing - an 737 approach to Oakland. FSX is not
full graphics here, but you'll get the point While FSX is more
realistic, I like FS98 more for just practicing some basic IFR
routines. FS98 is the freeware OMR panel (already with altitude
callouts), FSX is the PIC 737.

I already zoomed the main view of FSX out (.7), but its still
not getting the same perspective as FS98.

[frumpy]

And here 5.1, a Learjet approaching Oakland:



Note the 6 frames/second, thats a Pentium 90 (with division error).
Considering that DOS wont run properly on machines >200 MHz,
I wonder what system Microsoft recommended to run it above 25 fps?

[Joe Corrigan]

This was my first 747-400 sim - I still remeber it vivdly.

Its amazing how far simulation has come in such a short time.

-Joe

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

Oh, some sims are still mostly at this stage.



The difference is that in the box, there is an actual FMC board running actual software. The rest is a far cry even from PS1 in 1995, but it does work to drive the FMC and to make it believe it's flying.

Of course the connections are all real-life. There's more going on than just pretty (well...) pictures. But it feels very much like a 1980s university lab setup to keep students busy with something they don't quite understand.


Jeroen

[Garry Richards]

I already zoomed the main view of FSX out (.7), but its still
not getting the same perspective as FS98.

Hi Frumpy,

If you add the entry WideViewAspect=True to the [Display] section of your FSX.CFG file you can zoom out to 0.3 and get the same perspective as in FS98

[Will]

I believe that Hardy released a panel for the 727(?) back in the heyday of MSFS.  I've always wanted to see a screenshot, but I've never found one.  Hardy, if you have a screenie of that panel to add to this thread, I'd really appreciate it!

[frumpy]

727 panel? Yo phat, didn't know that!  
http://reocities.com/CapeCanaveral/4305/pnl_fs5.htm



@Jeroen
What do you work as? Developing electronics for airliners?

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

Jeroen works for www.avionica.com and currently is heading the satLINK dev group and programme. And he now entertains a group of people from Boeing, Continental, United and General Electric to do some FANS testing using Iridium. Sort of in preparation for WorldFlight 2011.    :mrgreen:


Jeroen

[torrence]

I believe that Hardy released a panel for the 727(?) back in the heyday of MSFS.  I've always wanted to see a screenshot, but I've never found one.  Hardy, if you have a screenie of that panel to add to this thread, I'd really appreciate it!

Yeah - I had that panel on my old system.  First time I'd run into Hardy in cyberspace.  Great stuff and very advanced for the time -- they looked GOOD and really worked correctly too.  I think I had some email exchanges with Hardy at the time getting tips from him for a more realistic Catalina PBY panel that I was making (no real artwork on my part but using existing layouts and finding the best period stock gauges etc to paste in).

Cheers,
Torrence

[frumpy]

Hardy, is that 727 panel still avialable? For nostalgic reasons? :-) the above
link doesn't work.

@Jeroen
Sounds like an exciting job, certainly more fun than mine.

@Garry
Thanks for this one. I'll try it out, once I have a faster graphic card.
Right now I am just buzzing around with an Embraer 190, trying
to understand how to fly it - its mostly instrument stuff, so no
external view needed^^

[Hardy Heinlin]

I just searched my old CD archive and couldn't find any panel pics, but I found some even older screenshots, from 1993:

This was an FS4 scenery that I created for an aviation magazine, they distributed it on a diskette. They wanted a scenery corridor around the globe for a ralley flight.

Heck, it's now nearly 20 years ago, just shortly after Gutenberg's invention of the printing press. That was the time when I had no Internet yet, not even Compuserve. Mails were written on paper with mechanical typewriters.

15 colors were available for the scenery design.

Every single point in the scenery, described by a x/y/z data record, was very expensive. In order to increase the richness of detail without to increase the CPU demands, I applied a trick: Twist the polygons so that they cross their own lines. For example, if you have a polygon with four points and twist it in the middle so that two lines cross each other, you get at this crossing a fifth virtual point. This increases the complexity without increasing the amount of data. You can make a checkerboard with many virtual edges and rectangles by using only a few actual points describing the checkerboard.

I used this trick to make frame rate friendly "textures" on the ground, on buildings and in the sky. These areas in FS4 normally consisted of just one solid color. As the frame rate was still reasonable, I also could add black shadows to ground objects. I guess this was the first time that FS4 got shadows at all -- and a cirrus "texture" in the sky?

DC3 in FS4 "dusk":




And by day:




Palm trees with many virtual points, but with only a few actual points in the data file:




An A310 probably:




Katmandu:




Unknown city:




The moon was hard coded in FS4, I couldn't get rid of it:




MD80 and to the right Sugarloaf Mountain:




Copacabana and intercrossing polygons on buildings to get many "pointless" windows:



Side effect: Due to the integer raster on the graphics, some points and lines disappeared and reappeared at random when flying through the scenery. Using this side effect intentionally on those white polygons at the beach, the white "foam" on the water begins to sparkle dynamically.


That's all I got. Note, this was from 1993. Not from today :-)


Cheers,

|-|ardy

[Will]

Excellent work!  I had FS3, and I don't remember if any add-ons were available for that...  I don't remember owning FS4, but it's possible I did, but in any event, I certainly didn't think in terms of expanding FS with user-created content until years later.  I'm sorry I missed out on your rally.

[John Golin]

As a contrast to the first post; the latest 737  from PMDG

[frumpy]

Impressing pics, guys! And cool cirrus clouds!

@John
The Ariana is hot, but I wonder if it's really useable and
what computer I need for that? A 200W graphic card with
27" widescreen TFT?

I have found Hardys panel at http://flightsim.com/file.php?cm=SEARCH
(enter FS5 Panel and text "727"). I will have to dust off my
old Pentium 90 *g*

[Richard McDonald Woods]

The 737NG from PMDG, of course, is a 3D design with all instruments, knobs and switches working minus weather radar.

[Jeroen D]

Unknown City?? You might have offended some distinguished forum members here!
That's Sydney, Australia, world famous Opera house with the bridge right behind!

[Shiv Mathur]

Greetings Jeroen D,
 
I think you might have underestimated Hardy's
wicked sense of humour !!

Shiv

[Phil Bunch]

What an interesting historical saga!

Thanks also for the link to Hardy's panel.  That's a collectible item for sure, well into museum quality!

[Hardy Heinlin]

Opera house?

Are you sure it's not Thule?

[Jeroen D]

You mean that's not Matt on his first ever practice run across Sydney harbour?