My opinion of the Big 3: FS98, FU2, SPP
James de'Armond
I have all 3 of the civ flight sims (FS98, FU2, SPP) and I like them all
for various reasons:
FS98, without a 3D card, the graphics suck. With a 3D card, it's great.
The Planes in particular are tremendous looking...the terrain is very
so-so, but at least you can fly all over the world...no doubt a benefit
of this flight sim being around for 15 or so years and having tremendous
3rd party support. You'll want to check out Las Vegas or London. The
program in general is pretty good, and there are a lot of great add-ons
out there to make it really good. It also includes a solid lessons
program (unfortunately, the lessons are not in a easily discernible
order). The manual is rather weak, but you do have excellent online
help. I'm relatively new to this program, and I've only tried a couple
of the add-ons, but I can say that it would be pretty hard to go wrong
with FS98.
FU2 is the best overall general purpose civilian flight sim on the
market today. period. Looking Glass has pushed most of the right buttons
for this program, and it shows. The graphics are merely great without a
3D card, but with 3D or 3DFX it's awesome! (they probably could've done
a better job of providing support for 3D, though, as many people have
reported having problems or frames-per-second slowdowns in 3D mode).
Since I live in the San Francisco Bay Area (the only terrain area
currently available, unfortunately), I have the opportunity to see how
realistic the terrain is. I'm happy to report that it is so detailed
that I can even see my house and some of the running trails I've been
on...VERY nice, and the new standard by which terrain graphics for any
program should be judged. Unfortunately, unlike FS98 (and even SPP), the
area of operations is very limited. Hopefully LG will rectify this
problem and come out with more areas SOON. Another limitation is that a
few of the controls don't work as in real life, a compromise that LG
probably made to make it a little easier to fly, but will no doubt
disappoint serious flight simmers. Also, the ATC in FU2 is great fun.
You can send specific messages to and from the Air Traffic Control tower
and the sim allows you to taxi around the airports (which are the most
nicely detailed of the 3 programs). The included manual is very solid
(which is a good thing because the included flight lessons are VERY
poor...these guys should know better than this) and takes you through
all the necessary processes to complete your flights. LG has provided 2
patches to date, and seems committed to making FU2 a quality product.
HIGHLY recommended.
Sierra Pro Pilot is an enigma. Since it's release late in 1997 it's
taken a lot of harsh treatment, and yet seems to have a growing
contingent of supporters. I first bought the program in early January
and have since: taken it back after a few days; later bought another
copy; took it back again; got a copy free with Thrustmaster's Top Gun
Flight Control System; took back the FLCS; and finally bought a copy
that I'm going to keep (thanks for being so patient, CompUSA!). The
program has been well chronicled to have various bugs such as lack of
brakes, planes running out of fuel after 20 minutes of flying, etc. Most
of these reported bugs were well deserved, some were a result of people
not operating the program correctly. I've run the program without the
patch and with the patch. I didn't experience most of the problems that
were reported, but there were a couple of annoying issues (too much
CDROM access related pausing, for example) that I was eventually able to
overcome in some way or another. One thing has become clear: Sierra
brought this program to the market before it was ready. That's too bad,
too, because Microsoft could really use a kick in the butt competitor to
advance flight sim technology faster than before. Shame on the Sierra
management that pushed this program to market to take advantage of the
pre-Christmas sales...they've damaged their reputation right out of the
gate on this one. All that being said, here's my opinion of the program:
It doesn't matter if you have a 3D card or not, this program will look
the same. In fact, it only runs in 640x480 mode (or in a window), so
forget the idea of higher resolutions, too. However, the airplane
instrument panels are very high quality. So are the views of the
interior of the various aircraft...nicely done. The controls in general
operate properly and everything you see on your instrument panel has a
purpose and can be clicked on or used however it is realistically
intended. The planes are somewhat average to above average looking from
the outside. The terrain graphics are POOR. These terrain graphics would
have been considered only okay in MS Flight Simulator 5.0, and that's
not a very ringing endorsement (to see how terrain graphics have
advanced, see FU2). The location of cities and landmarks is pretty good.
3D buildings, bridges etc. are of average to below average quality. This
program includes the entire contiguous United States, so cross-country
trips are possible. Where ProPilot shines is in the true
flight-simulation-as-learning-tool arena. It includes all the various
navigation aids that you will find available in real life flying, and
the process of conducting IFR (Instrument only) flight exists in this
program right out of the box. The included manual is by far the best of
these 3 programs, online or otherwise. Although it doesn't really cover
the A,B,C's of operating this program, it does teach you a tremendous
amount about the principles and processes of flying in general, and you
could really get a head start on getting your Pilot's certification by
learning what this manual has to offer. The online manual is actually
very well done, too, and will tell you what you need to know to operate
the program (but, why on Earth did they make it so that you can't access
the manual while in full-screen mode?)
I am enjoying Sierra Pro Pilot, and I consider it the most serious of
the 3 programs for truly learning how to be a pilot.
Which of these programs you choose will be determined by the kind of
person you are:
If you generally like to play it safe, have a large support base, and
don't mind doing some work to fix your program up, you should probably
go with Microsoft Flight Simulator 98.
If you just like to have fun and get a good feel for what flying plane a
plane is like (contacting the control tower, taxiing into position) and
you want the best terrain graphics out there, Flight Unlimited II is
your best bet.
If you really want to learn all of the technical details about flying
small, private aircraft (how to start it up, operate all of the various
controls/instruments, navigate, maneuvers) and graphics aren't really a
big deal to you, Sierra ProPilot would be the best choice.
These are my opinions. If you care to comment, or have your own
opinions, I look forward to you posting them in this newsgroup. I'm not
interested in getting into a pissing contest, though, so bitching and
moaning will be promptly ignored. Thanks for reading.
James de'Armond
dear...@slip.net
Steve Bacon
Very well done!
Chris Dunn
James---I also say "Well done!" a very concise, detailed analysis of the
BIG THREE flight sims on the market today. I have two of the three....so I
guess FUII is next on my list!
Derick Blow
An accurate and concise bit of work.
Well done..
--
Snr Com Capt. Derick Blow
1189
Noble Air
Manchester Hub