markl

The article looks a little one sided, but there is a fair bit of discussion about it here as well. One thing for sure, last year water was in very short supply. I know people in both NSW and QLD that had to buy water as their supply completely ran out and farmers had to shoot stock because of the lack of water. It is really bad luck to be in drought then flood all in one year. But like Florida I doubt any planning can cope with these large scale disasters. The main thing is that while the media play the blame game there are plenty of people on holidays who have gone up there to help out. People have rallied together to get in and do what can be done. The real fight will come when the insurance companies make it known what they will pay out. There is talk of the Govt. making manditory flood definitions for insurance. A lot of people pay for insurance but never get a pay out like after the fires. I am sure there will be a lot of donation drives very soon to help out once the situation calms down. We all pitch in as you never know who will be next. Regards MarkL

Would have to agree, and have them all so far. But if it requires activation I am out. Cheers MarkL

Thanks for the kind thoughts. Well the water is going down now. I have relatives in Brisbane and Grafton (East Coast), they have been lucky so far. I have been in Queensland during floods in the past and was cut off in my old trusty landrover in the Gulf country. It is just amazing how quickly the water can come up and spread. Our thoughts go out to all the families with lost ones, never an easy time. Regards MarkL Sydney Australia

I recently upgraded to a 5870 with 1 gig memory. It made no difference at all for FS2004. (Upgraded from 5770) Currently I do not have FSX or CFS3 installed as I gave up trying to get them running on my PC, to what I want.(Fussy bugger I am) It seems clock speed is the limiter. The newer cards are mainly for very high resolutions from what can see. I think I wasted my Christmas present there. I will be watching the new intel chips soon coming out with a over clocking utility from intel. These may make a real difference. So far I have not tried over clocking as I have enough problems getting my hardware to last long enough as it is. Regards MarkL

You are not the only one. I find I get a very stiff neck using it. For now I have put it back in the box, but I do hope to come back to it some day. Cheers MarkL

Thanks for the books, downloading now. Regards MarkL

Now I do not use the campaign, so for me quick battle options different targets and or mixes etc. I am probably in the minority so I do not expect anything from my wish. My real biggest wish would be just plain old code optimisation so us people with old dual core PC's can play it and of course the current DRM free installation. Apart from that what ever we are given. Cheers MarkL

Looks interesting, and since I did not see a price it may be open source and free. I may try to borrow a web cam to check it out. Regards MarkL

I was about to upgrade to an Intel i7 2.93 gig on the weekend when a new bloke in the shop I was going to place my order with asked if I had considered one of the newer i5 chips that run at 3.6 to 3.86 in turbo. His question was why over clock an i7 when this one runs at the over clocked speed at stock. I have had a quick google and have found no real reviews for this chip and flight simulator. The shop also has not built a system with these chips either yet as most people want to go straight to the i7 range since the prices for mid range i7's are about the same. Now my main reason to upgrade is for future versions of OFF and FSX. If I have to make a choice on which one to optomise for I would pick OFF as I think FSX is a bottomless pit when it come to PC requirements. What do people think about these i5 chips, and is faster clock speed the best option for CFS3 as I gather it only used one core. I am at this time only interested in getting the most out of what I own now and can not really see myself buying a lot of new PC games so future releases are not an issue. Regards MarkL

Thanks for the replies. I am not sure which way I will go yet as these processors seem to have mixed reviews depending on what you use them for. I will have to give it a bit more thought. Regards MarkL

Thanks for the tutorials, they make good reading. And HeelShades video is very good. I downloaded it for future use. I hope he produces more in the future as I learnt a bit from that one. Regards MarkL

I have been left out of the options. No score low enough for me. Hopefully P4 does not get any harder or I may never get off the ground. Cheers MarkL

Using XP SP3, and no intention of upgraging or downgrading as most XP users would say. But yes I still have a PC capable of running DOS Cheers MarkL

Thanks for the video, especially the high resolution. I appreciate any good video's because I can not make them myself. I put them on my MP3 player. Better than watching them, get the free "Youtube Downloader HD" download them and keep them, waste of bandwidth just watching them, better to keep them to watch again. Waiting for the next one. Cheers MarkL

I missed the first set of instructions, so a refresher would be great. I remember trying MAW a long while ago, and had some problems getting it working. Were all the aircraft finished in the end. I think I remember some were missing cockpits, but I could be mistaken as it was awhile ago. But I would love to get WWI into the scenery. Cheers MarkL

Thanks for the link. I did not know about this one and it looks good. Cheers MarkL

It still seems to be there under this link in 5 parts. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=World+War+1+Blood+in+the+air&aq=f If anyone is having a problem finding a good youtube downloader that works well, the one in the link below seems ok. I am downloading these 5 bits now for my MP3 player that also plays short video clips. It gets the MP4 versions as well as the FLV. http://www.youtubedownloaderhd.com/ Cheers MarkL

I am having problems with the graphics in the /first Eagles Campaign mode. Single Mision & Instant Action are OK. Terrain is clear. When I try to fly anything in campaign mode the terrain is completely blocked out, like someone drapped a white sheet in front. The aircraft cockpit is also hard to see, but is still just visible. This is far worse after the November 2008 patch is applied. With just the initial FE installed and no expansion pack or patch the campaign mode is OK. Today I reinstalled on my old P4 with AGP video card and the same problem occurs. So I have tried on a dual core pentium 8500 with nvidia GTS280 PCI card and a P4 3.000 gig with nvidia 6200 AGP card. Neither PC has old drivers etc, both up to date. I never used to try and fly campaigns before with FE so so I have not seen the campaign at all. All other programs seem to be running OK. I presume the same game engine runs both single missions and the campaign so this seems odd. Does anyone have any ideas what could be causing the campaign problem? I would hate to just only be able to use the original FE without the expansion. Regards MarkL

Thanks for the update. Please keep us posted on progress. I would love to see Red Baron updated. t The more interest in WWI the better. I would support both programs if it comes out, but I would say they have their work cut out for them. It has taken OFF awhile to get to it's cuttent state, that I am very happy with. Cheers MarkL

Just a quick question about HitR expansion. Is it just a straight install like the original? Just checking as WM did hint that that may change in the future from memory. I have just been through hell trying to get a wrapper validated for an addon for FSX, that prooved very hard when your flight sim PC is not connected to the web, and I do want to go through that again. If it is a sensitive issue please just send a PM. From what I have seen in the forum every one seems very pleased with it. Cheers MarkL

Thanks for the quick reply, I will download tonight. Cheers MarkL

Thanks for the review. Have you had any over heating problems? There have been reports that some of the sticks are haveing problems getting too hot and potentially burning out. Cheers MarkL

Most peole I know in Sydney are still using XP. I was at out local shop who sells PC last month and they said most people who purchased a PC with vista who played games were back within 3 months for XP. This included parents as well as people who purchased their own. They said they "hoped" most new PC ownwers would stay with win7 but did not expect many existing owners to make the swap straight away. No real benifit for most people. And the Australian Govt is not jumping on board for Win7 that quick either. Cheers MarkL

Looks impressive, but I do not know how the last bit worked, with the aircraft vertical and going up and down. the aircraft also seemed to almost hang mid air at times. almost did not look possible Cheers

Sounds great, Out for Christmas I hope. Cheers MarkL