Flying the virtual skies - #1. Choosing your platform and hardware

Hi all!

As announced in my introduction I will start a series of blog posts about flying on online virtual networks providing realistic air traffic control (ATC). As with many things in life, many ways lead to Rome and this also applies to simulator flying. We need to choose at least one platform (simulator application) and you will need some decent hardware to run it too. You could spend a year's salary on this, but it surely isn't impossible on a budget.

The choice of simulator may depend on hardware you already own, or your budget available to invest in new hardware. Secondly, it depends on the available add-ons (sceneries, aircraft, weather engines). Here's a list of some available simulators and their pros & cons.

Platform	Architecture	Price	Pros	Cons
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 (FS9)	32-bit	discontinued	Performance on older hardware	Old, no support for new add-ons, graphics outdated
Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX)	32-bit	discontinued	Cheap	Old; abandoned by developer, CPU intensive, limited by virtual addressing space (VAS), lacking some performance improvements from the 'Steam Edition'
Microsoft Flight Simulator X 'Steam Edition' (FSX:SE)	32-bit	< $30	Performance improvements over original FSX, supports Steam platform, available DLC	No major overhaul over original FSX regarding graphics and default content, limited by virtual addressing space (VAS)
Lockheed Martin Prepar3d (until v3)	32-bit	Academic: $60 ; Professional: $200	Performance improvements over original FSX, add-on (backward-FSX) compatibility, more biased towards GPU instead of CPU	limited by virtual addressing space (VAS), add-on support may decrease as 64-bit version is now available, demanding powerful hardware
Lockheed Martin Prepar3d v4	64-bit	Academic: $60 ; Professional: $200	Major performance improvement over FSX and P3D 32-bit, improved graphics	demanding powerful hardware, not all add-ons are 64-bit compatible yet
Laminar Research X-plane 11	64-bit	$60	Supports non-Windows OS, modern graphics, slightly better performance over FSX and P3D	Some popular add-ons not available (yet), smaller community
Dovetail Flight Sim World (FSW)	64-bit	~$25	Improved performance over FSX, improved graphics, support for some FSX add-ons	Not complete (early access), small market share, lack of new addons
Aerofly FS2	64-bit	~$50	Much improved performance over FSX, some FSX/P3D add-ons are compatible, best VR performance	Not much new content yet, small community and market share

The above table gives a very rough overview of the pros and cons as I find them important. In depth there may be much more to it, but to make your life a bit easier: there are currently only two platforms to choose from: Prepar3d version 4 and X-plane 11.
Why? Well, both are 64-bit simulators and not limited by virtual addressing space (VAS) like 32-bit applications. These could only use up to 3.2 GB of space, resulting in out of memory (OOM) errors when loading modern and complex add-on scenery. This happened very often and when you're doing a 4 hour flight (or even longer), it's very frustrating to watch your simulator crash with the arrival runway in sight. With 64-bit, this is no longer an issue and you can enjoy lots and lots of complex scenery as long as your hardware will run it! The other two 64-bit platforms, FSW and AFS2 are also 64-bit, but are new products and may not support any existing add-ons from FSX and P3D and also new addons are still limited. In short: nobody has many experience with these platforms and community support is therefore limited. All images in this article are coming from Prepar3d version 4 as this is the simulator I am using myself. I have lots of experience with the 32-bit versions of FSX, FSX:SE and P3D, but my experience with X-plane is limited to a bit of testing. Since I have no add-ons for it, I don't use it. Nevertheless, it's a great platform and fully supports the online flying experience.

Next, you will need some hardware to run your simulator. You may use your current system, upgrade some components or go for a brand new pc. That's completely up to you and your budget. Here are my recommendations to run both P3D v4 and XP11 in a decent way with some complex add-ons:

• Processor: Intel or AMD Quad core or higher with at least 3.5 GHz/core;
• Memory: 8GB or higher;
• Video card: Nvidia GTX1070, AMD RX480 or higher. At least 6GB of VRAM when using resolutions higher than FullHD;
• Storage: separate SDD's for OS and simulator content are recommended to decrease loading times significantly

Again, these are my recommendations and a newly built system with similar specifications would set you back around $1000-$1500. Performance depends largely on the complexity of add-ons and your graphics settings. You might have to compromise eye-candy for smoothness. You will NOT get the same graphical quality as in a modern shooter like Call of Duty or Battlefield. The flight simulator world is much, much larger and the need for resources grows exponentially with the viewing distance.

To further enhance your flying experience, you probably want to get some nice hardware controls. A basic joystick would do, but depending on the type of aircraft you are planning flying, you might want to get a yoke, rudder pedals and a throttle quadrant or a HOTAS system. There are many options out there. Personally, I'm using the Saitek Pro Flight system, which is pretty common and popular within the community when flying small aircraft and airliners. Quick note here to anyone who loves to fly military jets: some military (combat) operations are not allowed on the online networks as per their rules. You can fly military aircraft, but operations may be limited.

Next time I will get you up and running with your simulator and explain some basic flying skills. I won't provide full flying lessons, so self study will be needed (and lots of it...), but I will cover the radio communications and procedures. If you don't want to miss my next blogs, follow me and in the mean time, enjoy the freedom of flight!