Back to the future??

[MIKE JG]

I ran across this post on a FS developers forum today and think that the author has some very valid reasons that he's going back to FS9 for good.

Before anyone gets upset, this is only one man's comments and certainly do not represent anyone other than himself.

Hi all,

Just wanted to let you know I decided after ample consideration to uninstall FSX. I know I am not the first one but I tried not to believe those 'loosers' thinking I was smarter than they are. Well, I am not! And in spite of the negative comments on all those that dared speak out, I go back to the good old FS9.
And I am fully aware it is a step back in as far as new developments are concerned, but I feel I miss too many possibilities that have become inexistent or so hard to figure out in FSX so that my decision is justified in my own eyes.
I do not want to complain too much as I appreciate the effort the people of Aces have put into this version of FS and maybe they have been forced to come out with something new that was not ready yet, but in the end the result, as far as I am concerned, is not up to my expectations.
I'd rather have paid 3 times more for a decent product instead of what I have now.
I feel sorry for all the people involved still trying to make something worthwhile out of FSX and in particular for the team of 'Scruffyduck' with their fantastic ADE program with which a lot of scenery glitches can be remedied, but their program alone is not enough to turn FSX into an improved FS2004.
Now, I will have to give you examples of what made me do this as otherwise I would receive too many arguments in favor of FSX by people that are more eloquent and convincing than I am.
Here goes:
- low fps;
- few extra aircraft compared to the wealth of choice in FS9, (except perhaps for some payware of which often the VC does not even work in SP2);
- hardly any extra mesh and although the default is better than in FS9, the extra mesh available for FS9 makes more than up for the difference;
- autogen buildings and trees not adapted to the various regions and trees still too big; inability to change this unless you start using photoreal scenery involving Google (their biggest competitors!) and then still with mixed results;
- backward compatibility? I have my doubts because there is always something the matter with older add ons;
- Change from freeware GMax to payware 3DS and rendering almost all FS8 and FS9 design programs obsolete or incompatible;
- almost all airports are being enhanced through add ons not because of aesthetics but out of necessity (and only recently made possible for real by the aforementioned ADE program);
- The promised DX10 does not improve anything for the time being, only adds more problems and most midrange graphics cards do not support DX10 (why should they if it serves no purpose?)
- SP2? Too much to tell you. Only thing I will mention is that many SP1 version add ons, aircraft models, textures, etc. have to be adapted once more to work in SP2;
- AI traffic is different fron FS9 (although FS9 AI works in FSX)
- Unsolvable transparency/ rotate to viewer issues making it impossible to have real people in FSX;
- the whole world looks the same, everything is standardized in the Object Library. The feel of flying somewhere foreign is gone. Airports, autogen, buildings all look more or less the same.
And I probably forget some basic things as well as in-game irritating quirks.
Mind you, I am not saying that FSX has not tried to make FS8/9 adepts happier in fulfilling some of their wishes, but my experiences with FSX just lead me to the conclusion that by trying to improve on some things they have made such unacceptable compromises that the end product does not deserve the name of being a worthy successor of FS9.
I hope FS11 will learn from that and in the meantime, as said, I will be more than happy to live with the constraints of FS9.