Flight Simulator X on iMac rocks!

Posted 12/03/2009 11:39:00 p.m. by Daniel in Computers

A couple of years ago I used to spend many hours playing Flight Simulator 2002 on my aging computer, dreaming of being a real 737 pilot. And loved every moment of it. I spent a huge amount of time modding the life out of it. I had 100’s of custom planes, “high detail” Wellington scenery, and a whole lot of other add-ons.

Now things have changed a little. I have this thing called a job. And that takes up 90% of my day, leaving me little time to do other things. And while I’m no closer to being a real pilot, my love for planes (or anything “manly” (cars, trains, planes, boats, etc) according to Katie) is still as strong as it ever was.

With the recent purchase of my 24” iMac, I decided to give Flight Simulator X a shot on it. After getting Windows 7 Beta installed I popped in the Flight Simulator disc and hoped for the best. I mean, I didn’t really expect it to run all that well, especially because it was running in Boot Camp, and on a beta version of Windows.

And WOW was I in for a surprise. I can run it at medium quality (full for aircraft), full air traffic, and full land traffic at native resolution – 1920x1200px. Even my old work machine couldn’t run it that well (and it had a supposedly better video card) and on the glossy screen of the iMac, it looked, put simply, incredible.

The ability to play to game at home has renewed my addiction to flying. And Flight Simulator. This was boosted further by my purchase of the Saitek Pro Yoke Flight System. While not too fun on the bigger aircraft I normally fly due to autopilot, it makes flying the smaller planes amazing. It’s almost as easy as driving a car. Sure it’s a pain to transform my desk every time I want to fly. But that will have to do till I can build my own Flight Simulator (and build up a large amount of debt doing so).

And last night I began my modding phase. While I’m yet to get any scenery, I have added Air New Zealand skins to all of the default planes from FlightSim.co.nz which I have been using from my FS2002 days. While I only got time to fly the Air NZ 747 last night, I realised just how good the paints are now. The aircraft looked amazing. And because it was a re-paint of the MS 747, everything just worked.

Tonight I’m going to install all the Air New Zealand/Qantas/Jetstar/Pacific Blue skins for the 737, 747 and A320. Might also try some scenery from around the place. Will even try and post some screenshots!

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Posted By Electroplating on 7/04/2009 6:31:22 p.m.

Thanks for writing this blog post, it was informative, enjoyable, and most importantly - a good length! I love flight simulators, one of my top 3 genres!

Posted By Chaitanya Sagar, Excel Expert on 15/04/2009 10:38:47 a.m.

The one thingy I loved in your post is you dint let your passion down. That's very important in anyone's life.

Posted By greg on 23/05/2009 7:00:10 a.m.

excellent comment on the IMAC. I am also a flightsim user as well and also in the market to get the new 24" IMAC. You didn't state your system spec's but I am looking at the new 3.06 processor dual core with 4g of memory and the ATI Radeon HD 4850. I hope this will work as well. Are you using vista or xp? Thx for the infor..Aloha

Posted By Carlos Andre on 27/05/2009 6:00:34 p.m.

Hi Daniel, it is nice to know that you are having fun with FSX and your iMac. I am planning to buy a new iMac also, so I want to know some more details about it: - What is the FRAME RATE that you have flying FSX at the mentioned resolution?!? - Is your iMAC graphics board the nVIDIA GT120 or the GT130?!? - After some research on the internet, I may say that it is a GOOD IDEA for you to "downgrade" from Windows 7 to Windows XP Professional. You may have more frame rates this way. But for now, let's seen what you have regarding my questions above. In advance, thanks very much for your attention, and I hope you have a LOT OF FUN in your flights... C.A.

Posted By Daniel on 27/05/2009 10:12:32 p.m.

Hey Greg and Carlos, I have an "Early 2008" model, so 24", 2.8ghz Core 2 Duo, ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB of GDDR3 SDRAM, 2gb of Ram running Window 7 Beta (Am going to upgrade to RC tonight) - What is the FRAME RATE that you have flying FSX at the mentioned resolution?!? In Flight Simulator X, it is around 17, but can get a tad slower in populated areas and airports. This may be better now in the newer iMacs. Flight Simulator 2004 runs at about 60fps at 1900x1200, which feels alot more natural, but of course, it doesn't match FSX. - XP Downgrade I have read that as well - but I can't stand using XP, even for gaming. I am tempted to give it a shot, just to see if it makes a difference, but it feels like a waste of time. Thanks for the comments, looking forward to your replies

Posted By tukang nggame on 7/06/2009 6:12:37 p.m.

this is great information that i know a lot of people are interested in, thanks for sharing this to us

Posted By Boiler Systems on 14/07/2009 1:37:47 p.m.

I have a job also but your comments have go me excited again about getting the pc warmed up and the flight simulator revving.

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Posted By subu on 20/06/2010 7:42:11 p.m.

hi Daniel, i have a iMac 24" running Windows 7 32bit ultimate. earlier had windows XP on the same iMac After i installed FSX again on windows 7, i get an error saying invalid hardware or video card detected would you be able to help thx, Subu

Posted By Daniel on 22/06/2010 11:45:13 a.m.

@subu: Try update your video drivers, I had a few issues with them on a clean install of Windows 7 RTM. Get them directly from ATI. Also, make sure you install the BootCamp tools, speeds things up a lot. Good luck, Daniel