Tuesday, 27 March 2012

Setting up Your Home Flight Simulator Game is Easier if You Consider These Issues

By Pete Harris


Setting up the best flight simulator at home on your computer is not easy. You will need to consider some fundamental things such as; visuals, realism and the entertainment value of the simulator. There are a number of other factors you need to look at also, will your computer be capable of running the simulator, what sort of additions will you make to the basic package and what budget are you working with.

The hardest part for your computer to handle when running a flight simulator is the graphics. The higher the graphics detail then the slower your PC will be. This is compounded by running additional software packages in conjuction with your simulator. To help with computer performance it is important to ensure that your hard disk drive is healthy and well fragmented. If you can afford to purchase an individual drive solely for the purpose of running the simulator you will find that your computer performance will increase considerably.

Hardware additions to a flight simulator is a great way to increase the realism and enjoyment of your game. Common additionas include yokes, ruddel pedals, throttles and track IR devices. Adding this simple hardware equiptment can increase the realism and enjoyment of the simulator tenfold. If you have never tried adding even just a flight yoke to your simulator setup it is absolutely worth the cost and you will add years of enjoyment to your sim.

Adding third party software to your flight simulator is a very common practise. There are literally thousands of additions available online to buy and download. These can include; additional scenery, weather effects and visuals, new aircraft or simply better and more realistic aircraft than what is provided standard with the game. The downside of adding software additions is the performance hit your computer will take. The single most important hardware change you can make should you be finding your simulator is running slowly is the CPU. Essentially you need a CPU with the highest possible GHZ rating, note that multiple cores don't add benefit, but a single high GHZ core does.

The hardest choice of the whole process will be deciding exactly which flight simulator to purchase. Some of the mainstream ones include; Proffesional Flight Simulator, Microsoft Flight Simulator and X-Plane. They all offer a high level of realism and a variety of aircraft to fly. Some of them are certainly more hardware hungry than other ones and you should consider this before purchasing it. Ensure that the flight simulator you decide to buy will live up to your expectations and if possible add some flight simulator hardware to the game to increase your enjoyment and realism.

Once you have purchased a game and some additional flight simulator hardware, consider joining a virtual airline. Joining one of these will increase your enjoyment and add to the realism of the simulator. The forums within a virtual airline are also a great souce of information from basic flying skills to hardware setup.




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