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FSX with my iMac

Hi,

The main frame-rate killer for me is the water, so I've notched that down a bit. Other than that, I'm getting between 20 and 50 fps, although it's not as smooth as FS9.

I'm running it at 1440x990 on XP. Tried Vista but it caused more problems than it solved.

If you get it, be sure to apply Service Pack 1 and probably 2.

I haven't tried the add-on texture packs yet.

Cheers,

Mark
 
New to iMAc

I recently bought my very first Mac. It is an iMac 24", 2.8Ghz with 320 GB Hard Drive, 4GB Ram, and the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 w/ 512 MB....

My question is: I've heard that I can actually play Flight Simulator X on the iMac. What do I need to do in order to do that. I read something about Leopard, Vista 64 Ult. and Boot Camp. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I'm new to this whole Windows to Mac transformation thing.
 
ARKI1980 said:
I recently bought my very first Mac. It is an iMac 24", 2.8Ghz with 320 GB Hard Drive, 4GB Ram, and the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 w/ 512 MB....

My question is: I've heard that I can actually play Flight Simulator X on the iMac. What do I need to do in order to do that. I read something about Leopard, Vista 64 Ult. and Boot Camp. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I'm new to this whole Windows to Mac transformation thing.
Click to expand...

Yes you need eopard, Some flavor of windows. and Boot Camp. I use XP on my Mac Pro and it runs pretty good. I never tried it on a imac. If you do not want to do the windows thing give x-plane a shot. It has a higher learn curve but when it is all set up I like it beter that FSX, but you can't go wrong with eather.
 
Well, the iMac I just bought comes with OS 10.5 Leopard and Boot Camp. I was wondering if I would get the best gameplay with XP or Vista. And then there Service Pak 1 and 2. What would you recommend? And Once I get Windows running, can I play any other Windows games as well?
 
ARKI1980 said:
Well, the iMac I just bought comes with OS 10.5 Leopard and Boot Camp. I was wondering if I would get the best gameplay with XP or Vista. And then there Service Pak 1 and 2. What would you recommend? And Once I get Windows running, can I play any other Windows games as well?
Click to expand...
I like XP only because I own it and do not want to pay for Vista. And yes once you have windows installed you have a windows machine and you can play all the games and get all the other windows stuff including viruses. If I did not own windows XP I would buy Vista, you can get a OEM version for less $$$.
 
dimme said:
I like XP only because I own it and do not want to pay for Vista. And yes once you have windows installed you have a windows machine and you can play all the games and get all the other windows stuff including viruses. If I did not own windows XP I would buy Vista, you can get a OEM version for less $$$.
Click to expand...

The viruses do not carry over to the mac side. Only Vista 32-bit is supported in Boot Camp; if you buy 64-bit, you will be without drivers (bad :().
 
Muncher said:
The viruses do not carry over to the mac side. Only Vista 32-bit is supported in Boot Camp; if you buy 64-bit, you will be without drivers (bad :().
Click to expand...

Not true - the 2008 Mac Pros came with 64-bit Vista Boot Camp drivers, which can also be manually downloaded and used to run 64-bit Vista on other Macs. A few weeks ago I used this method to get 64-bit Vista running on my 2008 iMac and it runs wonderfully (games and all). I know that people have also gotten 64-bit Vista running on Macbooks.
 
I have vista 64 bit pro under bootcamp and let me tell you, it TRANSFORMED the performance of FSX under windows. It was more like a hardware than a software update.
 
Dimme, thanks for the info.....I looked at both X-Plane and FSX and they both look good to me... I'm deciding to get the X-Plane for now just so I don't have to buy a new Windows XP or Vista... If, for some reason, I'm not happy with X-Plane, I'll switch over to FSX.... But at least I know I have the chance to switch over to FSX if X-Plane isn't all what it's cracked out to be....Thanks again
 
By the way, can anyone tell me what joystick would be good for X-Plane?.. I'm not a pilot or an expert in these games...I wouldn't mind something simple with 6 to 8 buttons...I looked at Logitech, Saitek, and CH... I liked the Logitech Freedpm 2.4 Cordless....Any comments on it?
 
ARKI1980 said:
By the way, can anyone tell me what joystick would be good for X-Plane?.. I'm not a pilot or an expert in these games...I wouldn't mind something simple with 6 to 8 buttons...I looked at Logitech, Saitek, and CH... I liked the Logitech Freedpm 2.4 Cordless....Any comments on it?
Click to expand...

Check out X-plane.org hey have all the answers about Xplane!
 
FS2004 with 24" iMac

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all well. I'm a pilot and have been with MS flight simulator for years. I fly the Airbus, 737-300/700, and 757 add-ons primarily. These are the add-on companies.

Feelthere (737-300)
PMDG (737-700/800/900)
PSS (Airbus/Boeing 757)

Recently just bought a 24" iMac. Here is the configuration:
Duo Core 2.8GHz
4GB memory
512 8800GS

Running boot camp with XP and FS2004 is a joke. I get great frame rates but I get a complete freeze which appears to be related to the sound or graphics. I believe it is the sound.

Has anyone else had this happen to them? I should mention I'm running Boot Camp 2.1 with XP Professional SP2. (SP3 had same issue).

Does anyone know how to resolve this by chance?

Brian
Phoenix
 
I have a mac pro with XP Pro SP3 & FSX and I get freezes almost every time I go to the menu bar. Most time I have to reboot. Never been able to figure it out so I don't use FSX much. Sure would like make it work. I am too cheap to upgrade to Vista.
 
I'm afraid you will have to get Vista, which cured the problem for me and also made a huge improvement in performance. Get an OEM copy, it's legal with a Mac as it's classed as a system build.
 
Anyone getting consistent 60+ fps out of FSX? If so, what hardware and settings are you running?

I've been out of the flight simulator game for awhile, but high frame rates have always been a priority to me.
 
Thunderbird8 said:
I'm afraid you will have to get Vista, which cured the problem for me and also made a huge improvement in performance. Get an OEM copy, it's legal with a Mac as it's classed as a system build.
Click to expand...

Do you know where I can get an OEM Vista?

Mark
 
bgahan said:
Hi everyone,

Hope you are all well. I'm a pilot and have been with MS flight simulator for years. I fly the Airbus, 737-300/700, and 757 add-ons primarily. These are the add-on companies.

Feelthere (737-300)
PMDG (737-700/800/900)
PSS (Airbus/Boeing 757)

Recently just bought a 24" iMac. Here is the configuration:
Duo Core 2.8GHz
4GB memory
512 8800GS

Running boot camp with XP and FS2004 is a joke. I get great frame rates but I get a complete freeze which appears to be related to the sound or graphics. I believe it is the sound.

Has anyone else had this happen to them? I should mention I'm running Boot Camp 2.1 with XP Professional SP2. (SP3 had same issue).

Does anyone know how to resolve this by chance?

Brian
Phoenix
Click to expand...

I'm running FS2004 with a huge array of add-ons on a MacBook Pro (2.4 GHz, 4Gb RAM, 256Mb 8600) and it's flawless - never had a problem with it.

You could verify it's the sound by disabling the hardware and testing it. If it is that, you might be better off with a USB sound card.

Mark
 
X-plane Installation Problem

I just got X-Plane V9 yesterday...Tried installing it, but some point in the installation, there's an error that it cannot extract a specific file. The CD was a little scratched....Could it be that.... Or is there something wrong with my iMac...I mean my iMac is literally 3 days old..... HELP!!
 
ARKI1980 said:
I just got X-Plane V9 yesterday...Tried installing it, but some point in the installation, there's an error that it cannot extract a specific file. The CD was a little scratched....Could it be that.... Or is there something wrong with my iMac...I mean my iMac is literally 3 days old..... HELP!!
Click to expand...

Have you tried contacting the X-Plane support? :rolleyes: This is discussion about Flight Simulator on a Mac- not a support page for an application. :p

It's like buying a Dell and going to HP for tech support.
 
ARKI1980 said:
I just got X-Plane V9 yesterday...Tried installing it, but some point in the installation, there's an error that it cannot extract a specific file. The CD was a little scratched....Could it be that.... Or is there something wrong with my iMac...I mean my iMac is literally 3 days old..... HELP!!
Click to expand...

I had a similar problem I email Xplane support and they got me going. Happy X plane flying!!
 
Buying a new imac

Hi guys need some advice.

Looking to move across to Apple and buy an imac, Specs below:

Imac 24"
3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x2 GB
500GB Serial ATA Drive
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS w/512MB GDDR3
Apple Mighty Mouse
Wireless keyboard (British) & User’s Guide (English)
Mobile Me (Phone is due for upgrade and im getting an iphone)

I grew up playing FS so im looking to play this again on the Imac, could you please tell me what i need and need to consider with FS and the imac.

Are the specs mentioned gonna give me some great gameplay?

So far i understand:

- Install Vista onto bootcamp (I presume i need to create a HD partition for this?, how much should I allocate, I will eventually install addon's both scenery and aircraft.) can the partition be changed, increased/decreased

- ReadyBoost - Will this benefit the imac and gameplay?

What else do i need to think about or consider?

Should I wait for a possible Imac spec upgrade in early 2009?
 
psionmark said:
I'm running it under Vista via Bootcamp on a 17" MacBook Pro and it's pretty good. I get a slight pause sometimes during really hard turns in bad weather, but that's about it.

Flight Simulator 2004 is smooth as silk with all settings maxed out, as is X-Plane 9 under OSX :)

Cheers,

Mark
Click to expand...

X-Plane 9 can be configured with setting levels that will choke ANY system, I don't care how high end it is, what settings are you using? The performance is okay on my iMac 2.4GHz (256 Radeon 2600) but I wouldn't call it amazing, especially during inclement weather.
 
ColeUK said:
I grew up playing FS so im looking to play this again on the Imac, could you please tell me what i need and need to consider with FS and the imac.
Click to expand...

I too have been flying FS since my commodore 64. I still use FSX once in a while but I like Xplane much better, and I don't have to hassle with windows.
Give x plane a try!
 
econoline06 said:
X-Plane 9 can be configured with setting levels that will choke ANY system, I don't care how high end it is, what settings are you using?
Click to expand...

I suspect both flight sims are quite poorly written. When you
consider the general lack of polish and the hardware demands
compared to other games, it is quite embarrassing. I think we
can forgive Austin a little because he has not the resources of
Microsoft. But how does one explain the jaggies on the GPS here:

fsx.jpg

That's simply rubbish. There's also digital noise in the GPS image.

And the knobs on the radio control panel point the wrong way!
They're not aligned with the panel plane normal vector. I mean,
how difficult is it to come up with decent quality 2D images?

Then again, at times FS-X can look quite lovely. But it should do:
it makes Crysis level demands on a system. It even uses 100% of
4 cores (that's 4 x 2.8GHz on a Mac Pro) just to display the free
flight menu... I mean... *speechless*
 
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