Is FSX Dying

[hendrik357]

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday brought to my attention something my wife has been saying for a long time and I wanted to see what you guys say. It all began when my video card was due for an update which I did. After updating the card (NVIDIA GTX) I went to turn on FSX and I got this message:

My PC is a Windows7 about 3years old. I could not get FSX to open until I reverted back to the stock video card that came with the pc originally. It seems that in this case FSX has come to a point where it can advance no further. I had been using the NVIDIA card for the past 3 years with wonderful performance until I did the update.
My wife who knows way more than I do about computers says that with the updates to the video card and updates to the pc throught the passing of time that FSX can no longer keep up. Is this what will spell the bitter end for FSX in the coarse of time? I look forward to your comments.

Dan C.

Footnote: Since I reverted back to the stock video card FSX is back to running fine and even with the stock video card it is performing pretty well with health frame rates. So I can still use FSX and continue to build objects and scenery at least for now.

 

[caleb]

Something to consider would be to move to Prepar3D. It is supported, and it could make use of your new graphics card. What kind of graphics card is you new one exactly? Pretty much all FSX addons are compatible with Prelar3D, so you would not need to buy all of your addons again.

Caleb

 

[hairyspin]

... It all began when my video card was due for an update which I did. After updating the card (NVIDIA GTX) I went to turn on FSX and I got this message: View attachment 38241
My PC is a Windows7 about 3years old.

What sort of video card did you update to? I have an nVidia GTX 1050 Ti (months old) and even with the latest Win 10 updates FSX still works normally. I think the answer was in the error message "Invalid Hardware or Device Driver Detected." There are people here running FSX on the very latest, highest spec nVidia cards without issue.

 

[Gman]

Maybe it wasn't seated properly?
At the very least I would take the new video card back and exchange it for another to make certain you didn't just get a lemon. It happens all of the time.

 

[Ed Akridge]

This is just one of many problems that people are encountering with FSX of late. The most prolific of which seem to be Windows 10 updates. Every time that Micro$haft kicks out a new update for Windows 10 it seems that FSX won't boot until someone finds a way around the update. Most of these people were lured in by the "Free Upgrade" and promises of better performance. FSX may not be "Dead", but it is definitely on the "Outdated" list.

 

[Heretic]

My Nvidia 8800GTS ran FSX just fine, my GTX275 ran FSX just fine, my GTX570 ran FSX just fine and my GTX1060 and GTX960M run FSX just fine - using the drivers supplied by the manufacturer (Nvidia).

 

[=rk=]

This reminds me of the old FSX/FS9 debate and the thing is, the FS9 guys didn't have Steam. $25, all the shader/memory fixes have been applied and it runs on anything current, if you must stick with FSX.

 

[joshwagstaff13]

I have an nVidia GTX 1050 Ti (months old) and even with the latest Win 10 updates FSX still works normally.

Same here. I have a GTX 1060 6GB and FSX:A works exactly as it should with the most recent Win 10 updates.

 

[Gman]

I don't have anything fancy, but I do have windows 10 64 and FSX-SE runs great. I think my son got it for me at Steam for $5 a few years ago when it was on sale. I have been very impressed with it.

 

[hairyspin]

There you go: they tried to kill it, but they reckoned without the Night of the Zombie Flight Simulator!


edit: it’s almost automatic to blame out of date software when new hardware won’t run X, Y or Z; but we often forget to plug everything in, switch everything on, install all the drivers and connect all the peripherals before panicking. I’ve been there too.

 

[Tejal Bernardo]

I thought that Windows 10 would kill fsx but all is working better than ever as I usually say, a pity fsx not was completely finished but I guess with the thousand of tweaks and tricks. fsx will stay a Little more

 

[pinkjr]

FS9 is pbly still the most popular sim out there. it's just that the typical FS9 user doesn't "steam" or "twitch". they just enjoy unlimited frame rates on average PCs and fly.

 

[=rk=]

fsx will stay a Little more

Are you talking FSX, or FSX:SE? And if you are talking FSX:SE, is that FSX:SE with the highmemfix, or FSX:SE with bufferpools? FSX:SE with old FSX ORBX installed or FSX:SE with new ORBX installed? Carenado or PMDG? Potayto, potahto...I could easily go on. There are already, by the latest estimations, a bajillion different versions and variations of FSX and that number shows no signs of decreasing any time soon, combine those with the volume of FS9 variations and sciencenumertologists estimate there is already a copy of a MSFS for every man, woman and child living in America and even a few beyond, mostly men in the 20 to 35 age bracket. Based on available datamographics, what is probably most popular and therefore most important, varies on a variable basis between various varieties of users.

I try to focus on the latest release of a platform, although I will tip my hat to the arcade version due to it's popularity and my familiarity with it, most likely; but to consider developing anything for the previous version of a deprecated sim, or even the existence of that version as a valid alternative to popular simulators, acknowledges an extremely undynamic interest group, for which my preoccupied scatterbrain has not the resources.

 

[Gman]

Not even sure what all of that means, to "steam" or to "twitch'.
FSX-SE does not have to be flown online or some such, although if you are online, Steam may update FSX-SE if there were any updates since the last time you flew. Whatever DTG has done to it, I haven't felt the need to do any tweaking of the FSX.cfg.
As far as I am concerned, and I have used it on three aged computers now, FSX-SE is the best version of FS I have owned. It is not dumbed down for "Arcade" players, if anything it has been peaked and tweaked to run on mediocre computers. My most recent hand me down computer from my son is a Gateway win 10 64 computer, and is nothing special, with onboard graphics, and 8 gig ram, yet it runs FSX-SE with 60 FPS and most sliders maxed.
He installed FSX-SE on it before he gave it to me and he is NOT a flight simmer, so installation is not an issue.
I still have FS9 Pro, yet I can't imagine going back to it. Likewise FSX Pro.
I LMAO at the fact that he paid $5 for it....
Ah well, I'm just a poor old retired guy who remembers SubLogic days, I'll leave all the high tech stuff for the FS rocket scientists and their $5,000 rigs loaded with another $5000 of payware and 30 TB of scenery.
I can live vicariously through them and drool over their screenshots.

 

[n4gix]

IMHO, FSX ain't "dying" but MS is bound and determined to screw with Win10 until it is broken, as it happens to be at present. Hopefully the 12/12/17 update will restore Win10 to proper operation again.

BTW, I have an nVidia GTX 1080Ti video card with 11 GB of VRAM. When the sims do load, they run wonderfully!

 

[Heretic]

IMHO, FSX ain't "dying" but MS is bound and determined to screw with Win10 until it is broken, as it happens to be at present.

Well, to be fair, P3D is just as screwed by botched Windows updates as is FSX.

 

[robystar]

I am still on FSX when I want to fly around and just enjoy all the scenery that is around.
But I am also on P3D (and trying to keep up with their versions and changes) because I unfortunatedly got involved in this payware project that has apparently to be made both working in FSX and P3D (all versions) to sell.
I know PD3 is supposed to be the future but I am living and flying in FSX without having the problems I have with effects, aircraft and AI aircraft not functional or showing up in P3D.
The sooner I will get rid of this payware project, the happier I will be and devote all my time to more freeware scenery both compatible to FSX and (if possible) P3D.
Steam is FSX and when you have FSX there is no point in having FSX_SE.
Hope you get my point: FSX and FSXSE are still fully in the picture but switching to P3D would mean losing a lot of possibilities you still have in FSX/SE but you probably are (like me) reluctant in letting go what you have and confront the challenges of P3D and all its quirks.

 

[=rk=]

Steam is FSX and when you have FSX there is no point in having FSX_SE.

This is a mistaken assumption. FSX:SE is a unique product and even if you have applied all the edits, updates and tweaks that make FSX:SE different, or better, or unique from FSX, a legacy FSX owner is denied the one click restore, multiplayer integration, the Steam support community, built in announcement/product browser, etc.
I too started working with a commercial developer who intended compatibility with multiple platforms and I immediately saw the efficiency of ditching my scenery heavy, delay prone build of FSX Gold and went with a very lean, almost default configuration of FSX:SE for FSX development and aside from switching out an airplane or two, maybe a scenery, I haven't looked back.

 

[Gman]

Steam is FSX and when you have FSX there is no point in having FSX_SE.

This is a mistaken assumption. FSX:SE is a unique product and even if you have applied all the edits, updates and tweaks that make FSX:SE different, or better, or unique from FSX, a legacy FSX owner is denied the one click restore, multiplayer integration, the Steam support community, built in announcement/product browser, etc.
I too started working with a commercial developer who intended compatibility with multiple platforms and I immediately saw the efficiency of ditching my scenery heavy, delay prone build of FSX Gold and went with a very lean, almost default configuration of FSX:SE for FSX development and aside from switching out an airplane or two, maybe a scenery, I haven't looked back.

Bingo Rick!

 

[hendrik357]

Thank you for all the comments! There is so much information about FSX and all of it's different forms.


My sim is: FSX Acceleration

My video card is/was: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M

The card is still in my system but FSX does not reconize it and has reverted back to the stock video card. Although the stock video card is doing a pretty good job every soften I get a message that I kept getting about a week before I updated the NVIDIA card which states:

FSX needs a higher resolution and asks me if I would like to change my resolution, if I say no FSX closes and when I reopen it I get the same message until I say yes to change resolution. . In doing some research online I found several people have been getting that same message so it seems to be a common issue that is popping up. My resolution is already set to 1920X1080

Here is that message I get about resolution: