General B17 help

[Viking Hunter]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the site but have just seen a video of the B17 on YouTube being used on Fsx, I've loved flying them since the Mighty eighth Days but the graphics are outdated now and the B17 on YouTube looked absolutely awesome, Can someone please advise the best place to buy the add on as I can't seem to find it for Fsx, Also on the add on is there any missions for it or is it just free flight?
Thanks in advance

[reflected]

Hi,

Perhaps you could post a link to that video so we can check?

For starters, I would recommend:

- SweetFX - to further tweak the colors to your liking
- DX10 preview mode with the DX10 fixer to improve performance and add cockpit shadows
- ReX - to improve the sky, clouds, water, etc...
- ORBX addons for a realistic landscape
-...the list goes on and on and on

[Alan_A]

@reflected - good advice, but I got the impression the OP was asking about the B-17 itself.

@Viking Hunter - if I'm right, and you're looking to buy the B-17 for FSX, you'll find it at this page. If you want the best possible experience (deep and realistic systems, persistent wear and tear, and a really entertaining crew that will also help you with the workload) then be sure to buy the Accu-Sim package for the B-17 as well. It's a separate purchase, but if you buy both the aircraft and Accu-Sim at the same time, you'll get a small discount by checking the box at the bottom of the B-17 purchase page.

reflected has suggested some great add-ons. But if your interest is mainly in the B-17, buy that first and make sure it runs well on your system. It can be pretty demanding especially on older PCs. Once you're good with that, you can move on to the rest of reflected's suggestions, which will transform FSX into a whole new, much better-looking sim.

Hope I understood you correctly, and hope this helps.

EDIT: Oh, and just to answer the OP's last question - it's free-flight, not mission-based and not a combat sim, since FSX is a civilian environment. But the AI crew and the Accu-Sim experience provide plenty of immersion. These videos will give you a very good introduction. Again, hope this is useful - if not, feel free to come back and ask whatever you need.

[Viking Hunter]

@reflected Sorry I meant where do I buy it and that I used to like playing B17 the mighty eighth and saw a video on YouTube which made me want to purchase the add on for Fsx but couldn't find it, Thanks

@Alan thanks very much that was what I was looking for my computer set up is this, I know I don't have a very good graphics card but will be buying one in the next month or so.

Processor
Processor AMD Athlon X4 860K
Processor Cores 4
Processor Speed 4.3 GHz Overclocked
Graphics
Graphics Card NVIDIA Geforce GT 730
Graphics Memory 2GB
Drives
Hard Drive 1TB SATA3 6Gbps
Optical Drive 24x DVD/CD Rewriter
Networking
Wired LAN 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN
Wireless LAN (WiFi) 300Mbps Super-fast Wifi
Other Specifications
Operating System Windows 7 64bit professional
Video Outputs VGA (D-Sub), DVI-D, HDMI
Memory 8GB
Power Supply 500W
Case CiT Spectre Gaming Case White
Motherboard Gigabyte F2A68HM-HD2 (more information here)
- HD Audio
- 1x PCI Express x16, 1x PCI Express x1, 1x PCI
- 2x back USB 2.0 ports
- 2x back USB 3.0 ports
Dual Monitor Yes

[Alan_A]

Viking Hunter - glad we could start to get you pointed in the right direction.

I don't know my AMD hardware that well (I've been on Intel for years) but cores and clock speed suggest that you should be able to get the A2A B-17 running pretty decently. Improved graphics card will help, though FSX is an older program and hits the CPU harder than the graphics processor. If it was me, I'd try the B-17 in a close-to-vanilla FSX install, then see about improving the overall look and feel (with add-on clouds, ground textures, weather programs etc.) a little at a time. People get down on plain, out of the box FSX but it's really not that bad, and has the advantage of running smoothly.

At some point you might also want to check out the FSX: Steam Edition. Steam is an online gaming community; FSX: Steam is a somewhat updated version of the program - not radically changed, but the performance has been optimized a bit and for me at least, it's a bit smoother than the DVD edition. The Steam version goes on sale from time to time, so if you want to experiment, you can wait for one of their $5 sales. Makes it easy to try it out. But again, this is worth doing only if you run into performance problems with your current setup.

Enjoy the B-17 - it's probably my favorite A2A aircraft, and if you find yourself not flying much of anything else, you won't be the first or the only.

Hope to see you back here.

[reflected]

Sorry I misunderstood you, English is not my native language

I mist say, though, your system is way better than mine, it will handle any add-ons you throw at it.

There are no missions, it's free flight. It's whatever mission you have in mind, you can plan in advance, then complete it. Your entire crew is "alive" so you won't get bored, especially if you don't let your co-pilot handle the cowl flaps and intercoolers

[Viking Hunter]

Thanks to you both for the advice, I will be buying the steam version of FSX and then buying the B17 add on with the Accu sim too, I'm not very good with computers but when I buy the add on will they automatically go into the FSX game so it's there to be used?

[reflected]

You will, in fact, purchase 2 installers (.exe). One for the WoP B17 and another for the Accu Sim upgrade. You have to run them in this order, then you will be able to select the B-17 in the free flight menu.

http://www.a2asimulations.com/store/ind ... ducts_id=6

then

https://a2asimulations.com/store/index. ... ucts_id=39

[Viking Hunter]

Ok brilliant thanks

[Tomas Linnet]

Don't forget to run the latest update found here:http://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtop ... 29&t=41279 after installing Accu-Sim

[Viking Hunter]

Thanks Tomas

[Viking Hunter]

Just one other question, is there checklist for pre flight checks/ start up/ landing sequence etc on the site anywhere?

[Alan_A]

There are checklists in the manual starting on page 114 - if you're interested, you can download it before buying from the product page in the A2A store. They're also available in the VC via the Shift+2 menu.

There are some images of real-world aluminum checklist placards in this thread. Unfortunately most of the download links are now broken, but you can right-click and save the images as jpegs. Best one is here.

You can also track down real-world B-17 manuals (periscopefilm.com is one popular source) and use them in-sim - the A2A version is that authentic. Make sure before buying that the manual applies to the G model, or at least the F (operationally similar except for the addition of the turbo control dial in the G, whereas the F had levers - but the principle is the same. The G had the chin turret, of course, but that's not a factor when you're flying in-sim as aircraft commander). I think the Periscope version of the manual applies to the F model, but it works for me - I use a reprint I bought at the Smithsonian a couple of decades ago.

Capt Richardo, a member here, did a very nice set of voice control checklists for the B-17 - you can find the discussions by searching the B-17 forum for "voice control checklist," and the program itself is downloadable from avsim.com. If I was just getting started on the B-17, I'd leave this for later - voice control can be finicky to set up, and the print checklists plus the interactive crew are more than enough to get you going.

Enjoy!

[Alan_A]

Hey, Viking Hunter - just a heads-up that they're having one of those $5 sales on FSX Steam Edition. I think it's valid today and tomorrow, though I have that info secondhand. So you might want to grab it. Here's the link to the FSX page at the Steam Store. FYI that you don't have to install it on purchase - you can buy it now and then download and install at some later point.

Since the clock is ticking, I"ll send you this message as a PM as well.

[Lewis - A2A]

Good to hear its going well, and as to your last PM about silly questions, as you can see from the repsonses, there are no silly questions so anything at all just ask and we will do our most to help, the community will chip in with there thoughts or hints and tips that they use and if none of us can help we normally are pretty good at pointing you to people or websites that might be able to help.

thanks,
Lewis