Tribute to FS2004

This is one of several screenshots that I took recently of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004, which is the latest game that I've modded. I know that I've said for a very long time that I would post some of the 3D models that I've been learning to make, but actually this series serves a different purpose. First of all, I didn't make this model, as surprisingly it's from the original game. It's maybe my favorite obscure detail in FS2004, or one of my favorites, anyway. In real life, the Firth of Forth is also one of my favorite bridges. When I was taking this screenshot, I discovered that FS2004 also models crashing ocean waves, something that I had never noticed before. The water is actually modeled well enough so that you can operate simulated ships in it, although this functionality was obviously intended originally to support seaplanes.

One of the other cool things in Microsoft Flight Simulator is that so many tiny, obscure airports are included. This is Fall City, Washington. There isn't much detail on this one, but you could theoretically add it using Airport Design Editor, which is available separately.

Bautzen airport, in spite of being virtually unknown in real life, is quite well detailed in Microsoft Flight Simulator, complete with AI traffic.

Other than flying the planes, arguably the most fun thing to do with Microsoft Flight Simulator is to build up the AI traffic files, which use the same simulated aircraft (usually) as what the player can fly. This is a lot like setting up a model trainset, only with planes. The format of the files is really simple, as you can see here, although each traffic .bgl file is made by compiling three text files, for the selected aircraft and airports, and for the flight plans themselves. The most popular compiler is called TTools, and I have it pictured next.

The most popular, and useful tool for making FS2004 traffic files is TTools, seen here. An aircraft file, an airports file, and a flightplans file, all of them in .txt format, are compiled to form one "traffic" .bgl file that goes in the Scenery>World folder. When you click "Compile," the .bgl is compiled and saved to the correct location automatically.

Another feature that, at the very least, conserves a lot of system resources, is the ability of FS2004 aircraft to have several liveries on the same model. When you select an aircraft to fly, there's a convenient menu to select the correct livery (and with it the correct registration, airline callsign, and a flight number). When I recently tried FlightGear, it lacked this feature, so it would be a nice thing to add now that MSFS is out of production. I don't know how X-Plane handles multiple liveries. While not authentic, this Olympic Airways repaint of the default 747-400 is one of my favorites of the ones I've made.

This was my first-ever FS2004 aircraft repaint, of the default Boeing 737-400. I needed a quick and easy BA 737 to use as an AI aircraft for a full renovation that I was doing on the default Prague Ruzyne airport. What I didn't realize was that someone else had already done a better version of this scheme, but I opted to download the better one anyway and ultimately use both. In this screenshot, you can also see Terminal 2, which I added as part of the renovation. When FS2004 was originally released, Ruzyne was presented in its pre-2003 form, with only 2 terminals, which are now #1 and 3.

This Air France Boeing 757 was my second-ever repaint, again for the Ruzyne project, although it's pictured here at Charles de Gaulle. The model isn't from the original game, but was made by Project OpenSky as freeware. The physics model (called the config file in FS2004 terms), which had a lot of bugs in it when I got it, also got a few tweaks.

This was one of my stranger repaints, but I felt that, while inauthentic in strict terms (Belavia don't fly any 777's), it makes sense. In the default AI traffic from FS2004, there are services between Miami and Minsk, and when I redid the traffic for Miami and Minsk I figured at least one flight should be operated by Belavia. Hence, while I haven't flown this repaint myself, I use it for an AI. The model is actually the default 777-300 from the game, and the config is compiled from several sources.