Does Real Flight 6.5 have TF Giant Corsair
 

I've been flying 40 size aircraft for a number of years and recently built the Top Flite Giant Corsair and also purchased the Top Flite Giant P47 ARF. I'd like to do some sim flying on these 2 giant size aircraft before I maiden these. Does Real Flight 6.5 have these aircraft in it's inventory or any of it's add ons? Alternatively does it have any warbirds that would help me in flying these big warbirds especially the Corsair which as I understand has it's own special flying characteristics?

I have absolutely no experience flying sims so would appreciate any help with this.

Thanks,

Gary

RE: Does Real Flight 6.5 have TF Giant Corsair
 

Yes, we added [link=http://www.top-flite.com/airplanes/topa0704.html]this model[/link] to RealFlight 6.0 in a free update, so it is part of 6.5.

RE: Does Real Flight 6.5 have TF Giant Corsair
 

You should also check out the Realflight "[link=http://www.knifeedge.com/forums/downloads.php]Swap Pages[/link]"

There are many hundreds of complete planes and many hundreds of variants and colorschemes for them there more so than for any other sim. Actually there are close to 12,000 ( yes that is RIGHT! ) downloadable files available.

Planes created for earlier versions will work under the latest version of the software, so to maximize what you have available upgrade to 6.5.

RE: Does Real Flight 6.5 have TF Giant Corsair
 

+1

There is a lot of stuff to browse through. There are many user created airfields and indoor flying sites.

The upgrade to 6.5 is the deal of the century, imo. Rip snorting fast on an iMac with Bootcamp.

RE: Does Real Flight 6.5 have TF Giant Corsair
 

Many thanks to Ryan, opjose and blw for responding. All your information was very helpful, so much so, that I have decided to purchase this simulator.

Now if you were purchasing a new laptop that would support this simulator, I've decided I need something portable due to my other needs, what laptop would you buy?

I've read the optimal specs for Real Flight 6.5 but wanted to get a practical opinion before I make that purchase. Again any input would be much appreciated. I'm really looking forward to getting into this sim.


Many thanks,

Gary

RE: Does Real Flight 6.5 have TF Giant Corsair
 

As with all laptops, the problem lies with the graphics adapters.

The average laptop buyer goes into a vendor's store and states... "I'm looking for a laptop/netbook/ultrabook to do work, I don't care about games ".

So for a long time the manufacturers have catered to this.

To save manufacturing costs they put in the cheapest, least expensive graphics adapter they can, namely the "integrated" single chip video adapters that use "shared memory" ( memory borrowed from the main system memory ).

That helps to keep the costs down, but really impact programs that try to perform 3D rendering.

Desktop computers on the other hand can be easily equipped with aftermarket rip snorting 3D graphic rendering beasts of graphic cards with a lot of built in video ram ( vram ). Which makes them the cost/performance leader when it comes to 3D rendering on PC's.

To combat this in part, graphic card manufacturers came out with "mobility" versions of their graphic chips. These are less capable 3D rendering chipsets often called "Mobility" or having an "M" designation in the name. These are a bit better than Integrated chipsets and sometimes even feature dedicated VRAM ( something you want ), but they are not on par with the desktop machine dedicated adapter performance.

So what to do?

Your best bet is to seek what is called a "gaming laptop".

You'll notice that the price will seem to be significantly higher than other non-gaming devices... and that is because of the added cost of giving you a high performance 3D capable graphics adapter in the small form factor.

Don't go for ANY Laptop/Netbook/Ultrabook that doesn't specifically state the graphic adapter chipset used. Look for Nvidia or ATI in the list of features. Avoid "Intel HD", "Intel Integrated" etc... ( note JUST in the graphic adapter/video area ).

Get at least 4 gigs of RAM and a big HDD... a big SSD drive ( somewhat expensive! ) will make the machine REALLY "fly".

Oh yes... some newer "gaming" laptops feature both the Intel Integrated adapters and a secondary Nvidia or ATI adapter.

Suprisingly these are less than optimal. To get good performance the Nvidia or ATI adapter only kicks in when the 3D program ( Realflight in this case ) is run soley in full screen mode.
While you can do this in Realflight, it's annoying at times having to switch in and out of full screen mode to say, pick a different plane.

On single display laptops, the Nvidia or ATI device is the main graphics adapter. That lets you open a regular "window" in Windows, and see the simulator running in it at full speed.

With the dual display chip setup the simulator will run at a VERY GREATLY reduced speed ( much lower FPS ) in a window, and typically with lower display features.

RE: Does Real Flight 6.5 have TF Giant Corsair
 

opjose,

This is exactly the type if information I was looking for. Many thanks for taking the time to reply in such detail which all makes sense to me. If you were closer ....a lot closer I'd head over with a case of good old Canuck beer.

Best, and again thanks,

Gary A