Got an opportunity to pick up a G-3 at a real reasonable price, and this would be my first simulator. What are the major differences between the G -3, 4, qnd 5 ?

Should I hold out for a later model, or go with the G -3 ? I have no need to fly on-line with other people.

Thanks.

Ed

Unless you are using advanced features or a seasoned flier all you will probably notice is better graphics between G3 and G4. G3 is upgradeable to G5 for under $100 though. G5 and G4.5 are know to have several problems on a variety of hardware that meet their listed requirements.
G3 will run almost any PC. To get the better graphics and performance out of G4.5 and G5 require a high-end gaming computer ($$$$) and high-end video card ($$$$).
I had G4 and liked it but have found that the free program FMS meets 90% of needs . I fly slow WWI planes, no 3-D or aerobatics etc.

RealFlight G3 is a good "basic" sim. It has nice graphics, a large amount of flying fields and aircraft. Plus it has a large amount of User created aircraft and flying fields. The free upgrade for G3 (G3.5) added things like night flying, streamers and reactive 3D objects. It did little to nothing to upgrade environmental modeling or aeronautical physics over what existed in G3.

G4 added water to the mix along with a "different way" of doing things - meaning that the physics model was changed. Better ground handling was added along with "springing" gear for some of the planes. The ground handling was not a huge improvement over what they had before and the water physics were very "cartoonish". I have yet to see a float plane react to water the way they do in G4. G4 required more computing power, especially in the video card area. Unfortunately, RealFlight wasn't very good at informing their customers of the true computer needs to get best performance from the software. Their minimum requirements meant that you would lose a great deal of graphical features.

G4.5 (a free upgrade for the owners of G4) added the ability to change the "difficulty" settings which was a good attempt at changing the aeronautical physics settings. By choosing the most difficult settings you could now get close to having some real life flight experiences. G4.5 was also infamous for it's problems. In the first six months after it's release it received no less then 15 upgrades in an attempt to correct bugs.

G5 as you're aware has added combat features and little else. There was no attempt at fixing any of the long standing physics issues, instead, as usual the company chose to add more "gaming" features and "eye candy" to attract the younger/newer/first time flyers instead of making a better product. Not to mention the fact that now you need a good quality "gaming" computer to get "basic" graphics and still have the ability to fly. Plus issues like "hitching" (that first presented itself in G4) have not been corrected. (Hitching is when the screen freezes while the program loads - in this case it seems to be caused by the software loading sound files. Most users in an attempt to correct the problem simply crash the first plane they fly, deliberately.) This has been an issue since the release of G4 in Nov of 2007 and KnifeEdge is just now asking customers for help to resolve the issue.

The really sad issue with RealFlight is it's strong armed attempts at silencing any and all criticism of their product. I have given my honest opinion here, yet I've been banned from websites owned by the president of KnifeEdge Software (the software developer for RealFlight) for saying the same thing ... It seems that Hobbico, GreatPlanes, RealFlight and KnifeEdge Software only want to hear praise for their products. That might be why G5 isn't much of an improvement over G3 - except that it has more games to play.

By the way, if you're buying a used copy of RealFlight make sure that the previous owner has un-registered it. You won't be able to register the software unless it's un-registered by the previous owner.

dbcisco - " I had G4 and liked it but have found that the free program FMS meets 90% of needs . I fly slow WWI planes, no 3-D or aerobatics etc. "

Thank you for your input. So do I understand correctly, that you are now using G-4, and are happy with it, and what is FMS ? ? ? Sorry, but I'm a newbie at simulators.

johndou - " By the way, if you're buying a used copy of RealFlight make sure that the previous owner has un-registered it. You won't be able to register the software unless it's un-registered by the previous owner. "

Is registering it absolutely essential in order to use it ?

Thanks guys.


Ed

I sold realflight G4 after upgrading to G4.5 and having too much greif from knifeedge over it (long story).
The only sim I really use anymore is FMS which is a free RC flight simulator. No fancy graphics or fancy flying but I don't need that anyway.
I also have Reflex XTR wich I got for $10 but I rarely use it although it is a good sim.
If I do buy a sim again it will probably be Aerofly 5 or AFPD. I have used a friend's and I think it is better than Realflight. Better support too.

I wish I spent the sim money on planes though.

Why wouldn't you want a "registered" copy? I believe that you can use the sim without registering it. But, you're using what is on the disc only! As I understand it you have no access to the upgrades.

You need to be aware that KnifeEdge has made improvements to G3 since it's release. G3 had a number of bugs that have been eliminated through upgrades. The program (G3) that was released on disc is not the same G3/G3.5 that people talk about now. It is quite a different product.

" G3 had a number of bugs that have been eliminated through upgrades. The program (G3) that was released on disc is not the same G3/G3.5 that people talk about now. It is quite a different product. "

So then would you consider the graphics quality of G3 with the upgrades, G3/G3.5, equal to the qraphics quality of G4, G5 ? I really dont believe that I need the frills that G4, and G5 offer.

Ed

When I imported G3.5 planes into G4 they seemed to have a little less detail. Of course the graphics will be limited by the graphics card. I had a fairly good graphics card (GeForce 9400 GT) and couldn't get the detail shown in the "screenshots" of G4 let alone G4.5.
Like I said, I sold G4 and use FMS now. I really don't miss the details, once you fly a few feet away it looks to me as good (or bad) as FMS.

The graphics "quality" wasn't affected with the upgrades to G3.

There were many bugs that needed fixing in G3, as is common with RealFlight. Here's just one example of the bugs that were fixed in one of the early upgrades to G3;

FIXED BUGS:
Crash when selecting an aircraft from the MRU whose base vehicle was renamed or deleted
Crash when importing a panoramic image while in fullscreen mode
Multiplayer: crash when using malformed aircraft
Multiplayer: possible to get deadlock in Join dialog
Filenames longer than 128 characters cause numerous problems
Crash can occur if a file fails to open
Lift component applies lift at vehicle center of mass instead of lift component location
Aircraft can get caught in looping pattern around trees
Brakes apply force in incorrect direction, have improper effect on steering
Breakoff is unpredictable
Helicopter skids exhibit no friction after a breakapart event
Heli blades break off in incorrect orientation
Recordings do not save correct position and orientation of broken off pieces
Microturbulence is at 50% by default, should be 0%
Very high speed aircraft exhibit oscillation
Washout calculations for wings are incorrect
Wing downwash behavior needs improvement
Prop wash velocity and fade characteristics need improvement
Electric motors don't die after the prop strikes the ground
Prop strikes are not always detected
Very small forces and impulses, such as those critical for the stability of very light planes and breakoff pieces, are ignored
Brightness setting does not affect PhotoFields
Sim sometimes renders into the area vacated by an MFC dialog that has been closed, instead of rendering to the entire screen
"Restore Original Value" doesn't always take effect immediately
Torque curve editor: certain conditions cause the sim to hang
Torque curve editor: unreasonable resampling values are allowed
Torque curve editor: negative torque values are allowed
NavGuide parameters related to electric engines display incorrect information when using glow engines
Aircraft Editor: in fullscreen it's possible to cause the aircraft viewport to cover the entire screen and then crash on exit
Airport Editor: in certain cases, overwriting an existing airport is not allowed
Airport Editor: after deselecting all panes from Window menu, Reset Window Positions does not bring Pilot Preview back
MultiMode: Remember/Clear Aircraft Position missing from menu
MultiMode: Recordings should be disabled, but hotkey still activates them
Aqueduct airport object spelling fixed
Misc. other physics optimizations
Launcher: uninstall should clean up extraneous items installed by legacy products
Launcher: fails silently if unable to locate program to run, should display error message


I can't understand why someone wouldn't want to be able to have the latest (improved) version of the software. It's my opinion that the ability to upgrade a bug filled "crappy" piece of software is a "requirement" where RealFlight is concerned.

Without getting it registered in your name you are stuck with what you get. No upgrades, no patches, no support.

OK ............ I understand abot registering now. Thank you for enlightening this newbie. []

So if I understand y'all correctly now, a G3 with all of the upgrades, ( G3.5 ? ) , would still be a good working Sim ?

Ed

Yes. 3.5 with the latest patches is a very good sim.

Can I fly online with a G3.5 with My buddy that has a G4.5? Or do we both have to have the same model of G sim.?

Jason,

You not only have to have the same SIM (G3 or G4.5) but they most be the same update version. Knifeedge seems to like making updates incompatible with each other for on-line use.