I am loving FU3 more and more, hehe.

Looking Glass gave us 367 flt3.cfg parameters to set up the sim to our heart's content. Especially with the help of ChatGPT. Amazing how much it can explain each parameter and suggest realistic improvements. Not only that, it can tweak the combo of cfg and dgvoodoo and reshade to give the ultimate experience in FU3.

It helped me get FU3 to use Nvidia card on my laptop instead of Intel graphics. I had tried many times to do that to no avail.

I keep dropping in here, read some of the past threads that contain excellent insights.

Don't give up on it.

All that is needed to install and run the game on windows 10:

If you download Flight Unlimited 3 from this link https://www.old-games.com/ the game will work flawlessly with no bugs on windows 10. There is a serious bug with ISO files found on internet (it’s the original version probably). Radio channels get stuck or blocked with an horrible noise on many voices. The software downloaded from Old-Games.com, apparently a "Sold Out" modified version, doesn’t present the radio issue. The radio works perfectly with rogue or bass voices!

Installation tricks: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Flight_Unlimited_III

Install on windows 10 applying “two layers”:

Install ddfix 1.5.13 https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=143020 with the help of HxD Hex Editor, change ddraw.dll by ddfix.dll. Follow instructions. This improves DirectX working.

Install dgVoodoo2 2.7 from this link http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/dgVoodoo2.html  This enables the game to play on Windows 10. Dgvoodoo works with ReShade 4.7 https://nearfile.com/games/reshade/ to improve dramatically graphic quality. (Settings for example: prod80_03_FilmicTonemap | Pirate_Bloom | Pirate_Curve | Pirate_Vibrance | Vibrance_fx | Pirate_LumaSharpen).

In this link https://library.avsim.net/index.php?CatID=lgfu3&Sort=Author&ScanMode=1&Page=1 you have Ansgar Avermeyer AI Package, and a few more planes to install directly, as one Boing 747.

Christopher Low has uploaded Seattle 2006 and SanFran 2006 to his MediaFire account. You can download them using the links below:

Seattle 2006 http://www.mediafire...j59kocbuja241tn

SanFran 2006 http://www.mediafire...mdoiqam8o6127y7

Manual is here: http://alfozavr.wdfiles.com/local--files/fu3-downloads/FU3_Manual.pdf

One more link, (search for "Looking Glass: Flight Unlimited III") https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/fslib.php?do=displaysearch

In FU3 there is no AntiAliasing (AA) "out of the box" for jagged lines. The turnaround is to apply AA setting in DGVOODOO2. Sadly, this ends up in another issue: white lines appear in most plane cockpits. You can remove this white line downloading CockpitDesigner from the link before. Edit blue rectangle. Increase one pixel the biggest number on X or Y axis. https://gpdev.net/Downloads.html

Play it in 1024 x 768, with 3D acceleration driver activated.

The review below will give some readers an idea of the style of writing that I used for my two PC Pilot articles. Unfortunately, the two issues of the magazine that included these articles are now out of print, and they are also not available online

I really hope that you enjoy reading this article. Please remember that it was written over eight years ago, so one or two of the comments are probably slightly out of date :wink:

Twelve years ago, Flight Simulator 5.1 (FS5.1) was the latest version of Microsoft’s attempt to dominate the flight simulation arena. With a large installed userbase, and an open architecture that allowed those users to create a vast number of add-ons, FS5.1 looked invincible. However, not everyone was happy with Microsoft’s creation. The graphics weren’t exactly state of the art, and the default flight models were rather basic. It was at this time that a new flight simulation appeared, one so totally different to anything seen before that it caught everyone’s attention. It was developed by a small software company called Looking Glass Technologies (LGT), and its name was Flight Unlimited.

This revolutionary piece of software astonished many in the PC flight simulation business. Not content with generic textures and flat terrain, LGT created a flight simulation of stunning beauty. Accurately rendered mesh terrain was covered with photorealistic, satellite mapped textures to produce an almost lifelike recreation of five different areas of the world. These were of limited extent, but clever technology allowed the terrain to be “mirrored”, which resulted in an apparently endless expanse of highly detailed, realistic terrain. Even more impressive were the flight models of the five available aircraft. Unbelievably, LGT actually simulated the physics of airflow over the wings and control surfaces of the flyable planes, and delivered an accurate recreation of real world flight characteristics that was unrivalled in its day. The only problem with Flight Unlimited was the rather small size of the flying environments, and the almost complete lack of any real world objects. This wasn’t a major problem however, because Flight Unlimited was designed as more of an “aerobatics” simulator. The superb physics modelling was perfect for this kind of flying, since very complex calculations need to be performed when simulated aircraft are being turned and flipped all over the sky!

With the release of Flight Unlimited, LGT had woken up the PC world to the many different possibilities inherent in flight simulation. With this impressive product under their belts, LGT next decided to play Microsoft at their own game. Shortly after the release of Flight Simulator 98 (which was basically Flight Simulator for Windows 95 with support for 3D accelerator cards), they released their next assault on the PC flight simulation market. This was Flight Unlimited 2 (FU2), and it was a corker. LGS (the company was now known as Looking Glass Studios) had decided to develop the next generation of PC civilian flight simulators, and FU2 was way ahead of its competitors when it was released over nine years ago. Photorealistic terrain textures, high resolution terrain mesh, an astonishingly clever ATC (air traffic control) system, wind and wake turbulence, and realistic floatplane physics helped to create a product that was totally unique in the world of PC flight simulation. In fact, so advanced were many of its innovative features that one or two of them have arguably never been bettered!

Ten thousand square miles of superbly rendered, satellite mapped San Francisco Bay area terrain was available to explore, and the detail was amazing. In fact, the resolution of 4 metres per pixel was so good that many local people could actually identify their own homes ! The scenery area had a nice variety of features, including the beautiful blue waters of the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, several mountain ranges, and a section of California’s Central Valley. Flying around in FU2 was an entirely new experience for the PC flight simmer, and it was very easy to just admire the scenery below and forget about everything else.

Two years later, LGS released Flight Unlimited 3 (FU3). This would prove to be the final episode in the revolutionary Flight Unlimited series, and it built upon the solid foundations laid by its predecessors. New features included more accurate flight models, dynamic weather (including active weather fronts, moving thunderstorms, and variable wind speeds), night lighting, the Flight Unlimited Editor, and some impressive new flyable planes.

Sadly, relatively few copies of FU3 were sold. Even worse, LGS ceased trading a few months later, and all after sales support vanished without a trace. Boxed copies soon became more valuable than gold dust, and any that appeared on eBay were quickly snapped up. Without any hope of future upgrades or expansion packs, and only a slim chance of a budget release, FU3 supporters prepared themselves for a crash landing. Many of them gave up during final approach, and a few more jumped at the runway threshold. Needless to say, the landing wasn't the prettiest you'll ever see, but the handful of survivors who emerged from the burning wreckage were determined to keep the dream alive. Setting up a temporary home at AVSIM Online (www.avsim.com), these dedicated supporters of the Flight Unlimited series established the foundations of what is now the most comprehensive library of FU3 information and upgrades to be found anywhere on the internet.

A long running legal dispute between the publisher (Electronic Arts) and the shattered remains of LGS prevented a budget release, and this was a problem that many members of the FU3 community had assumed would never be overcome. Fortunately, those legal issues were eventually sorted out, and FU3 is now available from Sold Out Software at the bargain basement price of just £4.99.

Like its predecessor, the most striking aspect of FU3 is the quality of the terrain graphics. Photorealistic, satellite mapped textures have been used to recreate approximately ten thousand square miles of north central Washington State, together with a high resolution mesh that simulates the undulating terrain in excellent detail. The scenery region includes the cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia, an extensive collection of waterways (including Puget Sound and the Hood Canal), and two flanking mountain ranges. These are the Olympic mountains to the west, and part of the Cascade range to the east (including the huge volcanic peak of Mount Rainier). There is also the option of installing a much larger area of low resolution, outer terrain scenery that covers most of the western half of the United States. The generic textures and lower resolution terrain mesh give this scenery a rather bland appearance, although there are one or two areas of interest here (including a crude representation of the Grand Canyon). It is important to note here that the high resolution San Francisco scenery in FU2 can also be installed in FU3 (highly recommended), but this needs to be done during the initial install process.

There are a total of ten flyable aircraft in FU3, and these include considerably enhanced versions of the five aircraft available in FU2. The most significant additions include the Renegade amphibian (a floatplane that can land on water, and then taxi out onto dry land), the remarkable Stemme motorglider (a sailplane that can take off under its own power, and then retract the engine to allow extensive periods of gliding using thermals and mountain ridge lift), and the Beechjet executive jet (the one and only simulated jet aircraft in the LGS fleet). This last one has several superb features, including animated landing lights (with the option of flashing for collision avoidance), a fully operational weather radar (with colour coded precipitation "echoes", and lightning strike indicators), and the best simulation of reverse thrust that I have ever seen in a PC flight simulator (including animated clam shell "buckets", and the ability to taxi backwards on the ground)! All of the new aircraft have more refined panels, but some users may be slightly disappointed to note that the panels used for the five original flyable planes are virtually identical to those used in FU2.

An extensive collection of flight lessons are available in FU3, and these can be accessed by selecting FLIGHT TRAINING from the main menu. This will reveal a list of four options (basic training, advanced training, weather training, and aircraft training), and each of these are further broken down into a series of lessons that can be flown with or without a flight instructor. Basic training teaches the important fundamentals of flight (take offs, instrument scanning, entering traffic patterns, landings etc), and this is followed by more advanced procedures like recovering from spins and stalls, coping with engine and instrument failures, night flying, and three types of instrument approach (VOR, ILS, and NDB). The final two options teach the virtual pilot how to deal with various types of weather, and also how to fly the four new aircraft that are available in FU3.

One particular section of the advanced training illustrates a feature that has been considerably improved in FU3, and that is night flying. FU2 suffered in this department, due to the complete absence of ground lighting, but this has been completely rectified for FU3. Now the virtual pilot can explore a superbly rendered nocturnal landscape, which is detailed enough to allow a certain amount of VFR navigation to be undertaken. Major landmarks are now fully illuminated, including flashing identification beacons. Numerous AI planes (all with realistic navigation and strobe lighting) can be seen flying around the night sky. Large airports are now visible from a considerable distance, and include detailed runway, taxiway, approach and threshold lighting. Animated vessels can be identified in the waters of Puget Sound, including oil tankers, cargo ships and cruise liners. The FU2 San Francisco scenery has also been completely upgraded in this respect, allowing night exploration of the world famous Bay area.

One of the most impressive aspects of FU3 is the remarkable weather generator. Rather than selecting a particular type of weather (like the system in FU2), this impressive piece of code actually simulates the speed and severity of active weather fronts. This can be accessed by selecting CURRENT WEATHER on the QUICK FLIGHT menu screen. You will be presented with a map of the current scenery region (Seattle or San Francisco), and this will have the default weather overlaid on it (probably clear blue skies). A slider bar to the right determines how severe the weather will be when you click on GENERATE WEATHER in the lower right corner of the screen. When this is selected, the software will randomly create a weather system, together with front speed, and wind speeds both before and after the front has passed. Other options here include selecting the season (with the possibility of snow in the winter), and setting the phase of the Moon.

It can’t be emphasised strongly enough just how impressive this weather generator really is. The best way to demonstrate this is to sit in your parked aircraft at one of the airports, and watch the weather change in real time. If you have selected some nasty weather, with strong winds and thunderstorms, you will notice that the clouds are moving quickly across the sky. You may well see small flickers of lightning on the horizon, and hear distant rumbles of thunder. As the storm approaches, everything becomes more intense. The lightning strikes become more impressive (better than those in FU2), and the thunder gets louder and more persistent. Then it starts to rain, and the effects associated with this are superb. The sound of the rain hammering down on the roof of your plane is totally convincing, and the raindrops running down the windows are more realistic than those in any other PC flight simulator. Attempting to fly in this kind of weather will reveal the effects of air turbulence as your plane is tossed around the sky ! When the storm finally passes, the rain will stop, the thunder and lightning will fade into the distance, and the sky will start to brighten. Just like in FU2, weather watching is entertainment all by itself, but this time the action is dynamic.

These impressive effects (together with your own flying skills) can be demonstrated to other FU3 users with the video replay function. Pressing CTRL-SHIFT-R when in the simulator initiates a recording of your flight, and this can subsequently be viewed by selecting AIRPORT from the main menu screen, and then FLIGHT RECORDER. Your new video file should be given a suitable name at this point, and then saved. There are four existing LGS recordings in the list, including how to deal with an engine failure in the Windhawk twin prop, and a demonstration of the unique capabilities of the Stemme motorglider. The amount of disk space allocated for video files can be modified with the BLACK BOX SPACE slider bar, and this can be found by clicking OPTIONS on the main menu, and then AIRCRAFT.

Flight Unlimited 2 included a great collection of twenty-five adventures, but this is one of the few aspects of the Flight Unlimited series that has not been developed further, and there are now only eleven adventures available. These can be found by selecting CHALLENGES from the main menu screen. The limited number of options available include four hoops courses (tests of aerobatic and general flying skills), a corporate shuttle service for Boeing employees using the new Beechjet, and several more dramatic adventures like “The Legend of Ranger Creek”, which is actually a search for the infamous Bigfoot!

It is worth noting here that the main interface in FU3 is far more intuitive and user friendly than any of Microsoft’s releases. In particular, single key commands allow access to a range of alternative views (VFR cockpit, IFR cockpit, free floating external camera, fixed camera etc). The zoom keys (Z and X) can be used together with the free floating camera to provide a virtually limitless selection of viewing positions. This is much more acceptable than Microsoft’s incredibly frustrating idea of having to cycle through four different views using the same key. Furthermore, the VFR cockpit view (F2 key) is one of the best ideas ever devised for a flight simulator. Pressing this key reveals a panel around half the size of the full IFR cockpit view (F3 key), and this provides the player with a much better view through the cockpit window.

Looking Glass Studios were criticised for not making FU2 more expandable. They only ever released one extra flyable plane (the Fokker DR1 Triplane, which is available in FU3), and a difficult to use utility for creating new adventures. This has been corrected in FU3 to a certain extent by the inclusion of FLED (the Flight Unlimited Editor). This is a relatively easy to use utility that allows the user to add objects to the FU3 world, create new airfields, or even modify existing ones. Once the basic skills required for using FLED have been mastered, it is relatively easy to create new packages for FU3. Lots of scenery packages are available, including new airfields (both real and fictional), and upgraded versions of the existing airports. Two regional "megapacks" are also available (Seattle 2006 and SanFran 2006), and these are worth looking at in greater detail.

Seattle 2006 is a significant upgrade of the Seattle scenery region, and includes extensive modifications to the fourteen largest airports (taxiway lines, lighting systems, and AI pathways have been completely refurbished and "cleaned up"), AI and taxiway modifications at the Unicom airports, hundreds of trees at virtually all of the airports, twenty extra real airfields, seven airports upgraded from Unicom to tower control (Arlington Municipal, Auburn Municipal, Bremerton National, Coupeville NOLF, Jefferson County, Pierce County and Sanderson Field), a new version of Ranger Creek (with corrected runway location), a modified terrain elevation file (the ground has been flattened at Coupeville NOLF), an animated objects package, and electricity pylons throughout the region. The airport modifications were hard work, mainly due to the fact that FLED had a compatibility problem with my PC at the time, resulting in frequent crashes and "screen freezes" (this problem was solved by purchasing a new PC). Nevertheless, these upgrades were essential, due to the sloppy condition in which the default airports were left when FU3 was released in October 1999. It is just one of the many ways in which FU3 has been significantly improved over the past seven years.

SanFran 2006 is a complete upgrade of the San Francisco scenery region, and includes AI modifications to the Unicom and tower controlled airports, a significant upgrade of San Jose International airport, hundreds of trees at many of the airports and airfields, five extra real airfields (including a fully operational, tower controlled version of Hamilton Air Force Base), a new version of Byron Municipal airport, six Unicom airports upgraded to tower control (Byron Municipal, Davis Woodland Winters, Half Moon Bay, Nut Tree, Rio Vista, and University), an animated objects package, and lots of interesting objects scattered throughout the region (marinas, parks, ports, bridges, oil terminals, electricity pylons, electrical substations, water towers, radio masts, fire lookout towers, lighthouses, and wind turbines). The contents of this upgrade pack differ from those of Seattle 2006 in several important respects. Firstly, the default airports in the San Francisco region are in much better condition than their Seattle counterparts, which means that most of the tweaks and upgrades of this type in SanFran 2006 have been done almost exclusively for aesthetic reasons, plus improvements to the AI planes. Secondly (and perhaps more importantly), there are far more scenery packages in SanFran 2006. In fact, more than 250 new scenery packages have been constructed, and these add a huge number of interesting landmarks and identifiable structures to the region. The most noticeable of these are the electricity pylons (of which there are two types), and these are scattered across the entire map! The locations of these pylons (and all of the other new scenery items) are based on real world data obtained from detailed maps of the San Francisco Bay area. In other words, if you spot a radio tower on a lonely, wind swept hill when using this megapack, you can be confident that a radio tower really does exist at this location in the real world!

There are a limited number of new flyable planes available for FU3, and many of these are even better than the existing ones. Superbly detailed 3D models, completely new cockpit graphics, customised panels, and excellent sound effects have been created for a wide range of plane types. These include a beautifully detailed Blanik L13 glider (FU3 is a superb simulator of unpowered flight), a twin turboprop De Havilland DHC6 Twin Otter (with impressive STOL characteristics, and nicely animated control surfaces), and even a Boeing 747-400! More flyable planes are currently under construction, including the famous Tiger Moth biplane (with transparent wind shield, and supporting wires for the wings), and a Saab 340B commuter plane that includes simulated reverse propellor pitch (the turboprop equivalent of reverse thrust).

Several years ago, the AI Enhancement Pack was released. This unlocked several extra AI planes (including Concorde), and added several new colour schemes for the AI Cessnas, Piper Arrows, and P51 Mustangs. Several bug fixes were also implemented, and the banking angles of the airliners were reduced to make them appear more realistic. Work was then started on a far more comprehensive package (the High Detail AI Pack), with the aim of replacing the rather basic default AI planes with new and far more detailed models that would be the equal of their flyable counterparts. This project has now been completed, and the results are stunning. The vast majority of the existing planes have been replaced with superbly detailed equivalents, and each of the airliners has several different colour schemes (a mix of real world and fictional). An impressive new Concorde model has been developed (with animated nose cone, detailed engine nacelles, and orange afterburner glow), and this can be seen in both British Airways and Air France liveries. In addition to these replacement models, several new plane types have been built. These include the Airbus A320 (this has replaced the Boeing 757), Dash 8-300 commuter airliner, Cessna Citation business jet, and a military tanker version of the DC10. It's worth noting here that the modifications to the AI parking spots in the Seattle 2006 and SanFran 2006 upgrade packs have been designed to take full advantage of the High Detail AI Pack, so installing all three is highly recommended!

Flight Unlimited 3 is a significant improvement over FU2 in many departments, but it is this expandability that makes the real difference. Whilst this is rather limited compared to Microsoft’s Flight Simulator, the excellent terrain graphics, fantastic weather effects, immersive ATC system, and atmospheric flying environment make FU3 a very special experience. It certainly isn’t perfect, and some of the critical comments directed at FU2 can also be made here. The default AI planes look rather basic (although this problem has effectively been solved by the High Detail AI Pack), the high resolution scenery areas are somewhat restricted in extent, and the number of flyable planes available to download is rather limited. However, comparisons with other flight simulators are pointless when the incredibly low price is considered. The Flight Unlimited series has always been designed with innovation and visual beauty in mind, and FU3 is a worthy addition to anyone’s collection.

NOTES

Flight Unlimited 3 was released over seven years ago, and yet it still has some of the best terrain graphics of any flight simulator on the PC. Unfortunately, it also suffers from a problem that seems to affect all flight simulators to a certain extent, and that is texture shimmering. Some users find this effect completely unacceptable (myself included), but thankfully there is a solution. Full scene anti-aliasing (FSAA) and anisotropic filtering are the holy grails of flight simulation. FSAA smooths the edges of polygons to make them appear less pixellated, and anisotropic filtering blends the terrain textures to reduce the amount of shimmering. When used in combination, these two features provide a significant improvement in the quality of the graphics in FU3. They also reduce framerates by up to 20 per cent, but the results are worth it.

The weather effects in FU3 are very impressive, but they can be improved even further by the simple process of copying and pasting text to the flt3.cfg file. These modifications increase the amount of rainfall, enhance the storm and lightning effects, and provide beautifully realistic sky colours during a hazy sunrise or sunset. These upgrades slightly reduce the framerate, but modern PCs are perfectly capable of absorbing this kind of punishment!

*** Compatibility with new operating systems is always a potential problem when a piece of software is no longer supported. FU3 was designed to run in a Windows 9x environment, and it works perfectly with Windows XP ***

AVSIM Online (www.avsim.com) is the unofficial home of FU3 these days, and the forum is populated by one of the friendliest groups of people that you will ever meet on the internet. I became a member in June 2001, and my first scenery package (Scotts Valley airfield for the San Francisco scenery region) was uploaded to the FU3 file library less than a month later. I have been creating FU3 freeware ever since.

There are so many reasons why I think that FU3 is such a remarkable piece of software. It creates such a believable world, and the player is immersed in that world so completely that at times it almost feels like a religious experience. Listening to small waves lapping against the pontoons of your float plane as it bobs up and down on the water. Following a ghostly line of electricity pylons in the early morning light. Struggling to control your plane as it hits another plane's wake turbulence after a near miss. Riding the air currents over the mountains in a glider. Sitting in your parked plane at a remote airfield, watching the steady flash of a radio tower's identification beacon in the mist, and listening to the rain beating down on the roof. These are the moments that give FU3 its special quality. Nothing else comes close.

Christopher Low

I am probably the last player of FU3 but I thought I try asking here anyway. I just recently got the urge to try FU3 again and I am a bit hooked... I would like to test fly the DHC-6 and DHC-8. I have looked through my own archives of downloaded planes and here on the AVSIM file library. Sadly much of the add-on planes for FU3 was lost in the big file AVSIM file library crash many years ago. 

So, can anyone help me with links to Jon Points flyable DHC-6 and DHC-8 for FU3? 

Many thanks in advance! 

By the way, if you know the forum since the release of FU3 you might remember me from Unlimited Design (I am Daniel). I made flyable add-ons such as the SR-71, Learjet 45, Piper Malibu Mirage and the King Air 350 to name a few.  

• PROs
  • I can now task switch and have no screen corruption while flying.
  • everything runs very fast and smooth.
  • I can tune a lot of the visuals with nVidia Control Panel
• CONs
  • Task switching while in menu will result in a black screen, but mousing over will reveal click spots.
  • I cannot get it to run in a higher resolution than 1024x768 (always get a complaint of "ERROR: GetFlyScreenMode:can't find any supported screen mode" when I try to set a higher res in cam.cfg)
  • There can be screen flicker in aircraft panel areas and the mouse will create trails on certain gauges, both clear up with some view switching.

Compatibility Mode doesn't seem to affect anything more than sound; without it the engine and effects seem to cut in and out. But my current setting of Windows XP sp3 seems to resolve all of that.

When I get time I will try the Panel fix I've seen posted elsewhere to see if that clears up the flickering and mouse trails.

I would very much like to be able to use native screen res of 1920x1080, but nothing I have tried has resulted in anything better than black/gray screens (FUMode=1 in ddfix.ini).

Hope someone can help get us the rest of the way there.

-kl

 Hello, I recently reinstalled this wonderful sim and have a few questions that someone hopefully can answer.

1) I cannot seem to get icing to work to save my life.  I have used the snowy weather preset which should definitely give me icing.  I have spent many minutes flying in the clouds using the snowy preset without even getting pitot icing.  I am curious if there is a setting I'm missing or if it is a Windows 10 issue...

2) Does anyone have the Weather Unlimited program for this?  I believe it let you load a metar into the sim.  I would love to have that!

3) Has anyone used the old FSS program for this sim?  It was a neat career program.  I have an old version that wouldnt work with Windows 10...

                                                                                    Alan

I've recently resurrected my FU3 simulator and it seems to work ok on my win10 PC.

I didn't play it all that much when I bought it so I didn't gather up all the "extras" back then to make it better.

Now that I'm playing it again I would love to find any available airport diagrams that anyone might be able to point me in the direction of.

I was trying to take off from a new airport today and the (rather irritated) ground controller suggested that I shoud check my airport diagram to find the runway. It's difficult to find your way around on the ground without some kind of reference diagrams.

I read this thread....

...but when I searched the Avsim Library I couldn't find anything, so maybe it's been taken down since then (it was a while ago in fairness).

Can anyone help please? It sounds like the document did exist at one time.

FU3 is a still a great game so I'm hoping some folks are still playing it now.

Thanks

http://alfozavr.wikidot.com/fu3-hints-tips

I am using dgVoodoo latest version 2.76. It is great for applying AA and AF. It also allows different resolutions. 

I also use Reshade latest version 4.9.1 for color adjustment and such (not necessary really to run FU3).

Both work beautifully for me.

I cannot find Hennie's rain sound in avsim library. Anyone still has that?

- Large cloud models (aka cumulus clouds).  

- "puffs" within a cumuliform cloud

- Large cloud decks are rendered using "puffs", arranged in a grid, and have a
"backdrop" when viewed from above or below.

Has anyone been able to correctly identify which is which in the sim skies?
 

I'm sharing here my way of landing the Beechjet, without ILS or NAV (too easy), just in case somebody gives me one more tip to consider.

On pattern around the airport, speed is at 200 knots more or less. When turning base leg or just before, (5 miles from the airport), gear down and flap two thirds. I'm able to put the runway in front of me (at a distance) by comparing green arrow CDI (value of CDI is runway number plus a zero) and red arrow (some NDB I know, selected before takeoff).

On final, autothrottle 120 knots (autopilot), and flaps 2/3. I focus on aiming the runway. Not so easy at all, especially on the last stretch. I add another notch of flap (3/3) half way on final (this is added security to avoid stall when disconnecting autopilot). I maintain this setting till the last moment, when I am on the runway threshold, to avoid stall when reaching the runway, being too short.

I apply some vertical speed on autopilot, this adds stability, but it's not accurate enough, so there is a moment I have to disconnect it. I realized I obtained better landings flying very very low in the last stretch.

On runway threshold I disconnect autopilot and apply speedbrakes (I programmed S key to do both). I focus on not to be left or right, off the runway. I keep an eye on trim to be neutral. I keep an eye on throttle to be 60%. Speedbrakes setting subtracts power at the last moment and avoids the plane to float above the runway. Nose slightly up for the center wheels to touch the ground first.

When on the ground comes the easy part. After throttle to minimum, activate reverse thrusts (I programmed tab key for doing that), and throttle again, to maximum.

Before landing the Beechjet, following the steps described before, it was for me a risky business. I have to say that landing all the others small planes is very very easy.

FU3 weather is fascinating and can be generated any which way you want. I like the cold fronts more as the warm fronts usually have a low ceiling and require that you fly at 1000 ft or less to have some visibility.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!ArUCpDk7pPaAkTWIyA9QRjC91zWc

Sim wise, I am loving the new MSFS 2020, with its astounding technological breakthroughs, in spite of some bugs. But guess what, I spend as much of my simming time in FU3. Yes, FU3's charm is still unbeatable.

I was running it in Windows 10 flawlessly but without anisotropic filtering and antialiasing. New nvidia cards and drivers don't recognize the game. Till I came across  patrikmore's post here, wherein he mentioned dgvoodoo2 along with ddfix. ddfix didn't help solving the problem, but dgvoodoo2 alone has solved it beautifully along with a higher resolution. The only glitch was that with AA I got the line across some views, which by using Cockpit Designer I eliminated (by increasing the blue rectangles where the lines occurred by one pixel only).

So for those wishing to run FU3 in Win10, simply download the latest version of dgvoodoo2 (I downloaded ver 2.7) and follow the instructions how to place it in FU3 folder. Play around with the settings and apply those glorious AF AA. I chose resolution 1400*1050 to keep the aspect ratio. Voila!

So thank you very much patrikmore for your tip!

My XP PC has died a final death and I simply can't get FU3 to run well on the Win 10 machine: stretched menus, occasional freezes, hideous magenta mess when switching from FU3 to another application and back.

Has anyone had better success? Does anyone use FU3 any more? I'm going cold turkey here.

D

If you need help, ask here and I will list the shaders that have transformed FU3 for me tremendously.

I really miss the days when I used FU3 (and the FU2 San Francisco scenery) exclusively. It was much more atmospheric and enjoyable than the versions of MSFS that were available at the time, even though the high resolution scenery regions were only a fraction of the size of the entire globe offered by Microsoft. Nevertheless, it simulated certain things really well, and there are a handful of items that have still not been surpassed! I am thinking here of the wonderful floatplane physics as my plane bobbed up and down in the water, with the sound of small waves lapping against the fuselage. I also remember those excellent water droplet effects on the windscreen and side windows when it was raining, the sound effects as a thunderstorm passed overhead and rain battered down on the roof of my plane, and the wonderfully atmospheric graphics as low cloud and mist partially obscured distant hills and mountains. The Beechjet very quickly became my favourite plane, and the simulation of those thrust reversers was the best that I had ever heard in a flight simulator (and impressive even by today's standards).

I also miss the friends that I made in the FU3 community, and this post is partly to see just how many of you are still around. I notice that quite a few usernames have the prefix "inatctive member" at the front, so maybe some of those guys have left AVSIM (and maybe even flight simulation) forever? :(

I eventually switched to FSX over six years ago, and last year I upgraded yet again to Lockheed Martin Prepar3d. I have been a beta tester for UK2000 for the past six years, and SIM720 for the past two years. I am actively involved with UK2000 products, and have contributed to version 2 of the VFR Airfields Volume 1 (released nearly two years ago; I was responsible for completely updated versions of seven of the airfields), and VFR Airfields Volume 2 (due to be released very soon; I have made plenty of suggestions, and added extra details at several airfields). In addition, I have made personal modifications to literally hundreds of AFD files, so the legacy of Seattle 2006 and SanFran 2006 lives on :smile:

I would love to hear from as many of my old FU3 community friends as possible, so please let me know that you are still alive and kicking!

Best Wishes,

Chris

Can anyone remember how to move parking spots / nodes etc in FLED. I have FLED working, open a package, edit the airport and can click on the object but cant seem to move it. It looks like I can add new ones but just want to move one a few "feet" so its on the tarmac and not on the grass.

This is on the UKS version that I now have working but noticed at Gatwick the parking spot seems bogged down in the grass and not in front of the hanger,.Its current location is difficult to get the plane to move.

I am sure it used to be in front of the hanger.

Thanks

Andy

As you can tell from the post title I finally got FU3_UKS up and running again.

Firstly a big thank you to Robert Driscoll who very kindly sent half way around the world his copy of FU3_UKS. I added to this the files that are still available at http://lundbykrat.com/FU3/FU3.htm and away we go. The region is quite vast and I have already spent happy hours flying around my homeland.

If any one is interested and like me, you have lost your version, then PM me and I will continue the community spirit by making a copy and sending it on. I will also try and set up my ftp site to see if its possible to upload / download, will let you know how that goes, however it is nearly 14Gb.

Andy

Ever such a long time since I have been here and good to see the forum is still going and some familiar names still appearing.

So my problem, 2 or 3 computers later and I appear to have lost my version of FU3_UKS. My own fault as even though I do regular backups on my last PC change I forgot to add it to the backup and since then have also got rid of my old backup drive.

Does anybody by chance know if its available anywhere as even after all this time I am starting to miss it.

Thanks

Andy

As per previous recent posts I rediscovered FU3 and have recently installed it along fwith Fu2 San Fran scenery on my PC. Had to do some jiggling with Cockpit designer to get the cockpits to show due to the rect problem but so far its going well. Amazing how much I can remember.

I did say in other posts that I thought I had the UKS version of FU somewhere but what I thought were my backup CD copies turned out to be something completely different so I am really asking a hopeful question if anybody out there has a copy that could save it to disk or something and send it to me. I would happily pay any costs. Even a copy of the very first version would be helpful as I have most of the updates stored on my PC so it would just be a case of sorting them out and going through the process.

Let me know if anybody can help.

Andy

 Hello, I just recently dusted off this great sim and I'm having a lot of fun with it!  I do have a few questions:

1) Has anyone gotten the Flight Support System to work?  I found version 0.8 on my old harddrive and through some hacking I got it work on Google Chrome but I still get a javascript error message when I try to click on the airport screen.

2) I cannot seem to get outer terrain scenery to work.  I set the generate_outer_megatiles in my flt3.cfg file and started a new flight.  I then exited, removed that from flt3.cfg and added use_loose_gtls.   I downloaded PDX international but I don't see it on the outer terrain map.

3) Does anyone know of any AI traffic tools to change the AI traffic?   I would love to replace the not so good looking AI arrow models with a better one.

                                                                                                                Alan

Thanks for any help!

Gee wizz, there was a lot of neat stuff there. Pity I lost all of my 'bandwidth' for a while 

Jon Point