Flight Simulator 2000

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HOME ---> DOWNLOADS ---> Flight Simulator 2000 Update 2

Second Update, Second Version
Updated 03.29.00

As it does after all of our major new product releases, the Flight Simulator 2000 product team has been closely monitoring the Flight Simulator newsgroups, Web sites, and forums to gauge what our customers are experiencing with the product. From these sources and a number of emails from Flight Simulator fans, we've developed a list of important issues that we felt warranted the extraordinary step of creating a second update for Flight Simulator 2000.

We released the English version of this update recently, and now international versions are ready. We thank all of our international customers for their patience while awaiting release of this update.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTES: PLEASE READ

Although some of these updates were addressed in the first update, this new update is all-inclusive. In other words, it incorporates all the improvements that were in the first update along with new improvements. You can install this update over previous updates.

Please choose your download carefully. Please make sure to select the proper language and Flight Simulator 2000 or Flight Simulator 2000 Professional Edition.

Installing the English language update over a localized version (e.g., German, French, or Japanese) will cause display problems in dialog boxes and other problems in Flight Simulator.

If you inadvertently install the wrong update (installing the Professional Edition patch over an installation of Flight Simulator 2000 standard edition or vice versa), you'll overwrite the FS2000.EXE file and the simulator will no longer run. To correct this problem, you'll need to uninstall Flight Simulator 2000 from your computer, reinstall Flight Simulator 2000, and then install the correct update.

We have received reports that using third-party download managers such as GoZilla may cause corruption of the downloaded files. We suggest disabling any third-party download managers prior to downloading the patch.

Read on for a list of updates included in these files.

New to this update

Dynamic Scenery
With this update, dynamic scenery will work both day and night, whether you have shadows turned ON or OFF.

Shadows
Flight Simulator now includes shadows for aircraft, buildings, and dynamic scenery. The complete redesign of the scenery system in Flight Simulator 2000 made the previous method of displaying shadows obsolete.

To view shadows, make sure that the Aircraft Shadows and Ground Scenery Shadows settings are selected in the Image Quality tab of the Display Settings dialog box. To get to this dialog box in Flight Simulator, click the Options menu, point to Settings, and then click Display. Then click the Image Quality tab.

Other New Fixes
The problem with setup failing to rename some files has been solved. The problem was a result of incorrect registry settings.

Autopilot-induced oscillations while following the ILS glideslope have been fixed.

Displayed ATIS frequencies are now limited to frequencies tunable with the Communication radio.

The Learjet 45 and the Boeing 737-400 ADF needles now correct for magnetic variation.

Voodoo2 video cards now correctly render gauges.

The VSI needle in the Learjet and the 777 move in full scale when metric units of measure are in use.

Items addressed in the first update

System Performance
The update includes changes that improve the performance of the simulation, especially during turns. These improvements are a result of optimizing the artwork and lighting for gauges that rotate, and optimizations to coastline rendering.

There are also two switches, IMAGE_QUALITY and USEPOLYCOASTDATA, listed below that give you more control over some graphics features. Turning these switches OFF may improve overall performance of the simulator on your system. You set these switches by making changes in the FS2000.CFG configuration file as shown below. The FS2000.CFG file can be found in the root directory where Flight Simulator is installed on your computer. The default location is:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\FS2000\FS2000.CFG

Both of these switches are ON by default. To change the setting, edit the FS2000.CFG file with a text editor such as Notepad. The sections of the file under which the switches are found are indicated by the text in brackets.

[PANELS]
IMAGE_QUALITY=1

A value of 1 turns bilinear filtering ON; a value of 0 turns it OFF.
The bilinear filtering switch controls the display quality of aircraft gauges. Turning the switch OFF improves performance, but may make it slightly harder to read rotating gauges such as the heading indicator and attitude indicator.

[MISCDATA]
USEPOLYCOASTDATA=1

A value of 1 turns coastline polygons ON; a value of 0 turns them OFF.
The coastline polygons switch controls the level of detail and accuracy of coastlines. Turning this switch OFF improves frame rate, but doing so will make coastlines appear with less detail, and objects close to a coastline may no longer be in the correct positions.

Aircraft Gauges: Flight Simulator 2000 Aircraft
Learjet 45
The Learjet's attitude indicator now has an index mark to show bank angle.
Boeing 777
The horizontal bar on the 777's flight director no longer goes beyond the edges of the attitude indicator.
King Air 350
The following problems with the King Air gauges are corrected:

The readouts on the analog and digital altimeters now match.
The altitude selector in the autopilot on the panel now matches the altitude selector in the Autopilot dialog box.
The deviation needle on the horizontal situation indicator (HSI) now moves in full scale.

Aircraft turn coordinators
For aircraft with turn coordinators, the inclinometer ball now behaves correctly at higher bank angles, especially in uncoordinated turns.

Aircraft Gauges: Third-Party Aircraft
Inconsistencies in RPM scale readouts and font size on some third-party aircraft gauges are fixed.

Aircraft Behavior
Concorde
Based on feedback from British Airways, Concorde flight dynamics at lower speeds have been enhanced.
All aircraft

The steering sensitivity of all aircraft has been adjusted, making it easier to control the aircraft during taxi, takeoff, and landing rolls.

The autopilot now tracks the glideslope more precisely.

Throttle settings are now retained properly after the autopilot has been disengaged. Mooney
There was a problem with selecting the Mooney while the Sopwith Camel was the active aircraft, resulting in a Mooney blade angle of 0 (you had no thrust). Selecting the Mooney after the Sopwith Camel no longer results in a propeller blade angle of 0.
Jets
The Boeing 737, Boeing 777, and Learjet aileron and rudder trim work correctly.

Flight Planner
You can now click airport or navigational aid (navaid) labels and symbols in the Flight Planner map to display their names, frequencies, runway names and lengths, and other information. This information is also available in the Map View window.

You can now print the navigation log. Click Print in the Flight Planner dialog to print your navigation log.

In some cases, two navaids in different parts of the world have the same identifier, which could cause errors in flight planning. The navigation log now shows the correct navaid for the selected route.

Other Fixes
ILS back courses work correctly.

Problems reported regarding importing dynamic scenery objects from Flight Simulator 98 are fixed.

You can now enter dates in the Logbook in international date formats.

Runway edge lights appear only at airports with lighted runways.

Adding a new scenery area to the SCENERY.CFG file no longer deletes the flattening switches entry.

EFIS will now lock to VOR after locking to ILS/LOC. Prior to this fix, the dialog box wasn't reflecting frequency changes.

Engine control settings are no longer cleared after use of the Engines dialog box.

You can now enter increments of 999 or greater for the Scenery Library cache size.

List of updated files in standard and Professional Edition
FS2000.exe
FS2000.icd
..\gauges\737-400.gau
..\gauges\Boeing777-300.gau
..\gauges\Cessna.gau
..\gauges\Cessna182rg.gau
..\gauges\Concorde.gau
..\gauges\Extra-300.gau
..\gauges\Lear_45.gau
..\gauges\Bell_206B.gau
..\modules\FACILITIES.DLL
..\modules\FE.DLL
..\modules\FLIGHT.DLL
..\modules\G2D.DLL
..\modules\G3D.DLL
..\modules\MAIN.DLL
..\modules\PANELS.DLL
..\modules\TERRAIN.DLL
..\modules\Weather.DLL
..\scenedb\afdfiles\scenery\japanafd.bgl
..\weather\ICAO Name.CFG
..\weather\ICAO Tin.bin
..\sim\SIM1.sim
..\aircraft\concorde\Concorde.air

List of updated files for the Professional Edition only
..\gauges\Kingair.gau
..\gauges\Mooney_Bravo.gau
..\scenedb\cities\Tokyo\texture\LDM_tokyo_akibahahara_main.bmp
..\scenedb\cities\Tokyo\texture\LDM_tokyo_akibahahara_main_lm.bmp
..\scenedb\cities\Tokyo\texture\LDM_tokyo_akibahara_wires.bmp
..\scenedb\cities\Tokyo\texture\lDM_tokyo_akibahara_wires_lm.bmp
..\scenedb\cities\Tokyo\texture\LDM_tokyo_nec_2.bmp
..\scenedb\cities\Tokyo\texture\LDM_tokyo_nec_2_lm.bmp
..\scenedb\cities\Tokyo\texture\LDM_tokyo_takashima.bmp
..\scenedb\cities\Tokyo\texture\LDM_tokyo_takashima_lm.bmp
..\scenedb\cities\Tokyo\texture\LDM_tokyo_tbscenter_Main.bmp
..\scenedb\cities\Tokyo\texture\LDM_tokyo_tbscenter_Main_lm.bmp

In Conclusion

We understand that this update will not address everyone's specific issues with the product. For example, the redesign of the scenery system in Flight Simulator 2000 makes the method of displaying aircraft landing light illumination used in previous versions obsolete. Adding landing light illumination of scenery and other objects is beyond the scope of this update.

We will continue to monitor newsgroups, forums, and Web sites, and post articles to help you get the most out of your Flight Simulator experience. Please continue to check the official Microsoft Flight Simulator Web site for the latest information.

If you develop add-on products for Flight Simulator or want to customize Flight Simulator by editing aircraft configuration files, creating flight plan files, or creating new adventures, check this Web site for updates to the Software Developers Kit (SDK) and in-depth articles.

Happy Flying!
The Flight Simulator team