New to FSX? Helpful info contained within

[Venge]

Welcome to FSX!

To start off I will mention that I am a relative newbie to FSX myself but felt a general knowledge thread aimed at helping people very new to FSX was long overdue. Having said that, I am hoping for input from people to help fill this post with as much accurate info as possible to help bring new people up to speed. I know when I first arrived here I was overwhelmed with all the info and I feel it would be handy to have the basics in one post like this.

Installing FSX
This thread http://www.simforums.com/forums/topic29041.html contains some very good info on how best to install and set up FSX. There is a ton of steps contained in that thread and it can be daunting to someone not too technical minded. However, at the very least follow the suggested method of actually installing the game onto your hard drive. All it asks of you is to install the first FSX disk, boot up the game and start the default flight before installing the second Acceleration disk, just follow their directions. Easy enough and may as well do it to start off with. Tons more there but the rest can be done later if you are comfortable with it.

Controllers
I found at first i was just trying to feel out how much lasting power FSX is going to have for me before splashing out lots of money. It is a bit of a catch 22 though, because the more I spent on it the more i enjoyed the game. Generally I think most newcomers to FSX plug in some old joystick to try FSX for the first time. I know it is what I did.
Once you get to the point where you want to upgrade from a joystick the question you have to ask yourself is do you want to go with a yoke type controller (ie the typical controller you find in a real Cessna 172 etc) or upgrade your joystick to a better one like the style you would find in modern fighter planes. Personally I went with a Yoke type one because I mainly fly low and slow type aircraft in FSX. Depending your choice there, there are addon throttle quadrants that fit in well with either the yoke or the joystick. These give you more realistic feeling controls for various operations of your aircraft. So instead of using keyboard commands you have a lever or button on your controller you can interact with.
Then there are rudder controllers which are foot controller pedals that control the rudder and/or steering.
For yoke/rudder/throttle/quadrant option the two popular brands to choose from is CH Products and Saitek.
I am not sure what the main brands are for the joystick and throttle option.

Add on aircraft
FSX comes with aircraft included but there are many options for adding new aircraft into FSX to fly. These addon aircraft can be divided into two categories, the freeware (no cost to the user) and payware (where you have to fork over some cash).
Generally speaking (there are exceptions) the payware versions are more in depth models of the real thing which can make them harder to master but more rewarding when you do. There are a TON of web sites with addon aircraft, check the stickies in the various threads contained here at NZFF for more detailed info.

Add on scenery
Scenery also is available in the payware and freeware types. One type focuses on to enhance both the beauty and the accuracy of a specific area often using photo real quality graphics. The other type enhances the auto generated graphics over an entire area. And then there are programs that blur the lines of these and do a bit of both. I am hoping for some clarification from more knowledgeable types out there on this.
Personally I use all the payware Real New Zealand specific area add on and I also use Vector Land Class for autogen and all the other enhancements it does. There are more guys out there that are part of these forums that do other fantastics scenery addons both payware and freeware, it is best to check our Scenery forum here for more specifics.
there are many other types of FSX graphic environment enhancements out there too. REX2 does wonders with the weather graphics, there are some that enhance the air traffic, comms and just about every other aspect of FSX.



That is a start anyway. Again I am hoping for input from other forum members to help make this thread worth reading for the newly arrived. I think it is easy to forget how confusing it can be to start out playing FSX when one starts looking at the optional addons that are available.
Hoping to include links, add sections, alter/remove sections of this post too. I am not too happy with the Scenery section at the moment, so much left out and not too clear on the various types of graphics improvement types available.