The following issues should have been addressed by the second version of the March 30th 2000 patch for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000.

The contents of this page extracted from the patch.txt file in the patch and Microsoft copyrighted. This page makes it possible to see if the file is worth download for you or not.

Items addressed in this update:

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, point to Options, then Settings, and then click Display. Then click the Image Quality tab.

Autopilot-induced oscillations while following the ILS glideslope have been fixed. Displayed ATIS frequencies are now limited to frequencies tunable with the Communication radios. The Learjet 45 and the Boeing 737-400 ADF needles now correct for magnetic variation. Gauges are now correctly rendered by Voodoo2 video cards. 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 (included in this second patch)

System Performance

The update includes several changes that should improve the smoothness 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. We have also included new switches that give you more control over some graphics features. Turning these switches OFF may improve overall performance on your system. You can set these switches in the FS2000.CFG configuration file. 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 bilinear filtering switch controls the display quality of aircraft gauges. Turning the switch OFF improves performance, but will make it a little harder to read rotating gauges such as the heading indicator and attitude indicator. [PANELS] IMAGE_QUALITY=1 A value of 1 turns on bilinear filtering; a value of 0 turns it 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. [MISCDATA] USEPOLYCOASTDATA=1 A value of 1 turns on coastlines polygons; a value of 0 turns them off.

Weather

Microsoft modified the weather feed from the server at Microsoft so that the Real-World Weather feature displays weather more accurately in areas where weather stations do not report 24 hours a day. If a weather download does not include a report for a specific station, the weather system now uses reports from nearby facilities to create a more accurate representation of the current weather in the area. This update also fixes a problem with reports from stations near the Prime Meridian. Users flying in Europe should now receive accurate weather reports and see the current weather properly displayed in Flight Simulator.

Aircraft Gauges: Third-Party Aircraft

Inconsistencies in RPM scale readouts and font size on some third-party aircraft gauges are fixed.

Aircraft Gauges: Flight Simulator 2000 Aircraft

The Learjet's attitude indicator now has an index mark to show bank angle. The horizontal bar on the 777's flight director no longer goes beyond the edges of the attitude indicator. 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. For aircraft with turn coordinators, the inclinometer ball now behaves correctly at higher bank angles, especially in uncoordinated turns.

Aircraft Behavior

Concorde flight dynamics at lower speeds have been enhanced, based on feedback from British Airways. The steering sensitivity has been adjusted for all aircraft, 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. Selecting the Mooney after the Sopwith Camel no longer results in a propeller blade angle of 0. 737, 777, & Learjet aileron and rudder trim work correctly.

Flight Planner:

You can now click on 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 the Print button in the Flight Planner dialog box 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. Now the navigation log shows the correct navaid for the selected route.

Other Fixes

ILS back courses work correctly. Fixed problems involving the use of dynamic scenery objects from Flight Simulator 98 compatible add-on scenery. 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.

Updated files for Standard and Professional Edition

• eula.txt
• 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

Updated files for the Professional Edition

• \gauges\Kingair.gau
• .\gauges\Mooney_Bravo.gau

and several bmp files in the .\scenedb\cities\Tokyo\texture folder