http://www.pcpilotsireland.com/revie...VIN_737800.jpg
this is a flight simulator used to train pilots to fly specific aircraft

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3025/...a075ceb94a.jpg
This is a videogame used to entertain geeks with too much free time and grumpy old pilots trying to recapture their glory years

It never ceases to amaze me we all seem to have a common problem.

All those friggin wires on the desk
around the mouse
and the rest of the house.

Looking at all the nests of wires, and all the nerd looking attachments scattered over the desktop sim enthusiats do appear to be very disorganized geeks.

You need one of these ...

http://www.belkin.com/pressroom/rele...orkUSBHub.html

Wow, you have a really appalling appreciation of the amount of work that goes into producing a simulator like Il-2 compared to a run of the mill game. To call it "not a simulator" because it's not as high-fidelity as an industry example is really quite bizarre. Guess what? In the 1980s and 90s the system in the first picture would have had a similar degree of fidelity in flight modelling to that Il-2 manages on home computers. Does that make it a game?

I doubt it would work, too expensive for the number ports I'm using. I currently have 2 powered USB Hubs. It takes all 4 positions on one hub just for CH Products.

Prothrottle, Fighterstick, MFP, Pro Pedals = 4 usb hub positions.

The mouse, keyboard,webcam take 3 more postions on the 2nd hub.

Somehow, I never have any positions open on any of the powered hubs, and usually a couple on the computer are in use as well.

That calculates to 10+ usb devices being active most of the time.

Ouch! I usually only have mouse, keyboard, joystick and pedals at most.

IL2 is a totally different genre of game. Simulators are very different from games. Games are strictly for entertainment. Simulators actually have or can have many purposes.

The average gamer stays and enjoys a game appx 2 weeks.

I've been doing IL2 around 10 years. Games bore me, and Il2 bores people that don't have much propensity for detail or dealing with a lengthy learning process of an IL2.

Just preparing to be half way successful Online can take months of practice, before you have any proficiency. Players can't just flip around like star wars ignoring physics and performance. It's just not possible with an IL2.

Gamers are in their world, and air combat and flight simmers are in theirs.

We do have our moments

I'm with Grunch and Nearmiss here. Though IL-2 is 'a videogame' it is more than that, to anyone with an appreciation of the history being simulated. Of course it isn't 'accurate', but that doesn't mean accuracy or authenticity should be ignored. Adding Nazi Flying Saucers, and other fantasy elements just makes no sense in a context of 'historical' modelling. If anyone could come up with actual evidence for such things, it would be another matter, but adding things because they would be 'cool' or 'awesome' would make IL-2 just a variation on every other shoot-em-up/RPG/whatever.

If you want Nazi Flying Saucers, provide evidence they existed...

Believe it or not, people actually ask for that stuff. Oleg accomodates them, because who can dispute the FM... since most didn't fly or fly much. LOL

Oleg is a good guy so we do have some strange requests that get filled.

Even with the Lerch the in game version was modified so it would be feasibly capable of actual flight in real life.

To go down the path of "Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe" and "Crimson Skies" and endorse imaginary and impossible weapons would disenfranchise most of the long term players. A modern version of "Crimson Skies" may actually sell well but these days it is more suited to the Xbox arcade market then PC gaming.

The closest to an operational saucer craft was, of course, the Avro-car of the late 1950's developed by Avro in Canada with US military involvement. After years of research and several prototypes it only ever achieved a maximum speed of 20 knots (37 km/h) and the ability to traverse a ditch six feet across and 18 inches deep. Tests showed even if it could achieve a decent altitude it was unstable and would be difficult or impossible to control. This suggests it is highly unlikely a WWII effort by the Third Reich could actually have flown.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_VZ-9_Avrocar