can't change any display settings :[

Fortunately for both of us you have a problem that can be easily solved.
This link will do it.
Let us know how you do.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/836185/en-us

This cured the issue! Thank you very much for pointing this solution out to me. 🙂

Now to get AA working properly..

Great to hear that it worked.
Try an AA setting of 4x for an ATI card or 2x or a NVIDIA card.
Don't check AA in the settings section of the sim.
Keep your mip-map at 4, the most 5 and that should rid you of the dreaded jaggies.
Let us know how you do.

I've yet to be able to use my nice AA settings for the game 😞
Even with the option turned off, or on at the same time as the external AA settings, there's no real difference and I still get the horrible jaggies, but now the visual quality is much improved from setting all the sliders after solving the earlier problem.

Thanks so much for the prompt responses! I'd love to sign up here, but my PayPal account is on a spend limit thing which I can't remedy at the moment :[

Another thing: Are there any good, free mods to download for sprucing up the general textures all over the world, and the buildings etc.? Is there a big pack that has loads of them? Many thanks! 🙂

Captain S

😀 many thanks RadarMan. this is a brilliant site you run.

I'm completely new to FS but I'm getting well into it now. Might have to take a look at some of the expansion sets 🙂

The more you add the better it becomes.
Many of the add-ons will change the sim, bring an entirely new life to it.
I just have a few but they changed the sim the minute I launched it for the first look.