Ultimate Terrain: Yay or nay?

[wildcat400]

http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=utxusa

Is Ultimate Terrain worth it? Pros? Cons? How are frame rates?

Thanks!

[harleyman]

Yes...Yes And Yes........


All pros...No Cons


That and GEX are fantastic upgrades and worth every cent

No impact at all on frames...it helped on mine (I think...LOL )

[Cazzie]

It's a definite, really adds a lot for the USA. I wish the landclass was more in tune with what they did for FS9 though, In FS9, you can tell exactly where you are if you know your arena. Like harleyman says, GE-X is a wonderful addition as well. I would also add FSGenesis's 9.6-meter mesh, makes for really fine terrain. Even with Terrain in FSX pushed to 10-meters to handle the FSG mesh, I see no significant loss in frame rates.

Caz

[wildcat400]

Harleyman & Cazzie,
Thank you for the quick replies. I'm sold already. Going to purcahse and download now. I took a screenshot of Harrisburg International Airport a few secs ago. Once I am done downloading this I will take a screenshot of the airport with the Ultimate terrain and post the pics. :)

[harleyman]

Cool...You are more than welcome ...



I choose to include the CD too...You will not be sorry as these wrappers can be a struggle on reinstall....

[wildcat400]

Weird thing is is that flight1.com is allowing me to download this first. When do I pay (not like I am complaining!)?

[harleyman]

You pay when you run the installer...Save all your E mail info from them..it will help with reinstalling if needed

[wildcat400]

You pay when you run the installer...Save all your E mail info from them..it will help with reinstalling if needed

I always save any info from these flight sim sites. Thanks!:wavey:

[IanP]

I've only ever had one problem reinstalling from a Flight1 wrapper that wasn't my own fault (i.e. changed e-mail addresses) and it was resolved within a day of me e-mailing "Help!"

I'll also join the bandwagon of saying that Ultimate Terrain is well worth having, however.

Ian P.

[wildcat400]

(Stupid question: Does the Ultimate Terrain program automatically start when you open FSX up?)


Before and after shots of Harrisburg International Airport:

[quantumleap]

Firstly, UTX is not a program which runs when FSX opens but is a set of scenery files which FSX reads when it runs.

From your screenshots I can tell that UTX is installed, however, the benefits of it are best seen when you are in the air around 3000 ft above the ground, and not at ground level.

Remember also that UTX enhances roads, railroads, coastlines, water features, urban landclass, night lighting, road traffic, etc., but it does not enhance airport buildings or airport environment i.e. your before and after shots have very little in them of what UTX enhances.

Jeff

[IanP]

Ultimate Terrain Configuration should have been run when you finished the installation. It doesn't run inside the sim, but you can launch it from your Start menu - shut FS down first!!!

Ian P.

[wildcat400]

Firstly, UTX is not a program which runs when FSX opens but is a set of scenery files which FSX reads when it runs.

From your screenshots I can tell that UTX is installed, however, the benefits of it are best seen when you are in the air around 3000 ft above the ground, and not at ground level.

Remember also that UTX enhances roads, railroads, coastlines, water features, urban landclass, night lighting, road traffic, etc., but it does not enhance airport buildings or airport environment i.e. your before and after shots have very little in them of what UTX enhances.

Jeff

Ok, so basically if FSX is running then UTX is running. Right?

Ok, gotcha about how it's best viewed about 3k feet. After work tonight I will take a Hornet up and snap some pics.

[IanP]

The big differences are coastlines, roads and railways. In UTX CA (this won't be as obvious in USA), there are thousands more lakes post-UTX installation than there were before. That was the big thing I saw, when I first loaded it.

It's also nice, when I'm doing my naff WW2 airfields, that roads are usually present and in the right place - even if it means I have to fairly regularly exclude them because what was a taxiway is now a road!

Ian P.

[wildcat400]

Whatcha guys think:

[quantumleap]

Without locations it is difficult to compare with what others may see but generally I'd say that UTX is installed.

Other comments:

- You have a bad case of the blurries i.e. your FSX settings and sliders are pushing your system so that the FSX scenery engine cannot keep up with everything it is needing to do and so dropping the quality on some of the distant scenery.
- You have a bad flatten cell around the airport in the first screenshot which is causing the strange straight lines in the water and the weird cliffs in the middle of the image. The flatten should only fit the exact surroundings of the airport and not the entire cell it is in.

Jeff

[Cazzie]

UT is installed because the roads are there. UT-X has a configuration window. Open it and see how many options are active or inactive and choose what you wish from their drop-down. Also check under Ultimate Terrain in the File Bar and you can change road color and adjust water colors and lighting.

Caz

[wildcat400]

Without locations it is difficult to compare with what others may see but generally I'd say that UTX is installed.


NAS Roosevelt Roads Puerto Rico


- You have a bad case of the blurries i.e. your FSX settings and sliders are pushing your system so that the FSX scenery engine cannot keep up with everything it is needing to do and so dropping the quality on some of the distant scenery.
- You have a bad flatten cell around the airport in the first screenshot which is causing the strange straight lines in the water and the weird cliffs in the middle of the image. The flatten should only fit the exact surroundings of the airport and not the entire cell it is in.

Uh oh. That's not good. So do you suggest that for my FSX sliders I bring them down? And if so... by how much?

[JT8D-9A]

Did you install the updates?
http://www.scenerysolutions.com/ut_downloads_FSX.html

first the Xpack patch... and please read the readmes for the updates.
After that run the UTX Setup Tool and deactivate the options you don't need and the night lighting (eats FPS).
Close it and run FSX...

[jankees]

(Stupid question: Does the Ultimate Terrain program automatically start when you open FSX up?)


Before and after shots of Harrisburg International Airport:


mmm, to be honest, both look rather bland to me...
ok, a bit more stuff in the 2nd, but still...
I found that FTX gave a HUGE improvement over default (for Oz), but this..
Any other before and after shots?

[Dexdoggy]

mmm, to be honest, both look rather bland to me...
ok, a bit more stuff in the 2nd, but still...
I found that FTX gave a HUGE improvement over default (for Oz), but this..
Any other before and after shots?

Found UTX an absolute must for USA! Helps VFR nav, when using maps to follow roads, rail. Since then, FTX (Orbx) came out which is only for Australia at present, and yep it's an AWESOME improvement! They have said they are doing PNW, Alaska & others but not 'till next year, so I live and wait in hope! :d I like PNW and Alaska especially, most of the mountains we have in Oz are just a little lower than PNW!

[lucas81]

It is even more importand for Europe :) I'd say, it is a must to have. It improves especially Central Europe and intruduces fantastic landclass. Besides that, you can enable/disable all kinds of roads in the addon. The control panel is very useful.

One for you Jankees - Dutch coast.

[wildcat400]

I'm at work now. Will post before and after pics after work.

[heywooood]

you know - I was using UTX / GEX and was happy with it - then I had to reinstall FSX and after getting it in and running clean as FTX / Acceleration RTM and flying from KORS Orcas Island I was liking the frame rates I was getting even with the sliders for terrain and texture higher than they were before - and I had not even done the autogen trees and buildings tweak yet!

So I loaded UTX and flew - and half my trees were gone and the FPS had dipped...hmmm

added GEX thinking maybe there were some better frames to be had with it - but no...the FPS was down 5-10% and I was not as happy with the look of things.

So I am using XGraphics, FS Water Configurator and GEX lite (mostly un-checked) and then I use FTX free Tasmania for the down under flights or when I want a little different scenery and thats it.

I hope REX is not a frame hog....but if it is - I can live with what I've got now.

[jmig]

Firstly, UTX is not a program which runs when FSX opens but is a set of scenery files which FSX reads when it runs.

...Remember also that UTX enhances roads, railroads, coastlines, water features, urban landclass, night lighting, road traffic, etc., but it does not enhance airport buildings or airport environment i.e. your before and after shots have very little in them of what UTX enhances.

Jeff

It de-enhanced my home airport. Took away the water landing strip that is there. But, I agree with the rest. It makes a big difference to FSX. I like it.

[quantumleap]

NAS Roosevelt Roads Puerto Rico
UTX USA covers just the continental 48 states and Hawaii, so you will not see any enhancement from it at that location.

Jeff

[wildcat400]

UTX USA covers just the continental 48 states and Hawaii, so you will not see any enhancement from it at that location.

Jeff

Oh. I guess I need to pay attention to what I am buying. :redf:

I took a pic yesterday of one of my hornets over California. Let me load up fsx real quick and take a pic in that same area that I was at. Then I will post before and after pic for those who requested.

EDIT: I'm going to install the updates first, then take the screenshots.
EDIT x 2: Before I install these updates, I need to locate the "UTX USA Setup Tool". Where is that at!?

[quantumleap]

Before I install these updates, I need to locate the "UTX USA Setup Tool". Where is that at!?
Windows Start Menu->All Programs->Flight One Software->Ultimate Terrain x - USA->Setup Tool

or if you want to go to the executable itself in the folder it is installed in

FSX->Flight One Software->UTUsaFsx->UtSetup.exe

(where FSX is the main Microsoft Flight Simulator X folder where you would find the FSX.exe)

Jeff

[wildcat400]

In my opinion. Looks like garbage still:
I downloaded all three updates, and set my scenery settings sliders down some.

What should I set my scenery sliders at to make this work?

Ok, I decided to shoot some more info out there: Video card: Nvidia G Force 9600 GT, monitor is capable of showing up to 1440x900. It's for sure not the card or monitor (ok, I am not getting carried away huh?) I just want this to work, and it's frustrating.

[quantumleap]

As your system showed signs of performance related issues in FSX outside of UTX areas, this really is something outside of what additional features UTX offers and looks like. I'll try to cover a few general performance items and point at links to follow later in this posting but first comments on the latest screenshots.

- Again not knowing where the screenshots are taken I cannot compare them to what I might see (please press SHIFT+Z in FSX to show the co-ordinates). The first one shows what are scenery objects from Kennedy Space Center but that is definitely not the area around Cape Canaveral or Merritt Island in Florida. If I was to guess I'd say it is some other addon, not default or UTX scenery, for Vandenberg AFB. The second screenshot definitely shows UTX night lighting objects are active (what look like balls of light in the top left) but again not knowing where it is makes it difficult to comment further (especially as there is no indication as to what you think is wrong with UTX in it).

While you tell us what video card you have, FSX (like all versions of MSFS) is a CPU intensive app, it is therefore the available processing speed of that which determines how well it looks. You therefore need to provide full details of your system so that others can make suggestions i.e. we'd need to know CPU and speed, RAM, video RAM, OS at least.

There would also be a need to know what other background processes, apps and system trays are running at the same time as FSX. They will all steal from what FSX needs to perform to its best.

You'll also need to give more details on your current FSX slider settings, and if you have made any manual tweaks to your FSX.cfg

As an FYI, some of the other FSX features which have more performance hit are:

- light bloom (similar to 2x water causing multiple renders per screen so best to leave it off)
- AI aircraft (as FSX now has to calculate, place and handle all these now in addition to your own aircraft)
- road traffic
- weather (more so if an external tool is used to inject it as that will be stealing cycles from the CPU - also even the Active Sky people usually recommend cloud draw distance of 60 miles)
- ground scenery shadows (best left off)
- aircraft casting shadows on itself (best left off)
- autogen

While you show issues outside of UTX, here is a thread from the Ultimate Terrain support forums about Diagnosing UTX Performance Issues (http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=21457).

Anyway, the above should give you a few things to get you started on the road to getting some improvement in your FSX experience.

Jeff

[wildcat400]

1st pic is a addon for Vandenberg AFB.
2nd pic (night shot) is NAS Patuxent River (see the runway below the jet)
What I think is wrong with the 2nd pic is that the ground (in my opinion) looks fake. Just splotchy.

Details of my pc from what I can tell you: Triple Core Processor with 3 gb's of RAM. And that is all that I know. Besides from what I already said above about my video card and monitor.

What other apps are running in the background? I Have no idea how to check that.

Slider settings for FSX:
Level of detail radius: Medium
Mesh Complex: 68
Mesh Resolution: 1m
Texture Resolution: 30cm
Water Effects: Low 2.x

Land detail textures box is checked

Scenery Complexity: Normal
Autogen Density: Normal
Ground Scenery shadows box is unchecked
FX detail: Medium

[wildcat400]

Just unchecked some of the boxes that you suggested to. Flying over KNHK. The tower is directly aft of my beech baron.

[quantumleap]

You still don't say what your CPU speed is (as I noted previously this is most important when it comes to FSX) or what OS you are running.

As for your comments on the 2nd screenshot looking splotchy, that's the default painted on night texture for you. That texture would look the same whether UTX was installed or not. Remember UTX does not modify the default textures, products like Ground Environment X would do that.

From you last picture I see that you are running with the frame rate limit set to unlimited. Try setting it to 25. This means that resources are freed up to allow loading of scenery textures (which is a reason for the blurries if there is not enough time to do that and the FSX scenery engine will drop this first to try and keep the framerates as high as you set).

Turn water down to 1x (2x means to show the scene it renders the image in two passes effectively halving framerates and so stealing processor time).

Change you mesh resolution to 38m (unless you have 1m mesh which I doubt, 38m is the default supplied in the US).

Change your texture resolution to 1m (this means that the size of texture files it has to load are smaller again freeing up CPU resources).

As for what other processes and apps are running on your PC, not knowing which OS you have means I cannot give you exact instructions but try holding down CTRL+ALT+Delete which under XP will bring up the Windows Taks Manager directly, or on Vista you would then need to select "Start Task Manager" (on Vista you can also start it directly by CTRL+SHIFT+ESC). In the lower left corner it will show you how many processes there are, and the "Processes", "Services" and "Performance" tabs will give more details.

One final thing, have you installed the SP1 and SP2 service packs to FSX?

Jeff

[wildcat400]

You still don't say what your CPU speed is (as I noted previously this is most important when it comes to FSX) or what OS you are running.

As for your comments on the 2nd screenshot looking splotchy, that's the default painted on night texture for you. That texture would look the same whether UTX was installed or not. Remember UTX does not modify the default textures, products like Ground Environment X would do that.

From you last picture I see that you are running with the frame rate limit set to unlimited. Try setting it to 25. This means that resources are freed up to allow loading of scenery textures (which is a reason for the blurries if there is not enough time to do that and the FSX scenery engine will drop this first to try and keep the framerates as high as you set).

Turn water down to 1x (2x means to show the scene it renders the image in two passes effectively halving framerates and so stealing processor time).

Change you mesh resolution to 38m (unless you have 1m mesh which I doubt, 38m is the default supplied in the US).

Change your texture resolution to 1m (this means that the size of texture files it has to load are smaller again freeing up CPU resources).

As for what other processes and apps are running on your PC, not knowing which OS you have means I cannot give you exact instructions but try holding down CTRL+ALT+Delete which under XP will bring up the Windows Taks Manager directly, or on Vista you would then need to select "Start Task Manager" (on Vista you can also start it directly by CTRL+SHIFT+ESC). In the lower left corner it will show you how many processes there are, and the "Processes", "Services" and "Performance" tabs will give more details.

One final thing, have you installed the SP1 and SP2 service packs to FSX?

Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Sadly, I have to leave for work in a few mins. But tonight (11:30p.m. est) I will do all that you have suggested in your last post.

Real quick though: I am running Windows Vista with service packs 1 & 2 installed. CPU speed: No clue where to look (I am computer illiterate can't you tell?)

Holding down ctrl, alt, delete tells me:
under processes: a ton of apps are running (guess I should close the ones out that I don't need huh?)
services: lets just say: there are a ton of files listed there.
Performance: as of right now (it is fluctuating): 16% cpu usage, 1.05 gb memory

And like I said in my opening of this post, I will adjust my settings accordingly later on.

[quantumleap]

OK, if you are running Vista...

To find out about your system, Start Menu->Control Panel->System. Under the System section you will see a line for Processor, tell us what it says. Also there is the "Windows Experience Index", if it has not been run, run it and then tell us what value you get for each of the five sections plus the overall index number.

Regarding the Windows Task Manager, to give you an idea, just before I run FSX, if I look at the number of Processes shown in the lower left corner it is around 35 (and I still have anti-virus and firewalls running at that point). Now while you can easily quit other unncessary apps before you start FSX, you cannot just go into the processes and services list and hack away at them to cut them down unless you know what you are doing (or else you could stop something that is required for the OS to run properly).

Here's a link to a PCStats web-site "Beginners Guide: 99 Windows Vista Performance Tips and Tweaks (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2238)" which you may find useful.

Tell us how you get on once you have tried the FSX settings changes recommended.

Jeff

[FLighT01]

I've been flying FSX/Accel for 2 weeks on my new box without UTX and believe me it's bland. Too much sand or too many trees depending on where you fly. I want to fly it stock for a few more weeks before I start throwing on the 4 dozen or so addons I have. I'm getting very good performance right now, still tweaking at getting AA and AF on my 280 working as best I can and then start logging how performance gets affected as addons go in. I want to get through all the missions first again too.

And Harleyman's right, get the CD's. I've got all the UTX's on disk, GEX USA/Canada/Alaska too, (awaiting GEX Europe on disc). I know updating with patches is never a problem. I've never had to do a re-download yet. Not lookin' forward to it for those items that will not offer a CD version that I purchased. I back up everthing that I DL along with all documentation, keys, etc. For some reason I don't know if that was a waste of time or not, maybe you can only reinstall with a direct connection to the Flight1 site. The last time I purchased something that way they changed the procedure, none of the screens looked familiar to the ones that appeared with my past purchases. I got it to work but like I said, never done a re-install and that's where most folks seem to have problems from what I've read, from time to time. I'll find out in a few weeks.

[Gdavis101]

I would not have FSX any other way.. I own all three UT series products, that coupled with Ground Environment make FSX all worth while!

[wildcat400]

Under processes: Processes: 63 cpu usage 8% Physical memory: 45%

I stopped several processes from running while I am flying: Yahoo messenger, Aol messenger, a TON of HP processes were running (for my printer), and I will turn AVG (anti-virus software) off while flying also. Other than that all of the rest of them running are for windows themselves.

I also changed my changed my framerate to 26, turned the water down to 1,
changed the resolution mesh to 38m, and changed the texture resolution to 1m.

I also did a performance score for the windows expierence: Processor calculations per second: 5.3
and everything else listed there is 5.9
So my subscore is listed at 5.3

Sooo now, I will start FSX up (after I make some grub) and see what I have.

[wildcat400]

Looks better with new settings incorporated. I also tweaked my pc up thanks to that link that quantumleap provided above.
With my frame rate set at 26 is 12.4 good? As you guys can tell I am not a computer guru. So when I think of 26 fps max, I am thinking that I should be getting 24-26 fps. Or... am I incorrect?
By the way that pic is directly over FEDEX Field (home of the Washington Redskins NFL team)

[Cazzie]

wildcat,

Try lowering your frame rates to 20 as I do. I know 20 doesn't sound like much, but one thing I have noticed on my computer's set-up. FSX does not stutter or hesitate, it is a constant. If I turn the info text off, I can rarely tell the difference in the 20 fps and when it drops to maybe 18 fps in heavy traffic.

You definitely have UTX in. Looks good. :ernae:

Did you see the little review I did hear comparing the three: Default + GTX + UTX?

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=3800

Caz

[Cazzie]

Under processes: Processes: 63 cpu usage 8% Physical memory: 45%

I stopped several processes from running while I am flying: Yahoo messenger, Aol messenger, a TON of HP processes were running (for my printer), and I will turn AVG (anti-virus software) off while flying also. Other than that all of the rest of them running are for windows themselves.

I also changed my changed my framerate to 26, turned the water down to 1,
changed the resolution mesh to 38m, and changed the texture resolution to 1m.

I also did a performance score for the windows expierence: Processor calculations per second: 5.3
and everything else listed there is 5.9
So my subscore is listed at 5.3

Sooo now, I will start FSX up (after I make some grub) and see what I have.

Oh man, turn off all messengers and mail that run in the background you bet. Your system should cook at 5.3. The weak point in mine is a dual processor AMD at 3.3 MHz, pretty much everything else is rated 6.0.


A note on the resolution, unless you have the FSGenesis 9.6-meter mesh or happen to be flying in areas where MS used higher mesh than 38-meter, there is no need to ever set your Texture resolution higher than 38-meters. As I mentioned in another post, try setting your frame rate at 20. Here are my Custom Scenery Settings:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y168/cazmodel/FSX%20comparisons/scenery_setting.jpg

And my Graphics Settings:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y168/cazmodel/FSX%20comparisons/graphics_setting.jpg

Caz

[wildcat400]

wildcat,

Try lowering your frame rates to 20 as I do. I know 20 doesn't sound like much, but one thing I have noticed on my computer's set-up. FSX does not stutter or hesitate, it is a constant. If I turn the info text off, I can rarely tell the difference in the 20 fps and when it drops to maybe 18 fps in heavy traffic.

You definitely have UTX in. Looks good. :ernae:

Did you see the little review I did hear comparing the three: Default + GTX + UTX?

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=3800

Caz

I have not seen your thread yet. But I will definately check it out!


Oh man, turn off all messengers and mail that run in the background you bet. Your system should cook at 5.3. The weak point in mine is a dual processor AMD at 3.3 MHz, pretty much everything else is rated 6.0.


A note on the resolution, unless you have the FSGenesis 9.6-meter mesh or happen to be flying in areas where MS used higher mesh than 38-meter, there is no need to ever set your Texture resolution higher than 38-meters. As I mentioned in another post, try setting your frame rate at 20. Here are my Custom Scenery Settings:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y168/cazmodel/FSX%20comparisons/scenery_setting.jpg

And my Graphics Settings:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y168/cazmodel/FSX%20comparisons/graphics_setting.jpg

Caz

I set my settings as the same as yours.
1st pic was a few mins before I logged onto this site with my settings, and the 2nd pic is with your settings Caz:
P.S.
Yeah, I know I shouldn't have taken both for comparison purposes at night time. I really think that I am satisfied with how everything looks now. I used to hate flying at night, but the way this looks I might just do a few more cross country hops! :d

[quantumleap]

While your previous screenshot of the Redskins stadium showed no blurries and shows that you are seeing the UTX features, by changing settings to what Cazzie has the blurries have returned. His system is obviously more capable than yours, and settings he may be able to run well are driving yours back into suffering from performance issues.

Jeff

[wildcat400]

While your previous screenshot of the Redskins stadium showed no blurries and shows that you are seeing the UTX features, by changing settings to what Cazzie has the blurries have returned. His system is obviously more capable than yours, and settings he may be able to run well are driving yours back into suffering from performance issues.

Jeff

*sigh* I know see what you mean by those dreaded "blurries". Back to the way that I had it, then I am just going to stick with those settings.

[wildcat400]

Original settings installed:
Seattle International (KSEA)

[lucas81]

To save your PC's resources, reduce water to 2x mid and reduce detail radius to medium, unless you are flying every time on 30k ft. Set autogen to normal/normal or even better, create few separate config files: for USA w/UTX, Asia and Africa (where the mesh and vector data is worse) and for Europe. For the jets, I would set ground textures to 2meter since it will load faster.

[limjack]

Original settings installed:
Seattle International (KSEA)

Just a shot to compare with wildcat. I purchased UTX about a month ago and here is the same shot out of Seattle. FSX+UTX

[wildcat400]

Just a shot to compare with wildcat. I purchased UTX about a month ago and here is the same shot out of Seattle. FSX+UTX

Yours looks much better. I give up. I have been tinkering with the settings more than I would like to, and it has been taking away from my actual flying.

Bottom line is that I wish that the setting for UTX OR FSX would automatically adjust to the other. Know what I mean? That way there is no frustration for the user. And yes, I read the UTX manual about what they suggest.

[heywooood]

wildcat - I feel your pain.

FSX is the most fiddley f'n program I ever see.

Your screenshots indicate that you have likely not seen some of the tweaks and settings suggestions that are available.

you need to set your water to 2x at best and then reduce all but global textures to one half..

set clouds to min draw distance and turn off the traffic completely - maybe leave GA aircraft at 8-10 percent but all other traffic needs to be off.

Start by seeing what your rig can handle well with 25-30 FPS locked and in default .cfg settings before you start raising the bar.

Locking FPS at the 25-30 range is critical by the way - the higher settings and 'unlimited' are hard even for extreme machines to cope with.

The lower settings act as a governor for your CPU and vid card and keep everything balanced

some of the FSX.cfg tweaks include reducing the number of trees and buildings that the autogen slider settings can produce - if you need to see how it is done pm me - I'll try to help you today if I can.

the .cfg file can also be used to make your graphics card work more efficiently in one or two other ways.

then there are files available that will reduce the clouds and trees texture size in half - you still get nicely rendered clouds and trees but at half the penalty or twice the speed as default.

then you can look at saving specific setting for the various planes and regions in FSX as was suggested - thats also very helpfull with some of the jets and locations that have high draw calls (processor intensive)

I know it gets tedious - believe me - but when FSX is smooth and crisp it is a beautiful thing.

[limjack]

Yours looks much better. I give up. I have been tinkering with the settings more than I would like to, and it has been taking away from my actual flying.

Bottom line is that I wish that the setting for UTX OR FSX would automatically adjust to the other. Know what I mean? That way there is no frustration for the user. And yes, I read the UTX manual about what they suggest.


I have tinkered more than I know and now I have forgotten where I have tinkered:isadizzy:. I sent you and IM on the setting I have UTX on.
:ernae:
Jim

[wildcat400]

I have tinkered more than I know and now I have forgotten where I have tinkered:isadizzy:. I sent you and IM on the setting I have UTX on.
:ernae:
Jim
Hey Jim,
Ok, I have not given up yet. :costumes:
Received your pm, and will adjust accordingly.

I know that I can get my FSX with UTX looking great. I also know that it's not my pc that is the culprit. I have a 3 month old pc, upgraded graphics card, upgraded monitor, upgraded power supply, and tons of room on my hard drive. I tweaked my pc's settings to allow my cpu to run faster, heck I pretty much tweaked everything else known to mankind. The quest continues....

[wildcat400]

Safeco Field (home of baseballs Seattle Mariners) is to the left. I am not from Seattle, but I am assuming that is the Seattle skyline also:
P.S.
I have noticed something. The pics that I post here are not a clear as how it looks when I take them.

[Butcherbird17]

Here is a very nice tweak guide (pdf file) for fsx:

http://members.cox.net/spambait/FSXTweakGuide.pdf

Wildcat, go here and d/l CPUZ: http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php
Install this and it will tell you what you have under the hood.
FsX likes cpu's running at 3.0 and higher, once we know what
you got maybe a little overclocking will help with the blurries.

Joe

[wildcat400]

Here is a very nice tweak guide (pdf file) for fsx:

http://members.cox.net/spambait/FSXTweakGuide.pdf

Wildcat, go here and d/l CPUZ: http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php
Install this and it will tell you what you have under the hood.
FsX likes cpu's running at 3.0 and higher, once we know what
you got maybe a little overclocking will help with the blurries.

Joe

After downloading that file Joe, here is what I have:

[Butcherbird17]

OK, is this a gateway system? I checked ECS website for more info on the board but its not listed (might be under a different name). Being that its a Nvidia chipset you might be able to use Nvidia's Ntune to overclock. But, being that its an oem board your BIOS might be limited as to what you can do.

Being that your cpu is running at 2.1 ghz and your trying to get your fps at 30 your overworking your cpu which inturn is causing the blurries that you see. FSX is very cpu dependent. I would try out some of the tweaks in that guide I posted and drop your fps to somewhere between 20 and 25 (find the best combo for your system). I have a pretty highend system and lock my frames at 25 and thats pretty much where they stay, unless i try to fly out of some of the frame rate heavy cities like seattle, new york and tokyo. :banghead::d

Joe

[wildcat400]

OK, is this a gateway system? I checked ECS website for more info on the board but its not listed (might be under a different name). Being that its a Nvidia chipset you might be able to use Nvidia's Ntune to overclock. But, being that its an oem board your BIOS might be limited as to what you can do.

Being that your cpu is running at 2.1 ghz and your trying to get your fps at 30 your overworking your cpu which inturn is causing the blurries that you see. FSX is very cpu dependent. I would try out some of the tweaks in that guide I posted and drop your fps to somewhere between 20 and 25 (find the best combo for your system). I have a pretty highend system and lock my frames at 25 and thats pretty much where they stay, unless i try to fly out of some of the frame rate heavy cities like seattle, new york and tokyo. :banghead::d
Joe

Yep. It's a Gateway GT5670 desktop.

In post #52 of this thread, how does that look to you?

[Butcherbird17]

It looks alot better then some of your other pics. Another thing to try is lowering your visibility to 20 or 30 miles. That will help in masking the blurries
especially in Seattle which is not known for to many clear days. I took a quick flight out of Seattle using real weather and couldn't see the tower it was so fogged in.:d
Here is a pic somewhere on the west coast (I think its Vegas).

Joe