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OBIO
October 13th, 2010, 00:07
I just completed the second version of my guide for making FS9 look great for free. This is an evolving document, just as my sim installs are evolving installs....as I find and test other packages, my installs and this document will change. But for now, this is it.

OBIO

***EDIT since the attachments tend to get lost I have just added the text here to the thread.


This is version two of my guide to making FS9 look great using freeware enhancements. Everything listed in this guide is free, is readily available from the major flight sim libraries (SOH, Flightsim.com, Avsim.com and Simviation.com). It will take you some time to download and install all of these enhancement packages, but the results are well worth the effort. Every single thing that I list in this guide is in use in my installs of FS9.

NOTE: This may not be the last version of this guide. As I find and test other freeware enhancement packages, my sim will change....always for the better, always with frame rates in mind, and always for FREE!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++

MESH:

I use a number of freeware mesh collections in my installs. The first mesh collection I use is by Rhumbaflappy. This LOD5, LOD7 and LOD8 mesh was created for CFS2...but works like a charm in FS9 and is a huge improvement over the stock stuff. I use this mesh as the base mesh in my installs to prevent the odd mesh tearing seen when using higher level mesh..such as LOD9, 10 and 11. Rhumbaflappy's LOD5 and LOD7 mesh sets cover the entire world (except the artic and antartic poles) and the LOD8 mesh covers the Pacific and most of Europe (basically the parts of the world were WW2 took place for the most part). There are a lot of files to download in order to have all the mesh, but it is worth it. Final folder size when all three LOD mesh sets are installed is 2.67 gigabytes. Some of the files are multipart files that need 7zip to uncompress...it's a freeware compression utility. Oh, on Rhumbaflappy's home page, there are maps that show what parts of the world are covered by each LOD mesh set. I didn't know it until this evening that his LOD8 mesh covers a huge portion of Alaska!

This mesh can be found at:

http://www.ludowise.x10hosting.com/

Since most of my flying is done in the United States, I also use the freeware FSGenesis LOD10 mesh for the United States. There are a lot of files to download to have the entire US mesh set, and at Flightsim.com's 48Kb per second download speed, it feels like it takes DAYS to get it all downloaded. Well worth the time and effort to download and install though. You can find the freeware FSGenesis LOD10 US mesh on Flightsim.com by doing a search for Justin Tyme.

I have other mesh sets installed for specific areas that I like to fly in, such as Hawaii and the Greek Isles. There are a ton of other freeware mesh sets out there on the various sim sites. Depending on where you fly, you may want to look around on the various sim sites and find mesh for those areas. There are a lot of great mesh packages out there. Holgar Sandmann produced a ton of free mesh in LOD9 and LOD10 that I have heard nothing but rave reviews on...I just haven't installed any of it yet...but I will be soon!

NOTE: I have all of Rhumbaflappy's LOD mesh sets installed in one folder outside of my installs, and I have it positioned just above the stock mesh in my scenery library. The FSGenesis mesh is installed in a separate folder outside of my installs and it sits just above Rhumbaflappy's mesh in the scenery library. By keeping my mesh (and all of my scenery and sound packs in folders outside of my sim installs, it makes it very easy to share the files between my various installs). If you need a more detailed explanation on how I have my mesh, scenery and sound packs set up, just shoot me a PM at Sim Out-House and I will be glad to give you the details.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++

GROUND TEXTURES:

The stock ground texture files that come with FS9 are bad...really bad. Blurry, fuzzy, crappy. Luckily there are a number of freeware packages that you can use to enhance the look of your ground. The first is Bill Lyons's Golden Wings/Silver Wings. These two packages were designed to roll FS9 back in time, which is really neat...but I don't use them any longer. But I do use the ground textures from the packages to dress up my FS9 installs. Here's what I did. I downloaded Golden Wings and the updates from http://www.theoldhangar.net. I installed Golden Wings to a dummy holder called GW3. Once I had all the packages installed to that dummy folder, I went into the GW3/SCENERY/World/Texture folder and copied all the files to the SCENERY/WORLD/TEXTURE folder in each of my installs. Easy as pie. Oh, this will also greatly improve the look of water in FS9!

Now to take the ground textures one step further. There is another freeware package, called Photovg (Photoreal Vegetation Ground Textures). The package is by Gyula Kalcsó and can be found on Flightsim.com, along with a fix package. Download, copy the files into your SCENERY/WORLD/TEXTURE folder and you will have much much nicer looking farm land, woods and forest. Boom Bang Done!

The cliffs in FS9 don't look all that great in stock form....stretched, blurred, distorted. But once again, I have the solution. Ben Hartnett has a package of replacement cliff textures on Simviation.com that make cliff faces look great. The package has four cliff types: Orange, Brown, Light Gray and Dark Gray. The Orange and Light Gray files can be installed at the same time, but the Brown and Dark Grey can not...they have the same file names...so you either have to move them in and out when you need brown cliffs or dark gray cliffs...or do what I did and just go with the brown cliffs...I think they look better than the Dark Gray. Extract the package, copy the cliff textures from the package and paste them in the FS9/Scenery/World/Texture folder and over write the originals.

Download Link to the package: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/syb2.cgi?section=scenery&file=newcliffs.zip

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++

CLOUDS AND SKY:

When it comes to improving the look of the clouds and sky in FS9, the man of the year is Pablo Diaz. He has produced hi-res clouds that do not cut down on frame rates...well, a bit when you are flying through some serious storm clouds. He recently released a second version of his package...called HDE-V2 or something like that. Direct download link:

http://www.avsimrus.com/f/fs2004-effects-and-addons-46/high-definition-environment-hde-v-2-0-29152.html?action=download&hl=

Pablo recently released a new package for the sky and sun that is simply amazing: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VDVSTR79

When used together, these two packages make the FS9 sky look almost as good as the real thing.

Now that the sky look great and those storm clouds look really scary, what we need to do now is to improve the look of the FS9 storms. And there is a free package that will do just that. It is by Michael Woolsley and can be found on Simviation.com. There are two files to download, the main package and an update/fix package. Here's a link to the Simviation page the packages are on...the two packages are about 1/2 way down the page and called Massive Storm.

http://www.simviation.com/fs2004scenery42.htm

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++

RUNWAY and TAXIWAY:

I found a nice package, yes another free one, that improves the look of the FS9 runways and taxiways greatly. The package is called aratsp.zip and is by Brian Neitzel. I can't remember where I found that package, but it is on one of the main sites (Simviation, Flightsim or AVsim...just go to those sites and do a search for Brian Neitzel and you will find it). Once you have the file downloaded, open it...go to the Texture folder and copy out the files pertaining to the runway and taxiway and past them into the main TExTURE folder in your FS9 install. Don't bother with the storm and lightning files...the ones in the package above are far better. Using the runway and taxiway files from aratsp.zip will give you some really amazing runways and taxiways. Cracks, patches, worn and crumbling edges. Very realistic!

For grass runways...which I have a very hard time finding and landing on...I found a package of grass and dirt runway textures that make them stand out more....actually they stand out pretty sharply from the surrounding scenery, which some people may find unrealistic. I like it and think they look more realistic. That whole personal taste thing! The package is called newgbd.zip and is by Ian Thatcher. I think I found this one on Simviation.com...if not there, then on Flightsim.com.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++

TREES:

Are you tired of those 20 foot box hedges and 400 foot Maples that come with the stock FS9? Luckily, there is a fix for them. FengZ, a real world media artist and digital artist and digital art school runner, and a guy who has worked on some of the recent big movies doing prototyping and special effects or something like that....has a tree package that makes the trees and bushes smaller, look better and allows more of them to show up in one place....all while reducing the frame rate impact on your sim. Sound like magic? I think it is! The package is called TreeGen.zip and is available on Flightsim.com. 5 files in the package...and you will not believe the improvement those five little files will make in your FS9 appearance. And you may gain a bit of performance as well since these files are smaller in size than the stock ones.

PeteHam
October 13th, 2010, 00:33
Thanks Tim :ernae:

This will be very handy.

Pete.

dandee
October 13th, 2010, 04:23
Thanks!! I may have some of these, but I'll check them all out. Off to find Version 1 too.

OBIO
October 13th, 2010, 09:16
dandee

No need to look for version 1....version 2 has everything that version 1 had and more. And version 1 was super wordy...must have written it after drinking some Mountain Dew or something...I was ziggity boo when I typed it.

OBIO

norab
October 13th, 2010, 09:29
Hey Tim, have you tried these, love them myself, at Flightsim, need both to do it right, works in fs2004

FS2002 - FS2002 Misc. FS2002 Environmental Water Effects Library
[ Download (http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=48773) | View (http://www.flightsim.com/zview.php?cm=list&fid=48773) ]
Name: oceansfx.zip (http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=48773) Size: 20,689,432 Date: 03-12-2002 Downloads: 28,234
http://www.flightsim.com/h/oceansfx.gif http://www.flightsim.com/files/devaward.gif FS2002 Environmental Water Effects Library. This package introduces seven dynamic animated water surface effects: dead calm, normal calm, restless calm, gentle breeze, light wind, moderate wind and heavy wind. The "wind" effects render realistic and seamless wave motion and can be loaded in any of four compass directions. Created in tandem with OCEANSTX.ZIP (http://www.flightsim.com/file.php?cm=SEARCH1&fsec=0&fname=OCEANSTX.ZIP) water textures in default format for zero frame rate hit. By Ed Truthan.

FS2002 - FS2002 Misc. FS2002 Environmental Water Textures Library
[ Download (http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=48774) | View (http://www.flightsim.com/zview.php?cm=list&fid=48774) ]
Name: oceanstx.zip (http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=48774) Size: 5,883,232 Date: 03-12-2002 Downloads: 30,248
http://www.flightsim.com/h/oceanstx.gif http://www.flightsim.com/files/devaward.gif FS2002 Environmental Water Textures Library. A complete package of 59 environmentally comprehensive, color balanced water texture replacements which preserve the complex bathymetric world water mapping present in FS2002. Tropical waters exhibit submerged reef structures; waveforms naturally grade to whitewater with depth. Created in tandem with OCEANSFX.ZIP (http://www.flightsim.com/file.php?cm=SEARCH1&fsec=0&fname=OCEANSFX.ZIP) water effects in default format for zero frame rate hit. By Ed Truthan.

OBIO
October 13th, 2010, 09:50
norab

I haven't tried those...but I will.

I have 4 installs of FS9. 3 are active simming installs, one for GA aircraft, one for Vintage Military aircraft and one for Modern Military aircraft. The fourth install is my Test and Tweak install. It is identical to my 3 active installs (minus the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of planes). Same mesh, same enhancements. When I find something new to try out (new meaning new to me...could be a 7 or 8 year old package that I have just found) it gets installed into the Test and Tweak install and given a good shake down cruise. If it makes the sim look better without harming frame rates and overall stability, that package will get incorporated into my 3 working installs.

OBIO

NCGent
October 13th, 2010, 10:30
Nice Tim.....you da man

Thanks bud

Chris

Wing_Z
October 13th, 2010, 12:25
Cool idea...It's probably possible to make up half a dozen different freeware based sims!
Tried Howard's Mix?
I used it as a starter, and changed a few bits, quite a good outcome.

OBIO
October 13th, 2010, 12:27
I've tried Howard's Mix...wasn't real happy with the package..can't remember why though. So I went back to using the ground textures from Golden Wings/Silver Wings then tossing in a couple other packages here and there.

OBIO

SOLOBO
October 13th, 2010, 12:37
I just completed the second version of my guide for making FS9 look great for free. This is an evolving document, just as my sim installs are evolving installs....as I find and test other packages, my installs and this document will change. But for now, this is it.

OBIO

Hi OBIO, very interesting file, for sure I 'll explore that... Thank you !

...

beana51
October 13th, 2010, 13:25
Thank you!!...Vin......:wavey:

OBIO
October 13th, 2010, 13:35
Already the document needs updated! The packages that norab pointed out a few posts above, the water packages...those are nice. The water looks amazing! I checked out the water at several points around the world...rivers, lakes, ocean...and I like it. However, I could not use the water effects. For some reason, those effects files threw my sim for a loop. The water would blink sort of....for a second the water looked incredible, then it would go all flat and pixelated for a second. Back and forth...Incredible, horrible, incredible, horrible. So I put the stock water effects back in place and just used the water textures...all is good. Water looks great, sim runs as smoothly as ever.

One thing I forgot to mention in this version of my guide....what looks great on my system, may not look great on another person's system. What looks great in my sim installs may not look so good in another person's sim installs. There are so many variables involved that influence the final look and performance of the sim. And then there is the personal taste issues...what I like the look of another person may not like so much. My guide is just a guide, a list of suggestions that I have found to work very well on my system and in my install and that give me results that I am very happy with.

OBIO

Meshman
October 13th, 2010, 16:37
WTH? You didn't mention my FREE (19.6m) mesh for Hawai'i? I'm hurt! (s/b in the library here...)

A mention about layering, in case you have similar LODs of mesh for FS( the sim will use whichever is read first in the library. So the convoluted thinking goes "higher priority = lower in the library". Something that got "fixed" in later (ie 'X') versions of FS.

I still have a version of FS9 on a DVD that I load once in a while just to fly around Hawai'i. Just looks better to me than what FSX provides, at least for now...

Now excuse me while I sooth my hurt feelings with a double dose of desert!! Happy flying, free is good.:ernae:

OBIO
October 13th, 2010, 17:07
Meshman

I have your Hawaii mesh installed, or at least I think it's your Hawaii mesh.....super nice stuff. I mentioned it in my document, but since I could not remember where I got it or who did it, I could not mention it in detail. Same goes with the Greek Isles mesh.....I can't remember who did it or where I got it. I really should start keeping track of where I download stuff from so I can find it again if I need it.

OBIO

norab
October 13th, 2010, 17:20
glad you liked the water, the effects work fine with my install so, as you say, each machine and owner has their own preferences.

phantomx1
October 13th, 2010, 18:10
Thanks Obio! I will look through your assements and give them a try. As far as wordy I don't think you can beat me in that department. LOL!

I am forever looking for some dark inland water textures that mimick the real thing. I've yet to find such textures.

I tried my own hand at making a dark texture which is basicly one texture that has been renamed to replace all of the 001b2wa1 through 060b2wa1 textures with. The color of the single texture is right looking at the texture itself but it does not look the same after installing the repititioned texture files. It looks it's best in dawn and dusk time of day but as the daylight advances it begins showing up at progressively lighter shades of sky blue as the daylight progresses.

Thanks for putting together and sharing your collected choice files Obio. :salute:

If anyone knows where I can get some day-long sustaining inland water textures I would like to get them into my FS9. A nice very dark brownish mono-color would be nice. Like real tanin water. FSX seems to have it incorporated in that platform. Wish it were made available for FS9.

aeromed202
October 13th, 2010, 18:46
I tried to get that water package to work a year ago. Looks like I'll have another run at it. My preference is for water without that pulse effect and with as small a wavelet as possible. I think I have Vilk's Water, vater.zip, with an ocean height field, newwave.zip, by Bill Lyons that looks superb. It has the most invisible patterning of anything I have tried so looks great from any height or angle.


BTW Obio-- Another little improvement goes by the file name glacier.zip. It greatly softens and whitens those charcoal color splotches for all snow surfaces. That plus choosing the right detail1 file makes all the difference in snow but will make non-snow textures a bit blander.

norab
October 13th, 2010, 19:00
My apologies to all, had it on my system so long I forgot about it. This is a frontend for the water texture packages that let it work properly and effects be switched in FS2004, at Flightsim, please be sure to read the directions

FS2002 - FS2002 Misc. FS2002/FS2004 OceanFX v2.00
[ Download (http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=66542) | View (http://www.flightsim.com/zview.php?cm=list&fid=66542) ]
Name: ofx20sa.zip (http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=66542) Size: 948,236 Date: 08-10-2003 Downloads: 5,351
http://www.flightsim.com/i/ofx20sa.gif FS2002/FS2004 OceanFX v2.00 - Front-end for Ed Truthan's oceans effects and textures. Enables the user to select the desired waves and textures through the use of a Windows application. Compatible with both FS2002 and FS2004. Stand-alone version: requires OCEANSFX.ZIP (http://www.flightsim.com/file.php?cm=SEARCH1&fsec=0&fname=OCEANSFX.ZIP) and OCEANSTX.ZIP (http://www.flightsim.com/file.php?cm=SEARCH1&fsec=0&fname=OCEANSTX.ZIP). Freeware by Johan de Vries. (Previous version had 5040 downloads.)

SOLOBO
October 14th, 2010, 00:50
Thank's well norab !!! HHAAA ! This thread is very interesting...! :salute:

full
October 14th, 2010, 02:37
Nice one Tim ! here's some more textures, I Use Trees V3 which I think are very realistic.

http://sites.google.com/site/aimecreations/ALCreations

Daube
October 14th, 2010, 02:53
Those photorealistic trees look very good indeed, they are a quite famous addon for FS9.
But in my opinion, nothing comes close to the visual impact of TreeGen. TreeGen will change your perception of distance in the sim, that doesn't happen with any other texture addon.

teson1
October 14th, 2010, 04:28
Hi Obio,
thanks for the guide. Interesting collection, and an easy to follow guide for improving optics of the sim. :applause:

Question: Would you have some screenshots that display how your sim looks like?

I believe there is no question as to the benefits of detailed mesh.
However, I am asking myself whether I could benefit from some of the free texture add-ons.

Ideally shots focussing on one feature at a time, e.g. showing a region with cliffs, then different woods, grass, ec
Mega-ideally comparing with default FS9, but that's probably too much to ask for...

Alternatively (or in addition) you could also link to some of your previous representative shots in the forum to get an idea how your sim looks like. (did a search, but didn't come up with too many).

My issue/reason for asking:
I have a sim pretty beefed up with payware (that I found some of these in a bargain bin when starting with fs was a happy coincidence, but I disgress :d).

Texture add-ons:
Ground Environment (non-Pro) - Ground
REX 2004 - Clouds, sky, airport, water
(+ Treegen)

(+ non-texture add-ons:
FSGlobal 2005 mesh + more detailed local freeware meshes; UT Europe, USA, Canada; Myworld 2005 landclass +several local freeware landclass; AS6.5)

I wonder whether I would benefit from any of the additional files, thus the reason for asking for some shots.

Thanks! And good work!

Gunter

OBIO
October 14th, 2010, 06:04
I can't give you any screen shots of stock FS9....don't have a stock install. But I can take screen shots showing various aspects covered in the guide, such as the cliffs, clouds, runways and taxiways, grass air strips, and the like. Give me a while to get the necessary screen shots set up and taken....luckily I have nothing to do today but laundry and the machines do 99% of the work involved in that.

OBIO

Terry
October 14th, 2010, 06:17
OBIO,

Question about the freeware mesh you listed. I bought FSGenesis World Wide a couple years ago and it puts most of the airports on plateaus. Does this happen with the freeware mesh?

teson1
October 14th, 2010, 06:31
I can't give you any screen shots of stock FS9....don't have a stock install. But I can take screen shots showing various aspects covered in the guide, such as the cliffs, clouds, runways and taxiways, grass air strips, and the like. Give me a while to get the necessary screen shots set up and taken....luckily I have nothing to do today but laundry and the machines do 99% of the work involved in that.

OBIO

Vivat Oblio! :applause:

Thanks for taking up the task.
Waiting for the shots. :jump:
And I bet flying will be much more interesting than looking at the laundry machine... :isadizzy:

Gunter

> I can't give you any screen shots of stock FS9....don't have a stock install.
Thought so, and as I have a beefed up sim already would just have been for general interest.

Trans_23
October 14th, 2010, 08:08
OBIO,

Question about the freeware mesh you listed. I bought FSGenesis World Wide a couple years ago and it puts most of the airports on plateaus. Does this happen with the freeware mesh?

I have FS Global 2008 and it will do the same thing. It will also put some airports in holes or valleys. I think what the meshes do is correct the default FS landscape elevations but don't move airport elevations. In FS9 there is an anomaly in that puts the airport Korce Northwest (LAKO) in a big hole. It is a favorite destination for our online sessions over at Transload. With FS Global activated for that region the hole is twice as deep as default. I still made it in and out OK with a Saab 340. Fun stuff.

Meshman
October 14th, 2010, 10:06
OBIO,

Question about the freeware mesh you listed. I bought FSGenesis World Wide a couple years ago and it puts most of the airports on plateaus. Does this happen with the freeware mesh?

I'm not OBIO, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn a few years back...

Short answer = most every add on mesh will expose the bad terrain data surrounding default airports.

Long answer = when MS makes their mesh they eliminate the mesh surrounding the airports and fill the buffer area with artificial data to smooth the area. This artificial data extends about 1km out from the airport flatten. Adding more accurate data up to the airport flatten exposes the plateaus, sink holes, etc. So unless steps are taken to adjust things, adding mesh creates problems.

It's been guesstimated that 75% of the airports in FSX or FS9 have problems, either in location or elevation. I'm trying to formulate a programmatic solution to this, but I aint that smart about it yet...

Terry
October 14th, 2010, 10:20
I'm not OBIO, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn a few years back...

...

Love it, good one! :icon_lol:

I think they are correcting the problem on the new releases but I can't afford to buy it twice.

Cees Donker
October 14th, 2010, 10:47
Such inspiring people here: Tom with the gem-thread and Obio doing this kinda stuff. I love it! Rami is another one I deeply respect. That guy has done a lot for cfs2. As has Obio.....


:applause::applause::applause:

Cees

wombat666
October 14th, 2010, 11:06
Thanks Obio! I will look through your assements and give them a try. As far as wordy I don't think you can beat me in that department. LOL!

I am forever looking for some dark inland water textures that mimick the real thing. I've yet to find such textures.

I tried my own hand at making a dark texture which is basicly one texture that has been renamed to replace all of the 001b2wa1 through 060b2wa1 textures with. The color of the single texture is right looking at the texture itself but it does not look the same after installing the repititioned texture files. It looks it's best in dawn and dusk time of day but as the daylight advances it begins showing up at progressively lighter shades of sky blue as the daylight progresses.

Thanks for putting together and sharing your collected choice files Obio. :salute:

If anyone knows where I can get some day-long sustaining inland water textures I would like to get them into my FS9. A nice very dark brownish mono-color would be nice. Like real tanin water. FSX seems to have it incorporated in that platform. Wish it were made available for FS9.

I am highly impressed with the water textures that are included in the FS9 VOZ scenery package, big download for water textures I know but the murky inland water merging into the bays and oceans are (to my eye) right on the mark.
:ernae:

norab
October 15th, 2010, 08:27
Here is a screen shot just off Hawaii with all three of the water downloads I mentioned and set at tropical waters and heavy breeze waves. What the picture doen't show is that the surface of the water appears to be in constant motion
21372

vonstroheim
October 15th, 2010, 09:39
Anybody ever tried this?
"Full Throttle Simulations Xtra Water by Hector Davila"
Still available in simviation and similar places.
Easy to install, and a huge improvement for FS9 sea and inland water as well.
Now I'm looking for something similar in FSX. But do I need one? The default FSX inland water is way too blue, same with harbours and deep bay area...

Motormouse
October 16th, 2010, 01:00
Thanks Obio! I will look through your assements and give them a try. As far as wordy I don't think you can beat me in that department. LOL!

I am forever looking for some dark inland water textures that mimick the real thing. I've yet to find such textures.


If anyone knows where I can get some day-long sustaining inland water textures I would like to get them into my FS9. A nice very dark brownish mono-color would be nice. Like real tanin water. FSX seems to have it incorporated in that platform. Wish it were made available for FS9.

-----> http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fs2004scen&DLID=46606


ttfn

Pete

Daube
October 16th, 2010, 05:27
Anybody ever tried this?
"Full Throttle Simulations Xtra Water by Hector Davila"
Still available in simviation and similar places.
Easy to install, and a huge improvement for FS9 sea and inland water as well.
Now I'm looking for something similar in FSX. But do I need one? The default FSX inland water is way too blue, same with harbours and deep bay area...

For FSX, the very first thing to do is to adjust the water reflections with FSWC (freeware). By playing with those parameters, you can get a very nice rendering which compensates the poor quality of the default water textures.

If this is not enough, then you might have to gor for addons like REX. I don't know if there's anything freeware for the FSX water, I never looked into that...

In the screeshots below, you can see what I could get with the default water and FSWC, including an alternative wave animation that can be downloaded from the FSWC website.
On the first, the water of the lakes gets really dark in the evening with bad weather condition, that looks much more realistic than the default blue-ish color:
On the second one, it's more in the early morning, somewhere in the northern seas.

Now for FS9, I remember that my favorite package was called morewatr.zip. I was using it together with another package nammed "inland water textures", that was providing a much more pleasant color to the lakes and rivers. Morewatr was bringing some new and beautiful water textures for the seas and oceans, as well as new waves and water reflections that I liked a lot. I can however remember that there was another package with better waves, I don't know the name, though...

phantomx1
October 16th, 2010, 05:59
Thanks Pete. I just installed these textures and are very impressed with them although they look more of a mud color.

His textures keep the rich color on up into the day which is what I was looking for.

I have tried my hand at creating a, what I thought to be a proper lake texture, but unsure of how to create a texture format that FS9 will use, I simply painted over a default texture. I think that may be why my altered texture turns bluer as the day wears on and may be picking up the color layer underneath the paint I put on it.

Not putting down the "Murky Water", but it does look like the heavy rains had come and washed mud out of the hills down into the rivers and lakes. They look very nice in dawn and dusk. I like the fact that the Murky Waters keep their rich deep color on up into the day.

What do I need to create a fresh texture that FS9 recognizes? Will MS Paint produce one or does it have to be a special paint program? I'd like to try my hand at making one using the color I think looks more of a real life color of lakes and rivers.

phantomx1
October 16th, 2010, 06:07
For FSX, the very first thing to do is to adjust the water reflections with FSWC (freeware). By playing with those parameters, you can get a very nice rendering which compensates the poor quality of the default water textures.

If this is not enough, then you might have to gor for addons like REX. I don't know if there's anything freeware for the FSX water, I never looked into that...

In the screeshots below, you can see what I could get with the default water and FSWC, including an alternative wave animation that can be downloaded from the FSWC website.
On the first, the water of the lakes gets really dark in the evening with bad weather condition, that looks much more realistic than the default blue-ish color:
On the second one, it's more in the early morning, somewhere in the northern seas.

Now for FS9, I remember that my favorite package was called morewatr.zip. I was using it together with another package nammed "inland water textures", that was providing a much more pleasant color to the lakes and rivers. Morewatr was bringing some new and beautiful water textures for the seas and oceans, as well as new waves and water reflections that I liked a lot. I can however remember that there was another package with better waves, I don't know the name, though...

I like the color tones of the water in those two pictures Daube. Are they for FS9 or FSX and/or where to get them?

Daube
October 16th, 2010, 06:30
What you see in my screenshots is FSX.
The waves can be downloaded, as I said, from the FS Water Configurator website.
http://www.strikingsoftware.com/fswc.shtml
http://www.strikingsoftware.com/downloads.shtml#dlfswc

For FS9 I suppose you'll find all the packs on avsim.

Found back some old screenshots from my FS9. Here is how the clear water around Hawai was looking like with the morewatr pack.

At dawn:
http://sapdaube.free.fr/fs9/daube_image138.jpg

During day:
http://sapdaube.free.fr/fs9/daube_image139.jpg

phantomx1
October 16th, 2010, 07:07
That water is excellent Daube. Wish someone could come up with something similar to it for FS9.

Willy
October 16th, 2010, 09:20
I missed the bit about the trees the first time I read this. Downloading them now. Anything to get rid of those Mexican Jumping Redwoods that lay in waiting for me at the end of the runways. ;)

OBIO
October 16th, 2010, 11:21
Nice one Tim ! here's some more textures, I Use Trees V3 which I think are very realistic.

http://sites.google.com/site/aimecreations/ALCreations

I tried the Tree V3 a while back...and they bogged my system down something terrible. Feng's Tree Gen not only improved the look and size of the auto gen trees, that package actually increased frame rates on my system.

OBIO

Fleet Canuck
October 16th, 2010, 14:12
I started a thread a week or so ago about dealing with tall trees at the end of runways, and I asked about making exclude files. I was directed to ADE, Airport Design Editor, which looked to me like a steep learning curve for just getting rid of a few trees.

Tree Gen has greatly reduced the problem of trees at the end of runways near small airports. Much, much easier!

norab
October 16th, 2010, 18:08
another free download I use and have been very happy with is this at Flightsim


FS2004 (ACOF) - FS2004 Scenery FS2004 Koorbygen Lite
[ Download (http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=93789) | View (http://www.flightsim.com/zview.php?cm=list&fid=93789) ]
Name: koorbygn.zip (http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=93789) Size: 2,904,981 Date: 10-12-2005 Downloads: 2,558
http://www.flightsim.com/k/koorbygn.gif FS2004 Koorbygen Lite is a replacement set of autogen buildings in the North America region. It features incredibly realistic building textures taken from real photos, with many subtle details which adds tremendous realism to flying below 500 feet AGL. You've never seen autogen as detailed as this in Flight Simulator before! You can literally see people working in office buildings, see detailed foyers, cafes, pizza shops, hardware stores, hotels and beautifully detailed houses with porches, shutters, garages and bay windows - this is about as real as the autogen engine will get. And then wait until night falls. The most utterly gorgeous night lighting brings your towns and cities to life with softly shaded lighting, halos, shadow and color used to really depict a city at night. Koorbygen Lite makes low and slow flying a joy!

214832148421485

Willy
October 16th, 2010, 18:52
Another vote for Tree Gen after installing and checking them out in all seasons. It appears that the Mexican Jumping Redwoods have disappeared.

Flyboy208
October 16th, 2010, 19:51
Tim, thanks for starting this thread, some very useful information from everyone!

I have always wondered if there was a way to use the realistic palm trees from the Phuket scenery as replacements for the deault versions. I will experiment a bit and lrt you know.

Cheers! Mike :wiggle:

Hurricane91
October 18th, 2010, 00:47
After installing a number of mesh upgrades, I have rivers that flow up hills and mountains. Is there a way to correct this? Thanks.

Daube
October 18th, 2010, 01:12
The positions of rivers is defined by the landclass. So you need to download some new landclasses.

Hurricane91
October 18th, 2010, 10:51
The positions of rivers is defined by the landclass. So you need to download some new landclasses.
Thank you Daube. Would a new landclass need to be consistent with the higher mesh resolutions?

Daube
October 18th, 2010, 11:39
Landclasses and meshes are not really related. The landclass will not modify the shape of the terrain, it will modify what the terrain is supposed to be: forest, desert, water, river, road etc...
If you apply a good lanclass on a bad mesh, you'll end up with some weird looking terrain. If you applya good mesh without a good landclass, it will be more or less the same.
Adding a mesh AND a landclass for a defined area usually makes it look MUCH MORE realistic and consistent, since the forests, rivers, lakes etc... get in the correct position, with the correct shape :)

phantomx1
October 19th, 2010, 23:12
Finally derived some inland lake and river water textures that I really am very happy with! Uses 4 of the 6 bitmaps out of the, Murky Water, texture pack. If anyone would like to try them I will post how and what I used out of his pack. Was pretty simple.

David

http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j408/phantomx1e/BANTY-PC-2010-oct-20-001.jpg

http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j408/phantomx1e/BANTY-PC-2010-oct-20-003.jpg

http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j408/phantomx1e/BANTY-PC-2010-oct-20-006.jpg

txnetcop
October 21st, 2010, 08:58
Thanks Daube don't know how I missed morewatr and murky water! I just loaded morewatr loaded working on the murky water textures still.

OBIO you really have made FS9 with freeware come alive. Great thread Amigo...no I haven't left the darkside...they will only get FSX outta my cold dead hands! But I still have both sims and fly both. I don't do port-overs to FSX.
2179721798
Ted

Daube
October 21st, 2010, 10:04
Glad I could help. :)
And remember, morewatr has, in my opinion, the best water textures (try flying in the carribeans ;) ), but not the best water reflection. The best water reflection is in another package, and I really can't remember which one :/

Z-claudius24
October 21st, 2010, 13:41
Hi,


If anyone would like to try them I will post how and what I used out of his pack. Was pretty simple.

As I like the simple things I'm interested to try them :)

phantomx1
October 21st, 2010, 20:50
Hi,



As I like the simple things I'm interested to try them :)

Hey Claudius24. You will be interested in the one texture out of "Murky Water download. It's name is 003b2wa1 It is the darkest non-muddy looking of his three textures and is not muddy brown.
--------------------
Instruction:
1. Grab the Murky Water download

2. Make a folder for backup of your three textures out of Microsoft Games/Flight Simulator 9/Scenery/World/Texture folder and put them in the Backup folder. Here are their names:
001b2wa1
002b2wa1
003b2wa1
(Grab out of FS9 and put in backup folder! Just in case you want to go back to them)

3. Make another folder you will be using as an alteration holding folder. Now copy and paste the "Murky Water" 003b2wa1 texture one time into your alteration holding folder and then rename it 001b2wa1.

Next paste another copy of the 003 texture into the work folder and rename it 002b2wa1.

Then paste a third copy of it in and rename it 003b2wa1.

Now you should have the three re-named textures that are of the one 003 Murky Water texture in this holding alterations folder all named this:
001b2wa1
002b2wa1
003b2wa1

4. Now COPY all three of these altered textures you just renamed and past them into the:

Microsoft Games/Flight Simulator 9/Scenery/World/Texture, folder. That's it!

=============================================== Note: My FS9 setting as you see them in the pictures above are set to:

Options / settings / Display, All sliders are set to full right except for "Water Effects": which slider is set for half way.

Z-claudius24
October 22nd, 2010, 06:51
Hi,

Thank you for posting :jump:

This is the result in my install (nice for me)

http://i54.tinypic.com/23mvwic.jpg

My base for water is ultimate water (first version) from Zinertek

http://i53.tinypic.com/mtklyg.jpg

http://i52.tinypic.com/35n97k7.jpg

phantomx1
October 22nd, 2010, 11:42
Wow that top picture looks nice Claudius!

Is that the "Murky Water" 003 texture in the top photo of that small lake? It looks a little bit more blue than in my posted pictures. Looks very nice though!

Z-claudius24
October 22nd, 2010, 12:12
Hi,


Is that the "Murky Water" 003 texture

Yes .. it's how is it after applying your trick :)

T Square
October 23rd, 2010, 19:33
Got a question that for you Guys and Gals can anyone recommend a good Envmap file or explain how to tweak it, in particular one that would make the aircraft reflections a bit more realistic ?

OBIO
October 23rd, 2010, 19:51
T Square

There are a number of replacement envmaps to be had. BananaBob did one that is very widely used...I have no idea where it can be found. I used it for a while, then I found one that I like better. But, I can't recall where I found it. Renvmap.zip or something like that is the name. I will look to see if I can locate it on one of the main download sites.

OBIO

Found it! Realenvmap.zip at Simviation.com. By Pedro Padilla. It is in the FS2004 MISC section.

Also found another package on Simviation that I had forgotten that I use. High Rez Moons. On page 21 of the FS2004 Scenery section. There is also an update package on the same page. By Roy "Boikat" Althol.

OBIO
October 23rd, 2010, 20:51
I just downloaded about a dozen enhancement packages off of Simviation.com that I will be testing out in the next few days. Will report on how they work out.

One of the major things that I am looking to improve is the grass around my airports. For some reason, the grass/ground found at the airports is UGLY! I am looking to improve that BIG TIME!

OBIO

Alain_F355
October 23rd, 2010, 23:52
OBIO, did you try the grass texture in Pablo Diaz's HDEv2? I think it looks a lot better.

OBIO
October 24th, 2010, 00:09
I have the detail1.bmp from HDEv2 installed...and it gives the grass a very nice 3D quality. But the grass around my airports...it's not the texture of the grass that is bad...it is the color, the clarity. Very pixelated, blurry, doesn't even look like grass.

Here are three screenshots, taken from the top down view. Not how horrible the grass around the airport looks compared to the surrounding scenery.

OBIO

norab
October 24th, 2010, 06:28
Have you tried PicNic Tim

http://sites.google.com/site/aimecreations/freeware-fsx/picnic-fsx-fs2004

OBIO
October 24th, 2010, 09:51
norab

I downloaded and installed PicNic. It didn't change much. The grass texture changed...being more or less lumpy looking, but the colors and pattern were still terrible.

Does anyone know what files are used to place the grass around airports and runways?

OBIO

Sascha66
October 27th, 2010, 05:20
norab

I downloaded and installed PicNic. It didn't change much. The grass texture changed...being more or less lumpy looking, but the colors and pattern were still terrible.

Does anyone know what files are used to place the grass around airports and runways?

OBIO

The default files are numbered 139 through 143 with seasons i.e. sp, su, fa, wi and hw. You'll find them in the scenery/world/texture folder. The area covered by one tile is pretty large, usually a smal airport will only have a single one as background, so there is not much scope for fine detail.

Cheers,
Sascha

OleBoy
November 8th, 2010, 06:33
Already the document needs updated! The packages that norab pointed out a few posts above, the water packages...those are nice. The water looks amazing! I checked out the water at several points around the world...rivers, lakes, ocean...and I like it. However, I could not use the water effects. For some reason, those effects files threw my sim for a loop. The water would blink sort of....for a second the water looked incredible, then it would go all flat and pixelated for a second. Back and forth...Incredible, horrible, incredible, horrible. So I put the stock water effects back in place and just used the water textures...all is good. Water looks great, sim runs as smoothly as ever.


OBIO

I tested this on my machine. Takes forever to load. When it does pop in it looks great. Too much load on my video card. I uninstalled the effects. That's what the controller said. But I still have the blinking neon sign look like it's still there. Almost as if the program never uninstalled the effects. I reinstalled and uninstalled again. It's still there. How to fix?

OleBoy
November 8th, 2010, 07:12
Now for FS9, I remember that my favorite package was called morewatr.zip. I was using it together with another package nammed "inland water textures", that was providing a much more pleasant color to the lakes and rivers. Morewatr was bringing some new and beautiful water textures for the seas and oceans, as well as new waves and water reflections that I liked a lot. I can however remember that there was another package with better waves, I don't know the name, though...

Here are two that I found for inland water. Though I'm not sure which is best.


FS2004 Inland Water And River Textures 2.0
[ Download (http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=90179) | View (http://www.flightsim.com/zview.php?cm=list&fid=90179) ]
Name: aawater2.zip (http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=90179) Size: 2,088,755 Date: 06-23-2005 Downloads: 7,752
http://www.flightsim.com/k/aawater2.gif
FS2004 Inland Water And River Textures 2.0. Corrects textures of all inland water (lakes, rivers, canals, streams) to appear more photorealistic. Version 2 is more color-matched than version 1. Also more compatible with various world regions. New 3D streams texture included. Textures vary with time of day and sky conditions. Version 1 had over 6000 downloads from various sites. By Adnan Arif.


FS2004 Inland Water Textures
[ Download (http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=84334) | View (http://www.flightsim.com/zview.php?cm=list&fid=84334) ]
Name: inlndwtr.zip (http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=84334) Size: 327,842 Date: 01-05-2005 Downloads: 1,784
http://www.flightsim.com/k/inlndwtr.gif
FS2004 Inland Water Textures with a perfect balance of blue and brown. By Matt Wier.

norab
November 8th, 2010, 13:02
Hi Oleboy, You need this download also for the effects to work right. it was posted a day or two later. You need all three downloads working together to get the effects working properly






My apologies to all, had it on my system so long I forgot about it. This is a frontend for the water texture packages that let it work properly and effects be switched in FS2004, at Flightsim, please be sure to read the directions

FS2002 - FS2002 Misc. FS2002/FS2004 OceanFX v2.00
[ Download (http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=66542) | View (http://www.flightsim.com/zview.php?cm=list&fid=66542) ]
Name: ofx20sa.zip (http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=66542) Size: 948,236 Date: 08-10-2003 Downloads: 5,351
http://www.flightsim.com/i/ofx20sa.gif FS2002/FS2004 OceanFX v2.00 - Front-end for Ed Truthan's oceans effects and textures. Enables the user to select the desired waves and textures through the use of a Windows application. Compatible with both FS2002 and FS2004. Stand-alone version: requires OCEANSFX.ZIP (http://www.flightsim.com/file.php?cm=SEARCH1&fsec=0&fname=OCEANSFX.ZIP) and OCEANSTX.ZIP (http://www.flightsim.com/file.php?cm=SEARCH1&fsec=0&fname=OCEANSTX.ZIP). Freeware by Johan de Vries. (Previous version had 5040 downloads.)

OleBoy
November 8th, 2010, 13:15
Hi Oleboy, You need this download also for the effects to work right. it was posted a day or two later. You need all three downloads working together to get the effects working properly

Yes sir. I understood that. It just doesn't want to work for some strange reason. I tried several wave heights and settings, but all the water appears to look like a mass of blinking particles. Even after uninstall. I don't know why. Once I get the particle effect resolved, I'll gladly test it again

Willy
November 8th, 2010, 13:16
Found TreexFS9.zip at FlightSim which puts FSX type trees in FS9. They're not as small a trees as Fengs, but I like the look better. Besides, I was missing having to dodge trees on short final.

And just for the record Obio, this thread is costing me money. I got more interested in the look of FS, which lead to more scenery add ons. That in turn has lead me to wanting to dabble in scenery development, and it's looking like I'm going to be purchasing something like EZ Scenery. :d

Terry
November 9th, 2010, 01:34
That in turn has lead me to wanting to dabble in scenery development, and it's looking like I'm going to be purchasing something like EZ Scenery. :d[/QUOTE]

Make sure you have plenty of time on your hands as tinkering with the scenery is extremely addictive.:salute:

Willy
December 7th, 2010, 10:27
Just my two pence, but I think this needs to be a permanent sticky. Too much good info in here to let it slide back to page 7 (where I found it) or farther.

Edit: I did get EZ Scenery and am learning how to use it. You're right about the extremely addictive.

Z-claudius24
December 7th, 2010, 11:12
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d112/belga1/thBump.gif

Terry
December 7th, 2010, 12:01
Just my two pence, but I think this needs to be a permanent sticky. Too much good info in here to let it slide back to page 7 (where I found it) or farther.

Edit: I did get EZ Scenery and am learning how to use it. You're right about the extremely addictive.

Yes Willy, it needs sticking!

Lets hear some opinions on trees. Four photos of the same spot, July 4th, 10am, facing West on Whidbey Island.

There is default, Fengtreegen, treefs9, and a combo. I did not alter the photos. The default are brighter, Fengs are sized better but darker, Treesfs9 are large and dark with a lot of brown trees in July.

Are there any others that are better than these three options? Which is best?

Duckie
December 7th, 2010, 12:06
Thanks for the BUMP claudius. I had forgotten about some of these cool addons.

I finally got Holger Sandmann's scenery working properly but I had to delete UT. I just could not eliminate all the extra and misplaced shore lines created between FSG, HS and UT, even after following everyones advice and all the instructions on the FSG and HS forums.

But I'm very happy with what's left! With the new FSGDEM19M mesh and some of this other FREE scenery stuff my FS9 is beginning to look really good!

Thanks to all contributors here (and elsewhere too!), not the least of whom are the makers of such wonderful gifts!

Steve

OBIO
December 7th, 2010, 12:13
This thread is now Stickied. The idea of it being a permanent Stickie, along side the freeware Gems thread, is a good one. A perpetual archive of tips, tweaks, and packages to make FS9 look great for no, or close to no, money.

I will take a copy of Feng's TreeGen and see if I can lighten the trees a bit. The default trees are brighter and give more contrast, but just too darn big.

OBIO

I was able to lighten the trees in Feng's Treegen...but I went too far...they are too light. Will take some time to get them lightened enough but not too much. Once I get a set that looks good, I will ask for a couple testers to give them the looking over so that a happy medium can be reached....if 8 testers out of 10 are happy with them...that should be good enough to make most people happy. I will send a PM to Feng asking his Okay on doing the tweaking to his work..don't want to step on his toes in any way.

Wing_Z
December 7th, 2010, 13:02
I've found REX freeware grass best...if it's the one I think it is, look here, never mind it says FSX:

http://www.realenvironmentxtreme.com/downloads.html

Desert Rat
December 18th, 2010, 14:35
This thread is now Stickied. The idea of it being a permanent Stickie, along side the freeware Gems thread, is a good one.

I agree.

May I suggest a sub-forum for this, freeware gems and other nugets/goldmines of information, hence they won't get lost in the depths. FSX forum has 3 sub forums for looks/tweaking.

Jamie

Sunny9850
March 6th, 2011, 09:59
WTH? You didn't mention my FREE (19.6m) mesh for Hawai'i? I'm hurt! (s/b in the library here...)

A mention about layering, in case you have similar LODs of mesh for FS( the sim will use whichever is read first in the library. So the convoluted thinking goes "higher priority = lower in the library". Something that got "fixed" in later (ie 'X') versions of FS.

I still have a version of FS9 on a DVD that I load once in a while just to fly around Hawai'i. Just looks better to me than what FSX provides, at least for now...

Now excuse me while I sooth my hurt feelings with a double dose of desert!! Happy flying, free is good.:ernae:

I am in the process of building a new FS9 installation backdated to the CalClassic 60s and was going to try your Hawaii mesh but did not find it in the the library.

Could you give me a pointer by any chance ??

Cheers
Stefan

Z-claudius24
March 6th, 2011, 11:35
Hi,

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/page.php?lloc=downloads&loc=downloads&FileType=fs2k4&page=downloads&Category=mesh

Sunny9850
March 6th, 2011, 13:58
Thank You,

that was quick :D

Stefan

..I looked for Meshman. That's why I came up empty in my searches.

nigel richards
March 7th, 2011, 23:59
"May I suggest a sub-forum for this, freeware gems and other nugets/goldmines of information, hence they won't get lost in the depths. FSX forum has 3 sub forums for looks/tweaking." Jamie (JDTinballs)

"Just my two pence, but I think this needs to be a permanent sticky. Too much good info in here to let it slide back to page 7 (where I found it) or farther." Willy

Couple of the most profound recommendations I've heard here lately, fellas. Willy, Being Senior Admin here, use your influence. This is all major stuff for any new and notsonewbies joining SOH!

Same could be said of Tom Clayton's 'freeware gems' thread; spiral dive to page five...

Good show Willy. :salute:

nigel richards
March 8th, 2011, 00:28
Got a question that for you Guys and Gals can anyone recommend a good Envmap file or explain how to tweak it, in particular one that would make the aircraft reflections a bit more realistic ?

T Square - making your own envmap file is a cinche! And its more fun if your using your own work!
Simply jump into FS, set up a nice piece of scenery, make a screenshot and convert this to a 512 x 512 - 32 bitmap . Pop it into main FS texture folder and you're in business. Don't worry about DXT-ing etc. - no need to! Leave it as is.
Experiment until you come up with something that really puts the polish on your bare metal aicraft.
And get up there real close in FS to check out what happens to that metal.

Hint: Desert shots can have a hot effect (often used by airbrush illustrators on metal bike chrome and soforth). Try and get the sun in there somewhere too!

Here's a bit of messing around I was doing a couple of days ago...

32889

Hope it helps...:salute:

nigel richards
March 8th, 2011, 01:51
:salute:...get in close there to see your handiwork!

328903289232891

...but don't take all the credit. In many advanced models, the thoughtful designer/texturer has been doing some fancy footwork of his own, to make your precious model even more glamourous! See the Jumpin Jaques nose there for example.

OBIO
March 8th, 2011, 12:18
I just asked the powers-that-be for our very own sub-forum to keep the Freeware Gems thread and this one in.

OBIO

Desert Rat
March 8th, 2011, 12:37
Obio,

that's a great idea, wish I'd thought of that, lol.

I saw you'd posted and wondered if the next tip was to 'get a honking stonking rig', job done as they say. :d

Jamie

nigel richards
March 8th, 2011, 12:59
I just asked the powers-that-be for our very own sub-forum to keep the Freeware Gems thread and this one in.

OBIO


:wiggle:

Good work Obio! All these HU's can then stay upfront, where they belong.

If they're in a 'generous' mode...oops mood, reckon they'd agree to a 'loony's corner', 'wind-up page' or 'crazy column' where wacos like me could spend all day writing about night camouflage, 'special ops' Chinooks and the like?

nigel richards
March 9th, 2011, 12:30
32944329453294632947

As there's probably some pretty heavy metal on your aircraft list, give them the justice they truly deserve...even 'improperliners'!
I cooked up the above 'desert' envirmap for these shots. Hope it gets you guys 'rollin your own'...


Obio's idea on multiple FS installs makes sense. Rolled my sleeves up today on a second install and now have one for civil, one for military. And now I also have different sets of clouds, water and autogen. Just love having the variety. All my addon scenery is on my slave disk, so all i had to do was the 'add area' part. Cinche!
It seems like I'm getting better frame rates now, too. Can't be bad!
Obio, that's a few kegs of the good stuff I owe you. Thanks!

I think it was Willy who mentioned tall autogen trees...well you can simply reduce them in size e.g. if the're 512x512bits, simply reduce them to 256x256bits! (just don't forget to reduce the masks too, then DXT). A second benefit will be seen next time you fly over forest.
Now give yourself a pat on the back. you've just tricked FS into giving you twice as many trees! :wiggle: But you cleverdicks knew that, didn't you?

Willy
March 9th, 2011, 12:50
Wish granted. You chose wisely. :d

Willy
March 9th, 2011, 12:53
I think it was Willy who mentioned tall autogen trees...well you can simply reduce them in size e.g. if the're 512x512bits, simply reduce them to 256x256bits! (just don't forget to reduce the masks too, then DXT). A second benefit will be seen next time you fly over forest. You've just tricked FS into giving you twice as many trees! :wiggle: But you cleverdicks knew that, didn't you?

Lately, I've came to the conclusion that into every life a few Mexican Jumping Redwoods must come and one should just learn to deal with them.

OBIO
March 22nd, 2011, 20:30
No new packages to suggest yet...

But, I took two sceen shots to show Deb the difference between Box Stock FS9 and my Modified FS9. The difference is quite striking....and to think that this modification has cost me nothing but time. Alpnach, August 7, 12 noon, cold fronts, Cessna 172 in both pics. Same sim place, same sim time. Totally different results.

OBIO

norab
November 3rd, 2011, 11:26
something I lke the looks off

http://www.fs2000.org/index.php/download/doc_details/8619--fs2004-more-waves-ii



51178



Also like the changes to the night skys with this



MyFsStars increases the number of stars shown at night in Flight Simulator 2004 and also gives a more realistic view with adjusted brightness values. Optionally and "just for fun", constellation lines can be drawn as well.


51179





found about half way down here

http://www.elbiah.de/flusi/

OBIO
November 7th, 2011, 21:16
Here's one that I have to add to this thread:

realterr.zip by Sascha Peiger over at Flightsim.com. Total replacement for those butt ugly stock airport grass surrounds. This package is well worth the download time...which is not long at all.

OBIO

OBIO
December 3rd, 2011, 15:14
Just found another free enhancement that is worth adding to our installs. It is a revamped set of VC Rain textures by Joe Binka. Found them on Flightsim.com. Really makes the VC rain effect more visible and more realistic. The rain drops are the same size, just more visible.

vcrain.zip is the name of the package.

OBIO

OBIO
December 4th, 2011, 21:45
A couple posts up, norab recommends a package called MyFSStars. It is well worth downloading and installing....and it's a very easy install. Just one file to copy into your installs. And the results are amazing. The night sky has never looked better. I just completed a flight from Columbus, Indiana to Mansfield, Ohio in the freeware CLS Piper PA-28 and really enjoyed looking out at the star filled sky. Not sure how much you can see in these screen shots......I know that they did not show all the stars that were visible on my monitor.

53711

And in the post above I mentioned the tweaked VC rain effects package by Joe Binka. It rocks!

53712

Was a great flight...one of my first longish night flights (nearly 1 hour and 45 minutes). And I actually pulled off a successful landing and taxi to parking at KMFD (Mansfield Lahm Regional...my home airport).

OBIO

rwatson
April 9th, 2012, 10:47
I've found this post but can't see a link to the article..I had it before and it worked great could someone post a link to this article Thank You

norab
April 9th, 2012, 13:23
here you go, all credit goes to OBIO



62781

rwatson
April 9th, 2012, 14:01
Norab
Thank you for the help and to obio for a great read

caffeinegum
April 30th, 2012, 15:14
Great document.

Late starter here, only just picked up fs9, but it seems like the right choice for my low end laptop! The addons described here are a great starting point for someone late to the game like myself, the shear volume of files available after all of these years is pretty overwhelming, which is not a bad thing ;)

Thanks for the good work!

Tom Clayton
May 1st, 2012, 04:25
Since you're new to FS9, I'm guessing you might not have the 9.1 update. It was released by MS to correct a number of issues involving both performance and missing scenery. Run this installer as soon as you can before you go adding too much to your sim:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=9727

caffeinegum
May 3rd, 2012, 14:32
Since you're new to FS9, I'm guessing you might not have the 9.1 update. It was released by MS to correct a number of issues involving both performance and missing scenery. Run this installer as soon as you can before you go adding too much to your sim:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=9727

Great, thanks Tom, I've gone and done that. Still haven't added things, doing my reading before I go and get confused.

Just a quick questions however. I understand scenery can be added from an outside location (ie. I have a separate partition I'd like to keep all of that stuff on, however with addons such as mesh, clouds and sun etc, it seems I have no choice but to overwrite the stock files. Would this be a correct statement?

I've already made a backup of the stock installation folder in case I mess things up, but seens as I'm new to the game I can see myself experimenting with various textures and addons and was wondering if there is a simpler more non destructive way of say, using 3rd party mesh replacements. Maybe I'm over thinking.

Tom Clayton
May 3rd, 2012, 20:14
Anything like sun, clouds, or trees require overwriting stock files in the main Texture folder. Having a backup of that is a smart idea.

As for putting addon scenery packages on a sep. partition, that will work as long as you point the scenery library to the right folder, just like using the Addon Scenery folder. You can even use an external drive as long as you make sure it's plugged in and running prior to starting FS. If you start up FS and there's scenery missing, it will throw up an error. (Which is why you also never just delete an addon scenery package without first removing it from the library.)

norab
May 4th, 2012, 02:34
, if you have the space on your drive, you may want to consider multiple installs, IE leave one stock, one set up as WWII, one as Golden Wings, and one just as an experimental test bed to see if you like a particular add on. Several of our members have set ups like that HTH

caffeinegum
May 4th, 2012, 11:45
Great, thanks for clearing this up for me gents. So basically, to create these separate installs I can just duplicate the installation folder and rename accordingly?

I'll give installing some mesh a go this evening!

Cheers

OBIO
May 31st, 2013, 11:06
Here's the Making FS9 Look Great For Free V2 text document.

87993

Tim

Tom Clayton
May 31st, 2013, 14:18
You should also upload that to the "FS 2004 Other" section of the Library! :applause:

dhazelgrove
August 5th, 2013, 06:57
Here's the Making FS9 Look Great For Free V2 text document.

87993

Tim

IE11 won't download this link.

Dave

Navtech
August 5th, 2013, 10:20
Download from here:

http://www32.zippyshare.com/v/397610/file.html

MaddogK
August 20th, 2017, 09:23
I hate to bump like this, but...it's time I spruce up my new fs2004 install and rhumbaflappy's terrain mesh's are nowhere to be found- except in our own library.

Do we have an ftp address I can use to download these instead of using a browser to grab them, or an alternate hosting site these files might be at ?

zswobbie1
August 20th, 2017, 10:17
I'm using Howard's The Natural World, with Golden Wings & Golden Hawaii added, as well as all the scenery (& planes) from The Ford Tri-Motor Project. I prefer that era, with the low's 'n slows.
And it makes for interesting flights.

Happy flying,
Robin

Devildog73
July 6th, 2021, 13:37
I'm using Howard's The Natural World, with Golden Wings & Golden Hawaii added, as well as all the scenery (& planes) from The Ford Tri-Motor Project. I prefer that era, with the low's 'n slows.
And it makes for interesting flights.

Happy flying,
Robin
:encouragement::very_drunk::encouragement:

I love Howard's TNW scenery for FS2004!
In my opinion, one of the greatest works yet for the sim.

Lee