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paulb
January 11th, 2011, 08:04
Late last year I purchased OrbX PNW. Amazing scenery! It brings FSX to a whole new level. Since then I have added more of their NA scenery.

One of my biggest problems is my dated pc - over four years old now. It was quite 'cutting edge' when I bought it, but time moves on! Last year I spent a small amount of money on a few upgrades and that has allowed me to run FSX at an acceptable level.

Over the past couple of months, I have been trying out different aircraft in PNW. Different ones - in character with the scenery - and which don't hit the frame rate too hard. I must have tried out over 20 freeware and payware aircraft by now.

Well, today I think that I have found the perfect combination. The Aerosoft Beaver arrived from Amazon and I have just now set it up. Excellent! A real in character bush flyer. The package includes a number of different versions and many liveries. The sound is first class. Best of all, it is frame rate friendly!

Here are a few pics for anyone who is interested.

BOOM
January 11th, 2011, 08:20
:jawdrop:WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! Gourgeous!!!!!!

Dexdoggy
January 11th, 2011, 12:49
Great shots paulb!

Like you, my pc is older; I bought ORBX's "FSX Go!" which I find fantastic for setting up FSX to optimum. I have a stack of ORBX sceneries as well as the beaut Tongass Fjiords (which this little programme tamed for me!). I would be "graphically challlanged" without it, to say the least!

The Beaver is a good one; I find all the Carenado stuff is also very kind on framerates, as is Lotus' beaut L-39 (not really great for bush strips though!); Ant's Technam Sierra & freeware Moth are good too!

Warrant
January 11th, 2011, 12:55
The ideal plane for such a dramatic landscape. Nice screenshots!

paulb
January 11th, 2011, 13:25
Thanks chaps. I really appreciate your comments. :salute:

Dexdoggy - I will have a look at 'FSXGo'. I need all the help that I can get!

Here are a few more pics which hopefully show off the 'combination'.....................

W. Bleddyn
January 11th, 2011, 14:45
It is a great combo.

The FTX NA sceneries were the first I purchased, and it was because I live in the area ;) Try flying from-into Raven Field, Duncan BC. The FTX version is one of the best back-yard strips I have found. Almost considering getting Air Hauler to run a little bush-op from there. (Even though it is kinda close to the city lol)

The Aerosoft Beaver is a no brainer for this environment, they are still used here in plenty. If you can afford it their Twin Otter is a must have for the region as well. That is one of my favorite planes in FSX.

Also, the FTX stuff is made to mesh seamlessly with Tongass Fjords and give you a wonderful Southern Alaska/BC/Washington/Oregon area to play in. That may be one of my next buys.

paulb
January 11th, 2011, 15:02
It is a great combo.

The FTX NA sceneries were the first I purchased, and it was because I live in the area ;) Try flying from-into Raven Field, Duncan BC. The FTX version is one of the best back-yard strips I have found. Almost considering getting Air Hauler to run a little bush-op from there. (Even though it is kinda close to the city lol)

The Aerosoft Beaver is a no brainer for this environment, they are still used here in plenty. If you can afford it their Twin Otter is a must have for the region as well. That is one of my favorite planes in FSX.

Also, the FTX stuff is made to mesh seamlessly with Tongass Fjords and give you a wonderful Southern Alaska/BC/Washington/Oregon area to play in. That may be one of my next buys.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try out that flight and I must look at their Twin Otter once my bank balance improves!

And just a few more pics.........................;)

JayKae
January 11th, 2011, 15:24
Lovely shots, the Beaver is one of my all time favourites for low and slow, perfect match with our PNW .. or OZ sceneries for that matter lol

OleBoy
January 11th, 2011, 16:35
Anything GA is good for flying over the PNW. Lots of mountains, valleys and meadows to get lost in the beauty of

paulb
January 12th, 2011, 13:12
Thanks Chaps :)

OleBoy - what excited me so much about the Beaver was finding a high quality payware aircraft that is so suited to the scenery (in a real world sense) and is so frame rate friendly. The performance of the Beaver means that I can use grass strips with ease - always assuming that I can find them when I am trying to land! :icon_eek:

Shylock
January 12th, 2011, 13:27
Wow great shots. What kind of system you running there? I'm building my own system and hoping to get everything out of FSX but I doubt it. Once I build I will be buying these sceneries for sure.

olderndirt
January 12th, 2011, 18:12
Before I comment on your screenies, let me say that I love your dog - those eyes. Our Australian Shepherd has that same "I know what you're thinking" look. The Beaver's a winner - look also at Carenado's C185 series and FlightReplica's SuperCubs. They'll go anywhere in FTXPNW, PFJ or NRM - some of the best things that've happened to FSX scenery.

paulb
January 12th, 2011, 21:57
Before I comment on your screenies, let me say that I love your dog - those eyes. Our Australian Shepherd has that same "I know what you're thinking" look. The Beaver's a winner - look also at Carenado's C185 series and FlightReplica's SuperCubs. They'll go anywhere in FTXPNW, PFJ or NRM - some of the best things that've happened to FSX scenery.

Thanks olderndirt. We got him from a rescue centre nearly nine years ago. He is a great dog - very gentle and brighter than some people that I know!

paulb
January 12th, 2011, 22:09
Wow great shots. What kind of system you running there? I'm building my own system and hoping to get everything out of FSX but I doubt it. Once I build I will be buying these sceneries for sure.

Thanks Shylock. Well, my pc is quite old now. I bought it way back in 2006 and added a few upgrades last years. Basic spec is - Intel core 2 duo 6700 2.66ghz, 4gb ram, Nvidia 1gb GT240 graphics card at 1600 by 1200 resolution 16 bit (AA on and trilinear filtering) - the native resolution of my monitor, running under Windows 7.
I broadly used the OrbX recommended settings - which max out most things, but keep the autogen at dense and the traffic in the 10-15% range. I run FSX Acceleration and FEX. I have the frame rate set at 24 and manage to stay in the 20 to 24 range with the Beaver in this scenery - which keeps me happy! :d

Here are a couple more pics taken around Walter Sutton's farm.

robert41
January 13th, 2011, 19:46
Great scenery. I like to fly A2A's Cub in this area.

JayKae
January 13th, 2011, 21:08
Can I also advise to visit www.aussiex.org (http://www.aussiex.org) and download yourself the NA enhancements we supply from there for free ?

dvj
January 13th, 2011, 21:34
Nice Beaver! (I always wanted to say that)

pilottj
January 13th, 2011, 21:50
Leslie Nielsen and I agree with DVJ :icon_lol:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhyCL-ELRxg
RIP Leslie

paulb
January 13th, 2011, 22:16
Hi Chaps

Thanks for the comments :d

Now then - dvj and pilottj - I went to great lengths to avoid saying 'nice beaver' in my description! LOL! :icon_lol:

JayKae - thanks for the suggestion. I will have a look. Do they all work seamlessly with NA? Do you have any particular recommendations?

Thanks

Paul

JayKae
January 13th, 2011, 23:31
They have been designed to work with NA the best. OZx and Orbx work closely together :)

If you require North American scenery, download OZx NA 1.01 (http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/files/file/1256-ozx-na-101-installer/) & OZx Libraries (http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/files/file/1255-ozx-libraries10-installer/)
Install each package in order, navigating to your root FSX folder if required.

NA to be found here http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/files/file/1256-ozx-na-101-installer/

Libraries http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/files/file/1255-ozx-libraries10-installer/ + http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/files/file/1458-ozx-libraries-11/

W. Bleddyn
January 14th, 2011, 03:25
Just did a flight from Grand Forks, BC.. no flight plan then just followed Hwy 3 west until I got to Vancouver using the FTX packs. It was fantastic. It is a drive I have done many times in RL and the scenery looked pretty darn good!

If anyone is on the fence about the Orbx-FTX sceneries, maybe try one of the freeware airports they have on their site. I assure you that you will be back with your credit card out ;)

@JayKae, thanks for the heads up about the OZx free airfields. A little disappointed that there are 10 US fields and only 3 CDN.. but I'll never b**ch about nice freeware! Cheers.

paulb
January 14th, 2011, 04:22
They have been designed to work with NA the best. OZx and Orbx work closely together :)

If you require North American scenery, download OZx NA 1.01 (http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/files/file/1256-ozx-na-101-installer/) & OZx Libraries (http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/files/file/1255-ozx-libraries10-installer/)
Install each package in order, navigating to your root FSX folder if required.

NA to be found here http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/files/file/1256-ozx-na-101-installer/

Libraries http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/files/file/1255-ozx-libraries10-installer/ + http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/files/file/1458-ozx-libraries-11/

Hi JayKae

Many thanks for your help :applause:

One more question please -

I currently have the FTX freeware Vashon plus the FTX payware Darrington, Concrete and Walter Sutton installed with all of the FTX NA base scenery. However, I see that these airfields are also included in the OZx NA package. What is the risk of conflict? Does one overwrite the other or produce duplicates and hence problems?

Thanks

Paul

W. Bleddyn
January 14th, 2011, 04:44
At the risk of being wrong, I'll throw my $0.02 in until JayKae can confirm or deny..

The manual with the OZx NA pack says "*ORBX fields NOT included in OZx Freeware" so I don't think there is any conflict at all.

paulb
January 14th, 2011, 05:09
At the risk of being wrong, I'll throw my $0.02 in until JayKae can confirm or deny..

The manual with the OZx NA pack says "*ORBX fields NOT included in OZx Freeware" so I don't think there is any conflict at all.

Good point! You may well be correct. I guess that would then beg the question 'where can one obtain the airports in that list?" (Apart from the OrbX payware and Vashon).

W. Bleddyn
January 14th, 2011, 05:51
I guess that would then beg the question 'where can one obtain the airports in that list?" (Apart from the OrbX payware and Vashon).

I think that that other then the 6 OrbX fields the rest are included in that package... could be wrong though...

...on a side note.. WOW! I may have to check out that A2A Cub.. the VC in that pic in the OZx docs looks amazing@

paulb
January 14th, 2011, 07:35
I think that that other then the 6 OrbX fields the rest are included in that package... could be wrong though...

...on a side note.. WOW! I may have to check out that A2A Cub.. the VC in that pic in the OZx docs looks amazing@

Well, I think that we really need JayKae to come here and help us out. There are a few questions in our recent posts and I am getting confused! :p:

The A2A Cub is very nice BTW. Heidi makes it even more fun!

robert41
January 14th, 2011, 18:21
The Cub is a great low and slow flyer.

JayKae
January 14th, 2011, 22:52
Washington

Burden Field
Center Is
Clam Harbour
Crane Island
Decatur/Jones
Decatur Shores
Kendall
Ranger Ck
Shaw Island
Spieden Island
Stuart Is Airpark
Thompson Airport
Waldronaire

Canada

British Columbia
Cardiff Mountain
Tsuniah Creek
Twin Lakes

The above are what is included in OZx NA, the only one that could clash now that KORS by Orbx is finished is Clam Harbour, so make sure that if you have OZx NA, you install KORS AFTER you have installed OZx NA, if you have KORS already, install OZx then reinstall KORS, the KORS installer by Orbx will get rid of the OZx files.

OleBoy
January 14th, 2011, 23:12
Great shots Paul. You seem to be enjoying the PNW. Far more beautiful in reality but, from all the pictures I've seen of it, Orbx has done a fair job for virtual reality considering they're on the other side of the world!

paulb
January 15th, 2011, 03:25
Washington

Burden Field
Center Is
Clam Harbour
Crane Island
Decatur/Jones
Decatur Shores
Kendall
Ranger Ck
Shaw Island
Spieden Island
Stuart Is Airpark
Thompson Airport
Waldronaire

Canada

British Columbia
Cardiff Mountain
Tsuniah Creek
Twin Lakes

The above are what is included in OZx NA, the only one that could clash now that KORS by Orbx is finished is Clam Harbour, so make sure that if you have OZx NA, you install KORS AFTER you have installed OZx NA, if you have KORS already, install OZx then reinstall KORS, the KORS installer by Orbx will get rid of the OZx files.

Thanks JayKae for helping out. Much appreciated :applause:

I will go ahead and install them now.

Cheers

Paul

paulb
January 15th, 2011, 03:34
Great shots Paul. You seem to be enjoying the PNW. Far more beautiful in reality but, from all the pictures I've seen of it, Orbx has done a fair job for virtual reality considering they're on the other side of the world!

Thanks OleBoy :d

Yes, I am enjoying the new scenery. It is almost as though I have bought a new simulator! I remember, years ago, buying a sim - Flight Unlimited I think - and getting that wow factor from the scenery. I am getting the same feeling from these OrbX/FTX scenery products. Getting the Beaver was the icing on the cake for me. I have used it a fair bit now, and still haven't had a graphics problem on my old pc!

I have visited the US over a dozen times, but always to the East Coast (Washington down to Florida). I have not yet made it to the West Coast. I am sure that the PNW must be a beautiful place to visit.

vora
January 15th, 2011, 05:01
There are three things that have lifted my simulator experience to totally new levels:

REX 2.0, OrbX scenery, A2A Accusim

IMHO these three improvements turned my FSX into FSXI.

paulb
January 15th, 2011, 05:40
There are three things that have lifted my simulator experience to totally new levels:

REX 2.0, OrbX scenery, A2A Accusim

IMHO these three improvements turned my FSX into FSXI.

I can well understand your feelings :d

paulb
January 15th, 2011, 10:01
A couple of pics around Israel's farm. Hope they are of interest. :)

Roger
January 15th, 2011, 13:06
A couple of pics around Israel's farm. Hope they are of interest. :)

I'd love to see that grass effect everywhere in FsX:engel016:

JayKae
January 15th, 2011, 13:12
No worries mate, lovely shots of Izzy's too :)

paulb
January 15th, 2011, 14:05
I'd love to see that grass effect everywhere in FsX:engel016:

Hi Roger

Isn't it great. You even get different weeds and flowers in Israel's farm :d.

Also I like the sound effects - the birds etc, and then the great startup sounds from the Beaver.

I have just be exploring somewhere quite different - took off from 3W7 and flew a short distance east to see the Grand Coulee Dam. A much flatter landscape. I must go further East next to the Rockies!

paulb
January 15th, 2011, 23:29
I have spent a bit more time exploring the NRM scenery. This time I took off from Calgary CYYC in Alberta (wintertime) and followed the main highway and river west to the Rockies. Hope it of interest. :d

W. Bleddyn
January 16th, 2011, 00:15
Always of interest and much appreciated. Great shots!

paulb
January 16th, 2011, 01:37
Thanks!

So, staying with the NRM scenery - I took off from CYCZ Fairmont Hot Springs in Alberta (springtime) and flew east looking for the 'top of the world provincial park'. I don't think that I found it, but the scenery was nice. ;)

dswo
January 16th, 2011, 04:35
Beaver has rich sounds, too.

W. Bleddyn
January 16th, 2011, 04:43
I took off from CYCZ Fairmont Hot Springs in Alberta (springtime) and flew east

Well that was your mistake! You should always fly West when departing from Alberta... but I may just be a biased BC lad heh :engel016:

Great pics again

paulb
January 16th, 2011, 05:27
Beaver has rich sounds, too.

I agree! I bought the boxed version and then downloaded the free sound pack upgrade from the Aerosoft site, Well worthwhile ;)

The Beaver really is a nice package. I have tried to illustrate the four versions and some of the paints in my screenshots.

paulb
January 16th, 2011, 05:30
Well that was your mistake! You should always fly West when departing from Alberta... but I may just be a biased BC lad heh :engel016:

Great pics again

LOL! :icon_lol:

I thought that with a name like Bleddyn you had to be from Wales :wales: (where I live).

W. Bleddyn
January 16th, 2011, 05:43
LOL, long story, but to shorten it I was in an IL-2 squad that mostly used animal names as call signs, mine was Wolf. I later was in the (now defunct) No.10 RNAS in Rise of Flight and I felt like a change. The real squadron uses "Yn y Nwyfre yn Hedfan" (Hovering in the Heavens) as a motto, so I just changed Wolf into Welsh.. Bleddyn.

The W is for William. My real name. Sorry to be off topic, and probably boring lol.

paulb
January 16th, 2011, 06:09
LOL, long story, but to shorten it I was in an IL-2 squad that mostly used animal names as call signs, mine was Wolf. I later was in the (now defunct) No.10 RNAS in Rise of Flight and I felt like a change. The real squadron uses "Yn y Nwyfre yn Hedfan" (Hovering in the Heavens) as a motto, so I just changed Wolf into Welsh.. Bleddyn.

The W is for William. My real name. Sorry to be off topic, and probably boring lol.

Well Bleddyn is a good name ;) -

"A Bleddyn is a very generous man, giving to all who need his help. Bleddyns are dedicated partners and fiercely loyal friends.

Bleddyns live life to the fullest with no regrets, taking nothing for granted. They are cherished by all who know them.

The world needs more Bleddyns...people who will truly change the world for the best!"