What environmnt do you use?

[Cowboy1968]

I am curious about what environment others run there FS2004 install with?

I have heavily modified mine with several payware and freeware 3rd party software.

For the terrain mesh i am running Pilot's FSGlobal2010 updated to SP1. i run this right on top of the mesh Microsoft used. it does a great job with pretty much the whole globe. I do have a question though, with FSGlobal installed do i have to keep running the mesh provided in the stock package? i wait for an answer to that one...lol..

Now for texture sets i use several different packages, but right now I pretty much have been sticking with REX Ground Environment 2014 with the Overdrive updates, and this provides me with some great options that can be mixed and matched well. it produces some great looks. Every once in awhile i will run Flight1 Software's Ground Environment Professional, but not so much now. I also keep Silver Wings and Golden Wings backed up for possible use for the texture sets. I also have Flight1 Software's Flight Environment as well; though the REX package does the work of both the Flight1 products.

I also have used all the great scenery packages at California Classic Propliners sight to backdate FS9 to my favorite era of flying...

That's the environment that i have set up...what have you guys done? Does anyone even still run the "out of the box" sim?

[Cowboy1968]

A USN Curtiss C-46 running around in my environment...

[Mick]

I can answer one of your questions. FS displays the highest resolution mesh available in whatever locale you're in, so you don't have to delete lower resolution mesh.

This is a real convenience if you have higher res mesh for certain places. For example, I have the old FSG mesh for the entire US including Alaska and Canada. I have higher resolution mesh for the Grand Canyon, and for places in other regions like the Alps and the Himalayas. It all lives in the same folder. Very simple.

At this point I can't remember what water and sky textures I use. I think I got my water from one of Bill Lyons' packages but I'm not sure. It's been so long since I set that stuff up!

I recall a file that puts the real stars in the sky, lots more than the stock set-up, and one that makes a better moon, but I don't remember what they're properly called or who made them.

My Classic Era sim, "FS1954 - A Half Century of Flight," is built on an FS2004 chassis with Bill Lyons' Silver Wings installed. I considered using a Golden Wings chassis, but after much consideration I figured it would be easier to depict the Classic Era by backdating FS2002 than by updating GW. Others may have a different idea about that.

Classic Wings provides some very nice water, sky, ground and autogen textures, but I may have taken the water from a different Lyons package - I just can't recall. I may have substituted different sky textures, or maybe just sunset - again, memory fails me.

The biggest job in making a Classic Era sim was re-militarizing so many old Air Force bases that used to be active duty military bases and are now mixed use, reserve/civilian, completely civilian or closed. That's largely a matter of deleting the civilian AI, adding military static models and AI, and sometimes adding some military-style buildings and hangars.

For AI and many civil airports I use Cal Classics scenery and AI packages, including the MATS package. Besides FS1954, I also have FS Jet Age, set around the early 1960s, so I have both early and later versions of much Cal Classics scenery, and both versions of their civilian and MATS AI packages.

I also have my own AI scheme for some of the civil airports in my area (New England and New York mostly) and especially , my local area (southern New England.) And I have my own AI scheme for the military bases in the Northeast, pretty much none of which are still active duty military.

To avoid having so much AI that FS chokes on it, I use a lot of aircraft converted to static scenery objects, and just enough AI to provide a little action.

Rowdy the cat says no more typing, so I have to end this and pick up the grooming brush.