FSX Improvements?

**bazzar** · December 30th, 2009, 23:11

As it's holiday time, I thought I'd actually spend a bit of time flying around and just enjoying the sim.

I've decided that I'd like to improve the looks of the sim so would like some input please on what people think would be the best additions to upgrade the weather, scenery etc.

Payware or free's fine so long as it is not going to savage my computer...

I'd be most grateful for the advice.

Thanks in advance...

J van E · December 30th, 2009, 23:36

Scenery: FTX (unless you are into photorealistic scenery)
Weather: ASA
Clouds and water: REX

FX: Some people will probably suggest GEX (improved generic textures) and UTX (real roads, waters, etc.) but FTX beats it all imho. Only drawback is that FTX only covers Australia... (though the Pacific North West is comung up soon). But even though I have no interest at all in Australia, I fly there all the time because it simply looks so good!

ASA: I also own ASA but don't have it installed right now... It's hardly ever the weather I like to see.

And I also fly in Australia and live in Europe so I don't think it gives me the right weather for the time of day I am flying there. I almost always use the same weather that looks cool on my computer, also thanks to...

FEX. O, make that REX... Well, I own FEX for better cloud and water textures, but FEX has sort of stopped existing, so the best addon to buy right now would be REX. REX also has a weather engine, so getting REX might eliminate the need for ASA, but I know not everyone is completely pleased with the weather part of REX and uses it only for the textures.

I think that right now these are the best addons around for making FSX look better.

***falcon409*** · December 31st, 2009, 01:45

Baz, I haven't a clue really, but I am going to watch this thread to see what pops up. I'm currently using GEX and UTX, but to be honest, both have gotten very old for me, dated, if you will. I see screens from folks using the REX environment and wonder why I thought GEX and UTX were so hot, lol. Also, I've had UTX turned off in my sim, more than on because of some anomalies that seem to be generated by that program (right now it's turned off).

I'm also looking for a solid weather generating program as well. I use real world weather from within FSX and have ever since I moved to FSX from FS9 (where I used Active Sky exclusively).

So I'll check back from time to time and see what the general public comes up with. Good thread.:salute:

***Cazzie*** · December 31st, 2009, 02:16

Originally Posted by falcon409

Baz, I haven't a clue really, but I am going to watch this thread to see what pops up. I'm currently using GEX and UTX, but to be honest, both have gotten very old for me, dated, if you will. I see screens from folks using the REX environment and wonder why I thought GEX and UTX were so hot, lol. Also, I've had UTX turned off in my sim, more than on because of some anomalies that seem to be generated by that program (right now it's turned off).

I'm also looking for a solid weather generating program as well. I use real world weather from within FSX and have ever since I moved to FSX from FS9 (where I used Active Sky exclusively).

So I'll check back from time to time and see what the general public comes up with. Good thread.:salute:

Falcon, REX does nothing to either UTX or GEX, they are ground textures, REX handles sky and water texture and runway textures.

What anomalies do you get with UTX? I have UTX-USA and UTX-Europe. No problems here.

Caz

***falcon409*** · December 31st, 2009, 02:39

Originally Posted by Cazzie

. . . . .What anomalies do you get with UTX? I have UTX-USA and UTX-Europe. No problems here.
Caz

Disappearing inland lakes and land masses just appearing for no apparent reason, usually along the left or right coast. In both cases, when I turn off UTX, everything goes back to normal.

**IanHenry** · December 31st, 2009, 03:58

Falcon,
I presume that you are using Acceleration? If so that is the cause of your problems but there are tools available to rectify the UTX/Acceleration problem over at the Flight1 forum:
http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=23111
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ffice

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Just download and run the appropriate tools. It's worth saving the tool for future use because installing scenery like FTX can cause the problem to return.
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Happy New Year,
Ian.

**stiz** · December 31st, 2009, 04:25

personal fav

http://www.horizonsimulation.co.uk/s...&products_id=1

6297J · December 31st, 2009, 05:22

For those using the weather engine in REX, how does it deal with the haze layer? Activesky Advanced completely eliminates the terrible default 'hard-edged' haze layer but I can't find a definitive answer anywhere about how REX2 deals with it.

**dharris** · December 31st, 2009, 05:31

Hi Barry, for clouds and water I use FEX ground textures I use GEX and UTX for proper positioning of roads and waterways, airports and the like. I use a small amount of photoscenery, right now it is just Megascenery Hawaii, Dillingham and Las Vegas, but these have no effect on frames for me.

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w...-53-28-250.jpg

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w...8-2-53-781.jpg

**dharris** · December 31st, 2009, 05:34

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w...1-24-11-31.jpg

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w...3-39-312-1.jpg

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w...-48-35-875.jpg

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w...-37-13-828.jpg

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w...1-37-4-437.jpg

***Roger*** · December 31st, 2009, 07:41

For your neck of the woods Baz the FTX Aus scenery texture enhancement is probably the best I've ever seen

It's not cheap but if I lived there I'd have it all.

***Henry*** · December 31st, 2009, 08:01

Originally Posted by Roger

For your neck of the woods Baz the FTX Aus scenery texture enhancement is probably the best I've ever seen

It's not cheap but if I lived there I'd have it all.

i agree!

H

**shackleton_boy** · December 31st, 2009, 08:04

what is FEX?

**Cactuskid** · December 31st, 2009, 08:37

Originally Posted by shackleton_boy

what is FEX?

http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=flt1fex

***falcon409*** · December 31st, 2009, 08:45

Well, I just threw down $50.00 for Active Sky Advanced. . .based almost completely on what I remember from using Active Sky when I flew FS9. . .I really liked it. One thing I dislike as I get older is stuff that gives the appearance of being complicated. . .I don't like complicated. . .after living this long I figure I deserve "easy", not complicated, so before I do any sort of critique I'm going to read the manual and go back over the program in it's entirety and make sure that my first impression was wrong, lol, lol.

J van E · December 31st, 2009, 09:10

Originally Posted by Henry

i agree!

H

Er... I can't say that screenshot does FTX any justice: it looks rather awfull (apart from the plane). Extremely blurry textures (underneath the wings already!), lonely trees, hardly any houses... I've seen better advertisements for FTX...!

**JIMJAM** · December 31st, 2009, 10:42

" but FTX beats it all imho. Only drawback is that FTX only covers Australia... "

J van E · December 31st, 2009, 10:49

Originally Posted by JIMJAM

" but FTX beats it all imho. Only drawback is that FTX only covers Australia... "

Oh, yes, sure, FTX beats all, but I meant this particular screenshot, not FTX in general: FTX is the best.

**GBrutus** · December 31st, 2009, 10:59

The biggest improvement in visuals for me was by increasing the terrain LOD radius to 8.5. Can't believe I've never played with this setting before. All my enironment textures are a mix of various freeware and I'm very happy with how my FSX looks. Of course, when Orbx get around to Europe I'll be throwing my credit card at them.

***jankees*** · December 31st, 2009, 14:43

I have Tongass and most of the France VFR and nearly all of Italy in photoreal, and NL2000, but I fly almost exclusively in FTX Australia...

***falcon409*** · December 31st, 2009, 17:49

Originally Posted by falcon409

Well, I just threw down $50.00 for Active Sky Advanced. . .based almost completely on what I remember from using Active Sky when I flew FS9. . .I really liked it. One thing I dislike as I get older is stuff that gives the appearance of being complicated. . .I don't like complicated. . .after living this long I figure I deserve "easy", not complicated, so before I do any sort of critique I'm going to read the manual and go back over the program in it's entirety and make sure that my first impression was wrong, lol, lol.

Well, I'm going to continue to give ASA some slack since I'm still learning how to use it. Thus far. . .it's about even with the FSX weather engine (Jeppeson).

**bazzar** · January 1st, 2010, 04:10

So far, some excellent suggestions guys, thanks.I too am very interested in people's experiences with the various packages available.

For leisure use, I use Acceleration on a Quadcore with a 9 series G force card
and buckets of ram. So frame rates aren't really an issue.

Im a bit of a warbird fan as you know, and 'miss the old RAF fields terribly. So I'd go for something that'll give me Britain as it looked in the 40's. Scenery I think I can find, it's setting up the rest that is the challenge.

I was a great fan (still am actually) with the work that was done for FS9 and the Golden Age period. That made simming so evocative.

**ronvking** · January 1st, 2010, 09:54

Herny,

Is that the Realair Spit IX? If so is that repaint available anywhere?

Thanks Ron

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