Making FS9 Look Great For Free Version 2

[OBIO]

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]

Have you tried PicNic Tim

http://sites.google.com/site/aimecre...nic-fsx-fs2004

[OBIO]

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]

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]

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]

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 | View ]
Name: aawater2.zip Size: 2,088,755 Date: 06-23-2005 Downloads: 7,752

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 | View ]
Name: inlndwtr.zip Size: 327,842 Date: 01-05-2005 Downloads: 1,784

FS2004 Inland Water Textures with a perfect balance of blue and brown. By Matt Wier.

[norab]

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 | View ]
Name: ofx20sa.zip Size: 948,236 Date: 08-10-2003 Downloads: 5,351
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 and OCEANSTX.ZIP. Freeware by Johan de Vries. (Previous version had 5040 downloads.)

[OleBoy]

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]

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.

[Terry]

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. [/QUOTE]

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

[Willy]

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]

[Terry]

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]

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]

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.