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!
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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.
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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/sy...=newcliffs.zip
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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-eff...n=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
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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.
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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.
FS 2004
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