Best very casual dlc?

[craig234]

For someone very casual - who's owned fs versions decades and never really played, imaging I might play just a little - are there any first/must have DLC's to improve it?

I'm thinking of things like hi res graphics improvements to make it look better, or gameplay improvements for novices to make it more fun or accessible.

[Rogen]

There's a great many items out in the wide world internet for FSX and below are just some.

For payware scenery you cannot go past Orbx and the photo real MegaScenery range but there are also lots of smaller developers/publishers producing.

Orbx
https://orbxdirect.com/
Orbx also have a few free areas and airports to try ourt.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1439833522
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1344408895
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1336703547

MegaScenery
https://www.megasceneryearth.com/?target=news_messages
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1502268562

Gibson Scenery
http://www.gibsonsceneries.com/

Here are just a few free or donation kind.

Mesh:
http://ninetwopro.com/
There are also a few meshes available on the Orbx site as well (Holger Mesh)

USA
http://www.blueskyscenery.com/index.html
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1355555586
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1281441117

Nederlands
https://www.nl-2000.com/
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1447093944

Hawaii
https://hawaii-photoreal.com/

Rickoooo also have the Italian Alps and the Canary Islands (you'll need to search) along with a host of planes etc.
https://www.rikoooo.com/
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1268597508
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1383807076 (canary Islands)


Here is a great Texture and Tree enahancement.
https://aleclercqcreations.blogspot.com/2018/05/terra-emergence-project.html

This site lists a great many links to freeware sceneries.
http://www.freewarescenery.com/

Really all you need to do is punch in FSX <whatever you are looking for> into Google and it will be pretty much a first page list of things to pick.

Also you can search the Non-Steam addins forum herer as that too has many links.

Too many to really list here.

cheers

[3 Wire]

That's an excellent list Rogen put together.

I concur that ORBX is without peer in the scenery department, at the very least the FTX Global scenery would be a must have, it replaces all of the off airport ground textures worldwide in FSX with far better ones. I would also highly reccommend the ORBX Europe, North America, and South America landclass sceneries, as well as ORBX Vector. Vector can be tough on framerates though, unless you've got lots of PC horsepower, so that's something to be aware of.

One thing FSX SE users need to be aware of with ORBX FTX Global is that if you ever have to run a files verification check, when FSX SE loads up the first time afterwards it will overwrite your FTX textures with the default FSX ground textures which will require a complete uninstall and re-install of FTX Global to get the ORBX textures back, many FSX SE users aren't aware of this, and ORBX doesn't tell you about this implication up front, which in my view is rather poor customer support on their part, because a simple warning on the product page would go a long way toward making FSX SE users aware of this reality.

I'm not a fan of photo real sceneries so I can't comment on the Mega Sceneries, but the FreeMeshX scenery from NineTwoPro is outstanding, and it's completely free, so there's really no reason not to have this.

The "freewarescenery" site linked above is a great place to get some very nice freeware add on airports for both FSX and P3D, almost all of these are an improvement over the stock airport sceneries they replace, and a number of these even approach payware level quality in some cases.

[chelmo]

Originally posted by 3 Wire:

One thing FSX SE users need to be aware of with ORBX FTX Global is that if you ever have to run a files verification check, when FSX SE loads up the first time afterwards it will overwrite your FTX textures with the default FSX ground textures which will require a complete uninstall and re-install of FTX Global to get the ORBX textures back, many FSX SE users aren't aware of this, and ORBX doesn't tell you about this implication up front, which in my view is rather poor customer support on their part, because a simple warning on the product page would go a long way toward making FSX SE users aware of this reality.

I believe that rather than do a full uninstall and re-install of Global you can simply delete the .txt document at ORBX/User Documents/Versions. Then, when you next run FTX Central, it will simply re-install the missing files.

[3 Wire]

Originally posted by chelmo:

I believe that rather than do a full uninstall and re-install of Global you can simply delete the .txt document at ORBX/User Documents/Versions. Then, when you next run FTX Central, it will simply re-install the missing files.

Either way the FTX Global textures are going to have to re-install from FTX central, and depending on your internet download speed that's the most time consuming part of the whole process.

I have a blazing fast 350 mbps download speed with my ISP and the installation of the FTX Global Base textures can take anywhere from about 40 mins. to upwards of an hour, and I can only imagine how long it would take on a slow connection.

Uninstalling FTX Global with FTX Central takes only seconds, so that's a non-issue, and deleting the text file you refer to, and then running FTX Central isn't going to make the FTX Global Base textures installation run any faster.

[skipper]

Is there any DLC where you can have a business where you can take passengers or delivery mission and get points or money to buy extra aircraft. That be awsome.

[Kaoz]

Originally posted by skipper:

Is there any DLC where you can have a business where you can take passengers or delivery mission and get points or money to buy extra aircraft. That be awsome.

I think your best bet is airhauler 2, I'm a fspassenger guy, but fsp is more pilot driven.

[Tsarcasm]

FSPassengers is my go to. Start a career with your choice of difficulty, select a set % of failures etc etc. Great program! Also FTX Global is pretty good & REX4 Enhanced edition available on steam. FTX global covers mesh and terrain bitmapping & REX covers airport textures & cloud textures.

[3 Wire]

Originally posted by Tsarcasm:

FSPassengers is my go to. Start a career with your choice of difficulty, select a set % of failures etc etc. Great program! Also FTX Global is pretty good & REX4 Enhanced edition available on steam. FTX global covers mesh and terrain bitmapping & REX covers airport textures & cloud textures.

FTX Global is ground textures, it's not a terrain mesh product. For terrain mesh you'll need something like Free Mesh X.

[craig234]

Just a big thanks for the replies, especially the first large list.

[3 Wire]

Originally posted by craig234:

Just a big thanks for the replies, especially the first large list.

It is a great list Rogen put together, with a number of excellent scenery add ons to choose from.

One thing that isn't on the list and hasn't been mentioned that I would consider a must have for improving the look of your airport and other textures in FSX is REX4 Texture Direct with soft clouds. http://www.rexsimulations.com/texturedirectsc.html

This is an amazingly versatile add on that is both easy to use and very reasonably priced considering what it does. I would suggest getting it thru SimMarket or Just flight and avoid the outdated DLC version for sale in the steam store.

[Rogen]

Originally posted by 3 Wire:

One thing that isn't on the list and hasn't been mentioned that I would consider a must have for improving the look of your airport and other textures in FSX is REX4 Texture Direct with soft clouds. http://www.rexsimulations.com/texturedirectsc.html

This is an amazingly versatile add on that is both easy to use and very reasonably priced considering what it does. I would suggest getting it thru SimMarket or Just flight and avoid the outdated DLC version for sale in the steam store.

Yep for sure it's a great addin and it is one I have myself, along with ASN (Active Sky Next). Plus if you buy items outside of Steam there is often an upgrade path for p3d.

The next addon I'm looking to get is Chase Plane although to be fair it will be for the use of p3d v4.3 as no OOMs being x64.

Cheers