FSX: Gold Edition Upgrade

[CrashCast E]

Hello all, I've got a copy of FSX Gold Edition
No, I don't want a free upgrade to FSX:SE. What I'm here for is different. I wish to upgrade my sim to look good and be somewhat-realistic, like XP11... ish. The reason I'm not just packing up and leaving is because I have already spent... a lot on add-ons. I have Concorde X, the Qualitywings 757, and the like. I've also got REX texture direct with soft clouds, but it just didn't seems to do much to impact my game. I'm thinking about getting GSX 2 and accu-weather or whatever it is, but does someone have any other ideas for FSX graphic and realism mods I should get?

[CrashCast E]

Quick question: why have they made a patch for the DX10 feature 26 dollars? That seems rather ludicrous.

[CrashCast E]

Also, is there any chance that REX Texture direct might have performed the same job?

[Morag]

Originally posted by CrashCast E:

Hello all, I've got a copy of FSX Gold Edition
No, I don't want a free upgrade to FSX:SE. What I'm here for is different. I wish to upgrade my sim to look good and be somewhat-realistic, like XP11... ish. The reason I'm not just packing up and leaving is because I have already spent... a lot on add-ons. I have Concorde X, the Qualitywings 757, and the like. I've also got REX texture direct with soft clouds, but it just didn't seems to do much to impact my game. I'm thinking about getting GSX 2 and accu-weather or whatever it is, but does someone have any other ideas for FSX graphic and realism mods I should get?

Not sure what accu-weather is... Did you mean Accu-feel from A2A or the Active Sky weather engine? Either way both are really nice add ons - active sky will help to make your REX cloud textures pop.

For general graphics mods check out Orbx
https://orbxdirect.com/
They do some global enhancements - Global textures to replace all the terrain textures as well as Global vector. They also offer several high detail regional scenery and a selection of payware and freeware airports to go with the regions.

Some demo areas to check out
https://orbxdirect.com/demos

GSX isn't really my kind of thing but it's popular with those who do use it.

Also have a look at FreeMesh for improved terrain mesh (free!)
http://ninetwopro.com/

[CrashCast E]

And I take it active sky will give me a better experience in syncing my in-game weather with the real world conditions?

[CrashCast E]

Also, what's the difference between ORBX Global Base and ORBX global Vector?

[Morag]

Originally posted by CrashCast E:

And I take it active sky will give me a better experience in syncing my in-game weather with the real world conditions?

it's a really good weather engine and gives real time or historic weather - if you set the sim time to yesterday's date active sky can give you yesterday's weather.

Also, what's the difference between ORBX Global Base and ORBX global Vector?

Global base is improved textures and landclass (which defines how the textures are placed)

Global vector is, vector data - so, better roads, rivers, coastlines, lakes - stuff like that.

Vector might cost you some FPS and push your memory use up, global base will not have much, if any, performance hit.

[Morag]

Originally posted by Erazer:

Just how much of this World is covered by Orbx Global Base and Global Vector and should one be installed first?

I am about to try out some of the free demos you mentioned which have installed very smoothly using FTX Central.

I don't actually use any of these Orbx products, I have the PNW region but it's not been installed for years. I think you do Global first then put Vector over the top of it and add in their landclass products if you want more detail.

I use Ground Environment X (GEX) for textures which is sold in regions - I don't own them all.
http://gex.flight1.net/

Instead of vector I use Ultimate Terrain X (UTX), again I don't have them all.
https://www.scenerysolutions.com/product/ultimateterrain
(note that UTX Alaska does't work on the FSX:SE and is unlikely to be updated to do so)

and to compliment the above I use Scenery Tech land class, which tells FSX where to put the textures.
http://www.scenerytech.com/products/landclass/
I think these packs are a great, cheap way to improve a large area, adding a lot of detail and interest to the ground terrain.

I also have some FreeMesh installed.

All these payware add ons are available from Flight1
https://www.flight1.com/

I don't think there's much between all these, whether you go for Flight1 stuff in parts or whether you put down 100 bucks and get everything at once from Orbx. They do more or less the same thing - I think Orbx is possibly more popular but their Global stuff wan't around when I started so I went with UTX/GEX and the Scenery Tech stuff.

I prefer the look of GEX over Global but it's just that, a preference. Orbx looks a bit more cartoony to me and the colours are a little more vivid.

[Morag]

here's how it all looks in my sim

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970332549/screenshots/?appid=314160

[Morag]

Originally posted by Erazer:

Some strange effects when trialing Orbx demos.

1. The scenery turned to ocher soup when flying Concorde at Mach 2.04 at FL500 and 4x time compression.

I expect it will.. If you have your frame rate set to unlimited then try limiting it and see if that helps.

What I would really like would be to completely - replace - all FSX scenery with something better.

Does this option exist?

Don't think so...

Ye it does, the Orbx global scenery is exactly that. Global will replace all the textures, Vector fixes up all the roads and rivers and what not and FreeMesh will upgrade the terrain mesh.You can then either add in the Orbx land class products (which I think cover NA and EU) or the Scenery Tech ones I linked - which is a global land class upgrade or I think there's other land class products out there too.

If you're mostly flying at 50k feet though you'd probably get more value from some airport add ons rather than global scenery.

[CrashCast E]

Hey guys, I'm back to restart the conversation. Are there any good physics upgrades for the game that I should also get? I got AS16 and i'm loving it so far, but I figured I should tackle the physics side of thinks also.

[Morag]

Accu-feel is very good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiLvbMuFlCE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ9YGMr7SnY

https://a2asimulations.com/product/accu-feel-v-2-air-land-sea-fsx/

[CrashCast E]

What about Sim Physics X?

[Morag]

Originally posted by CrashCast E:

What about Sim Physics X?

I've never tried it - A2A are one of the top FSX developers though and Accu-feel is very good and popular.

Another thing you might want to look into is EZCA, version 3 is recently out - it's a camera mod that allows you better camera controls and it enables you to set up your own views, I mention it because it also applies some head shake effects and also cameras can be mounted to the aircraft and respond appropriately with vibrations and such. Might be of interest to you, depends what you're after.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQJFTb3hO8c

[CrashCast E]

So in terms of in-air action, how does A2A really affect the physics?

[Morag]

It doesn't magically alter the flight modelling, in flight mostly you get the stall behaviour and stability which you can tune and the added turbulence effects. The two videos of it show pretty well what it does.