Ftx global problem please help :(

[metal-blanket]

Hello
Please can someone help me i am at my whits end and id be eternally grateful if someone could help me to get my ftx global and open lc europe to work? I cannot see any difference. I have hd trees installed through steam store, i purchased ftx global base and installed it using the ftx central and then installed open lc europe. I can see the orbx europe folders in my programmefiles(86x)/steam/steamapps/common/fsx and the orbxlibs folder but i cannot see any global base folders. Also my ftx central does not have the APPLY NOW button so how do i know global base has been installed into fsx. Also when i look in the orbx textures folder some of the textures appear but the some of the files are not showig just a white square with a blue logo (bmp) file i think and when i double click and open that file it says it cannot be opened because it is not supported. Does that matter if the tsxture files are not showing the texture and are bmp files or should i change them?
Please someone help me im ao frustrated and dying to get ftx global base and open lc working on my fsx SE. I will post photos of my files etc when im home from work if its possible to upload photos on here?
My computer specs are as follows:
CPU. intel i9 7900x @4.3ghz
GPU 2x geforce gtx 1080ti
Ram. 32gb
1 terabyte ssd drive
1 terebyte solid state disk
Can someone please give me a guide on how how to install ftx global base and open lc. I have read all of their manuals but they dont give me the info i need.
I only have fsx steam edition for installed on my computer.
Many thanks
Owen

[chelmo]

Run FTX Central. Leave it for about 15 seconds and in the bottom left it will eventually tell you "Activating Orbx Scenery". Let in run....it takes just a few seconds. And that is your Orbx activated. If there are no error messages then you are fine.

And don't go messing in the textures folder. These are read by the sim; if it isn't running then it's not surprising you get an error message.....

Oh and by the way. When you run FTX Central what does it say in the top left corner? Does it say "FTX Central - FSX" cos it should!

[metal-blanket]

sorry for the late reply.
it does say fsx in the top left corner and it does say 'activating orbx scenery' without any error messages.
i guess its a case of tweaking my settings as my orbx add ons dont look as impressive as the advertised pictures. do you know of any tweaks i can make? my computer specs are as follows.
windows 10 64 bit
CPU intel i9 7900x (dont know how to see if it is turbo boosting to 4.3ghz, base is 3.3ghz)
GPU 2x geforce 1080ti
RAM 32gb
1 tb samsung ssd
1 tb samsung ssd
hyper liquid cooling system
many thanks for your reply!
regards
owen

[Rogen]

Do you have Steve's DX10 Fixer?

It fixes the DX10 preview mode so that it actually works properly.

Means you can use all the DX10 features for a better looking sim, for example if you turn on DX10 Preview the yellow taxi arrows will never appear, Steve's DX10 fixer resolves that and a huge number of other issues and will even convert Effects from DX9 to DX10. It also allows multiple levels of AntiAlisaing and he even has a Cloud Shadows option.

You could also use ReShade to make things look even better.

Steve's DX10 Fixer and his cloud shadows option are purchasable items (outside of Steam), although looking at your machine specs you're not short of a $$ or two ;-)

Here are a few pics where DX10, Reshade, Orbx and BlueSky scenery, Rex Textures and Active Sky Next are in use.

Orbx Scenery:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=938531115
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1260840890
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=948867973

BlueSky Scenery:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1281440421
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1197538194
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=919955125


Links:
Stever's DX10 Fixer and Reshade.
https://stevesfsxanalysis.wordpress.com/
https://reshade.me/

[metal-blanket]

thank you so much for both of your replies and i am very grateful for them. getting there slowly. my FTX wales and all other packages seem to be installed and working however it seems to be a problem with loading the textures which is quite slow and also the scenery in the distance is bland, not vermy much autogen or trees or nice detail and im not talking right into the horizon but id say beyond 4 miles of my aircraft the detail is poor.
i will try the dx10 fixer but do you think it will fix my problems relating to the texture loading and seeing the textures/autogen in the distance?
many thanks
owen

[Rogen]

Speed of texture loading with FSX is a bit of a bug bear in that it's never been really up to scratch.

There are also tweeks you can do for the fsx.cfg file which will boost performance provided your machine has enough power to run said tweeks.

GFX card isn't so important as with FSX most processing is performed on the CPU.

Here're a few of the tweeks I have added to my fsx.cfg which you'll find in the below path and can be edited with notepad or any text editor. Replace <account.name> with the name you login into Windows with and you'll need to unhide folders to see the path in Explorer.

C:/Users/<account.name>/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/FSX/fsx.CFG

I've broken each up into their respective sections and included the comments from my own fsx.cfg file.

[Display]
\\ A mulitpler value for Texture loading
TextureMaxLoad=30
\\ This makes FSX try to run as fast as it can and when set FSX ignores TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT completely.
UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=0

[Main]
\\ Places more emphesis on Texture loading.
FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=1.33


[TERRAIN]
\\ 4.5 is the default max value which FSX will reset to if the settings are saved via the interface. 7.5 is very good and 5.5/6.5 are good compromise values. Note the higher the value the higher the memory usage (VAS or virtual address space usage because FSX is limited to a 4GB window of memory)
LOD_RADIUS=7.500000

\\ Water effects have a large effect on frame rates as each step up requires another GFX pass. 4 is a good compromise with 7 the max.
WATER_EFFECTS=4

\\ Bufferpools with a value of 0 sets FSX to push the GFX card to manage the buffers instead of the CPU.
[BUFFERPOOLS]
UsePools=0

\\ An affinity mask configures FSX to leave x number of proccessor cores free for the O/S and other applications and allows FSX to run smoother. It's value will depend on the type of Processor and number of cores/threads.
\\ In my example I have left one core and its associated thread free out of 16 cores/threads.
\\ Refer to the following web address for determining values. http://www.gatwick-fsg.org.uk/affinitymask.aspx?SubMenuItem=utilties
[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=65532

Cheers

[3 Wire]

My system doesn't have anywhere near the horsepower as OP's and I think my ORBX stuff looks great. and I get very good framerates as well. My sceneries are as follows....

Orbx Global Base
Orbx Global Vector
Orbx HD Trees
Free MeshX 2.0 Global
Sceney Tech Landclass (all global regions)
REX Texture Direct 4

I would post a couple of screenshots of me flying over Kentucky farmland in the summer today, altitude about 12,000 feet. It's hard to make out the HD trees, but believe me they are there, and as you get closer to the ground they really stand out, unfortunately I have no clue how to post the screenies in this message, but I do have them saved on my hard drive if someone can clue me in on how to do it.

I don't know about you guys, but this combination of scenery add on's looks beautiful on my 32" monitor in 2560x1440 resolution.

I have my FSX cfg tweaked pretty good right now so I'm afraid to mess with it too much, but I might give some of the above listed tweaks a try sometime.

I'm definitely going to give ReShade a try and see how that goes.

[3 Wire]

OK, so installed ReShade, and I think it made my visuals, which were already very good, even better, and I think it bumped up my framerates as well, if that's possible for ReShade to do.

Thanks Rogen for the tip on ReShade!!

here are a few screenies flying over English countryside in the summer, they really don't do justice to how good this looks on a 32" monitor @ 2560x1440 resolution, it's really stunning, to my eyes anyway.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1312723304

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1312723274

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1312723248

[Rogen]

Nice :-)

Nothing like a bit of reshade to make the scenery *pop*.

I'm using the following shaders with a little tweeking of the shaders where needed (mainly HDR).

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1312752316

Gives me thelook I was after :-)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1312756472

Fo a map and flight planner I'm using G-Plan which has connect options for FSX either via simconnect or FSUIPC.

[3 Wire]

That shot over the city looks sweet!

I'm using Eric Marciano's Easy FMC Mobile, it runs externally to FSX on an iPad mini that sits on my desk within easy viewing range, it works great and is very easy to set up and use. It will fly the most complex flightplan very accurately. It uses standard fsx .PLN files which I generate with a freeware online planner called simply Online Flight Planner, I generate the .PLN file with that, then I "fine tune" edit them in the FSX flight planner to fly me right to within range of the runway ILS. I get my airport diagrams, approach plates, SIDS, and STARS from either AirNav (for the USA) or Vatsim for the rest of the world. It's not exactly how real world pilots would do it, but with this setup you could fly an ILS approach in the worst weather and visibility and it would fly you right to the runway threshold, then you just switch off the autopilot, chop the throttles, flare, and land. Pretty neat.