Microsoft Flight Simulator X

[edyzmedieval]

Get the following add-on packages

- Graphics X
- Flight Environment X
- Real Extreme Environment X (will come up soon)
- FS Global 2008
- MegaScenery Hawaii X

These are my recommendations. Some are very expensive (FS Global 2008 is 55 dollars) but they are really worth it.

[Templar Knight]

Active Sky X and Global 2008 are a must.

I have been looking for a good Airbus A380 addon, the freeware ones look better than the payware.

Also how do you refuel in FSX?

[edyzmedieval]

You land on an airport and you request a refuel truck.

[edyzmedieval]

Recommending www.flightsim.com for any flight simmers around the Org.
The forums there are really good and lots of people come there to post daily.

WOOT. My 7500th post!

[edyzmedieval]

Beirut, a quick question. You said you bought a 3 year membership at a mesh enhacement company. Is it somehow FSGenesis? Is it worth to buy a membership?

Thanks.

[Beirut]

Yep. FSGenesis. You can get world coverage in FSX for about $45. The difference it makes is remarkable. Instead of looking like glorified bumps, mountains look like mountains, with peaks and ridges and valleys. The North American coverage is high detail, the rest of the world less so, but still much better than stock.

Couldn't/wouldn't fly without it.

[edyzmedieval]

Nice, thanks for the tip. :)
What other add-ons have you purchased for FSX?

[Beirut]

Ground Environment X
Flight Environment X
Ultimate Terrain X
The FS Genesis mesh

I bought tons more for FS2004.

[Beirut]

EMFM,

You should be able to do much better on the graphics than what you mentioned.

Defrag. Install. Defrag again. It's worth it.

First off, did you install the patch? It's about 200MB and will up your FPS by 50%.

Lock your frame rate at about 20 FPS.
Put cloud draw distance to minimum.Put the scenery draw radius to medium.
Kill the bloom effect. No machine can run it and live.
Kill all AI traffic. Planes, boats, cars, airport vehicles.
Keep the water effect in the 1X range. Try 2X after.Max all your scenery sliders and see what happens.

The auto-gen is the killer, that's what puts the trees and building in the scenery. Start high and work back until you float around 20FPS. (Shift+Z gives you readouts.) Most people find 20 FPS pretty good. Some are okay with as low as 15-17. Anything over 25 is gravy.

Read this: http://ops.precisionmanuals.com/wiki/FSX_FPS_Guide


From a previous post to Edyz:

*By the by, here's a good tweak for you. In the FSX.cfg file (it's in C:\Doc & Settings\User name\ Application Data\ Microsoft\'FSX) add these lines to the end of the Terrain section: (Back up your .cfg first!)

TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=4500
TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=3000

It will allow you to chose how many trees and buildings you want the sim to render at any one time. I think 6000 is the max number. (It's also a number you will never use.) I prefer less buildings and more trees. Fool around and find the best balance for what you want. Start low (1000) and work your way up until the frame rate suffers

[edyzmedieval]

Ground Environment X
Flight Environment X
Ultimate Terrain X
The FS Genesis mesh

I bought tons more for FS2004.

I see you're a real flight lover. I have a shopping list over here:

- FS Genesis mesh
- Switzerland Pro X (from Aerosoft, coming out in March)
- Flight Environment X
- Ground Environment X
- Flight Keeper
- Flight Operation Center
- Real Air SF260
- Piper Super Cub
- Cessna Citation X
- Tin Goose
- Jeppesen Professional Logbook


It's really big. But since I turned hardcore, I really want all these. I dread to see the final paycheck. Oh well, guess I'll have to work more to keep the bank balance steady.

[Templar Knight]

Whats better active sky or flight environment x? Does FEX come with a real time weather radar?

[Beirut]

Active Sky will give you dynamic, real time weather, and some graphics improvements.

Flight Environment X doesn`t touch the weather, but has amazing graphics. Better skies, better water, better clouds, and the program is constantly being updated and has hundreds of environmental sets to chose from.

For my money, there`s no choice - Flight Environment X!

[Templar Knight]

Traffic X worth a try when it comes out? lol I see TX will have ''Clandestine CIA Extraordinary Rendition flights''

[edyzmedieval]

Traffic X is already out and it recently received some updates.
I would get FSGenesis for some mesh terrain.

[Beirut]

Traffic X worth a try when it comes out? lol I see TX will have ''Clandestine CIA Extraordinary Rendition flights''

The AI traffic that`s already in FSX can kill your rig. Unless you have some serious specs, you might want to reconsider paying for something you might not be able to run.
Check out World of AI. It`s easy to install and easy to use. You can get a whack of good AI flights, including military, for free.

http://www.world-of-ai.com/installer.html

[Templar Knight]

What is the AI flights like in FSX? Any real airlines? Busy airports and skys?

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Any recommendations for good freeware terrain? Looking especially for Ontario and Europe, mostly Germany.

[Beirut]

For FS2004, there is an astounding amount of payware scenery covering Germany. The upside is it`s very nicely done. The downside is that it will cost you a small fortune to get all of it.

For FSX, the Germany scenery has just started coming out. Aerosoft.com makes it and it`s very good. Again, though, it will cost you at least several hundred dollars to get the whole country and you will need a honking big hard drive to put it all on. One package comes in nine parts (two are out) covering all the small airfields. Another comes in several parts each covering a major airport. The last package comes in four parts (one is out), each does a quarter of Germany in ridiculous photo accurate detail and installs at about 16GB each. Oh, and there`s the last package called German Landmarks which goes on top of everything else. So, if you have $500 and 120GB of HD space, you get Germany to a T.

Still on payware, Ultimate Terrain X is a great product. The latest issue was Canada-Alaska and gives you accurate roads, towns, rivers, cities, and coastlines for the whole country. It`s quite something. Wait for UTX Europe to come out and that will keep you happy for all of Europe including Germany.

Add to this Flight Terrain X will release the first of at least thirty packages covering the world in very, very nice detail. I think they are planning a total package cost of about $400US. The complete install could easily run over a hundreds GBs.

Add to this all the other payware packages covering major airports, cities and regions around the world, special terrain packages, environmental improvements, not to mention custom planes, and you can see there`s a lot out there.

So, if you have about $1500-$2000 for add-ons and a monster rig with a 500GB HD to run FSX on, you can get world coverage with down-to-the-meter accuracy.

Freeware - check the libraries at flightsim.com and avsim.com. There`s lots of stuff, some very good, some not.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I have a 500 GB (failed, soon to be a 750GB - and NOT Seagate), but no money.

That's why I was asking about freeware. If it comes down to it, I'll get payware of Bavaria, though it's already pretty well done. Therefore, Ontario is what I'd really like, especially the villages north of Peterborough, like Stanhope and Lindsay Airports (included, but surrounding terrain is a little disappointing).

[Beirut]

There`s a group of guys who specialize in freeware scenery of Ontario. Try Googling it or look into the avsim.com freeware library.

I know there`s one fellow who did freeware mesh of all Quebec. Pretty impressive.

[edyzmedieval]

Any recommendations for good freeware terrain? Looking especially for Ontario and Europe, mostly Germany.

I would get the Helgoland X from Aerosoft, boxed edition. Not too cheap, but it's one of the best sceneries ever made for a FS game. Everyone is very hyped about it, and I think I'll buy it too.

Aerosoft is a company which really specialises in FSX payware add-ons. And they are based in Germany, so they have lots of scenery packages for Germany.

www.aerosoft.com

Oh by the way, how the heck do I buy from Aerosoft? Every time I go, everything's fine except that it wont give me the forms to fill in the details of the credit card!

[Whacker]

OK, this is killing me, someone do the following. MSFSX with all the goodies, and fly over the big island on hawaii where the volcano is. Take screenshots and post em!

[Beirut]

OK, this is killing me, someone do the following. MSFSX with all the goodies, and fly over the big island on hawaii where the volcano is. Take screenshots and post em!

Don`t go wonky, Whacker. We`re here for ya. I`ll throw up a few (burp...) so you can see what`s going on.

FSX + Mega-Hawaii X + Flight Environment X.


FSX Acceleration expansion pack F-18 over Andrews AFB.



Same F-18 + Flight Environment X


FSX over Carribean + Flight Environment X.


Pacific Northwest somewhere.


Acceleration expansion pack P-51.



Somewhere over the Rockies. Flight Environment X + Ground Environment X + Genesis mesh.

[Beirut]

Now, as a bona fide FS2004 & FSX flightsim nerd with the experience (meaning countless wasted hours) and the credit card bills to prove it, I`m telling ya - don`t spend one cent on add-ons until you get the FSX Acceleration Expansion Pack. (It`s an official MS Flightsim product.)

You get two excellent quality planes and a helicopter, lots of excellent new scenery, lots of new flight missions, and patches that improve performance. Also, some add-ons will only work once the expansion pack is installed. Just the F-18 is worth the $25 the package costs.

[Whacker]

A hearty Thank You! to my frozen northern wasteland dwelling friend for the screenies! I was also hoping that someone with the Hawaii scenery pack could buzz this area and show us some up to date screens... I'm curious how well they modeled and texturized the active eruption area.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I'm going to pick up Acceleration tomorrow then, when I'm back in the city.

[Beirut]

A hearty Thank You! to my frozen northern wasteland dwelling friend for the screenies! I was also hoping that someone with the Hawaii scenery pack could buzz this area and show us some up to date screens... I'm curious how well they modeled and texturized the active eruption area.

For the price, about $15 for the Mega-Hawaii X DL, IIRC, it's an amazingly detailed piece of scenery. Not a huge area, just one island, but smackin', is it ever well done.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Are there any good add-on Lufthansa aircraft available for free?

[Beirut]

Check the freeware libraries at flightsim.com and avsim.com. Some planes are rated, that helps separate the wheat from the chaff.

[edyzmedieval]

Beirut, forum posters (the majority) say that FSX Acceleration is a really bad expansion pack. Now, today I ordered 3 Aerosoft products (including a stunning Piper Cheyenne X - I heartly recommend it...can't wait for it to come), and I was thinking of orering Accel, but I'm not sure if the money will be wasted or not.

Oh, there's a big update (1.7GB) for Ground Environment X.