The 'Official' Screenshot & Tips thread 4 FSX enthusiasts & flight simmers.

[Soya]

Fantastic pictures, really good quality. I used to play FSX when it first came out, but my pc then wasn't a very good spec. Now I can run it and do it justice I cant find the disk doh! I've moved home twice since I last played it so it could be anywhere lol.

I dont know much about the add-ons, but as soon as I find the game again I'll take a look at your links and give it a bash.

Have you got any London docklands or Ibiza night shots?

Thanks, I do have London X and IBiza X, payware addon sceneries from Aerosoft. They both very good but London X is pretty heavy on FPS (at high settings ofcourse) and Ibiza X at night would be pretty dark. Not sure when I will get time to take some shots, but if you checkout the sceneries at Aerosoft.com you can see lots of screenshots of their sceneries.

@Soya

I remember in the screenshot thread you posted pictures of f-14 tomcats, you said they were freeware and i was just wondering where i could get them.

Also, i like doing the carrier mission, is there anyway i can choose the f-14 and use the carrier, as i can't find it when i want to do free flights.

Cheers

If you check the file library at flightsim.com and search for 'DINO', you should get the needed links for the F-14. As for missions, AFAIK, whatever mission your are doing, once loaded up you can pause and simply switch to a different aircraft and continue doing the mission, the mission parameters should still work for whatever plane you select.

That c17 looks fantastic! Who made it and is it payware or free? Thanks for posting!

That particular C-17 is payware from Alphasim, I believe there is a freeware version floating about on flightsim.com, just search their library for c-17.

 

[Devrij]

Have to say I'm really enjoying that NL2000 scenery, cheers for the heads-up on that one. Here's my latest effort (my water looks pretty rubbish, still working on that one)

 

[Soya]

My pleasure, that scenery really is something special especially as it is freeware, nice shots btw.

I just finished making 2 FSX flight recordings over NL2000v4 scenery, they came out pretty well. One is in DX9 the other mainly in DX10, atm I got 2 problems which I am trying to iron out while doing FSX recordings, FRAPS kills the frame rates, so even though I am getting 30+fps, as soon as I use fraps esp at 1080p, it halves the frames, so the videos look a bit stuttery. The other problem is video compression, from the initial recording and to the time I UL it to youtube, it loses much quality. Can't be avoided I think due to the original FRAPS recording files being HUGE, so I compress it down using window movie maker then UL it to youtube which I think must compress it down even more, cause when I watch the youtube recording at 1080p, it doesn't look anywhere as good as my resulting video from window movie maker. Still, c'est la vie.

Anyhow, enjoy these 2 FSX flight recorded videos I made, best viewed at 1080p (click on video title, should open a new window, select 1080p, let it load up the red bar, then view full screen).

Short flight(DX9) above Lelystad:

Flight(DX10) from Lelystad to Soesterberg:

Thanks for watching.

 

[Soya]

Greetings fellow simmers,

I thought I would never get some spare time to post some more of my screen shots, but finally squeezed in a post to bring you all my latest creation of screen shots. For the first time ever, I did some mild editing on these particular screen shots, nothing fancy as I am not a graphic artist and I prefer my screen shots to remain as close a possible to what I see on my screen. I kept the edits fairly simple (occasional sharpness/blurring/colour balance & clarity/light spots) so hopefully it won't be too over the top for most people's taste.

Anyhow, enjoy my first 10 'mildly spiced and edited' screen shots on Jets:

Thank you for your time, hope you enjoyed the view.

 

[gnetx]

Thanks again, Soya, you really do get the best out of FSX!

So, I take it that you've added the motion blur to some of the shots as part of your mild spicing and editing?

 

[maxilive]

I believe he has, they look amazing as always Soya!

 

[Soya]

Thank you both and yes, for the first time ever I tried to do a little bit of editing. Not too over the top as I do prefer to remain as close to what I see on screen as possible. But its pretty interesting and challenging to do these slight edits just to make the shot look a bit more like a photograph. Anyhow, glad you both enjoyed it, and here is another batch I just finished over the weekend, this time props:

And last but not least, my personal favourite:

Thanks for taking the time to view my work.

 

[Devrij]

Your clouds are stunning, where did you get them? Mine are very boring unless the weather's just right. Also, any recommendations for water? Mine looks okay at times, but at others it sticks out like a sore thumb against the scenery (particularly rivers)

Love that last pic btw, looks like an old wartime postcard.

 

[gnetx]

Your clouds are stunning, where did you get them? Mine are very boring unless the weather's just right. Also, any recommendations for water? Mine looks okay at times, but at others it sticks out like a sore thumb against the scenery (particularly rivers)

Love that last pic btw, looks like an old wartime postcard.

Soya, like myself, uses Real Environment Xtreme (REX 2.0) for the clouds, which also adds water and airport textures too. It's probably the best environment addon out there - the HD cloud textures are amazing (though do give your hardware a bit of beating if you're already struggling). REX is payware, but it's well worth it.

The water textures in REX will only do half of the job in making the water look better - FSWC is a freeware addon which will mod the shader files that FSX uses to make the water effects and makes it much more realistic. If you use DX10 preview in FSX, make sure you get the FSWC Lite package - it includes DX10 shader mods to take advantage of the new features that DX10 allows.

For both of these mods, a simple Google search will produce the relevant sites. Hope this helps! Soya, feel free to add or subtract from this!

 

[Devrij]

Soya, like myself, uses Real Environment Xtreme (REX 2.0) for the clouds, which also adds water and airport textures too. It's probably the best environment addon out there - the HD cloud textures are amazing (though do give your hardware a bit of beating if you're already struggling). REX is payware, but it's well worth it.

The water textures in REX will only do half of the job in making the water look better - FSWC is a freeware addon which will mod the shader files that FSX uses to make the water effects and makes it much more realistic. If you use DX10 preview in FSX, make sure you get the FSWC Lite package - it includes DX10 shader mods to take advantage of the new features that DX10 allows.

For both of these mods, a simple Google search will produce the relevant sites. Hope this helps! Soya, feel free to add or subtract from this!

Thanks for the heads-up! I have heard of REX, seems to be the one to go for then. I'm struggling with fps near airports (7fps at Rotterdam ) and only getting 15-23 fps when flying above netherlands with that wonderful NL2000 scenery so may have to give that a miss or face flying slideshow-stylie! Even at 4.25GHz E8400 I'm severely cpu-limited here (my gpu only once reached 50% usage, but usually hovers around 30%).

Inspired by Soya's slightly shopped images, here are a few of my own (with a bog standard untouched .bmp straight outta FRAPS for comparison at the end. All of this is freeware from the plane to the scenery.

sharpened a tad and slightly raised contrast

sharpened slightly and tones adjusted

Sharpened and tones adjusted

Untouched (EDIT: photobucket resized it as it's a 5Mb file!, but asides from that, it's as-is)

 

[gnetx]

Nice pics, Devrij.

I've not got the NL2000 but I do run a lot of add-ons and my E6600, currently running at 2.4GHz, which still manages to put out about 14FPS in difficult sections, with most of the sliders set towards the top end of the scale. I'm gonna overclock my CPU again when my memory is back from RMA, but the biggest gains in performance for me came from tweaking my FSX configuration - Soya linked to an excellent guide in his first post of this thread... have you tried any of that?

 

[Soya]

Soya, like myself, etc etc Soya, feel free to add or subtract from this!

You covered that very nicely thanks, I will add two more things. REX now has a free addon texture package made available for itself, called REX Overdrive. It basically adds a load of extra themes and textures (mainly clouds/sky themes) and it weighs in at @3.5GB zipped and @9GB installed. I can tell you though, its makes REX even better, some of the new cloud textures are simply stunning, so get REX now cause with overdrive, it makes this the best value payware package for FSX. The second thing I will add in reference to water is this, I found a nice little mod to change the default shader2.0 in FSX to 3.0, check it out here http://forums1.avsim.net/topic/283701-bojotes-shader-30-mod-for-fsx/ this apparently should give a nice boost to ATI owners.

Thanks for the heads-up! I have heard of REX, seems to be the one to go for then. I'm struggling with fps near airports (7fps at Rotterdam ) and only getting 15-23 fps when flying above netherlands with that wonderful NL2000 scenery so may have to give that a miss or face flying slideshow-stylie! Even at 4.25GHz E8400 I'm severely cpu-limited here (my gpu only once reached 50% usage, but usually hovers around 30%).

Inspired by Soya's slightly shopped images, here are a few of my own (with a bog standard untouched .bmp straight outta FRAPS for comparison at the end. All of this is freeware from the plane to the scenery.
*snip*

Very nice shots, I am surprised though that you fps is so low with your dual core running at 4.25Ghz. I'm using a E8600 running at 4Ghz so in effect, your PC should handle FSX slightly better then mine. My guess is your settings/fsx.cfg and/or tweaks. Please do check out the links I have posted previously, the main one would be this http://www.simforums.com/forums/topic29041.html read it through carefully and completely and decide which tweaks would suit you best, no need to do them all, also make sure you follow the sublinks which can give you lots of improvements as well. Make use of the ENB mod and keep FSX bloom option ticked off cause that is a real FPS killer, keep your AI low to moderate or completely off when not at airports, again this should save FPS. IMO keep your water details setting at 2xLOW, 2xHIGH/MAX can again heavily effect your FPS. Hope that will help. PS only the last 2 series of screen shots I have posted are slightly edited, normally I keep them pure. Even then, the edits were minor (little blur or sharpening/some light spots/colour clarity), but I thought the results looked pretty nice.

Nice pics, Devrij.

etc etc- Soya linked to an excellent guide in his first post of this thread... have you tried any of that?

Indeed, check them out, should help loads.



Cheers all, happy flying.

 

[gnetx]

REX now has a free addon texture package made available for itself, called REX Overdrive.

Thanks Soya, I'd got distracted and forgot about this new add-on... currently killing my Internet connection to download it - it's massive!

 

[Devrij]

Cheers for the tips, last time I looked at that guide I was running vanilla and didn't need any tweaks. Not so anymore! I'll have a bash at fine-tuning it again (I'm pretty sure I have bloom on atm). As always, thanks for your advice and the great pics.

 

[beefkeef]

A big thanks for making this thread Soya, i've found the info in here really useful and some of the pictures you and the others have posted really do amaze me

Here are a few screens from my FSX :

 

[Soya]

Thanks Soya, I'd got distracted and forgot about this new add-on... currently killing my Internet connection to download it - it's massive!

That it is... this is why I love the FS community atm. There is large thriving community out there that is producing a constant steam of ever improving addons that is either free or very good value. Complete the opposite on the nosedive the rest of the gaming industry has been doing for the past 5 years or so. Everything is becoming more buggy, shallow, pricier, less satisfying and you can forget about long term enjoyment (@1 week for a game if you're luck)

Cheers for the tips, last time I looked at that guide I was running vanilla and didn't need any tweaks. Not so anymore! I'll have a bash at fine-tuning it again (I'm pretty sure I have bloom on atm). As always, thanks for your advice and the great pics.

A pleasure, FSX is and always will be a bit of beast to tame & keep under control but if you do invest the time to get to know your own beast, it can lead to many years of enjoyment and frustration free flying.

A big thanks for making this thread Soya, i've found the info in here really useful and some of the pictures you and the others have posted really do amaze me

Here are a few screens from my FSX :
*snip*

My pleasure, I simply do what the FS community has been doing for years, sharing of ideas and addons. Your pics are looking really good, my guess is you have NL2000v4 installed (pic 1) but not in pic 4 for some reason (that is a Schiphol approach right?) unless that is an older screenshot, you also have REX (don't forget to get their latest free overdrive package) and is that the default 747?

As for the quality of the screen shots themselves, look like both compression and quality you got sorted, they are looking good. Is your original res 1920x1080 resized to 1280x960? Can I suggest two things though when it comes to taking screen shots, firstly, make sure you press ALT to remove the grey option bar at the top so that it doesn't become part of the screen shot, 2nd tip, in FSX.CFG there are 2 lines you may want to change:

ChangeTime=0.000000
TransitionTime=0.00000

These 2 lines control the red message for view etc on the top right corner of the screen, I believe they are set to a default of 20 or 30 seconds but by entering 0.00000 the message will simply not show up, very handy for taking regular and many screenshots. Also there are several lines in FSX.CFG which mention Info*****=True (ie InfoBrakesEnable=True) this means it will display the red message on the lower part of your screen when the brakes are on, again annoying for taking screen shots, just change any of them to False and the message will no longer appear.

EDIT: Can't be sure from your screen shots, but if you're not already using the ENB mod for FSX, you should look into it. (adds HD lighting at little FPS cost)


Cheers all.

 

[ringo747]

Soya, whats your thoughts on using an SSD for FSX?

 

[Soya]

Soya, whats your thoughts on using an SSD for FSX?

I would be all for it cause I'm using SSDs with FSX now for about 6 months and pretty happy with it. I did buy some pretty cheap SSDs, so not the best specced SSDs but still made a very nice difference compared to my old 500GB mechanical HD. If you read on some of the links I posted about FSX tweaking etc, somewhere in there they discuss SSDs, so far all the news on using SSDs for FSX is good, it speeds up loading (obviously) but also more importantly, reduces the dreaded blurries and slight lag pauses within FSX when it needs to load up airports that come into view. I'm planning to buy an entire new system over Xmas hopefully (if I can sell this setup first though) and with what I have learned so far, I would use 2 very fast SSDs with SATA3 connection, 1 as my main drive and 1 as my FSX install drive, it should run rather nicely .

In the meantime, here are some more shots (again slightly edited here and there) similar to my previous 2 screen shot posts but this time with Aerosoft's Airbus X and REX overdrive.

Enjoy:

 

[ringo747]

I have a Samsung 1TB drive as my main drive with FSX on it and its running pretty sweet apart from a lot of microstutters are low levels. Shader Model Fix made a huge difference.

I don't use that many of the fsx.cfg tweaks really. I think an SSD would help too but would need a fairly large one. Do you use UTX Europe or GEX or just REX as the only environment addon?

 

[TheGamingGeneral]

I've always meant to get more into FSX, especially with all the other aircraft available via download. Does anyone recommend specific websites, a simple google brings up a few links but was unsure if anyone had experience and felt some should be steered clear from or not?

Thanks