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

Soya · 22 Sep 2010 at 20:47

I do remember reading a major FPS problem with UTX concerning road traffic, if you read the UTX part in the link I posted before (http://www.simforums.com/forums/topic29041.html) it is towards the bottom. It should hopefully help you.

'Be aware that the UTX 1.2 patch increased car traffic for the USA on side streets.. many systems may find this a hard drag on perf especially in urban. The MAX car slider I would use with this is 5-7% and some older systems need to shut cars down completely by entering the UTX configuration Tool and under the ROAD SURFACE heading DISABLE moving traffic as that is the only way to remove the footprint of cars off the system.. the FSX slider for cars will not remove that footprint even when set to zero'

ringo747 · 22 Sep 2010 at 21:08

I have just wiped it all - hope to get a 128GB SSD soon to help FSX performance.

On another note do you have a TrackIR? I bought one but can't get it configured to my pleasing at all. Almost ready to put it up for sale!

Soya · 22 Sep 2010 at 21:29

Yup, I use TrackIR4 Pro, the latest is TrackIR5. There are driver installers you can use here http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/06-support/support-download-software-and-manuals.html I tried the later V5 and although nicer then V4 it kept freezing from time to time when I tried to end the program. But either should do, depending on your preference it may require some tweaking, but you can configure it pretty much any way you want. What I learned from it, both the receiver and Pro head set tracker needs to be in a good aligned position. So when you use the software to track where the 3 red infra red lights hit when you are sitting straight and still, it should be close to centre with the red dots as far separated as possible. You may need to angle the receiver a bit as it can swivel somewhat and/or adjust your head tracker that I presume is attached to your headset. I also found out that you need to make sure no other infra-red or bright light source is shining in line with the tracker, ie spot lights, open lamps, candles (especially candles in fact) or bright sun shine coming through the window. These could all interfere with the 3 little infra red light send from the head tracker to the receiver.

So if you have TrackIR4 Pro or even TrackIR5, then I see no reason why you can't get good results. Let me know if I can help further on that matter, it would be a shame to stop using your TrackIR as it makes the flying experience in FSX so much better.

ringo747 · 22 Sep 2010 at 21:56

I have the thing setup and positioned right but I just can't get a decent profile set up. Panning is as far from smooth as you could imagine and it says on the tin that only small movements are needed. I find myself looking out of the corner of my eyes to see the screen.

Another real annoying is scrolling headings on the MCP with it. The mouse always seems to move focus away from the selectors as the screen position jumps about. It's really annoying!

MiNxYyY · 22 Sep 2010 at 22:01

Ok i know this might sound stupid, but if i was flying over the actual area i was living in, would it just be a generated image?

ringo747 · 22 Sep 2010 at 22:04

MiNxYyY said:
Ok i know this might sounds stupid, but if i was flying over the actual area i was living, what it just be a generated image?

More than likely it would be populated using autogen. If you have some addons it may be different.

dave1983 · 23 Sep 2010 at 08:46

i tried FSX last nite, i must say it is without a joystick its a nightmare to land, and trying the mouse yoke is better however, when you want to enter the virtual cotpit you forget that your still using the mouse and plane goes out of control.

Devrij · 23 Sep 2010 at 16:25

Bit of tweaking here and there has brought me to a perfectly satisfactory 30fps (except in serious weather combined with busy airports) and what I think looks like a nice image. No editting this time (as can be seen by the red text spoiling it grrrr!). I'm just struggling with a slow HDD now

All that wonderful scenery and most of it only loads in time for me to get a quick glimpse before I'm on to the next blurry tile. SSD defo on my to-buy list now. Thanks everyone for your inspiring shots and advice. Now I can actually get down to some flying lol.

ringo747 · 23 Sep 2010 at 16:33

Looks well. What scenery are you using? Any fsx.cfg tweaks?

Devrij · 23 Sep 2010 at 17:24

ringo747 said:
Looks well. What scenery are you using? Any fsx.cfg tweaks?

Thanks, just using what's already been posted (1st page I believe) in here. Flying the NL2000 v4 scenery, I'm pretty sure the plane is stock, and the only cfg tweaks I took from the guide Soya posted was the texture bandwidth multi. Set up settings as per guide and all is good. Cracked and bought REX 2.0 in a fit of madness so am downloading it now. Looking forwards to those beautiful environments

Just need to find a way to get those scenery textures to load faster.

Soya · 23 Sep 2010 at 18:39

A few things that I have learned about using high res photoreal scenery:
1) speedier HD random read access will help reduce the effect of blurries, so upgrading to a faster HD or better SSD will help, making sure you're using SATA2 and keep your HD in tidy shape (ie defrag and proper install as per links I posted, no need with SSD)
2) More CPU power will also help reduce blurrier as it also part CPU dependant processing the textures that are displayed, so throttling your FPS is useful (ie FPS lock @20-30fps) giving the processor more cycles to deal with other matter like scenery display and LOD radius, keeping the system processors tidy under task manager, ie not running stuff that has nothing to do with FSX and is hogging CPU resources (even virus checkers - esp their resident shield, can be a system hog, best to exclude the entire FSX path from the shield) or switch off virus checker while using FSX.
3) The more texture detail you have selected and the higher the texture per pixel is for the scenery (ie NL2000v4 is very high, 30 or 15cm I think) the more it will push your system and thus blurries will occur more often.
4) SPEED SPEED SPEED, the faster you fly, the more likely the blurries will occur. Best to start with the default powered hanglider, fly @50knots and see what results you get. Then try something faster and see when the blurries become a real problem, so try to stick below your sweet spot speed. BTW you could also reduce the time compression while flying which will give your system more time to deal with blurries, in effect reducing your actual speed (ie time compression at 1/2 would make an aircraft travelling at 200knots only travel at 100knots). This is very useful when flying purely VFR or just wanna enjoy the scenery. You can speed things up again once you land.

I hope the above tips will help ya.

ringo747 · 23 Sep 2010 at 22:41

Some screenshots from tonight can be found in my dropbox gallery:
FSX Screenshots in Dropbox

dave1983 · 24 Sep 2010 at 09:04

Devrij said:
Thanks, just using what's already been posted (1st page I believe) in here. Flying the NL2000 v4 scenery, I'm pretty sure the plane is stock, and the only cfg tweaks I took from the guide Soya posted was the texture bandwidth multi. Set up settings as per guide and all is good. Cracked and bought REX 2.0 in a fit of madness so am downloading it now. Looking forwards to those beautiful environments Just need to find a way to get those scenery textures to load faster.

i set my settings to Ultra High, FPS are pretty steady at around 30Fps. im cracking to i want REX but dont get paid till tuesday. the stock textures looks so plain, where did you find the download for NL2000 V4, what is the performance and quality like for this download. Iv'e downloaded the ENB light boom effect which is pretty good.

Devrij · 24 Sep 2010 at 10:15

dave1983 said:
i set my settings to Ultra High, FPS are pretty steady at around 30Fps. im cracking to i want REX but dont get paid till tuesday. the stock textures looks so plain, where did you find the download for NL2000 V4, what is the performance and quality like for this download. Iv'e downloaded the ENB light boom effect which is pretty good.

Google NL2000, they have a website where you can torrent the files from (they're BIG). REX, having had a little play with it last night (only just installed overdrive but have to go to work :mad:

), is definately worth £26. With photoreal scenery and REX you'll probably have to tweak your setup a bit to keep it smooth, but have a go. What hardware are you running?

dave1983 · 24 Sep 2010 at 11:27

Devrij said:
Google NL2000, they have a website where you can torrent the files from (they're BIG). REX, having had a little play with it last night (only just installed overdrive but have to go to work), is definately worth £26. With photoreal scenery and REX you'll probably have to tweak your setup a bit to keep it smooth, but have a go. What hardware are you running?

im currently running Duo Core 3.00ghz Stock, 4gb Ram, GTX 260.

thats one of things that caught my eye was the photoreal scenery, than the plain old mesh which looks the same. also advanced weather mapping and 3d cloud effects. i currently use a saitek joystick which works a dream.

shadow_boxer · 24 Sep 2010 at 11:44

Cracked and bought REX 2.0

LOL, so did I a couple of days ago. Seems pretty complicated to set up. But am very impressed by the clouds and runway/taxi way textures. Will post up some screenshots soon. Watch this space.

ringo747 · 24 Sep 2010 at 11:51

Would recommend using ActiveSkyEvolution for weather - REX weather generator is a huge resource hog.

dave1983 · 24 Sep 2010 at 12:18

ringo747 said:
Would recommend using ActiveSkyEvolution for weather - REX weather generator is a huge resource hog.

is it freeware? what the performance wise on it?

ringo747 · 24 Sep 2010 at 12:19

It is payware and it is must easier run that REX weather. In my REX configuration options I have every single box unticked.

Soya · 24 Sep 2010 at 12:20

For REX users do not forget http://realenvironmentxtreme.com/forum/index.php?topic=671.0 that is if you use maximum texture resolution under REX options of course. This will hit your FPS btw. Also, once you are happy with whatever taxi/runway etc textures, make sure you switch them off once you installed them under the option menu. So next time you only want to change the cloud set for instance, only have that ticked under the option menu, otherwise it will reinstall all your textures which can take a while!

As for weather, I use the FSX load latest weather option which IMO works fine, both REX weather and AE weather can also be used via network through either Simconnect or WideFS I believe, so keeping your FSX PC, resource free.