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

Soya · 30 Jan 2011 at 14:27

Nice shots there shadow.

As for the MS new Flight, to me it will all depend on how 'compatible' it will be with FSX, especially when it comes to the 100s of pounds worth of 3rd party addons I have. If I cannot use any of them in the new flight, I won't be bothering. Plus, it also heavily depends on how they are going market addons for this new flight, if it is anything like Railworks 2, they can shove this new flight right up their tight MS behinds.

As for new PC & memory specs for FSX, you indeed do NOT require more then 6GB (last year DDR3 systems) or 4-8GB (sandybridge). I am pretty sure you have an easier time OCing a 4GB system then a 8GB system so I would say, stick with 4GB.

As for SLI or using more then 1 GFX card, for FSX definitely no, but if you are planing to use the PC for other games as well, as I do, then SLI is an option. I use 2x GTX580, it has no advantages in FSX but it does not seem to bother it either.

Last, here are some delightful random picks from shots I took of my previous (RIP) PC.

Enjoy:
(all shots are unedited just resized for posting purposes)

Devrij · 30 Jan 2011 at 15:46

I really want a new plane to fly, particularly the PMDG 747, but am far too skint to buy any

With regards to Flight, after looking at these comparison shots, it does make me think that perhaps investing so much in add-ons when hopefully Flight will provide the same visual effect might be a dead end. Obviously our screens look a lot better than vanilla, but are we flogging a dead horse? If we can get these results from FSX, what could be achieved starting from a newer engine? I for one, am itching for a rough release date to look forwards to.

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/323844-flight-and-fsx-comparison-screenshots/

picnic · 31 Jan 2011 at 09:20

If you want to use nVidia's surround vision or 3d over multiple monitors I think you need to SLI a couple of cards otherwise as said there is no benefit to be gained doing so for FSX

Noxia · 31 Jan 2011 at 20:01

Soya, those shots are lovely. What mods are you using to make the landscape look so good?

ringo747 · 31 Jan 2011 at 22:37

Can anyone using the latest 11.1 Catalyst Drivers please let us know which of the new options in CCC should we use with FSX.

There are new options for tesselation, surface format optimisation and morphologic filtering. I haven't a clue what they do but I'm guessing they are DX11 enabled only.

Devrij · 31 Jan 2011 at 22:49

ringo747 said:
Can anyone using the latest 11.1 Catalyst Drivers please let us know which of the new options in CCC should we use with FSX.

There are new options for tesselation, surface format optimisation and morphologic filtering. I haven't a clue what they do but I'm guessing they are DX11 enabled only.

Tesselation: obviously not going to be used (would be awesome for VC though!) so I guess it doesn't matter. Morphological AA is rubbish, but if you want low cost AA at the cost of clarity, I suppose it would be good for low end systems. Surface format optimisation sounds interesting? I may have to install them and post back with results. I haven't up until now because I've heard less than impressed feedback. Not bad, just not good either.

@Noxia, if you read back through the thread you'll find more info on what addons Soya was running on his old rig (and presumably still on his new one), but I can tell you he's running REX2.0 for the sky/water, and the scenery in the last shot (and the Pan Am shot, which is the captain sim 707 btw) is the FREE NL2000v4 scenery which covers the Netherlands. Some of it looks like the ORBX scenery too. How he makes those magical screenshots I will never know entirely though lol.

Noxia · 31 Jan 2011 at 22:56

Devrij said:
Tesselation: obviously not going to be used (would be awesome for VC though!) so I guess it doesn't matter. Morphological AA is rubbish, but if you want low cost AA at the cost of clarity, I suppose it would be good for low end systems. Surface format optimisation sounds interesting? I may have to install them and post back with results. I haven't up until now because I've heard less than impressed feedback. Not bad, just not good either.

@Noxia, if you read back through the thread you'll find more info on what addons Soya was running on his old rig (and presumably still on his new one), but I can tell you he's running REX2.0 for the sky/water, and the scenery in the last shot (and the Pan Am shot, which is the captain sim 707 btw) is the FREE NL2000v4 scenery which covers the Netherlands. Some of it looks like the ORBX scenery too. How he makes those magical screenshots I will never know entirely though lol.

Thank you, don't know why I didn't do that first :confused:

ringo747 · 31 Jan 2011 at 23:01

Devrij said:
Tesselation: obviously not going to be used (would be awesome for VC though!) so I guess it doesn't matter. Morphological AA is rubbish, but if you want low cost AA at the cost of clarity, I suppose it would be good for low end systems. Surface format optimisation sounds interesting? I may have to install them and post back with results. I haven't up until now because I've heard less than impressed feedback. Not bad, just not good either.

I'm noticing a bit of a performance drop with these now. I have all the new options disabled.

Soya · 1 Feb 2011 at 15:06

I must say that I am breathing a sigh of relief and I'm glad I decided to stick with the tested X58 & i7 950 chipset series when I bought my new PC for FSX. I knew the new sandybridge was on the way when I bought a new system just before Xmas but 1) I though prices were going to be sky high and 2) didn't think it was going to be a big jump forward from the old i7s 3) always risky investing in the 1st generation of new hardware.

When Sandybridge was released, I was could have kicked myself up the a$$, as it was cheaper then I thought, seem to run a fair bit faster then my current setup and hardware was readily available for it. Now however, with the recent OC problems and the official Intel statement that certain m/b can degrade the system over time, I am very relieved I stuck with older and tried tech. Hope no-one else here will get bitten by the problems of the new sandybridge.

Noxia: Devrij is correct, check this thread for tips and pointers on what software is worth getting. NL2000v4 & Blue Sky Scenery is deffo worth a look.

ringo747 · 1 Feb 2011 at 15:10

Soya - I was toying with the idea of swapping the ATi 5850 for a GTX470. Any input on whether you think this is worthwhile? I don't think there is much performance difference but nVidia is meant to be far better for FSX.

Devrij · 1 Feb 2011 at 21:46

Soya said:
I must say that I am breathing a sigh of relief and I'm glad I decided to stick with the tested X58 & i7 950 chipset series when I bought my new PC for FSX. I knew the new sandybridge was on the way when I bought a new system just before Xmas but 1) I though prices were going to be sky high and 2) didn't think it was going to be a big jump forward from the old i7s 3) always risky investing in the 1st generation of new hardware.

When Sandybridge was released, I was could have kicked myself up the a$$, as it was cheaper then I thought, seem to run a fair bit faster then my current setup and hardware was readily available for it. Now however, with the recent OC problems and the official Intel statement that certain m/b can degrade the system over time, I am very relieved I stuck with older and tried tech. Hope no-one else here will get bitten by the problems of the new sandybridge.

After reading through all the hysteria in that thread, I'm still really happy with my SB rig. It runs 4.7GHz 24/7 well below the recommended max voltages, and I haven't experienced any storage issues yet. It'll be a pain to swap everything around when they start shipping out the new chipsets, but I've decided to buy a new case to make it worthwile and fun, instead of a PITA. Got a raise today so that Phantom will be mine!

lukext · 2 Feb 2011 at 09:22

Sounds good Devrij, should last you a while! what case have you gone for?

Devrij · 2 Feb 2011 at 10:47

lukext said:
Sounds good Devrij, should last you a while! what case have you gone for?

Debating between the NZXT Phantom, or the Fractal Design Define XL. I love the XL, but it's a bit more than I want to spend. I've wanted the phantom since it was announced so I'm quite torn.

lukext · 2 Feb 2011 at 12:35

what size monitor/s do you have?

im thinkin a phantom + 3 24" screens would be pretty good

Soya · 2 Feb 2011 at 14:55

ringo747 said:
Soya - I was toying with the idea of swapping the ATi 5850 for a GTX470. Any input on whether you think this is worthwhile? I don't think there is much performance difference but nVidia is meant to be far better for FSX.

I can only speak from my own experience. I went from ATI 4870x2 to a GTX480 then 2x GTX580s. Graphically there is hardly any difference between ATI & Nvidia when it comes to visuals in FSX, when it comes to frame rate it gets a bit trickier. From my own experience I found FPS between the cards to be similar BUT Nvidia seemed to have a smoother and more even FPS during flying. Overall the experience I had was better with a Nvidia card then an ATI card, I think this is mainly down to how Nvidia cards handles the old type of shaders in FSX. Do not forget you can use Bojote's Shader 3.0 which apparently does a better job with ATI cards. If you have the money though, I would recommend the best Nvidia card you can afford for use in FSX.

ringo747 · 2 Feb 2011 at 15:22

Thanks Soya. I have been using SM3.0 for ages now but the fps still fluctuate quite badly when in heavy weather. It certainly is getting better than it was. Might try more gfx card overclocks and see what happens. Frames limited in game to 30 helps the microstutters too.

Devrij · 2 Feb 2011 at 22:13

lukext said:
what size monitor/s do you have?

im thinkin a phantom + 3 24" screens would be pretty good

I didn't get that big a raise! I have one 24" and one 19" (for instruments and navigation)

Soya · 4 Feb 2011 at 15:51

Here is my final batch of screen shots from my old FSX PC (RIP) which died late last year. These shots follow on from my last batch as I felt there were a few more shots left over that might be enjoyed by others.

So please do enjoy the view:
(all shots are unedited apart from resized)

shadow_boxer · 4 Feb 2011 at 19:46

Wow, great shots once again. Loving the C130 landing on the aircraft carrier.

Soya · 16 Feb 2011 at 07:10

Hey folks,

Now that my new FSX PC is fully up and running, I really wanted to challenge the new system and see if I could still match the visuals from all my previous shots taken with my older PC. And what better way to challenge that then with the 3 freeware American Airline Ultra High Definition Textures for Captain Sim's 757 from McPhat, throw in a nice airport (Flytampa's TNCM), add some great scenery (freeware NL2000v4) and to top it all off, why not try and make a video based around the same theme!

So here we have it, Ageless American in both video and screen shot flavour, take your pick. The video can be seen via this link Ageless American Video best watched in full 1080p glory using full screen. I would appreciate if you could add a vote on the youtube channel (whether you like it or not) and perhaps a comment as well, I am trying to gauge the interest people have in the flight sim videos I make (and hopefully will continue to make).

Time for the screen shots, enjoy this series based on some of the classic American Airlines liveries, Ageless American:
(all screen shots are unedited just resized)

My thanks for your time and I hope you enjoyed the view here.