Thanks, the ground detail in that video/screen shots is from FTX Australia & Tamworth, plus setting TBM to 4096 and LOD radius to 9.5 or less.
The 'Official' Screenshot & Tips thread 4 FSX enthusiasts & flight simmers.
- Thread starter Soya
- Start date
Happy Easter folks,
As I had some spare time over this Easter weekend, I managed to produce another video called 'Double Trouble' here are some screen shots that are taken directly from this video and a link is posted at the end for the video itself should you wish to watch it, enjoy:
Video is below, best watched in full 1080p, please feel free to vote or comment on the youtube channel.
As I had some spare time over this Easter weekend, I managed to produce another video called 'Double Trouble' here are some screen shots that are taken directly from this video and a link is posted at the end for the video itself should you wish to watch it, enjoy:
Video is below, best watched in full 1080p, please feel free to vote or comment on the youtube channel.
Using FSRecorder to duplicate my flight, could have also used other methods but that is easiest IMO.
Plenty in this thread. NL2000v4, Blue Sky Scenery, libraries at AVSIM & Flightsim com etc.
Let us know how you get on with that vSync thing, might try it myself if it show real improvement.
In the meantime, here are some more random shots, enjoy:
(unedited)
Light edits (blur):
A pretty fly painting:
An old photo of an old airline:
In the meantime, here are some more random shots, enjoy:
(unedited)
Light edits (blur):
A pretty fly painting:
An old photo of an old airline:
Love that first shot of the constellation, great angle.
AFAIK, there is no freeware scenery (apart from airports, ie UK2000 airports are free to try I think) that is available for the UK. At least not in the photoreal imagery area, Horizon Simulations handles most of photoreal coverage of the UK but their package for the entire UK is indeed, pricey. Whereas, NL2000v4 & Blue Sky Scenery is high quality imagery for Holland and parts of the US, is free and very good quality. The cheapest alternative would be to get something like UTX/GEX Europe but that is not real imagery more like an enhanced version of default FSX scenery with more accurate city/road & river placements.
IMO, the only payware that is a simply must have for FSX is REX2.0 Overdrive, plain and simple, it worth every penny. Anything else is totally up to you and your budget.
Check this thread for more links/info on freeware stuff.
Thanks, the Bronco X is from Aerosoft, a wonderful model, extremely well detailed, as you can tell.
AFAIK, there is no freeware scenery (apart from airports, ie UK2000 airports are free to try I think) that is available for the UK. At least not in the photoreal imagery area, Horizon Simulations handles most of photoreal coverage of the UK but their package for the entire UK is indeed, pricey. Whereas, NL2000v4 & Blue Sky Scenery is high quality imagery for Holland and parts of the US, is free and very good quality. The cheapest alternative would be to get something like UTX/GEX Europe but that is not real imagery more like an enhanced version of default FSX scenery with more accurate city/road & river placements.
IMO, the only payware that is a simply must have for FSX is REX2.0 Overdrive, plain and simple, it worth every penny. Anything else is totally up to you and your budget.
Check this thread for more links/info on freeware stuff.
Soya - great shots as always dude!
Please tell me where I can get that Bronco?
Thanks!
Thanks, the Bronco X is from Aerosoft, a wonderful model, extremely well detailed, as you can tell.
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Enjoy this latest batch of my personal pick and mix selection:
(unedited)
(edited added blur effect)
Old Photo:
(unedited)
(edited added blur effect)
Old Photo:
Recording in FSX: Either with FRAPS but IMO only if you need to record with in-game sounds and your recording resolution is 720p or less. Due to the way FRAPS record uncompressed video files, recording at full 1080p would create not only huge files but during recording the I/O will saturate and your sim will stutter thus the recording IMO will look ****. The other way, but without the ability to record in-game sounds, is via a beta version of FSRecorder which has a video rendering option. With this option, it basically turns your FSX into a video rendering while you playback a recorded flight. It also doesn't matter how fast your PC is cause the rendering will still occur at whatever settings you chosen for it. This is the best method of getting perfectly smooth video recordings at any resolution but again, without in-game sounds.
FSX for practical uses: I would say very much so, the vanilla version would give you a decent basic overview on the layout/setup/instrumental involvement of flying an aircraft, especially small single engine aircrafts. Although many more in-depth and RL procedures do not mirror or are included within FSX, so even if you fully master flying a light aircraft in FSX, you are unlikely to be able to fly a real light aircraft in RL, although if there is an instructor present, I am certain many things he/she will try to teach you will be easily and quickly absorbed due to the knowledge you have gained from FSX. More in-depth addon aircraft will give you a better knowledge base on whatever aircraft is simulated thus giving you experience and confidence if ever you were to learn it to fly it in RL.
I remember having a flight lesson in a cessna which was a gift from my mom, back when she had her pilot license. At that time, way before FSX came out, I didn't have any aircraft knowledge, so everything was pretty alien. If I knew then what I have learned in FSX now, I am sure I could have understood more and probably had more confidence in flying the aircraft while the instructor was guiding me. But I do not think for a minute, even today, that I could fly a light aircraft, without the presence of an instructor, but for sure, FSX would strengthen my learning ability in doing so.
My 2c's.
FSX for practical uses: I would say very much so, the vanilla version would give you a decent basic overview on the layout/setup/instrumental involvement of flying an aircraft, especially small single engine aircrafts. Although many more in-depth and RL procedures do not mirror or are included within FSX, so even if you fully master flying a light aircraft in FSX, you are unlikely to be able to fly a real light aircraft in RL, although if there is an instructor present, I am certain many things he/she will try to teach you will be easily and quickly absorbed due to the knowledge you have gained from FSX. More in-depth addon aircraft will give you a better knowledge base on whatever aircraft is simulated thus giving you experience and confidence if ever you were to learn it to fly it in RL.
I remember having a flight lesson in a cessna which was a gift from my mom, back when she had her pilot license. At that time, way before FSX came out, I didn't have any aircraft knowledge, so everything was pretty alien. If I knew then what I have learned in FSX now, I am sure I could have understood more and probably had more confidence in flying the aircraft while the instructor was guiding me. But I do not think for a minute, even today, that I could fly a light aircraft, without the presence of an instructor, but for sure, FSX would strengthen my learning ability in doing so.
My 2c's.
Am I right in saying that the upgrade link in the email for the update file is only for standard REX, for Overdrive users there is an update coming later? (or so I read somewhere)
It's been a while since I last posted some fresh new screen shots, but here are some, I do hope you enjoy them.
(unedited, various REX themes & locations)
(unedited, various REX themes & locations)
Thanks, that first shot IIRC is taken at CZST, the latest airport scenery by FTX, which uses, for the first time, 7cm texture resolution. (1GB for a tiny airport, just a strip and a few building, but the texturing is gorgeous)
brilliant photos Soya.....
Cheers.
Thank you, I use various textures, what you can see in those shots is mostly NL2000V4.02, freeware photoreal Netherlands and also a little bit of FTX North America.
Its good to see people finding good use for this thread. Alas, been too busy myself to do much flight simming atm and whatever time I do get on the sim, I spend on short flights around new(ish) addons I gotten (scary how much money I have spend over the years on addons for this hobby, still, its better then drinking it away!) plus of course, I still love catching screen shots and sharing them with the community whenever I can.
Talking about screen shots.... Yippeee! -> http://asn.aerosoft.com/
Talking about screen shots.... Yippeee! -> http://asn.aerosoft.com/
1st place with
btw some lovely shots above from other simmers, nice work.
btw some lovely shots above from other simmers, nice work.
Some lovely shots above, although having a powerful PC does help during flying, it can make very little difference while taking screen shots due to the fact you DO NOT need decent FPS, even getting @5-10fps while you MAX your settings if you only need to take screen shots. Also, like flying itself, you get better in time with more practice. I didn't get this good overnight, more like a steady improve in my screen shot skills over a period of @3-4 years, I feel it is only in the past 6-9 months where I am happy personally with my own work and even then, I am my own worst critic .
Talking about screen shots, here are some of my latest collection, these shots taken anywhere over the past @3 years, theme is; spotting heavies, unedited shots.
Addons used: REX2.0 OD (various themes), ENB mod (various settings), PMDG 747 + MD-11 & McPhat HD repaints, CLS747, Captain Sim's B-52 and many various addon airports.
.Talking about screen shots, here are some of my latest collection, these shots taken anywhere over the past @3 years, theme is; spotting heavies, unedited shots.
Addons used: REX2.0 OD (various themes), ENB mod (various settings), PMDG 747 + MD-11 & McPhat HD repaints, CLS747, Captain Sim's B-52 and many various addon airports.
I often use Random themes when it comes to clouds & sky themes but always HD clouds though. When it comes to water, Sparkling is my favorite for daytime and for dusk/dawn any of the high reflecting themes.
My suggestion is to experiment and stick with mixing your themes, you will end up with probably several personal favorite but TBH, all of REX texture themes are excellent.
While we're on subject of screen shots, enjoy this follow-up from my previous post, again, all unedited shots.
soya great photos as always Wow
what traffic package are you using please?
Luke I'm using a 670
Linwig, also great photos
Sorry for the late reply, missed your question.
I tend to use custom AI most often using AirtrafficFX, I also use Traffic X & occasionally Mudpond's formation tool to place aircraft.
Sure, the two aircraft are; Razbam - A-7 Corsair II Volume III (bought when in sale for $5 online), and Dino Cattaneo T-45C Goshawk which is freeware and can be found on most flightsim libraries.
SALE NOTICE:
MILVIZ products are on a 50% sale at most online sim etailers, including their latest CH-47 Chinook. Best price I could find was here http://www.fspilotshop.com/specials.php?currency=GBP which also includes many other sale items. £11 for Milviz's CH-47 and £12 for their excellent F-15E, bargains.
Also, Vertigo Studios have released SP1.2 for their F9F Panther, available free for anyone with previous purchase or get a 38% discount with expansion pack for free at https://www.pcsimstore.com/
Regards
Soya
Some more screenies. (Freeware Blue Sky Scenery with the F9F Panther from Vertigo Studios and of-course REX).
Enjoy:
MILVIZ products are on a 50% sale at most online sim etailers, including their latest CH-47 Chinook. Best price I could find was here http://www.fspilotshop.com/specials.php?currency=GBP which also includes many other sale items. £11 for Milviz's CH-47 and £12 for their excellent F-15E, bargains.
Also, Vertigo Studios have released SP1.2 for their F9F Panther, available free for anyone with previous purchase or get a 38% discount with expansion pack for free at https://www.pcsimstore.com/
Regards
Soya
Some more screenies. (Freeware Blue Sky Scenery with the F9F Panther from Vertigo Studios and of-course REX).
Enjoy:
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Welcome to some of the newcomers in this thread, some even new to FSX. Some nice shots above, thanks for contributing, some shots do seem a little dark for my taste but I know the ENB mod can be a little dark when pointing the camera angle towards the ground, it suddenly removes much of the brightness (could turn off ENB when you do those kinds of shots or tweak ENB ini file a bit more, just a suggestion).
As for getting up and running with FSX, there is tons of useful helps/tips and links in this thread, best to probably start at the last page and work your way backwards as most recent links/info will be more uptodate.
Hardware: As others have mentioned, FSX uses mainly CPU power, eats it for breakfast/lunch/dinner and in-between snacks, so the most vital thing is to try and get the best overclock-able CPU & M/b you can get your hands on in terms of money vs value. You can see my setup in my sig, that system is already old (2 years) but still runs FSX pretty good. The reason I seem to have easy pleasing screen shots is down to several factors 1) Addons, without at least a few decent addons, FSX is not going to look great vanilla, IMO most essential is REX, for the rest there is plenty of excellent freeware aircraft & scenery (see links throughout this thread) 2) tweaking, tweaking and forever tweaking, learn about how FSX behaves and how it runs best over time on your specific PC. With the info both in this thread and very helpful forums around the net, it is not too difficult to get your FSX to run better/faster & smoother but it does take patience, don't expect not to have problems along the way and don't expect overnight results. For me personally it took @1.5 years before I felt my FSX run good enough to post screen shots and even during the past @3 years I think my screen shots have steadily improves due to both tweaking/hardware/software & screen shot skills. 3) Resolution/TBM/Nvidia & Nvidia Inspector, the higher resolution you can run FSX at, the better the visuals, as for most games/sims. I run at 2560x1600 so by the time I take screen shots and carefully reduce them to postable size, it will show much more detail & clarity then if I were to take screen shots at a lower resolution like when I had my old PC 1920x1080, not saying you cannot make it look great at 1080p, I did on my old PC as you can see from my screen shots early in this thread, but higher res is better IMO. Nvidia & Nvidia inspector essential in getting the best out of FSX in both terms of smoothness and using AA & AF to get the sharpest textures. TBM (Texture Bandwidth Max) I always have at 4096 nowadays as most GFX cards can easily handle the higher textures display without hardly losing any FPS. 4) Last but not least, getting good screen shots takes time and experience and perhaps a small amount of talent too, as I mentioned, I been at it for more then 3-4 years now, if you check my shots on my photobucket account and compare the first ones I uploaded to most recent, you can see a huge difference.
Visuals vs smoothness (constant FPS), on my current hardware/settings, I lock my FPS at 30 and is usually stays there and is generally 95% smooth. If you take my most recent shots (above of the Panther & Blue Sky scenery) then I easily get 30fps & smooth flying. However, if you see some of my shots of busy airports with lots of AI traffic about then naturally my FPS will drop accordingly and the smoothness goes. In those situations I only overdo the AI traffic due to taking screen shots, normally if I fly and land at a large airport I have to adjust my settings if I want to keep to some reasonable smooth flying. If I had a money tree in my garden then I would upgrade my 2 year old system and get a six-core liquid cooled CPU running @5Ghz with a GTX690 which would further reduce my FPS limitations and remove more stutters. So when it comes to hardware consideration, as I mentioned, find the best value vs performance for your budget but keep room for steady upgrades every @2 years or so, especially CPU & M/B upgrades.
I think that about cover it, one more thing, FSX (or simming in general) is very much a future investment or at least that is the way I see it. I have spend £1000s on hardware/software & countless hours of time into FSX over the past 4-5 years but that time & money spend is not lost like it is with general PC games & online MMOs etc, for the simple reason that both your knowledge/experience continues to grow with FSX. It is extremely unlikely that FSX will be replaced anytime soon and even if it does (Prepare3D might in the near future) most hardware/software/addons will most likely be @90% compatible with a new flight sim in the future, so the money investment is sound. And as for time investment, there is so much to learn about flying (I myself still have much to learn about proper procedures as I mostly fly for fun and the view) but you can spend the rest of your life learning it as fast/slow as you like. I will most likely retire someday and still be flight simming and probably only then have the time and inclination to learn how to really fly properly.
Cheers all, happy flying.
FSX Screen shots over the years on my PB account: http://s264.photobucket.com/albums/ii172/Soya4me/TV Setup/FSX/
My FSX videos over the years: http://www.youtube.com/user/soya4me?feature=results_main
EDIT: Just released my latest compilation, shots collected over the past few years covering British Airways over the past few decades.
Enjoy:
(REX & various addons/settings)
As for getting up and running with FSX, there is tons of useful helps/tips and links in this thread, best to probably start at the last page and work your way backwards as most recent links/info will be more uptodate.
Hardware: As others have mentioned, FSX uses mainly CPU power, eats it for breakfast/lunch/dinner and in-between snacks, so the most vital thing is to try and get the best overclock-able CPU & M/b you can get your hands on in terms of money vs value. You can see my setup in my sig, that system is already old (2 years) but still runs FSX pretty good. The reason I seem to have easy pleasing screen shots is down to several factors 1) Addons, without at least a few decent addons, FSX is not going to look great vanilla, IMO most essential is REX, for the rest there is plenty of excellent freeware aircraft & scenery (see links throughout this thread) 2) tweaking, tweaking and forever tweaking, learn about how FSX behaves and how it runs best over time on your specific PC. With the info both in this thread and very helpful forums around the net, it is not too difficult to get your FSX to run better/faster & smoother but it does take patience, don't expect not to have problems along the way and don't expect overnight results. For me personally it took @1.5 years before I felt my FSX run good enough to post screen shots and even during the past @3 years I think my screen shots have steadily improves due to both tweaking/hardware/software & screen shot skills. 3) Resolution/TBM/Nvidia & Nvidia Inspector, the higher resolution you can run FSX at, the better the visuals, as for most games/sims. I run at 2560x1600 so by the time I take screen shots and carefully reduce them to postable size, it will show much more detail & clarity then if I were to take screen shots at a lower resolution like when I had my old PC 1920x1080, not saying you cannot make it look great at 1080p, I did on my old PC as you can see from my screen shots early in this thread, but higher res is better IMO. Nvidia & Nvidia inspector essential in getting the best out of FSX in both terms of smoothness and using AA & AF to get the sharpest textures. TBM (Texture Bandwidth Max) I always have at 4096 nowadays as most GFX cards can easily handle the higher textures display without hardly losing any FPS. 4) Last but not least, getting good screen shots takes time and experience and perhaps a small amount of talent too, as I mentioned, I been at it for more then 3-4 years now, if you check my shots on my photobucket account and compare the first ones I uploaded to most recent, you can see a huge difference.
Visuals vs smoothness (constant FPS), on my current hardware/settings, I lock my FPS at 30 and is usually stays there and is generally 95% smooth. If you take my most recent shots (above of the Panther & Blue Sky scenery) then I easily get 30fps & smooth flying. However, if you see some of my shots of busy airports with lots of AI traffic about then naturally my FPS will drop accordingly and the smoothness goes. In those situations I only overdo the AI traffic due to taking screen shots, normally if I fly and land at a large airport I have to adjust my settings if I want to keep to some reasonable smooth flying. If I had a money tree in my garden then I would upgrade my 2 year old system and get a six-core liquid cooled CPU running @5Ghz with a GTX690 which would further reduce my FPS limitations and remove more stutters. So when it comes to hardware consideration, as I mentioned, find the best value vs performance for your budget but keep room for steady upgrades every @2 years or so, especially CPU & M/B upgrades.
I think that about cover it, one more thing, FSX (or simming in general) is very much a future investment or at least that is the way I see it. I have spend £1000s on hardware/software & countless hours of time into FSX over the past 4-5 years but that time & money spend is not lost like it is with general PC games & online MMOs etc, for the simple reason that both your knowledge/experience continues to grow with FSX. It is extremely unlikely that FSX will be replaced anytime soon and even if it does (Prepare3D might in the near future) most hardware/software/addons will most likely be @90% compatible with a new flight sim in the future, so the money investment is sound. And as for time investment, there is so much to learn about flying (I myself still have much to learn about proper procedures as I mostly fly for fun and the view) but you can spend the rest of your life learning it as fast/slow as you like. I will most likely retire someday and still be flight simming and probably only then have the time and inclination to learn how to really fly properly
.Cheers all, happy flying.
FSX Screen shots over the years on my PB account: http://s264.photobucket.com/albums/ii172/Soya4me/TV Setup/FSX/
My FSX videos over the years: http://www.youtube.com/user/soya4me?feature=results_main
EDIT: Just released my latest compilation, shots collected over the past few years covering British Airways over the past few decades.
Enjoy:
(REX & various addons/settings)
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A new arrival of an Old lady to FSX, she's ready for pushback:
Coolsky's DC-9.
Coolsky's DC-9.
Sooty, sorry I forgot about the link. Too much red wine
Very nice Soya. What airpoirt is that?
Thanks, that is KLAX v2 by FSDT.