whats FTX orbix and id like to get a nice looking purchase,not europe as i have Gex europe,
thanks
and is the flightsim store a good place price wise?
thanks

If you already have GEX Europe, then add GEX Africa and Middle East, and GEX USA and Canada, along with ORBX Australia SP4 (all four color regions in one, instead of four separate region purchases). That would give you four continents, anyway. Then buy the Lancair IV-P, an outstanding single engine, pressurized cabin, aircraft, that comes in several liveries, and both HIgh Definiton and low def. It is the only plane made (at this point) by the ORBX guys. Warning: The Lancair is excellent. It is fast - over 300 mph for a single general aviation prop is fast, has a high ceiling (30,000 + feet) due to the pressurized cabin. Warning: the high definition liveries, combined with REX and ORBX scenery, and high operational complexity, is a frame rate killer. The virtual cockpit is SPECTACULAR in the high def versions, but it will bring some i7 PC's (like mine) to their knees. But well worth it, nevertheless.

thanks Plainsman.

Yes! Orbx Australis SP4 complete

this one: http://fullterrain.com/product_australia.html

tahnsk Darkeagle. also what about this?

http://flightsimstore.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=1218&osCsid=dujgjagf40p43mjf6pk4g0g564

Link does not work, what's the name?

Ah, for some reason it's working now

And yes, that is an awsome scenery as well, but to be brutally honest:


ALL sceneries from Orbx are awsome!

So basically:

get these sceneries:

http://flightsimstore.com.au/index.php?manufacturers_id=92&osCsid=dujgjagf40p43mjf6pk4g0g564

Even though I am aussie, pacific north west from orbx has so many mountains and rivers and lakes, Australia is mostly flat :p

+1

But I'm not from Australia. If I had to pick, it would be PNW for the mountains and lakes etc. Absolutely stunnng. And then there is BOB! Awesome for vids.

I have all of it and pre-ordered Central Rockies. This scenery is lightyears better than anything other scenery for FSX and the only downer is that it does not cover the world....yet.

hey guys thanks. Icarus whats BOB? and do you have a link to the PNW one you mean please,
so do most people agree that orbx make the best scenery ???
thanks

It`s on the ORBX web page. PNW does translate to Pacific North West.
I too have all of them (the US and Canada part that is, not that interested in Australia). Be adviced though, the coverage is still relatively small. It`s great for bush-flying. If you are more into flying the heavies, I would buy GEX and UTX plus some airports.

It`s all up to your kind of flying. There are great Mega-Airports available, or the small stuff adding up ORBX scenery and all within between.

PNW http://fullterrain.com/product_nablue.html


BOB is freeware that lets you walk around the detailed airports and towns.
http://fullterrain.com/freeware.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-qOG1nc1TA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc4ZZermYu8

If you don't agree I'd like to see who's is better. I'll buy it today LOL!

As I said earlier, limited coverage, but unbeatable for the areas it covers IMHO. You'll still need GEX and UTX for the dogface areas it does not cover.

thankyou guys,whats the dofference beTween Gex and Utx?

ahem,

don`t want to sound rude, but do you actually read, what people are answering to you? Go to the first page of your own GEX thread.

lol Kilo,yes I do read,I dont see any mention of UTX,it seems to be a flight 1 product but cant seem to find what diff is between GEX which they sell and UTX which they sell,is 1 an earlier version of their software?
thanks

Very basically, GEX is ground textures landclass and UTX is more accurate roads etc. For most, UTX goes over GEX.

To see a comparison go here: http://www.exmixer.com/QuickGEXpage/ComparisonNew.shtml

Ha! I'm still roaming the streets and back alleys of Rome, but here goes. UTX is basically roads, rivers, shorelines, some landclass improvements and night lighting and such. GEX brings the terrain/land textures more to life, including all four seasons, sort of in an ORBX way. That's the basic, very simple, short explanation of the differences. Neither program does anything to weather, airport runways, clouds or water. For those things, REX 2.0 is recommended.

If you feel you can only buy one or the other, I recommend GEX instead of UTX. One clear advantage of GEX is availability for U.S., Canada, Europe, and Africa and the Middle East. UTX has USA, Canada and Europe, but you have to buy each separately. They also have Alaska. But no Africa, no Middle East. GEX gives you USA (including Alaska) and Canada for the price of one.

I owned both GEX and UTX (and Flight Environment) for FS2004. When I made the move to FSX, I dropped UTX. I've gone with GEX and ORBX, and added REX2.0 and Overdrive. I think UTX is a bigger frame rate hit than GEX or ORBX, and REX is far more versatile than FEX (aka Flight Environment). Sorry for all the initials. It can be confusing!

thankyou again guys for clearing that up.

ok i got Gex europe and REX2 with the overdrive so im going next fior an orbx addition prob the Blue one recommended.

Dont expect this to be my last post though
cheers

Blue U.S.A. or Blue Australia? The problem with ORBX is they don't give the whole country/continent at once. Right now, all they have is Pacific Northwest U.S.A. and a small slice of Western Canada. I think that's the Blue U.S.A. They've added Rocky Mountains, but you're still missing 75% of the U.S. and Canada. You'll sink huge bucks into ORBX U.S. by the time you're done and you'll be waiting a long time to finish. By that time you'll have moved on to MS Flight, the next generation.

I refused to buy OZ in pieces. I waited until ORBX came out with Australia SP4, i.e., all four color regions, in one. And then I waited until they had a sale to pick it up for the price of what a single region used to cost.

I don't want a country or continent in pieces. Then you fly from one enhanced part of the country into the next state that isn't enhanced. That has to suck. So for the U.S.A., I went for GEX in order to get all of the U.S. and all of Canada covered at the same time.

oh i see where your coming from so in that case for now Gex america.

do the orbx software stand head and shoulders above gex or just some?
thanks again

IMHO, head and shoulders +! GEX and UTX are better generic sceneries. ORBX is anything but generic...very acurate. But what Plainsman says too. I myself don't mind waiting for ORBX, that's a personal call.

GEX will upgrade the terrain somewhat better all over, but the roads etc. are very generic and mostly inaccurate (UTX fixes this somewhat). If you want a slab of near perfect scenery buy ORBX and fly there (or walk around with BOB!). Personally, I would cover everything with GEX and UTX if you can then add ORBX as you can. If you are really unsure, get GEX for a small area and get a piece of NA ORBX and then you will know. To give you an idea, I have FSGenesis terrain mesh, REX,then GEX and UTX, then a bunch of Megascenery and Aerosoft scenery (both better than GEX and UTX but again limited coverage) with ORBX where they have finished. (160 GB FSX install LOL)

Hawaii Megascenery + VRS Superbug + REX water:





NYC Aerosoft:



ORBX PNW:

thankyou Icarus for explaining that,and if i understand you you are saying the Orbx is the most accurate ok.

what about from the beauty of the look forgetting accuracy?

and those pics are beautifull, hadnt heard of megascenery or aerosoft:)

just ordered orbx nwb,
a question, if i buy GEX america and install when I install orbx america,which 1 takes over? i understand orbx has a central switch you can set to off if you dont want to use tHE ORBx OVERLAY BUT how DO you allow oRbx to taKE OVER FROm GEX when i wanT it too?
Thanks agin FOR YOUR CONtinued help>this is all so new and exciTING

If you have GEX or UTX installed it becomes your default FSX scenery. When you use the FTX Central CP and apply the ORBX North America scenery it overwrites the default. If you want the default back, just apply it back in the FTX Central CP. If you install GEX after ORBX, make sure Default FSX is applied in the FTX Central CP first.

Icarus thankyou ,

im going to reformat and reinstall win7 in a day or 2 what order would you install fsx plus accel 1st of course, then what .at the moment i ahve

rex2 plus OD gex europe. and orbx nwb, by the time i reinstall ill also have gex america,
thanks again

This is what I do:

1 FSX + Acceleration.

2 REX

3 Terrain mesh

4 GEX then UTX

5 Megascenery then Aerosoft

6 ORBX

7 Aircraft and addons like VRS Superbug and ConcordeX

It takes all day for me to install the whole 150 Gb!
But you will love it, look at the difference.....toy vs realistic
Stock Vancouver:


ORBX Vancouver:

thankyou again Icarus,oh no a new feature:) what is 3.terrain mesh?

oh 1 more thing:) when you install FSX do you send it to default(in my case programmes64bit or do you make a folder on c.
the reason i ask cus in the GEX europe manual it says for 32bit os its programsfiles and for 64bit os its x86.
so does this mean if you install it in either program files or a folder on c: its only operating at 32 bit?
thanks

Terrain mesh makes mountatins and terrain shapes more detailed. Mountain shapes are more accurate and detailed like mountain formatins are, as opposed to lumps of spotted dick.

I have W7 64 bit and I made a folder on its own drive F:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X and I manually send all my addons to install there. I have read some addons can't find the default location all the time.

Absolutely fantastic pics, Icarus. Thank you for sharing. But that stock Vancouver doesn't look all that bad.

One question for you. I have Aerosoft Manhattan, which I assume is the same one in your screen shot. But it's an unplayable slide show. How do you manage it?

Vancouver downtown buildings are the same in stock as ORBX. The terrain in FSX stock is hideous though vs ORBX see lower part of photos. Oh, and the buildings streets and fields are waaaaay more accurately placed and specific to the area for those who know the place.

Yes LOL, Manhatten is a heavy load on the CPU. All that object creation can pull even the faster computers down. Until I tweaked my fsx.CFG file I was the same. Not sure which tweak helps the most, but I think the affinity mask one allowed my 3.67 ghz quad to do its full duty. Also, huge ram helps. I have seen 6-6.5 gigs used with FSX. I have very big loads at start up. Even my Velociraptor takes a couple of minutes to load the flight (my OS drive is an SSD) Even with that its not fanastic with everything maxed out. Try the settings they provide in the Manhatten manual. Aerosoft Kai Tak is almost as bad if you were thinking of getting that, because it too is pretty nice.

I have a 3.6 Quad Core and 6 GBs of 1600 Mushkin RAM and I have a slide show. Could it be my puny video card (GTX 285, 1GB)? What in blazes is "affinity mask?" I've never heard of it. What does it do? Where do you get it? Do you need technical knowledge to use it?

I only have a 3.67 Quad with 8 Gb ram and 2X GTX 260's in SLI. I did see my rig use 6+ GB ram at times running this.

Affinity mask is a trigger you can create in your fsx.CFG to allow FSX to use multiple cores instead of one that it uses as default. You can set it to use all four or just three and save the fourth for background apps. Oh and set your framerates to unlimited in FSX.

Add this to your fsx.CFG file.
14 runs it on 1-3 cores 15 runs it on all four cores
[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=14

For more tweaks and info go here. http://www.flightsimworld.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=92583

Try this too http://www.flightsimworld.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=92583

Always BACKUP first!

[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=14

So, JOBSCHEDULER is already in the FSX.CFG file? All I do is insert AffinityMask=14 on the line immediately beneath? Please be more specific what I'm to type and exactly where/on which line. Thanks

I don't know if it is in your file or not. Use edit > find to search the file. If its not there add it and the affinity mask. If it is just add the affinity mask. Go to the links that I gave you as well, they are specific and quite extensive.

Darrington Washington ORBX nicer than Vancouver:

nice,ill try that infinity mask too,i have a quad core.
thanks

Plainsman, DX10 might help. Although the performance boost you get from DX10 comes at the expense of lower Antialiasing and a couple of other quality restrictions. It was apparently locked down by Aces Studios to a max of 4x multisampling in order to make it look like a boost. I usually use 16x mixed, so 4x multi is a big climb down. AffinityMask=15 was a big one for me though (did it work for you?). Also, I lowered my LOD radius to 8.0000 from 9.0000 for Manhattan. Higher than 9.0000 throws out of memory errors and I have 8gig! A lot of trial and error as it is likely rig specific too.

Here are pics of Manhattan with GEX, UTX and REX. Stock FSX ruins the Aerosoft Manhattan scenery as it looks really bad against the beautifully redered objects by Aerosoft. I'm a big fan of UTX on GEX. The roads are really accurate with UTX.

OMG, Icarus, those pics are awesome!!!! Wow!!! So real, bro! Where do you set your autgen and density sliders? What is LOD radius and how do you lower it? By the way, I always use DX10.

The big drawback for DX10 is that it has low Anti aliasing setting locked in to give you a fake fps boost. The only way to combat this is to up the screen res to about 2560 x 1600. You cannot use nHancer or nvidia inspector or Control Panel to force AA in DX10 Preview. A major downer. There are other texture issues too. They both have there pluses and minuses, but I have found it is six of one and half dozen of the other.

Autogen and density on full. The only two I have turned back a bit are mesh and texture resolution. Traffic is all lower settings except boat traffic which is on full for AICarriers.

If you haven't adjusted your LOD radius, then yours is set at 4.5000 which is default for FSX. You change it in fsx.CFG under [TEXTURES]. Once you set it, everytime you touch the settings sliders etc. it defaults back automatically and you need to put it back. Once you get your settings right you don't change em anyway.

I too had aweful FSX performance. You have to tweak like crazy and find the settings that raise fps and keep those while ditching the fps killers. LOD radius is a killer I do keep because it makes such a huge graphical difference. BufferPools settings are another good one for your video card.

Google FSX Tweaks and you will find lots. Many like me think nothing works and then BINGO all of a sudden the fps is smooth. Its often rig dependent.
This is the most comprehensive tweak guide:
http://www.simforums.com/forums/setting-up-fsx-and-how-to-tune-it_topic29041.html

Aerosoft Kai Tak Hong Kong at night (awesome) with fireworks:

great pics Icarus.Getting I7 and 8gig ram with Sabretooth board today,1gtx 480 i already have, i dont think SLI with another would help.maybe?

using 27"hazro at 2560x1440 and it does look awesome,just have to tweak now, i was getting crashes from viewing A1 traffic till i dropped that Dll file in the main FSX folder and that has cured it,could have been cus i experimented and installed game in defasult Programs X86 whereas before it went in a C;folder but it seems to look and run better than beforehmm
anyways thanks for posts

Sim Savvy rocks for the USA.

I disagree. No buildings. No signs of life. Good only for high altitude flying if you want to admire the ground. I need signs of life and low-altitude flying. Like this kind of scenery add-on or the ones posted by Icarus: