I know this may be very old news to you folks, but I've been using this mod for a long time now on many games and sims (GTR2, RBR, mount and blade) and it applies to MSFSX just as well. Just letting those who missed it know about it. There is an HDR mod that is very simple to use (drop the files in the main folder, press shift-f12 to activate) which allows HDR and color adjustments, effectively replacing the expensive stock bloom shader. Prettier image, more fps. Only coveat is that it does not do well at night (color and brightness values not adjusted for it). Here is the mod (created by some russian fella): http://narod.yandex.ru/100.xhtml?boris-vor...gtasa_v0075.zipHere are the settings to make it good for MSFS (in my opinion): http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/sh...mp;postcount=69with the mod: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3551/363966...92fbdbf97_o.jpghttp://farm4.static.flickr.com/3614/363966...48fb3cf4f_o.jpgcomparisons: (note the color saturation, cloud vibrancy and whiteness, and how much more flat the stock msfs seems)here is with the mod: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3142/363966...3655f2edd_o.jpgwithout: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3339/364052...a2bf51ca1_o.jpghere is with the mod: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3662/363966...09140204c_o.jpgwithout: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3397/364052...47f464dd8_o.jpghere is with the mod: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2447/363966...287d86e74_o.jpgwithout: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3318/363971...4e298f3bb_o.jpg

Only coveat is that it does not do well at night (color and brightness values not adjusted for it).

There's a post about this addon here: it also contains info about editing the settings. Most used changes are:BloomMaxLimit=85 (default 100 is a bit too much bloom)DarkeningAmountDay=20 (default 40 makes things a bit too dark)DarkeningAmountNight=15 (default -30 makes things way too light at night)ColorSaturationDay=1 (bumps up the colors just a little bit)

Very cool! In addition to your changes, I also changed a few other things to improve performance...Supposed to be faster:BugFixMode=1These effects seem to be specific to GTA (which the mod was originally written for). At least, disabling them didn't cause any noticeable changes on my system but it did double my framerate:EnableOcclusion=0EnableReflection=0EnableMotionBlur=0EnableWater=0EnableShadow=0DepthBias=0The "EnableBloom=1" and color correction entries are what improves the depth and saturation of the colors.

These effects seem to be specific to GTA (which the mod was originally written for). At least, disabling them didn't cause any noticeable changes on my system but it did double my framerate:

If you download the FSX-specific file from the topic I linked to, you will find these settings (amongst others) are already set to 0. :( So I would advice everyone to download the FSX-specific file and NOT any GTA-specific files: this will save you a lot of editing and testing and performance 'out of the box'. When you download the FSX-file you only have to change very few settings (the ones I posted).