I am a little confused, are these the same or a different program completely????? If the same, are there reasons to buy one over the other? I am putting together a new load of FSX on a new drive, (have a FS9 with all the eye-candy), so trying to figure out which basic programs to start with.......a good weather, traffic, terrain, and a couple of small jets...........appreciate suggestions from those who have used them all....thanks, B42L8

I am a little confused, are these the same or a different program completely????? If the same, are there reasons to buy one over the other? I am putting together a new load of FSX on a new drive, (have a FS9 with all the eye-candy), so trying to figure out which basic programs to start with.......a good weather, traffic, terrain, and a couple of small jets...........appreciate suggestions from those who have used them all....thanks, B42L8

I would get them both-they both do different things. I like Utx especially for adding molto car traffic to roads in addition to the other stuff it does. Gex will make your ground textures look amazing.

No..they're not the same program. Both are considered "must-haves" and both are meant to be used together seemlessly. Basically, UTX tells fsx where roads, rivers, coastlines, parks, golf courses, exist in the real world..a must if you love VFR flying and pilotage. Also as important, UTX has landclass data which tells fsx where to draw cities, towns, villages with its autogen. A huge improvment from default fsx as sometimes when flying you may not see any reference to a small city or town. With UTX, even the smallest of cities is depicted accurately. To be honest..it's considered great for urban area..however for rural landclass data, there are other great products that work seemlessly with UTX/GEX.As for GEX, its an enhancment to your ground textures at 1m pixel resolution..including all seasons and night textures. It is not by any means photoreal..you will not find your house..however, it will give an illusion that you are flying over photoreal scenery..and at 1m resolution with good FPS. What I also like is that it realigns the autogen placement of houses and buildings...so you might find rows of houses in residential areas and clusters of building in commercial areas...really believable...and alot better than autogen default.If you are interested, definitely read the review here on avsim. There was a very very detailed review on each of the products separately, and then a review of the two products of how they work together...under the same review.

So where does REX come in, then? Is it a different version of GEX? Or can you have Ultimate Terrain, GEX and REX?

We really need a sticky with all the Abbreviations , what they are and what they do.

So where does REX come in, then? Is it a different version of GEX? Or can you have Ultimate Terrain, GEX and REX?

REX is Real Environment Extreme used to enhance the textures of skies, clouds, water (ocean,lake,river) ,airport runways/taxiways with higher and better textures. Basically, your clouds will look 10x better as higher resolutions textures are used for clouds. There are also different types of clouds and sky variations.REX can be used with Ultimate Terrain X and Ground Environment X. There is no overlap and no conflicts as each product does it's own specific thing. I would definitely get all 3. REX is coming out with a major update anytime now. More can be found at www.realenvironmentextreme.com

REX is Real Environment Extreme used to enhance the textures of skies, clouds, water (ocean,lake,river) ,airport runways/taxiways with higher and better textures. Basically, your clouds will look 10x better as higher resolutions textures are used for clouds. There are also different types of clouds and sky variations.REX can be used with Ultimate Terrain X and Ground Environment X. There is no overlap and no conflicts as each product does it's own specific thing. I would definitely get all 3. REX is coming out with a major update anytime now. More can be found at www.realenvironmentextreme.com

Yeah, I have REX and like it a lot already. I just wasn't sure what the difference was between REX and GEX and then there's FEX, isn't there, not to mention... never mind. I'll have to take a look at GEX.

Yea...you can either go with FEX from another developer published by Flight1 or with REX. Both do the same thing and neither interfere with the UTX/GEX combo. Here is the awesome review of that UTX/GEX combo...http://www.avsim.com/pages/0508/MultiScene/MultiScene.htm

Thank you to all who have exchanged knowledge on these different EX's. I also have UTX and GEX and definitely enjoy the overall improvement to my scenery. I cannot recall what the generic FSX scenery looks like. The inclusion of REX into this topic has also helped me. I have been considering enhancing my skies as well but couldn't make a choice between REX or Active Sky X. I think I will just search the reviews and this forum for more info. Keith

Thank you to all who have exchanged knowledge on these different EX's. I also have UTX and GEX and definitely enjoy the overall improvement to my scenery. I cannot recall what the generic FSX scenery looks like. The inclusion of REX into this topic has also helped me. I have been considering enhancing my skies as well but couldn't make a choice between REX or Active Sky X. I think I will just search the reviews and this forum for more info. Keith

Active Sky is a weather engine, not cloud/sky/etc textures.I use XGraphics for my sky/moon/lighting so they are weather influenced per weather data generated by Active Sky.I then use FEX for my clouds and water, GEX for ground textures, UTX for terrain features, and FS Genesis for enhanced mesh.....oh yea....and Cloud9 (most often) for my landclass.I think that covers it.... :(

Great! I thank you again. One thing I am interested in is water texture and shading based on depth. I will continue research to make sure I get the best product for my preferred realism.Keith

We really need a sticky with all the Abbreviations , what they are and what they do.

Amen to that!GEX AND UTX are both top quality addons. I'd recommend them to every simmer.

Thanks to all the replies!!.......I will now head over to the bank for another home equity loan :( , to think I (and all us simmers) have just loaded up FS9, and off we go with FSX.......Lord help us if the gov't buys MS.....B42L8

If you have any other questions, let us know. Take care

I added GEX to my REX and UTX last night. Haven't noticed any frame rate drop and I was delighted to see more natural looking features. FSX is looking so good I am tempted to do more low and slow, since a lot of coolness is lost at 30,000 feet.