Hi all, I'm new to FSX, and was wondering if I could get a few pointers regarding the myriad of add-ons available for the sim. I've had FSX about a week now, and have been reading up on it, and have purchased a few add-ons so far. First of all, my specs:

• i7-920 @ 3.2ghz
• 6GB DDR3 1600 mhz ram
• ATI 4870 w/10.2 Catalysts
• Win7-64 Home Premium
• X-Fi audio
• X52 Flight controller (no pedals yet)
• TrackIR 4 Pro

FSX is at SP2 with the following:

• REX 2.0
• GEX 1.09
• FSGenesis terrain meshes
• 1920x1080, AA/AF on

I'm trying to get FSX to look as purty as possible. What other mods are must-haves? Some I have mind, but have questions on:Flight Environment X -- will this overlap or be redundant to REX 2.0?Ultimate Terrain X -- will this cause any issues with Ground Environment X? I'm not really sure how to make sense out of all the mods. Some seem to be the same as others, and I'm not sure if that will cause big problems in the sim or not. How do you guys tell which ones will work with the others you already have. Given that most of the good ones are $25 and up, I don't want to purchase anything without knowing for sure. Any other mods, or tweaks you can recommend would be welcome. I'm also having a problem. In the Lessons with Rob Machado, I'm not able to get them to function properly. In lesson 3, climbs & descents, it says "Rob is flying" -- but he never really seems to take over the plane. I can't control it either (except for the throttle, which I can), and the gauges don't match up to what he's saying. The lesson pretty much starts out with him at a 10degree climb and it just stays on that thru the lesson. He'll get to a certain point in his speech, and then he just stops talking, the plane keeps climbing, and then nothing happens. He'll say he's in straight & level flight, yet it's still climbinb. The airspeed gauges never match either. I tried setting the X52 throttle to zero, and when I do the A.I. throttle seems to kick in, but nothing else changes from what I described above. A similar issue happens in lesson 4, it goes so far, then just quits and leaves you flying under a broken A.I. control. Is it possible that REX is interfering with the lesson? Thanks

Welcome to the money pit :( !First, check out the upgrade for GEX, which will bring your version up to 1.09...definately worth the download with improved visuals and other goodies.Next, FEX would be redundant to REX 2.0, so you don't need to go there...REX is terrific.Then, UTX won't interfere at all with GEX and would add improved visuals associated with roads, railroads, coastlines, specialized urban landclass, and other visual improvements.Many here at AVSIM (and probably beyond!) run FSX with the REX-GEX-UTX combination with no problems, and the result is a vast improvement over the default scenery. On my list to add to this combo is FTX NA Blue, which looks completely awesome (and FTX scenery for Australia is a benchmark accomplishment). There are numerous addon airports made by such talented vendors as FS Dreamteam, FlyTampa, and Bill Womack that are worth a look. And the list goes on. Others will soon chime in with their favorites.I'm afraid I can't help with your problem regarding the flight lessons...I haven't checked those out much. Good luck!

Welcome to the money pit :( !

You're not kidding! This $18 sim (FSX cost at Amazon) has turned into about $300 so far, lol.

First, check out the upgrade for GEX, which will bring your version up to 1.09...definately worth the download with improved visuals and other goodies.

Oops, that was a typo. I do have 1.09 actually. I just corrected it in the OP.

Next, FEX would be redundant to REX 2.0, so you don't need to go there...REX is terrific.

Ahh, thanks. Good to know.

Then, UTX won't interfere at all with GEX and would add improved visuals associated with roads, railroads, coastlines, specialized urban landclass, and other visual improvements. Many here at AVSIM (and probably beyond!) run FSX with the REX-GEX-UTX combination with no problems, and the result is a vast improvement over the default scenery.

Excellent, REX-GEX-UTX it is, then!

On my list to add to this combo is FTX NA Blue, which looks completely awesome (and FTX scenery for Australia is a benchmark accomplishment). There are numerous addon airports made by such talented vendors as FS Dreamteam, FlyTampa, and Bill Womack that are worth a look. And the list goes on. Others will soon chime in with their favorites.

Ah, I checked that out, it does indeed look awesome. Thanks for the heads up!

I'm afraid I can't help with your problem regarding the flight lessons...I haven't checked those out much. Good luck!

No problem. You were more than helpful, and I appreciate it.

Welcome to the money pit :( !First, check out the upgrade for GEX, which will bring your version up to 1.09...definately worth the download with improved visuals and other goodies.Next, FEX would be redundant to REX 2.0, so you don't need to go there...REX is terrific.Then, UTX won't interfere at all with GEX and would add improved visuals associated with roads, railroads, coastlines, specialized urban landclass, and other visual improvements.Many here at AVSIM (and probably beyond!) run FSX with the REX-GEX-UTX combination with no problems, and the result is a vast improvement over the default scenery. On my list to add to this combo is FTX NA Blue, which looks completely awesome (and FTX scenery for Australia is a benchmark accomplishment). There are numerous addon airports made by such talented vendors as FS Dreamteam, FlyTampa, and Bill Womack that are worth a look. And the list goes on. Others will soon chime in with their favorites.I'm afraid I can't help with your problem regarding the flight lessons...I haven't checked those out much. Good luck!

Thought not a newbi I have recently ventured into upgrading my FSX since I bought a high end i7 920 computer at Christmas. I have actually had some issues with these sceneries. I had one combination, installed UTX, GEX 1.09, then FTX-PN and when I installed GEX it asked if I wanted to remove the UTX files for that area, I thought that would be the case. I ended up with a whole bunch of land class in my oceans, so I restored the UTX files.I also have had a similar issue with FTX-PN and all I did to fix the issue was use the configure module to reinstall the scenery and the problem went away.What occured to me was that there is need of a tuturial that explains where the new bgls, agns and textures are placed by which program and clarification on how they all work together, which layers to be ahead in scenery library priority and such. I have to say its darn complicated to mix several of them together, for example:Here is the suite of scenery I would recommend. But, about all this combination of sceneries I do not have a clear understanding on how these all work together without overriding each other. I was going to post this question on on the Flight1 forums to see what other might be doing to keep it all straight.ORBX FTX- AU - Red, Blue, Green, Gold FTX Blue - PNUTX - Can v1.16, US v1.3.1, EUR v1.2.0, AK v1GEX 1.09 - CAN, USGEX EUR v1.02REX v2And if you want to have the pacific north west (CAN/USA) in top formTongass Fjords XVancouver Plus + XVictoria XGlacier Bay v2Each of these as there own configuration module, now you tell me how the heck do all these work together? Some I know area separate smaller areas and likely do not impact the world and other broader textures but I don't believe that they are are fully compatible. GEX

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bwallis, thanks for your post. Your thoughts mirror mine, in terms of making these things work together without having roads cut through football fields, or an oak tree in the middle of the Vegas strip :)The idea of having an install tutorial is a great one. I would love to see such a thing, and would even write one myself eventually, if I can get all this sorted out. This leads me to another question about REX 2.0. When I first ran it, it went through quite a lengthy process of 'readying' files for the sim before it finally launched. I remember seeing a warning saying that changing any settings under Display in FSX would make high-res cloud textures drop back to 1MB. Anything to this? Also, under what circumstances would you need to have REX re-index, or whatever it was doing?Let's say I had REX-GEX-UTX all freshly downloaded and not installed. What order would you recommend installing them in, if it matters?edit: ryan, thanks for the links!

I'm seeing something odd in the scenery. I should probably just ignore it and fly, but stuff like this bugs me. Roads will pass right through certain scenery types, like say a baseball field, a walking track, etc. Is that just the way it is with FSX and you live with it? or is my FSX build messed up? I tried reinstalling, and this even happens in the default scenery.

I'm seeing something odd in the scenery. I should probably just ignore it and fly, but stuff like this bugs me. Roads will pass right through certain scenery types, like say a baseball field, a walking track, etc. Is that just the way it is with FSX and you live with it? or is my FSX build messed up? I tried reinstalling, and this even happens in the default scenery.

We all have to live with it. Unless you use photorealistic scenery.

We all have to live with it. Unless you use photorealistic scenery.

Thanks. I just wanted to be sure something wasn't messed up on my end. If that's just the way it is, I'll adapt. :)