Friends,I am right now paused in flight near the Cascades Locks in PNW flying over the river. It is so fantastic, that I just HAD to come here to post a couple of things, in hope that others could have the beauty that is now FSX, and so absolutely faithful to the 'look' of the real world.This last week, I added the latest Bojote tweaks as I have posted in my 'Bojote's High Octane' thread which has turned FSX into a stable and smooth affair.Truly what for me has to be the best add-on (for the total UMBRELLA OVERVIEW real-world look of FSX), and I'm not talking about scenery packages...I nominate as the following, that makes ANYTHING and EVERYTHING look photo-realistic, and dynamically alive:it is the ENBSeries bloom effect through D3D.dll/ini.cfg combo. This program/reworked tweak, is the UMBRELLA to make everything else, custom or standard look at its best!This is beyond scenery of any kind, this app which on my rendition is in the 'on' position as FSX initializes...creates a world with those so vital visual subtleties (sparkle on the water where the sun touches it, shadows upon the landscape, deep vibrant colors (oh wow.....) that no longer are cartoonish in nature, sun-gleam on metal surfaces, yet where it should be, whether on the instrument panel, wing struts, whatever, YET NOT EFFECTING any other component of the scenery if there should be no sun or bright light source upon that surface. One more thing,...it seems that there are different packages of the enbseries out there. Some come just a Zip or RAR file, and some like the one I am using, came as a set-up exe. After my setup, I noted that I have at least three or four different D3D.dll's in my FSX root folder. I wonder if this package has been enhanced. Here is the package that I am using attached to this post I hope!As I am going along and flying over the river, these changing subtleties is what makes for a most believable virtual world, to my eyes. I'd say that this app places DYNAMIC visual elements into the representation. I would not have believed how important these 'little things' that add up to quite a big one mattered in the suspension of disbelief to where you believe that that mountain-side is real, the water below, is real, the wave action also...real, has been made alive with this bloom.effect. I find that it takes absolutely NOT ONE FPS from my FSX op's. Not one. I keep pounding out the 30 FPS (via the Limiter software) with it doing its thing.Here is the download: This is the one I have on my system:http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HXT37WBMI wanted to share my enbseries ini.file so possibly you can see the same world that I am, with this GEM of a gem in place and operating. Cheers!---------------------------------------------------[PROXY]EnableProxyLibrary=0InitProxyFunctions=1ProxyLibrary=[GLOBAL]UseEffect=1AlternativeDepth=1AllowAntialias=0BugFixMode=0SkipShaderOptimization=0QuadVertexBuffer=0EnableShaders_3_0=1AdditionalConfigFile=enbseries2.ini[EFFECT]EnableBloom=1EnableOcclusion=0EnableReflection=0EnableMotionBlur=0EnableWater=0EnableShadow=1DepthBias=1EnableDepthOfField=0[iNPUT]KeyUseEffect=123KeyBloom=120KeyOcclusion=121KeyReflection=122KeyCombination=16KeyShadow=119KeyWater=118KeyScreenshot=44KeyShowFPS=106[REFLECTION]ReflectionPower=60ChromePower=60UseCurrentFrameReflection=1ReflectionQuality=1ReflectionSourceSpecular=50ReflectionSourceTFactor=50UseAdditiveReflection=1ReflectionDepthBias=0UseLowResReflection=1ReflectionSinglePass=1UseEnvBump=0EnvBumpAmount=100EnvBumpOffset=100ReflectionFlip=0[bLOOM]BloomPowerDay=18BloomFadeTime=600BloomConstantDay=3BloomQuality=0BloomScreenLevelDay=50BloomCurveDay=7BloomPowerNight=2BloomConstantNight=0 BloomCurveNight=9BloomScreenLevelNight=12BloomAdaptationScreenLevel=80BloomAdaptationMultiplier=45BloomAllowOversaturation=1BloomMaxLimit=57[sSAO]UseFilter=1OcclusionQuality=2FilterQuality=1DarkeningLevel=15BrighteningLevel=20 IlluminationLevel=20 AdditiveIlluminationLevel=18UseAmbientOcclusion=1UseIndirectLighting=1FadeDistance=50UseForAlphaTest=0UseForAlphaBlend=0[colorCORRECTION]DarkeningAmountDay=33ScreenLevelDay=60ScreenLevelNight=14DarkeningAmountNight=-10GammaCurveDay=-2GammaCurveNight=6ColorSaturationDay=2ColorSaturationNight=-1UsePaletteTexture=0[WATER]UseWaterDeep=0WaterDeepness=20WaterQuality=0[sHADOW]ShadowFadeStart=40ShadowFadeEnd=80ShadowAmountDay=50ShadowAmountNight=40ShadowScreenLevelDay=40ShadowScreenLevelNight=30ShadowQuality=1UseShadowFilter=0FilterQuality=2ShadowBlurRange=30[ENGINE]ForceAnisotropicFiltering=1MaxAnisotropy=16ForceDisplayRefreshRate=0DisplayRefreshRateHz=60[MOTIONBLUR]MotionBlurQuality=0MotionBlurVelocity=0MotionBlurRotation=0[PERPIXELLIGHTING]SpecularColorMin=0SpecularColorMax=100SpecularColorMultiplier=100SpecularGlossinessMin=0SpecularGlossinessMax=100SpecularGlossinessMultiplier=100[DEPTHOFFIELD]DOFQuality=2DOFNumberOfPasses=1DOFFocusRange=50DOFBlurinessRange=10

Hey Mitch! great post.By the way, have you tried to disable shaderoptimization on the enbseries.ini file with a reduced bloom_power setting? I think you are in for shock ;)

Hey Mitch! great post.By the way, have you tried to disable shaderoptimization on the enbseries.ini file with a reduced bloom_power setting? I think you are in for shock ;)

Hi *******,No, I had not touched that. Can you please explain why I would want to...and what effect it would create? I'm always ready to 'learn'! :( As stated in this post...it was THIS program that tied everything into sheer bliss. What it does for my custom scenery such as PNW, and for my custom airplanes...man-oh-man...I'm in FSX heaven!Mitch

Hi *******,No, I had not touched that. Can you please explain why I would want to...and what effect it would create? I'm always ready to 'learn'! :( As stated in this post...it was THIS program that tied everything into sheer bliss. What it does for my custom scenery such as PNW, and for my custom airplanes...man-oh-man...I'm in FSX heaven!Mitch

When you disable the 'optimizations' (which, by the way doesn't impact performance at all) the 'bloom' effect seems to be much more 'realistic' you even you have turn in down in the 'BloomPower' (right now it is 100%) so when you disable optimizations you need to set it to something like 30% or 40% this is (I guess) more about preference. At least, I like how it looks without the optimization. (it also depends if you have changed your monitor BrightNess/Contrast setting)

I have to agree that the effect is fantastic. I couldn't use it with my second monitor installed. After ditching the second monitor and applying *******' suggestions, I loaded ENB again. I had a fantastic flight tooling around PNW with ASA in the Quest Kodiak pushing 35-45 FPS with the external limiter. It was nothing short of spectacular. To me, it looks like that second monitor is what has been holding me back aff of these months.*******,Do you know anything about sound? I have been having sound problems with some packages. I think it is mostly with some that were made for FS9. It seems like they are not playing nice with the FSX sound cones. I get a lot of what sounds like phasing when I move my head around in the sim. It isn't subtle either; the sound is very prominent and annoying. I have noticed this the most with CLS sounds but I have a few TSS packages that are doing the same thing. Others don't do it at all like the QW757 sounds. I am running the default sound, CD quality but I have experienced the same thing with a pci sound car and onboard sound with sowndmax drivers. I have tried all of the different quality settings in Windows.Sorry for the hijack Seshquash.

Sorry for the hijack Seshquash.

I think sound was the single most common problem I had on my setup until I removed the evil Sound Blaster X-Fi card and started using On-board sound with NO EFFECTS or Acceleration of any kind.. it was day/night, and 12 months after, not a single problem.. I have an Asus P6T v2 MOBO.as for 'other' kind of problems.. sorry :( don't know much about sound in FSX.. probably the only thing I know is that SOUND_LOD=1 makes use of 'simple' AI sounds, and SOUND_LOD=0 uses the one included with the AI aircraft... thats pretty much it! ;)

I think sound was the single most common problem I had on my setup until I removed the evil Sound Blaster X-Fi card and started using On-board sound with NO EFFECTS or Acceleration of any kind.. it was day/night, and 12 months after, not a single problem.. I have an Asus P6T v2 MOBO.

Funny you should mention it. I was having really bad sound problems, tried all kinds of different buffer pool settings, sound settings, and about everything else in the book, but it wasn't until I installed a Sound Blaster X-Fi and got rid of the SoundMax card my Asus board came with that I finally got rid of my sound issues. For me the new card was the fix, although maybe my SoundMax card was bad.

Funny you should mention it. I was having really bad sound problems, tried all kinds of different buffer pool settings, sound settings, and about everything else in the book, but it wasn't until I installed a Sound Blaster X-Fi and got rid of the SoundMax card my Asus board came with that I finally got rid of my sound issues. For me the new card was the fix, although maybe my SoundMax card was bad.

you gotta love hardware :) as long as it works for you.. great!

I wanted to share my enbseries ini.file so possibly you can see the same world that I am, with this GEM of a gem in place and operating.

Hm, your settings are totally different than mine...! I have a LOT more bloom and EnableShadow=0 for instance. I will give your settings a try and see if it can get even better than it already is... :(

I have to agree that the effect is fantastic. I couldn't use it with my second monitor installed.

Hmm. I have 2 monitors and it works just fine for me. I use the second monitor for 3rd party apps, like PLan-G etc.I DO notice, however, if I drag a panel item, like GPS or Comm Stack over to the second monitor that it seems to disable the ENB Mod.Vic

Hi,I'm running a triple monitor setup with TH2Go and have no problems runnning ENB.

Hm, your settings are totally different than mine...! I have a LOT more bloom and EnableShadow=0 for instance. I will give your settings a try and see if it can get even better than it already is... :(

-------------------------------------------------------Perhaps we could start a BLOOM INIT thread, where everybody posts their personal pref's. It is nothing then to just copy the init, throw it into the mix and see how it renders FSX. That would be sorta fun! Sort of like your favorite bread recipe...ah..er...that's 'best since sliced bread' ENBSeries recipe. (smile) Well..I started it off, everybody has mine....any takers? :) If you don't like it, just reintroduce your saved (you did save a copy, didn't you?!?) original back into the root folder.MitchHeck...use this thread, for it's already here!

I think sound was the single most common problem I had on my setup until I removed the evil Sound Blaster X-Fi card and started using On-board sound with NO EFFECTS or Acceleration of any kind.. it was day/night, and 12 months after, not a single problem.. I have an Asus P6T v2 MOBO.as for 'other' kind of problems.. sorry :( don't know much about sound in FSX.. probably the only thing I know is that SOUND_LOD=1 makes use of 'simple' AI sounds, and SOUND_LOD=0 uses the one included with the AI aircraft... thats pretty much it! ;)

*******, I have the X-fi external USB and not having any issues, unless they are slowing things down. What problems were you having?Bob G

*******, I have the X-fi external USB and not having any issues, unless they are slowing things down. What problems were you having?Bob G

Hijack. What's this to do with ENBSeries or its init.file?

Thanks for this post. I keep seeing so many kudos for the ENBSeries plugin that I've got to give it another try. I attempted it several times before, and never had any luck until someone pointed out that it doesn't work with dual monitors in full-screen mode. Once I figured that out, I was at least able to get it working, I just never got it tweaked the way I liked. Tonight, I'll give 'er another go with the suggested ini settings.By the way, if you run dual monitors in Win7, it's super easy to disable one to use this plugin. Just hold down the Windows key and press P to cycle through the various monitor options until you find the one that enables only your main monitor. When you're done flying, toggle back to dual view again.