I am interested in upgrading some of my FS9 textures, particularly the stock airport building textures and my Flight Environment clouds. I have been researching a little bit, and I am thinking about getting Zinertek's Ultimate Weather FX and Airport Environment. The Flight Environment clouds are great for fps, but they are getting old. I hope that Zinertek will be frame rate friendly as well (as is advertised on their website). I was wondering if anyone could comment on the quality of these two products (I have their Ultimate Water Advanced, and I'm highly satisfied with it). Also, is there a better product (perhaps even freeware) that enhances airport buildings and clouds?I'd appreciate any advice!

I am interested in upgrading some of my FS9 textures, particularly the stock airport building textures and my Flight Environment clouds. I have been researching a little bit, and I am thinking about getting Zinertek's Ultimate Weather FX and Airport Environment. The Flight Environment clouds are great for fps, but they are getting old. I hope that Zinertek will be frame rate friendly as well (as is advertised on their website). I was wondering if anyone could comment on the quality of these two products (I have their Ultimate Water Advanced, and I'm highly satisfied with it). Also, is there a better product (perhaps even freeware) that enhances airport buildings and clouds?I'd appreciate any advice!

Why dont you try REX 2004, very very nice textures for water, clouds, sky, and runway/taxiway textures, not sure about buildings though, it has transformed fs2004 for every user and the support there is fab!

I can suggest you water add on from them. It's called "Ultimate Water Advanced", and it's one of the best water add on for FS9, even better than REX, in my opinion. For everything else, i use REX.

IMHO the freeware HDEv2 package has much better clouds than Zinnertek, and if you want good runway/taxiway textures search flightsim.com for airland1.zip.Jim

Zinertek if nothing else has the best water depiction you can get for FS9 hands down. No other add-on comes close...

IMHO the freeware HDEv2 package has much better clouds than Zinnertek, and if you want good runway/taxiway textures search flightsim.com for airland1.zip.Jim

Would that be better than "Airport Environment" (can get from avsim probably or flightsim.com).You could try Airport Environent too...

Hi DocBrownI have four of Zinertek's products.Ultimate Weather FX, U/Water,U/airport Enhancement/U/ Night Environment2010. In order of preference for each one is as follows.I find all of these products very good. 1.The Weather FX in particular produces (IMO) terrific dawn and dusk colours, clouds etc. I have looked at REX on many occasions and have not found any reason to change from FX.2.Ultimate Water is a great improvement on the default and does look quite realistic, however it does have one small visual flaw which some may not notice, others may.3.U/Airport Enhancement and Night Environment do make subtle changes for the better to their respective sceneries and objects but I did not get a WOW factor from the changes. However, these changes are again better than the default.The FPS are not taxed too much on my dual core system, in fact when I installed each one over time I did not notice any real difference. Also from a cost point of view I think they are very reasonable value. Also the installation process is very easy.Perhaps get only one of them first and see what you think of there work.Hope this helpsAlla

Hello,

freeware HDEv2

+1Regards.GuS.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I really appreciate the feedback.I decided to use different components from different addons to create the best possible FS2004 environment for my taste. REX's too expensive right now. Although, do I get a discount if I have the FSX version? Here's my setup:1) Water textures - Zinertek's Ultimate Water Advanced (realistic setting)2) Clouds - Flight Environment clouds (after fiddling with it a little I found that FE clouds seem to be best for framerate!) I'll also try HDEv2.3) Sky textures - FS Elemental Natural Pack4) Airport building textures - I'll try airport environment and also airland1.zip5) Airport runway textures - FS Elemental Natural Pack6) Lights, moon, sun textures - FS Elemental Natural Pack7) Ground textures - Ground Env. Pro8) Precipitation - Zinertek Ultimate Weather FX (I really like the VC rain).I wish FS2004 would depict the water better during dawn/dusk when there are clouds. It just shows the regular blue color. Without clouds it has a much more realistic look to it. Are there any addons to fix that?Thanks! Doc Brown

IMHO the freeware HDEv2 package has much better clouds than Zinnertek, and if you want good runway/taxiway textures search flightsim.com for airland1.zip.Jim

The HDE clouds are better than the default but REX wins hands down. The clouds look blurred all over, whilst REX gives out those high-quality HD clouds and textures. REX crushes HDE in terms of sky textures, these make FS9 win hands down over FSX (Unless of course, REX 2.0 is installed). Dave.

What about fps with REX? Since I only have a GeForce 9600, clouds tend to kill my fps. I can put the slider all the way to the right only if I use low-quality texture clouds. Does REX have options for low-end systems? Will the clouds still look good?

I wish FS2004 would depict the water better during dawn/dusk when there are clouds. It just shows the regular blue color. Without clouds it has a much more realistic look to it. Are there any addons to fix that?

Hi Doc,The engine uses a certain texture sheet when there are clouds present, unfortunately :(

Although, do I get a discount if I have the FSX version?

Yes, $5.00 discount on checkout.

3) Sky textures - FS Elemental Natural Pack5) Airport runway textures - FS Elemental Natural Pack6) Lights, moon, sun textures - FS Elemental Natural Pack

REX licensed this material to FS Elemental, with REX you get the same quality, but MUCH more choices ;)Also, there are no other packages out there that will match the color of dawn and dusk colors on the water within FS9. In EVERY set of sky colors there are matching water colors for these times of the day. A first for FS ;)Cheers!Tim

What about fps with REX? Since I only have a GeForce 9600, clouds tend to kill my fps. I can put the slider all the way to the right only if I use low-quality texture clouds. Does REX have options for low-end systems? Will the clouds still look good?

Absolutely. That is why we offer either 32bit or DXT3 compression within the REX OPTIONS MANAGER.Hope this helps.

REX and ASE is a winner for me with FSX, but I quite like what FS Elemental on its own does to soup up FS9, especially when combined with Active Sky, which is why I use that combination for FS9. FS Elemental makes a lot of nice subtle changes and is inexpensive too, which certainly doesn't hurt. You can check out FS Elemental here: http://www.flightsimstore.com/product_info.php?products_id=928, and of course Active Sky here: http://www2.hifisim.com/ REX here: http://www.realenvironmentxtreme.com/In combination with ASE, this is what FS Elemental was making last night's flight from EGCC to LEAM look like with real world weather updates. Aside from the weather and blending to create an extremely convincing inversion layer with ASE's engine, notice the tweaks FS Elemental has made to the navigation lights on the iFly 737 for example, which is one of many improvements it does besides the sky. A lot of bang for not many bucks.Al

Here's an example of a REX sunrise.

A couple of thoughts. REX for FS2004, considering what one gets for the money, is the best value out there. And it's excellent in terms of quality, although not the only excellent choice for each given feature.After asking for opinions here I recently bought Zinertek water and airport packages, both of which I recommend highly. The airport environment is rather unique because none other payware offers an overhaul of airport building textures, not even REX. The popular freeware choice doesn't come close to this one.