Running GEX, REX2 and UTX together

[dbp222 0]

I am new to running FSX, having used many previous versions of MS Flight Simulator over the years. I finally upgraded my computer to some hardware that I thought would handle FSX and have been enjoying alot lately. I have purchased GEX NA and REX2.0 and installed these. FSX continues to run well with both of these installed. I am now considering adding UTX to the mix to further enhance my GA experience. So my questions are ...1) Will adding UTX to my setup degrade my FPS over just running GEX and REX2? 2) Since I have already installed GEX and REX2, can I just add UTX on top of them or is there a best approach for installing all 3 together? 3) Are there any other GA enhancers, other that specific scenery sets that I should be considering to make FSX look its best?My System:I7 2600K @ 3.4GHZGTX5808 Gig RAMWin7 64bit

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

1) Will adding UTX to my setup degrade my FPS over just running GEX and REX2?

The only thing UTX can do to degrade your performance a bit is if you use the night time street lights and/or intersection lights. Be advised also that depending on which version of UTX USA you use as far as which patched version number, you may experience more of a FPS loss if you run your auto traffic at very high settings. The reason being was that after the 2nd or 3rd patch from the original release version, they fixed some problems where traffic was dropping off on the streets. As a result of the fix, it added more traffic which in turn could lower your FPS. As long as you keep the road/freeway traffic set low you shouldn't notice too much difference over default. What I did on my machine was use a pre-patch version of the road traffic files and replaced the patched version. More info on that can be found on their forum if your interested.

2) Since I have already installed GEX and REX2, can I just add UTX on top of them or is there a best approach for installing all 3 together?

When you install UTX you aren't really installing anything over the top of the other two since REX and GEX are mostly texture replacement products. However, after you install UTX you will need to re-run your GEX UI and check the options for the UTX textures to be installed. As far as REX is concerned you shouldn't have to do anything with it.Be advised though that after you install UTX, make sure it is layered properly in your scenery.cfg. I'm not sure where their installer puts it if you already have other sceneries installed in FSX, but it needs to be below your addon scenery layers. My first UTX layer starts above the "Addon Scenery" layer in my scenery.cfg.Also be sure that if your using any 3rd party landclass product for the US you layer it between the "UT Landlass - Vegetation" and "UT Landclass - Urban" entries.

3) Are there any other GA enhancers, other that specific scenery sets that I should be considering to make FSX look its best?

At this point just localized scenery packages. For example ORBX has regional areas for the upper northwest of the US, Sim Saavy offers day time photoscenery for the whole US, and there are other city photosceneries from the likes of MegaScenery (SoCal, Dallas, Phoenix, Vegas, Hawaii, Reno) and MegaSceneryEarth which is downloadable scenery. Just be aware that some of the MegaSceneryEarth stuff is not so good, while their MegaScenery city packs are pretty well done.POST EDIT: Near the bottom of this link http://www.simforums.com/forums/setting-up-fsx-and-how-to-tune-it_topic29041.html there is some great info for how to best set up UTX.

[Syd Weedon 11]

I'm running GEX, REX2 and UTX Alaska. UTX Alaska will degrade your frame rate over the city of Anchorage and to a lesser extent over Juneau. This has nothing to do with any interaction with the other products. It's just that the UTX cities put more demands on your autogen. UTX Alaska will allow you to adjust the way the buildings are handled and exclude individual cities if you like. It's a great control panel. I assume that the other UTX areas have similar controls. Out in the country and in the smaller towns, I don't notice any change in frame rate at all with UTX.

[meshman 109]

...UTX Alaska.

If I can offer a small clarification on products and naming? Ultimate Terrain X, which includes USA, Canada and Europe are related to Ultimate Alaska X. But you'll notice that Alaska in not Ultimate Terrain X Alaska, but Ultimate Alaska X. The naming difference is intentional, as the methodology between Alaska and the other areas covered by Ultimate Terrain X are similar in some aspects, but divergent in others.It's difficult to compare Alaska to the other products because UTX products take advantage of the default land class system of FSX. Ultimate Alaska X does not. If there is a city or town in Alaska it has the ability to be very detailed oriented, where building footprints mirror real life. That can impose some performance impact if the user is not careful with their display settings.I would think it's important for any user or potential user to recognize that Ultimate Terrain X and Ultimate Alaska X are different enough under the hood and that one set of settings for one area may not be best for the other area(s).

[dbp222 0]

Thanks everyone, for the very detailed responses. Very informative!