Hi everyone,I have been away from FSX for over a year and a half now, after getting so disgusted and frustrated with my old system and FSX performance. I finished my first homebuilt about a year ago but had tons of problems getting it set up and tweaked. Now I am finally ready.I have kind of lost touch with FSX and any new software, and gotten a little rusty. Before i install FSX and Acceleration on this new build, other than Acceleration which I already have and which I recall also installs Service Packs one and two, is there anything new I have to install that I might have missed? Also, I am most interested in as realistic scenery as I can find for the whole world, I'd like cities, towns, rivers, etc. to be in the "right place" as well as accurate terrain mesh. On my old system I waisted a lot of money on different scenery packages that only covered small areas, but the rest of the world was the default scenery which was very generic and unrealistic, with cities,towns, and roads not accurately placed. I get a little confused with terrain mesh, landclass, textures, etc. I'd also like all seasons to be recognized. I realize there are many scenery options out there, but can anyone suggest the right ones to do it right the first time so things look like they do in the real world? By doing it right the first time I mean in my last installation I tried different scenery packages to get things as accurate as I could that often overlapped the same areas that I had already installed scenery for, and I can't afford to make too many mistakes. I have seen so many videos of FSX flights that are stunningly real and almost video quality regarding scerery areas. Everything looks just like it would from a real plane. I know some packages are available of small areas and look great, but they only cover one season and small areas. I would appreciate any advice anyone can give me. Thanks. Tom

Tom, Here are my recommendations for your basic must haves: Terrain Mesh: FSgenesis, I would get either a yearly or lifetime membershipLandclass: (Cities, Towns, Roads, Lakes, Rivers, and more): Ulimate Terrain X USA, Ultimate Terrain X Canada, Ultimate Terrain X Europe, Ultimate Alaska X, and Scenery Tech LandclassLand Textures: Ground Environment X North America, Ground Environment X EuropeEnvironment Textures: Real Environment Xtreme (REX) Also includes, weather engine and flight plannerAI Aircraft: MyTraffic X After the above if you wish to continue improving your FSX World: Orbx Products, (North American Scenery, Australian Scenery, Airports, Aircraft) simply some of the best scenery and airports available for FSXFSDreamTeam (Airports)FlyTampa (Airports)Tongass Fjords X (Alaskan Scenery)HiFi Simulations Active Sky Evolution (Weather Generation) Of course these are my must have recommendations and there are countless other addons available but you cannot go wrong with the above listed products. They will simply transform your FSX experience. Regards, Bob

Thanks for the help and advice, Bob! Bob, one of the things that confuses me is all the different Landclass options that are out there. You listed several. I have the Ultimate Terrain USA and Ground Environment USA/Canada. I also checked out the Scenery Tech Landclass after reading your post. I never had heard of that one and it looks really nice. Don't they interfere with each other since they all are Landclass products? Thanks again. Regards, Tom

Tom, No the two landclass products in this case UTX and Scenery Tech will not interfere with each other they will actually work together by "sandwhiching" the landclass together. This post at the Flight1 forums does a good job of explaining landclass and how the products work together. http://www.simforums.com/forums/landclass-and-how-it-effects-what-you-see_topic24965.html

Thanks again, Bob. I will read that over and hopefully learn something! Tom

there is no replacement for quality so get orbyx scenery all the others dream of making their scenery as good. the new pmdg 737 is not head and shoulders above the others it is miles better, any carenado a/c if you like the small stuff, my traffic does it well plus it is easy to turn off when necessary, fly tampa for well designed airports which resemble the real thing unlike some, however whether your system meets these following criteriayou really need an i7 2600 or equivalent processor, 8mb memory , at least a nvidea 260gtx preferably a 460 gtx graphics card however i wouldnt pay the excess to get the 500 series it isnt worth paying the extra, fsim works much better on a nvidea card than the others! i hope this helps

however i wouldnt pay the excess to get the 500 series it isnt worth paying the extra, fsim works much better on a nvidea card than the others! i hope this helps

HelloI have just recently returned a GTX560Ti and replaced it with a GTX570 , the difference in smoothness and texture loading/sharpness is very noticeable.The GTX570 is a price vs performance sweetspot

Thanks for all the help, guys.I have a GTX-275 overclocked to 710 Standard for me was 633.Does anyone know if when installing different Landclass products, does the order in which they are installed matter? Thanks, Tom

Tom, Before you dive into addons, make sure FSX is setup properly within your sim as well to eliminate issues in the future.... Some good reads here: http://www.simforums.com/forums/setting-up-fsx-and-how-to-tune-it_topic29041.html http://www.flight1.com/view.asp?page=vista