FSX ground textures - how to make them look less like a cartoon

[axelb9 0]

Hi, In all honesty I have used FSX without problems 1-2 years ago and then I went back to FS2004 because I could not stand the looks of the ground. Now that there are some advanced aircraft on the horizon that I would really like to fly (FlightSimLabs Airbus and the Majestic Dash 8 Q400 comes in mind first) I am once again thinking about trying FSX and once again my major concern are the general color tone of the ground textures. The default looks like a cartoon and parton my heresy but GEX (especially Europe with its colourful tiny fields and light green tone) looks even more so. I would like to ask for an honest reply and recommendation on what you are using generally for airliner flights around the world but primarily for Europe. Can you make GEX using ENB and a custom greyer colour palette a bit more close to real life colours? Do you rather stick with default or something else? To give you an example from FS2004 - this is the look and color tone that I find very believable for ground textures (of course the aircraft in FS2004 are nowhere near the current FSX offering and this is the reason why I would like to come back):

I appreciate learning from your experiences. Alex

[KLM149 1]

Glad to share mine: read my cheklist HERE for a startHappy landings

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

I would like to ask for an honest reply and recommendation on what you are using generally for airliner flights around the world but primarily for Europe. Can you make GEX using ENB and a custom greyer colour palette a bit more close to real life colours? Do you rather stick with default or something else?

Yes, actually you dont even need to use a custom ENB palette to get a grayer effect.Look in the ENB ini for this section in the [colorCORRECTION] area.[colorCORRECTION]ColorSaturationDay=(-10 to 10)ColorStaturation can be changed from -10 to 10. Color saturation at the day time with negative values decreases, producing gray image. Positive values makes colorful images. If you set it at -10 it will probably be black and white, so somewhere around -1 or -2 might be what you are looking for.You could start at 0 and test it and then start reducing it to the negative side to get more of a gray look. I suppose that if you live or fly somewhere where its overcast or very cloudy and dark most of the time then something toward a negative value will probaby look better, while something at 0 or slightly positive will look better in tropical or lush areas that are not gray.Either way, whatever can be done colorwise in FS9 can certainly be be duplicated in FSX giving the fact that ENB with or without a custom color palette can be adjusted to suite your needs for whatever you believe to be 'realistic' looking be it gray or colorful.

[axelb9 0]

Janvaane: thanks, dood tips however my problem with FSX lies not in the performance but the ugly look cmpbelljsc: thanks a lot, I will try that. However one thing is the color palette the other is how the textures look from high up. All the images I have seen so far about GEX Europe show tiny fields and cottages with some more even tinier fields behind each cottage. Well most of Europe does not look like that. In Gepro there was an option to use the so called Dutch texture set for the representation of agricultural fields. They looked very good and a lot like Europe. Besides Gepro had the option to recolour the textures themselves to individual taste. Do you use GEX for Europe or rather the default? Are you satisfied with the realism of the looks? Thanks again for te good tip, Alex

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

cmpbelljsc: thanks a lot, I will try that. However one thing is the color palette the other is how the textures look from high up. All the images I have seen so far about GEX Europe show tiny fields and cottages with some more even tinier fields behind each cottage. Well most of Europe does not look like that. In Gepro there was an option to use the so called Dutch texture set for the representation of agricultural fields. They looked very good and a lot like Europe. Besides Gepro had the option to recolour the textures themselves to individual taste.

You can use that adjustment I mentioned with a palatte also or without a palette, your choice.

Do you use GEX for Europe or rather the default? Are you satisfied with the realism of the looks?

Yes, I use GEX Europe. I am satsified with it, but I am not from Europe and have never been to Europe so I can give you an honest opinion as to how realistic GEX Euro looks. I do however like GEX Europe better than the default FSX textures for Europe and they are annotated better as well.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

Edit to my post above. If your are using a custom ENB palette, you can not use the ColorSaturationDay=(-10 to 10)adjustments.The only parameters that can be used in the ColorCorrection section are ScreenLevelDay and ScreenLevelNight all of the other settings are computed from palette image, when UsePaletteTexture=1 is set.