Feels good to be back!It's been years since I last "flightsimmed". Stopped sometime after FS X came out. In the FS 2004 days I had a list of must haves - ActiveSky, Ground Environment, various Flight1 addons, PMDG 747, Leveld 767 etc.Just dusted my CH yoke and pedals and I'm in the process of hooking them up and in installing FSX (or should I stick to FS 2004).Would appreciate your input on the current "must have" patches, addons and improvements. In the last 20 mins I have found PMDG 737 NGX :)I particular I'm looking for -Weather addonLandclass, ground texturesWater textures and Sky / CloudsLightsATC chatterFramerate inmprovementsCheers,Keith

Welcome back Keith! Frame rate improvement: http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.htmlSmoothness: External Frame rate limiterWater/clouds/weather/textures: REX2Terrain shadowing: ShadeBloom/HDR: EnbseriesWeather: FSRealWXliteWater: FS Water ConfiguratorAirplane sounds: A2A Accu FeelFlight planning: Plan GCamera shake: EZdokFlight recording: FS RecorderHead tracking: TrackIRGround textures: GEXScenery: Anything by OrbxPlanes: A2A, RealAir Simulations, Lotus Simulations, Milviz, PMDGSee my sig for system specs. A Sandy Bridge Core i5 or better will run FSX at reasonable performance.FSX looks a bit dated alongside AeroflyFS but eye candy aside, there is still no Flight Sim with as many features as FSX.Cheers,Noel.

Welcome back Keith!Frame rate improvement: http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.htmlSmoothness: External Frame rate limiterWater/clouds/weather/textures: REX2Terrain shadowing: ShadeBloom/HDR: EnbseriesWeather: FSRealWXliteWater: FS Water ConfiguratorAirplane sounds: A2A Accu FeelFlight planning: Plan GCamera shake: EZdokFlight recording: FS RecorderHead tracking: TrackIRGround textures: GEXScenery: Anything by OrbxPlanes: A2A, RealAir Simulations, Lotus Simulations, Milviz, PMDGSee my sig for system specs. A Sandy Bridge Core i5 or better will run FSX at reasonable performance.FSX looks a bit dated alongside AeroflyFS but eye candy aside, there is still no Flight Sim with as many features as FSX.Cheers,Noel.

Wow! That looks likes a pretty comprehensive list. Thanks a lot mate.

Hi Keith, and welcome to the forums!Everyone's list of must haves are certainly subjective - for me, below is what I have and they have transformed FSX into one heck of a beautiful sim for me:FS Genesis MeshUTX USAGEX NAREX2 with OverdriveNote: REX is soon to release their huge update - Essentials - pretty much a whole new program, free for registered REX users.You may also want to list your system specs. If you system is very dated, you might be better off sticking with FS9.Whilst FSX is 6 years old, it can still bring any system to it's knees, if not set up properly or trying to run with too heavy graphics. It also is very much cpu hungry.If you have a Nvidia video card, you can use Nvidia Inspector to set up a profile for FSX that really helps, see here for NickN's advice on this - he is pretty much the guru on setting up a video card for use with FSX:http://www.simforums...topic36586.htmlAlso, see this thread by the same gentleman, regarding tips on installing and tuning FSX:http://www.simforums...topic29041.htmlAnd being new here, take some time and read up on the forum, I have learned many tips by just reading up on what others have posted.Best of luck, and have fun!

Hi Keith, and welcome to the forums!Everyone's list of must haves are certainly subjective - for me, below is what I have and they have transformed FSX into one heck of a beautiful sim for me:FS Genesis MeshUTX USAGEX NAREX2 with OverdriveNote: REX is soon to release their huge update - Essentials - pretty much a whole new program, free for registered REX users.You may also want to list your system specs. If you system is very dated, you might be better off sticking with FS9.Whilst FSX is 6 years old, it can still bring any system to it's knees, if not set up properly or trying to run with too heavy graphics. It also is very much cpu hungry.If you have a Nvidia video card, you can use Nvidia Inspector to set up a profile for FSX that really helps, see here for NickN's advice on this - he is pretty much the guru on setting up a video card for use with FSX:http://www.simforums...topic36586.htmlAlso, see this thread by the same gentleman, regarding tips on installing and tuning FSX:http://www.simforums...topic29041.htmlAnd being new here, take some time and read up on the forum, I have learned many tips by just reading up on what others have posted.Best of luck, and have fun!

Thanks for those links. Yeah I do run a dated system (was state of the art in FS2004 days ;) ). Its an Intel Quad core, with nVidia 8800GTS. Will have a play around with FSX and see how it goes.

If you can overclock your CPU to 3GHz+ , it may actually work OK.Keep traffic at zero, shadows at zero, fix fps=24, and work your way up from there.If you have the $$ and your CPU can reach 3.2, a GTX460 might be a good upgrade.My system [email protected], GTX460 1GB, 4 GB RAM... works nicely, fps fixed at 30 with low traffic settings (freeway traffic=0).

You are very welcome Keith, be sure and let us know how you make out with FSX!