As the title says.

 

Is GEX (Europe) a big improvement and worth the money?

 

 

Nathan

No, I don´t like it, wrong colors, airport grass/area is a joke and the endless carpet tiles/jigsaw puzzle looks awful, highly overrated IMO.

So whats better than GEX for Europe - excluding the photo-sceneries? Nothing comes to my mind. I'm quite happy with GEX, especially combined with UTX (great night lights!).

Nothing better, wait for ORBX expanding to Europe, that will be a party!

 

:Party:

GEX is not perfect, but it does what it says on the tin and is not bad for the money. Like GEX, UT Europe is okay as a one stop shop too. Both make a reasonale improvement over the default FSX. UT has a lot of customising options and some great night lighting effects too, and is a bit cheaper than GEX, so you might want to look at that. you can get em both at Flight1.com and there are screenshots there where you can compare them and see what floats your boat.

 

If you want to fly airliners, then FS Altitude is the probably the best choice for high altitude visual realism, although it ain't cheap, but it does work with layers, so you can combine it with photorealistic terrain:

 

http://www.fsaltitude.com/we.htm

 

If you want to go lower, then probably photorealistic would be better, but it might get pricey when buying a lot of stuff. Earth Simulations do a lot of decent autogen for UK photorealistic terrains which make things pretty convincing, although that is only over the UK.

 

Orbx are apparently doing some European scenery, although like other Orbx sceneries, they will be an 'impression' of what the place looks like rather than a photorealistic representation of the real locales, so that will suit some, and not suit others, although to be fair, that is basically what GEX and UT also do, albeit not in as pretty a way.

 

Al

GEX is not perfect, but it does what it says on the tin and is not bad for the money. Like GEX, UT Europe is okay as a one stop shop too. Both make a reasonale improvement over the default FSX. UT has a lot of customising options and some great night lighting effects too, and is a bit cheaper than GEX, so you might want to look at that. you can get em both at Flight1.com and there are screenshots there where you can compare them and see what floats your boat.

 

If you want to fly airliners, then FS Altitude is the probably the best choice for high altitude visual realism, although it ain't cheap, but it does work with layers, so you can combine it with photorealistic terrain:

 

http://www.fsaltitude.com/we.htm

 

If you want to go lower, then probably photorealistic would be better, but it might get pricey when buying a lot of stuff. Earth Simulations do a lot of decent autogen for UK photorealistic terrains which make things pretty convincing, although that is only over the UK.

 

Orbx are apparently doing some European scenery, although like other Orbx sceneries, they will be an 'impression' of what the place looks like rather than a photorealistic representation of the real locales, so that will suit some, and not suit others, although to be fair, that is basically what GEX and UT also do, albeit not in as pretty a way.

 

Al

 

Perhaps it is something for me afterall. Im student so i dont have the economy to buy small packages of expensive scenery. On the GEX pictures you can definitely see an improvment compared to the defualt FSX scenery.

A few minutes of Googling gave this:

 

http://secure.simmarket.com/oscar-lima-golf-what-a-wonderful-world.phtml

 

http://www.simviation.com/fsx_terrainmesh.htm

 

http://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/91/fsx-scenery/

 

- haven´t looked in the Avsim Lib. - but there are plenty of other opportunities to GEX.

 

UTX is OK, but GEX? NO, no, and no - I don´t know how Nick and Anthony pulled that trick, convincing people this was "da real thing" - no it´s not, it´s terrible...

I think GEX is excellent.always liked it..a massive area for a relatively small price.given what they had to work with i think they've done a really good job.

my opinion .but that's what was asked for.definitely worth the money.also same goes for UTX.

 

steve-0

Perhaps it is something for me afterall. Im student so i dont have the economy to buy small packages of expensive scenery. On the GEX pictures you can definitely see an improvment compared to the defualt FSX scenery.

 

That´s the point, but this doesn´t demand a whole lot of effort, cause FSX default is terrible too!

 

Mind you, I appreciate the work from GEX, but it´s up hill all the way, because they work with a broken/unfinished FSX.

 

Have a look at all their threads over at Simforums, all the questions, all the nice answers "no, this issue is NOT GEX (or UTX for that matter) it´s the way FSX was made, Aces did not finish this or that" etc.

 

When you´ve read pages like that for years and years, and with the next release from them you hope it will be better, but no, no, no, they still work with that broken FSX/ESP engine, and choose the exact opposite direction as compared to ORBX, they are clever, they install their own stuff on top of FSX!

 

PS: "The nice pictures" you see on the GEX interface/material is probably made from Nick´s own monster set-up! So buyer, beware, if you have a mediocre system..

Not sure about Europe, but at least Africa-Middle East one makes especially deserts look much better, makes desert actually look like desert with dunes instead of boring flat yellow that continues forever.

 

It will take ages from ORBX to make Europe, in case that it actually happens.

 

I have also tried Fscene which is similar texture replacing product, and it was total rubbish in my opinion, made FSX look like FS9 and also as I bought only Africa pack then in other areas where same textures were used land got ugly.

That´s the point, but this doesn´t demand a whole lot of effort, cause FSX default is terrible too!

 

Mind you, I appreciate the work from GEX, but it´s up hill all the way, because they work with a broken/unfinished FSX.

 

Have a look at all their threads over at Simforums, all the questions, all the nice answers "no, this issue is NOT GEX (or UTX for that matter) it´s the way FSX was made, Aces did not finish this or that" etc.

 

When you´ve read pages like that for years and years, and with the next release from them you hope it will be better, but no, no, no, they still work with that broken FSX/ESP engine, and choose the exact opposite direction as compared to ORBX, they are clever, they install their own stuff on top of FSX!

 

PS: "The nice pictures" you see on the GEX interface/material is probably made from Nick´s own monster set-up! So buyer, beware, if you have a mediocre system..

 

Thanks for your input.

 

Since im only flying airliners i have decided to get the Western European package from FS Altitude which seems like a very nice improvment.

It puzzles me why some people seem to have such an aggressive opposition to GEX. Personally, I don't like photoscenery, because I 't think it looks terrible at the altitudes I like to fly, but I don't slag it (or the people who develop it) off. It's just not for me.

 

GEX is just one of a whole range of options from which you can select, depending on your personal preference and how/where you fly. If you mainly fly at a zilliion feet in daytime in summer (and never land or take off) , there are dozens of freeware and payware products which will do the job very well. But if you want some degree of realism right down to 500 ft and lower, then the choice is much more limited. The GEX folks have never claimed their product is anything more than an enhancement to base FSX (and a pretty good one IMO). They clearly put an immense amount of effort into developing their product, updating it (free of charge by the way), and responding to users with an honesty which I for one find refreshing, Even so, GEX will not be everyone's cup of tea. But that doesn't mean they don't deserve credit and respect for what they are doing.

 

Back under my stone. :Straight Face:

GEX, I wouldnt fly without it

GEX, I wouldnt fly without it

 

+1

I've seen so many negative posts on GEX Europe that I've been swayed not to get it. For all the naysayers....have you uninstalled it? Did it least improve FSX for you?

 

For North America, I consider it a must have (with UTX of course).