Feel your pain Arjen, but like so many others you are expecting too much from a seven year old software.

 

FSX is like a nice sedan. It will take you from A to B with little trouble if you take good care of it, but like all cars there are some snags here and there. Then there are those who aren't satisfied with a regular sedan. They pimp and tune the heck out of it and take it to the race track. Nedless to say, racing puts that sedan through its paces and you'll soon be spending more time in the pits fixing it than driving.

Sorry to hear you are having problems. It looks like to me you did not go into FTX Central and return the scenery to the default before deleting the Orbx scenery. So your default scenery is no longer loading as you still had the Orbx scenery enabled. This is why you have a black world. Maybe reinstalling the Orbx scenery so you can get FTX Central back might solve things. My recommendation would be to stick the FSX Deluxe disk in your drive, select the Repair Option. Run FSX. Close it after running it. Now insert your Acceleration disk and select repair (or just let it install). If you saved your working scenery.cfg, you should be able to place that back into that folder and most of your addon scenery will be there. However, scenery like FSDT will all need to be reinstalled and anything else that requires a registration number.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

Jim

I had a link on how to uninstall Orbx on their forums, but the link no longer works, you might want to check over there. I never did figure out what possesed them to not include an uninstaller, so I dont have any or their products now

I can elaborate later...too sick to continue posting today...bad flu and I'm worn out. But I see also another poster talks about a similar thing to me ...doing backups and having base program.

 

I do not use the base program to test, ever....it stays clean so I always have a default.

 

I know the user manuals are completely absent on how to uninstall which is something they should address in their manual in my opinion. Orbx folks have dealt with the uninstall issue in their forums, its on their website somewhere. I could explain but they should advise on their own products. If you can't find answer maybe later when I feel better I will type up something.

 

Surprisingly, there have never been any ORBX entries in Add/Remove programs (not sure if it's normal?), so I deleted the scenery via the ORBX folder. I just reloaded FSX and BAM! the whole world is black. Will I take a few days off my valuable time to reinstall all this? Not this time, cuz this was the straw that broke the camels back. I'm absolutely fed up with this game now, IT NEVER WORKS!

 

Forum posts like this continue to further solidify the slow death of flight simulation.

I disagree, Ben. FSX is in the blood... Can't take it out. I've found it's possible to walk away for a period of time but something always brings you back to it.

Wow, these stories are terrible. I am still using Vista 64, Q9650 Core 2 Quad, GTX280, and just don't have these issues at all. These stories help me postpone upgrading. I think I need to be thankful for what's working.

I disagree, Ben. FSX is in the blood... Can't take it out. I've found it's possible to walk away for a period of time but something always brings you back to it.

 

Because it's the only sim with everything (addons) we want or almost everything we want as of now, give XP-10 64-bit another year or two and I'm pretty sure we will see a slow but steady migration to it from FSX users, me first, I have not spent any money on FSX addons for almost a year, I'm piling up for XP-10 addons, 10.20 just need to be stable for 3PD to join the party.

 

FSX is dead in the water as far as improvements, as far as P3D they will never be able to re-write the code to make it a "WOW' sim. AND it is still a 32-bit, there is a reason why a big 3PD is pushing a lots of addons out the door right now and is showing what's to come.

 

Is XP-10 perfrct...hell no but what is, FSX?

 

Look at this vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k5lVIhGk2Ws

 

I'm just waiting (as 3PD are also) for a stable XP-10 64-bit.

Hm, first XPlane post in the thread.

 

give XP-10 64-bit another year or two and I'm pretty sure we will see a slow but steady migration to it from FSX users

 

Sure, why not? It's only 20 years old right now, first released for the Mac in 1993. Another year or two should make a considerable difference. Considering what I was reading about XPlane a year ago, maybe you're right.

 

as far as P3D they will never be able to re-write the code to make it a "WOW' sim

 

I've seen some pretty darn good aircraft, and as for Orbx scenery, I can't figure out how they made FSX look that good. Plenty of WOW factor there already. I guess eventually developers will migrate over to XPlane.

 

Should be nice to break the 4 gig barrier, for those who like to load up their installs with addons.

 

Hook

Before I give the OP some advice, let me address this idea that "FSX is dead." NO WAY!

 

ORBX Global, ORBX Regions, many payware airports and did I mention new airplanes in development. IMO there's simply nothing out there that can take the place of FSX. I can only assume that with a faster CPU it's only going to get smoother and look even better.

 

Even though FSX can sometimes be plagued with CTDs and OOM errors, developers are helping users by working within FSX's limitations, and I must say "they have done an amazing job." ORBX, FlyTampa, FSDT, Simwings, and many more devs are demonstrating that FSX can look great and perform great if you have the computer to run it.

 

Now let me try to help Arjen.

 

Sometimes all it takes is a reformat, OS installation, new video driver, and re-installation of FSX Acceleration to see that the platform is solid. Choose airports and airplanes carefully. Always have a full backup,just in case you want to go back to the initial installation. I've been through hell with FSX and have wanted to give up too, but I hung in there every time I fly in the ORBX world, or to a new airport, I still manage to go WOW!

 

DON'T GIVE UP! Enjoy FSX.

Hm, first XPlane post in the thread.

 

 

 

Sure, why not? It's only 20 years old right now, first released for the Mac in 1993. Another year or two should make a considerable difference. Considering what I was reading about XPlane a year ago, maybe you're right.

 

 

 

I've seen some pretty darn good aircraft, and as for Orbx scenery, I can't figure out how they made FSX look that good. Plenty of WOW factor there already. I guess eventually developers will migrate over to XPlane.

 

Should be nice to break the 4 gig barrier, for those who like to load up their installs with addons.

 

Hook

 

LOL, no not XP post, just a point made, nothing wrong with Orbx scenery or plane from other developers but they are still limited with the 32-bit, FSX is dead as far as big improvements engine wise, agreed that XP is not new but a lot as been done with the 10 version, it just need some polishing and 3PD developers, I honestly think we will be surprised....time will tell.

 

Before I give the OP some advice, let me address this idea that "FSX is dead." NO WAY!

 

ORBX Global, ORBX Regions, many payware airports and did I mention new airplanes in development. IMO there's simply nothing out there that can take the place of FSX. I can only assume that with a faster CPU it's only going to get smoother and look even better.

 

Even though FSX can sometimes be plagued with CTDs and OOM errors, developers are helping users by working within FSX's limitations, and I must say "they have done an amazing job." ORBX, FlyTampa, FSDT, Simwings, and many more devs are demonstrating that FSX can look great and perform great if you have the computer to run it.

 

Now let me try to help Arjen.

 

Sometimes all it takes is a reformat, OS installation, new video driver, and re-installation of FSX Acceleration to see that the platform is solid. Choose airports and airplanes carefully. Always have a full backup,just in case you want to go back to the initial installation. I've been through hell with FSX and have wanted to give up too, but I hung in there every time I fly in the ORBX world, or to a new airport, I still manage to go WOW!

 

DON'T GIVE UP! Enjoy FSX.

 

Engine wise it is, you can always put lipstick on a cow but it's still a cow under the lipstick.

Nothing is perfect, especially software. Flight simulation is a kind of very complicated software, so don't expect it (FSX, X-plane) to work perfectly.

 

Do a fresh Windows install, a fresh FSX install, no tweak, less non-necessary addons, lower the sliders, and make sure your hardware is ok, then everything should be fine. I've been dealing with problem of FSX several times, and I found this principle works pretty well.

I think most experienced or long time simmers can relate. However, it does seem to me that you have been going about things in a manner that results in painful experiences. For instance there have never been any orbx uninstall entries in the add/remove software control panel.

 

While I have had some tweaking issues that caused some loss of time...this sim is nothing like the racing games which are totally confined in space. This sim tries to recapture complex real world environments.

 

I always recommend:

 

* - have a dedicated FSX HD

 

1. do a base install of FSX and keep that on another drive in a safe place. This allows you do fix issues simply, compare new addons effects to base programs files and a slew of other helpful things.

2. maintain another install of FSX and use a registry utility to link it properly so that your computer doesn't know about the base copy I mention above.

3. Take your everyday FSX and make a complete clone or backup of it on a regular basis so that should anything happen to your everyday FSX you can easily restore all or parts of it from that backup.

4. Never be in a hurry to chase down the most recent tweaks and such unless you know what your doing. Always backup your terrain.cfg, scenery.cfg, fsx.cfg. I have about 10 saves of each, with each folder containing a txt file explaining what that particular backup was for.

5. Always, only install one bloody thing at at time, test it, be sure its working before moving on to another.

6. Use the forums, research, read old posts, learn the art of what works and doesn't work. Build up knowledge over time.

 

If my FSX blows up tomorrow, system "C" drive fails, I can be up and running again with everything working in a day. Which by the way it did last year. Never missed a beat.

 

I have over 500 scenery layers, 100s of aircraft, terabytes of data in my sim. It purrs.

 

Wow, that's a lot of trouble to go through for a game or hobby. IMO. I'm a pilot and i certainly love Flight Sims and go back and forth between X-Plane on a mac and FSX in Windows. I guess I've been lucky, other than the post I made earlier about one new model I just installed.

 

I admire your dedication.

Wow, that's a lot of trouble to go through for a game or hobby.

 

Compared to not doing your due diligence w/ actions such as this it's actually a lot less trouble than that alternative! I get a little lazy on cloning, but it's a great practice. Knocking on wood hard now, it's been years since I've had to reformat and start over.

Engine wise it is, you can always put lipstick on a cow but it's still a cow under the lipstick.

 

When XP10 has all the capability that FSX has now let me know!

 

FS2Crew

 

RAAS

 

GSX or AES

 

AI not limited to 2 planes and by real world schedules

 

A more realistic ATC system like RC4, or the best I've seen yet PFE (Don't count on it from Austin, because as far as he's concerned, the current XP10 ATC system "Rocks" (Source AVSIM's teamspeak conference)

 

Voice recognition like MCE (or FS2Crew)

 

Accurate weather depiction like Active Sky or OPUS

 

Camera and effect systems like EZDOK or A2A Accufeel

 

Until then I'll just keep enjoying flight sim experiences like this