Installing and backing-up textures -- is there a protocol?

[JDWalley 354]

So far, I have standard FSX, to which, over the years, I've added FSGenesis mesh, as well as Ultimate Terrain X landclasses for North America and Europe and textures from GEX (North America) and REX Essentials + OverDrive, in that order. When I installed GEX-NA, I ran the backup program as part of the installation, and did the same for REX when I installed it later. So, if there's any overlap, I figure that the REX backup contains the previously-installed textures for GEX-NA, and the GEX-NA backup includes the default textures.

 

Now, I'm in the process of getting GEX for Europe and Asia/South America (the latter including the 1.099 upgrade for NA as well). I'm wondering if there's any order in which I need to install them? Right now, I'm thinking that I would first need to completely uninstall REX (to restore any GEX-NA textures from its backup) then add the GEX-A/SA, then GEX-Europe, running backups as part of each install, then re-install REX on top of that, in each case making sure I backup the textures that were there before. I would also need to keep a record of the order, so that, if I needed to take FSX back to default for any reason, I would need to first uninstall REX, then GEX-Europe, then GEX-A/SA, then GEX-NA, in each case restoring the backed-up files before uninstalling.

 

Is that the proper protocol to follow, or is there an easier way? I've read horror stories here about people uninstalling a scenery add-on, and winding up with black tiles or something equally screwed-up, and don't want to run the risk of this happening to me in the future should I ever need to back off one or more of the add-ons.

 

Thanks for any assistance you can give me on this.

[Jim Young 2,356]

First of all, GEX replaces your default textures. You can make a backup of the default textures. I didn't. I can always reinstall GEX should my enhanced default textures are messed up somehow. REX is a program you add to the Scenery Library (I think I'm right about this; I don't own it but have seen the entry in others Scenery Libraries). So it will take precedence over GEX (default) textures but only covering a theme or the textures you selected in REX. The program will not replace GEX/default textures as it is a stand-alone program.

 

When you get the GEX programs for Asia and Europe, they will replace the default textures for Asia and Europe. You can back the default textures up in case you don't like GEX Asia or Europe but doubt that will be the situation as I understand the GEX textures are enhanced and provide better performance. Consider it an upgrade to FSX as the FSX developers probably would have done the same thing and named it SP3 or SP4 had the FSX team not been released. Textures take up a lot of space and many people have a lot of storage space but I still don't think you'll ever want to uninstall GEX. If it gets that bad, then I suggest it would be best to simply reinstall FSX.

 

I have heard about people having black tiles or missing tiles but I certainly doubt that's from GEX OR REX. I don't see how anyone can go wrong with GEX. If something goes wrong with your textures, you simply reinstall GEX. If you had the default textures and no GEX you would have to reinstall FSX and Acceleration or SP2.

 

Again, I'm not really positive with REX and apologize for any misinformation about that but I'm certain with GEX.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Best regards,

Jim