It's an all-in-one DX10 switcher. That's one of the advantages of buying this: it makes switching to DX10 (and back to DX9 also, to answer your last question) very easy.

 

I bought it today and before I installed it, I reinstalled the default ShadersHLSL folder, just to be sure I would be using the latest version of everything. So you can forget about that long document. However, there are a few options that might require you to have a look at the (included) manual but it's an easy read, a lot easier to follow than the guide (which served it's purporse very well, nevertheless).

 

There is only one thing that confuses me a little (or a lot, actually): FSAA. I already had it working the hard way ^_^ by reading that old guide, setting up Inspector and adding two lines to the FSX.cfg. Right now I haven't changed the option yet in the Fixer because the FSAA I am using (4xS together with 4xSGSS) isn't available in the Fixer's list...! So I am a bit unsure what to do now. I have the impression that when you enable FSAA in the Fixer, you don't have to use Inspector anymore...? It overrides those settings...? Should you even go as far as to reset the Inspector settings to er... something...?

 

I read the manual but it is totally unclear about it. Inspector isn't even mentioned which imho is an omission because 'everyone' uses it and now 'no one' really knows what to do with it.

 

I also wonder if I should keep on using 4xSGSS because it seems the cloud trick (no FSAA on those) only works without SGSS, but... 4xSGSS really helps to make FSX look good on my PC... So I don't really know what to do here...

 

Other than that: installing the Fixer was easy and the various options were mostly self explanatory. I mainly bought it so I would have the Orbx lights in FTXG at night and as a thank you to Steve (although I usually think you shouldn't buy software for that) but I was pleasantly surprised to see the rain has been fixed (although I haven't seen that in the game yet). Afaik that awful umbrella effect has been dealt with now. Being able to set the amount of bloom and some water plus rain options is nice but I left them at default. I did enable slow snow though, which is (hopefully) nice. The cloud shader sounds interesting but as I said above I have no clue if it is actually working on my PC since I use SGSS...

 

Everything else is working as it did, really... No improvement over using the free fixes. All in all it's a very pricey addon, specially when you consider the fact that I mainly bought it to fix the FTX Global lights, but somehow I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to support someone who did a lot of work on fixing things. Imho the price it totally wrong if you want 'the world' to switch to DX10 because I think only people who are really interested in DX10 will buy it: other will probably rather spend that money on a nice plane or scenery. But well, I am in the fortunate situation that I can afford this one so... I bought it.

 

BTW Apart from the software looking very simple, it also looks a bit odd because apparently fonts were used that I don't have so some text in the interface is completely missing, making it look even more 'cheaper'. I have an option called 'DX10 Compatible Lights and'. And I also have a 'Manua'.  ^_^ But well, as long as it works, I don't really care. The 'manua' looks a lot more pro than the interface btw.

 

BTW 2 I would have preferred or adviced the use of 'Disabled' instead of 'Enable'. I think it's more common to see what the setting currently IS instead of showing what a button will DO when you click it. But I may be wrong. That does happen. ^_^

 

EDIT

Did another test comparing with and without 4xSGSS and the difference is staggering. Which is a bummer because reading about better performance with that cloud trick was one of the things that made me buy the fixer... Pity. Maybe I should give the FSAA options in the Fixer a try but I first would like to know what to do with the Inspector settings...!!! (It really amazes me the manual doesn't even mention Inspector...)

 

 

Thank you very much, Jeroen. Some of your posts are better (well, more practical) than developers' readmes. 

 

Dirk.

Sorry chik - can't help you with that one. Try Paul J. He uses multi-monitors.

So Fly Tampa sceneries look perfect during the day in DX10?

 

KBOS does.

Thank you very much, Jeroen. Some of your posts are better (well, more practical) than developers' readmes. 

 

Dirk.

 

LOL Good to hear. ^_^ You're very welcome.

 

I solved my Inspector and FSAA problems in the meantime: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/421579-confused-about-the-fixer-and-inspector/

LOL Good to hear. ^_^ You're very welcome.

 

I solved my Inspector and FSAA problems in the meantime: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/421579-confused-about-the-fixer-and-inspector/

Hi there, Jeroen! Glad to hear you sorted it. With you specifically on mind, I compiled a list of my tweaks and settings - as I turn most things OFF in NVI and let FSX+DX10Fixer take over. I found I didn't need 4GSS at all. The setting is still there, but I *think* it's ignore by NVI if FXAA is disallowed and disabled.

 

My (much tweaked but still ailing) DX9/FSX now goes like a rocket in DX10 - with much higher GFX settings than before. Amazing!

 

My collection of notes and related NVI screengrabs into into one zip file here: http://www.nzfsim.org/index.php?dsp=dload&fname=dx10fixer_settings_adamski.zip

 

Adam.

Thanks, Adam. I had a look at it all but in my case the SGSS setting certainly is not irrelevant, no matter what FXAA is set to. By allowing FXAA the preview window of FSX (the main menu) is also some FSAA (although a bit low). If I set FXAA to disallow the main menu looks worse but more importantly FSX looks very bad ingame. On my PC it is impossible to not use SGSS so I guess I just have to disable that Cloud shader because it won't do me any good. So when I said I solved problem, I meant to say I got an answer to my question but unfortunately it wasn't the answer I was hoping for. Even Paul says that you need SGSS for good FSAA and this renders that new cloud shader totally uselles.

Um...no. Read here to for a bit more of an informed look:

http://stevesfsxanalysis.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/dx10-situation-check/

 

The fixer also further refines and changes many of the tweaks and fixes already released.

 

And I'm more than happy to pay the price of an addon aircraft for something that fundamentally improves the sim. Don't be fooled by the small file size...there's a lot of grey matter compressed in there. 

 

p.s. to someone who asked about WoAI, all the aircraft appear to be working (day and night).

 

 

 

Ah thanks, thats a bit more clear on what it does, I do still believe it had quite a high tag though

Just read that PMDG aircraft do not have the VC shadows built into the model. Pity. All I use fsx for is tubing in the PMDG 777 and NGX. Was hoping for some immersion increase. This and the FT anomalies has made the decision easy. Staying with dx9. I don't get OOM with it anyways.

 

Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note 2

 

 

Even Paul says that you need SGSS for good FSAA and this renders that new cloud shader totally uselles.

 

Shame...and I'm not having OOMs with 737ngx with DX9/SweetFX in KLAS, KLAX etc.

 

Thanks for reporting.

 

Dirk.

Tried it - had a very hard time trying to find an AA setting that got rid of jaggies and shimmers and still allowed acceptable performance.  My best compromise setting still produced some cockpit shimmers and notably lower framerates compared to DX9.  Also had some payware airport glitches (a big gray square patch in the Potomac next to Tropicalsim KDCA) and wasn't all that satisfied with the look of the water.  For the moment have reverted to DX9.  I may do some more experimenting, but I don't know how much tweaking I'm up for, given that my system is nicely tuned for DX9.  I don't regret having made the purchase - am happy to support the cause - but am not certain that I'm going to join the DX10 tribe.  Purely a personal report - your mileage may (in fact, probably does) vary.  Enjoy!

Tried it - had a very hard time trying to find an AA setting that got rid of jaggies and shimmers and still allowed acceptable performance.  My best compromise setting still produced some cockpit shimmers and notably lower framerates compared to DX9. 

 

That was exactly the reasonS I ditched DX10 last summer in favor of DX9+SweetFX.

 

But I'il still buy the Fixer to see it myself.

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

   I have installed the Fixer but I am having an issue in that when I start FSX I get a black screen in free flight. If I proceed to "fly now" the progress bar moves very quickly to 100% but then freezes. I look at task manager and FSX is not responding.

  

  Thanks 

 

SMAA does not work in DX10 mode. Possibly using sweetfx? have to disable SMAA

 

C.

Second test - got better results (not perfect but distinctly improved) when I turned off AA in the fixer and set it at the most aggressive posssible levels (32X and 8XSGSS) in Inspector.  Pretty decent performance (20 FPS) in heavy clouds in the DC area using Active Sky 2012.  Still have that big grey square at KDCA and still have some jaggies and shimmers, though not nearly as bad as before.  Water at all 2x levels still looks weird to me - like a ship modeler used way too much acrylic gel, lots of dense waves that are way out of scale.

 

I'm wondering if enjoying DX10 might mean accepting some shimmers in return for atmospheric lighting.  Still not sure that's a tradeoff I'm willing to make.

 

I'm grateful that the fixer makes it so easy to switch between DX10 and DX9.

 

 

That was exactly the reasonS I ditched DX10 last summer in favor of DX9+SweetFX.

 

Am not familiar with SweetFX - maybe I should be.  Best of both worlds?

I'm wondering if enjoying DX10 might mean accepting some shimmers in return for atmospheric lighting.  Still not sure that's a tradeoff I'm willing to make.

 

I'll repeat it.

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

Well,now I've confused myself (and possibly others).  According to this thread, FSX under DX10 doesn't read anti-aliasing settings from Inspector - they come from inside fsx.cfg, which means they're set in the Fixer dialogue.  So the reason I was getting better performance on the second test was because I'd turned FSAA completely off.  The only reason it was tolerable was that the cockpit in the RealAir Legacy is decently sharp on its own (though the RXP GNS 530 wasn't).  Still, I convinced myself that it was sharper using my Inspector settings, when obviously it wasn't.  Classic placebo effect.  And, equally obviously, I know what's going to happen if I turn on FSAA in the Fixer - it's going to kill my performance, because that's what it did the last time.

 

So I think that's it for me - the DX10 effects are really seductive but for me, not worth the tradeoffs.  And I have no more appetite for tweaking - I did that to get DX9 where it is and I think I'll stick with that.  To everyone else - hope it works for you and that you get a lot of enjoyment out of it.  Onward...