Best FSX addons

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

 

I guess another thing I am wondering about is this too many addon programs for FSX to be running at once?

 

This is definitely a concern...

 

Stay away from fancy add-on airports until you have FSX running well and you know that

your system can handle more.

 

Things like Traffic, including freeway traffic, Weather,  and Add-on airports can bring even powerful systems

to their knees.

 

If it is the 737 you are looking for, get the PMDG version and possibly FTX Global and stop at that point.

 

That will keep you busy for quite a while..

First of all, too many highly detailed addons at the same time can bring the best computers to their knees, even more so since FSX is an old 32-bit application which is limited to 4GB of RAM (danger of OOM errors when many detailed addons are to be displayed at the same time).

 

Just to clarify... you can have (and use) more than 4GB of RAM... it is the 4GB address space limitation that leads to OOM errors..

[Sportsfan23 2]

This is definitely a concern...

 

Stay away from fancy add-on airports until you have FSX running well and you know that

your system can handle more.

 

Things like Traffic, including freeway traffic, Weather,  and Add-on airports can bring even powerful systems

to their knees.

 

If it is the 737 you are looking for, get the PMDG version and possibly FTX Global and stop at that point.

 

That will keep you busy for quite a while..

 

Just to clarify... you can have (and use) more than 4GB of RAM... it is the 4GB address space limitation that leads to OOM errors..

 

I am not sure if my system falls under the powerful enough for this stuff or not. Off the top of my head I think it will be a

 

i7-4900 MQ 4.0 GHZ processor or something, Nvidia 770M graphics card, and 32 GB of memory. Would that allow me to use these programs and still be able to have a pretty good FPS or is it not powerful enough?

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

Is this a laptop?

[Sportsfan23 2]

Is this a laptop?

 

Yes, I know they aren't optimal at all for flight sim games but I need a new laptop so I thought I would try and get one that could run FSX at a decent level. I still dunno if the specs are good enough but it is about as close as I've been to having any type of computer that is in the ballpark to run FSX.

[FloG 148]

I don't know about the NGX, but I run FSX on a laptop myself, and as far as performance is concerned, I can't really complain (and my specs are a lower than yours - i5, 3GHz, and a Radeon GPU instead of a Nvidia). So I guess you should be able to run the NGX just fine.

The key is to have reasonable settings for autogen and traffic, because they are very taxing, as Bert said.

[Sportsfan23 2]

Well I am glad to know it's possible to run it decently well then on a laptop. I guess this would have been easier if I needed a new desktop haha.

 

Do addons like FTX Global, and REX weather and all those help or hurt FPS? Is there a goal for FPS or a certain FPS where the game plays smoothly with all the addons running?

 

Also if at some point I do get a new desktop are you able to transfer all these addons to a new computer or re download them or something?

[Sportsfan23 2]

I hadn't planned on upgrading my desktop but if I was going to get a new one would these specs be able to run FSX with close to max settings and all the add-ons?

 

i7-4960 (6 cores, 15 MB cache, overclocked up to 4.3 GHZ)

Memory 32 GB (4x8 Quad channel DDR3 at 1600 MHZ)

Dual NVidia GTX 770 graphics cards.

 

Any other hardware stuff I should be aware of when trying to get a new desktop?

[FloG 148]

REX does in general not hurt FPS much for me. The only thing one needs to avoid is flying in overcast weather (preferably with more than one cloud layers) with HD textures enabled and texture_max_load=4096 in the FSX.CFG, but that's the only thing. And to be honest, I don't really like those high res clouds, they look somewhat unrealistic to me, because they're too sharp.

I've sadly not had the cahnce to test FTXG myself, but from what I've read people didn't get an FPS drop since using it, I've even read about incresed FPS, so I'm looking forward to it (hopefully I'll have the time to install it next week).

 

I'd advise you not to hunt for a certain frame rate, it will be much work, and still there are so many contributing factors, so you might end up only tweaking for (possibly unreachable) performance instead of flying. Of course it will also depend on what you think is acceptable performance: I for one have FPS set to 30 in FSX and usually have between 25 and 30 FPS, but I accept drops to about 10, as long as that does not persist for too long.

 

Re-installing addons on a new computer usually isn't a problem, but moving installed addons or a complete FSX install directly from one machine to another one is impossible, or at least close to impossible. You'd have to fix a lot of registry entries, and you'd probably have to explain to one developer/publisher or another what you did.

If you move on to a new computer, it's most likely best to uninstall FSX completely from the old one and start over on the new rig - that way you'll keep it clean, and you'll be able to sort out addons you might not want to use any longer.

[TravisG 3]

Thank you all very helpful info. Ok well I know which weather program to get now. Glad that can be added to the list. I thought I saw a video on youtube of a guy that had both FScaptain and FS2crew working at the same time so maybe he was able to change the gauge position or something so they both could function at the same time.

 

It seems like FS2crew is like a real co-pilot and the FScaptain co-pilot is more there to tell you if you mess up or something but it doesn't go through checklists or anything like the FS2crew one does. Unless I am mistaken about that?

 

You are correct.  FSCaptain does not manage checklists, but your FSCaptain F/O will let you know if you're about to do something to get a demerit on your FSCaptain flight (if your aircraft is about to move without having your position lights on, or if you don't have your landing lights set properly, or just to let you know when you about to cross transition altitude / level, etc.)

 

I have thought about suggesting to Dutch that we add something on a per-aircraft basis to call out if certain switches aren't set "properly."  Let's say you're in an aircraft that has an "Emergency Lights" switch that should be set to "AUTO" before boarding.  FSCaptain could check the status of such switches and play a voice file to say something on the order of, "Cap - have you cleared all of the current checklists?"  But it would take no action otherwise.  It would be fairly generic... possibly useful to those who don't have another F/O add-on.  But I'm not certain how useful it could be.  So nothing in that area for now.

 

And FSCaptain is about to go gauge-less and networkable if that's what a user would prefer - so there's that.

[Lusche 3]

a few years back and wanted to 'upgrade' my fsx experience but was tight on my budget.

 

My first paid addon was REX+OD which I use to replace the textures of the sky, clouds, water, runways or airport asphalt in general, sun ...

you can also use it for wheather generator, but there might be better ones out the like opus or active sky.

but for the textures i use rex.

this will make the sky and water look way better than you have it now.

 

after that what would have the most impact on the game would be replacing the groundtextures. 

I'd recommend something like orbx global, because it covers the whole world unlike gex.

this will make the ground look way way way better than you have it now.

 

utx is used for the 'placement' of objects like streets, coastlines, harbors, golfcourses, rivers, highways, remarkable landmarks, stadiums, lakes and so on.

ever wondered when you flew over an area and thought: hey here used to be a railroad running to to east, but no railroad here ....

utx will fix it.

in the near future ftx will release a project named orbx vector which will do the same 'globaly'. utx is only for parts of the world.

 

so for visuals: rex with od hd + orbx global (or gex) + orbx vector (future) or utx + orbx landclass (future) or another landclass addon would bring extremely better visuals to your environment.

 

but before i would go for that I would go for a very good paid aircraft.

 

many mentioned before pmdg ... can't go wrong with them if you want to stay fsx and don't want ever migrate to p3d

737ngx is the only one i own, but a friend of mine having the js41, md-11 and 747 and they are all great ones.

and the pmdg 737 is better than the ifly 737, but if you ever want to migrate to p3d get the ifly otherwise pmdg.

 

-also a2a cessna 172 is a must have. 

-majestic dash 8 q400 also a must have.

-heard many good things about the airbus x extended.

 

after that get something for reality like:

-radar contact or voxatc for your atc

-opus, active sky or rex for your weather

-utimate traffic 2 for traffic

-fs2crew if you have a compatible aircraft like pmdg ones

-fscaptain (free demo) also 50% of pc aviator right now

 

and many other i have forgotten.

but those are the most important ones for me. still not finished in getting all those addons, but hopefully in the near future.

 

hope that helped

 

edit: totally forgot ezdok ... must have or if you decided for opus it has something similar to ezdok but not as good. (manages your camera and so on)

[Sportsfan23 2]

Yes that was extremely helpful thank you. Glad to know I am on the right path as far as which aircraft I am going to get. Could somebody explain the difference between VoxATC and Pro Flight emulator or which one is better?

 

Also could somebody give me some feedback on the system specs I posted for a potential desktop? Or suggest what I should be looking for as far as a desktop goes in regards to running FSX pretty close to maxed out if possible?

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

Dual video cards will not help FSX (it may actually hinder)...

 

A fast (4GHz+) quad core CPU and a decent video card (nvidia 660+) , coupled with a good motherboard

and 8 GB+ memory is all you need.

 

Have a look in the Hardware forum for individual configurations.

 

The most important single thing is CPU speed - that is why many FSX enthusiasts overclock their CPU.

[Lusche 3]

oh and also another addon i would try to get is gsx - ground services x

 

it simulates the groundcrew which help you to load up your plane, cathering vehicles driving to your plane and load it, fuel trucks ...

helpers groundcrew which help you to park your aircraft after landing and so on.

 

its good for emersion, but more or less only useful on airliners, not so much for smaller ones like a cessna 172 ...

 

 

also my pc specs i got just recently costs around 450€ for an upgrade (just mb, cpu, ram, gpu) and i'm very happy with the performance at the moment.

haven't really testet it hardcore yet, but its impressive compared to my old i7-860@3.8ghz, 4gb ram, ati 5770 ...

old fps was like ~15-20 on the ground and 40-50 in the air. now i don't think i droped under 40fps and > 100fps in the air.

[red259 31]

Yes that was extremely helpful thank you. Glad to know I am on the right path as far as which aircraft I am going to get. Could somebody explain the difference between VoxATC and Pro Flight emulator or which one is better?

 

Also could somebody give me some feedback on the system specs I posted for a potential desktop? Or suggest what I should be looking for as far as a desktop goes in regards to running FSX pretty close to maxed out if possible?

I have vox which requires using voice to talk to ATC. It works well for the most part. I never tried PFE, but I believe all ATC programs have their benefits and all ATC programs have large drawbacks as well. There are a number of ATC threads you may want to review to see which program addresses the features most important to you. 

[Sportsfan23 2]

Dual video cards will not help FSX (it may actually hinder)...

 

A fast (4GHz+) quad core CPU and a decent video card (nvidia 660+) , coupled with a good motherboard

and 8 GB+ memory is all you need.

 

Have a look in the Hardware forum for individual configurations.

 

The most important single thing is CPU speed - that is why many FSX enthusiasts overclock their CPU.

 

Wow interesting I would never have guessed the dual cards would have hindered anything I was expecting that to be a must get. Very good to know that. Guess I could go with the single Nvidia 780 then. Actually saves quite a bit of money only going with 1 card. Is that a good enough video card or should I look for something else?

 

Well I didn't see a faster speed than the 4.3 GHZ so I think that is as fast as the ones I was looking at can go.

I have vox which requires using voice to talk to ATC. It works well for the most part. I never tried PFE, but I believe all ATC programs have their benefits and all ATC programs have large drawbacks as well. There are a number of ATC threads you may want to review to see which program addresses the features most important to you. 

 

I guess the question would be do the benefits outweigh the drawbacks? Is it possible to just push a button for whatever needs to be said instead of talking to ATC?

oh and also another addon i would try to get is gsx - ground services x

 

it simulates the groundcrew which help you to load up your plane, cathering vehicles driving to your plane and load it, fuel trucks ...

helpers groundcrew which help you to park your aircraft after landing and so on.

 

its good for emersion, but more or less only useful on airliners, not so much for smaller ones like a cessna 172 ...

 

 

 

Yes that is one program that I will be sure to get.