For a few years I have messed with FSX and always had in some situations received those flickering / flashing problems on textures and buildings (not just like the mosquito noise of what Land Detailed Textures causes, but I mean full flickering and/or shimmering). That was until I discovered the below document. I followed the below guide and installed a third-party tool called Nvidia Inspector, and basically copied his settings.
 

http://#####.wordpress.com/fsx-software-and-hardware-guide/

 

I finally after years bought a new comp (nothing fancy, just i5 @ 3.1ghz w/ GTX 660 2g + 8gb System Ram), I was dissapointed at first because even though my frame rates were higher I couldn't get scenery looking much better. Don't get me wrong there may be better tweak guides out there, and possibly a bunch of the settings are hurting my FPS from that guide, but for now I don't care because I am getting 25-30 fps 80% of the time except in congested or unique areas, and FINALLY the shimmering/flashing of textures is 95% gone. And that is using ORBX + Rex with only an I5, and no shimmering, so not bad at all. I wasn't tweaking for an increase in FPS, first I just wanted to see HOW GOOD can it look, then another day I'll go back and remove one thing at a time and see if I get any reverse benefit from removing some stuff I added.

 

BOY let me tell you it made all the difference in the world for Orbx stuff. It literally looks close to PhotoReal now except for the mountains and some trees, but at certain distances in some areas the trees look PhotoReal at times (KBZN - Bozeman Airport probably has best looking trees).

 

I'm a semi-casual "fair weather" simmer. I was using TileProxy for a year or so on and off but had partially lost interest with FSX due to Tile Proxy's inconsistent performance and its issues with having to re-load areas that were already cached.

 

I knew about OrbX, but I didn't want to dump tons of money into because I still thought even in the videos that the trees and mountains really needed to look less pixelated / blocky.

 

I still think Orbx could improve the look of mountains, and maybe trees in some places, but let me tell you this is GOOD ENOUGH now that I got this tweaked, and I'm finally having fun again in FSX.

 

Orbx is worth the money and is a nice change from using PhotoReal Scenery, just make sure you tweak.  Also, definitely REX is a must (or any of the similar weather engines), I had used the FREE stuff like Oscar and HDE-v2 for a long time, those do ok for clouds (and sometimes could even arguably look better), but the majority of the time they lack the variety of Rex textures. The REX real-time weather engine isn't the best, but it's not that bad, and I'll get one of the other additional weather add-ons later.

 

New PC + new REX version + ORBX Stuff = WIN WIN!

I have a few thoughts to add to above sentiment. I disabled Sparse Grid Supersampling in NVIDIA inspector. Having read NickN's bible and learning that said issues are more often indicative of sloppy code writing on behalf of some software developers. After a recent Windows and FSX re instal, I tried to keep it simple and currently just have only PMDG aircraft and ORBX scenery installed along with a couple of airports.Config file is modified with only a few essential tweaks only. I have almost no shimmering issues now whereas with default FSX scenery I did. On a side note, I had always set my virtual memory paging file to application managed. I changed those settings on my C and F drive to 3072 and now get a 4-6 FPS increase in performance. I confirmed it by reverting back to application managed and seeing a 4-6 FPS drop in an identical test scenario. Doesn't seem possible does it? Go figure! I left REX and other rarely flown add on aircraft uninstalled. I'll probably re-instal my CS 757 -- That is until PMDG releases a 757 LOL! Regards and thanks for taking the time to read this.

About two years too late but you found it at last :lol:

Thanks for the input.

 

Why 2 years too late?

You mean because I've been peddling with the other stuff and finally just now went ORBX?

I suppose, but the old machine I had was a Q6600 2.4 ghz and I didn't want to spend the money until I bought a new machine...

 

I saved a lot of money by not buying all the ORBX stuff the day it comes out, it's a lot cheaper now than it was before. I hear what you mean though, maybe I'll try FTX Global next, but for now I'm still collecting the old stuff.

 

@Adam

I started to read Nick's Bible the other day, but it was so long and so much ranting that I got tuned out. He should make a Cliff Notes version, but maybe one day I will sit down and read the entire thing.

BTW, I didn't have any add-ons when I got the shimmering, it was a clean install of FSX then REX then Orbx, because I just bought a new PC. I only have 3 planes installed atm even after installing that stuff, but nothing else.

FTX Global was my first ORBX purchase. I purchased it in large part to try to find some commonality with various scenery programs. The Texture+LC+Vector and perhaps future terrain mesh data all by the same developer appealed to me. I'm very pleased with just FTX Global so far as it provides a much more realistic representation of regions largely ignored by default FSX scenery like Africa and Asia. I know people who have the layer cake that is FSX loaded with untold freeware and 100+ scenery file entries along with tons of aircraft. The result is more often than not, an unstable FSX instal. Regards

Thanks, a few questions for you before I buy more of the old stuff, maybe I should switch to Global...

 

Very true, do you also have some of the old Orbx stuff to further enhance certain areas?

Does FTX Global play nicely with all Orbx stuff (I assume yes)?

 

Do the aiports in FTX Global look "almost as good" or "good enough" other than the little grass and painted decorations that Orbx adds to the custom-designed airports?

 

Do the trees/mountains look better in FTX Global than the old regional stuff, or is FTX Global more or less the same as their current regional scenery as far as "away from the airport"?

 

Thanks for any comments.

FTX Global is not supposed to replace their full FAT regions like AU and NZ which are far more detailed and realistic . They both work together and don't conflict. It simply provides a texture replacement for the default FSX over the entire globe which is a huge benefit. It also provides more realistic autogen buildings and trees. Don't expect to be able to fly over your house though. POI buildings specific to a certain city, are still generated by default FSX. Regards