Hello everyone,

 

I am working on my clean FSX setup and i am kinda confused about FSX products.

I know there are many similiar topics and questions out there. But i am still confused with mixed responses and reviews...

So i can't decide what to buy or what should i buy and i am really lost

 

I am flying often on Europe, that's why i choose "Europe" packages for addons.

And i love to flying with Cessna 172 and i'd like to improve graphics and look.

But i am also flying with 737-800 with FSPassengers.

 

Basicly, i gathered a list of "addons" or "softwares" for FSX.

I know that list is going too long Of course, I did some research about these addons from their publisher sites. I can understand the purpose of each addon but i can't understand if they are working together.

These are,

 

- FS Global Ultimate (Europe, Africa)

- FS Global Vector -> Goes to FTX Global Vector page???

- FTX Global

- FTX Global Vector

- SceneryTech Landclass

- Ground Enviroment X - Africa and Middle East

- Flight Environment X

- Ultimate Terrain X - Europe

- REX + OverDrive

- Shockwave 3D Lights Redux

- Active Sky Next

- Opus

- ENB / SweetFX / SHADE

 

 

May someone help me for a "proper" list for for these addons?

I would like to proceed "layer by layer" setup.

I mean, FS Global or FTX Global should be first to install, i guess. And i think layer structure is "Mesh -> Landclass -> Texture", is that right?

 

And other questions that i have

- Which addons do you use?

- Where should i start?

- FS Global Vector (fly2pilots.com) is the new name of "FTX Global Vector"?

- There are many "VERSUS" videos about FTX / GEX. Which you recommend?

- I need an opinion about weather engine. REX / Active Sky Next / Opus

 

 

My PC specs are:

CPU i7 2600k, GPU GTX460, MEM 8GB 1600

 

Any help would be great!

Thank you all!

A few things you might want to think about (trying to keep my biassed comments on commercial products to a minimum):

1) As you implied with the FTXG vs GEX comment: those two do basically the same, so go for one only. FTXG has the advantage of covering the whole planet for less than the same GEX coverage. However, I think that GEX textures are not so obviously repetitive in planes as FTXG's, and it might also have more "realistic" textures, since it's limited to a certain area.

2) FEX and REX are also products that do the same job. However, REX is more up to date, and it as far as I remember it has quite a lot more features (e.g. the weather engine).

3) I am not sure, so please correct me if this is wrong, but I believe that FTX Vector is pretty similar to what UTX does; SceneryTech Landclass might also be in this category.

If two addons do the same thing, they are usually not compatible with each other, except if they work in different areas of the world (provided that neither product overwrites default files).

4) It appears that FS Global Vector and FTX Global Vector are indeed the same product, but it is widely known only as FTX Global Vector.

5) While doing a fresh install of FSX, it makes sense to keep a certain structure, e.g. from global to local, mesh-LC-textures, but in the end it should not matter, as you wouldn't always buy products in a certain order (nor can you do a reinstall of your complete sim for every new addon), so most of the time it should not matter what order you choose to install the addons.

6) Shockwave lights does not conflict with any of the addons you listed (at least as far as I am aware), and I really like it. But unless you're lucky and have planes for which config files are available, setting it up for non-default aircraft may not be too appealing. But you really start understanding how the cfg files work, so I really found this stuff interesting (but it can take a lot of time)

 

I hope I didn't write too much nonsense there, and I also hope that things are a bit clearer now.

 

Best regards,

Hello FloG,

 

Thank you so much for the great info!

One last thing, FS Global Ultimate is shipped with 6 DVDs.

But FTX is downloadable.

May you tell me what's the huge size difference between 2 products?

 

Thanks again.

If memory serves, FS Global Ultimate is a mesh addon. FTXG is basically texures and new autogen, so they're completely different things. And it's wuite easy to squeeze textures for the whole world into about 4GB of download (IIRC), those textures repeat themselves quite often, after all. On the other hand, the mesh needs to (re)define the elevation at a rather high resolution at every point of the Earth, so naturally that's a lot more data.

 

Best regards,

So i'll go for these list:

 

- FS Global Ultimate

- FTX Global

- FTX Global Vector

- REX

- Shockwave 3D Lights

 

Not sure about weather engine. Should i go for REX or ASN?

 

And finally, what you think about ENB?

 

Thanks alot.

Go with REX4 and ASN.

Hello DJJose,

 

How can i run both applications?

May you provide me some info?

 

Thanks.

My friend, you're going to love your new sim!

 

REX for textures, and ASN for the weather engine.

 

Also, you probably won't need Shockwave lights as REX has excellent light textures that you can enable.  I have both, and I only use the REX lights.  If you use multi-monitor for your FS, you'll need a customized Halo file (PM me if you do and I'll forward mine to you).

 

Finally, I recommend you perform a System Image once you have everything installed and working properly - and don't forget this as doing a reinstall can be painful.  I also recommend backing up your Roaming directory after you have everything installed and working the way you like it.

 

 

Good luck!  Swing by OVPA sometime (link below), you'll find that everyone there is running the software you listed.

Hello Dave,

 

Thanks for great tip.

I am going to use REX for installing textures, right? (selecting or creating a theme and then installing textures)

Should i run REX everytime before flight?

Or textures are stays same every flight?

 

I am running single monitor setup at the moment, it's more comfortable for me

And yes, i am generating backups before every install. This includes fsx.cfg, scenery.cfg and dll.xml and other files. Also base FSX directory. Just for caution!

 

... and i am going to visit OVPA right away.

 

Thanks!

I can't speak with authority on REX4, as I use REX Plus HD Overdrive, however if they work the same (I believe they do) then the textures are persistent (install once, not necessary to run again - you won't need to start REX after the textures are installed).

Great, thank you.

Hi Marty,

REX4 is textures only and works just like REX OD.

 

Install textures first, then run ASN as your weather engine.

Hello DJJose,

Okay, i'll go for it.

Thank you so much.