Hey folks, well I'm back into FS after about 6 years out, and was looking at becoming largely in debt so what better digital hobby :-), so anyyyyway I was wondering if anyone could be so kind as to update me on all the cool addons I've missed while I was away.  Suggestions on the very best in any type of addon would be welcome, be it aircraft, scenery, utility, texture program, etc, anything that's a great addition to FSX, I've spotted some after a few days of looking around, all the FTX ground and airport scenery looks mighty tempting and the PDMG 737 NGX, EZDok/EZCA, REX4.  I'm very interested in some bush flying, detailed airfields with nice and interesting approaches (Some of the FTX airfields look especially good for this), would especially like a number of those that would make good flights in say the Twin Otter or appropriate aircraft type, but as I said any addon type suggestion is very welcome.

 

I have (not much, I'm not rich, but would still like to know what's good out there),

PDMG 747

Seychelles X

London City Airport X

Airbus X Extended

Aerosoft Holiday Airports

Maldives X

Corfu X

Twin Otter Extended

Captain Sim 757

Captain Sim XLoad

Eaglesoft Beechcraft A400

146-200/300 Jetliner

Flying Club X

IRIS F22

Mega Airport London Heathrow.

VFR Real Scenery Wales, Central and Eastern England.

 

 

Thank you all.

Get a powerful PC first off...

 

i5 4670K or similar

Gtx 770 4GB

8 GB ram

256 GB SSD if you can for FSX only

 

Basically Orbx stuff is good for GA flying...

 

Speaking of GA check out anything by Realair Simulations, A2A, Flight1, Baytower, some Carenado such as Cessna C337, Malibu , Alabeo, Lotus

 

Freeware check out Dino's F14, F35, S3 Viking beta and T45C Goshawk

 

Airports anything by FSDreamTeam, Flightbeam, Latin VFR , Taxi2Gate and freeware KPHL,

You have a quite a bit that I would recommend.

 

There are three things that I think are ESSENTIAL to the FSX experience.

 

#1 - FTX Global. FTX Global updates the entire world (the pricing reflects that  ) and makes everything look much better. FTX Vector is also out there, but I've not tried it therefore will not suggest it.

Cost: $99.95 Australian Dollars or about $90 US Dollars

 

#2 - PMDG 737/777. These are probably the most realistic aircraft released. 

 

The 777 base pack includes the 777-200LR/F and has an expansion pack being released soon that will add the 777-300ER. It also has service pack #1 on the way (by the way there hasn't been any updates for this aircraft in 9 months!).

Cost: $90 US Dollars

 

The 737 includes the -800 and -900. There is an expansion pack available that adds the -600/-700, which it's up to you whether or not you want that, it's personally what you fly.

Cost: $70 US Dollars

 

#3 - FSDT Ground Services X (GSX). I didn't realize how much GSX adds to the experience until I bought it. GSX provides ground services including catering, boarding with stairs or jetways, refueling, baggage loading, and accurate pushback that places you exactly on the taxiway line EVERY TIME! It adds a lot to the realism of sitting at the gate, and it's a great purchase.

Cost: Around $40 US Dollars, but there is a coupon 'FACEBOOK23' that gives you 23.16% off at the FSDreamTeam website, that's what I used to buy GSX.

 

Happy simming, and I hope you find my suggestions useful!

A semi-newbie like myself probably shouldn't be commenting here, but here's my two cents:

 

• For GA flying, Orbx/FTX.  Hands down.  End of story.  Their regional scenery is gorgeous.
• Aircraft-wise (again for GA mostly) A2A and RealAir make complex and amazing machines.  It will make your old Carenado planes feel dated.
• Air Hauler is a good career addon (I use that a little) if you don't mind virtually carrying around inanimate things; if you want virtual people on your plane, then FsPassegers. 
• Traffic-wise, I like MyTraffic X because it comes with lots of options for custom scheduling and you can run it in a low-res mode.  If not that, Ultimate Traffic.
• Free flight planning, I'd say Plan-G.  Surprisingly robust for absolutely no cost.  If you are willing to pay -- especially if you fly airliners -- then apparently PFPX is a no-brainer and is amazing.

Oh yeah, definitely don't get stuck trying to make all these things work with a sub-par machine ... like mine.  have fun!

Hey Guys, thanks a lot, for a heads up on my machine, it's a 2600K at 4.4Ghz, GTX 780, 8GB RAM, not the fastest PC out there but no snail either, will be updating when Broadwell and GTX880 is released.

 

Keep them coming, thanks again.

Hey Guys, thanks a lot, for a heads up on my machine, it's a 2600K at 4.4Ghz, GTX 780, 8GB RAM, not the fastest PC out there but no snail either, will be updating when Broadwell and GTX880 is released.

 

Keep them coming, thanks again.

Your system is FSX ready!

 

Troy

Without a doubt you're good to go. I run all the addons I mentioned in my previous post on a system @ 3.4 GHz and I have no issues whatsoever with frames or smoothness.

Given these two Mega Airport London Heathrow VFR Real Scenery Wales, Central and Eastern England in your list I'm assuming that's where in the world you probably are which means that you could spend a lot less to get a lot more if that's where you like to fly. I'm just across the water from you if that's where you are and I recently ditched FSX and P3d in favour of X-Plane 10 because I can download for free the photographic scenery for Ireland and the UK at resolutions not possible to get in FSX (I'm midway through UK) for XP and place realistically placed autogen on top of that to produce some stunning simming. It's just a thought, don't want to start a war :Peace: I fly with some guys who I've recently convinced to give it a try and they've been quite happy that they did. No doubt though that your machine can handle FSX with ease but imo, better can be had.

Well to be honest I'm not all that happy with the VFR Real scenery, I'm certainly tempted by the FTX of all of Britain, though a little conflicted with it not being real imagery but it still looks good. No offence but I'm not that interested in X-Plane.

 

I wish FSX ran smooth, that's never been the case, MS really should have rewritten it before giving up.

None taken, it's not everyones cuppa. I wasn't either until I realised I could see sheep in the fields and their shadows from just above tree height. If you zoom in on Bing maps to the point where you can't zoom in any further without the image starting to degrade, that's what you get, it's a VFR lovers dream. Imagine that with autogen on top. I was sold anyway. Each to his own though.

Without a doubt you're good to go. I run all the addons I mentioned in my previous post on a system @ 3.4 GHz and I have no issues whatsoever with frames or smoothness.

 

Wow, are you serious?  Clockspeed-wise, we're about the same -- though I can't see much more about your system. I'm a little baffled.  Is this the difference between ADM and Nvidia?  Is it your graphic card maybe that lets your machine perform better?  Do you frun FSX with super low res settings, or have you perhaps invested hours into tweaking? I haven't yet, and am daunted by the prospected of tweaking.  All I can say is my system definitely could not handle all of those at low altitudes without it getting pretty sluggish, esp in densely populated areas.  Sigh.

 

Anyway, I digress.  WhiteHawk, you're machine will be just fine indeed.  Happy flying!

 

Wow, are you serious?  Clockspeed-wise, we're about the same -- though I can't see much more about your system. I'm a little baffled.  Is this the difference between ADM and Nvidia?  Is it your graphic card maybe that lets your machine perform better?  Do you frun FSX with super low res settings, or have you perhaps invested hours into tweaking? I haven't yet, and am daunted by the prospected of tweaking.  All I can say is my system definitely could not handle all of those at low altitudes without it getting pretty sluggish, esp in densely populated areas.  Sigh.

 

Anyway, I digress.  WhiteHawk, you're machine will be just fine indeed.  Happy flying!

 

 

I'll answer your questions.

 

#1 - It is a commonly held belief that intel processors will do better than AMD ones, and that nVidia graphics will do better than AMD cards. In my previous system, which had an AMD card I did suffer lower performance, but the card of course was outdated.

 

#2 - Graphics cards ARE necessary for FSX performance, but not as necessary as in most other games. FSX is very processor heavy, with the graphics card being called on very, very little.

 

#3 - I run FSX settings generally one away from maximum, or on some items slightly less if they prove to be big hits on FPS. For example, I turn off shadows, lens flare, and have my water set to low 2.x because those hit FPS the hardest.

 

#4 - The only tweak I have is HIGHMEMFIX=1, which just helps guarantee the textures are consistent and there. I run no other tweaks because I've found them useless on my system, they haven't ever helped me and I feel like they may hurt, actually.

 

I wish I could provide more help, but it really comes down to the system you have!

#1 - It is a commonly held belief that intel processors will do better than AMD ones, and that nVidia graphics will do better than AMD cards. In my previous system, which had an AMD card I did suffer lower performance, but the card of course was outdated.

 

#2 - Graphics cards ARE necessary for FSX performance, but not as necessary as in most other games. FSX is very processor heavy, with the graphics card being called on very, very little.

 

#3 - I run FSX settings generally one away from maximum, or on some items slightly less if they prove to be big hits on FPS. For example, I turn off shadows, lens flare, and have my water set to low 2.x because those hit FPS the hardest.

 

#4 - The only tweak I have is HIGHMEMFIX=1, which just helps guarantee the textures are consistent and there. I run no other tweaks because I've found them useless on my system, they haven't ever helped me and I feel like they may hurt, actually.

 

hey jetsflier.  Thanks for the input.

 

#1 & #2:  Yeah, that's what I heard too.  Unfortunately I bought my system a couple of years ago, long before I knew anything about FSX.  I think I might build my own system this summer or fall, in which case I'll be able to make something that works well.  Sigh.  :-/  Do you by any chance know if PD3 requires the same hardware?Since it's an updated & developing program (and possibly the future of flight simming), perhaps it's different.

 

#3: I'm far from max, but not super low either.  I heard the same about the water too, so mine is the same.

 

#4: I will have to look into this.  Thanks!

 

Btw, sorry White Hawk, if this seemed to be off-topic.  Didn't mean to hijack your thread, but perhaps this will help you too in case you for some reason experience performance issues.

How about hardware, I'm still running a cheap joystick and throttle combo, aka the Thrustmaster HOTAS X, but would like a yoke, looking at the Saitek/Madcatz Pro Flight Cessna Yoke, a couple of people with sticky pitch but most seem happy with it in the reviews, what's the opinion here?

hey jetsflier.  Thanks for the input.

 

#1 & #2:  Yeah, that's what I heard too.  Unfortunately I bought my system a couple of years ago, long before I knew anything about FSX.  I think I might build my own system this summer or fall, in which case I'll be able to make something that works well.  Sigh.  :-/  Do you by any chance know if PD3 requires the same hardware?Since it's an updated & developing program (and possibly the future of flight simming), perhaps it's different.

 

#3: I'm far from max, but not super low either.  I heard the same about the water too, so mine is the same.

 

#4: I will have to look into this.  Thanks!

 

Btw, sorry White Hawk, if this seemed to be off-topic.  Didn't mean to hijack your thread, but perhaps this will help you too in case you for some reason experience performance issues.

 

P3D, from what I read, runs slightly more like the current modern games we have. This just means that it has placed more usage on the graphics card, relieving the CPU processor to some extent. It's more graphics based there, so if you have an i3 but you have a GTX Titan, you'll be better off there in P3D.

 

If you have an i7-4770k running at 4.X GHz but only a GTX 640, you're probably better off at FSX.

 

 

 

Also, I did not build my own PC. I purchased mine from Dell at a very good price. You could get the same parts for cheaper separately, but I don't understand how things work or how to put them together!