I have been a super happy customer of FSX for sometime now with all the juicy addons like REX, ORBX, NGX, etc. Just when i thought i was perfectly content with all the eye candy in FSX, i stumbled upon a P3D video which showed cockpit VC shadows.. and my jaw dropped! Since then, i've been exploring 4 options: FSX vs X-plane vs P3D vs FSX-DX10. 

 

1. X-plane still seems like a grad school project to me.. i know its 64-bit, DX11, etc, and therefore has huge potential, but right now it is miles away from FSX + addons. The mouse control in the VC itself is a deal breaker for me - i can't buy a flightsim software that was designed keeping Macbook's in mind! 

 

2. P3D - this is same as FSX + DX11 => which means, cloud shadows in addition to VC shadows. But still no VC rain! And it's not worth buying my favorite PMDG toys again at a much higher price..  :angry:

 

3. So that leaves me with FSX + DX10 as the best option. 

 

I'm glad to know that DX10 will also use my GPU to its fullest ability thereby reducing CPU load and hence lesser OOM events. 

 

But my question is (sorry for the long intro)

 

1. how much tweaking will i have to do in my other addons after installing DX10? Will this mess up flytampa and aerosoft sceneries? what other nasty surprises one might find after dx10 fixer install? 

 

2. does DX10 fixer also enable me to use the "bloom" effect in FSX? will there be a performance hit?

 

 

thanks

Vinod. 

 

1. You won't always have to do any tweaking to addons. Just to FSX. There are some cases like with aerosoft airports etc. that give you the option to install DX-10 enhanced versions. Just a simple step really. I'm going to assume you are already capable of doing simple changes to Nvidia Inspector and the FSX .cfg file. Have a read through the DX-10 how to guide, and set up your Fixer, Inspector and CFG settings accordingly. If you run into any problems just post back here.

 

Here is a link to the guide - www.nzfsim.org/index.php?dsp=dload&fname=DX10_HowTo.pdf

 

2. Yes it will. And no there will be no noticeable performance hit. You can customize the bloom settings through the fixer.

 

I understand your situation. I was in that same place. And decided to stick with FSX in DX-10 for the same reason as you. It's not exactly P3D with cloud shadows but it's sure as hell better than DX-9.

 

Just my 2 cents. B)

 

Cheers!

Randy

FSX DX10 fixer and Compatibilty: If You are using the payware DX10 Scenery fixer most of the compatibility issues with the above mentioned sceneries and aircraft will be covered. 

 

Hardware: The CPU OC 4,4 GHz will be sufficient. The weak component might be the GPU GTX660, which will "dictate" FSX slider settings and performance. In the a.m. DX10 how-to guide there are proposals of settings vs. hardware. Background: Simply speaking DX10 benefits from an internal optimized data transfer and uses the GPU power too. This causes better performance and significantly reduced VAS OOM.

As a consequence I recently exchanged my GPU to a GTX980, but a GTX970 will also be sufficient for normal monitor resolutions, e.g Full HD.

 

FSX DX10 vs. P3D: No need today to switch as I am happy with the DX10 fixer and results.

 

Wulf

Remember you can always use the free shaders to test it out and get a sense of the results. Obviously the payware addon provides more features.