Hi all I am new to this forum and i am new to the flight simulator series, actually been playing for a week now. I am getting pretty good at it and i love flying the smaller single or dual engine planes and once in a while i will take a Lear jet out, but i have a couple of questions. First is there a package free or otherwise to improve the ground cause when i fly in close the ground looks not crisp and very blocky in color and i also wanted to know if there were any places to get more wav files for the ATC for the program Enviro, particularly for central and south america.thanksPaul

Hello from a fello forum :-newbie You may want to first check your Settings- turn them up and the textures will become more clear/crisp. As for ATC, if you are looking for airline callsigns just go to http://www.editvoicepack.com/

I'd agree with what the other poster said, Paul. First you need to adjust your settings so you get crisp textures in the default terrain, then you can move on to more accurate addon scenery. Check out some of the screenshots in the screenshot forum if you wonder how the ground should look. Up close the terrain texture resolution isn't great in FS, even at the highest settings. The maximum that can be displayed in most textures is 4.8 meters per terrain image pixel, and that usually translates to ground textures that look much better from a couple thousand feet up.thanks,

thanks for the welcome and i will look into that program you suggested and i will check out the galleries as well.thanksPaul

Might be worth installing the Airport Environment Upgrade Package. I think that was my first addition after a recent reinstall of FS. It will replace many textures used for the buildings etc at airports improving the overall appearance wherever you go and is available here free of charge. The installation instructions are well written. The easy way to find it might be to to go to the file library and click on the button that says "This months hot files".I'm not absolutely sure if that is what you mean but its worth going for anyway.Andrew Brownhttp://www.gordiusfs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

Thanka alot Drew thats a HUGE improvment to the looks of FS and now here is a follow up question is there a package that will enhance the current planes in FS. I see from the library you can do it for certain planes but since I am not good at one particular plane I want to enhance them all. thanks again and thanks to the sitePaul

You could take a look at a few repaints but be warned there are hundreds of them out there :-) Personally I think panels are better to look for than repaints but it depends which aircraft you like flying. I enjoy building panels myself if I can ever get the time and decided to have a bash at the Cessna Skylane recently. Having started my research I found that the panels for the Skyland and the C172 are both pretty good surprisingly. Definitely look for panels to get rid of those terrible offerings from MS for the 737, 747 and 777 which look to me like rectangles with, in some cases some really tacky gauges.With all that said and done though there are freeware aircraft here which I would say are often better than what MS has given us. If you ask here which free or payware aircraft you should choose though you will probably be inundated with a veeeeeeeeery long list and if you are lucky could even start a bun fight ;-) When the time comes just use the areas of the file library put aside for the most popular downloads of the month etc as a good starting point (just my opinion).I know you wanted something easy like the Environment upgrade but I don't think there is one. Spend a month or two deciding what you like flying and while doing so keep reading the forums. You will get a good feel for what payware is out there and why you should or not rush out to buy it but dont panic buy. If you are like a lot of us here you are quite likely to be around for a very long time and will spend more than you can really afford on addons so dont dive in headlong.By now you have found out that as my friends might say I do tend to talk too much. time to shut up and let you get into the air I think.Oh, one last thing as I said don't be in too much of a hurry to dip into the wallet but replacing the AI Aircraft that fly with you is wirth doing. There are a few good packages which are quite cheap. Spend an evening browsing the rewiews here when you feel your wallett start to tremble.Andrew Brownhttp://www.gordiusfs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

thanks Drew your advice is complete and well informed and i will look into those things you suggested and i will spend some time in the downloads section to get an idea for what i like and places i like to see.thanks againPaul

And don't forget to follow Andrew's lead and denegrate Microsoft's efforts at every opportunity!