Lurk

I suggest you try ASN's trial period as well, with full functionality for 7 days. I doubt you'll be disappointed. I was a REX weather engine user, but ASN is miles ahead in term of, well... everything. Weather Direct seems to be quite far from being released anyway.

thanks folks, good suggestions there! :smile:

I noticed that fsx:se defaults TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT at 160 (!) on my system.

I'm sitting at my desk flying a virtual plane. 80% of my virtual cockpit switches are non-functional. My skimpy butt is firmly glued to my computer chair. The air around is still, the ground is steady. I'm one of those simmers who doesn't need every cumulus whiff or breath of wind to be exactly in the right place, at the right time and in the right intensity. GIve me a hydraulic professional training simulator and I'll start being more picky. In the meantime and in my particulatr situation, the weather injector with the best compromise between visuals, fidelity and performance is my obligatory choice. That's ASN.

damn, the week before I got my trial license!

I'd really like to purchase ASN after an extremely succesful trial period, but the price is very steep for me atm, considering it's only weather injection (although pretty damn good at it). Does this product ever go on sale? I might have to wait...

you need to install textures only once, before starting the sim. Due to the infinity of combinations, I doubt there is a 'best theme'. The program allows you to download themes shared by the community, or create your own based on the current weather at your location. This feature actually works quite nicely, although I personally only change sky and cloud textures (rarely sun and water) and leave all others alone once I've found the ones which are most appropriate for the area and airport I fly from.

you can freely mix textures from Direct and Essential Plus OD.

have you tried BOB from ORBX? scroll down: https://fullterrain.com/freeware

fsx.cfg has this tweak to make vc and gauge text more crisp: [PANELS] VIRTUAL_COCKPIT_TEXTURES_SCALE=2.0 Dunno about P3D

while we're at it, question for you, SteveFx :wink: Is there anything worth experimenting with among these lines in FSX\ShadersHLSL\Common\Common.fxh? #define D3DCMP_LESSEQUAL 4 #define D3DTADDRESS_WRAP 1 #define MAX_BONES 22 #define MAX_POINT_LIGHTS 5 #define D3DTEXF_NONE 0 #define D3DTEXF_POINT 1 #define D3DTEXF_LINEAR 2 #define D3DTEXF_ANISOTROPIC 3 #define D3DTEXF_PYRAMIDALQUAD 6 #define D3DTEXF_GAUSSIANQUAD 7 bool State_AlphaBlendEnable : STATE_ALPHABLENDENABLE = false; bool State_ShadowAlphaBlendEnable : STATE_SHADOWALPHABLENDENABLE = false; bool State_TextureAlphaBlendEnable : STATE_TEXTUREALPHABLENDENABLE = false; bool State_FallbackAlphaBlendEnable : STATE_FALLBACKALPHABLENDENABLE = false; bool State_FogEnable : STATE_FOGENABLE = true; bool State_ZWriteEnable : STATE_ZWRITEENABLE = true; dword State_ColorWriteEnable : STATE_COLORWRITEENABLE; dword State_ZFunc : STATE_ZFUNC = D3DCMP_LESSEQUAL; bool State_SpecularEnable : STATE_SPECULARENABLE = false; bool State_StencilEnable : STATE_STENCILENABLE = false; dword State_TextureWrap : STATE_TEXTUREWRAP = D3DTADDRESS_WRAP; dword State_MinFilter : STATE_MINFILTER = D3DTEXF_LINEAR; dword State_MagFilter : STATE_MAGFILTER = D3DTEXF_LINEAR; dword State_MipFilter : STATE_MIPFILTER = D3DTEXF_LINEAR; dword State_MipMapLodBias : STATE_MIPMAPLODBIAS = 0; dword State_SrcBlend : STATE_SRCBLEND = 2; dword State_DstBlend : STATE_DSTBLEND = 1; dword State_CullMode : STATE_CULLMODE = 3; bool State_AlphaTestEnable : STATE_ALPHATESTENABLE = false; dword State_AlphaTestFunction : STATE_ALPHATESTFUNCTION = D3DCMP_LESSEQUAL; dword State_AlphaTestThreshold : STATE_ALPHATESTTHRESHOLDBYTE = 255; float State_FinalAlphaBlendFactor : STATE_FINALALPHABLENDFACTOR = 1.0; float State_BlendedEmissiveFactor : STATE_BLENDEDEMISSIVEFACTOR = 1.0; float4 State_BlendConstant : STATE_BLENDCONSTANT;

damn, was hoping accu-feel had a trial version

yeah, I noticed. Will I can definitely vouch for their textures (Soft Clouds is almost a breakthrough imo), their weather engine hasn't worked as advertised, my experience having been less than satisfactory. I'm interested in seeing if they truly have an ace up their sleeve with their upcoming Weather Direct. In the meantime it's ASN all the way.

can't miss another chance myself to thank SteveFX for doing the job of a thousand developers and bringing it all together in his NO.1 FSX TOOL.

indeed!