chixter

increases in autogen and mesh texture mainly. Was able to increase AI traffic. Tweaked my graphics card a bit. Also dl orbx freeware, dozens of airports several of which I fly regularly. They also have a lot of aircraft repaints as freeware, some of them quite nice. A very big improvement. For the hell of it I checked out a few Europe areas as well. The only thing I believe I can do better is the road textures...from what I've read on forums UTX plays very nicely with FTXG and is tops on road textures. So it seems that if you want global coverage, the FTXG is the way to go....rather than purchase multiple regions of the other stuff.

OK Stop the presses. Get that crow over here and give me a fork. After spending a snow day here at the Jersey Shore fiddling with my settings. I must say I have a very big improvement seen on my new FTX Global installation. The problem it seems, was that their recommended settings are for off the shelf type systems and if your a little hopped up as I am, or a lot hopped up as some simmers are, these settings will not yield maximum effect. So I retract my disappointment from the prior 2 posts. I am seeing better scenery and visuals then I had with GEX, running at higher settings with no loss of smoothness or frame hits. I'm even able to accelerate long flights considerably with no quirks, stutters, or crashes. (something I couldn't do with GEX). Lesson learned: All of this stuff is system specific, one size does not fit all.

@Kilo 60 GEX was a slight improvement over the default. I only had North America region. I got hyped up on people saying how much better FTXG was...so I uninstalled GEX and bought FTXG for $90.00 U.S. In my opinion, it is no difference between the two. One was $35 one was $90. That's the only difference to me. This is because I fly VATSIM almost exclusively in the states. Now, from what I am reading (and should have discerned before parting with $90) most of the raves about FTXG are from pilots who fly in Europe, South America, Asia, etc. So perhaps if you are a globe trotter, FTXG is the way to go...you buy one package vs GEX modules @$35 per. I can only attest to what I see, in the U.S. there is no difference between GEX and FTXG. While I don't have a super hopped water cooled gaming system, its not really a slouch either. Quadcore intel processor upgraded hardware, etc. I have a 2 monitor setup a 42" main and a 22" side monitor. I see vids of very realistic looking terrain but that is not going to be accomplished with JUST FTXG. They usually have UTX or something else compatible running with it. Hope this explains things.

I did a clean install of FTX Global this weekend. Was using GEX, thought I could do better. I uninstalled GEX before installing the FTX Global. VERY little difference in my opinion from the default terrains. Things still look a tad 'cartoonish'. Certainly no better than the GEX which was only a small improvement over the default. No problem with frame rates but the roads still suck, as do the bridges. I do most of my flying on the east coast, a lot of lowlands and barrier islands and all. Sometimes I like to fly low and slow, other times I will Lear from Marthas Vinyard to Myrtle Beach on VATSIM. I don't know, it's not terrible, but not worth $100 either. One GEX region (North America) does the same for much less. Maybe I'll look into the photo stuff that is shipped with the hard drive or I'll do my scenic flying in Europe, where it seems to be better.