Newbie help appreciated

[stapes200]

Hi all first off Happy New Year.

Hope someone can help, I have FSX and have been playing around with it for ages. I have set up a flight plan from London Gatwick to Palma Majorca and have flown it a few times with various planes. However the graphics although set to max are still very unrealistic, I have seen on here and youtube people with amazing graphics particularly at the airports and during low flight (scenery) what is the best way to get these graphics and what do I need to download.

Also was hoping for a Thomas cook plane with some announcements.

Many Thanks

[CHUCK79]

What are your spacs and settings?

[stapes200]

Have all settings set to full in fsx pc specs are:

nvida geoforce gt 610 2 gb graphics
amd phenom  II x4 850 3300mhz 4 core processor
8gb ram
windows 7 ultimate 64

[Boikat]

If you haven't installed them allready, there are some enhanced autogen addons:

http://simviation.com/1/search?submit=1 ... &x=17&y=16

[Fozzer]

....as 'cat says...

Its only when you start adding all the exciting freeware and payware add-ons available, that the various Flight Sims really come to life!

Time to start searching!

Paul...FS 2004...(and FSX)... 8-)...!

[CHUCK79]

Sounds like your machine should handle FSX pretty well......
Here's a couple of freeware gems that will work wonders on your FSX environment:

HDE v2, Photo Realistic Texture Pack

FSWC Real Water

REX OD is a payware product that will replace both of the above freeware programs (although I often use FSWC in conjunction with REX)
if you want to shell out a few clams........
REX w/Overdrive

Check the SimV site for some great sceneries:
Freeware Kauai and Niihua photoreal
Use with this:
Hawaii terrain mesh

Look for the Grand Canyon and Death valley sceneries here:
http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/fil ... x-scenery/

[brett]

Sounds like your machine should handle FSX pretty well......
Here's a couple of freeware gems that will work wonders on your FSX environment:
HDE v2, Photo Realistic Texture Pack

Whats the difference between the two packs listed besides their size? Both are for FSX.
HDE v2, Photo Realistic Texture Pack
and
HDEv2 Sky Colors Converted for FSX

[CHUCK79]

I forgot to mention the sky colors. The sky colors go along with the HDE package

[brett]

Great thanks. So both are needed.

[CHUCK79]

Great thanks. So both are needed.

Yep

[brett]

Can I just copy/rename my texture folder as TextureOriginal or does FSX bypass the texture folder name and call up whats inside?

[Boikat]

It's usually a good idea to make a copy of the entire  texture folder, or if it's just a texture replacements, a folder with the original textures, under a different name, and keep that folder in the main texture folder in case you want to go back to the original textures for some reason. 

For example, I have a upload for a high resolution "moon".  It's been a while, but I believe I included a folder with the original moon .bmp's.  That would go into the FSX texture folder too, and the High Rez moon .bmp into the texture folder and replaces the originals. A copy of the High Rez moon texture folder would also go into the texture folder.  That way, you can swap them out if you wanted too. (There's also a "Strange Moons" DL, which is another reason to keep the original as backup!)

http://simviation.com/1/search?submit=1 ... &x=19&y=12

http://simviation.com/1/search?submit=1 ... &x=24&y=14

[brett]

Thanks for the reply. I reread my question and do not think I worded it correctly. I often rename my files with the NameOriginal and just keep them in the same folder. In this case I was going to make a copy of the whole texture folder, rename it and place it next to the original Texture folder in my root FSX folder. I guess I could just place it inside it to. My question arises because I really don't know when FSX looks at the main folder name first as a path or bypasses the folder name and instead goes right to the files inside the folders as it's path.

I have noticed that I can make a new folder inside my FSX  Gauges folder with the addon aircraft name and place all its gauge files in it, FSX will find them when I call up the aircraft. So in a way it bypassed that new folder name. In the case above I was worried that if I added a new folder(using a different name) with the originals in it, that it would do the same thing and cause a conflict. Thats why I was going to make a seperate folder.