RESOLVED Very disappointed

[Aceshigh]

I fly both FS9 - 2004 edition with the Voz 1.5 & FSX ( sp1+ Acceleration ) all with win XP home and all updates from the XP update page... + now with the FTX puchased yesterday.  I have loaded all the hot fixes and the free mesh from your website.

I fly around Sydney & Bankstown as I work at the Australian Aviation Museum at Bankstown Airport.

When I use FS9 with Voz 1.5 I see all the landmarks, roads, the river, all buildings in there correct place as in the real world.

Even the Museum and the Bunnings warehouse next door are in Voz 1.5.

But...

Now with FSX and this new FTX  I see only what looks like the same as FSX was ??  Nothing like Bankstown from the air ??

The golf course that is right next door to the airport is in Voz 1.5 but not in this FTX. Looks nothing like the area from the air.

I saved my flight in mid air and went out of the flight sim and turned off the FTX.  I reloaded the flightsim x and the flight and I could not tell any difference.

The install went fine, the settings are the way FTX wants them. My PC has enough power so whats wrong?

Still just looks like FSX ?

I feel I have wasted my money, Im back using FS9 with VOZ 1.5   and that was FREE !!!!

any help would be appreciated.

[Stian Rolandsen]

First of all, sorry to hear that you are disappointed with FTX. I do think that will change though.

When you say that you think Bankstown looks better and more realistic in FS9 with VOZ installed I will have to agree with you.

The reason is very simple. VOZ for FS9 is an addon that includes new textures, landclass and scenery for many airports and other scenery all around Australia.

FTX on the other hand is an texture and landclass addon, with custom coastlines and roads. FTX was never intended to be an airport-addon.

With that said I do want to remind you of the freeware FTX GA-airfield package that was released shortly after AU Blue. This package contains many GA-airfields placed all over the AU Blue region and it's perfect for those VFR-flights.

This package can be downloaded for free from the fullterrain website: www.fullterrain.com

Bankstown though is not part of that package, but who knows what the future will bring...there is always a chance for one of the guys behind the GA-pack to give Bankstown a facelift. No promises though.

Still, I hope you will enjoy FTX AU Blue and Gold once you get over the disappointment of not having a good Bankstown

[Nick]

Interesting Plight you have mate.

It would be handy if you could quote your order number for us

However as a personal preference i always fly in spring unless testing, as during my youth when living in victoria, i only ever saw the greener fruits of the season.

whilst the landclass and texturing is hugely improved in FTX, i have noticed that the summer ground textures do appear similar in tones to the default summer ones.

So i would suggest redoing your flight at say melbourne international and enable the spring season instead.

Report back 

[Ken Hall]

I was wondering if you disabled the voz scenery 1st, many have had problems because VOZ was still installed,I'm not the right guy to ask but if you look at previous posts I sure you will find reference to removing VOZ 1st. Im sure there must be a problem somewhere because all those that have FTX installed correctly have been very happy.

cheers

[Aceshigh]

No I have the VOZ 1.5 in Flightsim 9 not the FSX version.  The Voz I use is installed only in FS9.

what I was really trying to say was..

I cant tell ANY difference between FSX and FSX with your FTX, sorry me complaining about Bankstown may have got off the point a bit. Sorry.

They look the same in "OFF" mode as in "On' mode flown in the same areas.  Can you point out an area that shows the diiference in a dramatic way.

Like in the little avi movie I got from your download section. It clearly shows the difference in OFF and On modes.

Im worried something is wrong ?

[Bendigoandy]

what the \

[Aceshigh]

Interesting Plight you have mate.

It would be handy if you could quote your order number for us

However as a personal preference i always fly in spring unless testing, as during my youth when living in victoria, i only ever saw the greener fruits of the season.

whilst the landclass and texturing is hugely improved in FTX, i have noticed that the summer ground textures do appear similar in tones to the default summer ones.

So i would suggest redoing your flight at say melbourne international and enable the spring season instead.

Report back 

Will post order number and try again in the morning with melbourne international in spring.

[Ken Hall]

if you an't see any difference then there IS SOMETHING WRONG, I'm sure the Orbx guys will be able to guide you through the problem, but you will have to give them your order no as there has been some pirate copies around. Hang in there mate, believe me it is the best FSX add on ever for VFR flying. check out some of the screenshots in the community screenshots section.

cheers

[Bendigoandy]

If you use your order number in the post the good folk will help you out! the way I see it the differance is very very noticable ! see ya in the air 

[Nick]

Look forward to your reply

Also when you do, after rerdo your flight at dusk with autogen turned right up, if you see street lights

on the ground then you know that it has been installed properly

[Aceshigh]

Order Number: FSS0005782Order

Date: 2008-05-06

Flightsim store.

Followed "Puchase" link from your website. 

Ok maybe its the areas Im loading to fly in   Might not look much difference to default FSX, is that possible ?

can anyone let me know of an area that shows clearly On and OFF modes without a doubt.

this would show if something is wrong or not straight away.

[Aceshigh]

Look forward to your reply

Also when you do, after rerdo your flight at dusk with autogen turned right up, if you see street lights

on the ground then you know that it has been installed properly

Will try all these tests in the morning.    its been a long day.

thanks

[Martin Henare]

If possible take some screen shots so we can determine if FTX is working correctly.

Check your scenery library and make sure the FTX library entries are there and activated.

[Barry Meiklejohn]

Bankstown default FSX vs FTX. If you're not seeing BK like the second image then there is something wrong.

[Stian Rolandsen]

When you say that you see NO DIFFERENCE at all with FTX vs default FSX then I start to suspect that something have gone very wrong during your installation of FTX.

You need to go into your Scenery Library and check if the FTXAU-entries have been added correctly.

Believe me...You should see a MAJOR difference with FTX installed correctly.

[Loosestping]

Aceshigh, not being biased by association with Orbx in any way, I have to say FTX is one of if not the best scenery package for FSX. Try Adelaide. In default FSX, it's rather bland (no jokes about it suiting the real thing please  ), with FTX, you actually get to see the city surrounded by parklands, the freeway winding it's way towards Melbourne etc.

If you can't discern a difference between default and FTX, then something is broken.

[maxter]

Just compare the watercourses and you will see the differences.  FTX has them in incredible detail.

Cheers,

[John Venema]

Fantastic to see the support for FTX here, but let's give AcesHigh some space and work with him to resolve his issues, if he has any at all.

If he indeed is seeing FTX as per Barry's second shot and feels that it does not live up to his expectations, then that's his prerogative and we can respect his opinion. However, without seeing any screenshots from him, we need to wait until we can see what he sees ok?

[Aceshigh]

Not sure how to post a image, I see the "insert image " icon? 

Will post two links for now,

http://www.pbase.com/phototime/image/96752271

http://www.pbase.com/phototime/image/96752267

hope it works.  Click "original" below the screenshot to see a full size pic.

One is taken in "on" mode the other in "off" mode.

Both look poor now to me?

[Martin Lott]

I've posted your pics for you AcesHigh. They were quite dark so I've lightened them to make it easier to see if there's a prob with your install. I'll let other more clued up people here analyze them for you.

[Aceshigh]

Thanks..

I forgot to also mention that my frame rates have dropped from 18-23 down (off mode)  to 7 and 8 (on mode)  a slideshow.

I did install the new XP service pack 3 which was released the same day I installed FTX. I had no choice it auto downloaded in the back ground. Hope that did nothing to my system.  I have the framwork 3.0 and sp1 and sp2 installed via the add on Acceleration pack. All drivers updated.  I defragged my drive. All hotfixes in.

All settings as the PDF file says.  I even lowered them by half and could see no difference.   Could I have a bad download?   it seemed to install fine ?

Maybe I need a new computer? 

My System now is:

P4 3.00gz

2 GB ram

7600gt 256mb video card.  (a bit slow but up to now fine.)

Sata 2 500gb hard drive.

At least you guys care about your product, it shows in the amount of help here in this forum.  Very good support. 

Some places you never here from them when one has a problem with their product. Im pleased to see thats not the case here.

Mark    ( Aceshigh )

[John Venema]

Thanks for the shots, they do indeed give us some clues.

They are both showing FTX textures - there is no default FSX showing there at all.

Also, the night/dusk lighting on the textures seem way too bright, very strange indeed. What time of day were those shots taken at?

Firstly; your PC. It's not an ideal spec, mainly due to the CPU not being dual core (which FSX-SP2 most definitely will take advantage of), and that you have a low spec video card with not really enough texture bandwith and texture memory. Address those two and you will find performance will pick up dramatically.

Secondly, you have a severe case of the blurries in both shots. Are you sure you implemented any of the settings in the User Guide and also the tweaks here: http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?topic=1842.0  ?

Blurries will be caused by not linking your video card settings to FSX. You need to set Anti-Aliasing (AA) to at least 4X and Anisotropic Filtering (AF) to 8 or 16X in the video card control panel if your video driver supports it. Then in FSX set you filtering to Anisotropic and turn AA on.

As for the FPS drop, that would be due to our autogen annotation being more dense in the city areas; drag your autogen slider to "Normal" and see how that goes, and then increase it in increments until you find the sweet spot. Also set your texture resolution to 1m. Screenshots of all those settings are in the user guide.

But an FPS drop does not make sense to me, since both shots have FTX textures showing and it would not explain an FPS drop.

Can you take some more shots, this time closer to the ground and without an aircraft in the frame?

[Aceshigh]

So Im not going nuts..  LOL

See I could not see any differnece.  In fact FSX looks worse than it was last week.  ?

Will be upgrading within the next three months. Just need to get the best from what I have now to see me through.

All settings are as in the user guide, I double checked. 

Thanks..  will try a few setting tweaks and post more pics tonight or in the morning.

[Barry Meiklejohn]

I don't think you are seeing FTX at all. It's very difficult to see properly because as you say your system is quite blurry. The blurriness will be a result of your system specifications which are really only adequate for FSX with sliders down, (excellent for FS9 of course). The 7600GT is well and truly struggling with higher resolutions.

Asking a few more questions -

I see you have zoomed out to .40zoom level in the screenshot. What sort of monitor are you running? A 22in 1680x1050, a 24in 1960x1280 or a Matrox TH2G unit across three screens. The 7600GT will have difficulty with 1680x1050 and forget about resolutions highter than that.

Can I get you to post some images a bit closer to the ground that also include a portion of Bankstown airport so I can get my bearings (midday please). If possible can you include the river system as in my screenshots above.

Of course, I'm intrigued by the FPS drop with FTX mode on and FTX mode off. FTX mode doesn't turn FTX on or off, what it does is swap some FSX system files around so that if you install future addons you have the ability not to destroy the FTX configurations. Assuming FTX directories are activated in your scenery library (a job normally performed automatically by the installer), FTX will display whether FTX mode is on or off. If FTX mode is off you will see some funny anomalies - such as default trees, funny looking roofs etc.

If you want your images to display in your post, just enclose them in the IMG quotes.

[John Venema]

Just dawned on me following on from Barry's post ... DOH!

Simple explanation for why you are seeing FTX texture with FTX mode off - you are still in our custom landclass region and as such you'll see our textures. To truly disable FTX and see default FSX textures, you will need to go to World | Scenery Library | and de-activate all the FTXAU... folders in the scenery library.

FTX Mode OFF is really designed for when flying outside an FTX region pack area - it does not completely disable FTX, just the tweaks we use to make it all work they way we want to.

Let me know if you see a difference with the scenery library entries switched off and get back to us ok?

[Aceshigh]

I use a 19" LCD at 1440x900

quote:

"If you want your images to display in your post, just enclose them in the IMG quotes."     

So I enclose the url link in the IMG quotes ?     yes ... no?     LOL    running on very little sleep these last few days. 

The above shots if they worked are two of the OFF mode with the FTX unticked in the scene library.

The last one is with the FTX scene library files ticked on and running in the On mode.   it looks worse than the FTX original. 

hope I have done it right.  lol

no the above shots did not work    ok guys how do i post a image step by step please.  whats do i enclose in the IMG.  A link ?

arhhhhh...

[Barry Meiklejohn]

OK your IMG links work fine - you just forgot to include the .jpg at the end of the image name.

Yes the bottom image looks like FTX, however I dont recall seeing those sandy coloured textures along the river and I can't place what landclass they represent, I will check when I get home from work later tonight. There is also no autogen being displayed. I am assuming that you did not purposely turn autogen off as it is displayed in the first two default shots.

So we still have some anomalies to sort through. John might be able to double check YSBK surrounds in various seasons before I get home tonight if he gets a chance.

So what is causing FTX to look so dreadfully blurry on your system?  That is the question - because it should be looking a lot sharper than this (as evidenced in my images above). What have you set your Display and Scenery settings too please. Could you check them and advise?

[Aceshigh]

The last shot with the sandy parts is of FTX in on mode running on my system.  All settings are as the user guide (pdf) exactly.

I had saved my settings from earlier  ( megasceryX hawaii) and I tried those as well with no luck.

My system just seems to ignore, get confused or hate the new FTX?  why I have no idea.  Im just above the min specs for it so it should run.

I do have lots of add on aircraft, too many to list and megascenryX for hawaii and south california.  The only mesh add on is the free one from your website.

Could the add on Acceleration" be the problem ?    it has been a problem for lots of other products?

It seems that everything looks flat, no buildings at all and soft and blurry.  Framrates are very low as well.    But if I untick the FTX in the Scenery library and run FSX in OFF mode all looks fine and a framerate of 20 - 24 ??    With the FTX its a slide show, very odd.  I went back through my screenshots of normal FSX that I had taken over the last few weeks and all is well, no blurrys  etc. 

Could I have got a bad download?    or would it not install if the download was bad?    grasping at straws here now.

[Wolter van der Spoel]

As my system isn't the latest one and is almost touching the limits

p4 2,8 HT 800fsb

7600GS 256

2G RAM

XP-SP3

attached a fe screenies how it looks at this end and also I'll attach my fsX.cfg so you can compare the settings as we have similar vidcards, yours should be slightly better beeing a "GT"

=> full size screenshot

=> full size screenshot

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=> full size screenshot

[Aceshigh]

no nothing like that..   

if I turn off the autogen slider off, its smooth but everyhting is dead flat on the landscape.  No 3d buildings.    flat like a photograph laying on a table and flying over it.

if I turn the autogen slider up to dense or higher I get massive slow down and graphic corruption video  Glitchs.   I changed the video card to another 7600gt

(borrowed) and it made no difference.    So something in my FSX or FTX must be corrupted ?  or clashing..   or a bad install, download.   Where can I get a CD version of the software ?  ...  it took for ever to download and I have broardband 2 +.

hey where did you get that nice DC-3 in those markings ?        Im helping to restore a real DC-3 Dakota at the air Museum where I work.

[Barry Meiklejohn]

Could the add on Acceleration" be the problem ?    it has been a problem for lots of other products?

It seems that everything looks flat, no buildings at all and soft and blurry.  Framrates are very low as well.    But if I untick the FTX in the Scenery library and run FSX in OFF mode all looks fine and a framerate of 20 - 24 ??    With the FTX its a slide show, very odd.  I went back through my screenshots of normal FSX that I had taken over the last few weeks and all is well, no blurrys  etc.

Could I have got a bad download?    or would it not install if the download was bad?    grasping at straws here now.

I doubt it could be Acceleration, issues caused by FSX/A and/or SP2 tend to be lighting, or transparency issues. There are too many people running FTX fine on FSX/A or SP2 systems; as well as the fact we exhaustively tested on those specs before release. I also, like you, would not think it was a bad download - as you state it wouldn't unzip or install rather than install wonky textures. Also, you're issue appears to be all the textures not just one set.

When I first saw your image I immediately thought that your SETTINGS|SCENERY|Texture resolution was set at a lesser resolution than 1m (eg., 5m), but you say your settings are exactly as per the guide. I am wondering if one of the photo sceneries may have installed or modified any FSX settings. I remember there was a patch early on for photoscenery issues, but that got incorporated into SP1. Again it is hard to believe the photosceneries would cause this problem as there are quiet a few other users with other addon photoscenery products that aren't seeing the same issues as you (or haven't reported them).

The fact that you see no autogen is a deadset ringer that there is something wrong somewhere. Even on low settings you should see trees and houses. Again, sorry, its hard to see in the provided image - it appears as if there is no mesh present? Are you seeing hills and valleys etc?

I wonder if your scenery.cfg file has been corrupted somehow with or by the FTX entries... This is starting to get a bit out of my depth, however if I'm on the wrong track - I'm sure Holger or John will be able to assist a little.

[Nick]

I Know that it is a traumatic process but from my point of view, unless you have copious amounts of addons

maybe it would be a good idea to do a fresh install of FSX/SP1/Sp2/FSXA and then install FTX first

then post shots and that would give us a clear indication as to whether it is a hardware problem or not

[Aceshigh]

I do see hills, moutains "etc" fine.

Im going to install Xp onto a old hard drive and then the updates needed.

Then FSX, sp1 sp2 then the FTX Au blue.    then I will know more I guess.

Hope it is only software and not harware, I changed my video card to a borrowed one. I may borrow some ram later if needed.

Will get back here in a few days with more info....    wish me luck.    lol

*Can one get the AU blue FTX and the free mesh on a CD from any where?  Or only downloads ?

Im downloading it again this morning and it so slow even on my fast connection?

[John Venema]

Given he has almost identical specs than your PC (and an even lower powered vid card) , I recommend you backup your fsx.cfg, grab Wolter's one he's attached, and give that a try. Something is clearly amiss with your installation and sadly we're going to be clutching at straws for quite some time I feel. If Wolter can get shots like those from lesser hardware, I doubt if it is a hardware issue per se (although an upgrade is recommended

[Aceshigh]

Just noticed in my control panel that a past software item has installed Ageia physx drivers.  Did not know they were there?

are they ok or only used in the game that installed them..      just a thought.

[Barry Meiklejohn]

*Can one get the AU blue FTX and the free mesh on a CD from any where?  Or only downloads ?

Im downloading it again this morning and it so slow even on my fast connection?

Yes, it is actually a choice I think when you select AU_Blue from the flightsim store? Adrian should be able to help you out if you contact him again. There is a small charge for CD and handling I think.

Good Luck with the fresh install - I hope it solves your probs...

[Aceshigh]

strange, I ran a search for the fsx.CFG in the FSX folder and sub folders and it reported there was none???

oh dear...

[Matthew Webb]

It's in a hidden folder.  Try putting this into Internet Explorer's address bar and hit return:

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\FSX\

See here for more info:

http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?topic=1365.0

Cheers,

Matt.

[dreamnugget]

Heres another sample shot,

http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1210404384.bmp

My system is only a p4 3.2 Ghz processor, with 1 Gig Ram, Single core (no hyperthreading), Nvidia 7300 gt 256M AGP graphics card.  My frames are set at 15 (due to the system I'm running on), but country areas I can get around23-25, in cities it drops down to about 8-10, my autogen is set at sparse.

[Aceshigh]

UPDATE:

I uninstalled FTX, FSX and every add on I had.  ( dozens and dozens )  Took the lot off the system.

I reinstalled FSX fresh then SP1, then SP2 and then FTX.

So far so good.  20 fps in the rural areas, 13 fps over big cities. 

and...

I an now see the difference !!!!!!  I fly low and the landscape is clearer and more real.  At night I can now see little lamp posts.

I still get the odd blurries and the fonts on my menus go blurry and vanish but its like it is running out of memory ?  Not that often thank goodness.

Sp2 glitch maybe. Trees seem to stretch up the screen for a few seconds ??

Upgrade time I think..    LOL

I have no idea what caused all the problems, one of my add on's ?  A corrupt FSX, FTX ?

I will kepp an eye on it as I re-install each of my favourite aircraft, Scenery etc.

Will post some new screenshots over the weekend.

Thanks for all the help and ideas.  Now I can see its a great product with great support.

Now I can go flying without it looking like flightsim 95 !  LOL

.... oh I just thought I forgot to install the free HolgerMesh.  Can I install it now last??

thanks

Mark    ( Aces high )