triton Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 Theres an update out from FEX that gives Higher definition clouds etc.. it's a big download at just under 1GB.. but the results are worth it The update just installes over the top of your existing install, remember to set the options in FEX to 4096 for the texture sizes for maximum effect.. FEX will change your fsx.cfg file to accomodate this setting each time you run FEX (this is because any config changes made from within FSX, result in FSX putting the setting back to 1024) you can see in the shots above FTX looks amazing with the new clouds Cheers triton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LBPN Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 I'm downloading the update right now. Looks great. It will be a tough competition between FEX and REX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolter van der Spoel Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 Hey Maurice, Long time not seen ya mate, hope all is well at your end Great screens and thankx for the HU Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmrich28 Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 thanks for the heads up! had time to only install and quickly take off before going to work can't wait to play with this more when I get back Dave p.s what did we do to deserve this, 1.2, and Russ's interior all in the same week, I don't remember selling my soul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Kae Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 Don't you? You sold it the day you purchased that box in the gameshop that said Flight Simulator (fill in appropriate version here ) Maurice mate, it is great to see you !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Private-Cowboy Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 @ftxthebest: I don't see that since REX is nothing but one man's vision atm and has yet to hit the stores. And my guess would be that this will not happen in the near future (say 3 months) given the little-less-action-little-more-talk approach of the REX team. REX looks good but what does it give you if you cannot buy it??? @FEX-users: Is there a big FPS-hit by those new "shd" clouds? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LBPN Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 @FEX-users: Is there a big FPS-hit by those new "shd" clouds? You loose a few frames, still playable though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwolb Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 Hum, I have Vista 32-bit, with older P4 3.6ghz processor, Nvidia 8800gts 640mb, and 3 gb ram, nothing fancy, and I had my fps go up by 1 on all planes. I have my FPS locked at 20 fps, and almost all default planes have it pegged. I still cant believe I did not have any impact, and have all of the cloud textures set to max. Not sure if my results are normal, but Iam not complaining. several pics: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwolb Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 and yes Russ, the Mooney is all I fly after your great update! Edit: yea, 1.2, Russ Whites mooney mod, fex hd cloulds, and rainy weekend to enjoy it all, does not get much better than this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triton Posted June 21, 2008 Author Share Posted June 21, 2008 @FEX-users: Is there a big FPS-hit by those new "shd" clouds? You loose a few frames, still playable though... interesting.. I see it performing better with the higher settings... one thing to watch for.. FSX will automatically overwrite the value for the line in the fsx.cfg that says TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=4096 (4096 is required for SHD textures) when ever you make a config change from within fsx. For Example: So whilst In a flight, If you alter anything from the config in the SIM, say the autogen density as an example.. FSX will then update the fsx.cfg file(in memory and subsequently in the file itself), reset that line back to TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=1024. (the textures wont look as good and performance will be slightly poorer) this is because When the config change has finished loading, the sim will be using 1024 rather than the 4096 value required for SHD clouds and textures. This is a "feature" of FSX :'( If you never make changes whilst in flight it's unlikely to have an effect on you. the easy "one off fix" is just run fex and launch fsx from it.. that way, FEX will modify the fsx.cfg entry to 4096 and save it for you, before starting the sim. so If you have to make a change in Flight, save the flight and restart via FEX Who knows perhaps at some point some smart person will be able to execute code in the sim, which keeps it set to 4096 and removes this problem... untill them it's something we need to be mindfull of. from my point of view, I think it's worth it these clouds are a step up in realism within the sim, with these and ftx it's becomming insanely real Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwolb Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 Yea, I read that about the cfg file change issue, and I never change that often after I have it setup, but still nice info to have. Thanks for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 Hmmm, interesting. I wonder if this will also impact Russell White's Mooney VC, which is at 2048? Maybe we're not seeing the true potential of his VC if this fsx.cfg issue overrides each time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwolb Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 Hmmm, interesting. I wonder if this will also impact Russell White's Mooney VC, which is at 2048? Maybe we're not seeing the true potential of his VC if this fsx.cfg issue overrides each time? I have not noticed any changes in the VC since installing it, but with FEX it puts it at 4096, so it should not be an issue for those that have FEX. Before I loaded FEX, and it bumped this setting up to 4096, I never noticed any change. And since putting it up to 4096 did not change either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triton Posted June 22, 2008 Author Share Posted June 22, 2008 Will have to download the Mooney VC and give it a try I'll also need a repaint for it I think...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pphibbs Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 Thanks Triton, I downloaded the update last night and after installing is, flew the next leg of Tassie Tigers from Launceston to Cambridge. Not only did the FTX scenery blow me away but the clouds looked AMAZING. Actually I was almost IMC getting above the Western Tiers (which were stunning). I still had view of land but was fairly surrounded by a range of cloud layers and mist. Any pilot worth their experience would have turned back. I don't know what the weather will be like today but I plan to take some shots of the event and it will be interesting to see how the clouds look. My wife and I visited Tassie last year during winter and very little was flying due to the low cloud. Anyway, thanks again for bringing this update to our attention. I probably wouldn't have realised it existed otherwise. Regards, Paul Phibbs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Hall Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 I downloaded the update but it won't let me install it says archive integrity failed, I have had to reinstall on my new computer and had to reactivate my keys have raised a ticket with them, but I fear it will be quite some bother trying to sort out, sometimes I wonder if all this activation reactivation stuff is worth all the hassel. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmrich28 Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwolb Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 One more pic to add: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Hall Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 solved the problem , the original download was faulty, I used the flight 1 download tool and it fixed it, now I use it with active sky and it is stunning cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triton Posted June 22, 2008 Author Share Posted June 22, 2008 solved the problem , the original download was faulty, I used the flight 1 download tool and it fixed it, now I use it with active sky and it is stunning cheers I'm sure it's not the case, but Just in case you downloaded FEX for the first time... rather than the update.. and your not on 1.0.5.5.. you might want to read this.. "Just a quick guide: At the moment the SHD Update is in the form of an update solely. It depends on an existing installation of FEX upgraded to version 1.0.4.2. Therefore if installing FEX for the first time download FEX from Flight1's page at: http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=flt1fex Install as normal from the Flight1 wrapper. Next apply the 1.0.4.2 update at: http://www.flightenvironment.com/files/FEX_Patch_1042.zip And then finally the new 1.0.5.5 update from: http://flight1.100megabyte.com/updates/FEX_SHD.exe" @gwolb - Great shots there, similar spec PC to mine, similar results as well.. with the ORBX work, all the freeware addons, some stunning aircraft, and weather Addons.. FSX is well and truly alive now.. and that's before we get the new cpu's from Intel and monster gpu's from ati and NVidia.. Hang on! the wife's called a surgeon, she want me separated from the sim ;D ;D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolter van der Spoel Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 Hang on! the wife's called a surgeon, she want me separated from the sim ;D ;D rotflmao Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy68 Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 Hi guys, If anyone has problems getting FEX SHD to run after updating from FEX 1042 on Vista, it's probably a UAC issue. Triton pointed me in the right direction and all is working now Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Hall Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 I'm sure it's not the case, but Just in case you downloaded FEX for the first time.. I have used fex for at least 3 months, I could never get it to update to the 1.0.5.5 version so I just enjoyed it as it was, The shd update when I tried to run it kept saying that the archive integrity was wrong. see this link. The download tool actually repaired the old download . cheers http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=26925&PN=2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmglads Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 Hi kman, I'm just curious to know how you run active sky with FEX - I have both, but at present only run FEX. Is it just the weather component with everything else switched off in Activ Sky? Got to say the new SHD textures are fantastic, I'm having a lot of fun creating new cloud scenarios - but really looking forward to the weather generating part of the program - it really will be the complete package then! Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triton Posted June 22, 2008 Author Share Posted June 22, 2008 Hi kman, I'm just curious to know how you run active sky with FEX - I have both, but at present only run FEX. Is it just the weather component with everything else switched off in Activ Sky? Got to say the new SHD textures are fantastic, I'm having a lot of fun creating new cloud scenarios - but really looking forward to the weather generating part of the program - it really will be the complete package then! Cheers. I might be able to help here.. Currently FEX allows you to switch, and modify the cloud, sky and water textures used by FSX to depict weather. Active Sky did something similar under fs2004 with the textures. Under FSX, Active Sky became "ASX and XGraphics". The XGraphics piece, allows you to exchange all sorts of textures within the sim with textures presented from Xgraphics. The old Graphics part of Active Sky doesn't work with FSX (incompatible textures I think) Now the other part of Active Sky became ASX, ASX takes the real world weather data, and creates lots of "virtual" weather stations around you when you fly. It then sends the weather to the simulator where FSX selects the appropriate cloud sets and displays them according to what's sent by ASX. In effect it squirts weather data into the sim, that's more accurate (generally) and more frequent, that FSX itself can muster (although FSX is not bad). So when you combine this with the replacement textures from FEX or Xgraphics the results are More realistic. All of which is to say that yes, once the fex clouds are installed, you just use the weather feature of Active sky. Cheers triton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmglads Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 Thanks triton, just got Active Sky out of mothballs & installed - with the new SP3 update. All working well, now I know (roughly) what I'm doing! Just looked at the controversy REX is causing on the forum, I'm just glad to have a program that works well (FEX) & with the new Hi Def clouds, it's excellent. I have to say though, the water effects in REX look stunning - but I'm sure the FEX developers have some ideas about water??.....and weather....eventually?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Hall Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 good explanation Triton, I'm not exactly sure how it does it, I contacted HI FI and asked them wouls ASX use the FEX graphics and they said yes. So far it seems pretty much on the money, I'll need to try it out later as it's blowing a gale down here. The new hi def clouds are almost too pretty, but wow. Flying through the windows in those clouds is great. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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