What's the UK like in FTXG *without* FTX ENG/Wales/Scotland?

[Adam Banks]

If tempted to fly beyond NZ, the UK is one of the places I'm most likely to go - and I have FTX ENG (only).

 

My question is ... would FTXG significantly improve what I see in Wales and Scotland (which is currently default FSX)?

 

Just to make it more difficult - where would you put FTXG (for these two areas) on this scale?:

 

Default FSX        : 1 star (minimum)

FTXG               : 1-5 stars

FTX Wales/Scotland : 5 stars (maximum)

 

Adam.

[olderndirt]

Hey Adamski.  Never purchased any of the UK but find FTXG in Scotland very good.  Believe with the forthcoming landclass, it'll be as good/better than the individual sceneries.  Here's one of the two Forth bridges - slightly corrected structurally.

 

[NoLonger]

Believe with the forthcoming landclass, it'll be as good/better than the individual sceneries.

 

It will never be better because the textures are more generic and you won't get vector data (roads, waters) of upgraded airports. However, to answer the OP's question, I myself am surprised by how good FTXG is: this is also due to the fact that was only thinking about new textures and it wasn't until I flew above FTXG that I noticed how important the new autogen is! All in all FTXG gives the entire world that specific FTX feel and while it certainly doesn't change the globe into a giant FTX region, it sure does get close, specially when you are simply flying and not searching for details as you would in an FTX region.

 

So while I would give FTXG 5 stars on its own, I would give it at least 3 stars in your scale, because full regions are simply better. However, I also use UTX and some freeware landclass and mesh and this has turned (in my case) Norway almost into a full blown FTX region... so FTXG could also be worth 4 stars in your scale! 

 

It will most certainly make flying out of FTX England a lot less annoying because doing so with FSX default textures will be a pain but doing so with FTXG textures and autogen will be quite seamless!

 

Here are the same bridges as olderndirt posted as they look on my PC, using FTXG and UTX Europe (without ENB or SweetFX: I think olderndirt uses something like ENB to change the colors? His colors are quite saturated and blueish so it seems). UTX clearly makes a difference as you can see!

 

[Adam Banks]

Thanks Dave & JvE. I can see UTX makes quite a difference. Here are a couple of mine - Scotland (default FSX).

1) N55° 58.90' W3 20.84' Alt:1737ft Hdg:309°
2) N56° 30.86' W5 7.83' Alt:3619ft Hdg:045°

1:30pm UK Summer/clear weather. I'd be interested to see how these both look with vanilla FTXG (no UTX etc.).





Adam.

[NoLonger]

Here you go. I changed zoom to 1.0 which is what you were using, I think. I myself use 0.30 which is extreme but you get used to it and things look a LOT sharper with it! For these shots I disabled UTX (and also the other addon scenery I use, just to be sure) so this is default FSX plus FTXG and nothing else. (Well, I also use REX so the sky has a different color which also always has an effect on the scenery, but you can see the difference anyway). It is quite amazing to see how much difference FTXG makes even without landclass...! Don't know of course if this looks more real than FSX default but I do know that for instance the Netherlands looks a LOT more real with FTXG! Anyway, realistic or not, Scotland with FTXG does look a LOT better, if you ask me.

 

 

[Adam Banks]

Thanks, Jan - much appreciated. Are these both without UTX - pure FTXG? Just double-checking! That 2nd pic (the Loch) is certainly *much* better/more detailed. If FTXG improves Scotland and Wales overall by this much, I may purchase Global instead of the two individual FTX regions. I'm just as likely to dive into any other country in the world as I am into Scotland/Wales (no offence!).

 

BTW: I turned off my weather as it was introducing haze - particularly in the Edinburgh shot.

 

I get the impression that where FTXG works best is in the "country" areas - with less autogen. Mountainous areas seem to be substantially improved, but more urban areas less so. Would that be a fair comment (not having seen FTXG in the flesh)? For instance, your UTX makes a much better job of the urban areas surround the Forth Bridge.

 

Adam.

[olealm]

Thanks Dave & JvE. I can see UTX makes quite a difference. Here are a couple of mine - Scotland (default FSX).

1) N55° 58.90' W3 20.84' Alt:1737ft Hdg:309°

2) N56° 30.86' W5 7.83' Alt:3619ft Hdg:045°

1:30pm UK Summer/clear weather. I'd be interested to see how these both look with vanilla FTXG (no UTX etc.).

 

A bit OF perhaps, but for comparison, here they are in a 100% stock FSX SP2 with all sliders to the max:

 

 

[Adam Banks]

A bit OF perhaps, but for comparison, here they are in a 100% stock FSX SP2 with all sliders to the max:

Now I'm totally confused!!! :lol:

Your first pic (Loch) looks neither like my FSX-only nor Jan's FSX+FTXG. Something in-between!! I also have my sliders maxed out.

Was yours *only* FSX ... no FTXG at all? Was the season set to UK summer (current date) ... and at around 1:30pm? I'm intrigued as to why all three are different! The Forth Bridge pic does look like my FSX-only shot, though.

Adam.

[NoLonger]

Thanks, Jan - much appreciated. Are these both without UTX - pure FTXG? Just double-checking! That 2nd pic (the Loch) is certainly *much* better/more detailed. If FTXG improves Scotland and Wales overall by this much, I may purchase Global instead of the two individual FTX regions. I'm just as likely to dive into any other country in the world as I am into Scotland/Wales (no offence!).

 

BTW: I turned off my weather as it was introducing haze - particularly in the Edinburgh shot.

 

I get the impression that where FTXG works best is in the "country" areas - with less autogen. Mountainous areas seem to be substantially improved, but more urban areas less so. Would that be a fair comment (not having seen FTXG in the flesh)? For instance, your UTX makes a much better job of the urban areas surround the Forth Bridge.

 

Adam.

 

Yes, both without UTX, pure FTXG. If you are indeed "just as likely to dive into any other country in the world as I am into Scotland/Wales" just like me, FTXG might be just the thing for you. I mainly fly in Norway which looks a lot better with FTXG but I also already had freeware landclass, mesh and airporst for it. I plan on buying ONLY the FTX regions of countries I love to fly in so right now I am only planning on getting FTX Norway South. For the rest of the globe FTXG does the job for me. I also decided to pass on Scotland because it's nice to fly there once in a while but I won't fly there enough to buy FTX Scotland. I also have to add that FTXG is good enough to get me flying in other locations where I have never flown before! So all in all imho FTXG is a great improvement no matter what.

 

About the urban areas: I think you are mistaken with that one. Yes, UTX does a better job of PLACING the textures around the bridges but that's simply landclass doing its job. FTXG is about textures and the textures themselves are also a lot better than default, not to forget (more important than I anticipated) the new autogen!!! The cities look a LOT less messy with FTXG and also more in proportion. If you give me the coordinates for a screenshot above a city we can compare the two. (I don't have a backup of the default textures so I can't switch back to FSX default.)

Now I'm totally confused!!! :lol:

Your first pic (Loch) looks neither like my FSX-only nor Jan's FSX+FTXG. Something in-between!! I also have my sliders maxed out.

Was yours *only* FSX ... no FTXG at all? Was the season set to UK summer (current date) ... and at around 1:30pm? I'm intrigued as to why all three are different! The Forth Bridge pic does look like my FSX-only shot, though.

Adam.

 

Yes, I also wonder what olealm used... not UTX, looking at the brdige picture, but those mountains do look different oddly enough.

 

BTW olealm, if you want to create the EXACT same screenshots, start a flight, go to the Map view and there you can enter the EXACT coordinates, altitude and direction: a simple matter of copy and paste!

 

EDIT

And just for fun... this is how FTXG looks like WITH UTX... Apparently UTX doesn't always improve things...? I liked the looks of that a lot more without UTX! Don't know what's more real though.

 

 

EDIT 2

After posting this I noticed some similarities with olealms picture of the same area: I think that one was after all taken with UTX on...? Boy, I am also getting pretty confused now LOL

[olealm]

Your first pic (Loch) looks neither like my FSX-only nor Jan's FSX+FTXG. Something in-between!! I also have my sliders maxed out.

Was yours *only* FSX ... no FTXG at all? Was the season set to UK summer (current date) ... and at around 1:30pm? I'm intrigued as to why all three are different! The Forth Bridge pic does look like my FSX-only shot, though.

 

 

Yes, Summer - Day. Next week, in fact

 

This is a completely stock FSX Acc (SP2) extracted from an archieve made just after a fresh install. The complete FSX folder is temporaily replaced. The FSX folders in "appdata" and "programdata" were also restored temporarily, and shaders cache was deleted before firing it up. Only other tweaks were done in fsx.cfg, ie. the usual - bufferpools=0, highmemfix, LOD=6.5, the usual. If I release it, FPS stays well above 100 all the time, with a 3.5 year old i7-930 and a GTX670

 

Although far from FTXG or even GEX quality, I was a bit astounded by the (relative) "quality" of the stock textures. But then I remembered all the tweaking and freeware/payware addons installed and uninstalled through the last 3.5 years. All of them fighting by the "last man standing" principle in the scenery, texture and autogen folders. Some making backups, some not. Some restoring a lot of LATER changes during uninstall, some not. I would not be surprised if things went bad on my SSD along the way.

 

IMHO I think that for textures and LC, all one really need is FTXG, REX and (until OpenLC) UTX.

BTW olealm, if you want to create the EXACT same screenshots, start a flight, go to the Map view and there you can enter the EXACT coordinates, altitude and direction: a simple matter of copy and paste!

 

Which is what I did  Zoom might be different, though.

And appologies for the Jumbojet destroying the view 

[Adam Banks]

Thanks to you both for all the help ... I'm going to have another go at that troublesome "Loch" shot - see why these differences. @olealm - pretty well the same fsx.cfg tweaks there (no surprises!) ... so it must be something else.

Either way ... I think I may save up for FTXC - Jan's convinced me ... that's if I ever get some spare cash!

Adam.

[NoLonger]

Jan's convinced me

 

My pleasure. And btw I forgot to mention the name is Jeroen, not Jan LOL but that's no problem at all: I knew you were talking to me!