NOTED How to disable FTX ENG water?

[thissmallfish]

Hi guys, 

 

I'd like to disable the FTX ENG water textures in my FSX because they seem to be over-riding my REX textures. Just my humble opinion, but the FTX ones are too blue. Is it a simple case of deleting the water BGLs in ORBX\FTX_EU\FTX_EU_ENG_06_CVX\scenery ?

 

Just FYI, it would be fantastic if the FTX control app allowed us to do stuff like this. I also prefer the lights in UTX Europe over the FTX ones. 

[Wolter van der Spoel]

Hi there,

have a look at this handy freeware tooly to adjust your water settings => http://www.strikingsoftware.com/fswc.shtml

and in case you really want to take the risk to mess things up a little then backup and save all the files from => ....\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\ORBX\FTX_EU\FTX_EU_ENG_08_CUSTOM\scenery,

that start with 600_FTX_EU_ENG_base_WC_xxxx.bgl

make sure you safe 'm and have play, BUT, here comes the but, you are on your own.

[thissmallfish]

Yeah, I'm already using fswc but I'm in DX10 and don't have much choice at the moment. Appreciate the advice and I'll have a play. I really do think users should have the option to select which items get placed into their FSX and which don't though. As jaw-droppingly sweet as the FTX stuff is (and I fully intend on purchasing Global when I next get paid) I do dislike the rigidity of the current system. 

[dickb]

The blue water is the main thing which is stopping me buying the FTX EU UK regions. I have FTXG, which allows me to keep the nice brown inland water colour I have (courtesy UTX/FEX/FSWC), but of course I don't get all the extra goodies that the UK regions provide.

 

And FSWC is an excellent tool which does lots of things to enhance your FSX water, but it doesn't change the base colour.

[thissmallfish]

Correct. All FSWC changes are the shaders used by FSX, not the textures. Unfortunately, FTX seem to use a system wherein their products will call for FTX textures regardless of where they are in the scenery library. This morning I'm going to have a quick play and see if I can address the FTX water issue and I'll get back to you Dick. 

[thissmallfish]

Right, the invasive nature of FTX is beginning to irritate me now. I've noticed a few other areas where FTX overrides stuff that other programs are trying to update... Water, grass, lights, airports, auto-gen etc. 

 

Anyway, that out of the way.

 

This is what FSX looks like with UTX Europe and FTX England installed. Note the very distinct change in ocean water colour in the Irish sea (fig.1). This is just as noticeable at 1000ft as it is a 30,000ft (fig.2) compared to default (fig. 3). Indeed, I also notice that the tidal areas (the brown bits) are very poor quality on my setup. I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt that it might be my GFX card that is the issue here (5850) but nonetheless, I shouldn't be able to see grid-lines in the water (fig.4). 

 

Fig. 1 Irish sea cost of NW England. 

 

 

Fig. 2 Significant shift in water textures (UTX Europe and FTX England)

 

Fig.3 UTX Europe only. Notice the decent water quality and no sudden shift in hue. 

 

 

Fig. 4 FTX England tidal area, notice the poor texture resolution, despite being set to maximum in FSX and 2048 in fsx.cfg. I am willing to accept that the poor resolution may be due to my GPU but notice the faint gridlines at the bottom of the picture. These are far more noticeable in-game. 

 

Finally, here's what happens if I delete EVERYTHING that mentions water in FTX:

 

Fig. 5 Coastal boundary class?

 

Clearly, FTX is attempting to enforce some kind of boundary class around England. The bright green hue appears to be caused by some, as yet, undiagnosed water (or land) class that I have not deleted. The darker green hue is a texture derived from REX, the extent of which is the extent of my LOD setting (note the currently stored detail of England). 

 

First question: Why is FTX doing this?

Second question: Why did OrbX take the decision this manner? I have a sneaky suspicion it's to encourage/force users to consider updating to the whole FTX Global package.

Third question: What do I need to delete to enable me to use the superior REX water textures in-line with the superb FTX land textures. 

 

 

--

 

While I am pleased with the excellent texture details that FTX England has provided (I was intially impressed by the tidal flats areas before I got closer) I am more than a little disappointed with how they have been implemented. 

[Wolter van der Spoel]

 just to avoid that we get here a "shoot out at the FTX Coral"

 

let me remind you fine gentleman, that the scenery is as is, you venture on your own to take it apart, that's your thing, BUT, we do not support this.

 

secondly if you have good ideas and positive comments to add than we are all open for it and gladly look at things to improve them within the framework of the possible. 

 

What we do not like and, I think you wouldn't like either when someone comes at your home and calls it whatever, coming here in our forums, start taking the thing apart and then start up a crying contest,

 

I don't like this I don't like that, spreading negative comments is the easiest way to make friends here, well NOT,

 

adding a positive and constructional idea sounds a wee bit more positieve and as I've said before will be greeted.

 

thank you for your attention

[dickb]

I believe there was a 'brown water' mod for one of the other FTX regions (not sure which).  Is that something you would consider for FTX EU ?

[thissmallfish]

 just to avoid that we get here a "shoot out at the FTX Coral"

 

let me remind you fine gentleman, that the scenery is as is, you venture on your own to take it apart, that's your thing, BUT, we do not support this.

 

secondly if you have good ideas and positive comments to add than we are all open for it and gladly look at things to improve them within the framework of the possible. 

 

What we do not like and, I think you wouldn't like either when someone comes at your home and calls it whatever, coming here in our forums, start taking the thing apart and then start up a crying contest,

 

I don't like this I don't like that, spreading negative comments is the easiest way to make friends here, well NOT,

 

adding a positive and constructional idea sounds a wee bit more positieve and as I've said before will be greeted.

 

thank you for your attention

 

My apologies, I didn't intend to come across as overly testy. Nonetheless, I am a paying customer and as such I have the right to complain if a product doesn't live up to my expectations of what I would consider to be "industry" (whatever that is) standards. I would also expect the racing team I work for to go apesh*t if I dropped the ball on something too

 

Take it more as a passionate investigation from an interested customer. I'm here to get the best out of my product and maybe offer some insight to those suffering the same issue and perhaps prod OrbX into making their otherwise excellent product even better. Massaging egos and making friends isn't even on the foot of the list of things to get done

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi guys,

 

if you deactivate the custom waterclass files in a region (600_FTX_EU_ENG_base_WC_xxxx.bgl etc.) you also need to do the same with the custom waterclass textures as the two are tied together. Those reside in the corresponding [...]_08_CUSTOM\texture folder and are the .bmp files that start with "3", such as "301b2su1.bmp".

 

Cheers, Holger

[Alex Goff]

First question: Why is FTX doing this?

Second question: Why did OrbX take the decision this manner? I have a sneaky suspicion it's to encourage/force users to consider updating to the whole FTX Global package.

Going to put this sneaky suspicion to rest before it's picked up elsewhere. Global as a concept did not even show up until after England was released. No conspiracy here.

[thissmallfish]

Guys,

I believe I have determined the source of the problem:

DX10, FTX Eng [blackpool area with my own custom objects additions] and UTX Europe, REX water textures (green hue in the distance) this is my starting point.

DX10, FTX Eng and UTX Europe - following Holger's suggestion. Note the REX texture extends all the way up to the beach now

DX9, FTX Eng and UTX Europe - After restoring all the FTX England water files you no longer see the REX texture as intended instead just the milky blue FTX hue. Note also that the sandy/muddy textures are much improved

I have FSWC installed and have applied the DX10 shaders for the DX10 screenshots. If this could be looked at for the next patch it would be fantastic. Maybe just a script to turn on and off the offending textures if there isn't something that can be done to the textures themselves? I have Addon Converter X but that doesn't appear to make any difference.

[thissmallfish]

I should emphasise that I adore this product when in-land. It's incredible. A lot of people complain about "cartoony" colours but to be honest, I was driving home from work the other day and glancing out of the window across farmers fields I was struck by how green and yellow they were and that actually, FTX England nailed it. 

 

I will be buying FTXG at the end of the month, without a shadow of a doubt. But I suspect that because FTXG doesn't alter water textures I will still have this strange issue around the coast-lines of England. So again, I ask for the devs to consider putting together a management system similar to that of UTX where aspects can be enabled and disabled at the user's discretion. 

[thissmallfish]

By way of an update, Steve's DX10 scenery fixer resolves this issue among others.

[dickb]

By way of an update, Steve's DX10 scenery fixer resolves this issue among others.

 

How do you mean ? Does it get rid of the FTX ENG blue water textures ?

[thissmallfish]

How do you mean ? Does it get rid of the FTX ENG blue water textures ?

 

No it fixes the odd looking brown mud in the coastal areas. I think it was a water shader/texture issue.