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Thanks a lot for your comments! That was really a hot day to fly.

 

 

Fantastic shot! I don't recognise the aircraft (though I probably have it :lol:). Looks like maybe a Bird-dog <??>.

Adam.

 

It absolutely is. Great bird, really. I didn't have the chance to fly it for a long time and it took me a couple of flights to get used to its behavior on final approach, but I got it now.

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Thanks a lot for your comments! That was really a hot day to fly.

It absolutely is. Great bird, really. I didn't have the chance to fly it for a long time and it took me a couple of flights to get used to its behavior on final approach, but I got it now.

It was there - lurking, forgotten, at the very back of my hangar. I dusted it off for the occasion and - wow - I'd forgotten what a simple joy this aircraft is!

No way I could reproduce that subtle/soft haze you have in your picture though. My grabs look horrifically pin sharp and "computery". Well done!

Adam.

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No way I could reproduce that subtle/soft haze you have in your picture though. My grabs look horrifically pin sharp and "computery". Well done!

Adam.

 

I actually dusted another addon off myself these days, REXE+ as a WX engine. I took that shot while flying with real weather in FSX, using nothing but REX WX engine and JV'S enbseries. I was impressed by that haze too, something I had been looking for for a long time.

The original shot looks like this:

 

tvj7.jpg

 

My AA is set at 4x within Catalyst Control Center, and I use FSX default anisotropic filtering, nothing else.

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Wow - thanks for posting that. The "original" is pretty damn fine too! It's very interesting (to me) for a couple of reasons:

1) I've always suspected ATI rendered colour in a more attractive/realistic way. Hard to be scientific about explaining exactly what I mean - but I used to be able to spot an ATI pic out of a bunch of nVidia ones. I got put off ATI a long way back by their chronic (and buggy) driver support and swapped horses to nVidia. I do still occasionally yearn for my ATI colours.

2) Haze. I agree - REX (with or without OPUS etc.) now creates much better fog/haze than we've ever had in FSX before - all good. However - I've gone to DX10 now (which I think I've bored this forum to death with) and that doesn't support ENB. SweetFX works, but I could never find the right balance of effects. They all looked over-done and "cheesy" to me. In all the examples where people showed comparisons, I always preferred the original FSX pic :lol:. I spent too long trying and just gave up and went back to simple FSX/DX10 but just using the time of day and weather effects alone to do the magic. Never any post-processing.

Yet your pic certainly is NOT "cheesy". It's beautifully subtle and more "real" than my pin-sharp efforts - that you'd *expect* to be more "real" but they're not. As you can see, my yardstick for a good FSX screenshot is *reality* - that wonderful "double-take" that you sometimes get when a screenshot looks every bit like a [real] photo.

Good fun, isn't it?

Adam.

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Thanks a lot for your comments, chaps!


 




1) ... I got put off ATI a long way back by their chronic (and buggy) driver support and swapped horses to nVidia.




 


... and they're still quite buggy. I've found one of their drivers that is not that buggy (back in 2012 if I'm not mistaken), and haven't touched it since. Every new driver they release is usually worse than the previous one.


 




2) Haze. I agree - REX (with or without OPUS etc.) now creates much better fog/haze than we've ever had in FSX before - all good. However - I've gone to DX10 now (which I think I've bored this forum to death with) and that doesn't support ENB. SweetFX works, but I could never find the right balance of effects. They all looked over-done and "cheesy" to me. In all the examples where people showed comparisons, I always preferred the original FSX pic :lol:. I spent too long trying and just gave up and went back to simple FSX/DX10 but just using the time of day and weather effects alone to do the magic. Never any post-processing.




 


Mind you: this isn't even REX4, but REXE+ OD.


Yeah, I've been following your DX10 fixer tests. :D Actually, when I read ENB wouldn't work in DX10 mode, I chose not to go "DX10 fixed". As you can see, I'm quite happy with DX9, especially now that I leave the weather to REX. Yet, I wonder: what advantages (visually speaking) made you leave ENB to start using DX10? I think your shots look quite real too, is that thanks to DX10?


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Yeah, I've been following your DX10 fixer tests. :D Actually, when I read ENB wouldn't work in DX10 mode, I chose not to go "DX10 fixed". As you can see, I'm quite happy with DX9, especially now that I leave the weather to REX. Yet, I wonder: what advantages (visually speaking) made you leave ENB to start using DX10? I think your shots look quite real too, is that thanks to DX10?

Not so much leaving ENB (as I couldn't get on with it either) - more a case of better performance/stability in DX10. From what I can remember from the short time I *did* try ENB, it seemed a lot more subtle than SweetFX. Mind you, up until right now I was doing straight "V" captures all the time - and couldn't see the point of any post-processing. You pic is making me re-think my attitude :lol:!

I think that as I added more and more aircraft or utilities that used SimConnect (or were otherwise pretty resource-hungry), I was taking my FSX "over the edge". DX10 (+ Fixer) shunted a lot of the load off the CPU onto the video card and made a huge difference (for me at least).

Shame about ATI drivers still being buggy. I thought they'd have all that sorted by now - particularly as their hardware is pretty good. Ah well ... I can't afford a new card anyway, so my old nVidia will have to do!

As I type, I'm staring at both your pics. They really are a treat!!!

Adam.

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Thank you, Alan!


 




Not so much leaving ENB (as I couldn't get on with it either) - more a case of better performance/stability in DX10. From what I can remember from the short time I *did* try ENB, it seemed a lot more subtle than SweetFX. Mind you, up until right now I was doing straight "V" captures all the time - and couldn't see the point of any post-processing. You pic is making me re-think my attitude :lol:!




 


Thanks again for the kind words, Adam!


If by "post-processing" you mean editing, I usually don't use Photoshop to edit my screenshots, because straight V-key gives me pics like the second one I posted in this topic.


If you're willing to try a "DX9 + ENB = Reality" test flight, I highly recommend you to download JV's ENB here: http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/20084-johns-enb-series-ini-file/ and to fly around YBAS-YAYE with real weather. Since your video card is a beast compared to mine, you shouln't have any performance issues around AU Red.


Let me know what results you get! ;)


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If by "post-processing" you mean editing, I usually don't use Photoshop to edit my screenshots, because straight V-key gives me pics like the second one I posted in this topic.

If you're willing to try a "DX9 + ENB = Reality" test flight, I highly recommend you to download JV's ENB here: http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/20084-johns-enb-series-ini-file/ and to fly around YBAS-YAYE with real weather. Since your video card is a beast compared to mine, you shouln't have any performance issues around AU Red.

Let me know what results you get! ;)

No - by "post-processing" I meant whatever changes ENB or SweetFSX inject to the basic image FSX creates (even if it's done "on the fly"). After messing with DX10+Fixer for a while, trying every tweak imaginable and ending up with a nice stable system there's no way I'm going back to DX9 - even for a minute. I'd be terrified I'd not be able to recreate my DX10 setup. I know it shouldn't be *that* difficult to swap back and forth, but I subscribe to the "if it ain't broke ... " school!

I may try SweetFX again. You never know - I may be able to persuade it to produce subtle effects. The downside is that I have to turn anti-aliasing and SGSS off to use it. It then applies its own FSAA across the whole image - which incurs a bit or a frame rate hit. Watch this space!

Adam.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I may try SweetFX again. You never know - I may be able to persuade it to produce subtle effects. The downside is that I have to turn anti-aliasing and SGSS off to use it. It then applies its own FSAA across the whole image - which incurs a bit or a frame rate hit. Watch this space!

Adam.

 

How are you doing, Adam? Did you get the results you wanted?

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