pensioned Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Hello My system may hold a key to the following problem: Windows 7 HE, Intel® Core i7 CPU@3.40 GHZ, 4 core, AMD Radeon HD 6900, 8 GB Ram, FSX Standard, UTX NA, GEX, REX, FSP, I decided to try to install some freeware Orbx scenery to see if it will run on my system and if it would be worth purchasing others. The manual indicates that one can still install even without the FTX installed. I am quite sure I have installed the Scenery correctly and added it in the Add On Scenery folder in FSX, and added it to the scenery using the windows 7 fix of right clicking in the window. and used the suggested settings in the manual but I see next to no changes...... no runway visible, a few logs visible close to where the rwy would be and a 2 dimensional square on the ground, and the wind sock is in a different spot from default. I get the impression from the manual doc many things will not be visible but why install if nothing will show.... no way to make a judgment as to if it will run on my system, so I am hoping for a solution that will improve the display. Anyone got a solution to my situation? Thanks pensioned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Madison Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Hello and thank you for trying CBB7. ORBX scenery are dependent upon our own library of scenery objects to display properly. If you have never installed an ORBX product before trying CBB7, you will experience some problems without these libs. CBB7 is also dependent upon the ORBX PNW region to display shorelines and other features correctly. If this is your first experience with an ORBX product, I would suggest downloading our KHQM freeware first. This lovely little airport will display correctly on your system. Give that a shot and post back up with your results. If you still experience display issues, we'll be glad to help you with your install. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pensioned Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 Thanks Gordon OK I will give it a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pensioned Posted February 12, 2014 Author Share Posted February 12, 2014 Reporting back. The KHQM scenery worked fine showing the hangers and bridge as it should but with some buildings showing as flat 2D images which I assume has to do with not having all other software that most go with Orbx scenery. The CBB7 scenery is now showing much more details as it should.... wooden runway and camp and log boom by water. In the Scenery Library in game: the top of the scenery list has changed to FTX AA_ORBXLIBS ...... this was not present until after installing the KHQM scenery FTX AA_7WA3 FTX AA_CBB7 FTX AA_CEN4 FTX AA_GLOBAL AIRPORTS ...... this was not present until after installing the KHQM scenery for some unknown reason FTX AA_KHQM followed by the rest of my scenerie. The last scenery that I installed was the KHQM scenery. Why the FTX AA_ORBXLIBS showed up after awhile is a mystery. Thanks Gordon for the help. Any comments? pensioned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Madison Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Do me a favor and post a screen shot if you can. It's much easier to diagnose with a visual. The ORBXLIBS are a separate library that we are constantly updating every time we add a scenery or region. These come with any purchased region or airport and install automatically. KHQM comes with the libs, so that's why they appeared after you installed that airport. Once installed, all other ORBX locations will reference those ORBXLIBS assets. As a rule of thumb, we recommend that you update to the most current version every time you install a new ORBX product. These can be found on our support page and are updated frequently. Regarding your scenery order, all of the freeware airstrips should display without issue if they are designed to operate as a stand alone. CBB7 should show all of the bits and pieces, but will not display the shorelines and elevations correctly without our PNW region. Hope this info helps you get started. I'll look forward to your screenshots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jethro VH-JET Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Hi There Pensioned, Just a couple of quick questions, with regard to what you see in FSX with these Orbx freeware products. I noticed in your description of your FSX install , you have "FSX Standard version" have you upgraded FSX to SP1 & SP2 since the original install of FSX Standard. Also have you checked to see that .net has been updated to 4.0 or 4.5.1, although .net in windows 7 is autoupdated by windows update. As these 2 items are pre-requsite for any Orbx product it may help Gordon to know the status of FSX in your setup. Cheers Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pensioned Posted February 12, 2014 Author Share Posted February 12, 2014 Hi Jeff I have SP1 and SP@ with Acceleration installed and version 4.5 .net I will work on some screenshots Thanks pensioned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pensioned Posted February 13, 2014 Author Share Posted February 13, 2014 I am having trouble posting pictures. I am using Explorer 11. I have images on speedyshare but the program here freezes when I paste the url address in the address box ( selecting the image icon above). pensioned Just tried FireFox and it allowed me to paste the address but I got an error message when trying to post. " You are not allowed to use that image extension on this community". So much to learn and so little time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Madison Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Yep...IE can cause problems. You should be OK with Chrome or Firefox. JPEG or PNG should work for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pensioned Posted February 13, 2014 Author Share Posted February 13, 2014 Hope this works Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pensioned Posted February 13, 2014 Author Share Posted February 13, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Madison Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 From your screen shots I'm seeing stock FSX terrain behind the ORBX freeware. I went into my setup and re-created your conditions and got the same scene. For CBB7 I see the correct trees and models, but shorelines and roads are out of place, as you would expect them to be in FSX with no PNW region installed. Same for KHQM...I'm seeing correct display for the immediate airport freeware, and FSX default surroundings. The flat ground buildings are typical in FSX and depend upon your autogen settings. You may see some 3D buildings on the ground and others display as flat. From what I can see in your screen shots, everything is working as designed. For KHQM and CBB7 you will see a major improvement in the scenery with PNW region installed. The coverage and density of 3D autogen objects are much higher and more closely re-create the actual real world terrain. Here's a brief breakout of how the ORBX system works. FTX Global replaces all of the stock FSX land class with higher detail imagery and autogen. FTX Global Vector adds increased accuracy on all vector related details like shorelines, roads and rivers. There are many other features that vector adds as well. FTX Terrain Regions add increased detail for selected regions with special attention devoted to autogen placement and land class details. Individual Airports get the most attention. These are based on photo real ground imaging with special attention going to 3D building modeling and placement, autogen hand annotation and location accuracy. At this level we hand place each building and most of the vegetation to re-create actual real world terrain. The airport ground textures also get a much higher level of detail. If this is your first experience with ORBX products, I'd suggest trying the Tasmania freeware region. This should give you an idea of what to expect from our other regions. Hit me back here with any other questions....I'll be glad to help. BTW..is that the MJ DAK? Good choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pensioned Posted February 14, 2014 Author Share Posted February 14, 2014 Yes, this is my first look at Orbx products. I'll give the Tasmania scenery a try. As for MJ DAK .... I assume you are referring to the aircraft....it is the DC3. Would any of my other installs help or hinder the Orbx freeware regions?..... REX, GEX NA, UTX NA. From what I understand, GEX is not compatible with Orbx. Should it be disabled when using Orbx scenery? I don't have a mesh add on.... should I invest in one? Your opinion??? I guess a good question would be, if this was your computer " What add on's would you pick to improve my present situation to get a more realistic/accurate visual experience?" Thanks pensioned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Madison Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 The Manfred Jahn DC-3 Dakota "DAK". Reason I asked, I did a lot of work with MJ on that freeware. New cockpit coming for that one is simply stupendous. OK...Questions. Your installed sceneries won't cause you any problems. You may want to turn off sceneries you are not using to streamline performance. I only enable sceneries where I intend to fly and also maintain a lean livery stable inside FSX. I keep most of my nested birds in a ready folder outside FSX. No need to load the system with stuff you're not using. Bear in mind that FSX is like a big water glass that gets more full as your flight moves along. Once you fill the glass you can get the dreaded memory crash. A good lean setup will help you avoid this. I would suggest disabling GEX when flying ORBX to avoid potential conflicts. No need to un-install, just enable one or the other. ORBX payware comes with a front end interface FTX Central. This little interface allows you to turn ORBX Sceneries on and off prior to opening FSX. If you are going to fly outside your ORBX coverage you can switch your system to FSX Default using the FTX Central interface. Nice. Mesh. I would spend some time evaluating which products you want to focus on in your system. If you go with an ORBX system you can add a recommended mesh to enhance the other ORBX assets once you begin expanding into the product. FTX Global and FTX Global Vector are a good solid platform to build on. We also incorporate spedivic mesh modifications in each payware region to enhance accuracy. Beyond that there is a mesh product that we work with directly. You can learn more about that on the site. If it were my computer I would look at streamlining performance. Appearance is great, but you have to be able to run what you have purchased and installed. Look into the DX10 fixer and possibly one of the "Tweak" add-ons that allow you to really dial in your setup. As far as realistic and accurate goes. Things are changing in the industry faster than you can imagine. The quality of the sim experience and the immersion factor are moving ahead by leaps and bounds. We are looking at real time weather engines, 3D hyper accurate shadow rendering engines and payware aircraft that almost qualify for main line simulator training. Flying something like the Dash 8 Q400 by the book in IFR conditions can be as real is it gets. Add serious weather or failures and it gets interesting. Bottom line, I'd suggest building a well tuned purpose built system. When I built the new box I'm in now. I threw out most of the old stuff and kept the basics. Good scenery, good weather engine and good tweaks. I fly high quality aircraft, and by the book. No cheats. Of course, I spend the majority of my time designing and only fly to beta test most of the time. Hope this helps...feel free to post here or PM if you have any other questions. Cheers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pensioned Posted February 14, 2014 Author Share Posted February 14, 2014 Hi Gorgon Thanks for taking the time to give the info. Some really good tips. I will look into removing to a safe place seldom used liveries and disabling unnecessary sceneries for the present flight. Would a "tweak add-on" be something like FSX Booster? pensioned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pensioned Posted February 15, 2014 Author Share Posted February 15, 2014 Just did some looking around at GEX and found out that you can not disable it, disabling option actual removes it completely and restores the backup files of FSX. They indicate in their manual to use the FTX Center to choose either default FSX when outside the Orbx region being used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Madison Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 FSX Booster 2013 has a very user friendly interface. I use it with excellent results. Steve's DX10 Fixer is another excellent little software. DX10 and DX11 allow the GPU to share the work load with the CPU. This only works with cards that support DX10/11 so I'd do some basic research. The GEX software shouldn't be a challenge. The FTX Central utility will let you switch between options with a basic push button interface. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pensioned Posted February 17, 2014 Author Share Posted February 17, 2014 I bought FSX Booster 2013 (only $13.00 cnd) and read the manual, tried the options but had poor results. My system worked more efficiently/smoother without it. I may try it out more later, but I tried several different settings with less improvement in smoothness or in framerate. Also the framerate indicator in FSX Booster . bottom right was not steady but jumping around a lot.....observing through the FSX Booster interface. Also a third party airplane the DC3 use in the pictures, showed greyed out. Not necessary to reply .. just updating my efforts. The DX 10 fixer looks good but a bit pricey... need to think about that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Madison Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Curious...did you configure the GPU memory clock in FSX Booster to match your card?...super important. FPS will always be variable depending on scenery and demand on processing. Looking into high autogen like in a urban setting will show big fluctuations in FPS. Normal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pensioned Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 Yes, as far as I know I did it correctly. I went to AMD website and searched for amd radeon HD 6900 series and found mind which is a 6950. There is also a 6970. My card has only I GB of ram on board but the specifics for the 6950 shown had 2 GB of ram shown but I used the memory clock speed for that one, thinking the memory clock speeds would be similar? 1250 Mhz. I could not find a 1 GB 6950 card to use. Question if you don't mind. Can you change the Booster settings as you are flying because that is what I tried after a while......moving items and checking for results...positive or negative. Guess what, the changes had little effect. I will try it again sometime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Madison Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Don't mind a all. I've found that I have to make changes in Booster, then boot into FSX. I've tried making tweaks and reload scenery...but no joy. Your clock speed should be Ok until you find the exact spec. In Booster I don't use the "calculation" presets. I adjust those on the fly in FSX. Most important in your setup is LOD, blurries and the pixel filters. I lock 33 FPS, or 30 for video. When I'm developing I test unlimited frames to get the big picture. LOD (depends but usually around 4 at load, then I adjust on the fly in the sim), and blurries default @ 33%. If I have blurries (rarely with the DX10 Fix) I adjust to the speed setting. I set up for Max Boost and enable Windows Aero Fix. Pixels 1 for screenshots, 2 for average flying and 4 in high load areas. At Squamish I've place a lot of small single bushes along the river shoals, so I run 1 pixel filter. That way I don't filter out the small details. It took me a bit to find the right setup, but I'm more stable and the GPU runs right at spec with the right settings. I'm in final development of Squamish BC right now. It's a CPU and GPU intensive environment. If I run without tweaks I see FPS in the mid twenties to thirties, not bad but with the Booster I see 45 to 60. Big jump. You may have to work with it for a while to see where you are getting the best improvements. DX10 gave me the biggest improvement in smoothness and overall scenery enhancement. May be a bit pricey now, but you may want to look at it later. It's all a process and really just comes down to a cost/benefit decision for the individual. Funny thing, I've got a great system and full access to all the ORBX regions, but never have time to take advantage of the perks. Always buried in the project at hand. I fly for fun....maybe once a week, but then I'm working in the sim about 12-18 hours a day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pensioned Posted February 19, 2014 Author Share Posted February 19, 2014 Thanks again. I will try your suggestions when I get the time. Sounds like a very demanding job...I'm a retired school teacher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Madison Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 It can be demanding, but to date the computer has never thrown spit balls at me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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