Texture Booster Pack and Texture Booster Pack Pro for FSXBy Andrew Herd
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his is a review of two complimentary products, which despite having confusingly similar names, provide separate sets of replacement textures. Aero Files Texture Booster Pack concentrates on FSX runways and taxiways, as well as providing a new worldwide water bump map for oceans, rivers & lakes, plus some new sun effects; while Texture Booster Pack Pro replaces the default cloud, sky and tree sets, with some improvements to wave height textures thrown in. As such, although it provides a very useful new seasonally-varying worldwide autogen tree set, Texture Booster Pack Pro (from here on in TBP Pro) has some overlap with Flight Enhancer and  |
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Actually, we had better backtrack a little here. Installation is easy, no doubt about that, apart from one teensy-weensy problem, which is that the Texture Booster Pack doesn't perform a backup of the default textures before you install the package, no doubt for the logical reason that it doesn't appear to be over-writing any of them. When I ran the uninstall routine at the end of the review, the Start Menu items for TBP were deleted, but when I reloaded FSX, the TBP textures were still there. Fortunately, I had taken a backup of the texture folder in FSX before running the installation and I could copy the originals back into place, but the easiest way of getting rid of the TBP textures proved to be to delete the entire texture folder before copying my backup back into the FSX root directory. I didn't have the chance to run the addon under XP, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the same applies, so be warned, backup \FSX\textures before you do the installation!
The majority of the TBP texture files are dedicated to improving FSX runway textures and night lighting, although except in the case of the latter, you won't notice much difference from the air. However, when you are taxiing around the airport, the difference is obvious, as the first three screenshots show. In addition to new runway and taxiway surfaces and lighting, you get a new 'wet look' which appears when it rains - this can be quite subtle, depending on the angle of the light in FSX, but it is best viewed from the cockpit, although I have fiddled around with the point of view so that it shows up in the screenshots - take a look at the one above right. The effect is much less marked on the taxiways, as is the snow effect, which, to tell the truth, looks remarkably similar to the rain effect; don't expect to see snowdrifts on the pavement, or anything like that. The lighting is certainly different, although opinions vary on how runway lights should look in FS. The final component of the package is a new set of sun flare, halo and lens effects, which, once again, will be very much a matter of personal preference.
And that is the Texture Booster Pack. Very simple, not much to say about it, except that you would be well advised to back up your texture folder before installing it. For what it is worth, frame rates remained exactly the same on my system with TBP installed as they did without it. I did the testing using the newly released FSX version of the RealAir Citabria/Decathlon/Scout package, which is the most fabulous value for money and just as good as the FS2004 version - look forward to a review of this in due course.
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Texture Booster Pack Pro, despite its smaller size (5 mb), features over 250 new textures for your flight simulator. The developers recommend using it with the Texture Booster Pack, given that the pair replace different sets of textures in FSX, but there is no reason to do this unless you particularly want to and each pack works perfectly well without the other. TBP Pro features two new cloud sets (cirrus and cumulus); a new ocean wave height; eight all season replacement sky sets; and 114 tree sets intended to replace autogen trees worldwide; as such it makes a much bigger difference to FSX once it is installed.
Forewarned by what happened when I tried to uninstall the Texture Booster Pack, I did a dummy install of Texture Booster Pack Pro into a folder outside the FSX tree and took a look to see what I had got and then did a trial uninstall. True to form, all the TBP Pro uninstall routine did was to remove its entry from the Start Menu, leaving all its files on disk. The problem here is that TBP Pro installs 115 files into ...FSX\Scenery\Global\Texture and another 64 into ...FSX\Scenery\World\Texture, which wouldn't matter so much were not the default ...FSX\Scenery\Global\Texture folder 559 Mb and ...FSX\Scenery\World\Texture 4.62 Gb, which is an inconvenient size for backup. However, there being no other choice if I was to go ahead and do the review, I backed up both folders onto an external hard drive and went ahead. Once again, the installation was an easy matter, given the automatic routine and lack of any key file entry. Once again, there isn't any documentation to speak of, unless you count a very concise readme which is triggered as part of the installation.
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Once installed, there is no doubt that FSX looks different, but this is mainly due to the new cloud sets and the rather attractive moody light, rather than the trees. Sure, if you get close, the trees TBP Pro installs are different and they are definitely very good, but autogen trees are something you are only really likely to take much notice of if you are into bush pilot simming, as otherwise they tend to be reasonably well back from the runway or several thousand feet below you. In some respects, also, TBP Pro is ahead of its time in supplying replacement FSX trees as many simmers are flying the new version of Flight Simulator with the autogen turned off in order to keep frame rates somewhere near acceptable. However, if you want a change of trees, right now TBP Pro is the best commercial package offering a viable alternative and if you like to operate from rough strips, then the package is definitely worth a look.
The clouds and skies are another matter entirely and for all that you only get a cumulus and a cirrus set, they are the best I have seen to date for FSX. The best way to describe them is that they are the sort of clouds you will be used to seeing if you live in a maritime climate, so simmers from Newfoundland, England, Scandinavia and the Faeroes (where the developer is based) need look no further, because these are the genuine article. The default FSX skies tend to be far too bright for anything other than continental climates and have the look of low pressure, sunny skies that I associate with central Europe and the mid-west of the US, rather than the more gloomy, 'can you actually see a horizon or not' atmosphere that I am used to. This has set me thinking, because there is a great opportunity for Aero Files to create more cloud sets with some kind of seasonal installer to reflect the kind of weather we see in coastal Europe. Coupled with the rather fiercer wave height set that is installed by TBP Pro, the package creates a much more compelling maritime climate than anything I have seen before in Flight Simulator and I can see all the Misty Fjords fans rushing to get the FS2004 version of the addon, because it is absolutely made for that place.
Verdict? Two interesting packages, slightly marred by the lack of any proper uninstallation routine. If there were more cloud sets and the two packages were combined with a texture-swapping utility like the one Flight Environment uses, then the developers would be onto a real winner as far as maritime simmers are concerned.
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Andrew Herd
andy@flightsim.com
Learn More:
Texture Booster Pack FSX
Texture Booster Pro FSX
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