Steve's DX10 fixer, SweetFX & others

[annber]

Hi all, as incredible as it may seem, I have until now not experimented with Steve's fixer or any other fsx enhancement save for tweaks.

Part of that is because I was afraid to screw it up, that is why I am turning to you guys. Those who have Steve's fixer or SweetFX.

I am ready to experiment with the fixer, so I will be thankful to those who can share their opinions about it, experience with it, limitations, drawbacks, installation methods, like for example can I have the fixer without sweetfx, or both need to be installed?

Again, I will be grateful for your input.

Bernardo.

[llivaudais]

I didn't see any great change when using the DX10 fixer and lost the use of several add-on aircraft. I haven't uninstalled it yet but it's disabled - I use Reshade for image improvement (primarily color saturation) instead of SweetFX. I had it on also when 'fixer' was active. SweetFX/Reshade/ENB is something I've used for years; I do recommend it.

 

Here's an after/before image

 

 

the duller/grey side (right) is the default

 

Loyd

[evm]

The DX10 Fixer and Sweet FX are not related.

 

- Steve's DX 10 Fixer is used when you decide to switch your FSX to DX10 mode permanently. It "fixes" most of the issues that come with DX10 (as this mode has remained experimental and Microsoft did not get around to finish it), like texture flickering, disappearing lights, black textures etc. The basic idea is, that you use the fixer once, and that's it. And that you only buy it, if you really need it - DX10 is not beneficial for everyone on every computer.

 

- SweetFX, ENB, Shade change the visual depiction in your sim, things like contrast, saturation, tint etc.

[E-Buzz]

Hi annber,

 

I'm unclear - have you already bought Steve's DX10 Fixer?

 

If not, I suggest that you (if you haven't already) first try flying in DX10 alone and see how everything runs. As evm said, you might experience certain things that look weird, such as missing progressive taxi arrows, lights that don't display properly, flashing runway markings, etc.

If you have not bought the fixer, Steve has some free fixes out there for download that takes care of some of those anomalies - do a quick Google search to find them (I don't remember where I got them from - it's been awhile).

If the free fixes help, you may then think about purchasing the full-version which addresses more of the half-baked DX10 mode in FSX.

 

If you have already bought Steve's fixer, you might as well install it (The Fixer has very good documentation - I suggest read and understand it before the install, and maybe even read his blog) - it has a dialog that can easily reverse the changes it does and brings you back to DX9. I've switched back and forth from DX10 to DX9 a few times, and finally settled on flying exclusively in DX10 - I can no longer fly without the the moving cockpit shadows!

 

The Fixer also gives you a simple GUI to alter/add some of the "usual" fsx.cfg tweaks without having to use Notepad (HIGHMEM, Affinity Mask, LOD, Texture size (1024/2048/4096), USEPOOLS, etc.). It also provides a GUI to alter things like the color/reflections of water, shadow strength, color of rain and snow (it also fixes the "cone of rain" that you see in DX10 - where if you look at your aircraft from the outside when it's raining, it looks like there's a cone of dryness around the plane, almost like an umbrella directly above - looks really weird). It also fixes the all-white aircraft that sometimes displays in DX10 (mostly when trying to use FS9 aircraft in DX10).

 

As llivaudais said, there may be some addons, aircraft, and some aircraft functions, that may not work in DX10, even with the fixer. In my experience, an example would be the Aerosoft F-14X's targeting cam and screen do not work in DX10.

 

I personally have not had any trouble with the Fixer and I always use it but, as usual, YMMV :)

 

I've used SweetFX in DX10 mode in the past - it's free, I think it works well, is highly configurable, and I have not seen any negative effects on performance. Since I bought Shade, I might as well use it instead of SweetFX (works great too!). As evm said, you don't need SweetFX to run Steve's Fixer or vice-versa.

 

Hope this helps,

 

E-Buzz :pilot:

[annber]

Thanks for the replies Loyd, evm, E-Buzz. I appreciate the info and the time you guys took as well.

I haven't bought the fixer yet, but like you E-Buzz, I have grown to really like the cockpit shadows in P3d, making it one of a few reasons why I am interested in the fixer for fsx. The thing that I am still not quite happy about P3d is the way ground textures and sky textures are lighted and colored.specially with photoreal textures which I do use a lot (mostly self made).

Glad to hear that sweetfx and the fixer are not dependent on each other evm, though both apparently work well to enhance fsx.

Everyone's setup is different, so I guess it is a matter of finding out, as Loyd did, if it works for you or not.

I seem to have read somewhere that the fixer also seems to improve frame rates, which is always great news, that is another reason I became interested.

Bernardo.

[W2DR]

One other thought.....using DX10 may also help with VAS usage. Most DX10 users report seeing some reduction in VAS. In my case, using only GA low-and-slow scenarios, the reduction in VAS usage is about 15% as compared to the same scenario using DX9. If you Google "DX10 fixer VAS" there is a lot more information. And, since all the graphics load is shifted to the GPU with DX10 (the CPU does much more work with DX9) there may also be some help in FPS depending on the specific system.

 

Doug