FSX return

So, after several years out I'm looking at returning back to FSX. The laptop I'll be running it on is an older one but an i5-3230, 8Gb ram, 2Gb Radeon 7730M and I might put a 250Gb SSD in as the current 1Tb HDD is struggling. Not great spec CPU but considering the age of the game I hope it's sufficient.

What's the latest 'must have' add-ons I need to get up and running. Would be looking at something good scenery wise for the UK mainly and anything else I should look at.

Many thanks

So, after several years out I'm looking at returning back to FSX. The laptop I'll be running it on is an older one but an i5-3230, 8Gb ram, 2Gb Radeon 7730M and I might put a 250Gb SSD in as the current 1Tb HDD is struggling. Not great spec CPU but considering the age of the game I hope it's sufficient.

 

What's the latest 'must have' add-ons I need to get up and running. Would be looking at something good scenery wise for the UK mainly and anything else I should look at.

 

Many thanks

Buy a faster computer....

Stuarta,

I was running a single-core 2.2GHz when FSX came out; I enjoyed it but the ONLY add-ons I would recommend for such a 'underspeed' cpu is this: PHOTOSCENERY! I have observed significant improvement in FPS as I added photoscenery. I once watched a video as one of the FSX developers described how the complex world scenery is built on-the-fly from many 'layers of data' and then modified again based on the actual slope of the ground - as in replacing vegetation images with rock imagery on steeper slopes. I've never seen any actual numbers but when I fly over photoscenery on my current 4.4GHz build I've seen 'unlimited' fps numbers above 300fps. Understand this: when photoscenery is used, (an oversimplification) only the terrain and image needs to be processed - and surface/airport stuff. No autogen, powerlines etc. Cars, yes, also.

No, you don't see 300fps; the/my monitor only refreshes at 60Hz, but it does mean that the CPU is freed up to handle other stuff if doesn't have to build the world underneath you.

You have nothing to lose really. Put the sim on your machine and see what it does fps-wise out over the ocean on a nice clean new build. If the info display in the upper-left corner shows 30, 40, 50 fps then I'd guess you probably could enjoy a "photoscenery simulator" that you can fly around in; I certainly do.

Take a look at the free offerings from blueskyscenery.com; photo-real coverage for a lot of the American west. I used it in some of the videos I have linked below. You needn't rush. Take your time, try budget approaches before you spend $ that may not buy the experience you're hoping to find again.

Photoscenery needs LOTS of storage space: I run mine off of a 2TB USB 2 hard drive. It suffices, though USB on an "older" laptop may not be fast enough...

We wish you well, after all, so feel free to continue to seek answers. We will help. Sometime there are multiple 'final' answers that will be acceptable. Take your time, do your research.

best wishes,

Loyd

Thank you Loyd, nice detailed answer. I know I did fire it up a while ago and it did run nicely compared to PC's I've had in the past.

I've just dug out a copy of Horizon Gen X vol 1 which I'll use to start with. Would want some decent aircraft, I think my old download library is a bit dated and would need to start of small.

ooooh, I just started reloading this on my now-5-year-old installation. We're flying some 'memorial flights' in the UK for the next couple of months - our flying group lost an elder member a short time ago (non-covid causes). I posted an open invitation in another thread to other adult enthusiasts who would like a group of old timers to visit with and fly on line. see the "Covid Flights" post if you have any interest...

Loyd

Hi Loyd,

Thanks for that and sorry to hear it. I might be abut rusty for multiplayer at the moment.

Any other add-ons I should be looking into, weather or anything or any utilities and decent GA aircraft?

ok so I've just tested with a clean install and the FPS on ultra high 1920 res was about 120+ so happy. I've installed my copy of VFR Gen X and at present it doesn't look good, but I need to test properly when I get my stick out and fly properly.

This only covers the ground doesn't it and not the airfields and assume for that I would need something like VFR Airfields or the individual UK2000 ones. I do have them all for FS2004 but obviously useless.

I was looking at the ORBX EU England and it looks like that will cover everything including airports? Not sure how that would work with Gen X