back to FSX after a few years

aN.Droid

Hey there,

Logged about a hundred hours or so into fsx a few years ago not much I know but I am looking to get back into it.

What I would like to know is what are the essential addons you guys recommend?

I mainly am looking for higher def graphics and more in depth craft. Traffic would be nice too but I will stick to no traffic for now.

thanks for any recommendations you can give.

storker

There are many answers to your question as there are simmers out there.

Here are my own essentials:

Add-on Scenery:
Lots of choices here, but you'll probably hear UTX and Orbx mentioned most. Scenery Tech also do improved landclass and their products cover the entire globe, I think.
I have UTX USA, Canada, Alaska and Europe, with Orbx Pacific Northwest, Northenr Rockies and Central Rockies, plus a few airports.

Add-on Aircraft:
This depends on whether you like flying GA aircraft or prefer the big iron. For GA, I'd say RealAir, MilViz and A2A for their Cub. Oh, and SibWings for their Bird Dog. You'll probably hear the name "Carenado" a lot, but if its depth you're looking for I wouldn't really recommend them. Having said that, their flight dynamics are better since Bernt Stolle started doing them and their planes do look good. And yes, I do have some in my hangar. A2A is working on a Cessna 172 and so is RealAir.

If you like the big stuff, then I'd say PMDG is the most in-depth you'll get. That's the impression I get, anyway, I don't tend to fly anything bigger than a DC-3 myself.

Add-on Weather:
I flit between REX and Open Clouds. But there's also ActiveSky and now Opus, which a lot of people seem to be pretty evangelical about.

Add-on Traffic:
When you do get down to adding traffic, there Ultimate Traffic and MyTrafficX. I used MyTrafficX but I'm giving World of AI a go at the moment (it's free), and it does the job nicely.

Hope this helps.

Stork

BeardySi

Essential? REX-Essential.... it doesn't just do weather it's got replacement highres texture themes for everything from the grass to the cloud tops! It really makes a difference to the sim...

IMO the best value addons are the ones that'll effect the most of your flying time - things like REX re top of the list.
Then maybe look at Ultimate Terrain X for the area you'll use most (Europe, USA etc) - that gives a good uplift to the standard of the default ground textures and landclasses, as well as adding accurate(mostly) roads, railways, bridges, bodies of water etc...

For traffic I've got Ultimate Traffic X - am happy enough with it, it puts mostly the right planes in mostly the right places and they're not too hard on the system... Haven't tried the others...

Afterthat look at specific scenery areas you want to use and any payware aircraft you particularly want....

keroseneboy

I agree. Rex is brilliant. I love the 737 from Precision Manuals. Angle of Attack provide a comprehensive training course.

There will be a 777 from PMDG by Christmas followed shortly by a new 747-400 and 8f/i.

Prepar3d 2.0 should be along shortly. It should be a stable, multicore version of the original 2006 FSX which Lockheed Martin bought from Microsoft and have continued the development effort. I believe the current version 1.4 is an improvement over where Microsoft left off with FSX in 2006 in terms of stability and multi core capability. I understand that the upgrade from v1.4 to 2.0 costs the same as buying 2.0 on it's own. I am looking forward to the improved stability it claims to offer.

pclancy

Yep. Get REX as a good basic upgrade to the graphics and then think about where and in what you want to fly. I only fly small GA aircraft around the airports I live near so I've got great local scenery and a few PMDG and Justflight aircraft.

The good thing about FSX now is that its been out so long that the range of addons and upgrades to its standard features make it a really detailed simulator that you can customise to your own needs.

On the subject of C172 models, what do people think is best? About to buy one for practice for some summer flying.

Nforce

pclancy wrote: »

On the subject of C172 models, what do people think is best? About to buy one for practice for some summer flying.

Hold off until Realair and A2A simulations release their C172's. No release time frame for these yet,however.

For the OP...

If you just want to do some virtual VFR flight around Ireland then I'd recommend the VFR Gen X Ireland photo scenery. Add in George Keogh's freeware Irish airfield sceneries (available on Avsim.com) and REX Essential Plus and Overdrive textures with real weather enabled + hours of entertainment.:)

storker

Nforce wrote: »

Hold off until Realair and A2A simulations release their C172's.

+1

In the meantime, RealAir has a free, downloadable C172 for FS2004 that will work with FSX after a couple of tweaks.

Give me a shout if you need help with setting it up.

Carenado does a C172N that's OK, but I am awaiting the RealAir and A2A releases with bated breath...

Stork

Abracastabya

Download FS Passenger, gives more realistic feel and actual meaning to flights. Join a virtual airline.

Abracastabya

I use this along with FS Passenger, clocking up hours flying for Virtual Aer Lingus