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  • Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

    Post 16 Update

    Post 17 Warning

'Taboo Question'

Ryan, the use of third party tweakers is not recommended by MS. FSX likes to use application controlled settings.

We fail to see how use of tweakers means there is something amiss with our products :isadizzy:

Nobody has said there's something amiss with your product, you added that part. I've only seen people state facts, that supersampling causes an issue with it.

I would say supersampling is a necessity with FSX, so your spinning stars and defensive assertion that MS recommends we not use nHancer is looking a bit silly to me. No wonder this thread is titled 'Taboo Question'. lol
 
I would say supersampling is a necessity with FSX, so your spinning stars and defensive assertion that MS recommends we not use nHancer is looking a bit silly to me.

I don't know where you've read it, but no, supersampling is not a necessity, just the opposite I'd say. While this antialiasing mode may offer very good quality, it is also a "brute force" approach that causes significant FPS hit (not so big in FSX as it is not GPU limited) and may cause strange visuals, just like it does with gauges in FSX. It's was the first approach to antialiasing, and there's a reason why you can't set it from any modern computer game or nvidia control panel.

This mode works by drawing each frame in double resolution (horizontally, vertically or both) and then shrinking it to the resolution you have set. This means everything is smoothed, even gauges and 2D graphics. But too much smoothing means blurring small things like text, especially in lower resolutions.

If you're using such a powerful tool with many nonstandard options like nHancer, you have to know every option you're setting. If you get unexpected results, well, you can blame only yourself, not the devs, hardware manufacturer or nhancer author. When using nhancer with FSX, stick to multisampling antialiasing (stay away from supersampling or combined modes) and to reduce texture shimmering at high anizo settings, set negative LOD bias to CLAMP on the optimizations tab. And that should be all.


And back to topic, which plane I've flown the least? Probably Iris F-20: bought it on a sale without much thinking, didn't like the way it flies, weird afterburner and HUD borrowed from F/A-18, even though overall visuals are not so bad.
 
My biggest disappointment was the Just Flight P-38. I alreay had the FSD Lightning which is awesome, and if memory serves, I bought the JF P-38 because it had some different paints than the FSD plane. But the graphics were horrible; almost cartoonish, and the FM was just as bad. I have the knowledge to tweak a FM but can't do anything about the graphics so didn't bother. I think everything else I have been pretty happy with. Although.... there seem to be a number of payway planes that require far too much control surface movement to fly the plane and do any maneuvering. As an aviation maintenance guy that gets to fly some pretty cool planes on a regular basis, I know it doesn't work this way in the real world. Just a thought...
 
GAS Ryan ST-A. Right after I purchased it SWingman's freeware model was released. In many ways I find it to be more a pleasing design. Bought the GAS model on sale though, so no big deal.

Although I've purchased many a payware add-on, I tend to enjoy a well designed freeware model more. Not meant to be a knock on payware developers, but I usually tend to move on after a very limited time spent on any particular add-on. As such, I've all too often felt my money wasn't well spent on payware stuff. HOWEVER, there are many timeless classics on the payware front that I've enjoyed for a very long time.
 
GAS Ryan ST-A. Right after I purchased it SWingman's freeware model was released. In many ways I find it to be more a pleasing design. Bought the GAS model on sale though, so no big deal.
Although I've purchased many a payware add-on, I tend to enjoy a well designed freeware model more. Not meant to be a knock on payware developers, but I usually tend to move on after a very limited time spent on any particular add-on. As such, I've all too often felt my money wasn't well spent on payware stuff. HOWEVER, there are many timeless classics on the payware front that I've enjoyed for a very long time.
You make some good points Dave. . .I've probably got a handful of aircraft that would fit this thread, but the bottom line, especially now is that paying $30, $40 and more for any aircraft that I'm probably going to fly less than a dozen times and then load it onto a DVD for "Later", is just silly anymore. Add to that the large number of high quality freeware offerings by some extremely talented designers and I can easily forgo the payware stuff and be perfectly content.
 
well i guess a few people know by the last few discussions ive been involved which developers xxxxed me off
 
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