FEX,REX,GEX,UTX,FTX,ASE Arghhhhh!!!!!

[Maurice]

I feel like shooting myself. Maybe I should forget about all of the above and concentrate on XXX stuff but I'm too old for that unfortunately. 

After many spirited deliberations & arguments with myself, I finally decided to re-build my FSX PC to try & resolve some intermittent FSX crashes. So after reloading Windows 7 & FSX, I'm now in the process of re-loading some or all the above packages which I had bought over the years.

Not wanting to end up with the same FSX problems I had originally, I started looking for opinions on the web about what is best, what can be used together, what to load first, what not to load etc.., and this is why I now want to shoot myself.

Basically, for every opinion out there, someone else has a different opinion which is really not something very surprising at all. So, this is really looking like a crap shoot and I think I am going to load only 3 add-ons in this order UTX, then GEX then ASE 2012. If all looks good, then I may add FTX for the Pacific North West which also looks very good.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone in this forum has had a very positive or negative experience with any of these products. I made a backup image of my system with only Windows 7 & bare FSX so I don't have to start over totally from scratch if I don't like the results or if I really screw up something.

Also, many of these products allow you to customize & create your own textures, clouds or whatever. I don't want to spend time customizing anything...I just want something nice right out of the box.

I'm trying to find the 'sweet spot' with as few add-ons as possible since I do believe that I had loaded way too much crap on my original installation and that's why I had these occasional FSX crashes.

Anyway, ideas/opinions anyone?

Thanks,

Maurice

[XOrionFE]

Hello Maurice,

I use all of the above with the exception of FEX which I have but use REX instead.   If you have REX I would choose that over FEX.   i have all of the Orbx scenery installed also.  I don't run ASE on the FSX computer.  I run ASE on a separate computer that runs Simconnect.  This separate computer also has SB for Vatsim as well as the Pilot Edge version.

On the FSX system I also run Ultimate Traffic 2

No crashes.

scott

[Maurice]

Hello Maurice,

  I run ASE on a separate computer that runs Simconnect.  This separate computer also has SB for Vatsim as well as the Pilot Edge version.

On the FSX system I also run Ultimate Traffic 2

No crashes.

scott

Thanks Scott. Good idea about running ASE on a separate PC. I did not do that last time as I found the instructions a bit daunting at first glance since I never played with Sim connect. Do you think I can use an old slow PC for that or does it need more horsepower?

Thanks,

Maurice

[XOrionFE]

Thanks Scott. Good idea about running ASE on a separate PC. I did not do that last time as I found the instructions a bit daunting at first glance since I never played with Sim connect. Do you think I can use an old slow PC for that or does it need more horsepower?

Thanks,

Maurice

An older PC works finefor this purpose.  I use an older AMD single core X64 processor at 2ghz with 4 gig of ram and an 8800 gt video card running Windows XP for this purpose.  In addition to ASE and SB I also use it to run my lower MFD. 

Simconnect is kind of a pain to setup but as long as you follow the instructions that come with ASE you should be ok.  I am happy to help if you get stuck.  a side benefit to doing this is that if you also have a sound card in this PC you can use that sound card to run your headsets and mics for SB separately from the main FSX sounds and speakers which is really a nice touch. 

Scott

[Maurice]

Simconnect is kind of a pain to setup but as long as you follow the instructions that come with ASE you should be ok.  I am happy to help if you get stuck.  a side benefit to doing this is that if you also have a sound card in this PC you can use that sound card to run your headsets and mics for SB separately from the main FSX sounds and speakers which is really a nice touch. 

Scott

Well Scott, I took your advice & installed ASE in a separate PC. It was a pain to configure Simconnect but the ASE instructions were actually quite complete and everything worked OK. 

I will also be using the sound card on that PC as you suggested so the simconnect installation will serve more than one purpose.

Thanks for the tips,

Maurice

[XOrionFE]

Awesome

Btw, how far are you from FDS?  I would love to check out your sim when I come up if it is close enough.

Scott

[Jetcos]

Maurice is way up in the boonies!  But they have running water.

[Maurice]

Awesome

Btw, how far are you from FDS?  I would love to check out your sim when I come up if it is close enough.

Scott

Actually, I'm not really way up in the boonies like Steve said, only half way up . I'm  roughly 130 kms North of FDS give or take a few (in Gravenhurst to be precise). No need to worry about polar bears but black bears have been spotted now & then.

Black flies should be dead by then (maybe) so no worries and we do have town water 

Maurice

[jackpilot]

Quite doable Scott! 

[Trevor Hale]

Maurice is way up in the boonies!  But they have running water.

If Mau is way up in the boonies, where the hell would I be?  LOL  The North Pole? ha ha

Trev

[jackpilot]

We did'nt dare to say it...

[Maurice]

We did'nt dare to say it...

Speak for yourself. I've been telling him that for a long, long time.

Maurice

[Trevor Hale]

This is me out for a morning walk!  LOL