Ifly 737 NG FSX weather radar

Many of the latest FSX airplanes are lacking a weather radar. I know because of  the way FSX weather is programed it is difficult to make  a  realistic weather radar, still my own view is that it will still be good to have one no matter how accurate it is, just to add to the  overall realism of the simulation.
If you are missing a  weather radar in your Ifly 737 NG for FSX and you own WX500 package from Reality XP it is  possible  to add that one in the place of the lower DU. Not the most realistical place in the cockpit, but  there isn't much room  to place it in another position. If you are using the MAP/EFIS combination of  displays, the lower DU is seldomly used anyways.

The instalation is easy.

5 ground textures for scenery creation

A collection of 5 high resolution ground textures useful for flight simulator scenery creation. They and many more are provided for free by 4 Free Textures. You can download each texture in full resolution on each of the pages bellow using the download button.

Concrete wall texture

Cement with cracks texture

Gravel

Grass

Wood floor

Freeware Nemeth Design helicopters

Nemeth Design is offering a couple of their wonderful helicopters for free. Unfortunately they are only FS9 models, but if you are still using the sim and like helicopters it's a good opportunity to try them. I have flown the Sikorsky S76 and the EC120B and they are truly wonderful.

To see the free helicopters you will need to go their official site: http://www.nemethdesigns.com/freeware.html#pay01

ENB Series Flight Simulator X or 9 - How to install and obtain cool HDR lighting tutorial

If your computer is not powerful enough to run FSX in DX10 mode with Bloom enabled, or you are bored of the default lighting in fs9, you can easily add a very cool mod either in either FSX or FS9 which adds HDR lighting and dynamic shadows to the simulator. The mod is called ENB Series and it is based on a modified version of the DX9 dll which forces HDR and many effects in games which do not support it by default. The mod was originally developed for GTA game, but works very well in both FSX and FS9.

Good part at this mod is that it improves the visual quality of Flight Simulator X or FS2004 without a heavy toll on frame rates. I could argue that the effect is even better than the one obtained if you enable Bloom and DX10 mode in FSX, but, at least on my configuration the frame  rate remains the same when ENB series is enabled. Besides the visual impact you will also notice a interesting effect, if you look at the cockpit instruments and then raise your view to the sky, you will notice how the light dims out, similar as your eye iris will close to adapt to the increase amount of light. This adds a nice effect as the simulation would have actually been a movie, and the camera would have adjusted to light when moved from the dashboard to the windshield/sky.

The image at the top shows the difference between default FSX (right) and FSX with ENB Series enabled (left).

How to install ENB Series in either FSX or FS9

1. Download the mod from the official page below. I use version 0.075.
  http://enbdev.com/download_en.htm

2. After the zip file is downloaded, extract and copy the two files (d3d9.dll and enbseries.ini) in the FSX/FS9 main folder (same place where fsx.exe/fs9.exe is located).

3. You will need to replace the config in enbseries.ini with one that is best suited for the simulator (default one is provided for GTA). Open enbseries.ini with Notepad and replace the content with the configuration. I use the one provided on this forum:
http://www.simforums.com/forums/enb-bloom-mod-nicks-cOnfig-settings_topic32482.html

Save the file after is changed!

4. Start FSX and start a flight. To start/stop the mod press anytime SHIFT+F12;


To uninstall the mod just delete the two files you copied from your simulator installation directory.

Enjoy!


Known issues:
If the ENB Series does not work in FSX or 2004 or you see black squares, clouds, etc with the mod enables, check if you have two monitors connected to the computer. This mod does not support multi monitor setup on some configuration. Just disconnect the secondary monitor and restart the simulator  and it should work.


Use the mod at your own risk. I did not encountered any issues with it but you may never know!

iFly Jets - The 737NG for FS2004

One of the most sophisticated 737NG built for FS2004 is here and can be purchased from Flight1. The iFly Jets 737NG features a lot of of the systems available in the real aircraft along with ground support and pushback options.
For those who would like to see a complete list of features iFly has also made public the aircraft's operation manual one their support forums.

The product can be purchased trough download from Flight1.
More details can be found on the developers product page.

Looks like a FSX version of the aircraft is also in development.

Free VFR planning tool with maps covering entire world - Plan-G

I found very difficult in the past to find good VFR maps for my FSX flights, or a good planning tool with worldwide coverage. When I was flying in the US I usually used Skyvector, but as most of my flights are in Europe, and couldn't afford the price of proper VFR maps for all the countries I needed, I was mostly relying on the FSX flight planner to track my course.

Short time ago I came across this free VFR flight planner which will help you plan your flights, and obtain a very good VFR map no matter where in the world you are located.

Installation:

Installation is quite easy, although first you need to register on the forums to access the download page. Creating an account on the forums is easy and it takes only a few minutes to receive the activation email. After this you can login and download a 7 MB zip file containing the program. There is no installation required besides extracting the archive and copying the files in a directory of your choice, which I find good because it spares your system of different registry entries and not so necessary files.

At first run you will have to generate a database for the program, which is generated by going to Data tab and choosing Generate FSX or FS9 database, from the FSX or FS2004 scenery files. Process takes around 5 minutes. This way Plan-G will have a complete list of navigation points, airports, airways.

Interface:

Interface is very intuitive, with a tabbed like look similar to the Office suit. The map is based on Google Maps with the flight plan and navaids superimposed based on the FSX database. You can control how many elements are visible on the map using the Map settings tab.

Creating a flight plan:

Creation of a flight planner is done on the actual map, by clicking on the different waypoints. You will see informations about the flight plan in the right side of the application. When done you may save the flight plan in FSX or FS2004 format using the Save button.

Other notable features:

The program has the ability to connect to FSX/FS2004 and display real time the position on the map, as well as showing different info like winds, weather. You can also benefit from an elevation profile by downloading some external files and placing them in the program folder.

Official website.

FS9 / FSX possible issues while installing on Vista and Windows 7

Due to the big number of changes that the two operating system have implemented, especially in term of security and system folder structure here are a couple of tips to solve some of the issues you may encounter while installing Microsoft Flight Simulator on Windows Vista or 7.

fsx.cfg and fs9.cfg file location on Vista:
C:\users\(name)\Appdata\roaming\microsoft\fsx
C:\users\(name)\Appdata\roaming\microsoft\fs9

fsx.cfg and fs9.cfg file location on Windows 7
C:\users\(name)\Appdata\roaming\microsoft\fsx
C:\users\(name)\Appdata\roaming\microsoft\fs9

scenery.cfg on windows 7 has moved as well to:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX
On fs9 scenery.cfg is located in flight simulator installation folder.

Problem: My settings are not saved after I leave flight simulator.
Solution1: Try running FSX / FS9 as an administrator (Right click on FS shortcut and choose Run as administrator)
Solution2: If above does not work give full control to the folder where fs9.cfg or fsx.cfg is located (see above folders depending on the system). To do this right click on the folder (e.g. C:\users\(name)\Appdata\roaming\microsoft\fs9) -> Proprieties -> Security (tab) -> Edit (button) -> Add > write "Everyone" and check all options including Full Control.

Problem: Cannot set antialiasing properly in FSX /FS9
Solution: Use nhancer. Full details here.

FS2004 and Nvidia anti aliasing issues - how to fix

If you get issues with FS2004 and antialiasing (split / duplicate image, no anti aliasing, black screen in screenshots) here is a fast way to fix it.

You will need to download and install Nhancer from http://www.nhancer.com/

Find MS Flight Simulator 2004 profile and press Duplicate to create a copy. The default one cannot be usually modified. Disable/delete the old one if needed.

Make sure fs9.exe is added under executable box for the profile you would like to have active.

Check "Profile can be activated manually".

On the right hand side, under "Enhancements", change to the desired settings.

Anti Aliasing ticked
Supersampling 4xs selected (Or more if your system acn handle)
"Enhance in game AA setting" - Unchecked
"Gamma Correction" - Checked
Anisotropic filtering 16x selected - Less if system cannot handle

Under optimization tab:

Texture filtering - high quality
Trilinear optimization - off
Aniso. sample optimization - off
Negative LOD bias - Clamp

Activate the profile in Nhancer before starting FS2004.

In FS following settings have to be made: Antialiasing - off and filtering to Trilinear.

This should solve most of the issues. If you make screenshots in the simulator using any program and they end up black please change the antialiasing seetting to 2x or any other value untill it works. Usualy on my system I have to also turn off supersampling sometimes to get rid of that.