Brand new rain and snow effects for FSX & Prepar3D. A long-awaited add-on. PrecipitFX is a set of new realistic textures and effects that will change your flying experience! PrecipitFX is compatible with all popular texture enhancement add-ons and weather engines available for Microsoft Flight Simulator X and Lockheed Martin Prepar3D.
Replacement grass for FSX and P3D. Beautiful texture with serious drawbacks. Is it worth it? I neither recommend nor advise against it. Decide for yourself.
HD Grass (use with caution!)
HD Grass – probably no one likes the default FSX (P3D) grass textures – they are blurry and ugly (especially from a close distance). Several developers try to “save” us providing replacement file for grass details. For free.
The choice:
- Aimé Leclercq’s grass (dostępna również z interfejsem PicNic)
- (payware) FTX Aero (incuded in FTX sceneries)
Which one to choose? After my tests I chose… default FSX grass.
Before you do any changes – it’s wise to backup detail1.bmp file in SceneryWorldTexture
Replacement grass – pros and cons
Pros:
- looks much, much better from close distance
- looks nicer from large distance
Cons:
- snow and sand look worse after you install replacement grass texture (with the notable exception of Drzewiecki Design’s add-on that allows for grass or snow replacement texture)
- repeating pattern is clearly visible when looking at certain angle
- repeatable pattern is even more visible from certain altitude
What is the difference between these add-ons?
Drzewiecki Design, REX and Aimé Leclercq provide HD grass – 4096 by 4096 pixels in size. Aimé Leclercqa gives you an option of 2048×2048 texture. REX vII and Erik Hardenbol use lower resolution. When looked at from close distance – 4096 texture is clearly better. On the other hand – lower resolution gives a softer repeating pattern.
From these three Drzewiecki’s grass has an advantage of an installer and an additional texture for snow or sand.
![Realistic Realistic](/uploads/1/2/5/7/125797369/224987501.jpg)
![Fsx realistic crash effects for fsx 5 Fsx realistic crash effects for fsx 5](/uploads/1/2/5/7/125797369/239833993.jpg)
The repeating pattern becomes visible
Cons
I do not like how the texture repeats itself creating a distinctive pattern – you can see it on the screen above.
The other drawback is the effect on snow and sand – if you cover it with grass texture it looks odd. Of course – the color is correct – yellow for sand, white for snow, but they are covered with grass details. Grass blades covered with snow may look good in some situations. Sandy grass blades look bad…
Drzewiecki Design’s grass solves this problem providing additional texture for snow (or sand). You need to reinstall the add-on every time you want to switch from grass to snow texture…
Can lower resolution help with the pattern problem?
Erik Hardenbol’s grass is far better in terms of pattern effect. Unfortunately the texture it uses looks grainy and creates moire effect. For me it’s unpleasant but it may look a bit different in your FSX. You may also be less sensitive for such effects than I am.
What did I choose?
If I had to choose between the freeware grass add-ons – I would kept the default FSX (P3D) grass…
How the default grass looks like (a different shade is caused by different lighting / time of day)
What I actually use? FTX Aero grass by ORBX
FTX Aero is a tool that comes with FTX sceneries. It also includes detail1.bmp file (actually several that user can choose from). It’s not as detailed as Drzewiecki’s or REX’s grass but it has no visible reapeating pattern! For me it’s the best.
Replacement tutorial
Installation:
All add-ons except Drzewiecki Design:
- download the add-on
- extract detail1.bmp file
- copy it to:
SceneryWorldTexture
in your FSX or P3D folder
Drzewiecki Design’s grass:
- download installer package
- select the sim (FSX, FSX:SE, P3D) and the texture (grass or snow)
- you are good to go
If you have lost your default detail1.bmp file – Aimé Leclercq’s and Drzewiecki’s packages contain it in case you want to reverse your choice.
Wojciech Przybylski
Description
Replacement grass for FSX and P3D. Beautiful texture with serious drawbacks. Is it worth it? I neither recommend nor advise against it. Decide for yourself.
Author