I have been hearing a lot about Ground Environment Pro ($49.59 from Flight1.com) and VOZ (FREE from http://www.vistaoz.org/downloads.html). ; From what I can tell in the Screenshots both provide, VOZ looks better.

I already tried Howards Mix, from here, but i have had bad experiences with it.

Howards Mix caused me to have 3-8FPS when my normal FPS's are up around 20, so, out of VOZ or GEP.... what would you suggest????



Here are my system specs to help you decide.

Dell Inspiron 2200 Laptop
WINXP Home (sp3)
Intel Celeron M -- Processor x86 Family 6 Model 13 Stepping 8 GenuineIntel ~1396 Mhz
Total Physical Memory 1,280.00 MB
Video: Mobile Intel(R) 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Chipset Family
Sound: SigmaTel C-Major Audio
FS2004 / FSX Deluxe





Way off subject, but ...my new favorite smiley

VOZ is an excellent package for FS9 although it is geared for Australia. This means some of the textures might look out of place in other parts of the world, trees and things.

It will work with other texture addons like GEPro. However it is designed to temporarily replace textures and can easily be undone. It comes with a switcher utility to facilitate this.

The real nugget in VOZ is the upgrades to a large quantity of Australian airports geared towards both GA and tube fliers.

Your link however is now dead as they have closed down the VOZ site and moved on to FSX.

Hope this helps,
Joe

Edited:

I like VOZ, but there is no way it looks better than GEP, at least not when GEP is installed correctly.
People mistake GEP for FSX, I've never seen that happen with VOZ.

GEP with ActiveSky 6.5:

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/2009-08-11%2007.jpg
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/2009-088.jpg
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/sgaic3.jpg
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/sgaic4.jpg
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/sgaic5.jpg
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/sgaic6.jpg


Your problem is your hardware, the better you try to make things look, the more strain you're putting on that laptop.
So for your case, I would recommend VOZ for this system.
No sense wasting $50 if you'll never even be able to see all of the benefits.

Also, GEP is best run with Active sky as it selects ground textures based on the weather, providing a very real environment.

i already have Real Environment Pro (fs2004).  and I was wanting to upgrade "SOME" of my scenery, not all of it ..... to tell you the truth. 

I might go re-download Howard's Mix, and put it in a self contained folder, as well as make a folder inside it.   When I want to fly in certain areas of the world, the day before I fly, I will swap out scenery textures for that area only (backing up the originals this time), then when I am done with that area, I can put the originals back.    That way, I do not have the WHOLE WORLD trying to load MEGA SIZE TEXTURES that I am not even going to look at.

ie, leave South America, Antarctica, Europe, Asia, Africa, Austrailia as default if i am flying in North America.... i just want North American Textures to be updated for my flight.  (then put N.A. back to default if i want to fly Europe.)  ---- "TRY" to cut down on some of the system strain and put it on ME in having to keep swapping the folders.






Then again, if i did Howards Mix, then i might turn the TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=21  back down to 20, or maybe even 19, and try to find that happy medium between looks and performance.


i dont know.  Thanks for helping, if anyone else wants to weigh in on the topic, please do.... all the info i can get will only help me further in my decision making process.

Capt.Propwash wrote on Sep 2^nd, 2009 at 4:53pm:

Hey Captain,

Looks like you might have a couple misconceptions about how FS9 works.

First, TMVL affects mesh display and does not have much impact on textures. You should set it to match the resolution of the mesh you are using in the area you are flying.

re: your comments about "the whole world", FS does not ever load "the whole world", just the area in which you are currently flying. Just to be clear, if you are flying in North America FS is not loading anything for say, Europe. If you are referring to extended startup time, this is the worst the first time you start the sim after making changes. Then FS has to re-index files, and this may take a short while, but it should not impact performance while flying.

FWIW, I keep almost half a dozen different ...\FS9\texture folders and 3 or 4 ...\FS9\Scenery\World\texture folders to accommodate different texture sets I use. As an example I have a ...\FS9\Scenery\World\texture folder from a DL that is focused on Alaska only that I use only in Alaska.

In terms of "swapping folders" all you have to do is rename them, no file swapping required.

One last note, keep good notes of what you do so you don't get lost. I typically have a .txt file in each of these folders explaining what it is, where to use it, where I got it, etc.

Hope this helps,
Joe