STEVEFX

DX10 Scenery Fixer v5.1

User Manual
D X 1 0 S C E N E R Y F I X E R

Copyrights and Trademarks

Microsoft, Flight Simulator X, FSX, Windows 10,Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and
Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or
other countries.

Orbx, FTX and Full Terrain Experience are brands of Orbx Simulation Systems Pty. Ltd.

Other products and services mentioned in this manual are the property of their respective owners.

Example Scenery and Aircraft

To illustrate the features I have used various freeware aircraft and scenery as follows:

Reading regional Airport (KRDG) - Bill Womack.

Dash-7 - Milton Shupe/Scott Thomas/Joao Paz

Boeing 777 (Meljet) - Melvin Rafi

AC520 – Milton Shupe

Credits
Lead Developer, Chief Tester, Technical Author, Social Media Marketing: Steve Parsons

DX10 Icon: Patrick Krolzik – uses aircraft silhouette by Jussi Paju from Wikimedia Commons.

Support
Email: [email protected]

Blog: http://stevesfsxanalysis.wordpress.com/2012/07/

Support: http://forum.avsim.net/forum/644-the-official-dx10-scenery-fixer-support-forum/

General DX10 advice:

AVSIM: DX10 Discussion Form

SIM Outhouse: DX10 Forum

Orbx FTX: DX10 Forum

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Beta Testers
Thanks for your patience! Paul Johnson, Gerard Salden, Tomaz Drnovsek, Charles Earl, Adam Banks,
Wulf Bindewald

Version History
Version 1.0 Build 15 RTM version

Build 16,17 Various minor installation checks added.

Build 19 Fix for Dawn/Dusk mirror textures

Corrected HD Shadow Zoom for smaller jets.

Corrected Font on main window.

Version 1.1 Build 23 New Feature! – accurate shadows.

Fix for AI lights losing halo

Alpha bloom now disabled by in game bloom setting

New Feature! Light Fields for standard airports included to address

legacy point lights which go on and off with viewing angle

Altered pattern match for fences to accommodate some lights which

were being matched during the day.

Build 24 Documentation Changes

Build 25 Extra check for fx_2.bmp before installation

Documentation Changes

Adjusted Shadow Bias for F18 and possibly others

Build 26 Bug Fix to avoid errors messages during uninstallation when lights
were not installed

Bug Fix – effects check was not enabled if effects were added during
install

Version 1.2 Build 28 SGAA Clouds performance improvement

New bloom options

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Build 29 Removed close option from Installer Splash screen – as closing

messed up installation…

Added warning if 8 bit fix is set.

Added check that bkg.bmp is ok.

Changed ENBSeries checks to warn but continue.

Added Exit button as requested.

Added patch for Taxi Markings

Version 1.3 Build 30/31 FTX Global Lights day performance tweak

Revised Water Shader

New Feature! support for Vitaly French VFR Lights

New Feature! FTX Global and Vitaly Lights – reduce visibility based
on weather

Build 32 Added fix for black flash when rain/snow texture changed by AS and
option to stretch rain for multiple monitors.

Build 33 Extended reduced visibility in fog fix to include car headlights

Build 34 Tweaks to rain shader

Bug fixes – initial option to install reflections didn’t appear

Cloud config button was not disabled properly on uninstall of libraries.

Version 1.4 Build 35 New Feature to Fog Landing Lights

New Feature to reduce shadow fade with weather visibility

New Feature - Save and Restore Profiles

Adjusted Lights Package Lights works better close up

New feature to Fog Effect style Lights.

Version 1.5 Build 36 New Feature to control bloom glare effect

Bug Fix - AMD GPUs AA list not showing EQ variants

Bug Fix – Some small textures in Acceleration F18 not shown.

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Bug Fix – Sometimes didn’t find FSX directory on fresh installs

Version 2.0 Build 38 New Fix for many daytime transparency issues

New Feature – shadow strengthening and colour tone

New Feature – more bloom options

New Feature – more water tweaks

Build 39/40 Various bug fixes

Revised 8Bit Fix

Shadows for FS8 Aircraft

Build 41/42 New Legacy Transparency Logic

New Legacy Lighting Option

Version 2.1 Build 43 Axis Colour Fix Added

Bug Fix for UK2000 PAPI Lights

Improvements to FS8 Shadows

Bug Fix – AMD AA setting wrong values

Cloud Option to hide black clouds

Revised LightField that works reliably when start point is not the
destination.

Version 2.2 Build 44/45 Bug Fix – Toned Shadows was causing false shadows

Effects Default changed to exclude particle effects and shockwave

lights

Revised GUI

New Effects Dialog

V2 Lighting Rules defaults to on.

Version 2.3 Build 46-60 BugFix – bitmaps on Controller screen resized

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BugFix – cloud issues in low light with Missing Texture Fix

When uninstalling, DX10 Controller now closes automatically

Fix for black hedgerows at EICN

Fix for Axis Indicator fading with Fog

Corrections to shipped profiles- headlights were not defaulted as off

Limit Environment Bloom extends to Legacy aircraft.

Water dialog redesigned for clarity

Further tweaks to VC Shadows

Adjustment for shadow offset for jets

New HD Zoom algorithm to improve 747 and CRJ700

shadows

New surface bias algorithm

Controller detects a crash loading help icon and doesn’t load icon
subsequently (ole32.dll error)

HD Shadows can be extended to smaller jets – e,g Learjet

Fsx cfg settings screen added to DX10 Toolbox

Toolbox added to start menu

Davor Puljevic Croatia airports black building fix

Revised Implementation of Cloud Discard Fogged option

Version 2.4 Build 63 Bug Fix – Effects changes not working due to missing file in installer

Toolbox reading/writing Fibre time fraction (UK spelling) not the

correct Fiber… (US spelling)

Generation 5 Shadows

Major Improvements to shadow accuracy

Improvements to HD Shadows to allow use with more

aircraft

Extend HD Shadow option to all aircraft

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Version 2.5 Build 64 Bug Fix – Axis Fix stopped the fogging of some taxiways.

Bug Fix – Added EZdok compatibility option in Shadows – Version 5

shadows causes issues with EZdok and similar camera addons.

Bug Fix – Legacy shadows had not worked since Shadow Version 3

Discard Fully Fogged option added in Other Dialog.

Increased allowed shadow bias values (user request)

Support HD Shadows, Toned Shadows etc for Legacy Aircraft

Hide Legacy Navigation Light “Shadows”

New option to Force Shadows for some legacy aircraft and surfaces.

Generation 6 Shadows – minor tweaking of HD shadows

Option to rescale info text for DSR

Adjust Night Lighting when FSX Water 1.x Options are selected in
game

Experimental Option to Hide Sun Glare and G Effects

Version 2.5 Build 65 Bug Fix –If V2.0 Transparency was deselected legacy objects did not
appear at night.

Version 2.6 Build 66 Hide Sun Glare no longer hides background of Paused message and
does not hide Red Out G effect or on screen Axis V indicator.

Varied Wave Direction can be set in Controller – previously waves

always came from the North West – also support for a 3rd party FSX
launcher to set wave direction

Distance for Disable Distant Land Reflections can be altered (user

request)

Water Reflections are now straight and do not point to bottom right
of screen.

Adjustments to specular light at sunset/moonset, to take better

account of altitude and fade more accurately.

When an original shader is restored there is no longer any need to go

into debug dialog to enable it.

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Bug Fix – Toned Shadows previously hid Captain Sky 777 instruments
and the pilot of Bay Tower RV7

Version 2.7 Build 67 Support for Steam Edition when installed alongside a DVD Edition.
Note that DX10SF libraries must be uninstalled before switching
between editions

Version 2.8 Build 68 Bug Fix - If FSX and Steam were installed and FSX was later
uninstalled then DX10Controller produced error message about
“unable to delete shader cache”

Bug Fix - Shaders were not always rebuilt when using Steam in side by
side mode.

Bug Fix - Advice when bkg.bmp was altered was incorrect

New Fix for Aerosoft Oslo airport to allow V2 Transparency to be

turned on without solid yellow lighting. V2 Transparency fixes most
AES vehicles so it is useful to be able to enable it.

New Fix for AES Automated Docking Lights to allow them to work
when V2 Transparency is turned on.

Bug Fix - DX10 Toolbox now shows steam fsx.cfg when libraries are
Installed in Steam in side by side mode

New Option to disable the automatic closing of DX10 Controller

when uninstalling libraries – this could be annoying when switching
between Steam Edition and DVD Edition.

TrackIR compatibility added – this is the same as disabling Adaptive

Shadow Zoom.

New correction for external shadows when viewed from a long

distance – e.g tower view.

New diagnostics button to look for issues in configuration.

Version 2.8 Build 69 Bug Fix – If the default directory was accepted then DX10Controller
could not record that it had installed the C++ runtime and keep
reinstalling it every time it was launched. (FastSpring edition only)

Version 2.9 Build 70 Support for Dual installs of FSX and FSX:SE with DX10SF installed
into both at the same time.

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New Preferences Dialog

Fsx.cfg editor screen is now a menu item in DX10 Controller

Various tweaks to Diagnostics

If a Diagnostic Warning is detected then a Warning Icon appears on

Diagnostic button

New Option to twinkle distant lights

New Options for Ground Shadows

Bug Fix – The HD Shadows pulldown was not working properly

Bug Fix – The fsx.cfg editor was using FIBRE not FIBER

Improvements to fsx.exe running check

Installation check to prevent installation into fsx root directory.

New 737 NGX tweak to prevent moving shadows seen in some rare
instances.

Version 2.9 Build 71 Bug Fix – DX10Controller crashed on some PCs

Version 2.9 Build 72 Bug Fix – DX10 Controller crashed if too many diagnostic
errors were found.

Version 2.10 N/A 2.10 appeared as 2.1 when installed so was renamed as 2.11 !!

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Version 2.11 Build 73 Improvements to the check for changes to the Effect directory.
Previously it only detected new effects – it did not detect an update to
an existing effect.

Toolbox now supports bulk conversions of aircraft and scenery

Tree Lighting based on Sun position

Option to remove tree cards not angled towards viewpoint

Removed Distant Shadows Fix – I suggest that you change the tower
camera clipplanes instead.

Added ASN missing texture fix for high level clouds so they don’t
flash black if there is a delay loading texture.

Added option to not use terrain detail at distance

Improvements to the appearance of apron lighting in foggy conditions

at some payware airports

Version 2.11 Build 74-76 Bug Fix: Improved the way an invalid fsx path is handled.

Version 2.11 Build 77 BugFix – profiles path was set incorrect in previous 2.11 builds.

Version 3.0 Build 78-91 Added Sun Fog and tweaked diagnostics messages

Bug Fix: Axis Fix stopped the fogging of high level clouds

Improve fogging of taxiways in dense fog

Improvements to fog handling

Ignore effects.cfg file when looking for changed effects - this was
causing false alerts for customers with Flusifix

First Time Installation Dialog for new customers.

Fix for broken tangents causing black stripes with a few Virtavia
models

Added SpecialFeatures in DX10..ini to assist with some After Burner

Effects that did not work

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Bug Fix: 2nd system Effects were not updating configuration correctly
so settings looked wrong.

Bug Fix: Rain dialog wasn’t setting ASN value.

Version 3.0 Build 92 Updated Manual on AMD driver status and removed diagnostics
check.
Version 3.1 Build 93-97 Added check for FSX running before library uninstall/install.

Improved sequence of library removal to handle any locked files better.

New sliders for specular reflection (sunlight/moonlight) in Water

Dialog (Customer Request)

New Fix in Toolbox for Baggage Carts that cause false shadows.

Fix and change in Alpha Test handling to support Just Flight Tobago
sun visors.

Added installation notes into installer for new purchasers.

Fix for tab order in dialogs.

Added a few notes on REX setup for new customers.

Bug Fix: The shadow option “Reduce Fade in Poor Visibility” was
incorrectly fading shadows at high altitude.

Version 3.2 Build 98 Bug Fix: Reimplemented V2 Transparency and the Oslo and AES
indicator fixes which were causing some transparency issues with
various legacy aircraft e.g Tinmouse 737

Change to algorithm to determine fsx cfg directory. Now uses fsx-se

coexistence registry setting as primary arbiter. This is I think more
accurate in a small number of odd cases which the fixer was getting
wrong. I believe that this was causing the CloudShadows addon to
occasionally fail.

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Version 3.3 Build 103 Fix for Aerosoft Zurich V2 with Transparency V2 enabled – which
was causing issues with black markings on taxiways.

Added tree lighting slider (user request).

Added option to avoid shadows on backlit MFDs for FSL A320 and
PMDG 737NGX

Fix for square boxes in Flightport Cessna Soloy and possibly some
similar aircraft.

Various minor bug fixes to effects

New option to force change of fsx directory when installed

Version 3.4 Build 106 Revised Fix for Aerosoft Zurich V2 with Transparency V2 enabled –
the fix affected lighting at other airports notably Aerosoft Frankfurt v2
and several Taxi2Gate airports

New v2 Airport Polys option which improves ground lighting at many

airports e.g Aerosoft Barcelona

Fix for PMDG option which caused legacy VC shadows to move if

HD shadows was selected.

Build 107 Fix for Frankfurt v2 Parking Signs.

Build 108 BugFix – handle missing dll.xml file if no dll has yet been installed.

Build 109 Installer improvements to avoid some issues for new users.

Version 3.5 Build 110-113 Various minor bugfixes and installer improvements.

Yet another tweak to fix for Frankfurt Parking Signs

New option to fix reflections which were causing issues with Rick
Piper’s A22 Foxbat. Also addresses opaque windows for Flight
Replicas Me109 and improves reflections in Rick Piper’s Chipmunk.
May improve other portover legacy aircraft as well.

Build 114 Fixed issue impacting customers with Cloud Shadows whereby
autogen trees always appeared shadowed after installing 3.5 build 113.

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Version 4.0 Build 115-125 Major Improvements to Legacy Lighting at e.g. Aerosoft and UK2000
airports

Improvements to Effects

Improvements to 8 bit Fix

Various minor fixes

Discards objects such as lights with missing textures to match DX9

behaviour.

Alpha Testing now the same as DX9 – so for example some payware
aircraft will now show scratches on glass as in DX9.

Improved Shadow Quality.

Improved Fogging of glazing at Orbx Airports and better fogging of

lights.

Fix for a long standing fixer issue which meant that the fix for alpha
blended buildings which didn’t appear at night (bridges etc) rendered
fully opaque areas with some transparency at dawn/dusk. This
caused for example the Arch at St Louis to appear incorrectly.

Fix for shadow contrast with landing light overlays.

Version 4.0 Build 126-128 Support for Cloud Shadows v 2.0

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Version 5.0 Build 129-134 Simplify Dialogs removing old options and options that should always
be on.

Bug Fix – Sun & Moon Fog if selected without FTX fog caused black
skies.

Fix for full screen tooltips (not tested for multi byte languages)

Fix for water white flash at 1500ft AGL

Further improvements to Legacy Scenery

Version 5.1 Build 135 Bug Fix Legacy shadows were offset

Bug Fix Incorrect shadows on a few aircraft.

Further minor shadow improvements

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 1
Chapter
D X 1 0 S C E N E R Y F I X E R

Introduction
What DX10Scenery Fixer is (and what it isn’t).

T
he picture above was taken at the Bill Womack freeware scenery for Reading
Regional Airport (KRDG). The aircraft is the freeware Milton Shupe/Scott
Thomas/Joao Paz Dash-7. The right hand side shows the scenery in the
default DX10 preview and the left side uses shows it with DX10SceneryFixer.

The intention of the product is to resolve the majority of graphical issues with
Microsoft Flight Simulator X DX10 Preview mode. It also allows many aircraft and
scenery built with previous generations of the Microsoft Flight Simulator SDK to work
with FSX in DX10 mode.

It includes fixes for flashing runways, disappearing bridges and all the transparency
issues such as solid 3D grass, solid shadows that during the daytime.

The product does not improve performance or texture loading or have any control
(other than setting options in fsx.cfg) over Anti Aliasing. Your experience with DX10
may be better or poorer than with DX9. I advise everyone to experiment with DX10
before purchasing this product!

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Legacy Scenery
The scenery that appears grey always does so from dusk till dawn, it appears normal
during daylight hours. Scenery that behaves in this manner uses the FS9 SDK BGL
format rather than the FSX SDK BGL format introduced for FSX. This older scenery
format is sometimes called ASM or SCASM. Although it is a legacy file format many
scenery designers continue to prefer it even for new FSX scenery as it gives more
conditional control of when objects are drawn. Throughout this manual I will refer to
this style of scenery as Legacy Scenery to distinguish it from scenery that uses the
FSX SDK.

Legacy Aircraft
Aircraft that use the FS8 MDL format in their model typically appear grey all the time
in DX10 mode. FS8 aircraft may also have issues with incompatible textures which
cause small elements such as wheels to be missing altogether. Throughput this manual
I will refer to these aircraft as Legacy Aircraft to distinguish them from aircraft that
use the FSX SDK.

Steam Edition
Support for the Steam Edition is provided solely on the basis that it does not differ
substantially from SP2. If in future new revisions of FSX SE were released then they
might not work with the Fixer.

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 Fixes

P R O G R E S S I V E

T A X I

I M P R O V E D V C

S H A D O W S

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V 2 . 0 S H A D O W

T W E A K S

Compare with previous page. Options shown are Toned Shadows (so shadow colour
matches roof), Shadow +10%, Contrast + 10%, Reduce Falloff with Angle.

B R I D G E S

A P P E A R A T

N I G H T

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 R U N W A Y S

T H A T D O N ’ T

F L I C K E R

W A T E R T O N E

C L O S E R T O

D X 9

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R A I N / S N O W

S I M I L A R T O

D X 9

H I G H

D E F I N I T I O N

J E T V C

S H A D O W S

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 A C C U R A T E

S H A D O W S

R E D L A T T I C E

T O W E R S

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 F T X G L O B A L

L I G H T S

F R E N C H V F R

V I T A L Y L I G H T

S U P P O R T

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F T X G L O B A L

A N D V I T A L Y

L I G H T

V I S I B I L I T Y

T A X I L I N E

F I X

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 N O M I L K Y

W A T E R

A D J U S T E D

S H A D O W F A D E

Pictures are with 20nm visibility. RHS is with fix enabled.

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T R A N S P A R E N C Y

V 2 . 0 F I X E S

Orbx England Cardiff (3D Grass)

Orbx PAJN (Shadows)

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 L E G A C Y

A I R C R A F T

S H A D O W S

Note – this is a fun only feature – It is suggested that you create a separate profile for
legacy aircraft.

H D A I R C R A F T

S H A D O W S

F O R A L L

A I R C R A F T

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G E N E R A T I O N

5 S H A D O W

A C C U R A C Y

C L O U D

S H A D O W S

( A D D I T I O N A L

C O S T A D D O N )

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 2
Chapter

Installation
This stage copies the product onto your disk but does not alter your
FSX installation in any way.

B
efore you start I strongly recommend that you check that the DX10 preview
mode is currently working in your FSX Installation. There are various tweaks
that are known to break it and if you install this product without first testing
then you may unfairly blame it.

The MSI Installer

Caution Make sure that
The product ships with either a standard Microsoft Installer or
FSX is not running during the Flight Sim Store Wrapper. The installation process requires
the installation process. administrative access and so will prompt you (assuming that you
have UAC enabled).

The installer will then lead you through the rest of the process. The primary program
installed is called DX10Controller - This is the main control GUI.

The MSI setup wizard will conclude with the following screen.

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I recommend that you leave the launch option ticked. This will complete the
installation process by installing or updating the Microsoft C++ Redistributable. Agree
to any elevation prompts. You will see some progress windows like this.

Note: Should you deselect the launch option then you will need to manually install the
C++ Redistributable. The C++ Redistributable installer can be found in the VC
directory underneath the main installation.

The Flight Sim Store wrapper runs this as part of the installation and then launches
DX10Controller.

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
If you receive an error running the installer suggesting it is invalid,
then please copy it to the C drive and run it from there – Windows
does not allow installers to run from network or shared drives.

If that does not work then download again and if that does not work
then contact me.

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Full Uninstallation
To uninstall, you must first follow the Library uninstallation process described in
Chapter 3.

Then open the Windows Control Panel option Uninstall a Program then select either
DX10SceneryFixer or SteveFX DX10SceneryFixer from the list it presents.
The former is for the MSI installer and the latter for the Flight Sim Store wrapper.

If you have no intention of reinstalling then delete any LightFields BGL files that you
have added to your scenery.


If you uninstall the product from your PC without first uninstalling
the libraries then your FSX system may not run correctly!!

If you have enabled the dual system option then you must uninstall
the libraries from both your FSX Steam and the FSX DVD systems.

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Product Updates
If an additional version of DX10Scenery Fixer is produced then you will be notified as
follows:
 By a post on my blog http://stevesfsxanalysis.wordpress.com/

 By a post on the support forum at Avsim.

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The recommended update procedure is as follows:

1. Download the new version from your reseller account.

2. Launch the downloaded Installer for the new version and follow the
instructions, reentering your key if necessary.

3. Launch DX10 Controller which will notify you that the libraries are out of date
– and ask you to update them

4. Read the Manual!

With this procedure all your previous settings will be retained.

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 3
Chapter

Initial Setup
Installing into FSX.

T
he product installation just places the product onto your computer. To
actually get the product to work you then need to confirm the location of FSX
and then install the product libraries into FSX.

Before You Begin

It is always wise to first take a backup of your fsx.cfg and export your GPU driver
profile – e.g as a Nvidia Inspector nip file.

If you have previously installed my DX10 patches then the installer will detect this and
handle it all for you, there is no need to uninstall these patches.

A few people have experienced installation problems because their system bitmaps
have been converted into dds files.

There are only two bitmaps of significance to DX10SceneryFixer

<FSX DIR>\bkg.bmp

<FSX DIR>\Texture\envmap.bmp.

Currently you must restore the originals before the installation can proceed. If you do
not do this then the installation will abort with a message explaining the issue.

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Step 1 Setting FSX Path
Run DX10Controller for the first time. This can be found in the installation directory
that you selected and on the desktop and also in the Windows Start menu listed under
SteveFSX.

Most of the features are disabled until you install the libraries. All that you can initially
do is view this manual, switch between DX9 and DX10 and install the libraries.

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The product attempts to find where FSX is installed by examining the registry. In rare
circumstances it may not be able to find a value or the value shown may be incorrect.


Before installing the libraries please check that the FSX path shown
is correct. You cannot change the FSX path whilst the libraries are
installed

If the location cannot be determined for any reason or it is incorrect then select the
Change button. This will bring up a browse dialog for you to identify the root
directory of you FSX installation (I.e. the directory that contains fsx.exe)


If you remove and reinstall your FSX system to a different location
and don’t uninstall the libraries first then it is possible to get stuck!!
As a last resort there is an option in File->Preferences called “Allow
Emergency Change of Fsx Directory” which allows you to change
the FSX path to point to the new system.

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Step 2 Library Installation
The next step is to install the libraries. Select the Install button located near the top
right to do this. This will ask for your administrator password if necessary.

If this is the first time you have installed the libraries since the product installation then
you will be prompted to enter your license.


Note:
If you have installed via a store wrapper then this licence entry step
is not necessary and you will proceed straight to the next screen. If
you have used a store wrapper and you see this licence screen then
the store wrapper has failed in some way. Uninstall and install again.


Note:
If you use BitDefender and you get an error 5 (permission) writing
to the DX10.ini in public documents then you need to temporarily
disable the AntiVirus or exclude the DX10Controller from its
configuration to successfully install the libraries.

36
First Time Installation
The first time you install the libraries you wil be presented with this dialog

First select from the options – note that I recommend that you always select the single
option that is now available.
1. DX10 Reflections – allows legacy aircraft to have reflections see Chapter 7.

Then select any of the named addon products that you own and have installed. This
will set any settings relevant to these in the fixer dialogs.

Finally choose from

My Settings Most features are enabled with sensible values.

Default very few features are enabled – you must read the manual and
then turn features on.

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Based on the selections that you make the DX10 configuration will be set up for you.
After installation is complete you then control the setting using the dialog buttons.

If you purchase any new addons then you can use the Third Party Dialog button in the
options section of the DX10 Controller main screen to update the list of addons that
you have.

See Chapter 13 for more details.

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Subsequent Installation
Should you reinstall the libraries then you are presented with a simpler dialog just
dealing with reflections.

After Installation
When the installation is complete all the features of the Controller GUI will be
unlocked. Note that if FSX is in DX9 mode then the DX10 options will remain
disabled until you use the option to Switch to DX10.

39
Note that the button at the top right is now labeled Uninstall. The features of the
controller tool are described in the subsequent chapters.


Warning!
Although DX10 Scenery Fixer works if installed over a previous
installation of my DX10 shader patches, you should not install the
shader patches after DX10 Scenery Fixer has been installed. There
is in fact no need to ever do this as the program includes all the
changes contained within the free shader patches.

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Library Uninstallation
The uninstallation process is the reverse of the above.


Warning!
FSX must not be running during the uninstallation process as the
library files will be locked in use. Failure to do this could leave FSX
in a non- working state.

Step 1 Select Uninstall.

Step 2 You will be prompted as follows

If you run FSX as a single user answer Yes and you are done. Otherwise if you answer
No you will see the following.

Step 3 Follow the instructions and run FSX for each other user.

Step 4 Finally run DX10Controller and select Uninstall a second time.

41

Note:
If you follow this process then DX10 Scenery Fixer will fully restore
your Flight Simulator Installation to its original state.

If it Goes Wrong
If you forget one of the steps above then simply reinstall and follow the uninstallation
process carefully in sequence.

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 4
Chapter

DX10Controller

T
he main product GUI gives you control over the way DX10 Scenery
Fixer works. The various options and settings are described in the
chapters that follow.

1
1
2
1
3

6
1

7
1
43
1 FSX Path Setup – see Chapter 2.
1
2 Library Install and Uninstall – see Chapter 2.
1
3 Switch between DX9 and DX10 - See Chapter 6.

4 Set DX10 Anti Aliasing – See Chapter 6.

1

5 Options. See Chapter 7 onwards.

1
These buttons provide access to dialogs that allow you to tweak and control
various aspects of how DX10 Scenery Fixer operates, so e.g configuring
options for the displaying of shadows or water.

Note: Some options may in some circumstances be greyed out. This occurs if
a product feature is disabled in the debug dialog or if you have installed a 3rd
party replacement shader fix.

6 Open this Manual as PDF.

1
7 Run System Checks and Diagnostics.
1

The tool checks whether Flight Simulator is running and will refuse to run if it is.

WARNING!! The tool simply looks for as window called Microsoft Flight
Simulator X. If you should open a File Explorer and browse to a directory with
that name then that directory will become the window title of the File Explorer
window and DX10Controller will then confusingly refuse to run.


Note:
If you run FSX as Administrator then you should also run DX10 as
Administrator as well. This is particularly critical if your main user
does not have administrator rights.

44
Profiles
Each of the Options has a dialog with various options – these are described in the
Chapters that follow.

On the menu bar there is a pull down menu with options to save and restore a profile
of the options. This allows you to create specific profiles to suit a legacy aircraft for
example.

If you select the menu option to save a profile you are presented with this dialog

Simply choose a name for the profile and the options will be saved. Then in the future
you can simply restore them using the similar Load Profile menu option.

The profiles are stored by default in the DX10SceneryFixer directory under Public
Documents. (C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\DX10SceneryFixer)


Note:
On some OS versions the very first time you use this dialog it may
default to the wrong location – simply browse to the directory above
and it will work subsequently.

45

Note:
The Flight Sim Store uninstaller removes this directory so if you
want to uninstall and the reinstall remember to back these profiles
up.

A number of profiles are included as samples:

 Default Resets all option settings to their default value

 Steve The settings I use (HD Shadows on)

 SteveNoHD As above but with HD Shadows Off

 LegacyShadows With Legacy Shadows enabled.

Options
Options buttons will be greyed out if any of the files in the <FSX> ShadersHLSL
directory are found to be different to the original versions or if the related shaders have
been disabled in the DX10 Controller Debug menu.

The following table summarises the reasons why an option may be greyed out.

Option Non standard Shader File Debug

Legacy N/A Legacy Shader unticked

Shadows General10.fx is non standard General Shader unticked

Bloom General10.fx is non standard General Shader unticked

Rain Rain40.fx is non standard Rain Shader unticked

Clouds SwarmCloud40.fx is non standard Cloud Shader unticked

Water Water40.fx is non standard Water Shader unticked

Other General10.fx is non standard General Shader unticked

So for example should you download and install a replacement DX10 water shader
(Water40.fx) the Water Option will then be greyed out. The new downloaded shader
should work without issue but you cannot control it from DX10 Controller.

46
Diagnostics
This button runs a report to report on any issues which may require your attention or
where you should be aware of possible side effects.

e.g

Note that these are only suggestions. If you actually want to fly a Legacy Aircraft then
Legacy Self Shadowing is the correct setting to have for example.

Similarly I would never fly without HD Shadows - but I have read and understand the
consequences on close up cameras.

47
Preferences
There is a set of preferences accessible from the top pulldown menu
File->Preference

Close DX10 Controller when the libraries are uninstalled

By default the Controller closes when you uninstall the libraries in preparation for a full
uninstallation. This option controls this behavior.

Dual System Mode

By default the DX10 Scenery Fixer only supports installation into one Flight Simulator
system at once. To support customers with dual installs of the DVD and Steam
editions who wish to install into both this new option enables this – see Chapter 21

Show Warning Item on Diagnostics Button

If there are any outstanding warnings the Diagnostics button will indicate this with a
warning item. This option can be used to disable this icon display.

Check for FSX Running on Startup

By default the Dx10 Scenery Fixer will not run if Flight Simulator is running – this
option disables this check.

Allow Emergency Change of FSX Directory

After you have set the Fsx directory for a system you can only change it when the
libraries are uninstalled – this prevents mistakes. However this can cause an issue if

48
Fsx is moved to a new location without first uninstalling the libraries as you cannot
uninstall to change the path to the new location. This option allows you to change the
directory and then uninstall/install.

Use Alternate Libs

Very occasionally the library installation may fail because of an over zealous antivirus.
This option may sometimes help avoid such issues – if you have such an issue then
contact me for support before changing this option.

49
Fsx Cfg Editor
There is a basic fsx.cfg editor included which can be accessed from the pulldown
menu.. This was previously part of the unsupported DX10Toolbox.


Warning:
This edits your fsx.cfg configuration file. Use at your own risk and
remember to take a backup. If you do not understand a setting then
do not change it. The location of the FSX config file that it is using
is shown at the bottom of the screen.

50
 5
Chapter

Go Fly!
Try it out...

W
ithout further ado I suggest that you load up FSX and try it out. At this
stage you should find that the vast majority of grey scenery is correctly lit at
night and that FS9 aircraft are no longer grey during the day.

The default settings are chosen to give the best compatibility with legacy scenery.
You may notice some minor issues with lighting and transparency with legacy
aircraft at night and also some small parts such as wheels may still be missing.
These issues are discussed in subsequent chapters.

If you load the profile “steve” then you can see the settings that I actually use.

You should check the Graphics Settings in FSX as they are not carried over from DX9

For DX10 you want the Filtering set to Anisotropic, and the Anti-Aliasing option
MUST be ticked.

51
 6
Chapter

Managing DX10

A
couple of useful functions are provided in the GUI to assist you in managing
DX10. These simplify switching between DX9 and DX10 and let you easily
set up DX10 anti-aliasing.

52
Switch Direct X
Your current mode (DX9 or DX10) is shown. The button changes FSX to the other
mode. The change applies the next time FSX starts up.

When switching to DX9 DX10 Scenery Fixer removes any changes that could affect
DX9 and will restore these options when you switch back.

Note: This will change the [Graphics] D3D10 item in your fsx.cfg to 0 or 1 as
appropriate.

DX10 Anti Aliasing

There has been much confusion in the past about Anti Aliasing in DX10 and this led
to some people believing it did not work. DX10 Scenery Fixer handles much of this
complexity for you by managing the settings in fsx.cfg.

For DX10 the process of setting AA is different to DX9 but with a few exceptions
(sch as the Nvidia Combined Modes) you can always achieve the same result.

Nvidia

For Nvidia the AA setting list matches the settings handled by the Antialias Setting
field in Nvidia Inspector for DX9.

Note that the combined modes are not available in DX10 – refer to the table on the
next page for the nearest equivalent settings.

53
You should then select a Sparse Grid AA level in Nvidia Inspector using this table.

DX10SF Number of Samples Compatible Sparse Grid

setting SuperSampling settings
(None is always ok!)
2x 2 2x SGSSAA

4x 4 4x SGSSAA

8x CSAA 4 4 x SGSSAA

8x 8 8 x SGSSAA

16x CSAA 4 4 x SGSSAA

16xQ CSAA 8 8 x SGSSAA

32x 8 8 x SGSSAA

If you use the 8xS combined mode in DX9 and wish to replicate the same AA quality
and performance in DX10 then I recommend that you set up the AA as follows

DX9 Setting Closest Match in DX10

8xS 4x set in DX10 Controller

Transparency Supersampling 4x Sparse Grid set in NVI.

Set to Off

8xS 8x set in Dx10 Controller

Transparency SuperSampling 8x Sparse Grid set in NVI.

Set to any other setting e.g 4 x
Sparse Grid, 4x Supersampling

54
AMD

For AMD GPUs the list will match the Multi Sampling AA settings in AMD
Catalyst/Crimson.

You can then set the Super Sampling Level in Catalyst/Crimson or using RadeonPro.


Note:
I have found that in recent Crimson AMD builds that setting DX10
supersampling via a profile does not seem to work and found that I
have to instead set it via the global profile. Whether this issue is
commonplace I do not know.

General Notes:
 Before selecting an option you should check that it is listed as a valid option in
your control panel.

 For Dual Monitors you must manually set AA On for the second monitor by
editing your fsx.cfg file.

55
Technical Background

Whilst DX10 Scenery Fixer handles all this for you some people may wish to know
why you have to control AA from within the tool and what is going on behind the
scenes.

In DX9 Mode the normal AA setup process is

 Turn Off In Game Antialiasing

 In the AMD or NVIDIA profile manager (e.g Catalyst, RadeonPro, NVIDIA

Control Panel, NVIDI Inspector) set to Override any Application Setting

 Set the Multisampling level in the profile manager

 Set the Super Sampling level in the profile manager

In DX10 Mode the AA setup process is

 Turn On In Game Antialiasing

 Set the Multisampling level in the fsx.cfg file using configuration items
provided for that purpose by the FSX development team.

 Set the Super Sampling level in the profile manager.

The reason for the difference is that is not possible to override the application settings
in DX10 mode. This means that the main anti-aliasing option in the Nvidia or AMD
control panel does not work.

The screenshot shows the Nvidia Inspector setting which has no effect in DX10.

For Nvidia, only the Sparse Grid Super Sampling works with DX10.

For AMD Crimson the other AA settings such as Super Sampling work normally as in
DX9.

56
When you change the main AA level in DX10 Controller it takes the following action.

1. Locates the DX10 device entry in fsx.cfg and sets the In Game AA setting on
or off as appropriate

[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti.0.0]

Mode=1920x1200x32
AntiAlias=1

2. Based on the Level of AA that you selected it sets the DX10 AA fields in
fsx.cfg

[GRAPHICS]
….
MultiSamplesPerPixel=4
MultiSampleQuality=8

Note 1: None of these fields have any effect in DX9.

Note 2: The Windows API for changing fields in ini files is used so this is safer than
editing the file in notepad!

Note 3: The values above correspond to 8x CSAA for Nvidia and 4xEQ for AMD.

Note4: It is always recommended that you take backups of your fsx.cfg

Ground Shadows
For Nvidia it has been reported that although the Mode and Setting do not affect AA
they do have some impact on ground shadows – so it is recommended that you set as
shown below.

57
 7
Chapter

Legacy Options

T
he Legacy Dialog can be accessed via the Legacy Button in the Options
section. The Dialog allows you to adjust the way that Legacy objects are
displayed.

58
Background
The problem that the Fixer faces with legacy scenery and aircraft is that the DX10
Engine a set of instructions that describe how objects are to be displayed. The fixer
must therefore attempt to work out via other means how to display these objects.

Version 5.0 Changes

In the Fixer Version 4.0 there were big improvements to the accuracy of rendering
legacy scenery and aircraft. Version 5.0 improves this still further and addresses the
majority of the issues that remained.

In version 5.0 then almost all legacy aircraft and scenery should be displayed exactly the
same as in DX9 with the following exceptions

 If a texture referred to in the aircraft model or scenery has not been supplied then
the Fixer will show it as dark grey. The DX9 engine will show it using a fallback
colour and so there may be a slight difference.

 If an 8-bit texture is used (this is rare but does occur with some old aircraft models)
then the items involved will appear with an inverted transparency channel – see
Chapter 17 for how to convert these textures.

Legacy AESLite Vehicles

Many Aerosoft Airports have a AESLite Traffic Configuration tool with a “DX10”
option. This option disables the AESLite traffic at night thus avoiding any issue with
DX10 by removing AESLite traffic entirely.

The Fixer Version 5.0 can display all these vehicles correctly. Therefor you should
TURN OFF any AESLite DX10 option in the Airport Traffic configuration tool!!

To repeat - I am telling you that the DX10 option in the AESLite Traffic tool should
be left unticked and that you should instead rely on the Fixer to display the traffic
correctly.

59
Legacy Shadowing Options

Legacy Aircraft Self Shadow

This option permits many FS8 Legacy aircraft to have external and internal VC
shadows. It works for many but not all FS8 aircraft. However the setting can cause
minor issues with other shadows on other non legacy aircraft if you leave it set on.

It is recommended that you only set this option set when flying legacy aircraft – do not
leave it set on. You can do this by creating a separate profile for your FS8 aircraft and
loading it as necessary.

You can determine how well shadows will work for a FS8 aircraft by temporarily
uninstalling the DX10SF libraries and viewing it during the day. Any parts of the
aircraft that appear grey will show shadows when DX10SF is installed, parts that
appear textured will not show shadows.

60
Legacy Aircraft Force Shadows
Some legacy aircraft (or in some cases some surfaces within a model) did not show
shadows even when legacy shadows were enabled. This option extends the legacy
shadowing option to correct this.

It may have some side effects so I recommend that as with the other Legacy
Shadowing option that you place them in a separate profile. In Version 4.x I believe
that the only side effect is that if you taxi within 150ft of an AI aircraft you may see
strange shadows on that aircraft.

Here is George Diemer’s Sikorsky S-42

61
Legacy Dawn Dusk Options

Dawn Dusk Smoothing

By default legacy scenery will behave exactly as in DX9 during dusk and dawn. At
some point during the transition the airport will light up as if someone has flicked a big
switch. This differs from airports built with the FSX SDK which normally have a
smooth transition between day lighting and night lighting.

If you tick this option then the Fixer will blend between the legacy day and night
lighting during dawn and dusk. I have set the transition to be shorter than the FSX
SDK so that you arrive at the night lighting level a little quicker.

Fade Sun Directional

The FSX lighting model takes two values from the skymap textures – the ambient
lighting for surfaces facing way from the sun and the “directional” lighting for sunlit
surfaces. It is not uncommon for replacement sky textures to use a very high
directional lighting value around dawn and dusk to make the clouds look realistic. This
can cause scenery objects such as buildings or AES vehicles to look overly bright
when the sun is below the horizon. Selecting this option fades the lighting on these
surfaces faster.


For consistency this directional sun fading is applied to non-legacy
scenery as well. I may therefore relocate this setting in the next
release. It currently has a dependency on the system having the
latest legacy logic enabled which is why it is here.

62
Legacy Environment Reflections

Reflective aircraft surfaces and materials such as chrome do not work in DX10 for
legacy aircraft. This is due to an incompatibility in the type of Environment reflection
texture. Happily this can be fixed by swapping the legacy environment texture for a
DX10 style texture.

This is determined when you install the fixer libraries based on the highlighted option.

If you don’t have reflections on your legacy aircraft then uninstall and reinstall the fixer
libraries and make sure that this option is set.

The product uninstallation process will always back out the changes and revert to the
original DX9 version.


Note:
If you switch to DX9 outside the fixer or uninstall the fixer from
control panel without first uninstalling the libraries then
reflections on these older aircraft may appear wrongly in DX9.

63
DX10 with DX9 reflection texture (so none in DX10)

DX10 with DX10 reflection texture

64
Excessive Reflections
If you find that the aircraft looks like liquid metal it is probable that you have an 8-bit
texture with the alpha reversed which is applying excessive amounts of chrome
reflections. See Chapter 14.

65
 8
Shadow Options

T
he Shadows Dialog can be accessed via the Shadows Button in the Options
section. The Dialog allows you to adjust the way that Shadows are displayed.
The settings cover both VC shadows and external aircraft shadows.

66
Force VC Walls
Some aircraft may fail to show convincing shadows due to the use of texture options
that disable shadowing from the cockpit walls. This feature addresses one of the most
common causes and for some aircraft can be a big improvement. .

Enable Shadow Boost.

This enables the Shadow Boost slider which darkens shadows. I recommend that you
experiment with the two options: Reduce Fade in Poor Visibility and Reduce Falloff
with Angle before using this.

Shadow Boost Slider

This strengthens shadows – the slider is enabled by the Enable Shadow Boost option.
Uses small values, test with a white plane and bank to face the sun. I suggest that you
experiment with the two Reduce options first.

Contrast Slider
This darkens aircraft surfaces that face away from the sun. See the Lighting Guide that
follows.

VC Shadow Bias
If you see flickering/banded shadows then you can use the pull down to apply a slight
increment to the bias. See explanatory section.

HD Shadows.
This turns on HD VC shadows. This greatly improves the shadow quality. Before
selecting this you should read the following section on HD Shadows which explains
the background and what to expect.

HD Size. (All Aircraft, Biz Jets and above, Airliners only)

The standard setting applies the HD option to large aircraft such as airliners only. The
Biz Jet option applies it to much smaller planes (down to the stock Learjet) and the All
option applies it to all aircraft. See the Section on HD Shadows.

Volume Shadow Bias

This option increases the bias applied to Volume Shadows when Ground Shadows are
enabled in FSX. See the Section on Ground Shadows.

Disable Volume Shadows

Disables volume shadows when FSX ground shadows are enabled. See the Section on
ground shadows.

Hide Shadows In rain

Hide VC Shadows when it is raining.

67
Don’t Shade MFDs
This option was added in response to a user request. The reported problem was that
white text in MFDs darkened when in shadow with some add on aircraft. This is the
opposite of reality where displays become easier to read when in shadow. This fix
alters the way shadows are calculated for such “Emissive” panel elements to improve
this.

HD Shadow Edge
This slider allows you to tweak the algorithm used at the edge of HD shadows.
Hardening the edges improves the edge sharpness but can create movement artifacts in
challenging scenarios where for instance the surface is nearly parallel with the sun.
Softening the edges helps hide this movement.

68
Fsx Lighting Guide

The Sky textures in the FSX\Textures directory contain information that determines
the ambient background light colour and the direct sunlight colour. These are also the
values that the Shade product lets you alter. Depending on your installation these Sky
textures may be the standard product ones or have been replaced by REX or other
similar addons.

Surfaces that face away from the sun such as the underside of the wing receive the
ambient lighting colour which in the example above has a blue tint.

Surfaces that face towards the sun receive the ambient lighting added to the sun
lighting colour in proportion to the angle between the surface and the sun – so a
surface that is only slightly tilted towards the sun is similar in colour to the ambient
light colour whereas a surface directly facing the sun is much brighter and closer to the
direct sunlight colour.

Surfaces that are facing the sun but that have another part of the plane between them
and the sun are treated as in shadow and appear grey – the degree of shadow varies
with the angle such that surfaces directly facing the sun have darker shadows.

If you examine the picture above you can see that the undersides of the wings are a
completely different colour to the wing shadow. In the real world there would be no
difference.

Shadowing only occurs during the FSX day. This can lead to some annoying features
at dawn and dusk when surfaces inside the aircraft facing the sun become lighter even
though there is a 100 feet of aircraft between them and the sun!

69
Here is the same scene with the Fixer. The Fixer adjusts the colour of the wing
shadow to match that of the underside of the wing, giving a much smoother transition.
It also slightly strengthens the shadow.

If using the shadow boost slider I suggest that you create a test flight using the white
Maule or white Cessna and bank the plane so that the side directly faces the sun. If you
don’t do this you may find that the shadows sometimes appear like black oil!

The contrast slider darkens the ambient lighting on the plane and so darkens the
underside of the wing whilst keeping sunny surfaces the same brightness.

70
Virtual Cockpit Shadows
There are four things that must be in place for you to see VC Shadows for a particular
aircraft.

1. The Option in FSX “Aircraft casts shadows on itself” must be selected

2. The aircraft must be built with the FSX SDK and must have an interior
model.

3. A Flag to enable VC Shadows must be set on in the interior model

OR

fsx.cfg Display Option ForceVCShadowMap must be set to 1

4. The model must avoid certain techniques which prevent the shadows
working.

The option Force VC Walls corrects for one of these techniques and so
may improve VC shadows for some aircraft.

If you find that after checking points 1 thru 3 that you do not see shadows even
with Force VC Walls set then it almost certainly the case that the model uses a
technique that DX10SF cannot correct for.

71
HD Shadows
The original idea of HD shadows was that large jet transports with swept back wings
typically have a very small virtual cockpit model in comparison to the plane. When
calculating the shadows in the VC view FSX used the main model scale which means
that only a fraction of the available memory buffer was used. The feature improved the
cockpit shadows by making better use of the available buffer.

In previous versions this only worked if the aircraft has a VC model that contains just
the cockpit interior i.e. without the wings and fuselage. If you attempted to fly a large
turboprop with this feature enabled the shadows were very poor.

With version 4 Shadows HD Shadows should now work much better with other
aircraft although there are still some minor compromises involved.

There are now two possible downsides:

1. For aircraft with wings and fuselage in the VC model that are viewable from
the cockpit, shadows will not appear beyond a certain radius and the wings will
not cast shadows in the cockpit at extreme bank angles.

2. Exterior cameras much closer than the spot camera (i.e. wing, undercarriage
will miss some shadows.

Both these effects are much milder than in previous versions.

The improvement in the VC is usually worth it

72
Note: This option will only be available if both your general10.fx and
generalshadow10.fx files are original and unaltered.

When dealing with HD Shadows DX10Scener Fixer uses the model diameter to
determine whether HD Shadows should apply and the degree of zoom to apply. The
diameter is a measure of the aircraft size and I think that it is used for the spot plane
position.

When HD Shadows is selected with the Airliner size setting HD shadows are used for
all aircraft with a diameter greater than 30 (just larger than DC3)

When HD Shadows is selected with Bizjets size setting HD shadows are used for all
aircraft with a diameter greater than 17. (Learjet and above)

There is now an option All to extend HD shadows to all aircraft.


Generally smaller aircraft have more structure visible from the
cockpit and the gain HD shadows provides is less so the choice
becomes more nuanced. Shadows within the VC will appear a little
crisper, but when you look out at the wings you may see that
shadows do not appear or are cut off at some point along the wing.


HD Shadows will now work with Legacy aircraft.

73
Standard

HD

74
Shadow Bias
The shadowing technique that FSX uses requires that a “bias adjustment” be used. If
this value is to big then shadows become offset from the item casting the shadow
(Peter Panning). If the value is too small then a false flickering shadow can be seen.
This is often comb like in appearance.

Do not confuse this with a slight movement at the edge of shadow which is a
consequence of the shadow resolution.

DX10 Scenery Fixer automatically calculates the bias value based on the aircraft model
dimensions. If you find that you still see a flickering false shadow then you can use the
Bias pulldown to slightly increase the bias applied.

75
Ground Shadows
In response to a user request I have agreed to include some tweaks for FSX Ground
Shadows. The fact that I agreed to do this does not mean that I recommend that you
enable Ground Shadows or believe that you will have a happy experience if you do
so…

In my view Ground Shadows are expensive in frame rate, don’t work very well and
since many sceneries have never been tested with it enabled then they are likely to
show problems.

So if you enable Ground Shadows and find that your frame rate drops and your
scenery looks a mess please do not complain to me.

There are two types of Ground Shadows supported by default in FSX

 Flat Shadows (aka FS2004 Shadows)

 Volume Shadows

Flat Shadows are drawn on the ground and do not shade the object itself or other
nearby objects. This is very similar to the aircraft shadow that you see on the ground.

Note that the building does not shade the roof of the small white building.

76
Volume Shadows are more sophisticated and shade the object itself, the ground and
other nearby objects.

Note here that the sides of the building facing away from the sun are darkened and that
the shadow appears on the small white building and the small autogen buildings in
front of it.

Issue 1: Volume Shadow Flickering

In many cases such the buildings above at Canary Wharf in London the volume
shadows cause z fighting and false shadows flicker on the buildings themselves.

In the shadow dialog there are two options to reduce (but not completely fix) this.
Increasing Volume Shadow Bias from the default setting of “None” may reduce the
flickering. A value of +1 or +2 is sufficient for Canary Wharf most of the time. When
you adjust the bias DX10Scenery Fixer also applies some other shadow improvements
such as reducing fade in poor visibility to Volume Shadows.

77
However there are still some complex objects that show some flickering even with an
adjusted bias – here are some tanks in Texas that still flicker.

If you find serious issues in the areas that you fly in then the option Disable Volume
Shadows permits you to disable all volume shadows leaving just flat shadows.

Issue 2: Transparent Flat Shadows

The following picture is from Orbx CEN4

78
Unfortunately the rectangular model used to overlay transparent runway markings has
the shadow property set. This results in FSX drawing the “shadow” to each of these
transparent squares as a black square.

No criticism is intended of the scenery author, it’s a consequence of the history of this
FSX feature. Because Ground Shadows have faults, no one tests sceneries with them
enabled leading to more faults.

79
 9
Bloom Options

T
he Bloom Dialog can be accessed via the Bloom Button in the Options
section. The Dialog allows you to adjust the way that Bloom is displayed.

80
Bloom is only applied if the FSX master bloom setting is selected in FSX Settings.

Bloom is applied in two phases. Firstly the model/light is brightened as it is drawn

and then later in post processing a glare effect is added to bright areas of the final
image.

In FSX there are four categories of bloom

 Reflective (specular) this is the bloom that you will see on aircraft wings as the
sun reflects off them.

 Emissive Bloom – this is applied to scenery models that use emissive lighting
and identify themselves as wanting bloom (FTX Global Lights are an example)

 Headlights (Bloom Copy) - car headlights.

 Lights (Alpha/Halo) – this applies mainly to effect style lights, PAPI Lights,
runways lights, navigation lights etc. It is also applied to the Sun. In some rare
circumstances it can be applied to scenery and aircraft – e.g. Bergan airport.

The first four sliders control the first phase of bloom for each type of bloom. The fifth
slider then allows you to independently reduce the glare effect.

The sliders control a percentage factor which can range from 0 to 100%. In each case
100% corresponds to the default DX10 setting for the effect and zero means that the
effect is minimized.

Bloom does not apply to LegacyAircraft or scenery. If a Legacy scenery includes lights
implemented using the FS9 SDK then they will not bloom.

81

Note
Headlight bloom seems to cause an issue with cars in carparks in
Orbx sceneries. It has been likened to a group of flashlight
photographers!! If you select the 3rd Party Orbx option then
headlight bloom is automatically disabled to prevent this. If you
don’t have Orbx but find a scenery with a similar issue with
carparks then I suggest that you set the headlight slider to zero.

82
 10
Rain Options

T
he Rain Dialog can be accessed via the Rain Button in the Options section.
The Dialog allows you to adjust the way that Rain is displayed.

The slider changes the brightness of the rain effect – the factor is a value in the range 0
-100% where 100% corresponds to the FSX default. Moving the slider to the left will

83
make rain and snow appear greyer.

Slow Snow. This slows the rate at which the animated snow falls during the day to try
to make it look slightly less like sleet. This only applies when stationary.

Stretch This stretches the rain effect for users with multiple monitors. Note that I
had one report that it wasn’t quite stretching enough. If anyone else has this issue
please let me know.

84
 11
Cloud Options

T
he Clouds Dialog can be accessed via the Clouds Button in the Options
section. The Dialog allows you to adjust the way that Clouds are displayed.

Cloud Clip If ticked this optimises clouds for SSAA and SGAA by minimizing the
number of pixels that go through the expensive super sampling algorithms.

Discard Fogged If ticked this saves GPU processing by not drawing clouds that are
significantly beyond the weather visibility range.

85
 12
Water Options

T
he Water Dialog can be accessed via the Water Button in the Options section.
The Dialog allows you to adjust the way that Water is displayed.

86
Day Lighting Section
Sky Reflection these two sliders control the degree to which the environment reflects
off the water. The minimum value controls the reflection when looking straight down
(min) and the maximum when looking along the water surface (max). Water is more
reflective when looking along it.

Ambient Light this slider brightens or darkens the water – the default is the mid
position.

Sun Reflection Factor this slider can be used to reduce the amount of reflected
sunlight on the water surface when you look towards the sun.

Night Lighting Section

Night Sky Reflection Factor this slider allows you to further reduce the degree of
reflectance of the sky, stars and clouds at night. This can be used to reduce the “light
pools” caused by star reflections.

Moon Ambient Light this slider allows you to control the degree to which moonlight
illuminates the water – this is an overall lighting effect not the specular lighting seen
when looking towards the moon. 100% will restore the FSX “milky water” effect. It
varies with the position of the moon and if the next option is set the moon phase as
well.

Moon Reflection Factor this slider can be used to reduce the amount of reflected
moonlight on the water surface when you look towards the Moon.

Misc Section
Disable Distant Land Reflections this option filters out the reflection of land beyond
about a mile. This minimises the flickering that otherwise occurs. The pulldown menu
lets you adjust the range in metres at which the filtering occurs.

Alternative Reflection If you find the water surface swirls too much try the second
option.

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Vary Wave Direction sadly the waves in both DX9 and Dx10 do not align with the
actual wind direction. In DX10 waves always approach from the North West.
Selecting this option applies a variation to this which makes waves approach from
different directions on different days in the month.

A 3rd party FSX launcher can override this and set the wave direction by creating and
updating a file named DX10water.cfg in the root FSX directory in the following
format

[Water40]
WindAngle=90

This example is an easterly wind (90degrees).

If DX10SF finds such a file it will turn off Vary Wave Direction and use the contents
of the file for the wave direction.

There are a lot of small tweaks to the water lighting to ensure for example that the
shine on the surface fades as the sun/moon sinks.

Fsx Water Guide

Whenever I read someone complaining that the water is “too blue” it becomes
obvious to me that I have done a poor job of explaining how the controls let you
adjust things.

In this revision of the manual I have tried to explain in a little more detail how water
works. In non-tropical climes the input water texture is usually dark blue/green. This
is adjusted by the ambient lighting and if looking towards the sun or moon a specular
(shiny) factor is added.

Depending on the “Day Reflection" sliders and the position of the water slider in FSX
the sky is then blended in. Having two factors allow for the fact that water behaves
more like a mirror if you look along the surface towards the horizon compared to
looking straight down.

In fair weather the largely blue sky adds blueness to the water based on the two
reflection sliders.

The screenshots that follow demonstrate how the Day Reflection factors work.

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Reflections Min 0, Max 10%

89
Reflections Min 10%, Max 20%

Reflections Min 20%, Max 30%

90
Reflections Min 30%, Max 40%

91
Reflections Min, 40%, Max 50%

92
As the sliders are moved to the left the water will tend to darken as less of the
reflection is added.

The Ambient Slider lets you compensate for this by lightening or darkening the water

75%

125%

93
The Sun and Moon reflection sliders allow you to adjust the amount of sunlight (and
moonlight) that is reflected.

Sun Reflection 100%

Sun Reflection 60%

94
Sun Reflection 30%

95
 13
3rd Party

T
he Third Party Dialog is new in 5.0. It collects all the settings within the fixer
that relate to third party products into one simple dialog.

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When you initially install the fixer libraries for the first time it will prompt you to enter
which of the 3rd parties that you may have.

If you later purchase one of these products then you can update via the Third Party
dialog.

Note that there is no need to uninstall or install the libraries in this situation – just
update the list of 3rd Party products and the Fixer will do the rest.

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 14
Other Options

T
he Other Options Dialog can be accessed via the Other Button in the
Options section. The Dialog allows you to adjust various settings that do not
fall into the other categories.

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Fog Visibility Fixes
FTX Global/Vitaly. This reduces the visibility of Orbx FTX Global lights (and French
VFR lighting from Vitaly) in accordance with the weather settings.

Landing Lights. This reduces the visibility of landing lights on the ground in
accordance with the weather settings. Note – this option is disabled if the FTX
Global fog setting is unset.

All Effect Lights This reduces the visibility of other lights in accordance with the
weather settings. Note – this option is disabled if the FTX Global fog setting is unset.

Sun and Moon This reduces the visibility of the sun, moon and sky. Note – this
option is disabled if the FTX Global fog setting is unset.

Discard Fully Fogged This discards any objects that cannot be seen because of the
visibility (fog) providing a small performance boost.

Misc Fog Fixes A collection of fog improvements. Includes better handling of

taxiways in very dense fog which appeared pure grey/blue with no detail.

Misc
8 BIT texture Fix. This enables a fix for 8 Bit texture transparency – see Chapter 10
for a discussion on this, but can cause bad side effects – e .g with contrails, ground
lighting etc. This option should never be left set on – it is only intended as a way to fly
an old plane between FSX SDK airports.

Tree Lighting. Lights trees based on their position relative to the sun. In practical
terms trees that are between you and the sun will appeared darker and those looking
away from the sun lighter. The effect is strongest at dawn and dusk.

The slider allows you to adjust the strength of the tree lighting, by blending with the
default tree lighting which assumes the tree is viewed from above. The right hand
position (100%) uses just the sun position lighting. The left hand position (0%) is in
fact the same as disabling tree lighting altogether.

Info Text DSR Rescaling

This option allows Nvidia DSR users to rescale the info text to an appropriate size.
This is experimental and it is reported that it may cause the loss of some info messages.
Use at your own risk! Note that full screen tooltips are resized automatically regardless
of this setting.

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Hide Sun Glare G effects.

If you have bloom enabled then you will see an effect where the screen greys out as
you look towards the sun (at least on Nvidia GPUs). Unfortunately this occurs even if
you are in the VC. This option disables the effect.

Note however that there can be issues – using a 1070 GPU and the latest drivers I have
seen the screen go black at certain zoom levels when this option is enabled.

Twinkling Lights At night this applies a small twinkling effects to lights in the
distance. Note: I have been told that this may not work properly on AMD GPUs.

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101
 15
Addons

T
he Addons dialog gives access to the Cloud Shadows configuration options if
you have purchased the additional package. The settinsg are documented in
the Cloud Shadows Manual.

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 16
Debug Options

T
he Debug Dialog can be accessed via the Debug Option from under the File
Menu. . The Debug Dialog allows you to turn off various product features.
It is primarily intended for use during support calls.

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Deselecting any option will remove significant product functionality. The point of this
screen is to help me debug reported problems by progressively disabling features.


Note
Do not follow guidance you find on the web to turn off features
without consulting me. I often get support calls where someone
has disabled a feature based on bad advice from 2014.

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 17
Missing Aircraft Components
Where is that undercarriage?

Y
ou may have noticed that for imported FS2002 aircraft some small aircraft
detail are missing. It you look really hard you may be able to see that the
items are drawn but are nearly totally transparent. The following picture
shows an example of the problem, the wheels and engine fans are missing.

This is caused because FSX applies a different convention for the transparency channel
to FS2002 for 8 bit textures. This can be seen by using the SDK Image Tool which will
indicate that these 8bit textures are transparent. In DX9 mode FSX seems to
internally convert these textures and render them correctly.

The best solution is to convert these textures to DXT1 bitmaps using a texture
conversion tool. This is easy to do and I suggest that you contact the aircraft author
and ask if this is possible.

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If this is not possible DX10 Scenery Fixer provides a workaround in the Other
Options Dialog- the 8 Bit Texture Fix.

If this is ticked then DX10 Scenery Fixer attempts to recognize textures that are
entirely transparent and treat them as opaque.

Note: Prior to V2.0 this feature caused many issues with scenery. In v2.0 it is
implemented differently and I am not aware of any issues with leaving it set on.
However I cannot at this stage state that it does not cause issues. For this reason I
have left the warning message that it is set in the diagnostics screen.

106
And the final result?

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 18
Aircraft Conversion Checklist
How to Get a Legacy Aircraft to work with DX10

T
his chapter provides a brief summary of the process to follow to get a legacy
aircraft to work in DX10 mode. It is important to note that this only deals
with DX10 specific issues.

1. Enable DX10 reflections – see Chapter 7. This is an one off global change
and does not need to be repeated for each aircraft.

2. Test thoroughly in DX9 - DX10scenery Fixer can only help with DX10
specific issues. There are a myriad of issues that can prevent legacy aircraft
working properly in FSX from old gauges, VC rain issues, spinners that are
opaque at night etc etc.

3. Inspect in DX10 in the day – Look at VC and externally. Any missing or

transparent components up to and including the whole aircraft are almost
certainly caused by 8 bit textures. You need to contact the author and ask
them if they can convert the textures to DXT1 – this is easy to do with any
texture conversion tool or use the 8 Bit Fix – see Chapter 10.

4. Inspect in DX10 at night and at dusk – turn the lights on and off, view
internally and externally. Look for transparency issues and missing textures
where lit e.g. by a tail logo. Compare with the legacy slider set to aircraft and
set to balanced..

The following issues cannot be resolved:

 Landing lights on fuselage – the lights splashes will always appear even when
the landing lights are turned off.

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 19
Developer Notes (Legacy)
How to get the best out of DX10 Scenery Fixer .

T
his chapter provides some notes on how to tweak scenery and aircraft to
work with DX10 Scenery Fixer when using the Legacy SDK.

Convert all 8 bit textures to DXT1 (Legacy SDK)

The DX9 engine appears to load 8Bit textures in a manner in which they can be used
without problem. The DX10 engine appears to reverse the alpha channel.

Although DX10 Scenery Fixer has the 8 Bit Fix option this can never be 100% reliable.
By far the best solution is to convert all 8 Bit textures to DXT1.

DX10 Toolbox provides a fast way to locate and batch convert these textures. See
Chapter 20.

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 20
Developer Notes (FSX SDK)
It should be noted that I have no background in aircraft or scenery design! These
notes are based on my own observations and tests but may contain mistakes and
omissions. If you disagree or have more information to add then please let me know.

Virtual Cockpit Shadows

When creating a VC cockpit VC shadows are enabled by the setting SMAP in the
interior or VC model file. This setting can be overridden by the fsx.cfg Display Option
ForceVCShadowMap which can force on VC shadows for all aircraft (including
legacy).

DX10Toolbox can be used to set the per model SMAP option for you.

Only surfaces that meet certain criteria are processed by the core FSX engine when it
creates the shadowmap. Only surfaces that meet these criteria can therefore “cast
shadows”.

The following table explains the material properties that are significant for shadowing

Texture Property Allowed For Shadowing Surfaces

Alpha Blending NO

Alpha Test OPTIONAL

2-Sided REQUIRED

No Shadow NO

No Z Write NO

Note that whilst the use of Alpha Test to create cutouts is acceptable alpha blending is
not. The reason for this is that all parts of the cockpit that create shadows must have
their depth written into the shadowmap. This doesn’t work with Alpha Blending as
the depths of the transparent portions will also go into the shadowmap and so any
windows would shade the cockpit from the sun!

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In a similar manner single sided surfaces facing into the VC are culled and discarded
when viewing the VC from outside. This is not apparent sitting in the VC but if you
shift the seat upwards through the roof you can easily see the problem. Whilst this
may sound unimportant, the shadowmap is drawn from the direction of the sun –
which is outside! Hence any such surfaces are discarded and so will not result in any
shadowing.

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DX10Toolbox
WARNING!

DX10Toolbox is intended for developer use. It makes modifications to scenery and

aircraft. It provides only a very basic copy rollback mechanism. The program can be
location in the DX10SceneryFixer installation directory.

It is assumed that the user

 understands the file structures involved and the consequences of the changes

 takes adequate backups outside the tool

 Fully complies with any EULA restrictions.

 Has the permission of the copyright holder (or is the copyright holder)

REPEAT WARNING!!

I repeat... This section is for the most advanced users and improper handling of these
advanced tools or information in the following pages can seriously harm your FSX
install. I provide no support beyond this point and assume no personal liability implied
or otherwise should you ruin your install of FSX experimenting with the following
tools and theories. Proceed at your own risk.

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8 Bit Texture Conversion
If you have the FSX SDK ImageTool.exe then the DX10Toolbox Textures menu
allows you to search for and convert all 8 bit textures with one keystroke.

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To enable the conversion process you must first select the menu option to Set Image
Tool Path. This presents the following dialog.

Browse to the folder where the ImageTool.exe program is and select ImageTool.exe
This will normally be found under the SDK in Environment Kit\TerrainSDK.

To convert the 8 bit textures select the Convert 8 Bit Textures option.

This will present a directory selection dialog. Browse to the aircraft texture directory
and select it. DX10ToolBox will examine all the bmp files in the directory and run
ImageTool.exe to convert each 8 bit texture that it finds. Note that the screen may
flash several times as ImageTool runs.

Upon completion DX10 Scenery Fixer presents a summary screen of the number of
textures converted from 8 Bit to DXT1.

By default the tool operates on a single directory. However if you first select the
Include Sub Directories option such that it is ticked and then select Convert 8 Bit
Textures then it will recursively scan the complete directory tree looking for an
converting all 8 bit textures that it finds. I recommend that you take care with this
option

You may rollback the changes by selecting Restore 8 Bit Textures.

Missing Textures
Surprisingly it seems not uncommon for scenery to be delivered with missing textures.
There is no real excuse for this as FSX provides a simple configuration option in
fsx.cfg to popup an alert for every missing texture. This makes it trivial to test for this
kind of mistake.

114
If you find an object that appears solid black in FSX DX9 during the day but appears
some other colour with DX10 Scenery Fixer then a missing texture is the likely cause.

DX10Toolbox provides a method to install a provided dark texture and name it as the
missing texture. The option is Fix Missing Texture in the Textures menu.

This presents a Dialog you can use to specify the texture directory and name of the
missing texture.

In order to use this you of course need to know the name of the missing texture…

You can attempt to find this by using the option to raise an alert for missing textures.
This is an undesirable setting to leave permanently turned on as it will repeatedly pause
the game.

The setting to turn this feature on is to insert the line

ShowMissingTextureAlert=1

in the [SCENERY] section of fsx.cfg

Despite the name it applies to aircraft models as well as scenery. Alternatively you can
turn this on and off via the tweak menu accessed from the DX10Toolbox menu bar

You need to go to the scenery and note down the names of missing textures as you
look at the object that is the wrong colour. Hopefully if there are multiple missing
textures then the names will give a hint which is the one you want.

The background to this is that DX10 Scenery Fixe implements the behaviour in the
FS2002 SDK which states for a missing texture the material colour should be used
FSX DX9 uses a default dark coloured texture instead.

It is not possible for DX10 Scenery Fixer to implement the DX9 behaviour because
the information it needs to do this is lost in the FSX core. This means that DX10

115
Scenery Fixer cannot distinguish between a missing texture and an object being drawn
with no texture referenced. In the latter case FSX DX9 does use the material colour.

Enabling VC Shadows
There is very poor documentation on how to enable VC shadowing. It is controlled by
a flag in the interior model file. DX10ToolBox can set this flag for you.

For end users I recommend the fsx.cfg setting rather than changing the model file

ForceVCShadowMap=1

in the [Display] section of fsx.cfg turns on VC Shadows for all aircraft regardless of
the flag settings in the model.

The menu option Turn On VC Shadows will present a browse selection dialog. Select
the FSX interior model file. This will turn on VC Shadows. Note that there is no
automated reverse operation, so do take a backup copy of the model first!

The Tool will create its own backup copy as ORIG*.mdl.

Ground Vehicles
The flat fronted baggage trucks have a well-known fault that causes their wheels to
appear as false square shadows on objects in the foreground.

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The pattern that you see on the DC3 is showing these shadows from a baggage cart
behind it – the smaller squares are the trailer and the larger set the tug.

The menu option Fix Baggage Carts under Ground Vehicles fixes this problem.

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 22
Dual Installations
Version 2.9 allows you to install DX10SF into a Classic FSX DVD edition system and
a Steam Edition system at the same time.

If you wish to do this then in the preferences dialog select Dual System Mode.

118
You will then find that a new pulldown menu appears at the top of the Controller
Display which allows you to select between two systems.

Initially this will show as System 1 and System 2.

When you install the libraries into a system for the first time DX10 Scenery Fixer will
determine whether it is a DVD or FSX:SE and update the label.

So if for example you have previously installed DX10SF into your DVD installation
and you have a separate FSX:SE installation , then change the pulldown to System 2
and enter the path for the steam installation and install the libraries. It will then be
recognised as Steam Edition in the pulldown.

119
You can set different AA and DX10 modes for the two systems. All Shader Settings
controlled by the seven dialog buttons are common to the two systems, so making a
change when the System is set to Steam Edition will make exactly the same change to
your DVD edition.

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 23
FAQ

Options may be greyed out if files in the FSX Shaders HLSL directory
Options are Greyed Out has been modified from the original version shipped with FSX. A
typical scenario might be whether you have downloaded a DX10 water
in DX10Controller or rain shader. DX10SF will use the shader that you downloaded but
cannot change it. If you can find and restore the original file then the
Option Button will become available in the Controller.

DX10SF stops working You really shouldn’t have installed shader patches! Don’t worry a full
uninstall of DX10SF and a reinstall will fix it all.
after you install shader
patches

Poor FPS over water Check if you have a 32 bit water texture.

If you remove and reinstall your FSX system to a different location

Fsx Path is blank and and don’t uninstall the libraries first then it is possible to get stuck!!
you cannot change it. As a last resort there is an option in File->Preferences called “Allow
Emergency Change of Fsx Directory” which allows you to change the
Fsx path to point to the new system.

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EULA
This End User License Agreement is a legal agreement in respect of DX10Scenery Fixer (“the software product”), which
includes computer software and electronic documentation.

By using DX10SceneryFixer you agree to be bound by the terms of this EULA. If you do not agree with the terms then do
not use DX10 Scenery Fixer.

Software License
1. This Software Product is licensed not sold.

2. The license confers no title or ownership to the software product.

3. The license grants you the right to

a. Install one copy on a single computer for your personal, non-commercial use.

b. Make one backup copy of the software on CD or DVD media.

c. Print multiple copies of the electronic documentation.

d. Without prejudice to any other rights, this agreement will terminate automatically if you fail to
comply with its terms and conditions. In such event you must remove and delete any copies of the
Software Product.

4. The software product is for personal entertainment use only and may not be used for flight training or other
commercial use. The product is not part of any approved training program.

5. The Software Product and documentation is copyright © 2012-2015 Steve Parsons.

6. The Software Product is provided “AS IS” without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied.

7. Limitation of Liability. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event will Steve Parsons be
liable for any special, incidental of consequential damages resulting from use, misuse or possession of the
Software Product. This includes damages for loss of goodwill, business interruption, computer failure or
malfunction.

8. This EULA is governed by the laws of the United Kingdom.

122