I am using the 4 season pack from Simmarket.
I do not notice any performance impact.
Excellent recommendations.
I went ahead and added the VFR packs.
The Ships Mod from Orbx. How do you like it? Is it worth buying it?
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The VFR packs are awesome for free mods, they really make such a difference!
My thoughts on the Orbx vessels are mixed. I really like the husband and wife team who make them (seafront simualations) and they certainly have great potential, but right now, with a lot of the SU5 bugs and lack of attention to boats by Asobo they are a bit bug ridden and limited.
Starting with the basic Vessels: Enhanced AI. It replaces the 14 default Asobo boats with 14 much nicer ones. Very good models, with wakes and night lighting. The yachts especially really make the coastlines feel more alive and lived in. The problem is that Seafront Simulations have no control over where, and how many appear. Asobos’ code determine when they and where they spawn, and they don’t spawn in nearly enough numbers.
There’s also a bug on Asobo’s side that means that ships spawn at the start but the spawn doesn’t follow your plane. Common sense would have new boats spawning when you fly over new coastline, but thanks to this Asobo bug that doesn’t happen. So you can start at a place and get a couple of boats appear, and then have nothing at all for the rest of the flight. It’s so frustrating, and to be clear, not Seafront Simulation’s fault, but the limitations imposed by Asobo.
On balance I still think the ehanced AI mod is worth it as seeing two or three yachts really adds to the immersion for me, and I suspect in time Asobo will fix the SDK so developers can make better use of boats. And to repeat, the models themselves are great.
The second mod is a difficult recommendation for me at this time. Again, the models are great, and I think Seafront Simulations have done a good job, but there are too many weird bugs right now.
In major ports I often find boats colliding with each other, or getting stuck and endlessley rotating around and around. I’ve seen Henrik discuss the same problem in his free mod, again it’s an Asobo issue.
Whilst the global shipping from Orbx does fill major port cities, it does nothing for the coastlines, so if like me you just fly around coastline and lakes of the English countryside it does absolutely nothing at all. If you fly in places like Gibralter, Panama and the Suez canal you will get way more boats however.
Finally, there isn’t much variety to the the cargo ships, I think about a dozen or so models, compared to the thousands of Henrik’s mod. I also noticed that for where I fly, Henrik’s mod populates the seas more, as his boats do populate general coastal areas, so for example I might see a tanker off of Lundy Island, or a few of them off the coast of Land’s End.
With the Seafront shipping mod from Orbx I see nothing at all in those areas.
I did ask Orbx for a refund on the Vessels: global ships as it doesn’t do anything for my flights, although it’s been five days and they haven’t replied. I am happy with the Enhanced AI mod though as the ship models are great.
My recommendation is get the Enhanced AI, and stick with Henrik’s global shipping AI mod, unless you fly in a lot of major port cities and want a large volume (20 or so) ships at once. If you fly in those areas regularly it will give you the volume, if like me it’s just coastal towns, beaches, and inland lakes the global shipping mod doesn’t affect those areas at all.
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Does this mod help prevent trees in VR from sporadically shrinking as you approach them?
Mmm, that’s an interesting question. I’m not sure I’ve noticed that phenomenon in vanilla MSF, though perhaps I have not paid enough attention in VR. Indeed, what catches my eye and annoys me most is trees popping up like giant mushrooms as I fly over forested areas.
I’ll leave it to others to comment on this. Though if you could upload an example of what you mean it would be appreciated.
Thank you for your help
Mike
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Do you mean the tops of trees disappearing if you fly close to them? Happens both with and without the mod.
Yes I believe what you describe is what I’m seeing , although if you get closer it looks like some trees are shrinknig, but it has the effect of sort of making them pop up. I’m not sure but I believe there is an other VR thread on this same effect. It may be that I’m running a lower end graphics card (2060) or have some settings wrong. Thanks.
Yes the trees randomly pop up or down in size. They don’t disappear though. This is really apparent when I fly the ultralight around 100 - 2000 AGL over coastal areas, but it happens everywhere (for me). It sounds like this mod doesn’t change the issue though. Cheers.
For me, it’s like the tops disappear? I have something similiar with very small clouds, as I fly past them they will shrink and vanish if I stare at them. I think it’s just the way the engine works.
I think you guys are talking about the new culling introduced in SU5. It means when you turn your head, the sim loads some new objects and they appear from nowhere (mostly noticeable on distant trees and buildings, but some close by as well), or otherwise they increase in LOD from low quality models to higher quality models (this can be at all ranges, and is most apparent on trees). This didn’t happen before SU5.
I find this really breaks the immersion in VR, if this is what you are referring to then please vote and contribute on the below bug thread as the developers look at that and we need more VR voices. Thank you!
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This mod maybe my first ever peice of payware. The reviews are tempting me.
But the trees morphing as you approach them happens in the sim and this mod. You can see it happening in the demo footage on YouTube.
The tree morphing (I believe the trees are upgrading themselves from low detail models to high detail models) when you look towards them since SU5 happens with the default trees as well, I don’t find it worse with this mod. The link above is the bug thread for it.
And yes it is a good choice for a first payware mod , it adds so much variety to the scenery all over the world, and if you want more variety just change the season 
Does the 4 seasons mod have a simple operating mode, whereby, if you leave it alone, it will simulate the correct season for the correct part of the world at the correct time?
Sounds fairly obvious but I have only read about people choosing their seasons.
Sorry, having just read the start of the specific 4 seasons thread, it is clearly stated that it is not an automatic changing seasons capable mod. I am slightly saddened by that but not entirely put off.
I actually prefer it that way, just because the seasons have changed where I want to fly, I don’t necessarily want that to be my experience. Sometimes I like to fly with live weather for example, other times I want there to be storms or snow or whatever.
In the driving game Forza Horizon 4 for instance, you can be stuck in winter for ages and it’s a pain when you don’t want to be driving in slush and sliding all over the place in a classic Jaguar XK 120.
That is correct, you are given a folder for each of the 4 seasons and you put only one of them in your community folder at any one time. Its a sim limitation I think.
I know some people only change the seasons every 3 months in line with real world conditions, I myself like to change things up every couple of days so use the excellent “MSFS Addons Linker” to change the activated season in 1 click rather than messing about with the folders 
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MSFS Addons Linker would have to be the bestest must have add on for this sim or any sim. It’s just the bee’s knees. Used it this afternoon to update the latest Flying Iron version of the Spitfire MKIX and it took mere seconds.
Interesting. I’ll have to give this addon linker a try too.