Anyone want my FSX VFR photoreal scenery?

[ardypilot]

I am on JustFlight's mailing list, and this week I received a demo of their FSX English photoreal scenery on CD-ROM.

I don't own a copy of FSX, so if anyone does have it installed and would like it, send me a PM and I'll mail it to you.

[ardypilot]

Consider my offer closed, I already have a taker!

Expect some screenshots soon

[Jimmy]

The scenery arived just the other day and I have installed and been having quite some fun Thanks a heap Andrew!

Heres some screenshots I took during a flight around the scenery area.




I had to turn the scenery texture size and mesh rite up to get the best lookins scenery, I found there wasnt to much of a perforamce impact, fps were good around this scenery. There is no autogen with this scenery, when I got near the borders of the photoreal my fps really droped cos of the autogen on defualt scenery (I had my autogen slider on normal)







Hills are fantastic! i don't know what res the mesh is but It looks great!!!



The border, major fps drop here, and stuters (o yes the stuter less fsx hahahah)




Heres a top down, it isnt a large areqa that the photoreal covers but its enough to see how good this scenery is.






Looking at the textures you can see there really isnt a need for autogen lol




heres james learning a beaver doesnt have the same climb perforamce as a 763 hehe



Heres an example of what happens when I went and played around with the tower views, came back to this. In the second shot you can see how it looks after about 30seconds reloading!








So thats how it looks in fsx, whats it like in fs9?


Thanks again Andrew, I think I may have to go buy the full version now hehe Its certianly alot of fun just flying around this small area.

Not often can I say I actuly enjoyed flying slow and "taking in the scenery".


James

[ardypilot]

Thanks again Andrew, I think I may have to go buy the full version now hehe Its certianly alot of fun just flying around this small area.

Not often can I say I actuly enjoyed flying slow and "taking in the scenery".

No worries James- glad you enjoyed it!

I have the full version for FS2004 and it's wicked!

Welcome to my 'low and slow' world

[firefly]

Thanks for those Jimmy, it does look great How do the textures look from lower altitudes say 500ft agl? I have heard somewhere that FSX allows a better resolution or something when it comes to ground textures.

[JonARNZ]

Interesting, be cool to see it with autogen. Are the colours meant to have that washed out look?

[Christian]

I agree with Jon. The colours look way too washed out in the screenies. Obviously the texture creators don't know how to work photoshop
There is a lot of contrast and saturation to be added to make this scenery stand out. Of course, that's my opinion...

[Jimmy]

Yeah it is a bit that way, I hadn't really noticed it in the sim thow. I think the hills are definatly the best part thow. Anyone got photos of how this area looks in real life?

[G-HEVN]

The tree canopies do look rather washed out, but the fields are quite believable for a hazy Summer's day (where conditions do tend to be very low contrast once above about 1500ft). I don't have any aerial photos of the Lake District, but I can certainly dig out some pics of other parts of the country...

[ardypilot]

Anyone got photos of how this area looks in real life?

I don't, but I do have a collection of screenies taken over this photoreal scenery in fs2004 posted here: http://flyawaysimulation.com/postt17242.html

[JonARNZ]

Thats certainly heaps different Trolly, I wonder if its FSX itself doing that.

[JonARNZ]

I got the latest PC Pilot magazine this afternoon, on the cover disc was another FSX VFR demo, looks like a similar area as the one Jimmy had a look at, bit further north perhaps. Here are some pics of what was to be found...

The area..



And the VFR scenery up close...















I've never invested in VFR scenery, seeing this blew me away! The higher texture resolutions available in FSX really show through here.

For those interested, the Bell 206 featured is my next FSX repaint release due this week, its the chopper based on the Wgtn waterfront. If your interested in an advanced look PM me and I'll send you the files, its FSX only.

[JonARNZ]

And if anyone wants a copy of the demo scenery let me know as well, happy to copy onto a CD, flick me a couple of $$ for postage etc.

Area - VFR Generation X - Snowdonia & NorthWest Wales

[G-HEVN]

There are two versions of VFR scenery for FSX: One by JustFlight (JF), which is the 'washed out' version at the top of the post, the other by Horizon Simulations, which is more saturated..

Many people argue that the colours in the Horizon product (and the original Visual Flight product for FS9, since they are the same base data) are too bright, and others argue the JF product is too faded. For sure, the JF colours are not way off what you'd see from the air on a Summer (ie hazy) day, but if you set the visibility and haze levels in FS to something realistic for the UK, the Horizon product becomes much more toned down. However, the JF product fades even further when realistic visibility is applied.

Also, the Horizon 'Generation X' product is shipping (3 separate DVD products, each taking about 20GB of disk space! http://www.visualflight.info/products/v ... neration-x ), whereas the JF product (four parts, http://www.justflight.com/product.asp?pid=200# ) won't ship till next year.

[JonARNZ]

Having only seen the Horizon VFR scenery in 'real life' so to speak its impossible to compare, I did note in earlier posts the washed out effect from Jimmy's excellent screenshots didnt impress. If I have to change weather settings to make it look 'realistic' then it seems to defeat the purpose in my view, however different things for different folk. Its great there is choice so people can get what they prefer.

I personally didnt find the Horizon scenery to be overcoloured, once again personal preferences I guess. I doubt I would purchase this scenery as its in a part of the world I dont fly, hopefully we'll see some New Zealand equivalent, the volcanic plateau in the north island, the southern alps, Mt Taranaki..in fact the whole country would be amazing in FSX hi-def VFR. We got a glimpse of this with Robins photoreal scenery, imagine that with 16X the definition and detail...wow!

[G-HEVN]

These were taken yesterday, in low sun (shortest day - sunset 3:54pm), and very high pressure conditions (1043mb! Practically the entire rest of the country is covered in fog, with most airports closed, and LHR only dealing with long haul!)

http://forums.flyer.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=28259

[Charl]

Look at those colours!
Assume the camera was poking out through a hole in the side, no window I ever took a shot through came out as clear as that!
Note all over the world weather is talked about.
Yesterday was our longest day and the summer holiday upon us: wind, rain, and actually quite chilly.
Even allowing for Auckland's generally fickle weather this wasn't really what you'd hope for in December!

[ardypilot]

Thanks for the link Tim, those photographs are beautiful!

[dnkiwi]

hi i am wodering if you could tell me where i get a flightsim mag
many thanks
jason

[JonARNZ]

hi i am wodering if you could tell me where i get a flightsim mag
many thanks
jason

Hi Jason, most 'good' magazine shops should have PC Pilot, depends what part of the country you are in as well I would say.