Great Sceneries Outside NZ Thread

[Snowman]

Definately agree on the Islander sounds. Got a Digital 6.1 theatre surround sound system on my computer, with BIG sub, can make the whole house shake with the sound of the islander. Love it !!

[ardypilot]

Some more excellent European freeware scenery addons which I came across a while ago can be found on Italian site called 'Mazzokan', who I think is the guy who does all the designing.

This site is pretty much unknown to the English speaking world, and is a rare treat with heaps of photoreal scenery for the Mediterranean (including some active volcanos and island groups) which are moderately small in filesize but absolute top quality.

I suggest you all check it out at:
http://utilflightsim.altervista.org/index.htm and at least download my favourite package- Mt Etna (only 40mb!)



note:
If you have trouble understanding the Italian, just look at the pictures too see what you getting them click the blue underlined link. Also, you can go to http://www.google.co.nz/language_tools?hl=en and highlight a load of text from the site, then copy and paste it to google and click 'From Italian to English'

[ardypilot]

VOZ Pro looks amazing: http://vistaoz.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=6003

[kiwiarcher]

Are you looking to up the realisim of your scenery outside NZ and OZ, then you need to read this post on the VOZ forums:

http://vistaoz.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=5871

or check out this website: http://www.fsproject.com/mesh_maps/USA19_MAP.html

Raimondo has been around along time, he is now making is mesh including 19m mesh available as freeware.

I am downloading area 1 and area 2 of the US west coast, be interested to see, those that are using it thinks its great.

Looks like our Fightsim drive is going to get alot larger, currently 55 GIG.


Rob

[ardypilot]

How could I forget 'Project Canarias 2006 ' by Canarysim?

It is a freeware project focusing on photoreal, mesh and autogen coverage of the Canary Islands (A Spanish colony of the Western coast of Africa- a popular holiday spot for Pomes, which I have visited many times with my family before)

www.canarysim.com

Might I just mention that this package has the best night lighting system I have ever seen in fs2004.

Below I have attatched a review that I wrote about it a while ago on flyawaysimulation.com

Review: Project Canarias 2006 - Canarysim



Well I know it has been a month already since this freeware scenery package was released, but after no one else wrote a review of Project Canarias, I decided that it was time I tested it out for myself!

To install the addon, you need to get three different files (Totaling 240mb) and extract them all to the same folder before you start the setup. The actual installation process is very professional and guides you through what is happening each step, and shows its progress on a percentage bar that gradually fills with color until it completes which takes roughly 15 minutes.



Once installed, you have the choice of flying at the islands of "Grand Canaria"Â￾, "Tenerife"Â￾, "La Gomera"Â￾, "La Palma"Â￾ and "El Hierro"Â￾ which are all covered in new photoreal textures. (Photoreal meaning not computer generated textures, but real satellite or aerial photos placed exactly in the correct location, so what you would see in real life is what you see on the sim) A good thing about photoreal islands on fs2004 is that you don't see a big line between the new and default textures as the land is surrounded by sea. You can stay flying forever in the Canarys and forget the rest of the world exists!

As well as that, you get 20 metre mesh covering each island, so you see each hill, valley, mountain and crevice exactly as it would be in real life too. Just to put that into perspective for you, most of the default MS mesh is at a resolution of 150m, some good freeware mesh comes at 75m and payware mesh is at about 35m! As you can tell, the level of detail is amazing, especially with volcanic landscape of the Canarys!



Another feature included in Project Canarias that beats payware is the fact that there is autogen scenery (buildings, vegetation, vehicles etc) placed on top the photoreal in the correct locations. For example, a photoreal selection of the UK that cost me 15 pounds is completely 2D, with only images of roofs and treetops to look down upon, where as here, where there is a photo of a house roof in the Canary Islands, there is a 3D house (including all the walls) placed on top of it, again, just like you would see in real life! Even if you prefer no 3D objects if you want to see a specific location not covered up, you can always adjust your display settings in the sim, this way it suits everyone!

Now, what I think is the best feature of this addon is the nightlife in the Canarys. If you change your flight time to evening or night, you will be displayed a completely new set of photoreal textures, photographed at night. To accompany this, there is a setting in the Canarysim manager that allows you to add 3D lights to enhance buildings and roads, which I think you will agree after seeing the screenshot below, looks fantastic!



To conclude, I only have one last thing to say: DOWNLOAD IT NOW

There are no downsides, this package will suit everyone's requirements and everyone's systems.

:arrow: http://library.avsim.net/search.php?Sea ... CatID=root
:arrow: http://www.canarysim.com/

[Charl]

4th one down - PHWOAARR
This certainly is a new window on the flightsim world.
Well done Andrew, I do believe there will never be enough time to get through FS9 and start with FSX!!

[ardypilot]

If you liked this, look out for the payware stuff from 'France VFR'

My favorite packages from them that I own are the Corsica photoreal/mesh/autogen complete island, and the La Reunion photoreal/mesh/autogen complete island.

Review here: http://flyawaysimulation.com/article1668.html

[Codge]

Thanks for the Canerias review Trolly, very well done. That is what I meant when I got involved with this thread. Pretty high standard isn't it? But that's the way we want it. If we're going to go through all the hassle it had better be worth it.
Yes the payware VFR France stuff is really good and I have quite a bit of it. I'll check out the other stuff that has been deemed worthy of this thread!
I'm really pleased it has been kept small and discreet and that people are careful to post here.
FS really has come of age now and more and more great stuff is coming out of the ether. This certainly is a great planet to explore and if we can venture out of NZ without a drop in quality in our sims we'll never get bored. Thanks to all who post here.

[ardypilot]

I was flying around Victoria, South Australia today with the VOZ Southern Summer textures and dam it really is amazing. If you're in to low and slow flights, the custom landclass really generates an unbelievable atmosphere in your virtual world- and there are plenty of custom city, airport, and coastline extras that enhance it even further, which are named accordingly inside the addon scenery directory so you can remove certain features to tailor it to your FPS requirements.



This one has been around for a long time, but still amazes me today- well worth the free download at www.vistaoz.org

[JonARNZ]

Wow, that canarysim scenery is awesome Shame I don't fly around that neck of the woods, but shows what could be done across NZ if we chose to. Will probably download anyway to suss out some of the textures and see what they have done to get their results. Thanks for sharing Trolly.

[Charl]

Thread picked up from FSX White Island Jan 20, 2007

I had one for Mt St Helens which rumbled all the way to Victoria BC

Was this for FS9? If so, may you tell me a link to it? I have the Hovercontrol Columbia River Gourge scenery which includes mesh for the expoded Mt St Helens exploded crater with lava flows all down the surrounding area. (See the Exceptional Sceneries outside of NZ thread)

I think the file name was mtsthesc.zip which I know you'll be able to search for.
I didn't re-install it after the sound problem I encountered (i.e. volcano rumbling all the way up to Seattle!)
CRG is a stunning bit of work, and in fact the whole NW US area + Victoria is almost as good as the NZ FS scene I assume you'd have US CR Gorge Addons.zip as well?
Holger's hand is of course in all of that. (I also own the Orcas Island scenery, payware though, from Holger).
If you haven't yet, try the latest Victoria BC scenery package, I think it's vicenh06.zip.
You can do a nice lazy VFR flight down to Seattle and beyond, and meet the cruise ship on its return journey.
There are very nice airports strewn around - Air Mountain Ranch, Tacoma, Bremerton National (used in my Beech video d18vid.zip on flightsim, excuse the plug.) Not to mention the Lake Hood stuff.

Fantastic flightsimming experience.

[Charl]

Just a heads-up for yet another fantastic bit of freeware scenery:
Updated Boston Logan v2.1
Mr. Grimshaw has added Rwy14/32 and some more animated vehicles.
Actually I rarely fly to or from this airport, just select a ground vehicle or sometimes a chopper, and look.
It's jaw-dropping, giving one of the best balances anywhere, of good frame rates and amazing detail and immersion.

[ardypilot]

WOW- Check this out: http://www.hsandmann.com/pages/GBv2_com ... _home.html

It's like a new and improved Columbia River Gorge project, but set over 90,000 square kilometers in Alaska. Here is the blurb:

Glacier Bay v2 is a complete replacement of the default FS2004 landscape and scenery of more than 90,000 square kilometers (36,000 sq miles) of Southeast Alaska and adjacent areas of Yukon and British Columbia. Landscape enhancements include high-resolution terrain mesh, detailed shorelines, rivers, lakes, and glaciers, and accurate land cover data with custom seasonal ground textures. Inland water bodies can be made to "freeze over" via an on/off switch. Other landmarks include the settlements of Juneau, Haines, Skagway, Yakutat, Atlin, and Carcross as well as road and railroad networks, cabins, lodges, and lighthouses. We modeled or enhanced 16 main airfields (plus one fictitious airstrip), 20 unlisted airstrips, 16 seaplane bases, and seven heliports. We've also included AI ship traffic in various locations as well as optional flightplans for GA and floatplane AI traffic. Glacier Bay v2 is fully compatible with other third-party add-ons, including terrain mesh (FSGlobal, FS Genesis, etc.), ground textures (Ground Environment, BEV, FScene, etc.), and landscape enhancements (Ultimate Terrain Canada/Alaska, Misty Fjords, Tongass Fjords, Freight Dogs). A configurator panel (requires .Net Framework!) allows users to set compatibility options and to choose levels of scenery detail. We provide an autoinstaller and detailed documentation with a sectional map of the coverage area and a list of weblinks to real-world information. For feedback and questions, please visit the Glacier Bay v2 support forum at http://forums.fsaddon.eu/viewforum.php?f=10. This project is a collaboration of nine FS developers from Germany, Austria, USA, and Canada, logging more than 1000 hours of work over the past 14 months. We acknowledge the kind support of FSAddon.com. However, this project is independent of any commercial company or product. Enjoy!

http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?Ca ... DLID=99083

[Bandit]

Thanks for the heads up Trolly.

I love bush flying. When I'm not flying in NZ. Alaska and British Columbia are my places of choice.

[ardypilot]

Some shots of Alaska, absoultly brilliant:







EDIT: More screenies, from the flight files included in the download. Default fs2004 aircraft, no other addons apart from Glacier Bay V2:

[Charl]

Simply beautiful.
Actually, the whole northwest USA, up through Vancouver Island up to Alaska, is richly covered in FS. Holger is of course well represented.
But there are others too. I loaded up Orcas Island (payware) just for old times' sake, and it's still brilliant.
I'll post a few screenshots soon, if I recall the resolution is 0.3m/pixel!

[Bandit]

With thanks to HCP I have loaded up Glacier BayV2 and can fully recommend this scenery.

Trolly's excellent screenshots only scratch the service. There is a huge area to play in, with plenty of eye candy hidden in some of the bays if you know where to look. The package also includes some preset flights which I had a play with last night. Very enjoyable. Searching for the herds of deer out from the Research Station showed some really great country.

Full flap at tree height, following the river while looking out the window for the animals, phew. It makes for sweaty palms and the need for more cafeine - and that was in fair weather.

Give it a try, very easy to install and comes with a full manual.

[Bingobob]

Gary Summons has done some really fantastic work with his UK2000 Scenery. I downloaded the recent Bristol release along with Stanstead and Gatwick and I got to say I will be less inclined to go onto FSX after seeing these.

[ardypilot]

FlyTampa's St. Maarten has to be added to this list.

* 3 airports: St. Maarten (TNCM), St. Barts (TFFJ), Saba (SABA/TNCS)
* 3 Islands covered with Photoscenery, custom Autogen and Mesh
* Animated AI-Ships ranging from Windsurfers to Cruiseliners.
* Animated car traffic.
* Numerous details on Maho beach / St. Maarten approach

It's recieved raving reviews for FS9, and there are many brilliant screenies and vids of it on the net. It has heaps of easter eggs and no FPS inpact (perhaps because its a small island with no large city autogen nearby). Its worth $48 NZD, and I'll be buying it for sure!

http://secure.simmarket.com/product_inf ... ts_id=2354

[Florian_S]

Another sensational freeware addon for FS2004 is the Hellas Scenery Project

http://avsim.com/greece/scenery/index_main.htm

This includes Mesh, Landclass and Airport sceneries for all of Greece.

I did quite a bit of flying around the Greece and the Greek Islands recently and this scenery is definatley worth a heads up!

Cheers
Florian - YSSY
VH-FLO & D-FLOZ