Low 'n Slow New York State Public Beta

[gww53 0]

Larry, just want to thank you for a great addition. I'm an upstater (near Rochester) and the improvement in "recognition" of the towns, countryside etc. is great. I've only had time to pick my way from Rochester to Jamestown, and across the southern tier to Elmira and up to Ithaca--the ground details/hillsides and clean up of some odd "peaks" near Ithaca are great. This has given a new life to FSX for me. One of my former partners and good friends lives in Cooperstown--we visit often. I'll "fly" over and find Mike's house! Then I'll head up to the Adirondacks (my daughter is at Dartmouth, so I drive the Utica to Glenns Falls track alot--if the southern tier changes are representative, I suspect the difference there is stunning.Too bad great work is so much work!!I have an old rig (amd 3800 x2, 8800 GT), and expected a big performance hit, but really can't see any change. With about 4-5 huors I don't see anything but goodThanks again.Gary

[lsteere 0]

One of my former partners and good friends lives in Cooperstown--we visit often. I'll "fly" over and find Mike's house! Then I'll head up to the Adirondacks (my daughter is at Dartmouth, so I drive the Utica to Glenns Falls track alot--if the southern tier changes are representative, I suspect the difference there is stunning.

Cooperstown isn't photo scenery so you won't be able to find his house. Still doing some work in the Adirondack park - adding towns and other details. Larry

[gww53 0]

Cooperstown isn't photo scenery so you won't be able to find his house. Still doing some work in the Adirondack park - adding towns and other details. Larry

Sorry, I was just kidding about "finding his house" and didn't mean to sound critical. Don't interpret my comment as anything but an attempt at humor (on my 50th birthday t-shirt, # 5 was "his jokes are so dumb he makes us feel smart"). The upgrade in the scenery as you have done is terrific with out being "photo". If it were, I'd expect a big performance hit?Perhaps it's just because of the program size, but when I added UTX (to FSX/sp2?GEX) I really did notice a performance hit on my old machine. I see absolutely no slow-down from your addtion.Thanks againGary

[lsteere 0]

Sorry, I was just kidding about "finding his house" and didn't mean to sound critical.

Gary, no offense was taken by your comments and they didn't sound critical at all - quite the opposite.I had actually considered using photo scenery for some areas but decided not to. I wanted the area around Cooperstown to look as accurate as possible so I decided to use hand drawn vectors to recreate many of the fields around the town so it would look as close to real as possible without using photo textures. I did the same thing for Lake Placid. Thanks for your feedback.

[lsteere 0]

However, in the rural areas north and south of Saratoga I'm getting some textures that appear to be European. A lot of red rooofed buildings and the open-courtyard buildings. They looked out of place. I didn't grab any screenies but I can go back and get some if needed.

As I thought, it's the "medium city suburban non-grid" land class. The courtyard buildings are only one of the issues with that land class. Whoever did the autogen for those textures was apparently in a hurry. In addition to the courtyard buildings, they used lots of large apartment buildings where they should have placed individual houses. I'm reworking the autogen for those textures to fix the issues. Larry

[Guest KenS]

I have just finished a flight from KALB to KSWF with scenery modified by your program. I want to thank you for a very pleasant and scenic trip down the Hudson River. The flight made me feel like I was flying in the 20th Century instead of the 19th Century.I have driven between Newburgh and Albany many times over the years and this was to me a very near real world flight. Very smooth all the way.KenSGigabyte GA-MA790GP-UD4HAMD Phenom II X4 940BE 3.0 Ghz4 GB DDR2 dual Channel 800 Mhz SDRAMATI HD4650 512 Mhz19in Wide Screen Flat Panel Monitor (1440x900)OS Windows 7 64 RC

[Guest Stan V]

I tested using a flight from the Cortland County Airport headed north along Interstate 81 toward Syracuse. Things aren't terrible here but I had problems recognizing the small communities along the valley floor close to Cortland, most notably Homer, Preble and Tully. Also, I was disappointed by the excessive number of small lakes on the valley floor, especially in the vicinity of Preble which I believe to be entirely dry in real life. Closer to Cortland, there was a decent depiction of Little York Lake. I am not sure these water problems are your fault, however, as I also have UTX installed which I understand defines the water bodies in the scenery.Stan V.

[lsteere 0]

Also, I was disappointed by the excessive number of small lakes on the valley floor, especially in the vicinity of Preble which I believe to be entirely dry in real life.

Low 'n Slow doesn't add or modify any water bodies. Those are done by UTX, and the data they use is extremely accurate. Take a look at a satelite image of the area and you'll see quite a few lakes between Tully Center and Homer. Larry

[JimmiG 244]

Very nice! Though I don't live in the area and can't comment on the accuracy, the varied landclass adds a sense of realism and makes the landscape more interesting to explore.

[gallen144 12]

Nice work Larry.Do you (or any other thread participants) have any suggestions on a route or flight plan that would make an intersting showcase of the region?Thanks,GW

[Guest Stan V]

You are absolutely correct about the water. However, I think I was misoriented in that I was not able to correctly identify the little farming town of Preble which was my starting point for water recognition. It's a small farming community to be sure but there are a couple dozen residential homes there among surrounding cultivated farm fields which in this scenery did not translate into "small farm town" for me. I also was not able to readily distinguish Cortland and Homer themselves which are substantially larger residential communities although still pretty much small towns limited to two story buildings. I did, however, see some residential houses in the vicinity, just not enough. There also should be occasional churches and schools and a cemetery or two although I do not know if any of your texture choices support this. Stan

Low 'n Slow doesn't add or modify any water bodies. Those are done by UTX, and the data they use is extremely accurate. Take a look at a satelite image of the area and you'll see quite a few lakes between Tully Center and Homer. Larry

[lsteere 0]

Nice work Larry.Do you (or any other thread participants) have any suggestions on a route or flight plan that would make an intersting showcase of the region?Thanks,GW

I'm currently working on a few that will be included in the final product.Larry

[lsteere 0]

There also should be occasional churches and schools and a cemetery or two although I do not know if any of your texture choices support this.

Texture choices are indeed very limited, and small towns are particularly difficult. I will see if I can add some detail to your area.Larry

[scott967 62]

Took a drive today from Rochester to Corning via Hwy 15. Looks very nice. I see what is probably a limitation of the fs terrain system, most small towns don't really have any built up areas along the main street.scott s..

[nudata 10]

Took a drive today from Rochester to Corning via Hwy 15. Looks very nice. I see what is probably a limitation of the fs terrain system, most small towns don't really have any built up areas along the main street.scott s..

Larry,Doesn't it boil down to the 1km x 1km size of each landclass tile? You would almost have to make a custom tile set for a small town with a main street and maybe one or two side streets and be able to control the rotation. If someone could crack the 1km size thing that would be a big step. None-the-less you showed a labor of love.