Hello, Of course I'm new and full of questions. I am learning FS2004 and am enjoying it, but I am not, nor will I ever be a good pilot. Rather I might be a sightseer of world scenery. It's more about seeing the sights of the world, than flying as a pro pilot. So I am wondering how to make FS9 look the best from the air. The best scenery detail, the best clouds, trees, mountains, water, etc.... (for the world, not just for one little area). What types of add-ons do I need to have the most realistic looking experience. A mesh? Certain terrain detail? What is needed? Also I would like to hear if from two ways, the best way to do it with freeware like; "Global Terrain Mesh" and I imagine there's some free global scenery out there too? There must be lots of freeware out there, but will it give me the detail? Then, from the standpoint of paid for software like; "Ultimate Terrain, FSGenesis & BirdsEyeView". I imagine there's lots of retail software, but is it really good and what is the "best for the bucks" kind of thing. I am asking those of you who have already gone through all this, to give me your opinions of what works, what does not work and what is the most satisfactory. Also what is still available and where? Thank you for any help in this matter,Justin

Hello, Of course I'm new and full of questions. I am learning FS2004 and am enjoying it, but I am not, nor will I ever be a good pilot. Rather I might be a sightseer of world scenery. It's more about seeing the sights of the world, than flying as a pro pilot. So I am wondering how to make FS9 look the best from the air. The best scenery detail, the best clouds, trees, mountains, water, etc.... (for the world, not just for one little area). What types of add-ons do I need to have the most realistic looking experience. A mesh? Certain terrain detail? What is needed? Also I would like to hear if from two ways, the best way to do it with freeware like; "Global Terrain Mesh" and I imagine there's some free global scenery out there too? There must be lots of freeware out there, but will it give me the detail? Then, from the standpoint of paid for software like; "Ultimate Terrain, FSGenesis & BirdsEyeView". I imagine there's lots of retail software, but is it really good and what is the "best for the bucks" kind of thing. I am asking those of you who have already gone through all this, to give me your opinions of what works, what does not work and what is the most satisfactory. Also what is still available and where? Thank you for any help in this matter,Justin

You just missed one of the best discussions yet, on this topic. Go back in this forum, 3 or 4 pages to a thread "Upgrading FS9- Downloads and Addons". It started July 22. Alex Reid

Welcome to AVSIM.Globally, if you want to make things look better, FS Elemental is an add-on will make a big impact for not very much money, since it is inexpensive and it does a lot. So you might want to check that out.To clarify what does what, a mesh will change the actual shape of the terrain (i.e make mountains more pointy and valleys sink in lower, as well as probably improving coastlines).Land class relates to the type of terrain FS chooses to display from its default stuff, and occasionally from customised land class textures that have been tweaked or added (i.e will FS designate an area as a specific type of place: desert, English countryside, mid western USA, Arctic etc).Scenery will be both the textures covering the ground (i.e photorealistic stuff created from high altitude reconnaissance photos), and the 3D buildings plonked onto that stuff, such as custom cities, airports and other geographic features.A lot of what you want to use will depend on how high up you like to fly. For example, if you like cruising around the world up at 30,000 feet, then inaccuracies on how deep a valley goes or how high a mountain comes up are not going to really matter that much, whereas if you like racing through places fifty feet off the deck in a helicopter or jet fighter, then it will be important. By the same token, photorealistic sceneries tend to look better viewed from on high, although the really good ones can stand closer inspection.You can search the AVSIM file library for free stuff, and of course other sites such as flightsim.com, and when you've had your fill of that, you can look on places such as simmarket.com, flight1.com etc. That ought to get you going. Don't forget that there is also a comprehensive review section on AVSIM, which can tell you a lot about potential purchases, as well as some freeware stuff too.Have fun!Al

Hi and welcome,Something that might help you enhance your FS9 experience is the book Microsoft Flight Simulator X For Pilots: Real World Training. Although written with FSX in mind, just about every word applies to FS9 as well. It's an interesting, easy read that goes over the fundamentals of using the sim, and relates what you do in-game to real-world piloting.There's a review right here at Avsim that will give you the rundown better than I can:http://www.avsim.com/pages/0208/Wiley/Book.htm

Take look at this one, especially at post No.7 :http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/show...ad.php?p=200369And for the clouds, definitely "FS Elemental Natural Pack", there is NO better clouds for fs2004.

Thanks to you all for the info. The links have some good things in them and I found the thread about Upgrading FS9.Plainly, I need to do better searches in the forums than I have been doing. Thanks again,Justin