Folks,I'm fairly new to the world of FSX and frankly overwhelmed by all the different scenery add-ons. Mesh, land class, etc.... What is the best set of scenery add-ons I should purchase for FSX? Also, is there a particular order that they need to be installed in to function properly?Any advice is really appreciated!Thanks!

Firstly welcome!!First priority is some decent mesh. Although this depends where you want to fly and to some extent , what seceneries you end up using as some come with their own meshes. You also need to decide what type of flying you are going to do.If you want to fly low and slow, you will want some eye candy - i think you cant beat photoscenery for this. If you want to fly higher, its not so important.UTX and GEX both improve the standard scenery textures fantastically and you really should have these whatever you do. Also REX for better weather and textures.So, let us know wherer you want to fly and what type of flying and we can fine tune the suggestions a bit more.cheers, Mark

Firstly welcome!!First priority is some decent mesh. Although this depends where you want to fly and to some extent , what seceneries you end up using as some come with their own meshes. You also need to decide what type of flying you are going to do.If you want to fly low and slow, you will want some eye candy - i think you cant beat photoscenery for this. If you want to fly higher, its not so important.UTX and GEX both improve the standard scenery textures fantastically and you really should have these whatever you do. Also REX for better weather and textures.So, let us know wherer you want to fly and what type of flying and we can fine tune the suggestions a bit more.cheers, Mark

Thanks Mark,I'll be doing a but of both actually. Low and slow, and flying around in PMDG's 747 and MD11 as well. Would love some advice on what to buy and how to best install it.Thanks!!

If you want to fly low and slow, you will want some eye candy - i think you cant beat photoscenery for this. If you want to fly higher, its not so important.UTX and GEX both improve the standard scenery textures fantastically and you really should have these whatever you do. Also REX for better weather and textures.

That remark about UTX and GEX ('you really should have these whatever you do') contradicts the remark about the photoscenery... If you are goiing for photoscenery you should NOT get UTX and GEX.busdriver, where are you planning to fly? Europe, America, everywhere? While I previously flew where I wanted to and tried to get nice scenery for that specific region, I've turned it all around now: right now I only fly where I have nice scenery! At this moment I am loving photorealistic scenery because generic textures drove me crazy (everywhere you see the same textures repeated over and over again, and roads and water cut right through houses etc. in a very unrealistic way). So lately I've only been flying above England and Wales (with Horizon's VFR GenX scenery). Today I bought Alderney (Earth Simulations) which is a VERY small island, but it looks absolutely stunning. Before that I had a lot of fun with FTX, but that meant I only flew above Australia, because FTX only does Australia (up to now). But it looked great (until I got fed up with the repetitive textures, etc.) And before FTX I had UTX Europe but with default texturesL roads and waters were in the right spot, but that was it... textures sucked. Anyway, do you really want to fly in specific regions or do you want to fly where things look awesome? ;)

That remark about UTX and GEX ('you really should have these whatever you do') contradicts the remark about the photoscenery... If you are goiing for photoscenery you should NOT get UTX and GEX.

I don't understand that comment. I have MegaScenery Hawaii photoscenery installed. I also have GEX and UTX installed. There is no conflict at all between these add ons. I have beautiful GEX textures all over US and a wonderful photoscenery for Hawaii.

If you want to fly low and slow, you will want some eye candy - i think you cant beat photoscenery for this. If you want to fly higher, its not so important.UTX and GEX both improve the standard scenery textures fantastically and you really should have these whatever you do. Also REX for better weather and textures.cheers, Mark

I'm not a fan of photoscenery - in many of the packages, there are limitations - for example, some don't include seasonal textures, most include shadows that were there at the particular time of day the photo imagery was captured, but that look wrong at other times. Over and above that, I find that photoreal textures don't mix well with the hand-drawn quality of many of the virtual cockpits and also the autogen, if you use that. To me it winds up looking artificial, and makes it harder to suspend disbelief. I'd rather have good hand-drawn (or at least hand-reworked) textures like the ones in FTX, or in the new Tongass Fjords.So my recommendation would be UTX and GEX, plus REX for weather textures (I prefer ASA as a weather engine). I'd also recommend good landclass - I found the Cloud 9 US landclass improved things a lot over the default, and prefer them slightly to the SceneryTech or FS Genesis landclass.A lot of people will recommend FS Genesis mesh, and it's wonderful. I've been avoiding it recently because I fly mainly GA, and too many of the airports I fly into are still on plateaus (a problem that happens because FSX regards all airports as flat, and FS Genesis applies a more detailed terrain slope to the land around them, so the airport winds up on a flat table with the ground sloping away at the borders). They've been working to correct that and you won't see it at most of the major airports. Again, it's a question of how you fly.If you want to get really detailed - there are a few of us (I'm one of them) that likes the FEX clouds better than the REX clouds, so we wind up mixing and matching - using FEX for clouds and REX for all its other textures. But that's probably more complicated than you want to get at the start. And the REX clouds are very good - it's just a matter of personal preference.A lot of information to answer a concise question, but I hope it's helpful.Alan

I don't understand that comment. I have MegaScenery Hawaii photoscenery installed. I also have GEX and UTX installed. There is no conflict at all between these add ons. I have beautiful GEX textures all over US and a wonderful photoscenery for Hawaii.

Yes, of course, you are right about that: I meant to say that if you get photorealistic scenery for a specific part, getting UTX and GEX for that specific part can be a waste of money. Like I have VFR GenX and I fly nowhere else in Europe. So in that case it would be a waste of money to get UTX Europe and (the upcoming) GEX Europe. But of course, when the photorealistic scenery is just a small part of a region and you would also like to fly in the other parts of that region, then getting UTX and GEX is a good idea. I was thinking too much in my own way of doing things... ;)

Great stuff guys, thanks...I plan to do mostly US flying and Europe exclusively. I'm sure I'll do a few long hauls to Asia, but mostly US and Europe. Can someone map out a shopping list of what is suggested to purchase? Also, I know from reading that how the add-ons are installed is important. Is there a specific order I should follow? Thanks again guys. I'm tunning FSX right now to my system, and should be looking to purchase/download the add-ons tonight/tomorrow.Cheers,

If you want your FSX to look like this:Or this:Or this:Then there is only only one way to go: Photoscenery!!!!!!!!!!!

Folks,I'm fairly new to the world of FSX and frankly overwhelmed by all the different scenery add-ons. Mesh, land class, etc.... What is the best set of scenery add-ons I should purchase for FSX? Also, is there a particular order that they need to be installed in to function properly?Any advice is really appreciated!Thanks!

If you already have MEgascenery Hawaii and like it then I suggest the following.1) Fly Tampa's St Maarten2) Fly Tampa's Hong Kong Kai tak. http://www.flytampa.org/They are both fantastic. If Flytampa puts out a scenery, go grab it..don't even mull for a second..its a waste of time. Just grab it and say think you. :)3) Megascenery Earth (California). The whole state. Its very good.Thence, Head over to Aerosoft and see what scenery of theirs you like for FSX. Most of them are good. Here are my favoriteshttp://www.aerosoft.com/cgi-local/us/ibosh...w480,52704098304) Madeira http://www.forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?showtopic=211045) MAllorca http://www.forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?showtopic=267276) Manhattan http://www.aerosoft.com/cgi-local/us/ibosh...70409830,D108127) VFR London X (FSX only) and the London city airport. and go all out on UK. VFR UK along with London VFR scenery and UK2000 Airport addons for Gatwick and HeathrowManny