Not to thread hijack, but it may be worth noting that MegaScenery Earth has also just released their Arizona package as well. With some night lighting and possibly higher resolution, it may be worth some attention. Editing to add:I didn't realize the Sim Saavy product was most of the western USA. The Megascenery Earth package is obviously just Arizona. Sorry about that!-Greg

Thanks for pointing that out. I didn't realize they had done Az yet. As much as I hate the Florida scenery I bought from them, I may spend the 7 to 14 dollars and buy a few of the Tucson tiles to try out. It looks like the data for that area is ok and doesn't have clouds on the ground. I will probably regret it, but $14 isn't too much to waste.The MegaScenery people need to get someone who has a better computer to take thier screen shots. Most of their in air shots look like a blurry mess.

Still waiting for someone to get the actual terrain color in southern Arizona right... Arizona does not have widespread Sahara-style light tan terrain like in that last screenshot of Phoenix. I don't know why so many sceneries of it (including the FSX default textures themselves) have that light tan color. I think people just know it's a "desert" and think that must mean sand. Southern Arizona is a different kind of desert that actually features quite a lot of plant coverage and the rocks/soil are actually a much more reddish brown color.These photos demonstrate what it actually looks like: (the second photo is probably taken at the apex of the summer monsoon season, hence the really green look, but I'd say it's much closer to this than to that "sand desert" look, even in the dry parts of the year)

I agree. I'm from Tucson and when I start taking my lessons at KTUS everywhere I flew that was west and south of KTUS looked a lot greener from the air that what most AZ photo sceneries portray. It's probably just from the lack of color correction that happens with bulk photo scenery developers.

Yep, I'm originally from Tucson as well. (moved to Phoenix about 2 1/2 years ago)

Yep, I'm originally from Tucson as well. (moved to Phoenix about 2 1/2 years ago)

Wow, what a coincidence. I'm originally from Tucson as well. Lived there most of my life. Moved in the middle of high school (Canyon del Oro) to SoCal, then back to Tucson to go to the U of A. Now I live in Dallas. I miss living in Az, but I don't miss the summer heat.Btw, are you the Ryan Maziarz of Progressive Transcriptions and play the guitar as well?

I think that the scenery overall looks very nice, however I do not think anyone (Massive Scenery or Mega Scenery X) has done a good a job with the actual Phoenix area as the freeware product offered by Gottfried Razek of Blue Sky Scenery. The texture resolution is very high and the colors are good. The textures appear very clear even at lower altitudes. See the attached as an example as I approach KPHX in the Captain Sim 757. Taken from approximately 4600' (3500' AGL).

Yeah the Blue Sky stuff is pretty good, I would agree with that, especially for free. The one thing that I don't like about Blue Sky though is the way the airports look. For what ever reason the photo scenery is always on top of the airport or AFCAD rather than being below it. So when you at the airport you can see images of airplanes on the taxiways and other places. Plus sometimes I have the airport AFCAD bleed thru the photo scenery which looks funny when your taxing.I sent the author an email a long time ago to see if there was a work aroung to have the AFCAD appear above the airport, but he said at the time there was no way to do it. I think it has something to do with the way its compiled.I have made photo sceneries before using SBuilderX and the AFCAD/ADE airport is always on top of the photo scenery, not below it. If he could fix that and add night textures I would probably use it.

Yes, the fact the airport is below the AFX file does not help, although their newer scenery, including the Denver area which was released yesterday on AVSIM does not have this problem. Hopefully someone will discover a way to fix this for Phoenix. If I recall correctly, of the few Flordia Megascenery X titles that I purcahsed, this was an issue prior to issuing a patch to ensure that the AFX file remained on top.

I may spend the 7 to 14 dollars and buy a few of the Tucson tiles to try out. .

If you aren't aware of it, you may want to check out this site:http://www.kb-sim.com/downloads.htmlHe has produced photoscenery areas for Tucson and a couple other areas in Arizona. The areas are quite large. They include night lighting and GMAX rendered buildings and autogen, with updated airports. I've had all of them for quite a while, and they are excellent in FSX. If you don't want all of Arizona photoreal, the kb-sim Tucson download would probably actually be a better deal for you than the MegaScenery Earth. It's all free! I also purchased the MegaScenery Earth Arizona complete state, and it is quite good. Agree that there isn't enough "green" in some areas, but no photoscenery is gonna be perfect.I'm in the process of experimenting to see if the kb-sim autogen and GMAX buildings for the areas can be "layered" over the MegaScenery Earth Arizona photoscenery. It looks like it may work, as the autogen and GMAX files are separate BGL's in the kb-sim downloads. If it works, the combination may be very interesting.

Thanks for the info.I actually tried his a while back and didn't care for it to much and deleted it.I download one tile of the MSE yesterday for the north Tucson area, tile 48. When I get a change today I will install it and see how it looks. If its no good it's only $7 down the tube, lol.Like you said it's hard to find a batch that really suits.

Wow, what a coincidence. I'm originally from Tucson as well. Lived there most of my life. Moved in the middle of high school (Canyon del Oro) to SoCal, then back to Tucson to go to the U of A. Now I live in Dallas. I miss living in Az, but I don't miss the summer heat.Btw, are you the Ryan Maziarz of Progressive Transcriptions and play the guitar as well?

Wow, that's cool - I went to Salpointe High School and have a degree from U of A as well.Yes, I'd be surprised if there was another person with my name out there period - same guy. PT is actually my primary job still, been doing guitar books for almost 10 years now.

Great posts since 90 percent of my flying is over this fine state. I do look forward to getting the whole State. Quick question cmpbellsjc, I am just curious, what did not not like about the kb-sim Pima County and how is the MSE as you mentioned in the other post better then it? Just want to know to maybe save the $14. Thanks.kev

Great posts since 90 percent is over this fine state. I do look forward to getting the whole State. Quick question cmpbellsjc, I am just curious, what did not not like about the kb-sim Pima County and how is the MSE as you mentioned in the other post better then it? Just want to know to maybe save the $14. Thanks.kev

I'm not sure exactly what it was about the kb-sim that I didn't like. It didn't seem like the resolution was very good and I didn't like KTUS enhancements. It was just one of those things that I tried and right off the bat it didn't appeal to me. So far, for me the best set up for Tucson has been tile 47, 48, and 51 in conjunction with Ray Smiths KTUS ADE/AFCAD. And for Phoenix it's the regular MegaScenery Phoenix disk with Ray Smiths KPHX ADE/AFCAD. You see for me, if I am going to run photoscenery, night textures are required. I am not going to go into my scenery library and disable day only textures and go back to GEX textures. It's either I am going to run photoscenery for the area or am I not, no going back and fourth.The color of the Tucson tiles is slightly browner than I would like compared to their MegaScenery Phoenix disk, but not bad, especially compared to the Florida tiles I bought for them which were horrible. I actually like the Tucson stuff so much that after trying tile 48, I bought tile 51, and tonight I got tile 47. Not sure if I will get anymore since I rarely fly in AZ more than between Tucson and Phoenix, but if I do I may consider buying a 1/3 state package since its a lot cheaper that paying $7 per shot.