Angelique's review of MegaScenery Oregon

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Just a bit of information for simmers. Flight Simulator uses what the developers call LOD, which means Level of Display. This is a mechanism that displays different resolutions for textures and objects depending of the distance from them. So, when close up, the highest resolution is displayed, and as one moves away, lower and lower resolutions are displayed. What is the reason for this? It makes no sense to display the highest resolution when far away since the object or texture is barely visible, and that would keep a lot of the hardware resources overloaded without any purpose.The point is that custom (photo-real) scenery that contains maximum resolution, for example, of 1.2 meters per pixel will only display that resolution when flying very close to the ground. The ground textures also contain images with different resolutions (2.4, 4.8, etc.) and as soon as one climbs to about 1000 or 1500 feet AGL, the game will immediately start displaying 2.4 meter per pixel textures. And the more one climbs to altitude, the lower the resolution of the custom ground textures that are displayed.So, high resolution ground textures make very little sense except in the immediate vicinity of an airport, since they are never seen by the simmer in the majority of flights as he is too high for them to be displayed. The only way to see 1.2 meter per pixel ground textures outside of the airport is to always fly at 500 feet AGL!Everyone can make their own decisions as to what they want, but custom ground with a maximum resolution of 2.4 meters per pixel is probably more than enough for the majority of simmers.Best regards.Luis

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

Based on the review, I tried the free Oregon tile from Megascenery, but two observations:- The colors are washed out compared to PNW, and more irritating to me:- Megascenery makes changes to your fsx.cfg file which are not restored when uninstalling the scenery!So, if you want to try this: Back up your fsx.cfg file first!!

[Bruce Nicholson KMFR 20]

I enjoyed reading Angelique's review, however I had to smile when I read "This small US state has stolen my heart and I really mean that." and later in the overview, "For a small state like Oregon and then only half of it, it’s pretty expensive."Small state? Something just seemed very odd about that statement. Maybe when compared to California or Alaska, or when considering the extent of the scenery coverage. Personally, I wouldn't call Oregon small by any means. It's the 8th largest state of the lower 48 states. For our European friends, and this would include Angelique, Oregon is slightly larger than the United Kingdom. To put that into perspective, it would be equivalent to saying "For a small European country like the UK and then only half of it, it's pretty expensive." I think most readers would say, What??? :(

[yankeegolf3 51]

hi, Given the power of her computer, I am surprised that Angelique gets blurries while flying with a C172 . I have a much less powerful computer and don't have blurred textures. I use the common tweaks for photosceny that are available on this forum. I am puzzled :( I am not going to upgrade my computer...yet...

[gallen144 12]

In response to the comment by Luis,"So, high resolution ground textures make very little sense except in the immediate vicinity of an airport, since they are never seen by the simmer in the majority of flights as he is too high for them to be displayed. The only way to see 1.2 meter per pixel ground textures outside of the airport is to always fly at 500 feet AGL! -Luis July 3 2010 "I concede that perhaps I do not represent the majority of flight simmers, but I do a great deal of helicopter flying in the 300-1000" AGL range, as well as a lot of off-airport operations. In this environment, I like to see as much detail as my system, storage, and $ will allow. I recognize how the photosecenery detail flattens at lower altitude, but I enjoy the 3-D illusion with some altitude above short final anyway.My intention is not to start a debate over this issue, but merely to bring up that there are other factors for consideration on the topic.Happy flying,GW

[Guest Angelique-van-Campen]

Based on the review, I tried the free Oregon tile from Megascenery, but two observations:- The colors are washed out compared to PNW,

Bert, that could be and that's always a problem I've seen with other photo-real sceneries. There are always tiles who aren't optimum and because no other aerial material is available, the developer can try to correct it if possible. That's then also the problem with photo-real sceneries. You can leave a tile out and replace it with something that doesn't belong there.Having said that, the Orbx FTX uses also aerial material - probably not from the same source - but are hand-placed for every single km square to match the actual terrain as seen from the air, so it's not equal to the real scenery.Anyway, I know what you mean and fully agree that sim life is not always as reality!

and more irritating to me:- Megascenery makes changes to your fsx.cfg file which are not restored when uninstalling the scenery!So, if you want to try this: Back up your fsx.cfg file first!!

Good point!

[Guest Angelique-van-Campen]

hi, Given the power of her computer, I am surprised that Angelique gets blurries while flying with a C172 . I have a much less powerful computer and don't have blurred textures. I use the common tweaks for photosceny that are available on this forum. I am puzzled :( I am not going to upgrade my computer...yet...

There's no need to be puzzled.Blurries, FSX expectation level (very important item), airspeed, altitude and much more could make one saying I have blurries while somebody else doesn't even see the difference. Although my PC specs aren't bad, having no blurries at all or reduced to a minimum is to my opinion not only a matter of PC hardware but also software tweaking. Unfortunately, too many people on different forum claim they have the solution to reduce or eliminate blurries.Who's right, who's wrong? Sometimes I'm even confused and after digging many forums I think I found something that fits for me and that is not always the best solution.So even I, I'm still looking for the ""ultimate solution" (I'll probably never find it but anyway).

[yankeegolf3 51]

Hi Angelique,I bought my computer 6 years ago. The CPU is a Pentium 4 HT at 3Ghz. I upgraded the videocard to a geforce 8800GT. The performances are acceptable, and I enjoy my flights with phoyosceneryWhat puzzles me is that 6 years later, with 4 core CPUs, one still gets blurries and feels the need to tweak (not refering to you).I woud have expected that the latest computers would allow FSX to run perfectly without tweaking :( Maybe next year :( Take care