OK, C'mon - LA Megascenery Review?!

[Guest]

Yes, I know there was a post a couple of days ago asking for a review of the LA megascenery (@ www.megascenery.com BTW), but still no answers. Has anyone tried it yet? The suspence is killing me. How does it look? Autogen? Does it slow the frame rates down? How does it look at low altitudes? Worth the cost? Please let us know. Thanks,Sydneyborn :D

[Guest SteveJ]

My order was shipped Friday and is in route. Unless someone specified next day air, not sure how many have received it yet. There is quite a lengthy review of Megascenery at FlightSim today. HTH Steve J.

[Guest firehawk44]

I received my copy today. IMHO the scenery is as advertised on the megascenery site. The pictures on the site are what I see on my system. Frame rates are mainly in the 20's and 30's in 2D mode with all scenery maxed out except Autogen is set to Dense, no Water Effects, and no Dynamic Scenery checked. Under Hardware, I have Render to Texture and T&L checked; Trilinear Filtering; and Mip mapping and Hardware rendered lights maxed out. No AA. Target frame rate is set at 48 although PC Aviator recommended unlimited. They recommend much lower settings than what I have selected and they automatically change your current settings to the lower settings during the install process. I was a little worried about the requirement to lower my system settings just to fly in this area as I would hate to have to constantly change my settings everytime I fly. I have a Pentium 4 2.2 GHz system with 1 gig of RDRAM and have the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra with 256 Mb of RAM installed. Frame rates dimenish a little in VC and Spot view but mainly stayed above 15 FPS. I am very impressed with the package overall. You receive 2 CD's containing approx 74000 bmp's. You need at least 2 Gig's to install and I had to convert my file system from FAT 32 to NTFS to get my system to install the program. You also receive a very professionally made Pilot's Operating Handbook which includes VFR Flight Lessons (53 pages). Also included is a 231 page manual with Instrument Approach Charts (including SID/STARS) and Airport Diagrams. IMHO, this alone is worth the $37.95 I paid!! You also receive a huge map containing the VFR Terminal Area Chart for Los Angeles and San Diego plus another huge map containing the Los Angeles Sectional Chart to help get you around in the area. I have only flown a little over the Los Angeles area and I could easily spot several golf courses and the freeways appear to be properly rendered. The cities seemed to be more detailed than the default FSCOF scenery. The scenery is only good for the summer so you'll have to change your season settings this winter if you want to fly in the LA area. The only bummer in my estimation but I realize putting 74,000 plus more texture files for Spring, Winter, and Fall would be a daunting task and wipe out harddrive space for most users. I strongly recommend this product. You will not be disappointed.Jim Young

[Cloud9 0]

Here's a review at http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/review/mega04.htmEnjoy!Cloud9

[Guest oyvindhansen]

Like many rewiews these days the one at flightsim.com seemed more like an advertisement to me. Wouldn't surprise me to find a Megascenery banner ad at their site.- Oyvind

[MartijnPleines 0]

When you see 'Cap Mason' as the author, you just know it'll be more of an advertisement than a review. I'm surprised this one didn't have one of those 'and here's the machine to run it on' (dell) postscripts at the end of it.Well, as long as they keep doing serious reviews as well, we can live with it I suppose.Look for Andrew Herd on that site, those are the real reviews.Best,Martijn

[Guest]

"worth the $37.95 I paid!!"Yikes!! Maybe one of these decades M$ will give us scenery like this included in Flight Simulator? As If! Yeah maybe when Ben and JayLo celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary...

[Wolfko 0]

>"worth the $37.95 I paid!!">>Yikes!! Maybe one of these decades M$ will give us scenery>like this included in Flight Simulator?Mega Scenery covers only a very small part of the world and is only scenery. Though ist costs approx only $ 20.00 less than MS2004, which covers the WHOLE world, which includes, aircraft, a weather engine, etc, etc.Wolfgang

[Guest otter55]

a few questions:99% of all my flying is under 1500'. does the new scenery look good at that altitude and lower?also, in all the screenshots i have seen i have yet to see a tree. do the autogen trees / etc show up as they do in 2004's original scenery?do the shadows accurately follow the time of the day or are they static?thanksdon

[Guest goon]

Very true. That one last week about the digital camera binoculars was hilarious. I'm surprised it didn't start 'Hi, I'm Troy McClure! You might remember from such flight sim reviews as 'PIC A320: When frame rates attack' and 'Maldives scenery 2004: Where the hell is that anyway?'And you're also correct about Andrew Herds stuff. The highest standard of writing about FS anywhere.

[Guest firehawk44]

Don,I'll try to answer your questions:99% of all my flying is under 1500'. does the new scenery look good at that altitude and lower?A: No. But it doesn't look all that bad. You can easily follow the Interstates and major roads at that altitude. With all the mountains in this scenery, you're going to have a difficult time staying at 1500'.also, in all the screenshots i have seen i have yet to see a tree. do the autogen trees / etc show up as they do in 2004's original scenery?A: Trees definitely show up and there are a lot of them at 1500' At higher altitudes they may go away in the same manner as the default scenery.do the shadows accurately follow the time of the day or are they static?A: This factor should not be any different from the default scenery. I don't believe Megascenery changed the code for shadows, just enhanced the scenery with satellite images. However, I did see building shadows on the West side of the buildings at 10 AM.Hope this helps.Jim

[Guest luhiss]

Need I say more?http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho..._id=76473&page=Luhiss

[brynjames 0]

> I'm surprised it didn't start 'Hi,>I'm Troy McClure! You might remember from such flight sim>reviews as 'PIC A320: When frame rates attack' and 'Maldives>scenery 2004: Where the hell is that anyway?'Nice one :)

[Guest product]

It automatically changes your settings when you load it up?! To me that's a real deal killer, they have no business messing with your settings like that, especially after many of us spend quite a lot of time tweaking per our taste and personal performance requirements.I think my box will be going back unopened if that's the case...Joel

[Guest FlyboyMichael]

What does it change your visibilty to? What does it change your TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL variable to? How about TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS and TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS? Have you adjusted these variables from the settings it chose? What are your frames rates on approach at KLAX?Thanks,