Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
jfri

Megascenery Earth question

Recommended Posts

Since I have recieved an offer to buy Megascenery earth with 50% off I would like to ask a little about it. First how does it compare to Megascenery USA for FS9 (I have some of those titles)? Considering my system (listed belove) which area would be best to try out? I'm somewhat worried about blurries.My systemAMD X2 6000 3.1 Ghz4 Gb PC6400 RAMGTS250 1Gb7200 rpm HDWin 7 x64

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest firehawk44
Since I have recieved an offer to buy Megascenery earth with 50% off I would like to ask a little about it. First how does it compare to Megascenery USA for FS9 (I have some of those titles)? Considering my system (listed belove) which area would be best to try out? I'm somewhat worried about blurries.My systemAMD X2 6000 3.1 Ghz4 Gb PC6400 RAMGTS250 1Gb7200 rpm HDWin 7 x64
I don't think you'll have many blurries with those specs as long as you are conservative with your scenery sliders (MegaScenery Earth has some recommended settings). The scenery detail is much more detailed than in the MegaScenery series but not that much. I have the MegaEarth sceneries for the Grand Canyon and I think it is awesome. To compare the sceneries you can check out for yourself the detail between MegaScenery and MegaEarth sceneries on the PC Aviator site. No systems are equal so I can't guarantee no blurries but with 50% off and the fact each sector only costs about $8 it's worth checking it out. I would get just one area like the Grand Canyon first and check it out. If you like, then you can start exploring and building.Best regards,Jim

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I don't think you'll have many blurries with those specs as long as you are conservative with your scenery sliders (MegaScenery Earth has some recommended settings). The scenery detail is much more detailed than in the MegaScenery series but not that much. I have the MegaEarth sceneries for the Grand Canyon and I think it is awesome. To compare the sceneries you can check out for yourself the detail between MegaScenery and MegaEarth sceneries on the PC Aviator site. No systems are equal so I can't guarantee no blurries but with 50% off and the fact each sector only costs about $8 it's worth checking it out. I would get just one area like the Grand Canyon first and check it out. If you like, then you can start exploring and building.Best regards,Jim
To clarify one thing - Megascenery for FSX and Megascenery Earth are the same company - In fact, the existing Megascenery for FSX products have been rolled into the megascenery earth products. For example, Megascenery Earth offers the state of California. Two years ago Megascenery put out a product called Megascenery Southern California. The megascenery california product was used in the megascenery earth production. They even say as much on their website.One other thing - The megascenery products were in my opinion a decent quality, but the newer megascenery earth product line is not quite of the same quality. I highly recommend you do a google search for Megascenery Earth reviews and then you will see what I am talking about.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
To clarify one thing - Megascenery for FSX and Megascenery Earth are the same company - In fact, the existing Megascenery for FSX products have been rolled into the megascenery earth products. For example, Megascenery Earth offers the state of California. Two years ago Megascenery put out a product called Megascenery Southern California. The megascenery california product was used in the megascenery earth production. They even say as much on their website.One other thing - The megascenery products were in my opinion a decent quality, but the newer megascenery earth product line is not quite of the same quality. I highly recommend you do a google search for Megascenery Earth reviews and then you will see what I am talking about.
After such a search I read that the quality seem to vary between areas to a high extent. I was thinking about the area in southern California situated just to the north of the Megascenery Southern California (which I have for FS9) since I got maps for that region (from Megascenery USA). But how is quality for that particular area.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
After such a search I read that the quality seem to vary between areas to a high extent. I was thinking about the area in southern California situated just to the north of the Megascenery Southern California (which I have for FS9) since I got maps for that region (from Megascenery USA). But how is quality for that particular area.
I am not sure. I own Megascenery Southern Cal for FSX and I am relatively pleased. I tried a few parts of megascenery earth around colorado and I was not pleased at all. Since you can purchase these areas in small parts, why not just purchase one area directly north of the Megascenery SoCal area and see how it compares. I would be curious to know.Eventually the guys at ORBX will get to California. At that point all bets are off. After flying around the ORBX pacific northwest scenery nothing else even compares. I laugh when I say this but it is true - ORBX has ruined my flight sim experience outside of the areas they have developed. Their scenery is so far beyond what others are doing I am stunned more developers have not changed techniques. I think once ORBX does an area you can bet nobody else will even try because they cannot compete.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I am not sure. I own Megascenery Southern Cal for FSX and I am relatively pleased. I tried a few parts of megascenery earth around colorado and I was not pleased at all. Since you can purchase these areas in small parts, why not just purchase one area directly north of the Megascenery SoCal area and see how it compares. I would be curious to know.Eventually the guys at ORBX will get to California. At that point all bets are off. After flying around the ORBX pacific northwest scenery nothing else even compares. I laugh when I say this but it is true - ORBX has ruined my flight sim experience outside of the areas they have developed. Their scenery is so far beyond what others are doing I am stunned more developers have not changed techniques. I think once ORBX does an area you can bet nobody else will even try because they cannot compete.
That ORBX really looks interesting. My only concern is performence.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
That ORBX really looks interesting. My only concern is performence.
This much I can tell. It is the absolute best I own, hands down and without question. Performance will be very similar to regular FSX. They offer a free trial of large region of their PNW coverage area. It is a very big area and includes something like 40 airports, and it never expires. Of course, their hope is you like so much you purchase the rest. Trust me. You will end up buying it. If nothing else, you can test performance.HERE IS A LINK TO THE FREE DEMO PAGE if you care to take a look. And join the forums there also. The community is second to none.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
This much I can tell. It is the absolute best I own, hands down and without question. Performance will be very similar to regular FSX. They offer a free trial of large region of their PNW coverage area. It is a very big area and includes something like 40 airports, and it never expires. Of course, their hope is you like so much you purchase the rest. Trust me. You will end up buying it. If nothing else, you can test performance.HERE IS A LINK TO THE FREE DEMO PAGE if you care to take a look. And join the forums there also. The community is second to none.
I have now installed and tried that demo. First according to the advice in the documentation I raised some of my sliders. Still the performence was fine and smooth even on my fairly weak system. But of course the demoarea is outside city regions. When I get to Seattle will my performence be killed? From what I understand some sliders shouldn't be lowered if I wan't to benefit from what this scenery has to offer. So for example if I can't have scenery at extremely dense and 7 cm texture resolution it might be a foolish thing to spend money on it.Otherwise orbx defenitely seems a better way to spend money on than megascenery earth.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I bought MegaSceneryEarth for parts of Southern New York State and Cape Cod, MA. I think each piece cost about $7.50. Have to say you get what you pay for. It's cheap but the quality is low. I think they use some sort of semi-automated process as there are a lot of errors, like unmapped waterways and lakes for instance. There is a big lake full of trees right next to KHPN. But at least they seem to fix the airport elevations which some other competing products have so far fail to do. The night lighting looks pretty good too. Certainly better than the default.Since its going to be some time until Orbx gets to NA Atlantic Northeast it'll have to suffice for now as, at least for this area of the globe, there isn't any alternative.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I bought MegaSceneryEarth for parts of Southern New York State and Cape Cod, MA. I think each piece cost about $7.50. Have to say you get what you pay for. It's cheap but the quality is low. I think they use some sort of semi-automated process as there are a lot of errors, like unmapped waterways and lakes for instance. There is a big lake full of trees right next to KHPN. But at least they seem to fix the airport elevations which some other competing products have so far fail to do. The night lighting looks pretty good too. Certainly better than the default.Since its going to be some time until Orbx gets to NA Atlantic Northeast it'll have to suffice for now as, at least for this area of the globe, there isn't any alternative.
Are they going to do Europe or is it only USA and Australia?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I have now installed and tried that demo. First according to the advice in the documentation I raised some of my sliders. Still the performence was fine and smooth even on my fairly weak system. But of course the demoarea is outside city regions. When I get to Seattle will my performence be killed? From what I understand some sliders shouldn't be lowered if I wan't to benefit from what this scenery has to offer. So for example if I can't have scenery at extremely dense and 7 cm texture resolution it might be a foolish thing to spend money on it.Otherwise orbx defenitely seems a better way to spend money on than megascenery earth.
I don't know if they will ever do Europe. Maybe some day.Regarding large cities, your FPS will take a fairly big hit, not because of Orbx but because of FSX. That is what happens. It might be a little more than default FSX, but it would be similar to what you have now. If you can do big cities now with no problem then you will be fine. If you can't do them now then the Orbx scenery won't do any better.But wow does it look good. And the PNW region is mostly rural anyway. If big cities are an issue stay away from Seattle and Vancouver.Oh, and one other thing. You can move your scenery and autogen sliders around and the effect will be minimal in rural areas. Also, the 7cm is mentioned to give you the sharpest road textures. Again, if needed you could raise this and not notice much of an effect, especially if you are flying over 1500 ft.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I have MegaScenery Earth for my area (NJ) and I gotta say he quality is very good. Of course, I lack comparison with other products besides what I've seen in screenshots but as an actual resident of the scenery I'm flying over I can say that VFR flights are a joy with this scenery. I can literally take a photo in FSX then go on Google Maps and find out exactly where I was flying if it's part of the state I don't recognize from above. I looked at the Sim-Savvy scenery and that seems to be a nice-looking alternative although the quality to me from the screenshots seems on par with MSE and MSE has excellent night textures as well as water masking - although the masking does seem to be a bit random for some reason - for example part of a river will be masked but another part will be satellite photo. The water masking issue is really the only (very minor) complaint I have with MSE


Drew Sikora

Staff Blog

Founder/Designer, MSE Airports

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I don't know if they will ever do Europe. Maybe some day.Regarding large cities, your FPS will take a fairly big hit, not because of Orbx but because of FSX. That is what happens. It might be a little more than default FSX, but it would be similar to what you have now. If you can do big cities now with no problem then you will be fine. If you can't do them now then the Orbx scenery won't do any better.But wow does it look good. And the PNW region is mostly rural anyway. If big cities are an issue stay away from Seattle and Vancouver.Oh, and one other thing. You can move your scenery and autogen sliders around and the effect will be minimal in rural areas. Also, the 7cm is mentioned to give you the sharpest road textures. Again, if needed you could raise this and not notice much of an effect, especially if you are flying over 1500 ft.
Unfortunately it has turned out to be impossible to fly in Seattle area with the slider settings suggested by ORBX. I got stutters and fps around 10-12. I also experienced that if I turned down road traffic from 16 to 0 and GA traffic from 20 to 0 (all traffic off) things improved somewhat. Fps went up to about 15-17 and stutters decreased somewhat. But if I then turned down texture resolution scenery density and water (three steps!) very little changed with regard to fps and smoothness.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

  • Tom Allensworth,
    Founder of AVSIM Online


  • Flight Simulation's Premier Resource!

    AVSIM is a free service to the flight simulation community. AVSIM is staffed completely by volunteers and all funds donated to AVSIM go directly back to supporting the community. Your donation here helps to pay our bandwidth costs, emergency funding, and other general costs that crop up from time to time. Thank you for your support!

    Click here for more information and to see all donations year to date.
×
×
  • Create New...