Landclass and Textures - Worth Having?

[Guest victorwest]

Ok, I've got FS9, I've downloaded improved (free) mesh (great!) now I'm thinking about some landclass additions for Europe and North/South America. However, thinking about it, I'm not sure if the addition of these items is worth it. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't landclass just tell the system where to put trees, buildings, fields etc? Now I can see the advantage if you are familiar with the area. However if you have never been there before (and have no idea of the local landscape) I'm not sure if landclass add-ons are worth the extra expense - I can't find many free landclass add-ons.Am I wrong? Am I making a big mistake?Victor

[Guest tcable]

Personally, I find the default landclass lacking. Especially in areas that I know such as Florida or New England. I too am into freeware :) and I have found a fair amount of freeware landclasss in various places, but it has been some time since I have looked. A number of fs2002 scenery packages do come with landclass for at least a limited area, and I do believe that it makes for a better expereince.Tim

[Noel 4,496]

I have been using FSGenesis mesh and landclass and to me it was well worth the cost. The 38m mesh all over the continental US, plus 10m in Hawaii is great, and there really is no impact on my system. The landclass is excellent, however I prefer the california landclass over FSGenesis. I forget who made it but it is very good and you can get it here, the california landclass that is.Noel

[Guest cw1011]

Have to second the FS Genesis products. I'm a galaxy member and love their stuff. The Hawaii mesh is a real work of art. It's also nice to have five downloads for mesh rather than the 20-30 I had before. Keeping track of them was a real hassle.

[Gridley 257]

Landclass divides the world into a grid, and each cell in that grid is assigned a texture. Textures include things like dense city, rural, farm, forest, golf course, pond, desert, etc. By default, these textures are what defines where cities are, or aren't, in FS, and by default, the MS landclass is lacking considerably.The FSGenesis landclass makes VFR flying much better since cities and urban/rural areas in general are correctly positioned according to relevant maps. The diversity of the textured scenery is also greatly improved, making the overall impression of the scenery much better. I can say that I didn't really appreciate this until I had to uninstall FS, and few for a week or two without landclass. You don't realize how much something like that contributes to overall enjoyment of the sim until you lose it for a while! Further, the beta/free landclass from FSgenesis is not worth the download. The full product is much better - particularly in New England and the rockies.There are also after-market textures available, such as FSScene. As far as I know, FSGenesis does not change any textures, it merely corrects the placement of the default textures, and increases the diversity of their usage. FScene replaces those textures with much more realisting ones. I haven't tried FScene, but the cost there seems a bit over the top. MS default textures are fine for me after they've been placed properly!Hope that helps (and gets justin another customer!),sg

[Guest JoeW]

First...... Landclass doesn't divide anything into a grid... It's allready there.Second...... The FS Genesis is great to a degree......Third...... There is a landclass of the state of Florida that is freeware and was taken form the state landuse maps.Ver 2 is for FS9 but both version work in FS9. Just do a search for the authors, Joe Watson or Bob Brown here at avsim.EnjoyJope W.