I just took off into a Dusk flight heading out from:LFML-Marseille/Provence, Franceand headed for:EDTG-Bremgarten, Germany......and have to say that the new upgraded textures...all of them, city, rural, fields, land-class...all of it, is WONDERFUL...and every bit as immersive for Europe as what ORBX has done for targeted areas of the North West. I am NOT comparing land-class/mountain/tree-texture, etc as one-on-one between ORBX as a developer, or GEX Europe's product, but that GEX Europe v2.0 is a MAJOR upgrade to stock FSX location to location. Boy..have I really been missing out by not getting my butt off of my home continent..and flying around the lovely skies of Europe! LFML's GEX Europe's airport is very nicely laid out..and even had a few buildings I have not seen in ORBX products. If you taxi out to 32R, you will see one on your left enclosed in a fenced area as you taxi out from the terminals....The towns along the coast are beautifully done as viewed with great pleasure as the Kodiak lifted off..and headed for Bremgarten. My route today is at 15,000 FT ASL and the foothills around Marseille/Provence glow wonderfully in the dusk environment that REX2 Extreme is providing. All in all, a most satisfying flight experience. Thank you crew for offering this free update to your great products. GEX is GEX, and ORBX is ORBX..and they should not be compared to one another, one-on-one. They offer different intentions and that being said, this new GEX Europe update is VERY WELL DONE! Some have issues with a slight texture color in some regions, but as a total overview...this makes Europe below your wing most convincing, with much immersive effect generated.Post Edit: Before I lost the edit feature...this is a MUST-DO flight! Set it up for Dusk in the flight planner, use VOR to VOR with IFR, ...you should get a 15,000 ASL cruise altitude for going over the Alps. The scenery is totally diverse and I'm as impressed as h*ll with what I am flying over and seeing as Dusk gives way to Night, and the city textures start to show in the valleys within the Alps and generally below the flight path. I'm half-way there...but had to come back to say that I shall certainly dwell in Europe for some time and GEX Europe v2.0 is wonderful...and will keep me here for weeks! Totally believable, with great city/town textures, especially Dusk to Night....WOW! Wow!...Make sure you have all the GEX Europe entries turned on in the Scenery Lib, and also if you have FTX Central, make sure it is turned onto the FSX Default setting. Then start FSX and have a blast....flying from France----(Geneva looks great at night!)----------------->Germany! Lovin' it. Thanks again for the update, all those behind it!Mitch

I agree about the colours issue. I actually think the pale, pastel shades of GEX work better for the drier regions of southern Europe, rather than the north. I feel it doesn't quite capture the look or character of the darker, deeper greens of the UK landscape, for example, which is why I moved to photoscenery for my neck of the woods..Ian

I don't like GEX anynore, the airport grass still looks wrong, and the "carpet tile" look is awfull, sorry bout that, not negative, just honest!

Mitch, I really love your enthusiastic posts but which GEX entries in the scenery lib are you talking of ? (I happen to own GEX 2 as well) And Geneva is definitely in Switzerland :(.About GEX 2.0 itself, it most certainly is a huge improvement over default textures but why are there so many tracks, roads and motorways all over the place leading nowhere ? Adding some in the textures makes autogen look more at its place but in GEX, it is really too much. Nick even suggests disabling roads altogether to make their textures look better. As most users, I've got UTX for roads and use them for navigation so disabling them is out of the question. Another thing that bothers me is that wherever you go, fields are so tiny. It looks as if whole Europe is covered with hedged farmland which is certainly not the case.

J.P. Mes wrote: "Nick even suggests disabling roads altogether to make their textures look better" I' ve never understood why he - The Master Himself - would recommend this! He and Anthony Vos are doing a heck of a difficult job trying to improve the default disaster, but it' s uphill all the way, an impossible jigsaw puzzle. IMO they try so hard to make it better, that it's overdone in many areas, and as mentioned before I just don't like the look anymore... Why?FTX, that's why!

Why?FTX, that's why!

And I tried so hard not to mention FTX in my post :( But yes, you're right and even if I am from Europe, even with UTX, Scenerytech landclass and GEX 2, I spend 99% of my simming time in Australia or PNW.

Yep, same here, and it's a joy!Sorry Mitch, this time I can't share your enthusiasm...

It looks like the only thing that we all agree on is that the default FSX textures are very poor. Otherwise it’s horses for courses. I fly mainly in the UK, and IMHO the photoscenery just doesn’t cut it unless you can avoid built-up areas or never fly below 3000ft. Then it looks great, although of course only in one season. There is no doubt that GEX has its shortcomings too, as others have mentioned. Some of these are the compromises due to the limitations imposed on any continental-wide ground texture product by the FSX architecture, and although Nick and Anthony have done a fantastic job overall, I think the rest of Europe has probably come out better in V2.0 than the UK. But that said, for my money it’s still the best option if you want to fly low and slow, and likely to remain so until such time as the ORBX/FTX folks get round to covering Europe. Which probably won’t be in my lifetime !

Mitch, I really love your enthusiastic posts but which GEX entries in the scenery lib are you talking of ? (I happen to own GEX 2 as well) And Geneva is definitely in Switzerland :(.About GEX 2.0 itself, it most certainly is a huge improvement over default textures but why are there so many tracks, roads and motorways all over the place leading nowhere ? Adding some in the textures makes autogen look more at its place but in GEX, it is really too much. Nick even suggests disabling roads altogether to make their textures look better. As most users, I've got UTX for roads and use them for navigation so disabling them is out of the question. Another thing that bothers me is that wherever you go, fields are so tiny. It looks as if whole Europe is covered with hedged farmland which is certainly not the case.

Hi Jean-Paul,UTX...not GEX entries in the Scenery Lib. I was typing fast and had GEX on the brain, lol. Sorry to anybody for the error. When flying in North America (mostly), I uncheck any scenery files that have nothing to do with the area I shall be concentrating upon...for way faster initial load times. I just wanted those who also do this, to not forget to go in and check off the 'European' interests....like the UTX file suite, if they own it.I truly liked the 'busy' look of the GEX-Europe v2.0 terrain below at around 15,000 ft. I thought it looked quite real as compared to real-world, well-developed city and rural centres. Think of Italy, and you'll have a myriad of short streets running happenstance this way and that, and usually skirting the ancient town-squares~! Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Germany...etc.In my flight plan, you flew to the right of Lake Geneva, and in this GEX-Europe looked very, very real from altitude. Is this FTX? Nah...but I also avoided a direct comparison...for FTX does not try to give you an upgraded European-wide solution over FSX default as Nick and Anthony have offered. For what it does...on a continent-wide application, I am most personally satisfied...satisfied enough to give the Northwest a rest and tool around the Alpine countries. Before this update, quite frankly...Europe (the virtual) did not much interest me. I needed to feel connected to that below me...and this v2.0 does the trick!Jean-Paul, give a starting Dusk flight with the above a go...and by the time you fly over Lake Geneva....GEX v2.0 looks as real as one needs to suspend disbelief....well, for myself at the least!Cheers,Mitch

It looks like the only thing that we all agree on is that the default FSX textures are very poor. Otherwise it’s horses for courses. I fly mainly in the UK, and IMHO the photoscenery just doesn’t cut it unless you can avoid built-up areas or never fly below 3000ft. Then it looks great, although of course only in one season. There is no doubt that GEX has its shortcomings too, as others have mentioned. Some of these are the compromises due to the limitations imposed on any continental-wide ground texture product by the FSX architecture, and although Nick and Anthony have done a fantastic job overall, I think the rest of Europe has probably come out better in V2.0 than the UK. But that said, for my money it’s still the best option if you want to fly low and slow, and likely to remain so until such time as the ORBX/FTX folks get round to covering Europe. Which probably won’t be in my lifetime !

---------------------------------Hello DickB,....yes, as you mention, there are shortcomings, but for what v2.0 does to upgrade default European FSX...they can be easily forgiven, lol.I believe that FTX is going to fill in the rest of North America and South America before heading out towards Europe. Just a feeling, so GEX-Europe v2.0 fills the void. For some, it does not, as is expected with any product.Mitch'er

Yep, same here, and it's a joy!Sorry Mitch, this time I can't share your enthusiasm...

---------------------------------------------No problem, PFL! My post reflected a personal opinion of the offering, and all others are most welcome, whether in agreement, or disagreement! :( It makes the Forum a think-tank.

One further observation - my comments above notwithstanding, the texture colours in GEX EU V2 are (IMO) a LOT better than in V1, particularly the greens, which I agree were a bit pale in V1, and (again IMO) this does give the UK a much more natural look, particularly in Spring/Summer.

---------------------------------Hello DickB,....yes, as you mention, there are shortcomings, but for what v2.0 does to upgrade default European FSX...they can be easily forgiven, lol.I believe that FTX is going to fill in the rest of North America and South America before heading out towards Europe. Just a feeling, so GEX-Europe v2.0 fills the void. For some, it does not, as is expected with any product.Mitch'erI believe FTX is working on New Zealand at the moment and then onto Asia, not 100% sure about asia but NZ is supposed to be released about halfway through this year.GEX on the other hand is to release Middle East very soon to join up at Greece (Glued to Europe) Then they are talking about doing Asia and NZ as well.Who will get the most sales is anybodys guess, Don't like betting on a 2 horse race, certainly not in the FS world that's for sure.CheersJulian

Maybe MS Flight is the next big thing!

Maybe MS Flight is the next big thing!

That'll be just TOO much excitement :(

Mitch, I really love your enthusiastic posts but which GEX entries in the scenery lib are you talking of ? (I happen to own GEX 2 as well) And Geneva is definitely in Switzerland :(.About GEX 2.0 itself, it most certainly is a huge improvement over default textures but why are there so many tracks, roads and motorways all over the place leading nowhere ? Adding some in the textures makes autogen look more at its place but in GEX, it is really too much. Nick even suggests disabling roads altogether to make their textures look better. As most users, I've got UTX for roads and use them for navigation so disabling them is out of the question. Another thing that bothers me is that wherever you go, fields are so tiny. It looks as if whole Europe is covered with hedged farmland which is certainly not the case.

"Nick even suggests disabling roads altogether to make their textures look better. As most users, I've got UTX for roads and use them for navigation so disabling them is out of the question"I asked the question in the GEX forum ai Simforums.Anthony posted a very good explanation.Ron