I'm on vacation on So Cal and would love to fly around the northern LA / Thousand Oaks area and see what is actually here, hence the question about photo scenery. What is best that is downloadable? Also, I have the ORBX FTX PNW Addon scenery installed, do I need to disable the FTX scenery to install CA photo scenery?Thanks, Bruce.

Depends whether you want payware or freeware.Bluesky do some fantastic donationware scenery for California:http://www.blueskyscenery.com/index.htmlIAN

MegasceneryEarth has some nice payware photoreal scenery: http://www.megasceneryearth.com/store/

Those Megascenery offers puzzle me.I'm running their older Megascenery X SoCal package which came at 40 Dollars and is really good in my eyes. Now if I would go for Megascenery Earth and the whole of California it would come in at 200! Dollars (download) or even 250 Dollars on DVD.Blue Sky Scenery offers really nice freeware, as said and Simsavy does the whole US although you don't have watermasks and such there. So where's the big point on that Megascenery Earth price regarding all the other offers? Does anybody know because from reading the site I don't get it. :(

I have Megascenery Southern California but it doesn't include the area that you mentioned. You can download that area at megascenery earth store. In my opinion the area from the San Fernando Valley to and past Santa Barbara has the best quality. There are some free ware add-ons that will make this area shine even more. It adds Harbors, Piers, and oil directs. It even improves the wave actions and spray. It also includes 11 airports done up really nice.http://www.megascene...category_id=116http://www.flightsim.com/file.php

So where's the big point on that Megascenery Earth price regarding all the other offers? Does anybody know because from reading the site I don't get it. :(

They were the "first" large area provider for MSFS - back in the 2004 days. For the time, the only game in town.Today there are other choices. For lots of California, there is the Blue Sky Scenery freeware (donation worthy if it meets ones needs) - and Vero - http://vero-fs.com/. - is moving into the Socal area. Vero offers seasonal scenery, night textures, and some handplaced objects. I bought their SF Bay package and it is nice.For pure quantity and value though, SimSavvy can't be beat, I'm even going for the 50cm US upgrade. If there were only a way to use the "new FranceVFR autogen technique" with SimSavvy US....

There are some free ware add-ons that will make this area shine even more. It adds Harbors, Piers, and oil directs. It even improves the wave actions and spray. It also includes 11 airports done up really nice.

Ah, the Central California Coast series? Good one....

Must admit, photo without autogen notations really holds me back from buying. Watermasks are also a must here, so that might explain why e. g. the very good value of SimSavy gets reduced in my personal view.If e. g. the UK hadn't that tree addon (comes at a price, no doubt), I wouldn't fly photo there, although that's high quality stuff. If freeware is/would be photo only, no problem of course.And those freeware guys are of course the heros of a modern business system. Staying in the literal meaning of "hero", they (sadly) die young in some cases.

This is what I use.

I think Mega is your best option, I fly with people who use it and love for the SOCAL area. Blue Sky is great but so far it doesnt cover anything south of Monteray Bay approx.

Yep, MegaScenery SoCal disk is great. You can also find it on sale once in a while for as little as $15.

Also, I have the ORBX FTX PNW Addon scenery installed, do I need to disable the FTX scenery to install CA photo scenery?Thanks, Bruce.

Bruce, it's always a good idea to set your ORBX Control Panel to Default FSX when you are installing sceneries that are NOT ORBX related. Then after the scenery is installed you can open the ORBX Control Panel and set it back to PNW or which ever region you are going to use.As suggested by some of the other MegaScenery SoCal is pretty good, not to be confused with MegaSceneryEarth which can be hit or miss. I've been using it since the FS9 days and then bought the FSX version when it came out. The one thing I do like about it over the freeware options is that it includes pretty good looking night textures as well as some autogen.

I've tried them all and currently I like Megascenery by far the best. They give you day AND night textures and have autogen as well so you don't have the "flat" ground effect when flying low. They are overall the highest resolution averaging 1.2m per pixel where I believe Sim-Savvy is 2m pp (granted you get the entire USA). Currently, I have installed the entire state of California with Megascenery Earth and I couldn't be more pleased.Today is you lucky day! Just got an email from PCAviator stating all Megascenery products are on sale 50% off over the July 4th weekend. So that should mean that Southern California would be $19.95 instead of the regular $39.95. That's what I started with but then added the entire state. May have to go back and pick up a few more states! (what can I say - I'm hooked on good photoreal scenery).Clutch

I think I've tried to differentiate between Megascenery X and Megascenery Earth.The first thing is the cheaper one while the last title comes in at 200+ bucks for Cali only.The ones with an X (only) are all great so far, especially when looking at the prices. Fill the gaps with the available Blue Sky Scenery, donate there and you are running some fine US photo scenery at a low price and noble freeware support included.

With megascenery earth you can buy only the tiles you want and you do not have to buy the whole state.

Everyone,Thanks for the great replies. I will check out Megascenery ( that July 4 weekend deal sounds great), and some of the others that you have listed. Once again, thanks, and have a great long weekend ( to those in the US). And thanks for the FTX info.Bruce.