US Cities by Aerosoft and FSDreamteam and Flytampa

[sgreen91 182]

I'm interested in getting the US cities by Aerosoft for Chicago etc. I have the FSdreamteam and Flytampa airports for all of the US and am wondering if the two scenery's get along with along with each other.For example Chicago with Flytampa Midway and FSD O'hare will US Cities cause any issues?Thanks in advance.

[Bonkster 1]

They all work together just fine... but you WILL take a bit of a frame-rate hit from having the US Cities scenery in such close proximity to two very detailed add-on airports. I actually think the real culprit from the frame hit in that area is the FSDT KORD scenery and not so much the US Cities scenery. I know that I get excellent rates with US Cities Buffalo and FlyTampa KBUF together... likewise with US Cities San Francisco and Flightbeam KSFO.

[Benjamin J 751]

Here's a giant review I did at simflight where I aim to do exactly what you are doing:http://www.simflight.com/2011/05/articlereview-ultimate-city-x-chicago/Short answer: it works together, and it works great.

[tutmeister 695]

One thing to be aware of is that some people have a major issue with US Cities Chicago X. I purchased San Francisco, Chicago and Las Vegas as a package deal last weekend and SF and LV are amazingly good for the price. However, around O' Hare, the scenery freezes every 3 seconds for about 3 seconds. It is a rhythmic freeze and once you depart the area, it stops. For example, I can fly from good old Meigs Field with no issues at all. It is not related to my hardware, as I can fly complex helicopters through the downtown area (although the roofs are not solid, so you unfortunately can't land on them) of Chicago, but as soon as I go near O'hare, the freezing rhythm starts. I'm not the only one to have reported this, although there has been no official response I know of from Limesim (who developed the scenery) or from Aerosoft that fixes the issue. Most replies to people posting this have stated that this is an end-user issue, but it is not. I have many complex addons and everything works great everywhere else in the world. It only happens within a certain radius of O'Hare, and all 4 cores on my CPU (i7-2600k) spike to 100% within that area.Other than that one (major) issue, the scenery is beautiful and worth your money. Hopefully I can find a fix to this issue that is affecting some of us.

[Robert McDonald 167]

I'm interested in getting the US cities by Aerosoft for Chicago etc. I have the FSdreamteam and Flytampa airports for all of the US and am wondering if the two scenery's get along with along with each other.For example Chicago with Flytampa Midway and FSD O'hare will US Cities cause any issues?Thanks in advance.

I purchased Aerosoft's San Francisco and was astounded at how poorly my system ran. It was horrible. I encountered stuttering that was so bad it drove me to erase my system and restore it from a full image backup PRE-Aerosoft. I have requested a full refund from Aerosoft for this product. I encountered the total-blackout in the city during night flight - the Aerosoft area all buildings were blacked out. Are they kidding? Really?? It's like the power grid within the downtown area blew a circuit breaker. Awful experience, but that's just me. I have Flight Beam KSFO and NO issue or problem with it.

They all work together just fine... but you WILL take a bit of a frame-rate hit from having the US Cities scenery in such close proximity to two very detailed add-on airports. I actually think the real culprit from the frame hit in that area is the FSDT KORD scenery and not so much the US Cities scenery. I know that I get excellent rates with US Cities Buffalo and FlyTampa KBUF together... likewise with US Cities San Francisco and Flightbeam KSFO.

That's amazing. Not the case on my system. Flightbeam KSFO works a treat. Added Aerosoft San Francisco and it was 'xxxxx in the punchbowl' time. I reverted my system back with a full image backup Pre-Aerosoft. I guess everyone's experiences are different. way more pain than joy IMHO. Did you notice the DARK CITY (Aerosoft area) at night? Like a total 'power blackout'. Horrid.I'm just sayin...

[PingPong 60]

@rsm: the scenery does not have any night textures. That's why the blackout. None of the us cities do except Las Vegas. I think it should say that somewhere on the product page. @tutmiester. I got those rhythmic freezes too. Try moving scenery complexity down one notch below the highest. Also for these sceneries set road traffic to zero. This is critical. I know it's weird to fly around a city with no cars but there's some bug in fsx that makes the card kill your performance in these types of sceneries.

[Robert McDonald 167]

@rsm: the scenery does not have any night textures. That's why the blackout. None of the us cities do except Las Vegas.I think it should say that somewhere on the product page.@tutmiester. I got those rhythmic freezes too. Try moving scenery complexity down one notch below the highest. Also for these sceneries set road traffic to zero. This is critical.I know it's weird to fly around a city with no cars but there's some bug in fsx that makes the card kill your performance in these types of sceneries.

Thanks for taking the time to clarify this for me. I can't fathom a scenery without night textures, much less one you paid 'extra' for. I refuse to lower my graphics quality to accommodate a product that is something less than I'd expect (compared to ORBX, candidly, Aerosoft is not IMHO on an even footing).Again, I appreciate your kind suggestions!Best wishes for a great 2012.Robert

[Blaze 102]

Thanks for taking the time to clarify this for me. I can't fathom a scenery without night textures, much less one you paid 'extra' for. I refuse to lower my graphics quality to accommodate a product that is something less than I'd expect (compared to ORBX, candidly, Aerosoft is not IMHO on an even footing).

I think the lack of night textures and winter textures is the death nail for some of Aerosoft's US City projects, it's hard to fathom Chicago, Cleveland or Buffalo without winter textures. However, in all honesty Aerosoft is the distributor of most of the software they sell not the producer and I think they certainly are worthy of being considered as some of the top scenery available for FSX. They just seem to specialize more in the European market than the US. Most of my FSX Europe has been Aerosoft'd with quality payware scenery provided by them. I have been a long time Orbx user too and when you compare projects, price, and customer service I feel Aerosoft can compete with anyone. It's hard to compare a project like Fall City with Anchorage or any other large/mega airport project. For small extremely refined GA airports Orbx is top shelf, their larger airports like YMML,YBCS,YBBN are also well done but I think each manufacture has their own niche. I would like to see Aerosoft offer some more medium/large density US Airports like Salt Lake City, Tucson, Oklahoma City, DC's KDCA, Newark, etc. I think it's these sized airports where they excel.

[tutmeister 695]

@PingPong, thank you I will try that, it does make sense to do those things.

[B777ER 2,484]

These US cities from aerosoft with daytime only summer textures is lame. In this day and age they should have a way to have nighttime and winter textures. zSeems to me that product is only 1/3 done. But I guess its a quick way to make a buck and it seems more people lately than ever are trying to fleece the flight sim user. As an example, simmarket should be embarrassed to be selling that Fairbanks, AK airport scenery. That guy is actually charging money for something that looks like it was designed by a 5th grade student! Terrible textures! Go look at the screen shots

[Benjamin J 751]

These US cities from aerosoft with daytime only summer textures is lame. In this day and age they should have a way to have nighttime and winter textures. zSeems to me that product is only 1/3 done. But I guess its a quick way to make a buck and it seems more people lately than ever are trying to fleece the flight sim user. As an example, simmarket should be embarrassed to be selling that Fairbanks, AK airport scenery. That guy is actually charging money for something that looks like it was designed by a 5th grade student! Terrible textures! Go look at the screen shots

The reason that they don't add winter textures and such is not because they can't, but because they won't. It would make the price go up a lot, so that they would be as expensive as Manhattan and London VFR, which do include night lighting. They don't want the price to go up, instead keeping it relatively low, but the consequence is that no seasons or night lighting is included.As for Simmarket, they are a shop, that's all. They sell what is available to sell and they don't judge the products - that's our work, the user's work.

[B777ER 2,484]

The reason that they don't add winter textures and such is not because they can't, but because they won't. It would make the price go up a lot, so that they would be as expensive as Manhattan and London VFR, which do include night lighting. They don't want the price to go up, instead keeping it relatively low, but the consequence is that no seasons or night lighting is included.As for Simmarket, they are a shop, that's all. They sell what is available to sell and they don't judge the products - that's our work, the user's work.

So when did you get you PR job?

[Robert McDonald 167]

LOL about the PR work! To Aerosoft's credit, they have agreed to refund my purchase of San Francisco Scenery. Sorry, but I'm not buying the "we built it poorly to keep the price down" argument! That's like saying "we left air bags out of our new automobile design to allow us to price the car competitively"....

[tutmeister 695]

Sorry, but to be fair to Aerosoft, it is and has always been clearly stated on the description at the online shops that this scenery is VFR scenery, that there are no night time textures and the two reasons given are 1) to keep the file size down, as the day textures are huge, and 2) as VFR flying is mainly a daytime affair.

It is clearly intended to fill the gap between the default scenery and very high dense city scenery such as Manhattan X, London VFR or Venice X. Because the file size is rather large due to the ground image it only includes one season (in most cases this is not a real issue) and no night textures. The VFR flights over these cities is mostly a day time affair anyway. The second in this range is San Francisco, California.

No one said they built it poorly to keep the cost down, that's hearsay written above. I'd suggest that this isn't the product for you, but that it is the product for a whole slew of people who enjoy pottering around low and slow, perhaps using sea planes in the Bay, or choppers around the city, that kind of thing.

[Benjamin J 751]

So when did you get you PR job?

I'm merely retelling what Aerosoft has told us several times on their forums. That's really nothing new. They say it in almost every USCities preview thread because there's always somebody who asks about it. And as for the Simmarket thing, even though I wholeheartedly agree with you on that Fairbanks scenery, I disagree with you on if "Simmarket should be ashamed to be selling it".