FISD proudly presents FinnBuildings 2004, a freeware photorealistic and complete autogen building texture replacement set.FinnBuildings 2004 has been developed with over 1000 images as background material, and includes over 50 different building textures.FinnBuildings 2004 will not affect frame rates at all, as the texture size remains unchanged. There is on the other hand also included a low-res set for users with slow computers, a set with lower resolution than default, but still much sharper appearance than their default counterparts. FinnBuildings 2004 also introduces its ow night texture system, with more realistic lightning.The textures included will replace the autogen building textures all over Europe, but will not affect other continents. There is however nothing that prevents from using FinnBuildings also in other parts of the world (proper renaming needed only).FinnBuildings 2004 does not change the 3d-models.Download available so far only from vacc-fin.net, fssuomi.net and fsnordic.net.

I forgot to mention that when using FinnBuildings 2004, it is highly recommended that the user removes default.xml, the file that generates churches and other autogen objects apart from the fundamental autogen buildings (BLDA2 and BLDA3).And FISD's own website URL is: http://fisd.fsnordic.net

Very nice!!

Has anyone installed this yet and what are your findings?

I assume this product is only for FS2004, correct? Or can it be used with FS202 as well?Stamatis

You can use it with FS2002 as well, however the texture BLDA3 is not available in FS2002, so you will not have all those buildings (only those shown in the screenshots above).Below are links to 2 uploaded pictures. The first one includes BLDA2-buildings, those will all also show up in FS2002. The second image includes most BLDA3-buildings, only available in FS2004.

I have it installed and find a vast improved over the default appearance of buildings. Although the Readme mentions that they represented more accurately Finland, Sweden and German buildings I feel quite at home using them here in Canada.Using the high res version and no FPS effect that I can notice. I will respect their request that folks refrain from posting their own screenshots as the screenshots included in the zipfile accurately represent the improvement FS2004 FinnBuildings make. FS2004Win XP2.8 GHzRadeon 9800XT (4.1):-beerchug

>I have it installed and find a vast improved over the default>appearance of buildings. Although the Readme mentions that>they represented more accurately Finland, Sweden and German>buildings I feel quite at home using them here in Canada.Using>the high res version and no FPS effect that I can notice. I>will respect their request that folks refrain from posting>their own screenshots as the screenshots included in the>zipfile accurately represent the improvement FS2004>FinnBuildings make. >FS2004>Win XP>2.8 GHz>Radeon 9800XT (4.1)>>>:-beerchug Hi beerchug,I'm glad the textures seem to represent your Canadian architecture as well! In the readme I was just referring to the places I've visited and have personal experience of, and that I know for sure has an architectual style that quite well is represented in FinnBuildings 2004.And of course you do not see any FPS drops. The texture size, the texture format - everything like that is just like default. And then there is of course the low res version, that is even lighter than the default textures.Areas that I'm sure this package does not really make come to life as they do in IRL is for example Southern Europe (French Riviera, Spain etc.), where there is a more different style in general regarding architecture.Everyone of course have their own thoughts. What made me create this addon, was that I disliked the half-cartoonish default building textures, and I could not find any photoreal set that also looked like it was part of the sim. For me it was very important to find a colour balance that made the addon melt well together with the rest of the landscape.And please, if you were up to posting some screenshots, just do it. :()

Very nice. I will use this package when I fly in northern Europe and Canada. Now if someone would make some textures for Pacific NW and Socal...BTW if you buy the France VFR scenery you get a nice set of replacement autogen textures that work well in France, Spain, maybe Italy and Greece.

Being in the UK, I do a lot of IFR flights around Europe, and I must say that these new textures are FAR better than the default... :) Flying into Munich for example is a great place to see these new textures. They may be based more on Finnish architecture, but they fit very well also into German styles of building, and also with the whole Alpine area.FSNordic's website has some terrific add-ons...some of the airports have to be seen to be believed: Rovaniemi (Santa's airport) is a superb example; I was intrigued when I saw an article in the recent Airliners World magazine and found this example available....it looks just like the photo's in the mag!! Very atmospheric...even down to your aircraft (my chosen: Air2000 757) sliding a little on the icy taxiways :)

Hmm, I just wonder how they would look in Michigan, USA... :)Regards, Steve

Steve: I've travelled through the "Wolverine State" and I don't think you'd be disappointed.:-wave Gary

I think that partly these new textures will work also in the US, I'm especially thinking of some of the taller buildings. As the small buildings' models are so "funky" in FS, it doesn't give much possibilities for those who do addon textures to end up with nice looking small buildings (detached houses). Also, I think the small buildings are the ones that have textures that the least works in the US, as there is for instance not a single Victorian style house in sight. :()In one of the posts above I included a picture that shows almost all building models included. Steve and other who aren't sure what the set will look like in the sim, can take a look at that screenshot, perhaps it will give you some guidelines.The utopia would be if we had possibilities to change the model types, but as that seems to be hard-coded in the sim, we have to cope with seeing one "funky" roof style after the other!! :()