Hello all. I'm looking for some photorealistic scenery add-ons for the UK for FSX. I mainly want this to aid VFR navigation at low levels (2000 feet, etc.) My first inclination was to go for the traditional GEX/UTX pairing, as this was the popular choice, but then others tell me it isn't a huge improvement for the UK. Anybody got any suggestions as to what I should go for? One other suggestion was UK2000 - thoughts? I'm quite happy to invest in payware, but if there's any good freeware around then even better!

 

Oh, and whilst you're here, any thoughts on the UK2000 airports packs, too?

 

Thanks very much!

Hello all. I'm looking for some photorealistic scenery add-ons for the UK for FSX. I mainly want this to aid VFR navigation at low levels (2000 feet, etc.) My first inclination was to go for the traditional GEX/UTX pairing, as this was the popular choice, but then others tell me it isn't a huge improvement for the UK. Anybody got any suggestions as to what I should go for? One other suggestion was UK2000 - thoughts? I'm quite happy to invest in payware, but if there's any good freeware around then even better!

 

Oh, and whilst you're here, any thoughts on the UK2000 airports packs, too?

 

Thanks very much!

 

'Real VFR' (just flight?) and 'UK VFR Generation X' (which is playhorizon/UK2000's scenery) are both about equally good, GenX tends to have brighter textures, and of course has the night lighting that RealVFR doesn't have, but Real has the better shorelines iirc. Deciding between them is pretty much personal taste...

 

This video...

 

 

shows a decent comparision of the two, and might help you decide.

 

With the v3 update, genX has some extra realism for the chosen city areas, which is a useful thing.

 

Personally, I went with Genx, but both products do a great job, and you can genuinely VFR navigate with a rudimentry knowledge of the area.

Zack,

 

I generally fly no higher than 3000 feet, and I fly exclusively in the UK. That being the case, I can recommend the following......

 

PlayHorizon VFR Generation X Version 3 (England and Wales photoscenery)

PlayHorizon VFR Scotland South, Western Isles, Orkneys & Shetland Isles

UK2000 Xtreme Airports

UK2000 VFR Airfields (Volumes 1-3)

Earth Simulations TreeScapes (England, Wales, and southern Scotland)

Scotflight Western Isles, Orkneys & Shetland Isles (upgraded airports and landmarks; Scotland South upgrade is imminent)

Earth Simulations Alderney, Guernsey, Isles of Scilly, and Shawbury Fields (Isle of Man is imminent)

FSX Power Project freeware (electricity pylons, wind turbines, power stations etc).

 

This isn't cheap, but I can recommend every single one of these. In particular, make sure that you purchase the PlayHorizon VFR GenX3 photoscenery (rather than the Just Flight VFR Real scenery). It has a lot more contrast, a higher resolution terrain mesh, and the water masks alone are worth the asking price; these enable you to see sandbars and other features under shallow water).

 

I now have complete coverage of England and Wales with photoscenery, trees, and airfields. Scotland is under construction, but you can guarantee that I will purchase the lot when it becomes available!

I use Just Flight's VFR photorealistic stuff, it's okay, but it is definitely improved by adding Earth Simulation's Treescapes, (which you have to do manually bacause there is no auto-installer for the JF photo stuff, only the Horizon stuff, although it is just a case of dragging and dropping). I also use Ultimate Terrain Europe with it, since that improves the night lighting.

 

UK2000 make the best UK airport sceneries, their big airports are very accurate and well detailed, and some of their VFR airfield sets are nice too if you want a lot of smaller airfields for not much cash.

 

Al

PlayHorizon VFR Generation X Version 3 (England and Wales photoscenery)

UK2000 Xtreme Airports

Earth Simulations TreeScapes (England, Wales, and southern Scotland)

 

I have this lot and am very pleased with them, though I tend to fly jets over 3000ft. It's a vast improvement over GEX Europe textures.

And do have a look through these also....many, many, worthwhile additions :-

 

http://www.freewarescenery.com/fsx/uk.html ....and yes they can sit above the Photo layers.

And do have a look through these also....many, many, worthwhile additions :-

 

http://www.freewares...com/fsx/uk.html ....and yes they can sit above the Photo layers.

 

 

MMmmm seem to have a topic duplicated

Zack,

 

I generally fly no higher than 3000 feet, and I fly exclusively in the UK. That being the case, I can recommend the following......

 

PlayHorizon VFR Generation X Version 3 (England and Wales photoscenery)

PlayHorizon VFR Scotland South, Western Isles, Orkneys & Shetland Isles

UK2000 Xtreme Airports

UK2000 VFR Airfields (Volumes 1-3)

Earth Simulations TreeScapes (England, Wales, and southern Scotland)

Scotflight Western Isles, Orkneys & Shetland Isles (upgraded airports and landmarks; Scotland South upgrade is imminent)

Earth Simulations Alderney, Guernsey, Isles of Scilly, and Shawbury Fields (Isle of Man is imminent)

FSX Power Project freeware (electricity pylons, wind turbines, power stations etc).

 

This isn't cheap, but I can recommend every single one of these. In particular, make sure that you purchase the PlayHorizon VFR GenX3 photoscenery (rather than the Just Flight VFR Real scenery). It has a lot more contrast, a higher resolution terrain mesh, and the water masks alone are worth the asking price; these enable you to see sandbars and other features under shallow water).

 

I now have complete coverage of England and Wales with photoscenery, trees, and airfields. Scotland is under construction, but you can guarantee that I will purchase the lot when it becomes available!

 

Sorry to bring back an old thread but the addons Chris was talking about are exactly what i was thinking about. Chris i was just wondering how much space on your hard drive the addons you have take up as i was thinking about getting a dedicated FSX hard drive or SSD myself, either this http://www.amazon.co...M/dp/B002MQC0P8 or this http://www.amazon.co...ASIN=B004W2JL2A

 

Si.

Hello

I have GenX 1-3 plus the Hi res cities update and the two Eire volumes + treescapes and it is 137 gb on disk, the new south scotland will be quite large I would imagine given the higher resolution.

Thanks for that mad dog, lots of gb's there i'm thinking maybe the SSD but then again...

 

Si.

...inround figures...Vol 8 = 54GB, Vol 6 = 31GB.

I will see if I can calculate the total hard drive space required for all of the addons that I have installed, plus VFR6 Scotland North and Treescapes Scotland North (which I will be purchasing this week).

Time for a Main-Frame perhaps.

I have the Horizen UK vol 1,2 and 3. I also have London city and city airport. I have checked out the UK2000 airports.

 

This time, on my new build, I installed only the vol 1. I flew further north to the Vol 2 area and actually prefered the default FSX scenery... The autogens of the default more then made up for the staid photoscenery..,.I thought.

 

But I am considering Earth Simulations treescapes.

 

I also got Earth Simulations Alderney. Alderney is very nice...but the airport has default runway and taxiway textures.. and I just can't get myself to land on those crappy runway textures... Too bad. this is like a major scar on a pretty face. :)

 

 

Manny

Treescapes makes a massive difference to the staid look of photoscenery IMO. It's in towns and cities at low level where it falls over a bit, but I mainly fly tubeliners, in which case it looks really good.