Folks

 

I'm looking for a general scenery package to spruce up the overall free of my FS9. There is FScene, which seems to cover the world for not much cost. Are there any others you'd recommend? Even if they cover just the US and Europe I'd be interested.

 

Thanks

 

 

Mike

OK.... FS Genesis happened to be having a sale, like 70% off, so got the Europe and CONUS meshes (will be downloading for days...). Would FScene go on top of that, or does it become unnecessary?

OK.... FS Genesis happened to be having a sale, like 70% off, so got the Europe and CONUS meshes (will be downloading for days...). Would FScene go on top of that, or does it become unnecessary?

They are two different products.

FSGenesis is a mesh product,whereas FScene is global texture replacement.

Therefore you could get both.Or you could get GE for textures and the add UT,

so you would have FSGenesis/GE/UT,for a complete overhaul

And then of course you could add REX which will enhance clouds/water/weather,etc.

 

Cheers.

Thanks, that's what I thought. I'm thinking for ~$25 can't go wrong with FScene... Then again... I just looked at GE & UT... Might make it a longer term project and do it properly.

Hi.

 

Thanks, that's what I thought. I'm thinking for ~$25 can't go wrong with FScene... Then again... I just looked at GE & UT... Might make it a longer term project and do it properly.

 

That's what I'd recommend. FScene will replace your default ground textures with something much more convincing. At the right altitude it can almost fool you into believing the trees, hedges and buildings are 3d.

 

I don't have GE so I can't comment, but a quick look at Flight1's web page for Ground Environment suggests it does something similar to FScene, so one or the other is likely to be redundant.

 

If you are still using FS9 in its default state a mesh is indispensible to place real mountains where the default has smoothly rolling hills. FS Genesis is a good product though it does have gaps, mostly small and obscure islands. Their topography tends not to show in any case as Microsoft made the coastlines with a little offset so obscuring the real shape of the ground.

 

Ultimate Terrain will add accurate roads, rivers and railways, and realign the coastlines in the area you buy so that they match whichever mesh you bought. I think UT also redraws a lot of cities in the correct shape- a big improvement on the default concentric rings.

 

If you don't have any yet, consider obtaining an AI upgrade like Ultimate Traffic. Real planes at your airports, flying real schedules, make a huge difference.

 

Finally, there are masses of free packages of a quality to match, and in some cases exceed, any payware.

 

Regards,

D

Hi Mike

I have or have had in the past, all of the products mentioned here. With the exception of GEPro and REX, each of which is a "must-have" in my view, all of them have some pluses and minuses.

 

Addon mesh - FSGenesis is excellent - will give your terrain a much more realistic look by adding new layers to the underlying mesh that gives you terrain contours. You'll have real mountains instead of bumps etc. BUT there are some problems.

1. It will conflict with a number of addon airports which are designed to fit the default terrain. In some cases, it totally ruins the look of them.

2. It will leave you in certain places with odd "sinkholes" and their equally odd opposites, "pinnacles" with flat tops sticking up out of nowhere.

3. You will see rivers and roads running vertically up and down steep hills or along cliff faces.

I own a large number of FSGenesis mesh products but when I did a recent reinstall I elected to only use a few of them where I knew they wouldn't cause problems. I would use them all if I could, but I decided in many cases the minuses outweighed the positives. But that's a judgement call.

 

Texture replacements. FSScene is very good but I think you get more with GEPro. Either is a good investment

 

Ultimate Terrain - three products, Europe, Canada-Alaska and USA. This will dramatically improve scenery realism with fairly accurate coastlines, rivers, roads, placement of cities and towns etc. A few weeks ago I flew from Philadelphia International and UT USA meant I was able to follow a series of landmarks (roads and rivers mostly, but also a nuclear power plant) until I got to where I live. It wasn't perfect of course, but it was recognizable. BUT once again, there are minuses. Like addon mesh, it doesn't always synchronize well with other addons and you may end up with unwanted features spoiling the look of some of your expensive and beloved addon airports.

 

My personal advice - if you want the best value for your money to really improve the look of FS9. go with these products in this order of "value" -

1. REX (If you don't have it, you have no idea how good FS9 can look)

2. FSUIPC Registered version. This may sound strange, but it will do wonders for the way the sim renders visibility, cloud layers etc.

3. GEPro - will give you far better looking ground textures...

4. Active Sky --- REX will give you a weather engine but most of us prefer AS

 

 

If you have invested significantly in add-on airports, proceed with caution with addon mesh and Ultimate Terrain. You will love the overall look - but there will be problems as I said earlier

 

There are a few scenery packages that are completely integrated - textures, mesh, landclass etc. They will give you the best of all worlds as everything has been tested to make sure it all works together. These show what FS9 could have looked like if the time and money had been invested to "get it right"

 

FlightZone 2 Portland - will give you an extensive area of scenery surrounding Portland, Oregon and outstanding custom airports, especially KPDX and several equally outstanding GA airports. FS9 doesn't get any more realistic than this.

 

Megascenery - will give you custom mesh and photorealistic textures for a given area. My personal favorite is Oahu, Hawaii but I have all of them and they are all good and have only very rare issues with addons, and there are available fixes for all those problems

 

There are plenty of others to recommend but this post is long enough already! :rolleyes:

 

Hope this helps

Ian

...also...

 

..don't forget VOZ 1.8 (FREE to we FS 2004'ers!)...>>> http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/files/file/502-voz-18-complete/

 

..for all the lovely, selectable, seasonal textures and colours, at different seasons, and different parts of the World.!

 

Well worth a place in our FS 2004 Flight Sim... B) ...!

 

Paul...FS 2004+ FS Nav......and VOZ 1.8.... :biggrin: ...!

If you do decide to go for FSGenisis mesh, now is the time to buy it. It's currently on sale at a 70% discount. You are unlikely to get a better deal any time soon

Cheers

Ian

Look for Howard's Mix here in the Avsim library it's pretty good too

Thanks all. I got a download manager first of all, which has paid for itself already in the lowering of the frustration level! I have a number of airport sceneries for FSX, and I just don't use them enough, so I'm going to stick to default a lot of the time. So clashes there aren't an issue, as long as the default ones aren't screwed up as well. I know REX and Active Sky from the other sim. It gives me plenty to work on. Thanks again.

 

Mike

hi every one

 

I purchased Rex and GE pro,, but how can I use them at the same time.

when I tried to open fs9 from the Rex it gave like an error.

You can open FS9 from REX or GE Pro but it's not necessary to do so. I would recommend running GE Pro first to set the ground textures you want and then close it. Run REX to set the textures you want for all the many features of FS9 it covers and then close it. Then run FS9 the usual way. Opening FS9 from either one is an option, but isn't necessary. You might want to consider using Active Sky for your weather control. That interfaces with GE Pro and will set the GE textures to suit the actual weather conditions and you can then start FS9 from AS

thanks a lot , but I also noticed that London scenery is

not 100% correct ie no Hydepark

thanks a lot , but I also noticed that London scenery is

not 100% correct ie no Hydepark

 

....its probably "Hyding" somewhere!....Boom-boom.... :lol: ...!

 

Paul... :Bug: ...!