Mesh and Terrain

[Stelios 11]

Guys

What is the difference between Mesh and Terrain? If for example i want to make Europe scenery (or any other region) look more realistic, do you have to find an application (add- on) for each one or you can do it both. Which one is the best at the moment for Europe or the world?

 

Stelios

[fs4fun 366]

Mesh defines the ground elevations. Upgraded mesh will give more accurate and well-defined peaks and valleys, instead of mountains looking like a smooth bump on the ground it will look more like a real mountain.

 

Terrain usually refers to the base grid of landclass and also vector data which defines hydro polygons, rivers, roads, shorelines, power lines, railroads etc. Some products give you only landclass, and others like UTX include both landclass and vector data.

 

The last part which you did not mention is textures. Based on the land or water class, FSX applies textures to the ground and blends them together. Textures also define what autogen (3D buildings, trees and other models) will be used. If you upgrade the textures they will look sharper and more detailed. GEX and the upcoming FTX Global are examples of texture products.

 

If you use upgraded mesh without upgraded terrain data, you can end up with lakes on plateaus or in deep pits. The same can happen to airports.

 

In Europe I just started using FSGenesis Nextmap, UTX and GEX. I expect there are some plateau problems with stock airports but so far this combination looks good to me.

[Stelios 11]

Banny

 

Thank you so much for explaining to me all of the above.I am in the process to buy mesh/terrain and textures for Europe.

Can you buy one package that contains all of these or buy them separably and you may recommend some if you can.I am thinking in buying FSX NEXTMap Europe Bundle from FS Genesis. Will this package contain mesh, terrain and textures in one package for the whole of Europe?

 

 

 

stelios.

[scott967 62]

I would note that "mesh" is part of the terrain system. The terrain system is designed to provide a high level of detail near the viewer, with lesser detail as the view recedes in the distance. The mesh is used to create the surface geometry, and textures are then created from landclass data and local feature data to provide the finished surfaces. The quality (accuracy and resolution) of both the geometry mesh data and the texture data determine the final realism as seen in the sim. So for the highest fidelity terrain you need to consider both the mesh and the texture data used in the sim (and since the terrain is synthesized at runtime, the ability of your hardware to cope with the computing requirements is a limiting factor in the fidelity regardless of the source data provided in the sim).

 

scott s.

.

[mosteen 111]

I use FSGlobal Ultimate for mesh, UTX for terrain/landclass and GEX for textures. I have all regions that are available for all three products, makes the FSX-world so much better. FSGlobal also include flattening data for airports that are sunk/raised.

[Stelios 11]

I have just realized (stubit me) that I have bought from Flight one the Ultimate Terrain X Europe for Microsoft Flight Simulator X

but I did not noticed any big changes in the mesh side of things that is why I am thinking in buyng the FSX NEXTMap Europe Bundle from FS Genesis. I f I do does this mean that I have to uninstall the Ultimate Terrain x Europe?

 

stelios

[mosteen 111]

I dont think it is a problem to install a mesh after terrain/landclass or textures, as long as the mess is ordered lowest in the library

[woodhick 504]

I dont think it is a problem to install a mesh after terrain/landclass or textures, as long as the mess is ordered lowest in the library

 

Mesh will usually self install in the appropriate location and folder, etc. Doing a normal install is almost never a problem with location and order/level in any libraries. Mesh can be installed before or after any other scenery products.

[Stelios 11]

So then, do you think that buying the FSX NEXTMap Europe Bundle from FS Genesis is worthy?

[Dirk98 354]

I wonder which one (FSGlobal Ultimate or FSGenesis NEXTMap) has less problems with add-on airports and areas? Which one is higher resolution in NA and Europe?

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

[xplanery 250]

Im pretty sure you can't go wrong with FSGenesis NEXTMAP for Europe and then their US 10m mesh, I'm pretty sure there isn't any higher quality data available for these areas.

[woodhick 504]

My FSG is several years old and the only real problems I've ever seen with airports are those related to FSX and its' usual hash of elevations and "aircraft carrier" landforms for smaller airfields. I'd suspect that any worries about elevations and airports as related to any high quality mesh programming might be somewhat academic.

[Dirk98 354]

Im pretty sure you can't go wrong with FSGenesis NEXTMAP for Europe and then their US 10m mesh, I'm pretty sure there isn't any higher quality data available for these areas.

 

Yes, I'll have to buy FSGenesis then.

 

Thanks,

Dirk.

[fs4fun 366]

Can you buy one package that contains all of these or buy them separably and you may recommend some if you can.I am thinking in buying FSX NEXTMap Europe Bundle from FS Genesis. Will this package contain mesh, terrain and textures in one package for the whole of Europe?

 

I wish you could buy it all in one package. There are scenery packages that are all in one from Orbx but the only part of Europe they sell is England. Also, covering all of Europe with Orbx scenery would be expensive.

 

I use FSGenesis Nextmap bundle, which is on sale right now, look for the coupon code on their home page. It is mesh only, and it's best used combined with addons for upgraded terrain and textures such as UTX and GEX.

[woodhick 504]

I've never heard of being able to buy everything in one neat bundle. Nice idea though. As noted above FSG is mesh only.