So I'm in the market for UK scenery and was doing some research.

 

ORBX UK scenery (http://www.flightsim...roducts_id=2211)

-- seems to cause problems with other products like GEX Europe and US (Autogen issues) but does look very nice

 

GEX Europe (already have this installed)

-- not photo realistic but still very nice

 

VFR scenery (http://www.justfligh...fr-real-scenery)

-- 10m resolution, blurry

 

Horizon VFR scenery (http://www.flightsto...cenery-fsx-c544)

-- 60cm source with 1.2m

 

I'm leaning towards Horizon's Volumes 1-10, but would like to get opinions.

 

Thanks, Rob.

From that list, absolutely Horizon's scenery, provided you like photographic scenery, of course. If not, from what I've read, the ORBX scenery would be a good bet.

Apples and oranges, really... Orbx scenery can't be compared with photoreal (and the other way around). Quite often you like one and don't like the other. Orbx focuses on getting the mood right, using landclass and autogen, while Horizon simply shows photographs of what is out there. The first looks good at all altitudes but you won't be able to find your home on it, while the latter looks only good at 3500 and above (making takeoff and landing a bit odd) and you will be able to find your home on it, provided it has been build before the pictures were taken. ^_^

 

Anyway, the differences between landclass based scenery and photoreal are so big that they can't be compared imho. Just like having various kinds of planes, you might buy both Orbx and Horizon and use the one that suits your kind of flying on that moment.

Don't hesitate any more. Horizons is superb.

 

And while your at it, get Gary Simmons UK2000Scenery Extreme airports and VFR Airports.

 

You'll be in VFR Utopia!

 

Richard.

 

p,s. I get good visuals at 2000 AGL

I have both ORBX and Horizon. But after trying ORBX after a while, I got to much OOMS with it. I know its my fault, sliders, lots of AI planes, etc. But I want a stable FSX and don't want to reduce my settings before every flight. However I was quite impressed by ORBX.

 

With Horizon you got the 'real thing' , and with earthsimulations Threescape, it made my photoscenery comes more to life. I'm pleased with it.

 

 

 

ORBX runs very nice and is convincing (even though Im not a masive fan of it) I use it if im flying anything except VFR.

 

If you want to fly VFR and use charts etc go for Horizon (which I pref) BUT your FPS wont be as high as ORBX.

 

ORBX (IMO) has better mesh.

 

If your a non UK based flyer ORBX would be your best choice, just dont expect it to put roads, towns, citys and villages in the right places or the right sizes.

 

Pays your money and takes your choice I guess!

 

Rich

If you want to fly VFR and use charts etc go for Horizon (which I pref) BUT your FPS wont be as high as ORBX.

 

 

Er... really...? Usually photoreal gives you better performance, mainly due to the lack of autogen... It's the first time I heard someone say Orbx performs better then photoreal! ^_^

 

BTW Orbx does put roads in the right places, but of course not ALL roads like photoreal obviously does. Towns, cities and villages are more or less ar the right location with Orbx, at least that's the idea, but indeed of course not exactly (the initial release ad quite some errors in that regard, so I am told).

 

About the mesh: Orbx mesh may be better because the addon comes with its own mesh: Horizon is textures only, so default mesh. I have to add though that mesh isn't as important in England as it would be in Switzerland or Norway... ^_^

The first looks good at all altitudes but you won't be able to find your home on it, while the latter looks only good at 3500 and above (making takeoff and landing a bit odd)

 

I would disagree that you have to be above 3500 feet. I reckon that the photoscenery looks good at 2000 feet, and even lower if you are flying over fields and hills. It's the urban textures (as always) that look a bit "rough" at very low altitudes, but I would argue that this is the case whether you are using photographic or landclass scenery.

 

As for mesh resolution, PlayHorizon's VFR GenX scenery is 5 metres. I don't think that ORBx England is any better than that....

ORBX (IMO) has better mesh.

 

Actually no it doesn't, Horizons included mesh is 5 Metre resolution and is based off the best mesh data available and it is smoothed as well to remove any amphitheatre type stepping on slopes. ORBX's mesh is 10 metre resolution i.e. half the detail. Horizon were using the same mesh over 6 years ago when they first released the VFR Photo scenery. Except back then the mesh wasn't smoothed as well, the smoothing didn't come till a couple of years ago with version 2 (I think).

Andy ... I did say it was IMO ... ORBX's mesh isnt as real as far as Horizon's but from the air ORBX's better matches real world 'visual look' (IMO as a real world pilot who knows my area).

 

Horizon's 0.6m higher def photo does impact on FPS on my machine and i have seen many coments on ORBX's England scenery pushing out 60FPS below 2,500ft, not bad with 3d models and other autogen as well.

 

I pref photo scenery but only use ORBX cuz it runs better, quicker and does not take ages to load up.

 

Like all these things its down to the users taste and what they want. Hope one day we will get photo with real 3D buildings correctly placed autogen

one day we will get photo with real 3D buildings correctly placed autogen

That would be ESI - http://www.earthsimulations.com/index.html Shawbury Fields, Scilly Isles Guernsey etc

Highly recommended.

Cheers

Keith

Horizon's VFR Photographic scenery looks beautiful from 2000 ft AGL and up, although over built up areas you may want to be a little higher. Framerates are good (probably owing to the lack of autogen) although it can stutter occasionally when loading new textures.The accuracy is obviously unbeatable and I've had much fun flying VFR with it, spotting landmarks and VRPs, which I've found impossible in Orbx. For mesh, you can't beat that included with Horizon's product, it's spot on; I fly VFR over the Peak District a lot (IRL too), and I notice many of the gritstone edges are lacking in definition or just plain missing in Orbx.

 

The biggest problem is it goes blurry in the distance or when changing views, and it looks pretty awful when using external views at higher altitudes (FL150 and up). Oh and eats up a megaton of hard disk space. Lack of seasons can prove to ruin the immersion a little too. I would highly recommend you get UK2000 VFR airfields, which is a veritable bargain. EarthSim's Treescapes is worth having too, even if it is pricey addition for what it is. And they all play nicely with GEX and UTX (i.e. no conflicts).

 

Orbx strength lies in not being "flat" because of the full autogen, which makes for more immersive landings.

It's much more resistant to blurries and looks better at high altitude - oh and you get seasons too. Coastal cliff areas look cleaner in Orbx as well. Framerates are less than Horizon+Treescapes but it's generally smooth, loads quicker and uses a lot less hard disk space. And it's a damn sight cheaper to boot.

 

So to summarise:

• If you fly lots of jets within England or have a shoestring budget, get Orbx (or even just the European versions of UTX and GEX, perhaps Scotflight too)
  
• If you're in props, get Horizon's VFR package and then UK2000 VFR airfields. Possibly Treescapes, if you are flush with cash and doing lot of low-level flying in the UK. If you get everything it's going to cost from £150(!), and the basic 3 volume photo setup is still over £50.
  

Hi,

 

There’s no contest, the Horizon/Playsims scenery beats the Orbx hands down, if you also use Earthsimulations Treescapes packages and UK2000 airfields, both available here:

 

http://earthsimulations.com/

 

I know Orbx is popular, but their UK scenery just does not look right to me (and I live there) The Horizon scenery looks stunning to me, even at 1000 feet or less.

 

Oh yes, I forgot to mention Scotflight!

 

Regards,

 

Ian.

This is interesting. I have never bought any photo real package, but this give me some thoughts. Just curious, I thought that ORBX scenery is for low altitude flying? What is the point of using it for Jet? UTX and GEX does a good job of giving you accurate roads and coastline, and they use much less resource than ORBX too.

And while your at it, get Gary Simmons UK2000Scenery Extreme airports and VFR Airports.

 

Do you know if Gary has Popham airfield for VFR?

 

My existing GEX Europe looks pretty good, but since I've lived in the UK for a while (many years ago) I wanted some real reference points. ORBX looked very good also but I saw many posts of people having problems with ORBX when combine with other non-ORBX products.

 

Thanks for all the input everyone, under careful consideration I went with Horizon.

 

Cheers, Rob