Question on MSEv2

[1Wolf 7]

I was thinking about purchasing one of the MSEv2 states to try it out. I'm normally not a big fan of photoscenery because I do alot of low and slow GA flying. However, I've been following a couple of the threads here on it and marvelling at some of the screenshots Firehawk44 posted. They looked perfect for jet flights. I plan on doing some flights over the coming weeks that are much higher altitude and much faster (military jets) than I normally fly so I thought it might be a good opportunity to try out some of the MSE scenery.

 

Most of the opinions and such that I might want to read can be found in the other threads, however I do have a question that I haven't read elsewhere. Its probably elementary for others that are more experienced with different scenery and how they work in FSX than me.

 

I'm currently using UTX/GEX/REX Textures for runways, taxiways, etc.

 

Is it possible to install MSE and activate/deactivate it at will? What I'm hoping for is the ability on a Tuesday to choose to use it, on a wednesday decide I want to go back to using my GEX/UTX/REX for some low and slow flying, then on Thursday do another high alt flight in a jet and use MSE again. You know how ORBX has the "switch" you can flip in FTX Central...does MSE have anything like that? I'm just afraid I'd have to copy a ton of gigs of photoscenery into FSX every time I use it, and then pull it back out every time I want to go back the way it was. I'm also concerned that the install of MSE might leave some sort of 'footprint' behind after installed so that even when I'm not using it, its affecting my FPS and such. What would be ideal for me would be if I could activate/deactivate it at will..and when its inactive...its like it was never there at all.

 

Will there be any sort of conflicts/problems with my UTX/GEX/REX? Or will I need to deactivate that stuff to use the MSE?

 

The only time I'd be using the MSE would be for military aircraft flights here and there. But the majority of the time I'd be flying low & slow GA and I'd like to stick to UTX/GEX/REX for that...as I enjoy the winter textures.

 

Thanks!

[Guest]

I use GEX/REX and have ALL MSE products (yes every single one) ... if you don't want to use MSE, just disable it (checkbox) via the Scenery library option in FSX. If you have any 3rd party Airports, just make sure they are a higher priority in the Scenery library.

 

Be aware that some of the early MSE (not the V2) actually have autogen so you get the best of both worlds.

[1Wolf 7]

Thanks Robains.

 

I just picked up MSEv2 Florida so I'll give that a shot. Thank you for the tips and advice.

 

Do you happen to use UTX as well? How about FS Global Ultimate? If so, do you place MSE above or below UTX and/or FS Global Ultimate in the Scenery Library?

 

Also, with regards to the Add On Third Party airports you mentioned....

 

I've never purchased a third party airport, however, I do have "Combat Pilot Series" from Saitek which I believe does indeed come with third party airports. However, I don't see them specifically listed as scenery in my scenery library. Could those be collectively contained in the "Add On Scenery" entry of the Scenery Library? Should I make sure the "Add On Scenery" is about MSE in the Scenery Library?

 

Thanks!

[Guest]

I don't use UTX. I had FS Global but uninstalled it as I prefer GEX.

 

I usually order my Scenery Library like this:

 

Airports (top)

Photo Scenery (2nd)

FSX default and everything else (3rd)

 

Not an absolute, but that a rough idea.

 

Some scenery will just install into a directory (of your choice) ... you'll need remember where. Then you can go into the Scenery Library (in FSX) and add the area by navigating to the directory where the scenery was installed. There is a bug in FSX around Win7 where you have make sure to click in the white space to select the scenery directory (MSE FAQ details this problem and how to work around it).

 

As far as Saitek scenery, you'll have to check with them ... I'm not familiar with their Combat Pilot Series.

[1Wolf 7]

Gotcha. Thanks.

 

I don't use UTX. I had FS Global but uninstalled it as I prefer GEX.

 

I'm so used to seeing folks use UTX along side of GEX my eyeballs just assumed they had seen "UTX" in your post beside GEX

 

I'm a bit confused by the above statement though as I was under the impression that FS Global and GEX do two different things. Isn't GEX replacement autogen and such...but no terrain mesh....while FS Global is just terrain mesh data? (More detailed elevation data).

 

If I'm wrong...I may need to uninstall FS Global as well because I already have GEX installed and I like it. My understanding of alot of this is at a novice level....but I was under the impression that UTX made sure things like rivers, streams, and roads were in the right place and adjusted positioning of things...as well as some texture stuff like for water, and roads. GEX was replacement textures for fields, and buildings, and autogen stuff. FS Global was terrain mesh that added more accurate elevation data so that mountains, hills, and canyons looked more detailed. I'm still working on learning this stuff and getting my FSX the way I like it...so I might be way off.

 

With regards to my scenery library...I didn't mess with it at all. Its in the order the installers put them in. I've got all the UTX stuff at the top, followed by the FS Global stuff, followed by the default stuff. I just need to figure where the MSE should fit into that so that.

 

With regards to those Combat Pilot airports...those all installed into my "Add On Scenery" folder which is in the "Middle" of my scenery library. Should I move "Add On Scenery" to the top? Any idea where folks usually have "Add On Scenery" positioned?

[Guest]

Oops, sorry, my mistake ... probably doing too many things at the same time while posting. I prefer photo scenery (I have all the MSE and Horizon UK products) so didn't get UTX and FS Global's terrain mesh doesn't always work well with photoscenery. I'll eventually get UTX ... sadly I'm running out of space on my primary SSD's (1.5TB worth of SSDs and 80% of that is all FSX/P3D/XP10)

 

I don't know the Combat Pilot Series, but be aware that because a product "installs" scenery doesn't mean it's added to the scenery.cfg ... some packages require you to go into the Scenery Library in FSX and manually add the area. If the install does add the area for you, then they are almost always in the top priority (which is what you may or may not want).

 

So to answer your question, Yes, you'll want to move "Add On Scenery" above MSE if you want to see the Combat Series stuff. Did you have an option to install the Saitek Combat Series scenery into a different folder during the install process? I prefer to keep all my scenery in their own folders across multiple drives.

[Jim Young 2,356]

GEX replaces your default textures. They were optimized and are better performing than the default textures. They are better looking too (in most cases). GEX is not loaded in your Scenery Library therefore, GEX textures will only render when you are in default territories. If you have MSE V2 running, then GEX textures will not show until you fly out of Florida into a State that just uses default textures. It could be in the ocean too. If you fly out of Florida into the Atlantic, you will see GEX rendered textures. When I had UTX installed, I placed every UTX item (in the same order as installed) down in the Scenery Library just above Propeller Objects and it worked very well. If you have it at the top of your Scenery Library, then you could have problems with layering. I was told by one of the developers that this could never happen as the information regarding UTX is placed in the Terrain.cfg and that has precedence. But, I would still put it down just above Propeller Objects. GEX also improved some of the textures and autogen from UTX. There are some here who have had problems with MSE V2 and UTX but believe it was caused by UTX being above the MSE stuff. I would place an AI program like MyTrafficX (which contains airport scenery so the AI can take off and land) down in the Scenery Library just below UTX or just above Propeller Objects. I apologize I know absolutely nothing about FS Global but, depending on where it is layered in the Scenery Library, you could have problems. If it is on the top, what's it going to tell the scenery below it to do? Robains it absolutely correct regarding layering in the Scenery Library. Horizen UK of course will not work in the US areas. The Addon Scenery folder should be placed just above UTX in the Scenery Library. Then MSE stuff then individual airports like FSDT, FlyTampa stuff. You won't go wrong.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[1Wolf 7]

Thanks guys!

 

That helps alot. I actually had another thread on here asking questions about the Scenery Library that went unanswered so I'm really glad you guys hopped in here and helped me out.

 

I've got my scenery library configured now the way you specified so I'll try that out this weekend and see how it works for me.

 

A further question directly related to MSEv2...

 

I watched the MSEv2 Florida video from the MSE website and in my first tests of MSEv2 Florida, along the coast down by Pensacola, I noticed my water doesn't look ANYTHING like the video. The water in the video has turquoise spots along the shore, you can see sand and sand bars, seagrass, coral, etc. It has a much more "tropical" look that I'd expect of Florida. On the other hand, my own is just solid dark blue ocean water right up to the shore. Its very "nice" dark blue water with a nice REX wave animation....but its just that....deep dark blue water all the way right up to the shore. There are no turquoise spots, no sand bars, no coral...it doesn't look "real" and it sort of does a bit of an injustice to the rest of the photoscenery.

 

Should mine look like the video on the MSE website?

 

Any idea what I might have done wrong to rob me of the nice coastlines and shallower turquoise water there?

 

Could it be REX causing me the issues? Should I disable UTX?

 

I also get the "Banding" on the coastlines, and in my own searching here on AVSIM I've found another thread about that....so I'm wondering if UTX might be causing my loss or tropical water too? But I'd think if that was from UTX...other people would say the same.

 

Also...

 

Do you guys turn OFF Autogen or anything when using MSEv2 or do you leave it on so that you have "populated" terrain for when your aircraft pops out of an MSE area into a non-MSE area?

 

Any other tips you might have to make it look nice? I've followed the tips on the MSE site and have them set EXCEPT for the zoom factor. I prefer to use 1.00 Zoom...I don't like even .70 as even with Widescreen set it just doesn't look right to me. Feels like I'm flying from the backseat

 

With regards to FS Global Ultimate I think I'll probably need to e-mail the creator to find out where the best place to put it in my scenery library is unless I can find an answer here. So far I haven't had any luck finding the answer so maybe I'll give PILOT's support a shot.

[PCAviator 37]

A further question directly related to MSEv2...

 

I watched the MSEv2 Florida video from the MSE website and in my first tests of MSEv2 Florida, along the coast down by Pensacola, I noticed my water doesn't look ANYTHING like the video. The water in the video has turquoise spots along the shore, you can see sand and sand bars, seagrass, coral, etc. It has a much more "tropical" look that I'd expect of Florida. On the other hand, my own is just solid dark blue ocean water right up to the shore. Its very "nice" dark blue water with a nice REX wave animation....but its just that....deep dark blue water all the way right up to the shore. There are no turquoise spots, no sand bars, no coral...it doesn't look "real" and it sort of does a bit of an injustice to the rest of the photoscenery.

 

Should mine look like the video on the MSE website?

 

Any idea what I might have done wrong to rob me of the nice coastlines and shallower turquoise water there?

 

Could it be REX causing me the issues? Should I disable UTX?

 

Hi there,

 

I created the MSE v2 Florida video. Basically, what you are seeing there is REX water textures. Since the scenery has water masking for the large bodies of water and oceans around Florida, you will see whatever water textures you have set for your FSX installation in these areas. I had REX set for those coral-looking textures, but later parts of the video actually show a more standard consistent water texture (also REX but not the coral reef option). I don't have UTX so cannot comment on that... but just letting you know it is whatever water texture you have in your sim by default that is showing with MSE v2. MSE does not change actual ocean textures beyond the shoreline or wherever bodies of water are watermasked.

 

Hope that answers your question.

 

In addition, re Autogen... I leave mine on, but it is personal preference. Of course, if you have road, water or air traffic enabled, this will still show up with MegaSceneryEarth - just not the tree/building autogen etc. Handplaced objects that are included by default by Microsoft also appear with MegaSceneryEarth.

[1Wolf 7]

Thanks PCAviator!

 

Funny thing is that I was actually using the exact same REX texture as you were I think. I was thinking the same thing. Only problem is that apparently I wasn't actually "Seeing" it. It looks like it had something to do with UTX.

 

I made sure that MSE Florida was above everything else in my library...at the very top but even using the REX tropical coral textures I wasn't getting what you showed. Mine was still that deep blue ocean water. It looked nice...but not how I wanted. I wasn't seeing the beaches or sand bars or any of that.

 

So I went in and turned off ALL UTX Water features completely, and then just went ahead and disabled UTX all together....that worked. It was UTX causing the problem.

 

Mine looks exactly like yours now. The funny thing is that I've been using REX for a little while now and never realized that I wasn't even seeing the water textures. UTX must have been covering them up this whole time.

 

Now I need to figure out what parts of UTX I can re-activate and leave on...and what parts I need to turn off. It would be nice to be able to leave it on so that if a flight takes me out of MSE territory I can still have all the UTX stuff in place.

 

Also, on a sidenote, I noticed a few places in Florida...I can see spots of the MSE that are like "missing" for small patches here and there and instead I see the default FSX terrain. Its not much, and it would be easy to not even notice. When taking off from Pensacola I notice it on one of those sand-bar like strips just on the coast there. Most of it is covered with MSE photoscenery and then in the middle, just a little stretch of default FSX texture.

[B777ER 2,486]

I was thinking about MSE but I have read that Orbx World will be out prior to June. They will also be coming out with land class enhancements and such. I am going to wait to see how that looks first. Really curious about the night lighting in Orbx World.

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 2

 

 

[PCAviator 37]

I was thinking about MSE but I have read that Orbx World will be out prior to June. They will also be coming out with land class enhancements and such. I am going to wait to see how that looks first. Really curious about the night lighting in Orbx World.

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 2

 

Hi there...

 

These are two very different products. MSE is actual real world imagery added to the sim, so everything you see is Real. Orbx World is a limited set of textures that replace the default textures, but are also repeated, and hence you wont find real features in your scenery as you can with MSE. However, Orbx World does use autogen objects (trees/buildings etc) whereas MSE does not. So it becomes a question of whether you want to see whats really there on the ground (with MSE) or just an approximation of what is there (Orbx world) - but with 3D autogen objects. Some will like one type of scenery, some will like the other.

 

Thanks PCAviator!

 

Funny thing is that I was actually using the exact same REX texture as you were I think. I was thinking the same thing. Only problem is that apparently I wasn't actually "Seeing" it. It looks like it had something to do with UTX.

 

I made sure that MSE Florida was above everything else in my library...at the very top but even using the REX tropical coral textures I wasn't getting what you showed. Mine was still that deep blue ocean water. It looked nice...but not how I wanted. I wasn't seeing the beaches or sand bars or any of that.

 

So I went in and turned off ALL UTX Water features completely, and then just went ahead and disabled UTX all together....that worked. It was UTX causing the problem.

 

Mine looks exactly like yours now. The funny thing is that I've been using REX for a little while now and never realized that I wasn't even seeing the water textures. UTX must have been covering them up this whole time.

 

Now I need to figure out what parts of UTX I can re-activate and leave on...and what parts I need to turn off. It would be nice to be able to leave it on so that if a flight takes me out of MSE territory I can still have all the UTX stuff in place.

 

Also, on a sidenote, I noticed a few places in Florida...I can see spots of the MSE that are like "missing" for small patches here and there and instead I see the default FSX terrain. Its not much, and it would be easy to not even notice. When taking off from Pensacola I notice it on one of those sand-bar like strips just on the coast there. Most of it is covered with MSE photoscenery and then in the middle, just a little stretch of default FSX texture.

 

Hi there... Some small patches showing through could likely be a slight glitch in the watermasking, which will exclude the MSE texture underneath (or make it a little transparent) or sometimes default scenery too (or UTX). If you wish to take a screenshot with co-ordinates showing of the problem and send it to me, I can at least verify if I am seeing the same effect here, and I can pass it on to the developer.