They have a lot of free stuff for X-Plane such as OpenStreet autogen and photoscenery. Has anyone tried them out yet? Would like to read up on some reviews if anyone has.

 

The site is:

 

http://simheaven.com/?page_id=8

 

Check them out.

 

Quick question. I have urbanmaxx extreme installed. do I install the photoscenery stuff above or below it?

I am using it. However, if you have scenery installed it seems to place buildings over top of what's already there. But it's GREAT because it does put buildings around the airport which is something! ha ha

Some of the areas look pretty bad though. For example honolulu and hong kong photoscenery textures are horrible. The color is very bland and has this washed out winter look. But areas like houston is pretty decent. I will have to play with it some more and see. I wanted to get some of the ZL17 photoscenery for France but it looks like the server is down.

I have urbanmaxx extreme installed. do I install the photoscenery stuff above or below it?

 

Photoscenery is not affected by UrbanMaxx(and vice versa). So you are safe to install it either above or below UrbanMaxx

I downloaded some for Minneapolis and LAX. The LAX worked fine. But I get CTD's with Minneapolis. No idea why.

 

The scenery looks good around the big city but otherwise the resolution is too low outside of the city center. Also the autogen doesnt line up very well. It's definitely a step above the stock textures though.

But I get CTD's with Minneapolis. No idea why.

 

Ryan, do you have OpensceneryX installed (link below)? It's pretty much a must have in the Xplane world, if your using custom made scenery. It might be the issue with your ctd's. If the scenery is looking for something from this library, and you don't have OpensceneryX, Xplane will ctd. Might be the reason?

 

I don't know what's in that Minneapolis scenery, but install this and see if you still get the ctd? Normally when Xplane crashes it will give you a box on the screen outlining the problem, quite often it's something missing from this library, if your addon scenery was looking for it.

 

http://www.opensceneryx.com/

 

Glen

Some of the areas look pretty bad though. For example honolulu and hong kong photoscenery textures are horrible. The color is very bland and has this washed out winter look. But areas like houston is pretty decent. I will have to play with it some more and see. I wanted to get some of the ZL17 photoscenery for France but it looks like the server is down.

+1 for the bland colour and wash out looks. Even the sky looks dreary on a sunny day. I chose day setting and when I am in the sim, it still feels like overcast.

I came across the website the other day and I'd say, based on the two areas I downloaded, that results are hit and miss. Really your limited to the quality of the osm data in the first place. I downloaded Tokyo and Vienna.

 

Vienna is just beautiful. The autogen plus photo scenery works really well and it gives a cracking rendition of Vienna as a city.

 

In contrast, Tokyo, for all its big download size (2.4gb) isn't nearly as good. The photo scenery doesn't match with the autogen that well, although it may be an issue with other scenery. But the city is only sparsely covered compared to Vienna.

 

So it's the quality of the data in that determines how good a city looks. I'll be getting Paris later and I expect that will look great.

 

Best wishes,

Jess B

Jessica let us know how Paris is. Yup things are a hit or miss definitely on simheaven. I find it mostly with the photo scenery. The OSM seems to be okay but can definitely be improved.

 

I will post all the photoscenery that lack in quality, visually and overall.

 

So far the ones to stay away from for the time being until they fix it or update it are:

 

photoscenery Hong Kong

photoscenery Honolulu

photoscenery Tokyo

I'll be getting Paris later and I expect that will look great.

yes:

 

 

And it's the ultimate test for your system !!!

 

Here is my hint: before downloading an OSM2XP file, take a look at this excellent ressource:

 

http://www.itoworld.com/map/85#

 

This is a map which highlights places with buildings in OSM, and also building with height information, which is also taken into account by OSM2XP if present.

 

There was a thread about this subject.

 

Pascal

Thanks pascal. I thought I'd seen you post some shots of Paris. It is pretty awesome.

That is pretty impressive! Is that from ism_autogen_europe from simheaven in those screenshots?

Thanks ! That didn't come from SimHeaven, I believe it's the older version from the OSM2XP repository: http://scenery.osm2xp.com/

SimHeaven versions are more recent, so you'll have at least the same number of buildings, if not more. I modified the textures slightly to my convenience, and lately I added more red roofs than what you see in the screenshot, to better suit the European style. I believe the reason France is completely covered is that the whole french cadaster has been integrated into OSM.

 

P.S: don't take the "OSM+autogen" file if you want to fly over Paris, you'll have way too many buildings ! Just download "OSM+only"... for France

Hi everyone,

I wanted to check this out, but the download speeds are even below dial up standards for some reason. I think for a 70mb file, it was showing at least an hour or more. Is there a good time to go on the site by chance?

Usually on most sites I could download more than one item at a time, but here I would never consider that as they even tell the visitors not to.....that got me thinking....could this be why the speeds are SOOOOO slow there, as there are users out there ignoring this? Really was looking forward to getting the North America as well.

 

Best, Jeff

Hi everyone,

I wanted to check this out, but the download speeds are even below dial up standards for some reason. I think for a 70mb file, it was showing at least an hour or more. Is there a good time to go on the site by chance?

Usually on most sites I could download more than one item at a time, but here I would never consider that as they even tell the visitors not to.....that got me thinking....could this be why the speeds are SOOOOO slow there, as there are users out there ignoring this? Really was looking forward to getting the North America as well.

 

Best, Jeff

 

Reason for the above: Simheaven (altough with a com domain) is not a commercial site, but a private homepage from a german X-Plane enthusiast. So he can't afford to spend hundreds of Euros for hosting. Thus, you have to be a bit patient with the downloads - remember, it is all freeware.