Has anyone tried MegaScenry Earth? What do you think? Is there an alternative?

Found if you only fly in day its ok anything else you will be disappointed I dumped it older versions were good but the new 2.0 for some reason does not look good at night - dawn and dusk save for ftx global textures.

Here is one of the best threads about this subject here on the AVSIM forum - http://forum.avsim.net/topic/398776-megascenery-earth-v2-cost/.  It provides the good, the bad, and the really good stuff with some photos.  I have most of the States east of the Mississippi.  It works well with commercial addon airports and the great thing is that you really don't need autogen turned on so you can save a lot of FPS.

 

Best regards,

Jim

I picked up Florida and New York so I could directly compare them with my version 1's of the same state.  For me, it's sort of a love-hate relationship as in general I luv photoreal scenery above all others.  I prefer their version 1's overall because they have night lighting so I can fly through them 100% day or night.  With v2's you can only fly them 25% of the time - day.  V2 also had autogen which I prefer too.  Flying at FL180 looks great but with approach, landings and take-offs the surrounding area is too flat for my taste. I lose the immersion factor.

 

But v2 does have more coverage (at least for Florida), and from what I have seen they have better imagery.  Again, Florida is debatable as some areas are washed out.  The water-masking is sub-par IMO at least for Florida.  I can see the actual masking rings as it fades into the water in the shorelines and major lakes they masked. 

 

I'd say grab your home state, or favorite area to fly and judge for yourself

I'd say get the states you're most likely to fly OVER.  Above 5000 feet it's absolutely great.  Below that, when you come in for landing, the lack of any land features makes it dismal.  To me, it's the opposite of Orbx.  I find Orbx above 5000 to be amazingly boring.  (Below that it;s brilliant!)  If there was a way for me to switch from one to another at an AGL altitude I'd be one happy clam.

Found if you only fly in day its ok anything else you will be disappointed I dumped it older versions were good but the new 2.0 for some reason does not look good at night - dawn and dusk save for ftx global textures.

 

Just a question here. Since we have these textures only for daytime will we not see the world as if MSE wasn't installed during nighttime? In my case I have UTX GEX installed so can I have that during night and MSE2 during daytime?

You will see MSE2 at all times but as I mention only day is ok the rest of times of day are unacceptable at least to me.

Has anyone tried MegaScenry Earth? What do you think? Is there an alternative?

 

The problem is that you either like photoreal or you don't. So the first thing to ask is: do you like photoreal scenery? Do you already have other photoreal scenery? If you don't, you might download something from Blue Sky Scenery (all for free and often better looking than MSE!) just to find out if you like photoreal or not. If you like it and you can stand the odd perspective and lack of things while flying low and the feeling of being on the moon during approach (did I just make it clear enough what I think of photoreal...? ^_^ ), then you could try one MSE region to see of you like what that developer is doing. There is a change though that photoreal is not your thing and you would be better off getting other kind of scenery.

 

In short: some will say MSE is awesome but what's the value of that if you yourself don't like photoreal? ^_^

Photoreal Looks fine above 1500 agl. Autogen who needs it always looks off. Flatness factor does not bother me as much as blurries, shuttering. Places like Alabama, Mississippi, Loiusanna look great in photoariel. Orbx won't cover those places anyways and think its better to make the most with least amount of add ons. Been eyeing France VFR as rural France looks beautiful. Likely buy UTX Europe and add photoreal of France, Germany, Beliguim, Nertherlands over time too.

Mostly echoing what Jeroen says, I'd agree - give some of the Blue Sky scenery a try and see if you like it.  If you do, then go for one of the MSE v2 states.  If not, then you're only out a bit of time.

 

Jeroen mentions you either love it or hate it, but I find that I'm in a bit of both camps.  I like it and in some cases even love it, IF I have good developed airports to fly between.  If not, it's, as Jeroen says, like landing and taking off on the moon, and I just can't get into it.  BTW, the height at which it becomes acceptable to me varies, depending on the type of terrain and the quality of the original imagery.  In general, though, I'm not happy until I'm somewhere around at least 3000 AGL.  And some types of terrain seem to lend themselves better to the technology.  I think the US SW is especially good, while heavily forested areas can be a bit iffy if the color and time of the original images aren't just right.

 

FYI, I have photoscenery from Megascenery X, Earth v1, Earth v2 and Blue Sky.

 

Scott

Just a question here. Since we have these textures only for daytime will we not see the world as if MSE wasn't installed during nighttime? In my case I have UTX GEX installed so can I have that during night and MSE2 during daytime?

I'm only addressing photo based scenery in general. When making it, there is a "setting" in a control file that tells FSX when to display the imagery. If someone uses ALL, then the imagery shows during day, night, dusk and dawn. If DAY is used, then the imagery is shown during the day and when dusk or dawn comes along the imagery will start to fade away or fade in to the underlying default-style scenery. Using DAY would turn the imagery off during night time flying and as mentioned, cause it to transition during dusk/dawn.

Megascenery X worked very nice as I have most of them they blend nice at anytime of day not sure why V2 did not follow in these footsteps.

 

Megascenery X worked very nice as I have most of them they blend nice at anytime of day not sure why V2 did not follow in these footsteps.

 

The "X" products were sold as day/night and also contained autogen.  As I recall, the plan is (or at least was at one time) to go back and add night features later for Earth v2 some time after initial releases.

 

Scott

Megascenery X worked very nice as I have most of them they blend nice at anytime of day not sure why V2 did not follow in these footsteps.

There is no V2 for MegaSceneryX, that is a different product. You have MegaScenery for Fs9, then MegaSceneryX for FSX. MegaCity for the major cities, then MegaSceneryEarth (v1) and MegaSceneryEarth 2.0. You also have different developers and different features, including nightlighting, watermasking and autogen depending on what you get. Unfortunately none of the versions have seasons, which is what I want (along with night textures, water masking and autogen)

 

As someone that has done my fair share of photoreal scenery I know what is involved, at least for large city wide size areas. The current MegaSceneryearth 2.0 states average around $30 per state. I would pay double that for seasonal textures, night textures, semi well placed autogen, and water masking, simlar to what earthsimulations does with their high end products.

I'd say get the states you're most likely to fly OVER.  Above 5000 feet it's absolutely great.  Below that, when you come in for landing, the lack of any land features makes it dismal.  To me, it's the opposite of Orbx.  I find Orbx above 5000 to be amazingly boring.  (Below that it;s brilliant!)  If there was a way for me to switch from one to another at an AGL altitude I'd be one happy clam.

HAve you tried FSAltitiude Greg?

 

http://www.fsaltitude.com/