help with a few addons

[JaimeHorton 3]

hi everyone 

 

i'm new to FSX and loving it 

i've gone headfirst into all this and i'm learning really fast 

 

I fly the PMDG 737 almost exclusively, and have the following addons 

 

REX

GEX

UTX

US Cities X Las Vegas

fs dream team Mccarran int

EzDok

fsuipc 

running fxaa

 

 

 

i LOVE flying to KLAS and doing so at night. i fly 80% at night i have a few questions regarding these scenerys working together, as you can see from the photos the US citys LV does not match up with what i'm assuming is the UTX at night. i really like the look of the majority of the outer parts but the brighter areas bother me. any suggestions on how i can layer these to work better?

 

 

 

 

and then have a look at the water refection, it bugs me because it is very static and looks alot like snow, all the water bodies at night are all very bright as well, and seem to hold the same resolution no matter the alt 

 

 

i'm sure this is simple stuff for alot of you FSX pros, so go easy on me please.  

 

any insight or recomendations to clean this up would be great 

 

thanks 

JHo

 

 

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

 

 

i LOVE flying to KLAS and doing so at night. i fly 80% at night i have a few questions regarding these scenerys working together, as you can see from the photos the US citys LV does not match up with what i'm assuming is the UTX at night. i really like the look of the majority of the outer parts but the brighter areas bother me. any suggestions on how i can layer these to work better?

 

One your first question above, the reason they dont match up is because UC Cities Las Vegas includes photoreal textures which don't really blend well with GEX textures when seen from above like that. Unfortunately there is nothing you can really do to make it match up better. The two options you could do would be to either disable the photoreal textures included with US Cities Las Vegas and just use the buidlings, although that wouldn't work very well or look good since all the added buildings would look misplaced sitting on top of GEX textures. Or the other option would be to buy MegaScenery Las Vegas and place it under the US Cities Las Vegas scenery that way you would have photoreal textures for the whole Las Vegas area. Plus MegaScenery Las Vegas includes night textures as well. You can get it here: http://www.megascenery.com/MegaSceneryXLasVegas.htm

 

It's a great package as well as the other Mega Scenery titles like SoCal, Phoenix, Dallas.

 

 

 

and then have a look at the water refection, it bugs me because it is very static and looks alot like snow, all the water bodies at night are all very bright as well, and seem to hold the same resolution no matter the alt 

 

To get rid of the horrible water reflections at night when the moon is out you, assuming your running DX9 and not the DX10 Preview, you will need to download and install the freeware FS Water Configurator also known as FSWC: http://www.strikingsoftware.com/fswc.shtml  You download in from the downloads tab.

 

It lets you set it up using the sliders or presets. Personally, having tried all the presets and fiddling with it on my own, I found the preset called Orions Favorite the best one. You wont get the milky white water at night anymore. You just cant use it if you fly using the DX10 Preview mode in FSX, it only works with DX9.

 

Hope this helps.

[JaimeHorton 3]

Thanks for the reply 

 

i was allready considering Megascenery, ill have to pick that up. its pretty important to me that vegas look good hoping to move there some day

 

i am running in DX9 so no issues there 

 

and i will check out that water config tool 

will that still work with all my rex and UTEX textures?, im assuming it just polishes them up a bit 

 

also is there any particular order i should have all these scenerys in?

 

 

again thanks for the reply 

im sure i will have more questions soon 

 

JHo

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

 

 

i was allready considering Megascenery, ill have to pick that up. its pretty important to me that vegas look good hoping to move there some day

 

Keep in mind that the MegaScenery Las Vegas is a different product than the MegaSceneryEarth v1 or v2 products. MegaScenery Las Vegas, Phoenix, SoCal and Dallas were produced using actual aerial photography and not satellite images like MegaSceneryEarth uses. Also the Vegas, Socal, Dallas and Phoenix include night textures which MegaSceneryEarth v2 doesn't presently include, although they say they will be added sometime in the future as a free download to existing customers. However there is still some MegaSceneryEarth v1 available for the west coast that includes night textures which hasn't yet been replaced with v2 yet. 

 

One other point to consider is that the MegaScenery Vegas, Dallas, Phoenix and SoCal also include some autogen which MegaSceneryEarth v2 doesn't have.

 

 

 

 

and i will check out that water config tool 
will that still work with all my rex and UTEX textures?, im assuming it just polishes them up a bit 

 

Yes, FS Water Config works with REX and UTX water textures. In fact it doesn't actually touch or modify the textures themselves, all it does it tweak the shaders that control the reflections of the water when the sun and moon is shining on them. That's how you get rid of the milky white moon glow on the water and can eliminate the excessive sparkle and reflect of the sun on the water in the day.

 

 

 

also is there any particular order i should have all these scenerys in?

 

I put all MegeScenery products above the UTX layers and below any other scenery/airport addons for the area. For example I run UTX, MegaScenery Las Vegas and FSDT KLAS airport. So UTX sits on the lowest layer, then MegaScenery Las Vegas, then FSDT KLAS on top of that. If you put MS Las Vegas above the airport of FSDT you could have some graphic anomalies. Think of your scenery layers as a pizza. UTX is the dough or bottom layer, then your photo scenery would be the sauce, then the airport or scenery products like airports, etc would be the toppings (mushrooms and pepperoni). 

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

MegaScenery Las Vegas v1 is awesome

[JaimeHorton 3]

thanks so much for the answers 

 

so where would us cities X las vegas fit in with the lineup 

 

thanks 

JHo

[Jim Young 2,356]

I have FSDT KLAS sitting above MegaSceneryX Las Vegas in the Scenery Library.  It works great for me. 

 

Best regards,

Jim

[JaimeHorton 3]

Hey jim thanks for the reply

 

I was getting the raised shelf north of the airport with fs dt McCaraan at the top, I read that I should move it down. I'm still getting some night difference between city's x and mega scenery, I would just shut city x off however it has newer casinos like the aria

 

Vegas is by far the most important city to me, so I'm trying to get it right

 

I now have all the following

 

Fs dream team McCaraan

Aero soft city's x Las Vegas

Mega scenery Las Vegas

Utx

Gex

And Rex

 

That's pretty much the order I have them in

 

Any better suggestions

 

Thanks again everyone

Jho

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

 

 

I'm still getting some night difference between city's x and mega scenery, I would just shut city x off however it has newer casinos like the aria

 

You could always just go into the City X scenery folder and rename the photo bgl's to .off and just use their buildings. The only problem is that some of the newer buildings will be sitting on top of older photoscenery from MS Las Vegas that might have different photos under the newer building. However at a distance it wouldn't be noticeable, only if you fly down close to the buildings would you see the difference.

 

Really the only other thing you could do would be to download SBuilderX or FSEarth Tiles and make your own photoreal scenery to match up with the newer buildings of City X and then color correct it to match with MegaScenery Las Vegas. 

 

Aside from that you'll probably have to just live with it or disable the photo tiles with City X and just let thier buildings reside over MS Las Vegas.

[JaimeHorton 3]

Outstanding

 

Guess I'm trying to squeeze juice from a rock

So if I disable the files with the buildings still have textures on them

 

It's just the OCD in me that makes it a big deal, I don't think anyone else would complain haha

 

However keep the suggestions coming

 

And thanks so much

Jho

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

 

 

So if I disable the files with the buildings still have textures on them

 

Dont disable the textures that go to the buildings that would be found in the City X texture folder. You will need to look in the City X Scenery folder and figure out which bgl's are the ones that are for the ground textures and rename them to .off. Since I dont have that scenery I cant say which ones they would be. If you post a screen shot of the contents of the Scenery folder I might be able to make a guess based on the names of the files. If any of them say photo or ground then I would guess they are the ones to disable.

 

You could always download ModelConverter X (freeware) and then drop the .bgls in to it and see what they display. If buildings are displayed when you drop a .bgl into it, then you will know not to disable that one and you can drop the next .bgl in a see what it is. Usually, when you drop a photo scenery .bgl into ModelConverter X it wont display anything and will show a red symbol at the bottom left of the GUI.

 

 

 

 

It's just the OCD in me that makes it a big deal, I don't think anyone else would complain haha

 

I know how you feel, been there done than. When FSDT first released KDFW I was super OCD with it since I live in Dallas and fly out of KDFW and spot there once in a while. I was bent on making sure the AFCAD was 100% and that the were parked in the right spot and so on. I even reworked the ground textures to match a little more with how it looks in real life. Then I spend another few weeks building some custom cargo AI to match some cargo that I see parked there from time to time. So yes, I know how you feel about being OCD with a particular scenery, lol.

[JaimeHorton 3]

Nice

 

Thanks for the reply

I'm glad i,m not the only one with OCD

 

Ill mess around with it when I get home

 

But the insight is great

 

Thanks

Jho