Scenery Question (s)

[PainfulBack 0]

Hello everyone. Im just getting back into FSX after a while away. I would like to get some scenery ( Usa only ) and even then really only interested in east of the Mississippi. I have looked @ some of the commercial options available, I believe one developer has scenery packs for individual states. Mega scenery perhaps. Anyways, my questions are as follows:

 

1) will any add on scenery, still allow me to also add-on specific airports from developers if available?

2) of the available scenery options out there including payware & freeware ( if any exists ) who will have the best. most detailed, realistic scenery?

3) Are there certain types of scenery i should purposely stay away from?

 

I hope this isnt the wrong forum for this, I looked for an hour , and only found a scenery developers forum & not really interested in making my own.

 

Thanks in advance

[dcgator29 37]

Well you've opened a can of worms. You have a lot of different options. You can get a ground texture replacement like ground environment extreme otherwise known as GEX. Orbx is soon coming out with a global texture pack. These aren't unique textures. They will repeat and be placed based on the landclass files. You can get addon landclass as well. These textures look pretty good though. They're usually taken from aerial images.

 

GEX is usually combined with ultimate terrain, or UTX, which will provide accurate coastlines, rivers, roads, and some urban landclass/autogen.

 

Mesh is also a great addon. It will provide much higher resolution for elevation. Looks amazing in mountainous areas. Fsgenesis and fsglobal are the two prominent products

 

And then you have photoscenery. Megasceneryearth looks great at altitude (2000+) but there's no autogen so on the ground at an airport everything is very flat. Photoscenery is also very large file sizes and expensive. I really like it though. You are seeing what's actually there! Buy your own state and see how you like it.

 

In response to your question, there shouldn't be any conflicts with photoscenery and addon airports.

 

And in my opinion and I'm sure a lot others, the best scenery packages are from Orbx. They are smallish regions, some photoscenery here and there, amazing hand placed autogen, roads, and rivers. Kind of like a combination of all the previous products I mentioned. But they are smaller regions out west. Pacific northwest, southern Alaska, central Rockies, etc. They also have done australia, new Zealand, England, and wales. Northern California is their next region. They e also done a lot of smaller regional airports which are amazing as well. The older sceneries have had their prices reduced so is a no brainer purchase. I suggest pacific northwest. Their website is www.fullterrain.com. You may not think you want to fly in those areas, but when you see it you may change your mind

[dcgator29 37]

Megascenery earth is basically it for photoscenery. There used to be sim savvy but they joined forces with megascenery earth. There is another product called fsaltitude. It is photoscenery but only turns on at higher altitudes for tube liners. I've never used it so can't speak to quality. There are also smaller sceneries for specific cities that place photoscenery and new buildings and autogen. US Cities Las Vegas, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Chicago, etc Manhattan X is also a great product.

[PainfulBack 0]

dcgator29, 

 

Thank you for your input, I truly appreciate it ! A few things you mentioned I did now know & it helps alot. I never had anything but stock scenery before, so Im sure anything I get will be much better. I like the mega scenery idea, I may just get NY, and try it out. Most of my flying is @ 10K & above, but would be nice to really have good quality airports once I start shooting approaches...  I will search for some of the airports I would like to frequently fly in/out of. ( KROC<-- MY ACTUAL HOME AIRPORT,KBUF,KJFK,KBOS, ECT ECT )

 

If any one else has any thoughts, please feel free 

 

( after I get a few bits of scenery, will be adding on the ATC stuff.. trying to do this slow n steady, so I don't get overwhelmed again  :rolleyes:  )

[dcgator29 37]

Fsdreamteam just released an update to KJFK. Really nice. I got megasceneryearth New York and flew down long island to montauk. Really nice; a lot of golf courses! No issues with fsdt JFK and photoscenery. Flytampa KBOS and BUF are good too

[PainfulBack 0]

<p>dcgator, </p>

<p> </p>

<p>I just checked out that <span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Fsdreamteam KJFK on their web page, looks amazing! I think im goning to do the mega scenery ny, and I just bookmarked that </span><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Fsdreamteam</span></p>

<p> site too, ty again! </p>

<p> </p>

<p>& Just ordered the NY Full kit </p>

Edited May 4, 2013 by PainfulBack