Anyone use FS Global Ultimate for meshes here?

[captain420 3,099]

Wanted to know how well this product is. Is this the best one for meshes? 

[Simmer2050 28]

I use it, and its very good.

 

My system is i7990@4.74Ghz, GTX690,win7 64, 12Gig ram.

 

But i still cant max out my fsx texture sliders, got them set to around 60% for locked 30FPS.

 

In short you only get the high res of the addon if your system can handle it.

The only thing ill add is, try to get fspilot to mail you the cd's by recorded delivery, which they dont do by default.

[deetee 164]

I have it and found it to be an excellent mesh product, that gives high quality coverage over the whole planet.

One advantage is the AFM tool that fixes plateaued airports which can occur with non-default mesh.

Not the cheapest mesh solution out there but it's value lies in the mesh quality and sheer extent of the coverage.

[xplanery 250]

Alternatively you could try FSgenesis, their products are a lot cheaper and quality should be about the same in most areas depending from the product. 

[Kronzky 34]

Unless you're willing to spend a lot of time fixing airports that will become unusable due to the new mesh, I wouldn't recommend FS Global, or any other mesh.

I've recently tried it in South America, and the results were pretty disappointing. Yes, the terrain looks more realistic, but at some point you gotta land, and when half the airports are screwed up, due to the discrepancy in data from FSX and the new mesh, then all you're left with is pretty, but unusable scenery.

Sure, if you're flying in areas that are already covered fairly exact by FSX then you probably will have fewer of these problems, but in that case there's really no need for a third-party mesh in the first place.

Only for areas that were a bit "neglegted" by FSX would you need a new mesh, and then you end up with these endless issues.

 

Here's an example for a typical "obscure" airport in South America (SPPY - Chachapoyas), which lies on a ragged plateau. This is how it looks in Google Earth:

The default scenery in FSX looks pretty flat and bland, but at least the airport is usable:

 

Once you apply the FSGlobal mesh, you end up with an airport a mile deep in the ground, and rivers that flow alongside the edges of mountains:

 

If you then apply their flattening mesh, the airport is usable again, but you lose the ruggedness of the terrain:

 

Their flattening meshes are advertised as the fix for all these problems, but first of all, you will have to apply them yourself to the airports that are broken (so no flying into "new" airports — you will always have to check first whether they need fixing), and secondly, since they were created via a generic algorithm which flattens a circular area around the airport, you just end up with another fake terrain — one that doesn't have much more resemblence to the real thing than the original FSX one does.

Here, for example, is the terrain view of another flattened airport in South America (SPLN). As you can see, the meshes created a perfect circle around the airport, and I wouldn't really call that an improvement:

[JoeDoeIII 0]

I have been using FS Global Ultimate: Americas, and the Europe/Africa product as well. The mesh is superb quality, it is dense data so you need a computer and storage system up to the task. Some airport elevation issues are to be expected, but you can use the AFM Tool, 'Aerodrome Flattening Mesh', to deal with the elevated or depressed airfields you are bound to run into. I would recommend it highly, but only if you have a very fast and large storage system for FSX.

[1mikel151 71]

kronzky, that is no reason not to enjoy great mesh. Open ADE and change the airport elevation and the flatten around the airport and you are good. To bad there isn't any good photoreal for that area, the Google earth image looks great, would love to fly around there.

http://www.airportdesigneditor.co.uk/

[captain420 3,099]

Thanks for the detailed info. However I read the manual and it says you have to set your fsx mesh sliders up to be able to see a difference. Right now with my settings I'm getting decent fps, but if I up my mesh slider to the recommended settings for fs global, my performance goes downhill by a significant amount and I'm unable to even fly, everything is a slides how pretty much, so I'm afraid i won't be able to enjoy this addon as I already have a ton of addons. This one will just make my machine crawl most likely and I have a pretty decent setup too. Perhaps it's because I'm running at 2560x1600 which is pushing a lot of pixels and requires a lot from my hardware.

[SolRayz 392]

With your hardware bumping up the mesh and most sliders should have minimal affect on performance. I gave up on Mesh products as well. Too many airports with elevation issues that it became obnoxious.  Fixing all those airports becomes intolerable. I am waiting for FTX Global before reapplying mesh.  

[Tabs 2,790]

While FSGenesis's stuff does sometimes create small plateau/mesa type things, I certainly have never seen it put airports a mile into the ground like that FS Global shot. I own pretty much all of Justin's FSX mesh and it's all pretty good if you ask me.

 

kronzky, that is no reason not to enjoy great mesh. Open ADE and change the airport elevation and the flatten around the airport and you are good. To bad there isn't any good photoreal for that area, the Google earth image looks great, would love to fly around there.

http://www.airportdesigneditor.co.uk/

 

Is there a guide on exactly how to do this?  I'd love to fix some of the more obvious ones in my own terrain setup.

[cva1077 68]

 

 

Is there a guide on exactly how to do this? I'd love to fix some of the more obvious ones in my own terrain setup.

 

It's pretty easy once you know how ^_^

 

After you open ADE, go File>Open Stock Airport. Pop in the ICAO code and press open. After it loads, you will see the layout of taxiways/runways/buildings etc.

 

In FSX slew to a point next to the hole/plateau the airport is in/on and record the altitude. Remember that the aircraft you're using will read the altitude a few ft off the ground, so make sure you take that into account for the next step.

 

Back in ADE, open "Tools" from the menu bar and click "Change Airport Altitude". Put in the altitude you got from FSX and click OK.

 

Compile the airport (top RHS of the screen). Then find the .bgl file and copy it to FSX/Addon Scenery/Scenery

 

Go to the airport in FSX and it should be at the same level as the surrounding terrain. Remember: if it isn't correct, you can always go back and adjust as necessary.

[flyinion 280]

Wow I was going to look into that afm tool but the ade way sounds really straight forward and easy. Gonna have to go find it. I can live with a plateau on one side vs flattening the whole area to blend, just want to be able to fix when they're in holes or the whole thing is raised all around.

[Spartan0536 49]

you could also look up real world airport height and go from there, should get you very close if not spot on. The only detail that will annoy others is in multiplayer when you are at an airport that is in the sky or in the ground for others.

[flyinion 280]

Actually, stupid question time, if I follow this method for using ADE, and the airport has stuff like ILS approaches, will they be updated or will the glideslopes all of a sudden be way off?

[flyinion 280]

It's pretty easy once you know how ^_^

 

After you open ADE, go File>Open Stock Airport. Pop in the ICAO code and press open. After it loads, you will see the layout of taxiways/runways/buildings etc.

 

In FSX slew to a point next to the hole/plateau the airport is in/on and record the altitude. Remember that the aircraft you're using will read the altitude a few ft off the ground, so make sure you take that into account for the next step.

 

Back in ADE, open "Tools" from the menu bar and click "Change Airport Altitude". Put in the altitude you got from FSX and click OK.

 

Compile the airport (top RHS of the screen). Then find the .bgl file and copy it to FSX/Addon Scenery/Scenery

 

Go to the airport in FSX and it should be at the same level as the surrounding terrain. Remember: if it isn't correct, you can always go back and adjust as necessary.

 

Ok there seems to be a major problem with this method.  I loaded up HAAB which is in a hole even in the default scenery for example.  I fixed the elevation which meant raising the airport about 150 feet up.  However following your instructions it only raised the runways, taxiways, and apron areas up.  All the ground in between the runways and taxiways was still 150+ feet down.  I thought the airports were supposed to be one flat object?  Looks like I may be springing for AFM after all.