Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
billg1949

MSE 2 Swiss first impression

Recommended Posts

Guest

 

 


Hence, you would need to color-correct small segments individually at a time, then draw out borders (which wouldn't be nice and straight) between adjoining sections, and then o go back and adjust all your settings again for the next section to make it look better in itself, but then also to match it up with previously color-corrected parts. Over the size of an entire country, this could be a pretty major task!

 

Please don't take this the wrong way, but this needs to be done ... if you have to increase the price, then so be it.  I'll be perfectly honest, the ONLY reason I purchased so many MSE 2.0 scenery products is because I'd get 30-40% off.  Like I suggested before, spend the extra time to do right/correct/align sources for one country/state, charge more and see if it sells.

 

BUT, there are color correction, resample, focal correction tools available for Photoshop CC (at affordable prices) that can do all this in batch process (automatic variable adjustments made corrected across image batches ... colorist do this type of work all the time but with video) that take no time at all (however fast one's PC is).  Whomever you have doing the development work might want to investigate these tools as they would save a TON of time and money.

 

I can certainly understand the challenges, but there are affordable tools available to help mitigate the more mundane aspects.

 

my 2 cents.

 

Rob


 

 


Here it is after a very quick color correction

 

Nice work sir, can I hire you to adjust all my other scenery :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Rob,

 

Fair comments. Not taken the wrong way. I have passed them onto the developer for you.

From the retail side of it, we know when a price is doubled or even tripled (especially when customers are used to a particular product line being at a particular price range), which might need to be the case for this to go ahead, then it drastically cuts sales figures, regardless of the product quality. This comment comes from over 23 years of sales data we have accumulated directly in the flight sim field, so we have to be cautious from a business point of view when it comes to playing with product costs - especially in niche markets such as flight sim.

 

Nonetheless, If the tools are there and they havent been tried before, and it is not too difficult to achieve with the MSE imagery in particular (no imaging job is ever the same as the next) then it is certainly something we will look into yes :)

 

Thanks again for you valued input.


Dean
Manager - PC Aviator Australia

Retailing Sim DVD Software, Downloads, Hardware and Accessories

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

 

Nice work sir, can I hire you to adjust all my other scenery :)

 

 

LOL, i just adjusted the posted image Rob, although I am just finishing up a photoreal airport project of my own with 6 sq miles of photoreal in Penn with all seasons, water masking, night textures and full autogen, fun times in photoshop for sure, LOL.

 

I do agree with you though, if the source data has color/hue/contrast variations, which I see alot in freeware sources, then they need to correct it, or find better source material. I wouldn't use that for freeware, so can't imagine using it in a payware release. One of the big problems though, is the difference is also usually more than just color/hue/or contrast, it can be from a different time frame in the day or season,  which creates different shadows or other variations and that is near impossible to fix..


Best, Michael

KDFW

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest

 

 


which might need to be the case for this to go ahead, then it drastically cuts sales figures, regardless of the product quality. This comment comes from over 23 years of sales data we have accumulated directly in the flight sim field, so we have to be cautious from a business point of view when it comes to playing with product costs - especially in niche markets such as flight sim.

 

I understand, I hope you can find some sort of financial balance ... MSE 2.0 certainly has some great areas and then also some not so great areas.  But the Horizon VFR UK/Scotland products are also hit and miss...some areas fantastic but other areas not so good.  Heck if I bring up Google maps I see many of the same problems.

 

 


One of the big problems though, is the difference is also usually more than just color/hue/or contrast, it can be from a different time frame in the day or season,  which creates different shadows or other variations and that is near impossible to fix..

 

Very true ... like I've said before, I did contact many sources trying to acquire Sat images (much higher quality than aerial images) and the price tag was mind boggling ... there was some variance in costs but for the most part it was still staggering ... no way cost could be recovered in any current Flight sim market let alone make any type of profit.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Say, use color correction on most wash out areas. Still, I think improvements can be made knowing where to use them. From the beginning, I knew there would be color mismatchs adding states, but also knew generic textures with roads cutting thru them and autogen is waste of resources it looked tacky and fake no how good it looked. Im in minority think autogen on top on photorreal looks tacky.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I agree with everything said, but MSE have been very upfront many times; clarifying that their business model is reasonably fast developed photoscenery areas, created with low overheads, offered at realtively low prices, and that's what I see them offering. Switzerland is not perfect but it's great for the money.       Would I love autogen and other improvements, yes, but then I would not want the EUR130 price tag that comes with Switzerland Pro that does offer those additional qualities.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I agree with everything said, but MSE have been very upfront many times; clarifying that their business model is reasonably fast developed photoscenery areas, created with low overheads, offered at realtively low prices, and that's what I see them offering. Switzerland is not perfect but it's great for the money. Would I love autogen and other improvements, yes, but then I would not want the EUR130 price tag that comes with Switzerland Pro that does offer those additional qualities.

Exactly, agree 100%. We can pay $40 on photo-addon for regular sized areas. If it $100 a package lose sales volume.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well it seems they once cared... MegasceneryX is proof of that. Perfectly developed landscapes with some buildings and trees, So Cal even had 10 meter mesh. I guess what gets me is that they offer Hawaii for $5 because of a few clouds got in the way of their photos, hardly an issue, but they make a big deal about it on their website, saying hey look here we'll give you this very nice piece of land for $5 because we care about inconsistencies.. Yet then turn around and offer something like Switzerland with massive difference in hues and color variations....

 

I've heard their excuse, well we think autogen and 3d objects kill the scenery.. No, FranceVFR, GermanyVFR, Swiss Pro, and an assortment of others INCLUDING their own MegascenryX products prove the opposite.

 

Somewhere they just gave up.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

.....or just changed their business model.        If they were offering the 'full detail' product that you're talking of, they would still be on their 2nd US state, and people would complain "when are you going to get to the west coast??" etc etc.   :smile:

 

When people buy Carenado add-ons, they know they're not getting a PMDG (and not getting a PMDG price tag)...... similarly, when you buy MSE, you're not getting FranceVFR or Switzerland Pro, but there is still a value to the products as they are, IMHO.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

FSX has 6 texture sets:

 

- 4 "normal" seasons

- a 5th season "hard winter" (as opposed to "just winter")

- plus night (and the corresponding dusk/dawn effects)

 

MSE SUI offers one out of those 6 - but it's only one fifth of the price of Switzerland Pro.

 

Looks like a fair deal to me ...   B)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

All the MSE2 scenery is good value. Especially when you take into consideration the various discounts offered...10%, 30% and 40%. Sure it has its faults but then so does every other piece of scenery I have bought over the years. All of which was considerably more expensive.


Arnie....if it ain't broke, don't fix it...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Didn't say it wasn't a fair deal. I said they gave up in offering a quality product while saying the opposite.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Belgium pretty good better than Swtizerland, and states like Nevada and Michigan come to mind with washed out textures Washington looks real good.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Didn't say it wasn't a fair deal. I said they gave up in offering a quality product while saying the opposite.

 

The business model changed and so did the developer going from MegaSceneryX to MegaSceneryEarth 2.0. It was possible to add all the complexity to MegaSceneryX products as they were released back when the FS market was different and the average price of an add-on was much higher than it is today in the current economic climate. Again, there are compromises that have to be made to succeed in the "current" state of the flight sim hobby, particularly in regard to what customers are willing to pay for add-ons, and the basic number of customers in the market. We are certainly not getting rich overnight on this, I can assure you of that! :) 


Dean
Manager - PC Aviator Australia

Retailing Sim DVD Software, Downloads, Hardware and Accessories

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

  • Tom Allensworth,
    Founder of AVSIM Online


  • Flight Simulation's Premier Resource!

    AVSIM is a free service to the flight simulation community. AVSIM is staffed completely by volunteers and all funds donated to AVSIM go directly back to supporting the community. Your donation here helps to pay our bandwidth costs, emergency funding, and other general costs that crop up from time to time. Thank you for your support!

    Click here for more information and to see all donations year to date.
×
×
  • Create New...