Hi All,

 

I've just purchased FTX Global, and whilst I absolutely love the view from low down, from any great height (I'd say from around FL100 upwards) everything still looks rather...samey. Just row after row of the same scenery, which is what I thought FTX Global was supposed to sort out? Maybe something is wrong for me but that's how it looks...

 

If this is the way FTX global is meant to be, is there any way of improving the scenery from high altitude? I'd happily pay for something, but freeware would be a bonus! But also is there anything that doesn't have a massive impact on frames?

 

Many thanks,

The repetitive patterns are, as far as I understand it, due to the way how FSX reads landclass data and then assigns textures accordingly (this is done by the names of those texture files), hence it is not possible to have a greater variety of textures. (This may not be entirely correct, but I believe that - in a nutshell - this is what happens "behind the scenes".)

From high altitude I guess the best thing (and the only way around textures that repeat over and over again) is probably photoscenery. I am not familiar with it myself, but I believe there are some freeware products that allow you to download satellite images and ues them as scenery tiles in FSX, such as Tileproxy (not sure if it is comaptible with FSX) or FSTiles. If you're flying high, the possibly poor quality does not come into play, but I am not sure if it is possible to limit those programs to loading their textures if you're above a certain altitude.

For large parts of the US, there's also the option of either MegaScenery Earth (payware) or Bluesky Scenery (free!), if that is wehre you fly. Those will completely prevent FTXG to display in the regarding areas, though.

Tileproxy does work with FSX (takes a little bit of doing though) and downloads literally on the fly in FSX. Can work very nicely if you have a decent internet connection. FSTiles simply allows you to make your own photoscenery from sat/aerial photography, as I understand it. Quite a big difference between the two.

 

Have a look at FSAltitude - it may do the job you want it to. It changes the outer rings of your LOD to photoscenery whilst keeping the inner ones the same (FTXG in your case) when you are at high altitude you'll not see things very close to you from the cockpit so you'll see the photoscenery and vice-versa at low altitude. A search on here will give you more of an idea.

The repetitive textures are because the original FSX landclass was developed that way, and as Global is only replacing textures, not the landclass placement, Global has the same problem.  The LC packs being developed will help a lot of areas but it's unlikely that any area will ever look really good from really high up with good visibility.

 

The way I deal with the problem is to choose a weather theme or settings that limit the visible distance, as you would find on high altitude flights a good percentage of the time.  To be able to see to the horizon from FL300 and above is a very rare occurrence!