Terribly disappointed with MegasceneryEarth Switzerland.

[fscottee 10]

I guess I should have read the details on their page, there was no mention of a 50cm resolution like there is on some of their state products.  But it wasn't the resolution as much as the inconcistent hues across the entire country.  If you zoom all the way out on the map view, you can plainly see a significant difference is several areas as far as color.  At one airport, Winterthur, the color and hue is so bright and "washed out", almost pinkish in some areas, it was disgusting.  Then you fly a few miles and it's dark green, then a few miles more, light green.  Just bad.  Then of course, there did seem to be significant inconsistency with the resolution.  Some mountains are fantastic, then valleys or other areas just look HORRIBLE down low.

 

I purchased Washington State, and it is just great.  Wonderful consistent color and resolution throughout.  THe least I thought their latest product, Switzerland, would be equally as great if not better.  I was wrong - and frankly ######.  This product is NOT good.

 

So bad that I completely erased it from my drive (space is highly valued). 

 

Please don't buy Switzerland unless you really really really want to.  But you've been warned.

 

 

 

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

See here:

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/422806-mse-2-swiss-first-impression/

 

Discussion of source images, post-production, advertising screenshots and FSX internal settings.

[zmak 331]

pics?

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

I'm not the topic starter, but:

 

Here's a MSE SUI shot showing a variety of colours. It doesn't look consistent for sure, but I wouldn't complain, either (your milages may vary .. just like the SUI colours!!! ):

 

 

 

And just for reference a comparison between the older (and quite expensive) VFR Germany and MSE SUI. SUI quality seems to be justifiable, IMO:

 

 

[AKStirling 44]

Like the OP i found myself seriously disappointed with some US states i bought. Given what they cost i decided to complain to the developer. This i did supported by screenshots of the issues and i was refunded without quibble. Might be worth a shot ....

 

 

Alan

[fscottee 10]

I would be glad to get a refund, who wouldn't. I think the most damaging evidence would be a zoomed out view of Switzerland. You can see how the country is separated by squares of color variance. If they would do that for each country/state, it would give the potential customer a better idea of what they are buying.

 

I was simply under the impression that since Washington state looks so good, even zoomed out, I figured their latest product would be equally done. It seems the Switzerland product is a mesh of good and bad... Like they just hodgepodged it together with whatever photos they had..

 

Even google earth Switzerland is better than this offering from MSE.

[fscottee 10]

Well I guess if they don't want to respond, screw me.

 

Sent two emails with no response.

 

I see very very few reviews about MSE Switzerland, so let this one stand. Hopefully someone else will see this on a google search and it'll keep them from purchasing it.

[fscottee 10]

Here's what I'm talking about:  Zoomed out.  Look at the nasty variance in colors and hues.  Small country, yet if I posted a zoomed out image of Washington State, it looks excellent.

 

MSE should really think about posting a zoom out of each scenery they sell.   If they can do a state like Washington and make it look consistent, they have no excuse for offering garbage like this.. especially being the newest release.. 

 

 

 

 

 

[klamal 282]

Unfortunately the answer you're going to get to this is that it all depends on the source imagery. Which, for the most part, is true. I don't think they do any post processing on any of the imagery they get before compiling it into scenery.

 

I know from experience though that doing that is an art too and would be almost(if not) impossible to get it perfect across such a large area(even though Switzerland is a relatively small country, that's still a huge area to try to get consistent - lots and lots of images).

 

I bought this from them and while I haven't flown over the entire country, I can tell you that at least for the Geneva area, I can make better photo real scenery than this. I'm actually going to rip out their Geneva area stuff so I can use just my own(which has winter textures too). Of course, the source I used may have been better than what they used. But, I did also do some processing to the images before compiling.

 

Anyway, yeah, it would be nice if they would sell these areas cheaper - like they did for Hawaii in the US due to clouds and such. Unless it looks like Washington state, they shouldn't be charging full price. This given that Washington I believe is $40 and so is Switzerland and they are about the same size but miles apart in quality imagery used.

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

MSE SUI is USD 30 ... except for those Tuesdays.

[klamal 282]

MSE SUI is USD 30 ... except for those Tuesdays.

Oops. Sorry. Well, than maybe that's fair in comparison to Washington? I don't know. For me, I still like it. I'd rather have photo scenery like this than the land class stuff that's there otherwise.

[fscottee 10]

I'm in the same boat. It's photoscenery all the way. Products like ORBX certainly make FSX more enjoyable, but I still have no sense of flying when using landclass scenery. But put me in a true to life scene with some high quality mesh, and I lose myself in the experience.

[PCAviator 37]

Hi,

 

Thanks for your comments and I am sorry to hear that you are disappointed with the scenery. As Kamal rightly said, the issue is with source imagery. VERY rarely do you get photoreal scenery of even consistency over such large area, especially with the higher resolution aerial imagery. It's generally a limitation of sourcing quality imagery. There have been numerous discussion on this here at AVSIM already and about the difficulty of trying to blend and match image sources which comes from more than just a few different sources too (this is not just one huge single image, but a collage of image from varied sources that is best available resolution at the time). In saying that, Switzerland is 50cm/pixel source imagery throughout... If you are seeing different resolutions in different areas, then there are various factors that would account for these visual differences, and it may be as simple as making a few tweakis to your FSX CFG file and video card settings.

 

As also mentioned on other threads here, we know the imagery is not perfectly consistent, and in some cases, quite inconsistent. There are good states and countries, and some not so good, but our goal remains to offer the best available source imagery converted to useable scenery in FSX for the absolute lowest price. We are aware there are other photo sceneries for certain European countries out there, and they are more consistent, but they carry MUCH larger price tags too. What we offer is in some cases, a compomise in image consistency and certain features for the benefit of a far lower, more affordable price point.

 

I hope this helps explain a few things and I would encourage you to read some of the other MSE threads here for even more explanation on some of the finer points of, and limitations of photoscenery products in general.

[fscottee 10]

How about posting a zoomed out image of each country/state from now on? Just like I did above.

 

I think that would settle some issues.

[klamal 282]

How about posting a zoomed out image of each country/state from now on? Just like I did above.

 

I think that would settle some issues.

No way!!!  Not truth in advertising!?!?  Is there a company out there that advertises their faults as well as their strengths??