X-Plane 10 HD Mesh Scenery v2 released!



The free (donationware!) X-Plane 10 HD Scenery Mesh v2 has been released after almost a year of work. It covers many of the "interesting" regions of the planet (over 55 Gbytes of data), covering:

• Europe (Iceland and Canaries included)
• USA (Hawaii included)
• Canada (most parts of it)
• Alaska

A coverage map can be found here:

 

It is an update to the older v1 HD Mesh (and a replacement of the default Global Scenery) and brings a lot of improvements to the simulator:

• It is a much higher resolution base mesh (more, smaller triangles) compared to the default Global Scenery which ships with X-Plane 10 (one could say: approximately 2-3-times more dense)
• The higher resolution mesh allows for a much more detailed representation of the elevation profile of the landscape
• The higher resolution mesh allows a much more detailed/exact representation of the underlying landclass data (because of the smaller triangles, which can follow landclass changes in the raw data more closely)
• It is based on a completely new Openstreetmap (OSM) data (approximately end of September 2013), which brings (compared to default Global Scenery) a lot of improvements in:
  • water features (lakes, rivers, coastline) - many previously missing water features are now finally there
  • roads
  • railroads
  • power lines
  • urban park areas
• It includes line rivers from OSM (not just polygons as before) tagged waterway=river which improves the landscape in most regions quite a bit
• Uses improved urban zoning (thanks to improved algorithms in the scenery generator)
• Many smaller and larger landclass data improvements
  • completely replaced the landclass data for Canada (big improvements)
  • improved forest density representation in Europe (changed the sparse / dense classification)
  • some new classes added (in many regions), like: moraines, riverbeds, mining/dump sites
  • added differentiation between ice (perennial) and snow (more temporal) to have an even more detailed representation of mountains
  • dded differentiation between irrigated / non-irrigated crops (in some regions - like the USA etc.)
• Completely replaced the elevation data with viewfinderpanoramas.org (if yew have a few cents, donate to that guy!). This doesn't changes much in areas which were already great, but fixes some which were really hosed.

One important prerequisite: to make this scenery work, you MUST have at least X-Plane version 10.25 (beginning with 10.25 beta1)!

A large selection of screenshots can be found here:

• Europe: https://picasaweb.google.com/101666907909842492197/XPlane10HDMeshSceneryV2EuropeFINAL?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNKp646D4Ynscw&feat=directlink
• North America: https://picasaweb.google.com/101666907909842492197/XPlane10HDMeshSceneryV2NorthAmericaFINAL?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLCalPCK1MD6vAE&feat=directlink

All informations, possible updates, installation instructions, and download links can be found here:

 

BUT, I ASK YOU TO FORM AN ORDERLY QUEUE, AND DON'T KILL SIMFLIGHT.COM!!!

I would recommend you to start with 1 or 2 smaller regions first. Install it, test it, and only then come back later for more. Don't expect to have all of the scenery at once!

http://www.alpilotx.net/downloads/x-plane-10-hd-scenery-mesh-v2/

And a I would to thank www.flightsim.com for making it possible to host a project of this size!

Andras Fabian
www.alpilotx.net
 

Yeeeessssss!!!!!!!!

 

I'm off.....

One question, from an XPX newby.....

 

If I install this mesh, how is it affected by further XPX updates-  do I need to re-install the new mesh after each update.  And... how does this mesh interact with other scenery products such as the UrbanMAXX product that I have installed?

 

Thanks,  Bruce.

 

Oh my totes goodness! Can't wait to try it out, thanks  ^_^

One question, from an XPX newby.....

 

If I install this mesh, how is it affected by further XPX updates-  do I need to re-install the new mesh after each update.  And... how does this mesh interact with other scenery products such as the UrbanMAXX product that I have installed?

 

Thanks,  Bruce.

 

Hi Bruce,

 

XPX update does NOT overwrite HD mesh data in the Custom Scenery folder. The HD mesh also interact very well with UrbanMAXX, no worries there.

Now let's put some stress test to my slow net connection...

Thank you Andras!

One thing guys. Please be so kind, and DON'T KILL FLIGHTSIM.COM B) ! Please, everybody start with one or two - smaller - regions and test it before you - slowly - continue! Thank you!

BTW, I have found the Paypal button very useful today -

One more thing: if there are users who are native speakers of other languages (other than German or English that is) and frequent X-Plane related forums / sites in your language, then please feel free to spread the word!

it is limited to 2 files with 50kb/s. +40+000 mesh takes 10h 40min. good night...

it is limited to 2 files with 50kb/s. +40+000 mesh takes 10h 40min. good night...

Eeeeeeeek! 

 

But that will certainly reduce the stress on the servers!

Andras do you have any objections to someone putting a torrent up for these files?

Andras do you have any objections to someone putting a torrent up for these files?

Theoretically no, but practically I don't like that so much, as I loose control over possible version updates (when it turns out, that things are broken and need to be replaced by a new file). In those situations its very hard to control who got what from where (especially when then they ask for "support").

 

And by the way! If you want faster downlaods, you might consider getting a First Class Membership at flightsim.com (no, they are not paying me to tell you this!). Its only 29 bucks a year, which is less than many other add-ons cost!

 

You can look at it this way: you pay anyways for it ... either with your time or you money. And remember, that distributing this amounts of data is not a peanut (not even fro flightsim.com)! Because if 1000 users download 55 GBytes .... :blink: ... that adds up to 55 TBytes of traffic!

someone just do a torrent. people will complain either way

Understood. I'm happy to be patient and wait for the normal download. Been anticipating this for a few months now so a few extra hours won't hurt:)

Hi Bruce,

 

XPX update does NOT overwrite HD mesh data in the Custom Scenery folder. The HD mesh also interact very well with UrbanMAXX, no worries there.

 

Now let's put some stress test to my slow net connection...

Thank you Andras!

 

Thanks, much appreciated.

Bruce.