More thoughts on Vector...

[birdguy 3,946]

I have all of the Orbx regions and close to 100 Orbx airports, payware and freeware, installed  so I am pretty much committed to Orbx.  I also have the three Pilots FS Global Ultimate mesh areas installed.

 

Yesterday I flew around an area I am very familiar with, Marin County and the north bay area of the San Francisco Bay.  I also have Aerosoft San Francisco city scenery installed because it includes Commodore Center, a seaplane base in Sausalito where I learned to fly in a Luscombe 8E on floats in the mid to late 50s.

 

I flew around the area at an altitude of about 3,000 feet testing both UTX and Vector.  I took notice of the roads, waterways, coastlines, the highway around Mt. Tamalpais, the Stinson and Muir Beaches areas, and the local towns from Sausalito all the way to Novato and the reservoirs north of Mt. Tamalpais.

 

I disabled Vector and installed UTX for my first tour of the area and then uninstalled UTX and flew around the roughly the same area without Vector enabled.  Then I did it a third time with Vector enabled.

 

For my sensibilities Vector still has some warts and anomalies like the extra water level bridges under the Golden gate and Bay Bridges and a few missing water areas but still has my vote as fitting in the best with the mesh I have chosen to use.  I'm sure Vector's warts and anomalies will be soon fixed and that's the one I am going  with.

 

One other area I checked out; an area I have never been to but holds my fascination because of a book I once read about it, was Chandalar Lake in Alaska.  I have seaplane dock and cabin I installed there using Instant Scenery 2.  Vector gives the shoreline of the lake the best overall appearance, although it left my dock and cabin out in the lake a couple hundred yards from the shoreline.  But that was easily fixed by relocating the cabin and dock with Instant Scenery.

 

We all have our personal perceptions of what we like to see when we are flying.  For me Vector best gives me what I want to see.

 

Noel

[SolRayz 392]

I have seen the same thing. On my home island of St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, the west end has a super long pier used for crew ships. Vector depicts this as a long narrow landmass. UTX had a pier.

 

FTXG needs a lot of work.

[1st fltsimguy 466]

Interesting.  I have avoided Global and Vector.  I have UTX and GEX and all Orbx Regions and tons of airports. Also have FS Addons, Misty Fjords, Tongass, Vancouver +, supported by FS Genesis NextMap Mesh

 

I love my setup and just can't get myself to commit more money for those two global products.  At least at this time.

 

I am wondering about the review, as it seems Poster #2 is saying some things are not correct, and OP is saying the same.  The lake shore issue, so was the new global lake correct or was the UTX lake correct?

[birdguy 3,946]

Sorry Brian.  Never having been to Chandalar Lake I don't know which one was more correct.  The shoreline of the Vector lake was more pleasing to me.  No abrupt cliffs along the shore that were present in the default.

 

I should have mentioned I don't have UTX for Alaska so I could only compare Vector with the default shoreline.

 

Noel

[mmann 72]

I mainly fly around Vancouver Island, BC. UTX Canada is much better here than FTX Global VECTOR (VECTOR has WAY too many anomalies). That being said, the FTX Pacific Northwest region blows them both away!

[GolfMikeBravo 7]

I have both UTX and Vector installed and active in my scenery library.  I do not use the Vector roadway lighting, unless I fly outside of one of the UTX areas (I have roadway lighting enabled in UTX).  All of the UTX scenery is installed above the Vector scenery in the scenery library.  UTX was installed long before I installed Vector.  My mesh terrain is entirely FSGenesis.  My intention here is to have UTX objects in the areas that UTX covers, and use Vector in all other areas of the world.  So far, I have not noticed any major problems in the area that I do most of my flying (northeastern U.S.), only a few double bridges.  I really like the concept of Vector, and will move exclusively to Vector if they can eliminate most of the anomalies and missing data, but for now will keep using both.  After more thorough testing of using both products simultaneously, I will post a report of my findings, with pros and cons.

 

Regards,

 

Gerald

[Kilo60 660]

Thanks for the updates regarding UTX with Vector as I have UTX and want to get Vector for the rest of the world!

[Jon Davidson 0]

Originally a UTX, GEX, FSGenisis guy. I tried vector and was dissapointed. the reason mostly it is not adjustable as UTX. Vector just runs and you take what you get. UTX has so much more depth as a customizable addon. I agree with the above as well. I Use FTX Global, and have UTX enabled underneath it withGEX in non ORBX areas, and it is the best combination I have been able to come up with for realism. I hear flight one is working on a P3D addon should be the one to watch for that sim.

[MAHLER 10]

Like some previous threads I have not succumbed to FTX Global or Vector, although I have the FTX Oceanic and North American addons which are great, particularly for VFR flying. I also purchased England, Wales and Scotland FTX products, my theatre of operations being mainly in Europe,  although the UK scenery has a great deal of topographical accuracy,  I find the overall scenery bland and uninteresting. so much so that I more often revert to default texures which are enhanced by Aime  Leclercq's  excellent freeware textures, and UTX Europe.

[1st fltsimguy 466]

Here is the link to

Aime Leclercq Creations

https://sites.google.com/site/aimecreations/

 

 

I also have a set of his textures that I can "swap" in and out with my FTX setup.  I've been saying it for some time that this fellow's work is great. 

 

Just make sure you have a complete texture backup folder or you will mess up your global texture sets which might contain Global textures, GEX textures and such.

 

I make a subfolder that backup the existing folder.

I make a subfolder that contains Aime's replacement textures.

I just rename the folders to activate which one I want to use.

 

D:\Games\Flight Simulation 10\Scenery\World\Texture (this is the current set - just rename the texture folder to something else and rename one of the ones below to "Texture", placed under the World folder.

             Texture Backup - Complete - Aimé Leclercq Textures

             Texture Backup - Master (contains FTX, GEX)

 

[1st fltsimguy 466]

I have both UTX and Vector installed and active in my scenery library.  I do not use the Vector roadway lighting, unless I fly outside of one of the UTX areas (I have roadway lighting enabled in UTX).  All of the UTX scenery is installed above the Vector scenery in the scenery library.  UTX was installed long before I installed Vector.  My mesh terrain is entirely FSGenesis.  My intention here is to have UTX objects in the areas that UTX covers, and use Vector in all other areas of the world.  So far, I have not noticed any major problems in the area that I do most of my flying (northeastern U.S.), only a few double bridges.  I really like the concept of Vector, and will move exclusively to Vector if they can eliminate most of the anomalies and missing data, but for now will keep using both.  After more thorough testing of using both products simultaneously, I will post a report of my findings, with pros and cons.

 

Regards,

 

Gerald

 

I don't have Vector but just reading your post about double bridges problem, do you have Instant Scenery 3?  I has a feature to identify objects by the name of and where located, so you might be able to find the culprit objects and disable the version you do not want.

 

cheers,

Bryan

[GolfMikeBravo 7]

Thanks, Bryan!

 

I do not have Instant Scenery 3 (only version 2).  I will probably grab version 3 this weekend and see if I can use it as suggested to remedy the double bridge problem.  So far, I have been dealing with it (not spending too much time looking at the bridges!).  More testing coming this weekend!

 

Also, I just downloaded the FTX Lighting Tool for UTX (see thread in FSX Forum).  Gonna play with that this weekend, also.

 

Gerald

[1st fltsimguy 466]

Instant Scenery 2 also does what I was mentioning.  I cant remember now if the upgrade was free or not.  Seems to me I might have paid $5 bucks or something.  Anyway, the scan of bgl feature is under one of the menu items.

 

You can get close to the are of interest, ie less than one km, do a scan of bgl's within 1km and it will highlite on our screen those scenery objects and their associated bgl file and its location in your fsx folders.

Yes I just got a headsup on the UTX lighting tool as well, and will also give that a try.