MegaSceneryEarth England and Wales

[LeeL 272]

So there's two people involved in other photoscenery products bashing MegaScenery... Interesting

 

The plus points I see her is

Price

Downloadability

And its England and Wales

 

People who are involves in other competing projects bashing another company comes across as bad taste.

And I should say, I may not buy it. I was just giving people a heads up

[kevinfirth 1,406]

I think it will have good points and bad ones. On the plus side it's relatively cheap and covers most of the country. On the bad side the resolution isn't any better than GenX, it isn't colour corrected, has no autogen and also has no water poly (you get default landclass textures in places around the coast unless you have a detailed water poly from somewhere...

 

My money is on Earth Simulations Autogenesis which also has it's good and bad points, depending how you see them. It's going to be full UK coverage (but broken down Into smaller areas so you can choose which you want), it's prob going to work out more expensive, it will have the option of 60cm or 30cm photoscenery throughout (sampled from 15cm source), will have full water polys, is colour corrected and comes also with option of full autogen coverage as well.

 

I was going to buy the MSE scenery as a stopgap til this came through but as the resolution isn't greater and there are no water polys I'm going to give it a miss. What works for others may well be different though

 

Cheers K

[Andydigital 93]

So now good advice is called bad taste is it, fair enough, but don't you think people who have been involved in the production of PS products in the past might have something useful to bring to the conversation?

 

For the record, I haven't been a beta tester for Horizon for well over 4 years, the company was taken over by Playsims and it went down hill, they have now gone out of business. I couldn't give two hoots whether you think I'm doing this out of fanboi'sm or whatever, I know I'm not, I'm also not on here trying to win a popularity contest, I'm here to impart my advise for the good of others. The OP asked a question and I answered to the best of my knowledge.

 

Also for the record I can't stand anyone at Playsims, the boss was/is a complete twit. Chris and Darren on the other hand from the original Horizon simulations (before Paul sacked them and closed ranks) were a top pair of blokes, Darren with his wife Vikki is still in the FS business and is making phenomenal scenery with his company Earth Simulations, they certainly make QUALITY and not QUANTITY.

[LeeL 272]

Andy while we probably agree on most things - earth simulations is great- I'm not going to have this conversation any longer, I can see where its heading

[Andydigital 93]

Oh and guess what mega spam I just got in my inbox, you can get this scenery for 25% off by using the code ENG25. See no favouritism from me, just caveat emptor.

[xplanery 250]

My, that's a nasty tone to throw at someone. Your experience making photo based scenery is ... what?

It's also nasty to call MSE devs "&@($* holes" like he did, that's why I chose that tone. 

 

.

Your experience making photo based scenery is ... what?

 

 

I've had various project, admittedly none of them included particularly large areas, just some islands. Nowadays I'm more into airport design anyway.

 

To be honest I like MSE because I can easily obtain photoscenery from different parts of the world through download from them. I have looked at what Earth Sim has to offer earlier, however to me it looked like some of their products were always out of stock so I couldn't have gotten coverage for all areas I wanted. 

 

Also I don't feel like buying many hard drives just to fill my PC with high quality photoscenery for areas that I don't visit that often. I rather buy MSE and save some space for other stuff while still having quality that I personally find adequate for my needs. 

 

 

they certainly make QUALITY and not QUANTITY.

I would certainly choose entire Europe in MSE quality any day over some random British Island I've never going to visit, even if it's in fantastic life like quality. I think there's clear market for MSE products that might not be top quality but cover large areas for small price and minimum hard drive space. Especially for airliner flying top resolution is useless as you aren't going to notice any difference during most of your flight. 

[Pete Dowson 558]

This is an interesting thread. That Georgia photoscenery is quoted as "50cm aerial imagery throughout", and yet that is 24.4GB for 59000 sq.miles. The PlayHorizon GenX photoscenery of England and Wales (as Andy has already pointed out) comes in at approximately 75GB for a roughly equivalent geographical area, and that is at 1.2m per pixel resolution.

 

Something definitely does not add up here.....

 

Aren't the textures compressed at all, at least for download and/or release, prior to installation? If so, wouldn't the size depend very much on the type of terrain being pictured? I mean an England-sized piece of Siberia or the Sahara would presumably compress a lot more than the English countryside with its many different fields and villages? Compression would be based on replacing repeated copies of the same values with a count code of some kind.

 

By all means compare installed sizes and resolutions of photo sceneries of the same areas, but it seems fruitless comparing Apples and Oranges.

 

I do have the Horizon scenery, and would be very interested in a comparison when someone does finally install this new product. I must admit that the pictures in the promotion don't really look any better or worse, but then they are selected to look good, no doubt.

 

Regards

Pete

[neil0311 366]

Oh and guess what mega spam I just got in my inbox, you can get this scenery for 25% off by using the code XXXXX. See no favouritism from me, just caveat emptor.

 

Wow, there are some people who thrive on just being nasty for the sake of it.  You don't want discounts from MSE....then block them as spam so you don't receive their emails.   I'd think someone named "Andydigital" could figure out how email works.

 

I personally like MSE and have been purchasing Megascenery since it was introduced for FS9 back in 2004.  I'm a real world pilot and find photoscenery to be much more to my liking than some contrived landclass and autogen view of place that I know and fly over in real life.  

 

I like MSE 2.0 because I get entire state (or high resolution) coverage as I want it.  I can instantly download, and YES....I like getting announcements and discounts from them.   I manage my email and have them sent to a folder, so I can easily review them and delete them when done with them.  I think they call that inbox management....but I digress. 

 

I have not bought the England and Wales MSE yet.   I have the Horizon England and Wales vol 1,2,3 that I bought years ago at a huge cost and wait, and then rebought when they updated it.  I even bought the Treescapes add on, which I like.   Right now it meets my needs, but who knows.   Bottom line is that Horizon went belly up.   There are very few (if any) other publishers or new photoscenery.   There are some freeware packages, but they are usually small areas and subject to the specific tastes of the author.  I do have some great freeware as well.

 

Bottom line for people like Andydigital...if you don't like MSE....then don't buy it.  No one is putting a gun to your head.  If you buy it and have an opinion, then by all means share it politely, but otherwise....don't share your opinion about a product you don't own.   

[kevinfirth 1,406]

@Neil0311 If anyone has anything informative and constructive to contribute, they should, regardless of whether they own or intend to own any product or not.

 

I'm afraid contributions only from people who own or like a product lead inexorably to fora where ###### rule and all other opinions are derided/deleted. That's not where we should be really is it?

 

MSE works for some and doesn't for others.

 

As long as it isn't personal everyone should feel free to posit their opinions.

 

If you don't like the way someone does that, pull them up on the manner in which they contributed (politely) but please DO NOT attempt to bully/order someone not to post. If you want to moderate posts apply for a mod position

 

Edit: since when did avsim edit Phan-Boise out into hashes?

[Chainsawz 0]

Edit: since when did avsim edit Phan-Boise out into hashes?

 

I like the term "male proponents"!

 

A comment was made up above, so in response; I haven't sold anything for 4+ years. I'm just a user and a customer. As such, I do not like to "settle" for something, just because it is the only option. Something about, if you are going to do something, then do it right?

 

So all this advertising for Mega Earth States and it's 50cm source, only to see the person doing all the work write how the source is US NAIP which is 1 meter source. Oppsss... Or seeing that there will be efforts to "clean up and improve the water" after the initial releases. Anyone gotten their notices for a cleaned up and water improved release yet? And now the cities are coming out as 50cm source? Wasn't the statewide source suppose to be... OOpppsss!

 

If developers want to see my money, they need to quit playing their games and be honest from the start. Trying to sell me some watered down garbage doesn't make it seem like Happy Hour to me!

[phoenixphire 50]

My friends and family see me as someone who knows electronics and computers well. They often ask me for advice. When people are shopping a new TV they always ask me the same thing, how do you choose? I always say the same thing. I choose a reputable brand and I go down to the store and I look at the picture. I then buy the TV that I think has the best picture and is in my price range. I purchased MSE England and now I am going to fly over there and see what it looks like for myself. I will report back with my observations. 

[Christopher Low 5,371]

 

Especially for airliner flying top resolution is useless as you aren't going to notice any difference during most of your flight.

 

......unless you're me. I fly all of my planes "low and slow", and that includes the PMDG 737NGX and Quality Wings 146! :wink:

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

MSE is a budget product line, so MSE ENG/WLS most likely is a budget product, as well.

 

I've covered this isle (incl. SCO) already with ORBX regions and now I'm looking forward to a upcoming MSE Ireland release (the complete isle in a geographic sense, including the Republic AND Northern Ireland).

 

I will consider covering Ireland with MSE, but there is some likelihood that an upcoming ORBX sale could make me buy their two regions instead.

[zmak 331]

I use MSE around my airport hubs (FSDT) where there is no ORBX. The price is reasonable during the sales at 50% off. 

 

By the way the ultra res citys are really good quality and cover massive areas. 

 

IMO MSE is a reasonably good product and at the end of the day there really is not much choice 

[Dougal 165]

Well, I've just installed it and about have a look.....