UTAH Ultimate VFR comparison

[peppy197 165]

Comparing the new Ultimate VFR for UTAH to the P3DV22 with only FTXG and FTX-Vector

See the two below, don't think I need to say which is which...

 

 

P3DV22 was at MAX LOD settings, still getting usable fps

 

Nice colors and the cloud shadows work great here !!

Ans yes, there is limited autogen on this photoscenery...downtown so far not in subburbs

There is road traffic on that major road down there, but not sure if that is from Ult or FTX_Vector

In this shot, you can see the tree autogen clearly...

 

 

Again, no need to say which is which

 

 

Then I have these 2 screenshots that do not need comparisons:

......... these are at MAX LOD in P3D

[Clutch Cargo 384]

Nice shots, but I think you are really comparing apples to oranges.  I would show comparison shots between them and MegaScenery Utah to check the differences.  

[peppy197 165]

Nice shots, but I think you are really comparing apples to oranges.  I would show comparison shots between them and MegaScenery Utah to check the differences.  

 

I am not comparing it to anything

 

Besides I don't like MegaScenery, the first one I bought was mainly out of focus and blurry (before the 2 series) so I guess you could say I am prejudiced .

[UltimateVFR 1]

Hi Peppy197, just saw your post and noticed the water layer isn't turned on, just wondering if you were able to download it ok or if you prefer the more natural looking water?

 

Cheers,

Dean.

[peppy197 165]

I was not able to download it yet, the water that is...missing?

looking into that, but I like it as it is

 

I am getting NewMexico now, see how that is. Its only available in beta, with some counties not done yet

 

 

I checked my download page for UTAH and it is no longer valid....not a good sign as it has not expired yet according to my emailed link...

 

With such large data bundles, what happens if I have a computer failure and need to reinstall? I suppose it can re-activated but I will want to be sure before I buy anymore, as nice as they are.

[tttocs 301]

 

 

I am not comparing it to anything

 

I think what Mr. Cargo was suggesting was that most users who would be interested understand the difference between default (FSX or P3D) and decent photo.  What's important is what does Ultimate VFR bring to the table that existing products don't (MegaScenery Earth v2 - which BTW is a significantly better effort than the older line - or the excellent donation-ware Blue Sky which also covers all of Utah and includes hi-res mesh and airport correction/relocation).

 

Scott

[=Hollywood= 0]

Hi Scott,

 

Ultimate VFR brings full water mapping, night lighting effects, autogen vegetation and autogen buildings and a whole lot more free upgrades as time goes on.

Basically Megascenery pulls imagery off a tile server and renders it for FSX.

 

We take the best high quality source data, process it professionally (my background is professional film & t.v. production and professional imaging), generate custom night lighting effects, custom autogen and highly detailed water maps including dams, small rivers, even large creeks and canals.

Ultimate VFR actually started being developed back in 2006 during the FSX beta long before Megascenery Earth was even on the radar.  We planned to be a complement to the MegsceneryX product line, however we quickly discovered users wanted more than just aerial imagery.  So we started the long process to really exceed expectations.  We have gone far beyond just providing flat imagery and we have a lot more planned.  We have many more free upgrades planned for the future as well.

Along with my Film/TV background I'm also a real world pilot. and father was flight crew on 727's and 767's and aviation and image correction has been my life.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.  I'll be happy to respond.

 

Kindest Regards,

Dean.

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

First impression, from their website, it looks a lot better than photoreal I've seen elsewhere.  The one thing about it is the cities and towns.  It would be very nice to be able to have buildings there instead of photoreal.  E.g. if underlying FTX Global, or UTX/GEX would be allowed to be visible there.  (I did see that there are some buildings on Colorado so that's good).  I've been trying to figure out how to get photoreal in sparse areas (like Utah and Arizona) but keep some cities/buildings.  There's no organized answer to this.  But landing with photoreal and flatness is, honestly, very odd.  (There was some product a while back that showed photoreal in the distance but underlying scenery in a circle around the aircraft...seemed a possible compromise except that the photoreal with that product was not good.)

[tttocs 301]

 

 

Please let me know if you have any further questions. I'll be happy to respond.

 

Dean, I'm glad you pulled up this old post as I'd completely forgotten about your products.  I think when I last looked most of what I was interested in was still being developed, but now you have several states that I'm very interested in looking at.  Will definitely be giving either Utah, Arizona or Colorado a shot.

 

Scott

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

I got them all.  I'm *hoping* to be able to exclude some tiles that contain towns or cities near airports.  Any logic to how they're laid out?  Isn't there a tool somewhere that shows what tile is over an area?

[violingineer 2]

First impression, from their website, it looks a lot better than photoreal I've seen elsewhere.  The one thing about it is the cities and towns.  It would be very nice to be able to have buildings there instead of photoreal.  E.g. if underlying FTX Global, or UTX/GEX would be allowed to be visible there.  (I did see that there are some buildings on Colorado so that's good).  I've been trying to figure out how to get photoreal in sparse areas (like Utah and Arizona) but keep some cities/buildings.  There's no organized answer to this.  But landing with photoreal and flatness is, honestly, very odd.  (There was some product a while back that showed photoreal in the distance but underlying scenery in a circle around the aircraft...seemed a possible compromise except that the photoreal with that product was not good.)

 

Note that Ultimate VFR does have autogen embeded on their photoreal aparently in some places, this is a rarity in the FSX community. The only other widely available product for US locations with autogen is megasceneryX (the forerunner of megascenery--which does not have autogen). There are a few others but not much support. Aerosoft SwizertlandX is probably the best. I have megasceneryX Phoenix and it's great. I have also created some of my own that has autogen, see my new mexico scenery on rikoo. There are a few others if you look hard for free. But no one claims an entire state with autogen--if UltimateVFR does that is impressive.

 

That said, there is no way to combine landclass autogen and photoreal scenery autogen placements. It doesnt work that way. You can either have landclass (GEX, FTX) and autogen, or photo (megascenery, simsavvy, make your own) and autogen that is defined on that, but you cannot interchange them. The native FSX autogen is landclass, therefore you can never use native FSX (or FTX or GEX) in combination with a photo product. That's why I love MegasceneryX sooo much. It has just enough autogen to keep things smooth and realistic but still has fine photo qualities. Unfortunately they only made about 6 cities until they chickened out and just started doing photo only. Wish they would bring back some realy dev and include autogen too.

 

Thinking about getting Colorado Ultimate VFR now that the price is more reasonable. Any opinions on Colorado?

[newtie 533]

Don't fly over any of those states (mostly desert).

 

California/Oregon/Washington in the pipeline?

[tttocs 301]

 

Thinking about getting Colorado Ultimate VFR now that the price is more reasonable. Any opinions on Colorado?

 

I bought it as a test as this is my home sky, and while the autogen is nice enough I was disappointed overall.  For my first test flight, I flew a route that I've flown many, many times IRL in my own plane and driven many more - from KGXY (Greeley, Weld Cty) up over Rocky Mountain National Park and then basically IFR (I follow rivers    ) going down the Colorado River from its headwaters in the national park all the way to KCNY (Moab, UT). 

 

Unlike some other vendors, Ultimate VFR apparently puts a lot of work into making colors match from the sometimes mismatched color balance of the original imagery.  The net result in the areas of Colorado I flew was that rather than sometimes having some abrupt color transitions (but still having most areas' color representative of the real region), you have nicely balanced colors that are almost uniformly wrong for each area, sometimes jarringly so.  The colors along this route are very distinctive and shift gradually headed west as you transition from high mountains with greens and grays, through transition terrain featuring more buff colors as you move downriver past Eagle and Glenwood Springs and down to the red rock of the Colorado Plateau country.  They were so off throughout the entire route that I hardly recognized places I know intimately.

 

Colors aren't uniform IRL and I think that's the basic problem here.  It's hard to make all the tiles match up, while still retaining representative colors in each.  Bottom line is I went back to using MSE v2 for Colorado in combination with their hi-res Denver (which covers most of the Front Range area) combined with their hi-res Rocky Mountain National Park.  Not perfect, but sub-regions of the state do look like they should look.

 

Scott

[newtie 533]

Hey Scott-

 

This is why I stay away from all things Orbx.

 

As art, it's beautiful.

 

Doesn't look anything like where I live.