Just put MegaCity Denver through its paces ...WOW!

[Guest melevine]

I received the much anticipated MegaCity Denver today. I just finished thoroughly testing it in different seasons, times of day, etc. and am very impressed. I live in Colorado Springs, and am quite familiar with the topography and buildings along the front range cities and found VFR flying at about 4-5000 AGL just about perfect. The night lighting is truly spectacular! The only thing that I don't really like is that the winter textures (which are completely snow covered) are displayed even if one chooses the "fall" setting in the Time/Season tab on the World menu...this gave me November 5th. Outside of the new scenery boundary the colors were appropriately fall, but still winter (totally covered by snow) within the boundaries. I moved the date back one month to October 5th....now the new scenery looks right. Framerates were very good on my P4 3.6 Ghz, 1 GB RAM, NVidia 6800 256MB PCI Express rig. I also have USA Roads installed, and they merge perfectly with MegaCity Denver at the edges. Finally, I use ImagineSim's KDEN Airport Upgrade, and found that the new MegaCity scenery merged with it without any conflicts noted (I was concerned that there would be a problem between these two, but fortunately there was none seen)I'd like to thank the scenery designers for a GOOD JOB.....THANKS!R/Mike Levine

[Guest DonaldS]

Thanks for your post.I have ordered MegaCity - Denver and it should be here any day now.Thanks for putting in the bit about it being compatible with US Roads, which I now have. I was wondering about that. I have Justin's mesh scenery installed as well, is that going to cause any problems do you think? (This shows you my total lack of knowlege regarding the entire "Megascenery" thing.)Thanks,DonaldS

[JimmiG 244]

It does look very good on the screenshots. However those kind of sceneries don't interst me since I'm more of a cross-country person. I mean the novelty of flying back and fourth over a city quickly wears off and you'll want to go explore the country. At least I do.Also I would advise anyone outside of North America to NOT order from PC Aviator using standard airmail (supposedly 7-14 days but it does take longer). The PNW Megascenery was sent to me about 32 days ago and still haven't received it. The European pre-orders for that scenery are just starting to trickle into EU now.

[Guest melevine]

Don,I also have Justin's 38m mesh for the entire US. No problems with the MC scenery.

[michal 44]

Yeah, this sort of scenery doesn't appeal to me either. I would rather like to see say a 20% scenery improvement over the whole US than enjoy 1000% improvement limited to a small box.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2

[Guest Keyser Soze]

Hi Michael,for that there is FS Global 2005. I don't usually buy sceneries but I would like to have a real mesh. Any experience with this product? I only buy sets of smaller airports like Scandinavian Airports from Aerosoft because I'm satisfied with the default large airports (they eat some FPS though) and I'm pretty afraid if they will be compatible with the new mesh since it might have a new elevation data for the airfields. Anyone with an experience with this here?Anyway, I would like to ask Mike, what is a frame rate drop with this Denver add-on from his usual frame rates at default airports? Denver is beside SLC my favorite US area to fly to and from the screenshots it looks pretty.Thanks!

[michal 44]

>for that there is FS Global 2005. Yeah, but I don't mean mesh. I mean improvement in textures, landclass, etc. Mesh is a very small part of overall terrain appearance. Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2

[Guest bobsk8]

I just got the New York version of Mega Scenery and it is great!! Just took my RAS Scout for a ride around Manhattan Island after taking off from LGA. The lighting, the bridges, office buildings, power plants, everything is in the right place. Circled around the statue of Liberty once and back though Queens to LGA for a landing on 4. This morning I flew up to the Catskill Area of New York where I lived for a few years, and that was all correct to. Think I have about 150 x 150 miles with over 50 airports for some great light plane flying. Well worth the money.

[Guest bobsk8]

>It does look very good on the screenshots. However those kind>of sceneries don't interst me since I'm more of a>cross-country person. I mean the novelty of flying back and>fourth over a city quickly wears off and you'll want to go>explore the country. At least I do.>>Also I would advise anyone outside of North America to NOT>order from PC Aviator using standard airmail (supposedly 7-14>days but it does take longer). The PNW Megascenery was sent to>me about 32 days ago and still haven't received it. The>European pre-orders for that scenery are just starting to>trickle into EU now.Got my order from Pc Aviator in 3 days.

[JimmiG 244]

Yup but you live in North America. If you live in Europe the best place to order is probably simw.com. There is a price premium but you get trackable 2-3 days shipping instead of unreliable untrackable airmail and potential toll fees.

[Guest melevine]

Previously I had my frame rate locked at 30 (as many forum pundits had advised, even though I have a robust PC and video card, etc) and was getting 29 in most places. The install instructions for MC Denver advised setting frame rates to "unlimited." I allowed the install to automatically do that (and it also made a few other changes to the FS9 settings, the most significant was that it changed my mesh complexity to 20 from 80). I figured if I didn't like the results I could always change back to my former settings. I ended up setting my mesh complexity to 50, as I liked the look better Well, was I surprised! Opening up my FPS to unlimited.....I started seeing FPS in the 60-70's in general and in the 40-50's in the MC Denver area.I then stressed out my system to the maximum: I taxied my Eaglesoft Citation X in the Imaginsim KDEN scenery with a fair amount of clouds, then did a flight low and slow around the Denver metro. The lowest frames I saw on the ground at KDEN were 22 (That scenery does cause a bit of a hit when near the many detailed buildings) and while flying over Denver I was seeing 35-50 during the "day" depending on turning the aircraft, changing views from 2D to VC to spot. Flying that area at "night" raised the FPS into the 60's and 70's. When I left the southern border of the the MC Denver scenery and headed back toward Colorado Springs, the FPS ranged from 55-65 in the "day". Hope this information is helpful to you.R/Mike

[Bob Familton 14]

How far north does it cover? How about Cheyenne area? I used to fly there. Thanks, regards, Bob.

[Guest Keyser Soze]

Yes, thank you! I have a similar system and from your post it seems the frame rate hit is not so prominent. After all I could buy the scenery. And that thing with unlimited frame rate limit is interesting and I will try it tonight.Thanks once again.

[Guest Paul Heaney]

MegaScenery Pacific Northwest is fantastic as well, but it also has problems with the winter textures, too much snow, not very impressive.Now fly it in the summer and WOW!

[Guest DonaldS]

>and it also made a few other changes to the FS9 settings, the>most significant was that it changed my mesh complexity to 20>from 80). I figured if I didn't like the results I could>always change back to my former settings. Mike,I am a rather dull fellow; I'm afraid, when it comes to things like monkeying around with, um, tweaking, flight sim. Most of it is way over my head.So - How would I go about changing mesh complexity back to where it was before MegaCity Denver? And, how would I go back and "un-optimize" the graphics scenery settings? (See below)It is interesting that you brought up that subject, Mike, because after I read the instructions, I decided not to install Denver, after all.I would rather be out the $22.90 I paid for it, rather than have something installed that messed up the way I have FS9 running. When I read the installation instructions and saw, "During the final stage of installation you will be presented with the option to allow installer to optimize your graphics setting for the best display of MegaCity scenery.", I got scared and backed off from installing it.I figured if I didn't let it "optimize the graphics" it might look like a piece dud scenery and if I did let it "optimize the graphics" i might end up with a dud FS9.Thanks,DonaldS