Ya I agree the screenshots on F1 look awful, you would think with all the time put into something they'd show us good screenshots (ie ORBX, PMDG). 

I prefer honest shots... Not the LOD8.5 OOM shots you get with Orbx sceneries (I own many Orbx sceneries btw)

Ryan, I often wondered about the level of detail in those Orbx shots. Nice to know I wasn't alone.

Yep, the screenshots on the main product page don't do it any favors.  I understand the concept, and in theory it could look amazing, but the screenshots make the ground around the buildings look quite poor.  I'd really like to see some more screenshots and perhaps reviews before I'd look seriously at it.

 

 

I prefer honest shots... Not the LOD8.5 OOM shots you get with Orbx sceneries

 

Most shots on Orbx are by Iain Emms, who runs modest hardward at modest settings... absolutley no BS there what so ever. The scenery simply looks good even at non uber settings.

 

I've done lots of shots for Orbx too, and have never extended things beyond my everyday flying settings... ever!... so lets put that one to bed please?

http://www.simforums.com/forums/xtreme-cities-photoscenery-megascenery-sample_topic50067.html

 

http://www.simforums.com/forums/latest-xtreme-cities-screenshots_topic49790.html

 

 

More screenies.

 

Vic

http://www.simforums.com/forums/xtreme-cities-photoscenery-megascenery-sample_topic50067.html

 

http://www.simforums.com/forums/latest-xtreme-cities-screenshots_topic49790.html

 

 

More screenies.

 

Vic

 

Now, some of those screenshots sell the product.  The one screen of New Orleans and the French Quarter is as impressive as anything I've seen in any sim.  I hope they're reading this; they really need to put that comparison shot in the main product page.  I just went from not really caring, to being excited about it.

Overall those new screenshots in Vic's post look exciting. I think only the roads and streets need to look much more refined. Right now in the screenshots those roads and streets still look like that kind of typical FSX low resolution textures.

 

I wonder they get some kind of data like Google map so they have the location, size and shape of all the big and small buildings? It's marvelous that they can pack every houses and buildings in a city without a huge hit on fps. If their first release contains my home city I'd buy it right away - couldn't wait to see my house in P3D!

 

Looks like Orbx finally has a serious competition. Frankly I have long thought that this is the direction Orbx should be going. Orbx cities look pretty much the same as FSX/P3D defaults - quite a mess in terms of texture/autogen alignment with streets and roads.

Hey guys.   This is Allen Kriesman, the primary developer of Scenery Solutions.    I was made aware of this forum thread as I typically make it a habit not to comment on public forums.

 

A couple of comments on what has been said.

 

First, this product is based on commercial data only.     We have a license with TomTom to use their 2D Map Data Product in all Xtreme Cities releases.    That data basically provides the building foundations and we use our custom software to add the building details and the optimization that makes it so efficient.    There is zero autogen used in this product.

 

We have literally been working on the software that creates these cities for the last two years.    That is one reason why you have not heard too much from us at Scenery Solutions for a while.

 

This product also does not use any vector features.   We created something called "TexturePhoto".  The TexturePhoto terrain images are 60cm, which is why the product is a pretty large download.     There are 3 versions:  Base FSX/P3D, Ground Environment X and Orbx FTX.   A lot of the features like roads and lights were colored and textured to match the surrounding landclass textures that are installed (base FSX/P3D, GEX or FTX).

 

I realize that the screenshots are not extremely flashy and there are 2 reasons for this:

• Personally, I just don't have a good eye for what looks flashy.   I look for accuracy only and so I miss some of the artistic details.  I considered hiring somebody artistic to take the screenshots, but the answer to this is explained in bullet point #2.
• We want to show exactly what the product looks like.    What you see is exactly what you get.  I think you will be more impressed with the real thing,

 

If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know in the support forum below.  

 

http://www.simforums.com/forums/xtreme-cities-series_forum55.html

 

Thanks for your support over the years.   We are really excited about the long-term viability for this technology and feel it is something very unique.

 

Cheers,

Allen

This seems like an interesting concept, good autogen depiction is something that really adds a lot of immersion. I'm a happy user of the UTX series, which already adds something in this way (bridges, etc). However, apparently this new product only adds autogen for larger cities, and only in a limited region - not quite enough for $35 for my taste.

 

There wouldn't be much reason to complain though if there weren't similar addons available for Xplane, which can create the autogen from OpenStreetMap data. For all countries and at the cost of zero dollars... Unfortunately, where autogen depiction is concerned FSX/P3D are vastly inferior to Xplane (Xplane has other problems...). Now if someone were to create an addon that looks like the image below for P3D, that's something I would spend my money on!

 

Back in May we made a Europe prototype and posted some screenshots for Ostrava in the Czech Republic.  This was before we added a lot of additional features.

 

http://www.simforums.com/forums/xtreme-cities-screenshots-ostrava_topic49252.html

 

Remember, those screenshots were taken 5 months ago before the product matured.

 

Our next Xtreme Cities product release looks like it will be Northern Italy (17 cities).   It looks outstanding with custom textures appropriate for the region.

 

Again, we use commercially licensed data.   OSM does have building footprints for a lot of areas in Europe.   In the USA though, there is almost nothing which is why we had to license the data.

 

I understand the cost issue.    We are hoping that by providing 15 to 20 cities per product, a lot of people find value in that.   Right now most detailed FSX cities retaill as a single package (1 city in 1 product).

 

Cheers.. 

 

 

There wouldn't be much reason to complain though if there weren't similar addons available for Xplane, which can create the autogen from OpenStreetMap data. For all countries and at the cost of zero dollars...

 

Which works wonderfully for countries / cities where that data is complete enough to depict something resembling reality.  From what I've understood, many European cites have wonderful footprint data on OSM.  However, North America is a different story.  It sounds like Scenery Solutions' arrangement is providing them with data good enough to make this happen in NA, and that might indeed be worth the cost.

Back in May we made a Europe prototype and posted some screenshots for Ostrava in the Czech Republic.  This was before we added a lot of additional features.

 

http://www.simforums.com/forums/xtreme-cities-screenshots-ostrava_topic49252.html

 

Remember, those screenshots were taken 5 months ago before the product matured.

 

Wow, now that looks impressive! If the other releases will be of a similar quality, I'm sold.

 

I wasn't aware that the OSM coverage is rather poor outside Europe, as that's really the only region I fly in Xplane. In the areas where it is available it's nearly perfect (nearly all buildings match on high-resolution photo scenery). The downside is that there are few unique buildings, which is done much better in FSX/P3D (London, for example, looks terrible in Xplane). In this case it seems like Scenerysolutions may have found a fairly good, erm, scenery solution. :wink:

I've started some testing of the product in P3D v2.3 with FTXG/V.. here is one animated gif showing a before/after in New Orleans.. The full story can be found on this page.  This is a work in progress as far as testing and screen shots, i'll have more to come in the next few days.

Thank you for your efforts on this.   I was hoping something like this would appear for the US.   It seems like all the VFR stuff is for Euro flyers (which is why the announcement of Italy being next made me frown.  Finish the US first.  Europe and the UK have enough VFR products in my opinion.  Need more US love).   I have one question.   I fly mostly tube liners and thus all my scenery in the US is provided by MegaSceneryEarth states and Ultra Res cities.   That being said, I really only want the buildings and none of the ground textures that this product has.   Someone mentioned there is a Photoscenery option?   Does this shut off all ground textures and just place buildings on top of existing photoreal products like Ultra Res Cities?   If the answer is yes, shut up and take my money!!!