Xtreme Cities Limited Release (Official Release Tomorrow) from Ultimate Terrain Group

[theskyisthelimit 48]

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!!!

 

It indeed does and there are shots taken on other sites.. I will have some up on my site soon as well too, for comparison.. in the settings you can toggle it as below (i guess no way to do so on the fly):

 

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Keep in mind Orbx US landclass is coming out and does this work with it ? - you might want a non bias screenshot savvy guy such as me to promote it - as it stands right now I would not buy this product from what I have seen 

[Kuragiman 227]

Keep in mind Orbx US landclass is coming out and does this work with it ? - you might want a non bias screenshot savvy guy such as me to promote it - as it stands right now I would not buy this product from what I have seen 

 

But I don't fly with ORBX much anymore since I am in favor of real terrain features instead of 'guesstimated' terrain so I use MegaSceneryEarth products.  This of course has the disadvantage of wiping out all trees and autogen and only leaving scenery custom objects.    If this product can bring cities to life for me while letting me fly with MSE still (and the bonus of having SOME kind of night lighting finally, a HUGE flaw in MSE products) then I am sold.   Orbx rocks for city areas (and having seasons) but photoreal stuff like MSE destroys the competition on an accurately textured world out in the open areas of the US.  The Rocky Mountains are just stunning in MSE and at 38000 feet where I live, Autogen is pointless anyway except on takeoffs and landing which this product looks to fix.

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Got yah Brian - but most are not using Megascenery - I own a bunch of it but do not use it much anymore

[Kuragiman 227]

Got yah Brian - but most are not using Megascenery - I own a bunch of it but do not use it much anymore

 

Yes, I agree.   This product will hopefully be compatible with US Landclass and I'll probably end up buying it too.   When I do my VFR flights in my Grand Caravan EX or my King Air I do load ORBX up because I can't live without Autogen when I am down below 10k but in the big jets it doesn't bother me.

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Yes, I agree.   This product will hopefully be compatible with US Landclass and I'll probably end up buying it too.   When I do my VFR flights in my Grand Caravan EX or my King Air I do load ORBX up because I can't live without Autogen when I am down below 10k but in the big jets it doesn't bother me.

 

Yup for jets photoreal is pretty cool - some of the early MS worked quite nice with others but the new stufff does not

[fakeflyer737 992]

Now the screenshots on this website is amazing!

 

http://flight-stew.com/2014/09/15/hands-on-xtreme-cities-x-usa-south-central-released-for-p3d-and-fsx-brings-order-to-the-landclass/

[ryanbatc 12,857]

I like it.... if and when they do a area of MN/ND/WI etc I'll get that for P3D use.  And probably for Socal too for Pilot Edge flying.

[Kuragiman 227]

Dropped the cash and took it for a spin over my home city of Dallas, Texas.   Here are two shots.    The first is with Extreme Cities running at night with FTX Global in support, all scenery sliders on MAX.  NOT for the faint of computer.    In the Lockheed Baron I was doing about 32 FPS.   This would be completely unflyable in a complex aircraft like the PMDG 737NGX.  I didn't try it but I suspect FPS around 15 or lower which is not a happy pilot.   Second shot is with MegaSceneryEarth Ultra Res Cities; Dallas-Fort Worth loaded in the day time just to see how the building and trees blend with the photoreal.  I am impressed quite a bit with that!   So far the product seems worth the cash.   I am having a bit of load stuttering issues where it will micro pause while it pages in the scenery.   Also, I was kind of hoping the coverage of Dallas would at LEAST go to Dallas Love field which is only a few miles out of town but it does not.  It seems like the focused more and populating to the EAST of Dallas rather than to Northwest of Dallas where Love Field is.  Sadly my home airport of KDAL-Love is STILL devoid of trees and buildings when using photoreal.  T_T  Sad panda face.  I would think this area would take priority to some outskirt bland part of the city.

 

[FlyIce 354]

I like your screenshot, very impressive. Their official screenshot really suffer from not so sharp textures on the ground I believe. But in night shot this is irrelevant, and photo scenery really helps during the day.

[brucek 38]

Now the screenshots on this website is amazing!

 

http://flight-stew.com/2014/09/15/hands-on-xtreme-cities-x-usa-south-central-released-for-p3d-and-fsx-brings-order-to-the-landclass/

From the list of cities provided they appear to almost all be in TX.... is this because TX cities aren't available in other products, whereas larger cities such as SFO, LA, NYC are?

 

Thanks, Bruce.

[Kuragiman 227]

I like your screenshot, very impressive. Their official screenshot really suffer from not so sharp textures on the ground I believe. But in night shot this is irrelevant, and photo scenery really helps during the day.

 

It's just nice to actually have a CITY to fly over with MSE2.0 turned on.    Just wish they had populated the city to the west rather than the east!   The night lighting blended perfectly with FTX Global.   Even Fort Worth actually looked alive for the first time in forever with this add-on.    Any chance you devs for this product can push the scenery out to surrounded KDAL?    I'd be your best friend!

From the list of cities provided they appear to almost all be in TX.... is this because TX cities aren't available in other products, whereas larger cities such as SFO, LA, NYC are?

 

Thanks, Bruce.

 

 

I don't know... but I am glad they did because Texas is home base for me.   Texas doesn't have a lot of state specific scenery addons when it comes to buildings and trees so this was a welcome addition.   I say BOOOOOO to the Italy add-on coming next.   We need more US cities!  *waves US flag*  USA  USA   USA!    XD   Europe/UK has enough scenery add-ons!   No offense to my Euro brothers/sisters!  

[akriesman 0]

Developer here.

 

First, tomorrow we will be adding a whole new slew of screenshots before the official press release is out.   These will all be before/after screenshots.  So, you will really be able to see the differences.

 

The scenery boundaries for each product are based on the commercial data that we have licensed (TomTom's 2D Maps).    Generally, it appears that TomTom takes the city center and then go outwards by x number of miles/kilometers.     Our software has the ability to allow us to hand-draw buildings outside of the normal boundaries.   But, when some of these cities have 100,000 objects, you can imagine how long that would take to do by hand.    So for now, we will just be concentrating the release areas based on the available commercial data.

 

This initial product is just the first of 20+ planned releases over the next 2 years.   7 scenery areas will cover the entire continental USA.   The rest will be in Europe.   Each scenery area will have between 15-20 cities.    

 

The software that creates the scenery may have taken 2 years to develop.   But, our goal is to try and release about 1 scenery product per month once we get ramped up (we are hiring additional developers and will train them on our software).

 

I will try and post a link to the new screenshots tomorrow on this thread also.   We appreciate the feedback regarding the screenshots and now have a pretty good idea of the types of comparisons user's are looking for.   

 

Cheers,

Allen

[wolke85 150]

Looking really good - definitely on my to buy list as soon as possible!

Great work!

[TheGrunt 44]

This looks great and nice to hear Europe added as well. This really looks like Xplane OSM sceneries, which combined with good photoscenery offer really convincing urban surroundings.