Another Great Global Texture Replacement for FS9

[martinlest2 58]

I am downloading the HD video as I type - thanks for that.

 

I just wanted to ask - how do you choose (if that's the way it works) between the AFS textures and what is in Ultimate Terrain? Or do they automatically complement one another somehow?? You imply, DC-10, that on installing the AFS product, the UT scenery is left as the priority. Or does it take a lot of in-folder tweaking? My setup is so complex now I am wary of tampering, though I do have multiple backups. (I have GEP too - I hardly know which software is providing my ground textures these days!).

 

Need to look at that Airport & City software too!

 

Martin

[Groovin_DC-10 50]

That looks REALLY good! Nice work on the video. I, like you,have owned GEP for years and just figured that's the best fs9 is 'gonna look. I have UT as well so I imagine with the roads activated it will look a lot better. You got me thinkin'.............

 

BTW, I also noticed no dreaded blurries. which has always been an FS9 nemesis.

 

Thanks, mate.  I'm going to try the UT roads later and see how it looks.  It should be an improvement judging by how the rivers, streams, and rail roads look.

There are 4 lines in the FS9 cfg where you can increase the values in the [TERRAIN] section...

[TERRAIN]

TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=100.000000

TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000

TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000

TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=19

TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8

TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=5

TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1

TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1

TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.000000

TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=9.900000

TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=4

 

 

Not an FS9er anymore, but that looks excellent. How do you get the autogen to look so dense? You could take screens of this and fool people into thinking it's FSX (sorry if that's an insult to some  )

 

LOL, there were a couple of times I thought I was flying FSX while doing vfr. 

I haven't changed my autogen settings in the cfg other than to increase LOD radius, pan rate, and to disable red texts.

The autogen increase happened after I installed the AFS, so I'm guessing they've added some tweaks.  From their product description... "Perfect fit the maximum possible 300 buildings and 600 trees per texture are set"

Just thought I'd mention this again.  Anybody wanting to try this, make sure you have a back-up of your detail1.bmp file.  AFS will replace it with a higher res file.  I used to use the high res files, but always ended up going back to the original.  Just a heads up in case you don't like the look.

I am downloading the HD video as I type - thanks for that.

 

I just wanted to ask - how do you choose (if that's the way it works) between the AFS textures and what is in Ultimate Terrain? Or do they automatically complement one another somehow?? You imply, DC-10, that on installing the AFS product, the UT scenery is left as the priority. Or does it take a lot of in-folder tweaking? My setup is so complex now I am wary of tampering, though I do have multiple backups. (I have GEP too - I hardly know which software is providing my ground textures these days!).

 

Need to look at that Airport & City software too!

 

Martin

 

Hi Martin,

I didn't do anything special other than install the add on over my GEP textures.  I treated this add on the same way I do GEP.  UT was already installed.  I did make sure my night lights were disabled upon installing the AFS, but I doubt that makes a difference.

It's the same way you would change textures in GEP, say, from "Clear and Sunny" to "overcast".  The textures are replaced, but all the UT features still work.

Hope this helps. 

I'm going to try out Airport and City after I get used to the current install.  I'm going to re-install the Zinertek Airport over the AFS and only use the city feature.  The Zinertek Airport is so good.

[martinlest2 58]

Thanks. Is there an 'undo' button to remove the AFS files or do you have to back up manually first? (A good idea anyway probably).

 

I need to look at Zinertek Airport too!!

 

(Just noticed this is my 3000th post to the AVSIM forums! Someone bake a cake!!  :-)

[Groovin_DC-10 50]

You might want to do a back up first.  I'm not sure.  I didn't do it because I assumed it would make one for me.  Now that I think about it, maybe you can just overwrite it with GEP again.  I hope someone with more knowledge on this could chime in.

Congrats on the 3000th post!

[Groovin_DC-10 50]

I thought about that.  It does make sense.  You have one long building that occupies the space of 5 small houses, yet it uses the same number of polygons as a single house autogen. 

[Groovin_DC-10 50]

Another global add on I haven't heard much about here is the Zinertek Night Environment.  I had some free time earlier and decided to make a video for youtube and my personal collection.  It's combined with UT night lighting, and the combination is seamless.

If anybody else have global add ons they'd like to share please post pics or vids.  I know there are still a few out there I haven't tried yet.

 

[martinlest2 58]

The Air Canada video looks good. What soundset do you have installed for the A340? That's not what one hears from inside the cockpit though, is it? Plane needs a bit of insulating tape around the cockpit windows if so! :-)

 

Thanks for congrats, ha-ha!

 

Martin

[Appliance 51]

(Just noticed this is my 3000th post to the AVSIM forums! Someone bake a cake!!  :-)

 

That's an achievement to be proud of Martin.  Fine work. 

[martinlest2 58]

Thank you very much. :rolleyes:

[gwillmot 31]

Another global add on I haven't heard much about here is the Zinertek Night Environment.  I had some free time earlier and decided to make a video for youtube and my personal collection.  It's combined with UT night lighting, and the combination is seamless.

If anybody else have global add ons they'd like to share please post pics or vids.  I know there are still a few out there I haven't tried yet.

 

 

I got rid of this addon because flying in the real world ...... I noticed that the majority of the lights were WHITE .... not the Orange that Zinertek uses.  Real world you see a Few of those in parking lights and Some roads .... but majority of lights WHITE .... like EVO's.  Overall, I can make GEPro night lights as close to "real" world as possible .... except for EVO .... but don't like rest of EVO coloring and streams as wide as rivers.

Just say'n

[martinlest2 58]

These were taken using the ground textures I currently have installed, near Mexico City - same co-ordinates, day and night. I wonder how they compare with how things look with your AFS textures, Maurice. Any chance of having a look, maybe you could even post a screenshot?? Does the AFS and/or Airport & City version look better? The lights here are a bit orange too - I agree they should be whiter. I guess the textures could be Photoshopped.....

 

Thanks!!

 

Martin

 

 

 

 

[gwillmot 31]

Are we at a consensus yet? ...... Deal or No Deal?!

[Groovin_DC-10 50]

The Air Canada video looks good. What soundset do you have installed for the A340? That's not what one hears from inside the cockpit though, is it? Plane needs a bit of insulating tape around the cockpit windows if so! :-)

 

Thanks for congrats, ha-ha!

 

Martin

 

Yup, it's the sound from the cockpit.  Reason you're hearing a lot of wind noise is due to the angle of the wing view.  Notice how the sound in the VC changes as you pan your view hard left / hard right?  The wind noise is nothing like that when looking forward or 90 degrees left/right.  Also, I didn't use the "optimal settings" provided by the developer.  I really like them at default.  I found it a pain to have to re-adjust the settings for different planes and sound packs. 

The sound is from Turbine Sound Studios.  I think simmarket has a video for this product if you want to hear how it sounds when not looking back almost 180 degrees for a wing view lol.

The second video also uses a TSS sound set.

[Groovin_DC-10 50]

I got rid of this addon because flying in the real world ...... I noticed that the majority of the lights were WHITE .... not the Orange that Zinertek uses.  Real world you see a Few of those in parking lights and Some roads .... but majority of lights WHITE .... like EVO's.  Overall, I can make GEPro night lights as close to "real" world as possible .... except for EVO .... but don't like rest of EVO coloring and streams as wide as rivers.

Just say'n

 

That's cool.  I actually like this color and it's what I experienced in the real world on an approach to LAX.  Keep in mind, I haven't been on a night flight since I was a little kid.  I'm guessing back then, street lamps were different.  But I've also come across some cockpit videos where the cities look similar to the UT/Zinertek combo in color. 

I do have another global night light add on that give about 95% white light and 5% red/orange.  It's called Experience X for FS9.  I stopped using it because it affected the fps too much in very dense areas.  I might try it again in the future because I no longer use payware airports.

I haven't tried EVO yet.  Will probably do it when I do a PC upgrade because I read that it can be heavy on fps.

 

 

These were taken using the ground textures I currently have installed, near Mexico City - same co-ordinates, day and night. I wonder how they compare with how things look with your AFS textures, Maurice. Any chance of having a look, maybe you could even post a screenshot?? Does the AFS and/or Airport & City version look better? The lights here are a bit orange too - I agree they should be whiter. I guess the textures could be Photoshopped.....

 

Thanks!!

 

Martin

 

 

 

 

 

Your textures look great, Martin!  I thought the night ones look great too.  Really depends what you're going for, and I see most people here go for as much accuracy as possible.  My tastes are a little different, I guess.  I try to create a feeling or atmosphere, sometimes, a dreamy look.

I'll check out Mexico City and post pics.  I don't have Airport and City yet.  I might get it tomorrow or Sunday.  So I'll do before and after shots of Airport and City.

 

Are we at a consensus yet? ...... Deal or No Deal?!

 

Deal for me.  Still waiting to try out City and Airport this weekend.

[Groovin_DC-10 50]

Hmm, maybe it was a discussion about the night lights where I saw that.

I stopped using enb or sweetfx also.  I know EVO was tuned to look a certain way with the custom enb.  Is it good without enb?

It will still be a while if I decide to get it, however.  Still getting used to the AFS.