Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
Groovin_DC-10

Another Great Global Texture Replacement for FS9

Recommended Posts

I'm actually looking into BEV.  The reason I haven't purchased it yet is because it looks like a North American coverage only.  But the features you mentioned sound excellent.  I like the idea of being able to customize the look.  This is through a user interface, right?  Hard winter?  Of course!  I am in Canada .  I was very impressed with the hard winter shots they showed.  Will probably look into this one next.  

Thanks for the heads up.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

 

Post Edit:  Maurice, I placed a picture of the BEV Interface halfway down this post.

 

Right...actually, the interface also shows for Europe, etc..but I think the Dev got ill before he created assets for Europe.  As to the interface, it's quite amazing.  At the upper left, you will see a drop down of any of the modules you purchased. Let's say you want to work with Spring (some of my FS9 Screen Shots lately, have Spring content), you would pick that in the drop-down, and then you will have below that Spring/rural feature sets, urban feature sets, and on.  Now..to the right of that (lord...so MANY choices!!!!) you can customize the left sets with drop downs of absolutely every type of element...town textures, city textures, road textures, tree textures, even for goodness sakes, crop textures of ten or more types that will appear in the fields. No other program has this level of 'git er done'....until the cows come home over those fields!

 

When you are all done, you can save all your CUSTOM seasonal texture sets as you like, and then INJECT them into the sim.  Maurice, you can get so anal about this...that you could have (you'd need a life, truly, lol) monthly sets, based on the whatever visual factors you wanted to highlight in that flight.  There are no restrictions (gawd...do I sound like a commercial.....geez...) on what you can combine. It's really too bad that nobody to date has given a truly in-depth 'hold your hand' review of this great product. It's making my FS9 look killer! My favorite ground textures as you know...is rural...and BEV has some of the best (IMPO) to date for injection into FS9.  No..I don't own stock...just very, very happy with the versatility and quality of this product. Too bad that the Dev got seriously ill, and stepped down from further development and support. The BEV still being sold, is complete, very usable...and the utility program (mask) is most intuitive.  If you could find a review that has the right side drop down menu(s) of all the myriads of textures, you can combine, your jaw would drop...lol.  It might even scare you away, LOLOLOLOL.

 

BEVConfigurator.png

 

Now...you'd have to take that slide bar on the right side of the module, and move it down to see half again, of what you are not seeing in this screen shot....just tons of choices to numb you right out, LOL!

 

 

bev.png

 

This is just a little of how many cities and towns depictions you can choose from. I'd have to have so many screens published to show you what else you can choose to build your texture sets...

 

 

Now, all of what I just wrote, goes for ANY season you bring into play. Stick with the default, or go to town, to get FS9 looking like what YOU want it to look like....and Canada of course is included, unless they seceded away from North America....

 

There, I just gave a mini-review.  I have GE Pro, but I always seem to overwrite back to BEV'er.

 

Ses

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

BEV was very nice and I used it for over 6 years.  Switched to GEPro just for a "change of scenery".  The only thing I changed in GEPro was night texture color ..... make "lights" whiter to try to match real-world flying as I remember it last.

 

Can 't really go wrong with either.  I found other commercial product colors to be too "cartoonish", too "blue" in tint, etc.

Either with Ultimate Terrain has been my favorites ..... your mileage may vary.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks Maurice for posting the Mexico City screenshots. To be honest, I prefer mine to yours (much more variety, as you say) and on the PC the textures are very sharp. But in the end  it's a matter of taste, as you say.

 

BEV has been going for years (if I recall correctly!) - the review looks great (though the screenshots don't show particularly sharp of detailed autogen). But I don't actually fly in the USA/Canada all that often - if it were global I'd have snapped it up a long time ago! I wonder how it sits with Ultimate Terrain.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

 

 


I wonder how it sits with Ultimate Terrain

 

Perfectly .... as do the "others".  See gwillmot's comments above.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for the heads up on BEV, everyone.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

 

Post Edit:  Maurice, I placed a picture of the BEV Interface halfway down this post.

 

Right...actually, the interface also shows for Europe, etc..but I think the Dev got ill before he created assets for Europe.  As to the interface, it's quite amazing.  At the upper left, you will see a drop down of any of the modules you purchased. Let's say you want to work with Spring (some of my FS9 Screen Shots lately, have Spring content), you would pick that in the drop-down, and then you will have below that Spring/rural feature sets, urban feature sets, and on.  Now..to the right of that (lord...so MANY choices!!!!) you can customize the left sets with drop downs of absolutely every type of element...town textures, city textures, road textures, tree textures, even for goodness sakes, crop textures of ten or more types that will appear in the fields. No other program has this level of 'git er done'....until the cows come home over those fields!

 

When you are all done, you can save all your CUSTOM seasonal texture sets as you like, and then INJECT them into the sim.  Maurice, you can get so anal about this...that you could have (you'd need a life, truly, lol) monthly sets, based on the whatever visual factors you wanted to highlight in that flight.  There are no restrictions (gawd...do I sound like a commercial.....geez...) on what you can combine. It's really too bad that nobody to date has given a truly in-depth 'hold your hand' review of this great product. It's making my FS9 look killer! My favorite ground textures as you know...is rural...and BEV has some of the best (IMPO) to date for injection into FS9.  No..I don't own stock...just very, very happy with the versatility and quality of this product. Too bad that the Dev got seriously ill, and stepped down from further development and support. The BEV still being sold, is complete, very usable...and the utility program (mask) is most intuitive.  If you could find a review that has the right side drop down menu(s) of all the myriads of textures, you can combine, your jaw would drop...lol.  It might even scare you away, LOLOLOLOL.

 

BEVConfigurator.png

 

Now...you'd have to take that slide bar on the right side of the module, and move it down to see half again, of what you are not seeing in this screen shot....just tons of choices to numb you right out, LOL!

 

 

bev.png

 

This is just a little of how many cities and towns depictions you can choose from. I'd have to have so many screens published to show you what else you can choose to build your texture sets...

 

 

Now, all of what I just wrote, goes for ANY season you bring into play. Stick with the default, or go to town, to get FS9 looking like what YOU want it to look like....and Canada of course is included, unless they seceded away from North America....

 

There, I just gave a mini-review.  I have GE Pro, but I always seem to overwrite back to BEV'er.

 

Ses

 

OMG!  And I thought GEP was highly customizable LOL!  Thank you so much, Ses.  I will definitely be getting the complete set as soon as I'm in the mood for a scenery change.  I find FS9 so much more fun to mess around with than FSX.  I don't even think I've seen the best of what FS9 has to offer on my system yet. 

Going by what I see on your screens, I'm guessing I can keep my city textures from AFS and use rural from BEV?  That would be awesome.  I really like the AFS city textures.  I haven't done enough bush flying to see other areas.  Do the ground textures look sharper than default on BEV like they do with AFS?

Thanks again for the very informative post.

 

 

 

Thanks Maurice for posting the Mexico City screenshots. To be honest, I prefer mine to yours (much more variety, as you say) and on the PC the textures are very sharp. But in the end  it's a matter of taste, as you say.

 

BEV has been going for years (if I recall correctly!) - the review looks great (though the screenshots don't show particularly sharp of detailed autogen). But I don't actually fly in the USA/Canada all that often - if it were global I'd have snapped it up a long time ago! I wonder how it sits with Ultimate Terrain.

 

No problem, Martin.   I tried UT roads with AFS and so far, I think I'm going to just use the highways.  Some of the roads are very bright and they stand out too much against the AFS textures.  After doing more flying, I'm noticing a slight change now after installing airport and city which I will post some screens of.

Looks like BEV should work fine with UT according to other users.

 

Update on AFS....

I've been pretty busy this past week and haven't had much time to fly.  After doing a few vfr flights I am noticing a slight change after installing airport and city.  I re-installed the Zinertek airport because I like it more, so I'm only using the city feature.

The change is subtle.  Also, changes seem more apparent in some areas and less in others.  It looks like the number of long, narrow buildings has been reduced, while in some areas of the world, there are a lot.  Gives more variety (for those like me not looking for the ultimate in accuracy).

I did a short haul flight the other day and it was a blast.  The textures look wonderful for IFR.

I can't do comparison shots because City and Airport doesn't create a backup.

 

Here's a shot over Miami...

fs9%202015-04-12%2020-02-46-47_zpsgn9oes

 

Dubai...

fs9%202015-04-12%2020-14-45-57_zpsg9cahf

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Going by what I see on your screens, I'm guessing I can keep my city textures from AFS and use rural from BEV?  That would be awesome.  I really like the AFS city textures.  I haven't done enough bush flying to see other areas.  Do the ground textures look sharper than default on BEV like they do with AFS?

 

---------------------------------------------

 

As for your AFS textures, yes, you sure can use them.  For the question of does BEV look sharper than default FS9?  You betcha!

 

I do have one suggestion though...if you would ever truly consider trying out BEV...and the fact that it is now..an 'archived' program, I would grab it, sooner than later...and purchase (about $12.00 USF) all the seasons (and very much, including the Hard Winter one).  Then, you have it...any site selling it could go off-line tomorrow...and you'd still have it ready to go, whenever.  I once bought a tape deck, very many years ago...that had a wired (that's how old it was..lol) remote as an option.  Two years later, I decided that I wanted that remote.  Yes...you can fill in the rest of the story...***GONE*** no longer in production, and all units sold out.  I learned my lesson, about buying something...and thinking...at my leisure, it will still 'be there' (any optional features)....yeah...that was a bad decision on my part....   Just sayin'......

 

Post Edit: Oh BTW, I have finally...FINALLY, put together a set of textures that meets my specific visual requirements, and have created all the folders that hold the hybrid mish-mash effort, lol.  I'm putting BEV and GEPro ,etc to bed...and will stick with this until I'm dust. If I ever need to reload FS9...I'm only going to have to bring back the folders, as well as having made a total system image. On the seventh day, you know who stopped creating...and so now have I.  FS9 will always looks the same now...and am most pleased in how it turned out. As far as I am concerned, it is literally banging on FSX's back door.... :)  After all my weeks of fiddling around, I looked at my version number and it comes back as FS9.9999999999999999912 B)  Now, just time to fly tubes and G.A. over this spectacularly looking and performing flight simulator.  Git er done...and we're done.... ;)   

 

If you look up, at the sound of passing engines...it's only me...up there, and no longer here on the ground...texture sets tuning, injecting, fiddling, and viewing the effort.  Nope...only now...flying...woosh!

 

Ses

 

Looks like BEV should work fine with UT according to other users.

----------------------------

 

Yes it does.  UT works fine with any of the terrain texture programs.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

 

 


I would grab it, sooner than later...and purchase (about $12.00 USF) all the seasons (and very much, including the Hard Winter one)

 

Please let me know where I can purchase all seasons and hard winter for $12.00 U.S.!  Last I checked it was $60.00 to get all sets.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Please let me know where I can purchase all seasons and hard winter for $12.00 U.S.!  Last I checked it was $60.00 to get all sets.

Let me clarify...I meant each season was 12.00 USF.  Does that $60.00 also include the Hard Winter?  I think that is a 'must-have' to own!!!  It is the best winter scenery texture set out there for the cold.  It even has that dirty-snow look to it with soil breaking through some fields.  Flying over it, makes you shiver, lol.

From what I hear BEV is a nightmare with Windows 7 - the configurator doesn't work (apparently) for one thing. So read up before purchase, if you run that O/S or later.

 

For instance:

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/318036-birds-eye-view-scenery-issues/

 

Martin

Actually it does.  What happens when you fire up the configurator, is that a white window comes up saying that it can't find a picture element. You then press on that...and the white warning window goes away, and the main configuration comes up. You need to run it with Admin rights.  I run with W7 Ultimate, and as you saw in my screenshot to Maurice, it comes up just fine.  Also, you need to make sure that your system has a good Registry look-up for FS9. Sometimes that gets adulterated.  I can't fully remember if I had to do something (make sure that FS9 is properly seen with W7) with my W7 to get it up and running, as things mentioned here, but I sure did...and it has come up every time since, that I ran the Configurator.

 

Post Edit:  Below is a screen grab of exactly what comes up when I first start the Configurator. As you see, the Configurator is  'looking for a picture element', as it is resting behind the warning window.  As soon as I click on the (OK)warning window button,...the Configurator comes fully up and operational for all its functions. See picture below:

 

beverror.png

 

Hope this helps.

 

Mitch

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ok, so much the better. I was reading other threads where people couldn't get BEV to work in Win7 (I don't have it myself) and thought I'd give the heads up here to save people money, possibly! If there's a workaround, great...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

---------------------------------------------

 

As for your AFS textures, yes, you sure can use them.  For the question of does BEV look sharper than default FS9?  You betcha!

 

I do have one suggestion though...if you would ever truly consider trying out BEV...and the fact that it is now..an 'archived' program, I would grab it, sooner than later...and purchase (about $12.00 USF) all the seasons (and very much, including the Hard Winter one).  Then, you have it...any site selling it could go off-line tomorrow...and you'd still have it ready to go, whenever.  I once bought a tape deck, very many years ago...that had a wired (that's how old it was..lol) remote as an option.  Two years later, I decided that I wanted that remote.  Yes...you can fill in the rest of the story...***GONE*** no longer in production, and all units sold out.  I learned my lesson, about buying something...and thinking...at my leisure, it will still 'be there' (any optional features)....yeah...that was a bad decision on my part....   Just sayin'......

 

Post Edit: Oh BTW, I have finally...FINALLY, put together a set of textures that meets my specific visual requirements, and have created all the folders that hold the hybrid mish-mash effort, lol.  I'm putting BEV and GEPro ,etc to bed...and will stick with this until I'm dust. If I ever need to reload FS9...I'm only going to have to bring back the folders, as well as having made a total system image. On the seventh day, you know who stopped creating...and so now have I.  FS9 will always looks the same now...and am most pleased in how it turned out. As far as I am concerned, it is literally banging on FSX's back door.... :)  After all my weeks of fiddling around, I looked at my version number and it comes back as FS9.9999999999999999912 B)  Now, just time to fly tubes and G.A. over this spectacularly looking and performing flight simulator.  Git er done...and we're done.... ;)   

 

If you look up, at the sound of passing engines...it's only me...up there, and no longer here on the ground...texture sets tuning, injecting, fiddling, and viewing the effort.  Nope...only now...flying...woosh!

 

Ses

 

----------------------------

 

Yes it does.  UT works fine with any of the terrain texture programs.

 

Great to hear it works fine under Win 7.  I will definitely buy it within the next few months.  First I'm going to get the 3 AFS add ons all over again, but this time for FSX.  I'm so happy with them.  I did two flights last night on the 757.  It looked fantastic.  I had all the UT roads (except urban) activated.

 

I try to get FS9 like performance in FSX with my outdated machine.  At the moment, FS9 with AFS looks better and sharper because I have to run FSX ground textures at 5m resolution.  So if I get the AFS for FSX, at 5m, it should look as clean and sharp as it does on my FS9.

 

OK, you have to tell us more about your current texture set.  You said you're putting BEV and GEP away.  What are you using?  How about some screens.  I need to see this!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I only mean that I am done with the textures injected, and will stick with what now is in the sim. You have pretty much seen the final mix. I don't intend to alter beyond my present effort. It works for me.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Aah got it.  I thought you found a new set.  Your FS9 does look fantastic!

I bought and just finished installing the AFS add ons and Zinertek night lighting for FSX.  It's a lot different on FSX than FS9.  The screens on simmarket only showed the FS9 version.   

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

  • Tom Allensworth,
    Founder of AVSIM Online


  • Flight Simulation's Premier Resource!

    AVSIM is a free service to the flight simulation community. AVSIM is staffed completely by volunteers and all funds donated to AVSIM go directly back to supporting the community. Your donation here helps to pay our bandwidth costs, emergency funding, and other general costs that crop up from time to time. Thank you for your support!

    Click here for more information and to see all donations year to date.
×
×
  • Create New...