Anyone like mega scenery earth cities?

[Gregdpw 0]

hey. Just wondering how you guys like ultra high res cities from megasceneryearth?

 

I got a 40 percent off coupon. So for 12 dollars is a city worth it? Also do they usually include a better lookin airport for the city? Say for example Detroit metro for the city of Detroit. Thanks

[Kuragiman 227]

hey. Just wondering how you guys like ultra high res cities from megasceneryearth?

 

I got a 40 percent off coupon. So for 12 dollars is a city worth it? Also do they usually include a better lookin airport for the city? Say for example Detroit metro for the city of Detroit. Thanks

 

I fly with a ton of cities and most of the United States and love them.    40% of is a great deal.    They do 50% once in a blue moon so 40 is pretty good.   My home city of Dallas/Fort Worth looks great, much better than the version of it that comes with the North Texas state scenery.   They use far less compression in their city add-ons over their states thus giving you a much clearer/sharper image.     

 

Does it make your airports look better?    Yes, to an small extent.   To another extent, no.    If the default airport was aligned properly by Microsoft/Lockheed Martin then you won't notice a problem.  IF it wasn't, you'll see the REAL airport texture of the photoscenery sticking out from the airport's AFCAD drawn aprons/taxiways/runways.    It's not a HUGE problem and it's not up to MSE to fix it.  You'll need to fix the AFCAD yourself using Airport Design Editor or other appropriate airport editing software to get it aligned to the real world.   If the airport IS aligned it looks great because all the surrounding textures show through enhancing everything at the airport that is not covered over by aprons/taxiways/runways.

 

Keep in mind you will lose ALL of your autogen.  So if you are some low flying bush pilot this is typically NOT a good add-on for you.   If you a VFR/IFR guy that likes to get up past 5000 feet and beyond then this is epic stuff.  Looks stunning.   Also note, your city will look like a post-apocalyptic future at night because the package does not include night lighting.   FTX Global will not help you either as the photoreal suppress all of the FTX Global.    UTX and FTX Vector WILL however give you night lighting overlaid on top of your city or you can use other night lighting add-on packages that are out there on the markets such as Night Enviroment.

[Gartro 18]

MSE2 products are currently 50% off at PC Aviator Australia - the Home page and the product prices indicate that. The fine print says that it is until 7 April (10 days ago) so I guess they have extended the sale but not changed the dating details.

 

Gary

[Gregdpw 0]

One more question. What is mega scenery earth. And mega scenery earth 2.0??

[zmak 331]

V2?

 

some of those cities are massive. eg Denver is 32g. I have a city wherever I have  FSDT airports or any payware airport for that matter. I dont buy the states anymore as the cities cover such a big area and are better res.

[BMagann 11]

One more question. What is mega scenery earth. And mega scenery earth 2.0??

It is two dimensional photo scenery that replaces the default ground textures. V 2.0 is just the latest version of it. The city areas are at a much higher resolution than the general state versions.

 

If you typically fly below 2000' it will not look very good. If you fly above say 5000' it looks great. It won't improve airports if what you are looking for is more buildings. It doesn't add any structures at all to your scenery.

 

I have all 50 states and many of the cities. It is wonderful for long distance cruising and airline flights. It is not good for bush flying or low altitude flight in general. 

[Gregdpw 0]

So is everything 2.0 then?

[Kuragiman 227]

So is everything 2.0 then?

 

Yes, their latest products are 2.0, at least their states are labelled that.  The cities don't have a version number.  Just look for the Ultra-Res Cities designation when purchasing a city.

 

Be warned.  There are three things that shock people coming from Landclass scenery to Photoreal city who didn't do their home work before throwing down hundreds of dollars.

 

1.  You will lose seasonal textures.   All MSE products are set in the spring/summer time.  There is no winter or fall textures.   This would make the product 4x larger than it already is (an average of 25gigs per state/city).

 

2.  You will lose your night lighting.   MSE have no night lit textures so your landscape will go dark.   In before others chime in about OLDER MSE products having night lighting.  Yeah, they also have horrible resolution day tiles too.  I would avoid these older products as the resolution is just not good enough for my tastes.  I'd rather go without night textures than have to live with low res day textures.  You can supplement the loss of night textures with 3D light add-ons like Night Environment or vector products like FTX Vector or UTX.

 

3.  You will lose ALL autogen.   No more 3D trees or 3D buildings.  The only structures that will be left are bridges and Custom Scenery Objects.    If you want more object build up around your airports once you lay down photoreal you need to build it yourself using Airport Design Editor or other like program.   This more than anything took the most getting use to until I finally realized I am not here to go city sight seeing.  I am here to land my plane at the airport and don't have time to admire the scenery whizzing by at 140 knots on short final.

 

4.  Longer load time.   It has to load ALL of that scenery into memory.  The more cities and states you add to the flight the longer the load.  Load times can be up to 2 minutes or more if you are flying across many states.

 

Here what you GET with Photoreal scenery

 

1.  MUCH improved frame rates and less stuttering because NO AUTOGEN.  Autogen is nice but it comes at a cost.  That cost is eliminated with Photoreal scenery overlays.   If your system is properly tuned you shouldn't stutter with Autogen either BUT Photoreal is much more forgiving on systems that are not properly balanced.

 

2.  The whole reason you want it, REAL WORLD SCENERY.   No more glaringly ugly vector road textures or landclass guesstimations of what is suppose to be under you.  You get every city, town, road, river, lake and rail line placed exactly where it is in the real world in glorious HD.   This right here for me negates all the negatives above.

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

Coming back to the high-res cities, Washington-Baltimore doesn't blend into the surrounding MSEv2 states at all. Not a good purchase, IMO, if you want to combine it with the states. Standalone, without the states, it still provides good value for money.

 

High-res Boston is noticeably different: natural colours, very crisp, covers *almost* the complete state and it actually does cover the complete Rhode Island state as well!

So, if you buy high-res Boston, you'll have the RI state covered as well (*almost* two states actually), and also in high-res!

Best city deal available, as far as I am aware.

[BMagann 11]

High-Res Boston is definitely the best MSE city available. The others are also very good, but for some reason many of them seem to have been shot in the winter or late fall, so they don't blend in well with the MSE states which are all in summer colors.

 

I like the products and recommend them to anyone who wants to fly over "the real thing" while at altitude, but the sceneries do have limitations as has been pointed out here.

[ctiger 49]

Brian, thanks for your good description of the Hi-Res Cities.  I have bought several of them and been pleased, espeically with a gain of 4 -5 frames when not using ftx global in those areas. That is a major plus with my low grade computer. The lack of seasons and lighting is the only downside.

 

I always wait for the 40%-50% sales before buying.  Was wondering if we can get the 50% off if purchased from the US on the Aussie site.  That may even make it an even better price with the US dollar vs Aus dollar.

 

I guess I also need to look into the HiRes Boston since that is one that I have not purchased.

 

Regards,

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

(...)  Was wondering if we can get the 50% off if purchased from the US on the Aussie site.  That may even make it an even better price with the US dollar vs Aus dollar.

 

 

Carl, the AU site currently has 50% MSEv2 discount, too:

http://www.pcaviator.com.au/store/home.php?cat=730

[ctiger 49]

Thanks Olli, dowloaing HiRes Boston and only cost $7.97 usd.

[tttocs 301]

I've found hi-res Denver to be a good deal as well, as it covers the Colorado Front Range cities from Fort Collins (except for the northern part) and Greeley in the north, all the way south through Pueblo, as well as a fair bit of the foothills.  It's a huge area of good hi-res coverage.  The downside is that it doesn't always blend well in some areas with MSE V2 Colorado.

 

All in all, another good area to consider at 40-50% off.

 

Scott

[curt1 79]

Yes, their latest products are 2.0, at least their states are labelled that.  The cities don't have a version number.  Just look for the Ultra-Res Cities designation when purchasing a city.

 

Be warned.  There are three things that shock people coming from Landclass scenery to Photoreal city who didn't do their home work before throwing down hundreds of dollars.

 

1.  You will lose seasonal textures.   All MSE products are set in the spring/summer time.  There is no winter or fall textures.   This would make the product 4x larger than it already is (an average of 25gigs per state/city).

 

2.  You will lose your night lighting.   MSE have no night lit textures so your landscape will go dark.   In before others chime in about OLDER MSE products having night lighting.  Yeah, they also have horrible resolution day tiles too.  I would avoid these older products as the resolution is just not good enough for my tastes.  I'd rather go without night textures than have to live with low res day textures.  You can supplement the loss of night textures with 3D light add-ons like Night Environment or vector products like FTX Vector or UTX.

 

3.  You will lose ALL autogen.   No more 3D trees or 3D buildings.  The only structures that will be left are bridges and Custom Scenery Objects.    If you want more object build up around your airports once you lay down photoreal you need to build it yourself using Airport Design Editor or other like program.   This more than anything took the most getting use to until I finally realized I am not here to go city sight seeing.  I am here to land my plane at the airport and don't have time to admire the scenery whizzing by at 140 knots on short final.

 

4.  Longer load time.   It has to load ALL of that scenery into memory.  The more cities and states you add to the flight the longer the load.  Load times can be up to 2 minutes or more if you are flying across many states.

 

Here what you GET with Photoreal scenery

 

1.  MUCH improved frame rates and less stuttering because NO AUTOGEN.  Autogen is nice but it comes at a cost.  That cost is eliminated with Photoreal scenery overlays.   If your system is properly tuned you shouldn't stutter with Autogen either BUT Photoreal is much more forgiving on systems that are not properly balanced.

 

2.  The whole reason you want it, REAL WORLD SCENERY.   No more glaringly ugly vector road textures or landclass guesstimations of what is suppose to be under you.  You get every city, town, road, river, lake and rail line placed exactly where it is in the real world in glorious HD.   This right here for me negates all the negatives above.

Brian, thanks for your summary, as this is probably the most accurate review I've read regarding photoreal scenery.  I hope it gets pinned in this forum so it's not missed by others.