Firstly - thank you for this excellent freebie! It certainly adds another level of immersion compared to the smoothed off default FSX values!

 

After installing the Africa mesh I decided to have a fly over Madagascar (never been there in real life or sim!). The waterways appear to be canals with embankments or dykes either side of them (mesh elevation lower than the river?). One airfield near the coast was elevated, but like you mention in the release thread, you don't have the time to go around and flatten all the airfields when there are products out there which will do just that .

 

Sorry I didn't get a screenshot.

Firstly - thank you for this excellent freebie! It certainly adds another level of immersion compared to the smoothed off default FSX values!

 

After installing the Africa mesh I decided to have a fly over Madagascar (never been there in real life or sim!). The waterways appear to be canals with embankments or dykes either side of them (mesh elevation lower than the river?). One airfield near the coast was elevated, but like you mention in the release thread, you don't have the time to go around and flatten all the airfields when there are products out there which will do just that .

 

Sorry I didn't get a screenshot.

 

Thanks for the compliments!

 

It's a common observation when you use a higher resolution mesh! Unfortunately, due to the ways Microsoft wrote the waterbody and airport code, you would see these effects when using a mesh.

 

The only practical solution I've seen is to use FTX Vectors. It is designed to work with an SRTM mesh (so FreeMeshX), and the airports, lakes, rivers, and coastlines work well for the most part with the new mesh. Unfortunately, FTX Vectors isn't free, and I don't intend on making a freeware replacement, although if someone else would, I'd be ecstatic! But I think it's well worth the money for what it brings.

Thanks for the fast reply Daniel!

Hmmm... it seems I'd need to buy FTX Global for the Vectors to work.. or does Freemesh X take the place of FTX Global i.e. gives the Vectors program an SRTM mesh to work with?. If not, the Airport Flattening Mesh would be the cheaper option - one piece of software.

 

Hey - just realised that your avatar is a Delta Glider in orbit - ORBITER is my spaceflight sim of choice too!

Thanks for the fast reply Daniel!

Hmmm... it seems I'd need to buy FTX Global for the Vectors to work.. or does Freemesh X take the place of FTX Global i.e. gives the Vectors program an SRTM mesh to work with?. If not, the Airport Flattening Mesh would be the cheaper option - one piece of software.

 

Hey - just realised that your avatar is a Delta Glider in orbit - ORBITER is my spaceflight sim of choice too!

 

Yeah, that's the sad realization of this hobby. You have to purchase everything a la carte. FTX Vectors does require FTX Global which is the best set of terrain textures out there, but it's not free. I wish they could just bundle the two with a discount, but they have a business to run.

 

UTX offers updated vector information but it's not global and I don't have a clue if there elevation adjustments in the waterbodies and airports, so that's why I recommend FTX Vectors because I know it will adjust vectors to match those elevation changes made in FreeMeshX.

 

Mesh and updated vectors are one of those things that need each other for true "harmony". You kind of need both for the complete experience, or else you'd notice these weird elevation issues if you only have one of the two. Even ORBX posted a lengthy informative post about how it doesn't even make sense to buy FTX Vectors unless you also buy their $70 FS Global 2010 FTX mesh. Hopefully, FreeMeshX would save people money who decided they wanted to go the full experience and didn't want to dish out $70 for the mesh portion. They are both based on the Space Shuttle Topography data, so that's why FreeMeshX is compatible with their "FTX Global" line.

 

And yes, I first discovered Orbiter in 2005, and I've had this avatar ever since. It's a great piece of work.

Well, Freemesh X is certainly worth the 40-odd Gb requirement on my hard drive! Thanks.

 

I might just put up with some inconsistencies depending upon where I fly. Or I might perhaps purchase the airport flattening mesh tool anyway, just to play with that.

Very minor bug noticed today. Flight from FAOR to HTKJ, in Africa, noticed that there is a large perfectly rectangular section of water at the far eastern end of the Cahora Bassa Dam. Looks like an absolutely enormous swimming pool linked to the dam. ;-)

 

Rough co-ordinates along my route where this was clearly visible out the left side of the cockpit at FL370 are: S15 deg 26.70' E33 deg 3.00'. Not sure if this is a mesh issue or a Vector issue though.

 

Gotta say this, FreeMeshX is certainly superior to my other paid-for mesh packages for Africa. These are now a permanent part of my sim. Thanks Daniel!

Alright Greg,

 

I'll take a look when I get home. These lakes are tricky because they usually require a vector update. Did you happen to grab the patches as well. I think you would want at least 1.05. That has a few Africa fixes for problems you may later run into.

 

1.05 is a cumulative patch so it's kind of heavy (nearly 10 GB).

Yes, I have installed both 1.05 and 1.06 patches. I did not run the Vector Airport Elevation Correction tool though, not sure if this would fix the issue.

Yes, I have installed both 1.05 and 1.06 patches. I did not run the Vector Airport Elevation Correction tool though, not sure if this would fix the issue.

 

Greg, I took a look and things look okay on my end with FTX Vectors enabled. Well, the only thing missing is the dam

 

 

However, without Vectors enabled. The lake is very, very....wrong.

 

 

You said you have Vectors enabled, so you shouldn't see anything resembling picture 2. AEC shouldn't matter either. Hm, perhaps I'm missing it?

Hi Daniel,

 

This is what I see - very far eastern edge of the dam - in the general area where the dam wall is with the river flowing on out from the dam. Global and Vector are active, along with FreemeshX. No other add on's in this area. Coordinates in this image are: LAT:S15deg 32.02' LON: E33deg 0.68' Image taken looking out to the west at FL370 heading north along Airway UR409, somewhere just south of the UBTIM waypoint over Mozambique.

 

 

Okay Greg,

 

I was probably looking in the wrong spot.