I really love flying around the caribbean but at the same time I can't do anything but wonder about the depiction of its biggest Island in FSX. Even with UTX TAC installed, its nowhere near the quality of other UTX regions.

 

Here is an example of a strange line/landclass edge a few miles east of havana, also notice a few landclass incorrections where FSX puts fall foilage on a tropical island:

 

 

 

The fall landclass gets more evident when viewing baracoa bay in the islands far east, (which also has an interesting airport to fly in.). Seems like all those hills covered in tropical forests in reality have european/north american style trees and textures in it. The mesh seems quite close though:

 

 

 

As a comparison, here is a photo of the same bay:

 

 

 

I really don't expect ORBX quality visuals everywhere in my simulator, but its a real shame that such a beautiful place and popular holiday destination doesnt get proper depiction inside FSX/P3D (aside from a few Tropical Sim payware airports).

 

And please don't start a political debate about that....we even had an Assassins Creed game there, after all. :wink:

And please don't start a political debate about that

Plus one!

 

I'll move this to the Orbx/FTX forum since this relates only to their products.

 

Best regards,

Plus one!

 

I'll move this to the Orbx/FTX forum since this relates only to their products.

 

Best regards,

 

Jim, this has nothing to do with ORBX, there's no reason to put it on the ORBX subforum... Read what he wrote again.

I'll have to check out what FTX Global looks like down there.  I tend to agree about the tropical forests.  There never seems to be enough palm trees (of which there are many many species) and eucalyptus types for me.

 

Can you please post the lat long of nearest airport to that bay you have identified in above screenshot?

The issue you describe is very common and is a result of inaccurate landclass, and to some extent textures that aren't as suitable for the area as they could be even with accurate landclass.

 

ORBX openLC North America South, which according to ORBX is due to be released before Christmas, will hopefully improve this area and so many others in this part of the world.

 

Dave

There was a freeware project back in 2010 that covered all of the Caribbean, Central America and South America, (Similar to the UTX series.) called AGS2010.  It was a huge (Gigabytes) download, but it was pretty good, I still use it. I just searched for it, unfortunately it appears the site was taken down, and was never posted to any other FS library.

Jim, this has nothing to do with ORBX, there's no reason to put it on the ORBX subforum... Read what he wrote again.

I'll have to move this one back.  The statement "I really don't expect ORBX quality visuals everywhere in my simulator, but its a real shame that such a beautiful place and popular holiday destination doesnt get proper depiction inside FSX/P3D (aside from a few Tropical Sim payware airports)." got me confused.  I see what he means now.  Apologize!

 

Best regards,

I grew up in Santiago de Cuba which is relatively close to Baracoa Bay.  And I can tell you that palms trees in eastern Cuba are like Georgia pines Here in......well, GA,US. 

 

I just use FScene in FSX for textures with default landclass and try not to look down.

Thx for the feedback, guys.

 

Just for Info I use UTX and GEX and FSGlobal 2010 Mesh as the ones that should affect that area, the latter doing the best job.  :wink:  Only ORBX Product I use is very far-away Norway.

 

Rest of the caribbean islands look better with UTX, so I guess Cuba wasn't exactly a priority for developers. Maybe that tree line in my first pic was where their coverage ended. Anyways, i'd use ORBX global, but on the other hand it turns desert areas to grasslands....

The issue you describe is very common and is a result of inaccurate landclass, and to some extent textures that aren't as suitable for the area as they could be even with accurate landclass.

 

ORBX openLC North America South, which according to ORBX is due to be released before Christmas, will hopefully improve this area and so many others in this part of the world.

 

Dave

 

OpenLC North America is only the USA/Canada

Another thing to consider is the availability of resources for developers. Since the Cuban Government is less than enthused about aerial imagery, I imagine that outside of Google Earth, there isn't a lot of terrain mapping products out there for use during development.

pmanhart:

 

does scenery developing actually involve someone hiring a plane and flying over a country at low altitude taking photos of the landscape all the time? I can't really imagine for example ORBX and Aerosoft were doing that for iceland, norway or all the other high-density-coverage-sceneries. Plus, I doubt cuba is the only place having this issue. There are military installations all over the world where someone could have a problem of them being photographed for flightsim porposes.

 

(Side note: I know that here in Germany, the airport of Dresden until this day rejects requests for Nav- and AFCAD-Data for creating an addon-airport "for security reasons", as if places like NY JFK airport and other "high-profile targets" that had scenery created upon their data would have less to worry about that.  Still there are payware airports for Havana, Santiago, Varadero and Holguin.)

 

Anyways, I also believe that from an intelligence point of view Cuba is the most completely photographed caribbean island without giving a damn wether their gvt likes it or not. Cuban airspace is quite a busy place so i'd say above a certain altitude thats not going to be an issue anymore.

 

I am no scenery creation expert, unfortunately. So correct me if I am wrong.

ORBX and Aerosoft don't hire planes to photograph scenery but they do have to pay the companies that do . These companies also have to choose the countries according to what they think would sell well as the object is to make money . The forums over at Aerosoft are full of topics such as these and the answer is always the same , if the poster can guarantee X amount of sales , they would consider it . Another point is that not all countries are happy with this being freely available ( including countries in Europe ) as ( for example ) Google Earth has quite a few portions of the planet that are blurred ( on purpose ) . Other countries are also not happy with planespotters who take photographs at airports that also have a military function , such as Turkey and Greece and end up being arrested .

 

Comparing your screenshot and the last photo , I ( at least ) find that a fairly accurate portrayal of the area , where you expecting to see a particular house or object ?

 

John

As an example, one major scenery developer actually purchases terrain data when preparing their regional scenery. You are correct that Cuba is not the only area where this causes problems.

 

Cuba may be the most photographed island in the Caribbean, but I doubt clandestine agencies will be sharing that data for flight simulation use. :wink:

ORBX and Aerosoft don't hire planes to photograph scenery but they do have to pay the companies that do . These companies also have to choose the countries according to what they think would sell well as the object is to make money . The forums over at Aerosoft are full of topics such as these and the answer is always the same , if the poster can guarantee X amount of sales , they would consider it . Another point is that not all countries are happy with this being freely available ( including countries in Europe ) as ( for example ) Google Earth has quite a few portions of the planet that are blurred ( on purpose ) . Other countries are also not happy with planespotters who take photographs at airports that also have a military function , such as Turkey and Greece and end up being arrested .

 

Comparing your screenshot and the last photo , I ( at least ) find that a fairly accurate portrayal of the area , where you expecting to see a particular house or object ?

 

John

 

Sure I expect that, at maximum 5 MB VAS usage and 50 FPS of course. No, but I was hoping for  more accurate landclass at least. Because as I said, I know quality of UTX scenery in other areas is better.

 

And besides, since this is the biggest flightsim forum on the internet, opening a thread about that here should be a way to show that there is a certain amount of sales.

 

As an example, one major scenery developer actually purchases terrain data when preparing their regional scenery. You are correct that Cuba is not the only area where this causes problems.

 

Cuba may be the most photographed island in the Caribbean, but I doubt clandestine agencies will be sharing that data for flight simulation use. :wink:

 

Why not? I could live with some accurately placed soviet ICBMs in the mountains. Seriously as far as I have noticed Cuba is currently very busy to advertise themselves to the world to help their tourist business.

 

I was only about pointing this lack of better scenery out to the public. It's not like I expect an immediate solution to some sort of "problem", although that line in the first pic certainly is one.

 

 

BTW that is true for most parts of continental south america too, we have some great additiond for Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, but the rest of brazil is still 2006 FSX default level. Can't think of sales being a problem there....