It really isn't. Only if you make it out to be. At this point, I doubt a lot of people have actually given it a fair shot and just perpetuate that claim repeatedly. I also certainly hope you didn't call G2XPL a pain to install? Because there barely is an install. You put it into the X-Plane plugin folder and start drawing the areas you want in Google Maps / Google Earth. It's kids stuff. Ortho4XP is a little more involved but it's just about getting Python, some plugins and some software installed, nothing else. 

 

I've built 3 states of beautiful ZL17 ortho, with little to no effort other than time downloading it. 

 

Uh, it's a little more than copy and pasting a folder into your custom scenery folder. Simply doing that task does not get you to seeing photoscenery.

 

But if the MegasceneryEarth has its own installer and does all the magic on its own without you needing to spend 20 minutes to several hours downloading tile sizes to suit your fancy, then I'm on board.

It's like building a house really. I could learn all the stuff to do it myself, but in the end, I'd rather just buy a built one.

Well that depends. It's like anything, if you put the original effort in to learn how to use it then it's really easy afterwards. Otherwise you can pay somebody else to provide you with photoscenery (Which a lot of people strangely seem to prefer and cite having no time as a factor). The results I'm getting with Ortho4XP almost anywhere I generate far beat anything I had on FSX. Once you've learned how to setup the application, generating a tile is very easy

 

I think lots of X-Planers aren't afraid of tweaking and generating their own scenery (many even make their own airports). For the rest, it's good to have a ready-made solution

 

 

I consider myself a very persistent people. Learn't a lot about xplane and its addons, programming, scripting, tweaking, addressing all my needs.

 

But somehow unable to generate my own scenery still. I made 4 to 5 attempts (a week each, including reading forums, watching youtube videos, experimenting). Tried g2xp (donated to get my full version), ortho4xp. No luck

 

As Morrigan said above, information has been very confusing to me. Based on my own experience generating my own scenery has been the most frustrating experience so far and still unable to manage it. I think is not that easy.

 

i did not give up yet, will keep pushing when time permitting but if someone provides a nice product i will put money on it and move on about nightmare

In the old days, I generated scenery for the "Fly" sim.  These days, I will never get into scenery generation, nor do I care to go for the effort.  In fact, just getting the computer loaded with all of the latest & greatest files for the ultimate experience seems more than I want to do. I'll let someone else do it, and I'll pay for it. Does this mean I'm lazy?  Not at all. I still work full time, and am about retirement age. I'll be working after that. I also have two other hobbies, which take much of my spare time. MegaScenery has some excellent scenery for the western USA which I'm interested in. I'll look forward to future releases. 

While creating photoscenery isn't rocket science, I would still prefer to buy it. I would even pay more if the vendor doesn't just fire & forget a batch-tool, but also performs the manual steps to get the result as good as it can be within reasonable margin.

 

I have just finished the complete PilotEdge area in ZL16, and I won't do another area anytime soon. While getting the tiles was just a question of time (I used a batch file for G2XPL), there are still many things that could be optimized. Some of the most important ones for me would be to always choose the provider provider with the best image quality for every tile, balancing color and contrast, optimizing land-water transitions and making exclusion zones where airports don't line up with the underlying photoscenery.

 

I would willingly pay $60-180 per US-state or european country (depending on size of course) at ZL16, if the scenery would be optimized manually as mentioned above. It wouldn't even need to have autogen, 3D objects, trees, roads or night textures.

I have disabled all of those for my own scenery, so I only see 3D buildings at airports.

 

 

Which a lot of people strangely seem to prefer and cite having no time as a factor. The results I'm getting with Ortho4XP almost anywhere I generate far beat anything I had on FSX. Once you've learned how to setup the application, generating a tile is very easy

 

Well, I'm one of them. I agree that Ortho4XP is quite easy to use, but at least on my old PC, it took more than one day to generate a high-quality "100% land without sea" tile (Have not tested on the current one.)

 

Also, from payware photo scenery I expect that they have edited the tiles for removing color differences that spoil the experience for me with using Bing or Google tiles. I don't know if MegaScenery does this; if they do, and the tiles look consistent, and the results are at least like zoom level 16, I'd buy it at day one.

Uh, it's a little more than copy and pasting a folder into your custom scenery folder. Simply doing that task does not get you to seeing photoscenery.

 

But if the MegasceneryEarth has its own installer and does all the magic on its own without you needing to spend 20 minutes to several hours downloading tile sizes to suit your fancy, then I'm on board.

 

You are right, you actually have to do something actively, like click a button for it to appear on your harddrive. 

You are right, you actually have to do something actively, like click a button for it to appear on your harddrive. 

 

Dude. Pay attention. It took more to get it to work. Explaining this to you is (as I can see), going nowhere. My apologies to your comprehension.

 

The evidence speaks for itself. Most people like photoscenery but want it to be simple process to install and get it running.

Dude. Pay attention. It took more to get it to work. Explaining this to you is (as I can see), going nowhere. My apologies to your comprehension.

 

The evidence speaks for itself. Most people like photoscenery but want it to be simple process to install and get it running.

 

Why would you need to explain anything to me? I've used both software to build tiles. Currently I've built 4 states in ZL17 with Ortho4XP. I suspect that's about 100% more than you've built with either.

 

So your frantic raving about how hard it is to click a few buttons is laughable at best. Yes, you want it served a silver platter and pay your way out of it, we get it. 

Why would you need to explain anything to me? I've used both software to build tiles. Currently I've built 4 states in ZL17 with Ortho4XP. I suspect that's about 100% more than you've built with either. So your frantic raving about how hard it is to click a few buttons is laughable, at best.

 

I think your responses have been more frantic and rather obsessive.

 

All you need to do is look at what many comments have been surrounding the installation and use of these applications. People want installers. That's okay. No need to obsess over how much easier it was for you unless you just want to toot your own horn, as it seems.

I think your responses have been more frantic and rather obsessive.

 

All you need to do is look at what many comments have been surrounding the installation and use of these applications. People want installers. That's okay. No need to obsess over how much easier it was for you unless you just want to toot your own horn, as it seems.

 

No, I think that award goes to your posts. Baseless complaining about software you haven't even used. You probably gave them a quick glance, if that, and made up your mind. Now they are suddenly a "pain to try and install". One of them literally being a drag'n'drop installation, drawing the area you want in Google Maps, saving that drawing, then typing the name into a config file and run a bat file. It even puts the scenery in the correct folder. That is the absolute minimum requirement to work one of them, yet you also seem to dispute that with the argument that an elf doesn't come flying through your window to do the work? 

 

If you want to pay through your nose to have someone else do it for you, fine, but at least get somewhat acquainted with the software you talk about.

No, I think that award goes to your posts. Baseless complaining about software you haven't even used. You probably gave them a quick glance, if that, and made up your mind. Now they are suddenly a "pain to try and install". One of them literally being a drag'n'drop installation, drawing the area you want in Google Maps, saving that drawing, then typing the name into a config file and run a bat file. It even puts the scenery in the correct folder. That is the absolute minimum requirement to work one of them, yet you also seem to dispute that with the argument that an elf doesn't come flying through your window to do the work? 

 

If you want to pay through your nose to have someone else do it for you, fine, but at least get somewhat acquainted with the software you want to slack off. 

 

You are quite prejudiced and judgemental. That's very clear. You feel like everyone should experience what you've experienced. That's a very narcissistic attitude. Sorry, you are not everyone else.

 

This is a forum. I shared my experience and also shared the preference that many others here shared, that they would prefer an installer. I'm happy with that.

 

 

If you want to pay through your nose to have someone else do it for you, fine, but at least get somewhat acquainted with the software you talk about.

Hi Sethos,

I am curious if the states that you have created can be uploaded to Avsim so people could download and use them. If this is the case, I might be willing to do the same so the community would have photo scenery created by the community. Thanks. 

Sethos, you make it sound so easy. Maybe for you it is, but I've used both GX2PL and Ortho2XP before, and let me tell you, it's not as straightforward as some people make it out to be. I remember having numerous problems with the install, and it wasn't just me. I was on the support forum and numerous people had the same problems as me. Installation requires more than just python, you needed other packages such as GIMP, and a few others that I can't remember off the top of my head. After numerous tries and many days of getting it to finally install and work. I made a few tiles, and to me the results weren't what I expected. It's not a simple click and go solution like you say it is. It's not going to give you great results. You have to choose and play around with the settings, and some people may not have fast computers. It can take days to download and render a tile depending on their settings. I don't know what your problem is, but please be a little more open minded. Not everyone has the same experience as you. Some people just don't want to mess with all that and rather pay for a product that offers them what they're looking for. Time is money and some people just don't have the time. I have the time, which is why I tried both programs and played with them extensively and it didn't meet my expectations. Different areas were mismatching, scenery didn't blend well, yada yada. 

You are quite prejudiced and judgemental. That's very clear. You feel like everyone should experience what you've experienced. That's a very narcissistic attitude. Sorry, you are not everyone else.

 

This is a forum. I shared my experience and also shared the preference that many others here shared, that they would prefer an installer. I'm happy with that.

 

No, I feel that people should give the software an actual chance and bring some insight into the debate, instead of just brushing it aside with generalised comments that people seem to latch into, because that's just easier. We have developers who's put in a LOT of hours to build their respective piece of software, to give the X-Plane community an amazing opportunity to create orthoimagery for free (a small donation for G2XPL). So having someone, who doesn't seem to have used either and knows absolutely nothing about them, shrug it all aside with "it's a pain to install", because he wants it served on a silver platter isn't very helpful. When you are told that one of these software are literally as easy as described, you also somehow deny that or even ignore it?

 

 

Hi Sethos,

I am curious if the states that you have created can be uploaded to Avsim so people could download and use them. If this is the case, I might be willing to do the same so the community would have photo scenery created by the community. Thanks. 

 

 

Don't think that would be possible in my case, as I've decided to build my scenery in ZL17. That means each tile comes out at about 7-8GB, which makes some states reach hundreds of gigabytes. Would probably have to lower the quality a bit to make it 'upload / download friendly'.