ipacs aerofly  [developer] 10 hours ago 

 

We might be able to publish the texture pack DLC tomorrow if nothing unforeseen comes into our way. This DLC basically extends the region of high quality aerial images around every airport.

 

 

 

Excellent news!  Glad they are listening to their customers.

Downloading now... it is taking a while

Ah, so it isn't actually the entire south western USA region? Are they intending to do that in the future?

we have just released a free DLC for Aerofly FS 2 that will add higher resolution aerial images to all airports in California, Nevada and Arizona.

 

Some background information: The resolution of the aerial images is optimized in such a way that around airports you will see up to 1 meter resolution per pixel, the further away you fly the lower the resolution.

 

I'll check it out tonight. Not sure about the "all airports" bit. The airports themselves looked fine before, it was the scenery in between that was too low-res to be usable. It depends on how much the resolution drops off farther from airports.

Still downloading.

Meanwhile, IPACS updated the information on their Steam page:

 

Dear Aerofly users, 
we have just released a free DLC for Aerofly FS 2 that will add higher resolution aerial images to all airports in California, Nevada and Arizona. 
Some background information: The resolution of the aerial images is optimized in such a way that around airports you will see up to 1 meter resolution per pixel, the further away you fly the lower the resolution. 

Please note that we might change this DLC during Early Access by either optimizing the content or adding new stuff. 
We hope you enjoy the new aerial images.

http://store.steampowered.com/news/?appids=434030

Well, Steam downloaded another 11 GB but I'm not really seeing any difference. I'll have to double check that it actually installed correctly.

Well, Steam downloaded another 11 GB but I'm not really seeing any difference. I'll have to double check that it actually installed correctly.

 

I expect it did as advertised: Pushed hi-res coverage outwards a few miles around every airport.

 

As a lot of us are at altitude by then, its probably not that much of a difference.

Now they just need to push it out even further until they all overlap :wink:

Were are the new images?  Did not see them on the link.

Nice 55Gb of high res photoscenery.

I expect it did as advertised: Pushed hi-res coverage outwards a few miles around every airport.

 

As a lot of us are at altitude by then, its probably not that much of a difference.

 

Well, 3000 feet isn't an unusual cruising altitude for GA aircraft:

http://i.imgur.com/thkpe2M.jpg

Im not seeing the new aerial imagery either. Still looks very low res to me in some places. 

Im not seeing the new aerial imagery either. Still looks very low res to me in some places. 

 

How much data did your Steam client download?

First mine downloaded 11 GB, which I thought was the DLC. But that must have been an update to the base scenery. A few hours later, the actual DLC started downloading. It's roughly 54 GB. The entire sim should take up about 84.5 GB now.

 

I'm not seeing a huge difference either, but the high-res "rings" around the airports have definitely been extended. Also, some areas that were super-lowres before (think Fly! from 1999) are now slightly sharper. You can "kind of" do VFR flights now, as long as you stay above ~4000 feet and mostly in the cockpit view (where you can't look straight down at the blurry scenery en-route).

I do hope that they offer a "full high resolution coverage" option for the south western USA region when version 1.0 is released. I don't mind paying for it, but low resolution photoscenery is not acceptable to me. I fly "low and slow" everywhere, so restricting the high resolution areas to only around the major airports is not good enough for me.