Hi folks,

 

Recently bought and installed Megascenery se texas 4x and it seems that the views from top down (F12) are far sharper and in much more detail than the view out the windshield when in the 2D cockpit mode.   Is this the way the sim normally behaves?  or are there settings that need to be changed so that the views all match in clarity?

 

Jim

 

I think some of these top down views are at higher resolution (zoom factor around 30%) for realism.  Other cockpit views do not have the zoom factor and cannot be increased to say 30% as it will distort the VC.  I don't use 2D cockpits but those you might be able to change the resolution a little.  In wing view (for the PMDG 737 for instance), I always change the resolution to 30%).  Get better fps and clarity and the sim looks more realistic.  Not sure why this is not done by default by MSE.    I think MSE is best viewed at 30-40% resolution as it makes things much crisper and clear (also suggested by MSE).

 

Best regards,

 

Jim

ok...so I understand here.....if i turn off the 4x scenery and look out the windshield and then turn the scenery back on, should I see a difference ?  Or am I  only going to see a difference when using the top down view

You should see a major difference if you disable Texas and look out the cockpit window as you will be seeing the default scenery for the area.  When you enable the scenery, it will be MSE Texas and the scenery outside the cockpit window should look drastically different.  If you hit the F12 key, you will get a completely different resolution as the scenery appears to be much farther away and not sure why it looks crispier.  Not sure what the elevation is after hitting the F12 key but zooming in and out (using the plus and minus keys might help).  I use those keys frequently especially when using MSE scenery.  But you are not going to get the same resolution in the cockpit unless you are at the same elevation and same zoom factor.  How that is done is not known as I have never used the F12 key but I have used the zoom in/zoom out keys which dramatically change resolutions.

well then.....i think there's a problem then with the scenery.  So before I do anything else, I'll do some test runs and take some screen shots.

 

Just out of curiosity....is there a way to actually tell whether or not the MegaEarth scenery is correctly installed and working ?

When you open up FSX, click on Settings and then Scenery Library.  Look down to see if the scenery is enabled.  If it is enabled in the Scenery Library, it was installed correctly.  I put all of my MSE stuff on a separate drive from FSX and then link the scenery to the Scenery Library.

 

I think what you are seeing when you hit the F12 button is actual or realistic scenery around the airport.  It looks like photo scenery but is not but what FSX thinks is the landclass in the area.  When you go to photoscenery, it will look very realistic and you should be able to identify buildings and things if you live in the area.  The zoom level is at 80% and when you go back to the VC it zooms to around 60%.  So a slight variation in the distances. 

You were right ..... appears to have been primarily a zoom issue.....I looked at the zoom level from the top down and it was 0.30    Then when I went to the 2D cockpit view, the zoom was 1.5 !!    So.....setting the zoom down to 0.65 brought the scenery into much better focus and the fidelity I saw in the top down was nearly the same looking out the windshield.  I think part of my confusion might have come from not allowing the MegaEarth setup enough time to really complete.  These high speed SSD's have really spoiled me as regards load times.  By contrast, the MegaEarth stuff is loaded on a midrange spinner.  Anyway....all that to say, thanks for the help and the zoom tip.  Without looking more closely at the zoom issue, I'd probably still be trying to figure out what was going on !!

 

Many thanks, Jim