So it's been out a little while, any feedback? I did a search on this and there's not too much info. The Megascenery forum is no more as well. I have most of the Megascenery titles and wonder if this latest version was worth a look. I always liked Megascenery but always had problems with the textures loading even though I have a pretty decent rig and followed all the recommendations. Is there a scenery that's better for photorealistic?Sincerely,Hans Groenewold

Yeah I'm curious as well too.

I have Ver2 of SoCal and I like it. I haven't had much time to check out in depth but from what I saw the gound detail was a lot sharper/crisper. If you have version 1 you'll know the scenery ended right across Palm Springs airport (KPSP). Now the have extended that across the desert valley. I heard all the way to Barstow but haven't checked.Some say it's too green and too washed out but I didn't find it that bad at all. Maybe a little washed but it could have been the time of day I was flying or just the fact they have to work with what data is given to them. And if you live in SoCal you know after a long dry spell with even a little rain though hills sure do "green up" for several days. And for an upgrade price I really couldn't day no. I think it's definately a keeper. ;)

So cal 2 is great.. The details are amazing. Flying from Palm springs to KBNG (Bannings) is spectacular.I like and still like the So Cal 1 Redish and more vivid color tones. Since most of the other mega scenaries are also green in tone. I was not looking forward to yet another green tone scenary. But the details of So Cal 2 is much better than So cal 1. And I also like the fact that Palm Springs airport covered in Megascenary. BTW.. get that Palm spring airport addon thats available here for free. Its spectacular.BTW.. I didn't realize how many golf courses are there around Palm springs until this one.

Also something I just discovered. If you have Utimate Terrain USA you will see the 3-D lighting with Megascenery. Matches up real good.

What is 3-D lighting? got pictures?Hmmmmmm....

UT 3D lighting is like runway lights where the highway's would be. It looks really, really good. They have some screen shots of it at their site.So Cal 2 is by far the best looking of the bunch, if your a MS fan it is a must have. It's made me almost want to uninstall MS NY now.XP Home SP2Asus P4P800-SE Intel 3.0GHZDDR 400 D/C 4x512MBLeadtek 6800GT 256MB (77.72)SB AudigyCH Products Yoke/Pedals USBSee you in the fence...CYYZ

I'm not a big fan of photo scenery in general because of the long load times. This really hits home for me when flying from say KPHX into KLAX with Megascenery Socal v2. By the time I land at KLAX the textures still haven't fully loaded up leaving my flight over LA a blurry mess. If you load up the scenery within the photo area of Socal and only fly in Socal then everything

Dillon,what exactly are the date stamp changes you can make to improve MegaScenery loading times? I have Socal V2 and I have to say I ended up fling there exclusively. I have a very fast system and have blurries very rarely but sometimes even I experience them. So if I can make it work 100% with a little tweakin that would be quite ok for me.Alex

Alex Megascenery should have sent you an email with a PDF attachment explaining system and FS tweeking. Let me know if you got it or not. I can send it to you or you can contact them yourself...

Dillonlet me see I should have it. I never RTFM :-).Alex

It's funny this discussion came up -- I have been wondering the same thingmyself for the last few weeks: what do others think?Here's my opinion. I absolutely LOVE the nighttime version of SoCal V2, coupledwith Ultimate Terrain. The street lights look very realistic and the textures areperfectly sharp. See the sequence of screen captures below. In the nighttime shot,I reduced the visibility to 30 nm, which adds to the 'haze' effect. Daytime is another story. This is just my opinion and I don't mean to bash any development efforts. But personally, I think SoCal V2 looks hideous in the daytime. See my screen captures. Look at the shot where visibility is reduced to 30 nm. It looks...well...WHITE. Like a winter wonderland. I played with the brightness andcontrast on my monitor, but it didn't help.With clear visibility (see the third screen capture), the colors are too stark and the whole scenery looks like a cartoon. (I especially like the lime-green golfcourses and parks.) The scenery is blurry and looks like a grey-white mishmash.This could just be my setup, but I have tried every imaginable setting and preference for best texture appearance. I have a pretty fast computer with1 GB RAM. I found a workaround that seems to make the scenerytolerable: increase my monitor (and FS2004) resolution to 1280 x 1024, and reducevisibility to 30 nm. TExtures are sharper, but I still don't care for the colors.I'll plan on keeping Socal V2, only for the nighttime scenery. It's fantastic inthat regard.

Was that booster they offered for Megascenery any good? it supposedly lowered the laoding times?Hans

I don't see any problem with those shots there. Those look fantastic. I guess beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

Yes, I did notice an increase in loading times with SoCal V2, which is another bonus.