BirdsEyeView Winter - kinda useless?

[Guest Ricardo Sevarant]

I was impressed with the initial summer textures released by BEV, especially when run concurrently with an install of the separate Ultimate Terrain add-on.Recently, BEV winter textures were released. Frankly, these new textures aren't all that much better than the default FS2004 winter textures. In some cases, I actually think they are worse. Among some of the flukes I see is too much green vegetation for wintertime in any location of the contiguous USA, expect maybe Key West, Florida. I realize there is a configuration editor in which a variety of textures can be swapped for personal preference, but personally I think the whole package is a letdown. It really seems the BEV winter texture set was rushed through with a minimum of effort in comparison to the original Summmer texture package.Has anyone else made the same observation as me?I haven't tried the hard winter set just released a few days ago, maybe it's better. The regular 'lite' winter textures are just not up to par, at least in my opinion.

[Guest JimC1702]

Unfortunately, I think Winter textures are pretty much boring in most of the US regardless of the texture set used. However, I recommend that you check out the BEV Hard Winter textures that just came out on Saturday. They look very amazing, and are a huge improvement over the default Hard Winter textures, at least in the northeast US where I normally fly.Jim

[Guest]

you are probably mistaking the winter set for the hard winter. what you are looking at is probably the default textures

[zfehr 1]

Rico,I think you are misunderstanding the way in which FS utilizes seasonal textures. The Winter set do not have snow, those are in the hard winter set. They do however have color changes compared with the Summer or Fall set to better represent the season and the autogen tree selection will select trees without leaves (except for evergreen and palms) but without snow (once again that is for the hard winter set). I have been amazed by the enhanced look of the ground using BEV's texture sets and have assembled my own variations for flying in the Southwest US and up where I live in the Pacific NW.

[Guest Ricardo Sevarant]

Hi Al,I thought the same thing initially, but I ran the configurator again and reset to the pre-BEV winter textures (FS2004 default), and I could tell that the BEV winter textures were indeed being displayed correctly when selected. Frankly, it's difficult to distinguish the difference between the default FS2004 textures excepting the fact that the BEV winter set is a lot greener in color than the default ones.The BEV hard winter set should only be displayed under snowy conditions and/or at higher US latitudes inasmuch as I can discern. At least this is how FS2004 itself appears to work. Therefore, in Florida and other southern US states, the BEV winter textures would prevail throughout winter unless online weather detected snowy conditions in the downloaded METARS. In this case, the hard winter textures would display. At more northerly latitudes, I believe the hard winter textures display by default (i.e. Buffalo, NY or Chicago).I need to play around and see if I have the correct understanding of FS2004 seasons in this regard.

[Guest Ricardo Sevarant]

Hi,I understand that snow should not be displaying with the regular winter BEV textures, yes.

[scott967 62]

I think OP was pretty clear he wasn't looking for snow. The default winter textures are pretty much browned-out in areas of vegitation. That's what he was refering to, AFAICT.scott s..

[Guest jennifer]

The screenshots on the BEV site for Hard Winter look fairly similar to the default IMHO. After the WOW factor with their other season textures I wa a bit disappointed

[kerosene31 349]

Are you sure you have the textures installed correctly and activated through the configuration program? So far, the BEV textures have been amazing on my PC. When I first heard of the product, I said that I would never bother to pay for ground textures. After I saw them I tried them, I am a big fan. Have you tried the different texture combinations in the config program?

[Dillon 2,197]

I feel the same way, the BEV textures are amazing winter or summer. I can't wait for spring to come out in a few months. BEV Winter by itself (like what was said before) is not the best visual experience no matter what textures you use but to expect a miracle in FS2k4 out of a season that is drab to begin with is asking a bit too much I would think...I held off on buying any BEV textures until the

[zfehr 1]

From reading some other posts regarding this winter greenery there is another thing to consider and that is the landclass being used. Some areas will utilize summer forest textures alongside hard winter representing a rather sharp change. This might be helped with the use of Ultimate Terrain and possibly even adding FSGenesis landclass (there is a walk thru that explains how to use both on UT's forum).Ricardo, rereading your OP I do see that I assumed a little too much, check some of the forum posts on BEV's site regarding this same issue and there may be some good ideas for improving the area you are wanting to fly over.

[brucewtb 249]

I agree, when I first saw these I thought here had been some mistake and they had put up the default textures. Like the default textures in areas where snow would be metres deep you get only get a mottled covering instead of pure white. The overall effect, at least in rural areas, is similar to fast melting snow in spring certainly not the look of hard winter. See attachment.Bruceb

[Guest ScottPilot]

I totally disagree with your statement.The hard-winter textures make a HUGE improvement to the winter look.Being a real pilot, I always thought the default winter textures didn't cover enough but the new BEV hard winter textures covery the scenery very heavily and look very real after there has been a heavy snow.For $9 they are a bargain!!!Scott :-roll :-roll :-roll

[brucewtb 249]

Perhaps you could post a screenshot from a moutnain/bushland area under heavy seasonal snow (not permanent snow) to convince the sceptics.Bruceb