I typically fly FS2004 using helicopters, VFR, at or below 1500 feet in the New York City metropolitan area, and out to about a 150 mile radius. Frequently, I follow real world roads, which often correspond with helicopter routes. I also fly with a VA on VATSIM, and we use custom developed heliport scenery for Manhattan and other locations, which was originally developed for the default Manhattan (and Northern NJ) coastlines.Previously, I have been using a combination of NY Megascenery, Scenery Manhattan, and our VA's custom developed scenery.I just did a complete FS2004 re-installation, and would like to get some opinions from the community if a better approach for my specific type of flying might be a combination of something like FS Genesis 38M mesh, Ultimate Terrain and the new Ground Environment?My concerns are:impact on framerates in NYC areadesire to clearly see major NYC and suburban highways for navigation purposesif I go with a more accurate landclass product, the coastlines and bridges in the NYC area will change. Then I will need to add one of the third party developed packages that fixes the locations of the bridges. I know that at least two of these have been developed for the NYC area, but this adds more complexity.impact on autogen and overall "look and feel" in NYCI fly alot at night, so night textures, especially night road visibility is importantMy system specs: P4 3.4 GHz, 1 GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9800 XT video cardWindows XP SP2All suggestions welcome!! Thanks!WayneMetro One / NMH01Metro Helicopters VAwww.metrohelo.org

Very interesting, friendly bumping!

Hi, Wayne.I would get some good Mesh, here at AVSIM, and USA_Roads at flightsim by Raymindo. Get

Hi Wayne,I've finally got my computer back to snuff and started working on the NYC/Port Newark area again. I don't have a date for you, but I did do some working on it today. (The FSX pics look for some amazing possibilities around ports :) ).I'm not sure what I'm going to do to finish it, my idea at the moment is to work on the ships to make sure they are to scale, and to populate the docks with containers and somesuch.Given the innacuracies I've seen in Aerosoft's Manhattan, I'm going to stay away from that. For what it's worth, I love UT/USA, the accuracy it provides for coastlines, water, and roads is amazing. I am constantly in awe whenever I fly looking at the detail this package provides in the areas I fly (NY/New England). FreeFlowNE is another choice here for water and coastline features. I tend to find UT much more accurate, but FFNE is way, way better than default. I do most of my flying in the day, so I can't comment on the night aspect, but I understand that the nightlighting of UT is great, too. I was not impressed with the pics I saw of lit roads, but given that it's freeware, give it a try. Be careful of the above poster naming Raymondo's product USA Roads, that's a payware product from the maker of the Ultimate Terrain series. I also highly, highly recommend downloading the FSG mesh from Avsim or Flightsim. I also use FSGenesis Payware US Landclass Project. Finally, I use BEV textures, but I don't know how well they work in cities. I also find the Wood and Desert Textures here at Avsim a decent equivalent for BEV.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com/FC_StartJava.html] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)

Hey Wayne, how's it going? How's the family?My take is that what you had before is probably the best for an actual big city feel when flying. While UT may be more accurate, I had lots of issues with existing small sceneries and thus it's uninstalled. I felt it was more of a high flying scenery addon than for low flyers. The nightlighting was cool, but some reported hugh impacts on FPS since they are 3D lights. I don't think you'll get much out of a texture package such as GE or BEV since it's city textures with autogen no matter how you slice it.As for mesh, are there many mountains around NY?Save the money and upgrade the CPU or more memory for a smoother experience, LOLTake care bro!Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/mcdcvabanner.jpgCalVirAir International

Going from 1 gig of ram to 2 gig, made it a smoother experience for me. However, your 3.4 CPU should be more than enough to run FS9 with most addons enabled. I wouldnt bother upgrading until FSX is out. By then there will be stuff available that blows away what is out now.Rob

Hi, Thomas. I am not sure if you are misinformed or just trying to mislead. Before you post a warning type message do your home work.RAIMONDO USAROADS IS A FREE PRODUCT, and you can find it at flightsim as usaroads1, 2, 3. To see some pics that I posted with my setup, do a search for

I'm pretty happy with the UT USA, FSG 38m, GE, koorbygen combo myself...

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!Thomas and Michael - Good to hear from you again! email me when you get a chance. Regards,Wayne

I have no desire to start a flame war. My only point was that I wanted to make sure people reading the post did not confuse Raimondo's files available on flightsim.com with the payware product called "USA Roads" available on www.Flight1.com.You are familiar with what you are talking about. Many people aren't. I know Wayne knows the difference, but there are many people who will read this thread and could get confused. It's important to be specific. And I could have been more specific, too."USA Roads" contains all the roads of the US, is written by Scenery Solutions and published by www.flight1.com. I can vouch that it is extremely accurate and has every road I have ever looked for. Some people complain that very minor roads look less minor than they should, but I loved the package. Ultimate Terrain (also available from flight1.com) replaces it and adds more.The official name for Raimondo's product is "United States Roads and Railways Systems" and is available in three files usaroad1.zip, usaroad2.zip, and usaroad3.zip at flightsim.com. It claims to be an update for the roads of the US as well as the railways. I have never downloaded this product so I can't vouch for it either way.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com/FC_StartJava.html] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)

Hi, Thomas.I have no problem with this statement, informative and to the point:>The official name for Raimondo's product is "United States Roads and Railways Systems" and is available in three files usaroad1.zip, usaroad2.zip, and usaroad3.zip at flightsim.com. It claims to be an update for the roads of the US as well as the railways. I have never downloaded this product so I can't vouch for it either way.Be careful of the above poster naming Raymondo's product USA Roads, that's a payware product from the maker of the Ultimate Terrain series