FSX-MS European Scenery

[DaveH 14]

I have just ventured in Europe, and in some videos I notice very nice scenery,  My "Old" FSGenesis does not seem to be as nice.

So, what is the best scenery for European flying ?

Dave Hinson

 

[ms2 184]

Probably for landscapes, the videos are done with orbx sceneries, look great.

For France, one editor "france vfr" have for each region a addon to do realistic vfr flights.

In England UK 2000 make nice airports

Norway is wonderfull with Orbx

Nederlanden (NL2000) is a group of creators who make free sceneries.

Aerosoft have a lot of Great-airports in Europe. Germany is well done too by their.

For the other lands, I choice between orbx and aerosoft airports...

[DaveH 14]

Looks like orbx.

Dave

 

[scianoir 610]

Hi Dave,

If you want to see a dramatic overall improvement  in the scenery of Europe I would suggest initially installing Orbx Open LC Europe. Even on its own this provides some beautiful scenery to fly over but then if you want even more detail for VFR flying you can add any of the available Orbx regions. As MS2 says, Norway is wonderful but the Orbx regional scenery addons for England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Germany are also excellent.

There is also a huge variety of airport scenery available for Europe but if you are looking for UK airports, those in the UKXtreme series are the best but the same developer (UK2000) also produces 3 volumes of UK airfields which cover hundreds of UK airfields and airports and are good value. The Aerosoft airports are also great but be aware some a very resource intensive so look carefully at the reviews before buying them! One lesser known developer providing good quality European airports at a reasonable price is RF Scenery Building. There is a lot of choice for EUR but what you should choose really just depends on where you want to fly and the type of flying (VFR or IFR) you want to do - just read reviews before parting with your cash!

Bill

[Chock 17,769]

UK2000 for airports, France VFR for mainland Europe is good because it is the largest European country, but be warned, Ile de France is great and includes loads of stuff, but it can really make your sim chug if your PC isn't up to it. Ultimate Terrain Europe 2 is inexpensive and does a good job of enhancing most countries to look a bit more like what they actually are like, both by day and night. Just Flight's VFR stuff for the UK looks good, but it can be a bit pricey to get it all, Revolution X is very good if you want better autogen over the UK which will sit on photorealistic terrain. Orbx UK is okay if you want the UK to look like a Disney fantasy version of what most people think the UK looks like, but that's true of a lot of Orbx stuff so it depends whether you like that look, although it is undeniably pretty. The Freeware Power Project v4.0 will put loads of power lines and power stations all over the world, which can hit FPS a t bit, but it is a big feature of the European landscape to see such stuff.

[scianoir 610]

49 minutes ago, Chock said:

France VFR for mainland Europe is good because it is the largest European country, but be warned, Ile de France is great and includes loads of stuff, but it can really make your sim chug if your PC isn't up to it.

You are quite right with your warning about Ile de France - when you combine that with the 3 major airports in the Paris area in addition to a myriad of small airports around Paris it can be a very heavy resource hit. With regard to the  France VFR scenery, I have avoided buying their individual French regional scenery areas as getting them all would prove quite expensive although they look very good (they certainly were in FS9 where it is fair to say they were quite revolutionary in terms of that platform!). I do however use an addon from France VFR called TrueLandscape France which provides very nice enhanced landscape data for the whole country combined with another addon called Obstacles & VFR Landmarks France, also from France VFR. The same company also produce a bunch of French regional airport addons of quite high quality if Dave is interested in flying in this part of Europe. Staying on the subject of France, if you want the challenge of some amazing high altitude airfields in the French Alps (altiports as they are called there) have a look at the range of addons from LLH Creations. Like most scenery produce by French developers they are a little on the expensive side but quite unique in the challenges they provide - just try Courcheval which is arguably as difficult as the notorious Lukla!

Bill

[ms2 184]

4 hours ago, scianoir said:

Like most scenery produce by French developers they are a little on the expensive side but quite unique in the challenges

Of course, is because 90% of buyers are... French speaking simmers...is a little communauty compare to NorthAmerican+English+Australian simmers who flight a lot in their countries.. (Perhaps 80% of the sim market)

But  if you know as me the real terrain of France, there are few big countries in the world so near the reality with a lot of real elements placed mostly on photoreal bgl.. Have a cost to process... Least ones have a new technology used and now compatible p3dv4. 

For Isle of France and airports (3 big and -/+ 12 smaller GA), is exact to said is a "lot to much" and to be flyable must actived only the part you want fly on it... A little as around London if you open all the airports arround the fps is dead... This zone is very difficult in reality because the proximity of airspaces with strict reglementations... Is a deal to do in a sim a good pln with restrictions respected to go from west to east of Paris (with or whithout vfr sceneries).

Justely today I want upgraded to v4 the 2 Alpes Provence addons (PACA)... The regions along the Mediterranean coast. 

5 hours ago, scianoir said:

TrueLandscape France which provides very nice enhanced landscape data for the whole country combined with another addon called Obstacles & VFR Landmarks France, also from France VFR.

For a few flying on France... Is the best solution, well done and better fps. When I want making international flights (ifr rules) trough Europa), it is the only addons enabled in mine sim (with one airport if landing or take off in France). 

Good flight and welcome in France.

[pmb 5,137]

I have avoided buying the more recent France VFR packages as they are dedicated incompatible with ORBX. I have the complete (yes) ORBX collection and I am not going to throw it away for a few expensive (albeit great looking) French regions.

There are some hacks in a French forum how to circumvent this incompatibility, but it is a shame France VFR does not take care of this themselves given ORBX has an extended user base (certainly larger than France VFR) worldwide.

Kind regards, Michael

 

[scianoir 610]

4 hours ago, ms2 said:

But  if you know as me the real terrain of France, there are few big countries in the world so near the reality with a lot of real elements placed mostly on photoreal bgl.. Have a cost to process... Least ones have a new technology used and now compatible p3dv4. 

I absolutely agree and I think the France VFR regions are probably the best scenery available for any country in the world. In the past I had all the France VFR regions available for FS9 and I used to do a lot of VFR flying in France on FS9, even though I don't live there, simply because the France VFR scenery was excellent. I have no doubt that it is even better now in FSX (and P3D) and when I look at the available screenshots, France VFR scenery looks amazing! I am certain if I lived in France I too would be buying this scenery but just to purchase the currently available regions (which cover around half of France) would cost around EUR500! However with the relatively limited market they have for this scenery and considering the amount of work that must go into its development, I can understand why France VFR regional scenery prices are high.

 

1 hour ago, pmb said:

 

I have avoided buying the more recent France VFR packages as they are dedicated incompatible with ORBX. I have the complete (yes) ORBX collection and I am not going to throw it away for a few expensive (albeit great looking) French regions

 

I have an almost complete Orbx collection (except for 4 airports) but I actually had TrueLandscape France and Obstacles & VFR Landmarks France installed on my system before FTX OpenLC Europe was released. As that combination of French scenery was so good, I wanted to keep it on FSX and if I remember correctly it was a fairly simple matter to make it compatible with OpenLC EUR although at this point I can't recall which files I had to deactivate! But compatibility of the France VFR Regions and Orbx is another matter and, although it may be possible to achieve, the combined price of all the France VFR addons, great though they are, would be a deal-breaker for me.

Cheers,

Bill

[ms2 184]

1 hour ago, pmb said:

a shame France VFR does not take care of this themselves given ORBX

To prepare a world tour, I have after years most of orbx sceneries (I'm a fan ;-) in Europe and other countries. Orbx sure is the world leader...

Simple tought... that the first who don't take care to other devellopers is orbx, a lot of aerosoft airports are well without installing orbx and are conflicts after installing orbx. Yes ftx central and vectors fix and disable some bgl with a autoscanning. But after, in reality, I lost a lot of time to make AS compatible and other dev. with orbx.

the big problem is that most creators don't take care of the medium level of the real altitude of a airport... The sim is himself bad because of first microsoft airports in scenery folders on a low mesh. The base of the sim is clearly old one.

I read in the past on french forum that France vfr and someones have discuted about a common base for working. No answered by orbx.

I don't want to said that orbx is no correct... Only the law of the dominant is in work. Don't said that France VFR is a shame is not reality.*

Now in v4, I don't understand, a little sad, that orbx don't change the organisation in our sim with xml in documents folder as recommanded by LM...

*no any contact with France Vfr, is a personnal mind.

[DaveH 14]

Thanks, guys, for all the terrific input.  Looks like it will take a while to decide on all the options.

I have FSGenesis scenery now for the entire world,  If I decide to upgrade to, say, Orbx for Europe, I suppose I will have to uninstall FSGenesis ?

Thanks again.

Dave Hinson

 

[scianoir 610]

10 minutes ago, DaveH said:

I have FSGenesis scenery now for the entire world,  If I decide to upgrade to, say, Orbx for Europe, I suppose I will have to uninstall FSGenesis ?

I don't have FSGenesis but that's a terrain mesh product right? If so I don't think there would be any conflict with something like Orbx OpenLC Europe which, as far as I know, does not contain a terrain mesh. The Orbx regions however contain their own mesh files but I think the more detailed mesh, wherever that is, takes precedence although I am open to correction on that.  Perhaps someone using FSGenesis with Orbx products could give you some advice on that or you may be able to find some information in the Compatibility Forum over at Orbx.

Bill