Future of photoreal

[Zimmerbz 153]

Does anyone know if there are any future plans for photoreal scenery in P3d that looks similar to the ortho stuff?  I️ know mega scenery is out there but that doesn’t look good.  Just wondering what the future holds. Thanks. 

[downscc 1,327]

Ortho stuff?  Sorry for my ignorance, photo scenery is based on aerial photography so ortho scenery is base on orthographic projection charts? Please explain.

As far as I am concerned the future is Orbx.  The downside to photo scenery, I presume because I'm not a big consumer, is lack of seasons?  I think the future is something like openLC where the fixed suite of landclass tiles is replaced with a very large set of tiles better matched to the actual scenery, overlaid by regions with extensive custom textures and autogen and scenery objects.  Day/night and season differences are very robust.

 

[RALF9636 1,897]

20 minutes ago, Zimmerbz said:

Does anyone know if there are any future plans for photoreal scenery in P3d that looks similar to the ortho stuff?  I️ know mega scenery is out there but that doesn’t look good.  Just wondering what the future holds. Thanks. 

Orbx announced that their next regon - Netherlands - will be completely photoreal. They also announced that they want to add full photoreal coverage to their PNW and are looking for other suitable regions in the US.

So I guess that will be the future of photoreal scenery. I agree with you that Megascenery, even if enhanced with Nuvecta Landscapes, leaves a lot to be desired.

[roland_lfor 245]

Future is already here in France with FranceVFR sceneries:

• Reworked photo scenery 1m or 0.5 m/pixel
• Detailed water mask for coast and lakes
• Reworked AFCADs and airports
• Full custom vegetation and building autogen cover
• 3D Automation technology for all complex building shapes
• 64 bits SDK build for P3Dv4 and above

 

[ms2 184]

France vfr open the way with 3DA and I suppose that this way now interresting Orbx. Landclasse coverages as orbx sceneries do, take very less disk spaces vs photosceneries but are rapidely very repetitive. The problem of landclasses is the poor choice decided by fsx, 11 years ago and the minimum square in the sim that make unreal aeras with strange cuts, particulary visible between villages and green vegetations.

The good way shall be a mix of the two technics, because the full coverage of the world in photorealscenneries is to heavy !

 

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

1 hour ago, downscc said:

Ortho stuff?  Sorry for my ignorance, photo scenery is based on aerial photography so ortho scenery is base on orthographic projection charts? Please explain.

Dan,

He’s referring to the program that is available for X-Plane that lets users easily make photoreal ground textures and incorporate autogen into them. Kind of like SBuilderX that we use to create photoreal scenery for FSX or P3D.

[Christopher Low 5,331]

France VFR is the kind of thing that I would like to see everywhere. Lack of seasonal variations is not really an issue for me, as I tend to fly in Spring/Summer the entire time. I also agree that MegaScenery Earth leaves a lot to be desired. The ME Ireland package (which I purchased in the hope that I could use the Northern Ireland part with my PlayHorizon Republic of Ireland photoscenery) is very poor in the area that I was interested in. No watermasking whatsoever for Lough Neagh, extremely poor quality textures/islands/coastline in Strangford Lough, and visible default scenery along coastlines (including an ugly section in Belfast Harbour). Pathetic

[Ebs 114]

Is Photoreal scenery 'ok' now? I've always assumed that it was a bit of a no-no in ESP. Something about the sim loading *all* the photoreal scenery you have installed regardless of where you're actually flying? is this still the case in v4?

[ms2 184]

15 minutes ago, Ebs said:

Is Photoreal scenery 'ok' now?

Yes and no, depend of creators. Personnaly, I directly suspect editors in p3d that show pics of night sceneries or pics at very high altitudes where you don't know if it is only statelite pictures of idem with autogens well placed.

Xp have two softwares to do it your self, cactus521 (John) on "avsim screenshots gallery" show this process very well on America (like his work).

If it is specific sceneries as volcans of typical regions, first choice is photosceneries. For more common regions, orbx sceneries do well the job.

 

[Guest]

5 hours ago, RALF9636 said:

Orbx announced that their next regon - Netherlands - will be completely photoreal. They also announced that they want to add full photoreal coverage to their PNW and are looking for other suitable regions in the US.

So I guess that will be the future of photoreal scenery. I agree with you that Megascenery, even if enhanced with Nuvecta Landscapes, leaves a lot to be desired.

FTX Netherland will also come with 5 seasons and buildings will be shaped to match the footprint in the textures. I think it may become a milestone. Alpha screenshots are looking very good already. 

[GSalden 4,655]

Posted before : I can see my house ...

[captain420 3,099]

Gerard wow, is that FTX Netherlands?

[tonywob 4,768]

Aerial imagery can be so expensive in some areas that it's unlikely it will be the main medium of scenery for some time (The US and NZ are two countries where free legal orthos can be found). Adding to that, orthos have burnt in lighting, and getting seasonal differences is hard. And of course, the disk space required to have orthos is still too much.

Adding accurate autogen on top is another huge challenge. For example, to purchase accurate topo data for all of France would cost near to the millions of Euros, and FranceVFR would seem to have some sort of licensing deal with IGN France and their regions are very expensive. If you saw how much the detailed topographic data and orthos cost for the entire UK, it would make buying oneself a real 777 a cheaper option

For the US, and many other areas, there simply isn't much in the way of good consistent data that can be used for very detailed scenery. So I fear we are some way off before it becomes the norm.

 

[Zimmerbz 153]

3 hours ago, GSalden said:

Posted before : I can see my house ...

What are you using for that?  It looks good.  

[GSalden 4,655]

7 hours ago, tonywob said:

Aerial imagery can be so expensive in some areas that it's unlikely it will be the main medium of scenery for some time (The US and NZ are two countries where free legal orthos can be found). Adding to that, orthos have burnt in lighting, and getting seasonal differences is hard. And of course, the disk space required to have orthos is still too much.

Adding accurate autogen on top is another huge challenge. For example, to purchase accurate topo data for all of France would cost near to the millions of Euros, and FranceVFR would seem to have some sort of licensing deal with IGN France and their regions are very expensive. If you saw how much the detailed topographic data and orthos cost for the entire UK, it would make buying oneself a real 777 a cheaper option

For the US, and many other areas, there simply isn't much in the way of good consistent data that can be used for very detailed scenery. So I fear we are some way off before it becomes the norm.

 

A FTX Region is also not cheap, so I prefer photoreal scenery + custom AG.

That is how I already fly for years now.