One thing that's always confused me a bit with FS2004 is the issue of landclass and ground textures. I know about mesh, and I have FSGenesis 38m or 76m mesh covering all of North and Central America and the Caribbean. I also have Ultimate Terrain USA, and I think both sets of products are fantastic and add a lot to my simming.But, I see people referring to landclass, which I assume is what tells FS2004 what types of ground textures to put in certain spots (urban, desert, farm, etc.), right? And then there's replacement ground textures themselves. So if I wanted to get replacement landclass or textures (primarily for North America, as that's where I do 99% of my flying), would they work with UT USA? What would you guys recommend in that category to add to VFR simming enjoyment? I really think the default textures are pretty good with UT USA and replacement mesh, but then I see some screenshots over in the Screenshot Forum and my jaw just drops.Thanks in advance and sorry if this is a noob question. I've had FS2004 going on two and a half years now, and I'm still a noob. Probably always will be. :)Lewis "Moose" GregoryRichmond, Virginia

Hello Lewis,For textures themselves, I would either recommend Birdseye View (what I use) Which they sell only for North America in different seasons or Ground Environment, which is one whole pack for the whole world with all seasons. I like Birdseye view Better because you get a utility that lets you pick which textures you want to use. Check out flight1.com to check the out.Regards,Alexhttp://img88.imageshack.us/img88/2852/sig6or.jpg

I use Ultimate Terrain and FSGenesis mesh, along with the FSGenesis US Landclass and Bird's Eye View. You're right that landclass tells FS9 which textures to display. Ultimate Terrain by itself contains urban landclass but uses default landclass everywhere else. The FSGenesis US Landclass does a far better job. It makes a huge difference where I fly in the Northeast US.Jim

You are correct that the landclass definiton file selects a type of desired land cover from a list. This selection is then passed through a slope, region, season, and day/night calculator to determine a specific texture bitmap file to drape over the computed mesh. After the texture tile is selected, terrain features 'burn" other texture bitmaps into the tile. If there is an associated autogen annotation for the texture file(s), the autogen objects are slected and placed into the scenery.scott s..