24 minutes ago, 238932 said:

not bad for a free addon if you ask me especially compared to the default mesh. The summit is still a bit round but unless you make the mesh manually you'll never get the true shape of it.

My only reserve is that there is kind of a second lower summit on the Hornly ridge wich does not exist irl

Thanks, I agree it's good for a freebie. The Matterhorn is a good test I think since it has a shape like no other mountain.

This is a very interesting thread. I did not realize that we could use "older" programs with P3d v3 or v4 and would  like to improve the landscape.

Having all the ORBX scenery add-ons it did not occur to me that lots of improvement could be made with additional software.

I know absolutely nothing about FS Genesis, FS Global, or FreemeshX And am eager to try one/all (?) of them. 

Some suggestions please about which I should try.     My GPU is 1080Ti and Intel CPU at 3.5.

Thanking in advance

Neal Howard

Edited December 29, 20187 yr by OldFlyboy

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Thanks, I agree it's good for a freebie. The Matterhorn is a good test I think since it has a shape like no other mountain.

OK Ray, here's the Matterhorn with Toposim installed... Not bad, and I think it's an improvement over Free Mesh X, not by miles, but better overall. I got the Toposim "whole planet bundle", it was on sale, $27 with the coupon code they give you free at the website. The only downside to this whole planet bundle is there are 45 separate mesh scenery folders to unzip, even if I just create 7 folders for each of the worlds continents it's gonna take me a while to get it all installed... ☹️

Does Toposim make all the mesh at LOD 11 and US+Mexico+NZ at LOD 12.  Isn't that higher than FS Global 2010/2018?

I just got openLC Sa - Does Toposim Planet mesh make it go at LOD 11?

 

Someone should make a table comparing FSGlobal 2010, Toposim, FreemeshX, FS Global 2018 and Ultimate and show which areas have higher and lower resolution.  That would help everyone.  Very grateful to the lucky soul who does that.

For Exampe FS Global has these areas in LOD 11 , LOD 10, LOD 8 etc, and then FreemeshX, Toposim etc.  So we all think which areas have higher and lower resolution - helps in purchasing too.

Edited December 29, 20187 yr by Skywolf

18 minutes ago, SunDevil56 said:

OK Ray, here's the Matterhorn with Toposim installed... Not bad, and I think it's an improvement over Free Mesh X, not by miles, but better overall. I got the Toposim "whole planet bundle", it was on sale, $27 with the coupon code they give you free at the website. The only downside to this whole planet bundle is there are 45 separate mesh scenery folders to unzip, even if I just create 7 folders for each of the worlds continents it's gonna take me a while to get it all installed... ☹️

 

Thanks @SunDevil56. A reasonable representation for a freebie program. The install sounds a bit of a nightmare. In comparison FS Global has around 8 DVDs but as I had a backup of my install for P3D v3 I just used Aomei Backupper to 'Explore' the backup and then copy the FSG folder to my C drive. Took around 45 mins.

All that remained was copying the entries in my P3D v3 scenery.cfg into my new one and arrange them just above the default scenery.

You should try a flight from Milan Malpensa to Geneva. The views are stunning.

42 minutes ago, OldFlyboy said:

This is a very interesting thread. I did not realize that we could use "older" programs with P3d v3 or v4 and would  like to improve the landscape.

Having all the ORBX scenery add-ons it did not occur to me that lots of improvement could be made with additional software.

I know absolutely nothing about FS Genesis, FS Global, or FreemeshX And am eager to try one/all (?) of them. 

Some suggestions please about which I should try.     My GPU is 1080Ti and Intel CPU at 3.5.

Thanking in advance

Neal Howard

Neal,

Mesh scenery doesn't actually have any visible objects. It sits under the default scenery and reshapes the landscape by adding elevation points at a much higher rate that the default. The Matterhorn is a classic example. Quite a small mountain based on its footprint so the default P3D misses it completely. Just a hole in the ground where it is. In comparison FS Global with its huge collection of data points makes the mountain appear and gives it its unique shape.

You may as well start with FreeMesh for one part of the world were you fly. Hardly any performance hit that I can see. And as long as L-M stay with BGL files older software like this works very well.

Edited December 29, 20187 yr by Ray Proudfoot

29 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Thanks @SunDevil56. A reasonable representation for a freebie program. The install sounds a bit of a nightmare. In comparison FS Global has around 8 DVDs but as I had a backup of my install for P3D v3 I just used Aomei Backupper to 'Explore' the backup and then copy the FSG folder to my C drive. Took around 45 mins.

All that remained was copying the entries in my P3D v3 scenery.cfg into my new one and arrange them just above the default scenery.

You should try a flight from Milan Malpensa to Geneva. The views are stunning.

Actually Toposim isn't free Ray, but no worries.

You are right about the installation, tedious and time consuming, but being a retired bloke, time is something I have in abundance..lol

I have no doubt the Malpensa to Geneva trip is a beautiful one, i'll have to try it, and the nice thing is, it won't take 4 hrs. to complete it.

I just purchased LOWI Innsbruck from JustSim, beautiful little airport with a challenging offset localizer approach, I'll have to give that one another try with the Toposim mesh now installed...😎

What are your thoughts about these multiple mesh folders in the P3D scenery library..?? Is there any advantage to disabling in the scenery library any of those that aren't actually in use at the time you are flying in a given area..?? BTW, the Toposim scenery files are all BGL's, so based on your comment to Neal, i'm guessing there won't be any penalty for just keeping them all enabled.

Thanks,

Scott

1 hour ago, Skywolf said:

Does Toposim make all the mesh at LOD 11 and US+Mexico+NZ at LOD 12.  Isn't that higher than FS Global 2010/2018?

I just got openLC Sa - Does Toposim Planet mesh make it go at LOD 11?

 

Someone should make a table comparing FSGlobal 2010, Toposim, FreemeshX, FS Global 2018 and Ultimate and show which areas have higher and lower resolution.  That would help everyone.  Very grateful to the lucky soul who does that.

For Exampe FS Global has these areas in LOD 11 , LOD 10, LOD 8 etc, and then FreemeshX, Toposim etc.  So we all think which areas have higher and lower resolution - helps in purchasing too.

Hey Wolf, i'm still trying to make sense of all these LOD and xx.Meter numbers myself...

I'll admit, mesh has never been my focus in either FSX or P3D, so i'm not the best person to answer your questions, but check out the Toposim page regarding the Planet bundle for more info...

http://www.toposim.net/distrib/product/planet-earth-bundle/

From what I can tell, it appears to be better mesh than the Free Mesh X, (not that it was bad by any means), and my preliminary tests with Toposim versus Free Mesh X seem to confirm that.

The Toposim "Planet bundle" also includes some areas in "Ultra mesh" resolution, I think this limited to Alaska, and maybe a few other very specific areas, but check the website for more info.

I do agree with you, somebody should make a table comparing all these mesh products, and also explain the technical details in layman's terms, that would be a wonderful thing, becasue IMO this can be a confusing subject, even for relatively experienced flight simmers.

Please do remember that FreeMeshX is generally 38m in Europe and so are most paid global packages. The payware packages have enhanced detail in selected mountainous areas, so you won't see these kinda differences in most areas.

If you need more than 38m resolution it's probably in quite a localised area so you'd be better buying photographic scenery or an orbx region that normally includes LOD11(19m) or LOD 12 mesh.

Indeed this whole thing was discussed before with regards to FSG2018

 

Edited December 29, 20187 yr by ckyliu

On 12/28/2018 at 4:25 PM, vgbaron said:

The "old" FSG was sold by Justin. IMHO, since then, the quality of the product is awful. Justin formed Toposim and you can find his high quality products at www.toposim.net.  He honors the old memberships and usually has some sort of discount for past customers.

Worth checking out IMHO. I have all his stuff and prefer it over freemesh.

Vic

Reading this resparked my interest in mesh improvements, so I thought that I'd (re)visit Justin's site and see what's available for the UK. And to my surprise, he's currently got the Great Britain 19m mesh for free as his 'daily freebie'. Worth a punt...

Thank you Ray for starting this topic!

Reading the comments, I wonder if people recommending products actually have compared. 🙂 Because I think, if they have compared (and are not blind or otherwise biased!), they can not possibly recommend what they do recommend. Freemesh is a reasonably good replacement for the default mesh, if you do not care for great accuracy and data rework quality. Or if you want just something "for free". The saying "you get what you pay for" applies in mesh as it applies everywhere else in life. I stand here to prove ...

Two examples out of many I can provide are below. The first is a high resolution area. Matterhorn.

Real World


FS Global Ultimate - Next Generation (with Switzerland Pro)



Freemesh (with Switzerland Pro)



The second is a "normal" resolution. The Rotenfels at the Nahe river in Germany.



FS Global Ultimate - Next Generation


Freemesh



Even in this low resolution area you can see much more contour and higher detail in FS Global Ultimate - Next Generation.

Edited December 29, 20187 yr by flight_guy747

Some comparison pics of my own, Toposim Alaska... The Devils Thumb in P3D v4.4 and in real life, then Mt. Burkett and Burkett needle (just across the border in Canada), again in P3D and for real. To be honest, the Toposim mesh looks pretty darn good to me..

I'm sure FS Global Ultimate is a great product, but it's also 80 Euros. All things considered i'm very happy with Toposim considering it cost me just 23 Euro.

To be clear here, i'm not "recommending" any one mesh over another, i'm just comparing notes with other mesh users.....

Devils Thumb...

Devils Thumb real..

Mt Burkett and the needle..

Mt Burkett and the needle real...

Edited December 29, 20187 yr by SunDevil56

I'm full on board with Pilot's mesh products.  I like the comparisons of the Matterhorn but one can also see a remarkable difference in the Central Plains of the US.  I'm not sure what free meshes look like, I've never tried them, but the FSGlobal mesh renders a very realistic undulating plain rather than a table top flap surface.  This difference is visible even at jet altitudes. 

One post asked about airport elevation corrections:  FSGlobal includes a tool that one downloads separately but is free with the mesh product that does a much better job than Vector AEC (also a product by Pilot's) in that it creates slopes between the airport flatten and surrounding terrain mesh and this looks much better than the little cliffs we are used to seeing at most locations.

Finally, have to add one OT item:  The Matterhorn is the Northernmost  extent of the African plate that is moving up into the belly of Europe and creating the Alps.  It is literally a piece of African rock sticking up into the air.

15 minutes ago, downscc said:

I'm full on board with Pilot's mesh products.  I like the comparisons of the Matterhorn but one can also see a remarkable difference in the Central Plains of the US.  I'm not sure what free meshes look like, I've never tried them, but the FSGlobal mesh renders a very realistic undulating plain rather than a table top flap surface.  This difference is visible even at jet altitudes. 

 

 

Could you by chance give us a screen grab example, just so I can compare it to what I have..??

FWIW, I have flown over the central US plains many dozens of times at "jet altitudes" in real life, and that usually means 35,000 feet or more, and to be quite honest, for the most part it looks pretty flat and featureless, even on a crystal clear day. To be fair, there will be the occasional  terrain feature or "undulations" if you want to call them that, but not many, that's for sure, and usually not until you get west of a line running more or less north to south from the Dakota's to West Texas.

To some extent it will depend on the exact location, but north central Kansas is the geographic center of the USA, so it's probably fair to call that the "Central Plains", and would be a good place to start.

I'm not trying to stir a pot here, but if we are going to compare mesh add on's, free or otherwise, we need to compare apples to apples.

If you would be so kind as to post a screen grab (be sure to include the coordinates and altitude) i'll do the same and we can see just what the difference is.

Thanks.

@flight_guy747, thanks Stefan. I haven’t done this sort of comparison before and was pleasantly surprised how much FS Global 2010 made. Because that product isn’t available any longer I couldn’t find any info on what the LOD value was.

Is Ultimate significantly better? Your shot of the Matterhorn does look very good. I was going to post a shot of Devil’s Tower tomorrow as I thought it would be an even sterner test of FSG 2010. That’s the one featured in Close Encounters of course.

Are there any discounts on Ultimate for 2010 customers? 😉