I must praise horizonsimulation's photo scenery, because it's outstanding in clarity and tru-to-life visuals. Now i know, why i bought fsx. You can grab the 300mb demo here:http://www.horizonsimulation.info/VFRGenX/...tion-X-Demo.exeA few hints for running the scenery:Set visibility to 16 miles.Raise FIBER_FAME... to .50 for faster texture loading.Autogen off. 4x AA and 16x AF in driver settings (if your hardware can handle it). Wear your stereo goggles!!Good framerates on my system( athlon xp 2700, nvidia 7600gs/512mb).Is anybody else as impressed as i am?Cheers H.G.

Problem with this kind of photorealistic scenery is that it only looks good from one side... If you fly the other way all the shadows are looking very weird and wrong. Same goes for perspective. Also everything looks flat when you get low (and even more weird as far as perspective goes). And even when you are not flying low the mountains look too 'smooth' (I mean flat like as if someone put a thick velvet cloth on all the mountains: nothing ever sticks out, apart from the mesh of course). Not my cup of tea, I guess. But I'm glad you're hapy with it! ;)

Rediculous pricing!

I agree with how awesome this scenery is. Have you seen the screenshots in their forum with the new Autogen over the top of this scenery? Truely a dream come true for me at least. Autogen product is due spring next year and after seeing these shots, i am very excited.http://www.horizonsimulation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=196Truly outstanding. I know some people don't like photo scenery, and thats fair enough, each to his own, but I for one cannot wait to fly over REAL UK with 1m detail. GREAT WORK!!! Warmest regardsMatt

>Rediculous pricing!Do you have any idea how much digital aerial photograhy costs to buy?Anyway, you don't have to buy it.

>Problem with this kind of photorealistic scenery is that it>only looks good from one side... If you fly the other way all>the shadows are looking very weird and wrong. Same goes for>perspective. Also everything looks flat when you get low (and>even more weird as far as perspective goes). And even when you>are not flying low the mountains look too 'smooth' (I mean>flat like as if someone put a thick velvet cloth on all the>mountains: nothing ever sticks out, apart from the mesh of>course). Not my cup of tea, I guess. But I'm glad you're hapy>with it! ;)Strange - I have done most of the UK Private pilots course and used their current, lower resolution VFR scenery to train with. It was absolutely superb for the purpose - I could even see all local points for circuit training at Elstree.This new 1m version is awsome - roads are easier to pick out and even hedgrows are clearly visibly. The higher resolution gives the scenery a more 3d look - even cars can be seen on the roads now and individual gardens are now visible!Incredible work!Ray Keattch

>I must praise horizonsimulation's photo scenery, because it's>outstanding in clarity and tru-to-life visuals.I am still waiting for such a photo-secenry that would also incorporate night scenery. I would be pleasantly surprised if this one also included night scenery but I know chances for that are small. I am an avid night flyer and could not justify spending this kind of money for purely daytime flying.Michael J.http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/for...argo_hauler.gif

>I am still waiting for such a photo-secenry that would also>incorporate night scenery. I would be pleasantly surprised if>this one also included night scenery but I know chances for>that are small. I am an avid night flyer and could not justify>spending this kind of money for purely daytime flying.Yes, it includes night scenery.From their feature list:"VFR Generation X includes custom night lighting that gives you incredible scenery to enjoy even at night. VFR Generation X uses Horizon's new texture based night lighting for best performance and visual appeal."

>Truly outstanding. I know some people don't like photo>scenery, and thats fair enough, each to his own, but I for one>cannot wait to fly over REAL UK with 1m detail. GREAT WORK!!!I'm with you on this one, Matt. As soon as I upgrade to a new PC and FSX, I will be buying this scenery. People complain about photo scenery, but I don't understand the distinction now that FSX's scenery tiles are basically photo scenery. Where UK VFR will be different from past photo textures is in the 1m level of detail. I mean .. look at those screenshots. Look at the details on the roads and how they wind naturally through the countryside. In contrast, I've seen all of the FSX screenshots with the fuzzy-looking roads cutting unaturally through the scenery tiles.(not a knock against FSX which does look great on its own, but I just think that with FSX the terrain texture sizes have reached a point where we can shoot for "real" rather than "surreal".)

What is the FR going to be with that much autogen? My guess is that it will bring every system out there to its knees.

>I agree with how awesome this scenery is. Have you seen the>screenshots in their forum with the new Autogen over the top>of this scenery? Truely a dream come true for me at least.>Autogen product is due spring next year and after seeing these>shots, i am very excited.>http://www.horizonsimulation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=196>>Truly outstanding. I know some people don't like photo>scenery, and thats fair enough, each to his own, but I for one>cannot wait to fly over REAL UK with 1m detail. GREAT WORK!!!Ah, well, now, yes, NOW we're talking! This changes it all, of course! Those shots ARE awesome! I'm a huge fan of autogen and don't like the non-autogen-photorealistic stuff, but this sure looks awesome!Pity it only covers a very small part of the world... but as soon as that autogen is released I will take another look at this scenery! If they would upgrade their Dutch scenery I'd be even more happy, because I live there. ;)

Maybe he meant it's ridiculously cheap! The price is actually very reasonable.Best regards, Chris

Yes, I would say I am impressed. Of course the textures are very sharp and I saw no frame rate hit.The ability to add autogen to this scenery next year is a big plus. I'll almost certainly buy Volume 1, which should show my house!However, my impression is that the colours are somewhat muted, as if they had toned down the colours.It is far superior to the existing UK VFR scenery. I thought the colours seemed wrong (too reddish) and the coastlines were dreadful (black lines along the coast). This demo looks far better.Best regards, Chris

>>Truly outstanding. I know some people don't like photo>>scenery, and thats fair enough, each to his own, but I for>one>>cannot wait to fly over REAL UK with 1m detail. GREAT>WORK!!!>>I'm with you on this one, Matt. As soon as I upgrade to a new>PC and FSX, I will be buying this scenery. People complain>about photo scenery, but I don't understand the distinction>now that FSX's scenery tiles are basically photo scenery.>Where UK VFR will be different from past photo textures is in>the 1m level of detail. I mean .. look at those screenshots.>Look at the details on the roads and how they wind naturally>through the countryside. In contrast, I've seen all of the FSX>screenshots with the fuzzy-looking roads cutting unaturally>through the scenery tiles.>>(not a knock against FSX which does look great on its own, but>I just think that with FSX the terrain texture sizes have>reached a point where we can shoot for "real" rather than>"surreal".)>>No, they are not photo scenery, they are generic scenery at a very high resolution, almost photographic in quality. The only difference with this photo scenery (only!?) is that every house, road and railway and substantial building, even forest is EXACTLY as it appears in the real world - or when the digitial image was taken. MS has NO photo scenery in FSX by default this time round, not even those areas which were included in FS9. This is what 1 metre res was designed for, and I suspect, why these strange numbered boxes in the scenery folder have appeared - givn the sheer size of these packages installed (this scenery covering England and Wales will be arond 60-70 gig installed, not counting autogen) I hope it will be possible to actually remove the unneeded textures, reducing the hard drive space required and wuickening load times. Truly, with 3d objects on top this will become a de facto training tool for pilots in the UK - ALL the VRP's will be in the right place, at the right height and you will be able to fly by REAL map and stopwatch exactly as you do on a x-country or qualification flight. This definitely figures on my purchase list as I'm already a convert to the `no autogen` school of simming, but this? This takes it to the point where you will be able to take a REAL flight plan and fly it in the sim even before you leave the ground - which you could already do in FS9 with the previous VFR scenery, but of course the resolution was borderline at the typical 1,000-1,500 ft AGL we fly VFR at in the UK. The safety benefit to real world flying cannot be overstated! I can also imagine that live ATC services will finally become more relevant to the simmer too as you can have instructions to report when reaching the VRP's or "when overhead Southend Pier". Amazing stuff, and it should look even better under DX10, but I'll need a new hard drive (again!) to run it!Allcott

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