Hi All,I'm a bush pilot at heart that fly's mainly AB,BC & AK,. We all know about the desert texture issue, so I'll move on. Basically the land class in FSX is almost the same as FS9. It's the textures themselves that are wacked. These changes much improve quality with the default LC, but I use my FS9 UT (LC Only) with Holger's FS9 BC,AB,AK UT improvements (LC Only). I also run Justin's FSGenesis FSX mesh. If you want to do the addon LC, make sure Holger's is above UT.So until or if FSX ever does releases a texture patch (hope it comes on a DVD for the size of it), or better yet GEpro, UT, Holger, Justin and others do what they do best - this is what I did to get my mountian terrain textures back for now. These mods will give you more rock where there was sand, greener sub base and transitions, darker slides, and reduce the plain white snow coverage in the mountains. Blocky shadows are now minimal, due to the contrast in terrain. All seasons are better, and I attached a comparison shot of before and after the changes at the bottom of the post.Back up your /world/scenery/textures folder now! No textures are modified, this is simply making duplicates of existing ones and renaming them,(except for snow/ice). I also zipped each "original texture" set, and the "renamed ones" when done to alow for individial set replacement or reinstallation. I created a "texture mod directory" within in it a Back up folder, and a temp1,temp2 folder to work from. Note, you only need to rename the bmp's, not the agn's.Keep the "texture number" straight(the suffix or last number)when renaming eg: 070b2wi4 = 003b2wi4Copy 56f2su** to temp, rename as 13b2su** & 13b2sp** & 13b2fa**.Copy 56f2wi** to temp, remame as 13b2wi**Copy 56c2hw** to temp, rename as 13b2hw**Copy 50b2su** to temp, rename as 50b2fa**, & 50b2wi.Copy 128b2**** to temp, rename as 129b2****Copy 070b2**** to temp, rename as 003b2****Copy 067a2su** to temp, rename as 056b2wi**Copy 056a2wi** to temp, rename as 056b2hw**Copy 056a2su** to temp, rename as 056b2su**Copy 067b2wi** to temp, rename as 067b2hw**Copy 081b2su** to temp, rename as 081b2wi**I used my FS9 001b2**** textures for snow/ice with rocks in it. I used dxtbmp to open and edited with paint shop pro. I resampled & resized them to 1024x1024. Use dxtbmp again to save them as an extended bmp. You could use them as default, but they will be blurrier.I noticed the SDK did not give us a new texturename file, which added to the frustration of what tile goes to what class. Some are the same, but alot of them are changed/added to, and or omitted.Notes: The 013 textures and respective land class association gives you some valleys with rock at the base. Better than sand IMHO. Seasons have a much better transition, and look somewhat familiar now. I haven't checked to see if the mohave desert is now green with granite or wherever else 003/013 is used, but thats why we backed the sets up individually right ....Good Luck & Best Regards'Garett

Hi Garett,great initiative - thanks for sharing! I sent you a PM ;-)Just to summarize, here are the land class files of my Canada and US freeware projects that can be used in FSX. I will update them to FSX "standards" but that'll take a bit.from landscape enhancements compilation (you don't need UT for the land class files): http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID...scen&DLID=68289LC_011_010_ut_bc_hs.bglLC_011_011_ut_bc_hs.bglLC_012_010_ut_bc_hs.bglLC_012_011_ut_bc_hs.bglLC_014_013_ut_bc_hs.bglLC_016_013_ut_bc_hs.bglLC_016_014_ut_bc_hs.bglLC_017_013_ut_bc_hs.bglfrom North Cascades project: http://library.avsim.net/zipdiver.php?DLID=48485LC_015_014_us_wa_nc.bglfrom Columbia River Gorge project: http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID...scen&DLID=66264LC_015_015_Columbia_River_Gorge_default.bglfrom Yellowstone N.P. project, with Wilfred Husted: http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID...scen&DLID=52519YELL_LC_018_015.bglYELL_LC_018_016.bglYELL_WC_018_016.bglfrom Victoria, B.C., project, with Jon Patch: http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID...scen&DLID=73619Victoria_BC_Landclass_1414.bglVictoria_BC_Landclass_1514.bglAlso, if you're inclined to fly in Namibia, extract the following files from this package: http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID...scen&DLID=46825LC_051_039.bglLC_051_040.bglLC_052_039.bglLC_052_040.bglLC_052_041.bglas well as from this package: http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID...scen&DLID=47996LC_055_038.bglLC_054_038.bglHave fun!Cheers, Holger

Nice work, Garett!Does this address the default snow texture as well?Jon

Yes, but the snow/ice (001) are FS9 textures resampled to 1024. The hard winter rock textures are changed to winter, so at least there is some protruding rock out there.Regards'Garett

Hi Holger,Thanks for those links and that info, where do we put the files?

The comparison shots look good but I'm reluctant to do this texture shuffling until I have a better idea of how desert regions are affected. Can anyone shed light on that?

I have my addon folder tree set up as:D:/FSX_Scenery/Landclass/Holger/FS9/sceneryPut them in the scenery folder and point FSX to it from the scenery library. (add area etc..)Regards'Garett

More detail of the changes ... probally should have done this first place anyways.Copy 56f2su** to temp, rename as 13b2su** & 13b2sp** & 13b2fa**.Copy 56f2wi** to temp, remame as 13b2wi**Copy 56c2hw** to temp, rename as 13b2hw**The above (Upland Tundra) almost exclusively used in the BC,AB,AK area. Very small bit in the Norther California Range. This is the biggest change.Copy 50b2su** to temp, rename as 50b2fa**, & 50b2wi.Your just making the summer texture last longer, so it goes from a soft green to snow covered, vs Green then Bright Yellow Sand? then White. Looks mismatched anyways IMHO.Copy 128b2**** to temp, rename as 129b2****Optional - Changes arid grass to green grass, with seasons.Copy 070b2**** to temp, rename as 003b2****It changes the semi desert scrub to a low sparse grass. Its a little greener, and a different set. Optional, but I prefer it for now. It doesn't affect much else, as the southern US desert is a C2 region.Copy 067a2su** to temp, rename as 056b2wi**Copy 056a2wi** to temp, rename as 056b2hw**Copy 056a2su** to temp, rename as 056b2su**Copy 067b2wi** to temp, rename as 067b2hw**These are basically just changing the rock texture (bit darker from a differnt region), and swapping the hard winter textures(nothing but snow) to the winter ones.(rock showing with snow) Gets rid of the blindness, also aided with using the ice/snow FS9 textures.Copy 081b2su** to temp, rename as 081b2wi**This is a must as the existing winter texture is acutally brighter than the summer.Attached is a screenshot from Tmfviewer, showing the biggest impact from the first textures to change (013). The second is a snap from the viewer showing how the south is not affected from the low sparse grass stuff(003b2). So all in all, it won't change much else than it's intented to.Please understand this is not a replacement for a good land class, matched to the new numbering with better textures. This is nothing more than a a fill in (I coudn't stand it any longer) until both are completed and available from people that know a heck of lot more than me;) Actually, it turned out not to bad. Its work in progress, as I see some more (009) that I want to fix up.Regards'Garett

Hello Garett, I'm exited to try your changes. I fly ALOT in the BC bush :-) You instruct to rename as follows...>>>Copy 56f2su** to temp, rename as 13b2su** & 13b2sp** & 13b2fa**<<http://www.fs2crew.com/linepilot.jpg

Yes,Copy them to a working temp directory, and rename 56f2su** (** meaning all) as 13b2su**, AND 13b2sp** AND 12b2fa**.You are making the 56f2 summer season, be the 13b2 summer, spring and fall. Greg and others, PLEASE make sure you back up you original texture sets. I am continuing to work on a couple of more sets, and will update as done. The trick is not to affect other regions too dramatically for the benefit of a localized area.I want to see more of a green base than a yellow/tan base in the fall winter transisions. Some of the summers are fine, but when the seasons change - all goes to heck. I have a about 2" of snow on the ground at my farm right now, but the crop stubble is still green - not tan.Regards'Garett

Many thanks for that. I'll give it a try. :-)

I have no files starting with 50....I have some starting with 050....I say this because later you refer to 056.... series, and not 56 serieswhich is it? am I missing files?allen

Allen,Its 056. Sorry about that. Its to late to change the post as well. Garett

I'll have to come back to this. All these texture changes and names are making my head hurt. :-)I'm sure Alaska will look better when I've finished though.

I know, its a pain. You really have to watch what your doing. But personally I am quite happy with the final results.Checking quite a few areas in NWT, AK, BC etc I really like the 013 change. I was a little worried as we changed the original 013 from a barren yellow/red ground to a rock. But the transition is way better, and especially for areas coded with wooded tundra areas (014). As this 014 texture area calls up for the 013 texture if slopes are >11/17 degrees. After that anything greater than 28, they go to the 148 mountain rock. So you end up with a wooded base, then a granite type intermediate on small slopes, and then a browner rock section or snow capped peak.First pic attached is from CBY4 (Bob Quinn Lake) @ N56.54.78 W120.09.31 that shows what I mean.I have finished testing and playing with the (009) set. This set is cool grasses and shrubs that covers alot of area including Sitka, the "wasteland" from interior BC valleys that span all the way down most of the NW USA. It again was like the original (003), featureless yellow. The replacement texture rename has been the following:Copy 070b2** to temp, rename 070b2su** as 070b2wi**.Rename the entire 070b2** (after su to wi) as 009b2**.This replacement adds ground features (and a little bit greener) to the barren wastleand that this texture covers. I have attached a screen cap from Tmfviewer of the areas affected, as well as a shot from Graton Coolie Dam looking north with the changes. Of course as with the rest of the changes, its up to you. I think that's going to do it for now. The mountains look better, the huge featureless wastleland is reduced (or changed is a better description), and seasons are less painfull. I'm all ears to opinions or suggestions.Regards'Garett Schmidt