Desertification in FSX? Have I found the cause and saved the world?

[Guest jojamas]

I personally am very impressed with FSX. Once I did those autogen fixes I'm getting 15 fps with nearly everything maxed out most of the time including light bloom - which is prettier than any girl in England.Yes the ATC is lame, and stars can be seen directly around the sun when it sets or rises, but it really is massively improved - and there are elephants too, which I think are spiffing. I must say though there is one big failure in my view and that is the ubiquitous desert textures everywhere from Alaska to the amazon. It is shambolic and the developers who occasionally post here have not addressed this at all (that I've seen).To complain about it being too tough for your computer is absurd - stop doing that. THIS is something to complain about since it represents mere carelessness. There is no possible excuse for it: no programming complexities, no bad data sources can explain it - they couldn't have missed the problem - they just didn't put textures in the right places. I don't know why - but since they are brilliant people who take pride in their (excellent) work I assume it was time pressure. Anyhoo, messing around with the new FSX KML tool, I tried to make an area into an "evergreen forest" of some type. When I viewed my new scenery in FSX The forest was not a forest but the "sage and onion" or whatever that is causing all the problems. So my guess - speaking with 5 minutes scenery design experience - is: The reason there is desert everywhere is because texture files that are being "called up" are either a) not there, hence default=desert, or :( the textures are actually there but some of them are just desert textures instead of being what they are supposed to be. Am I correct? Does anyone know? A penny for your thoughts.

[robert young 2,897]

"Desertification in FSX?"Is this a new phrase introduced by a Mr Bush...the one that runs America?

[Guest jojamas]

Erm.... not quite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertification

[Guest wyoming]

Poster has a point. There seems that there's something really screwy about that texture/lc thing. What the cause is I don't know, although time pressure probably has some thing to do with it. I can't see that un-addressed in the near future. This is so obvious and this is not an add-in-dedicated piece.

[Guest louism]

I find things much greener if I set the season to summer. Did you try that? It makes sense that everything is yellowish in automn, no?

[brucewtb 247]

Lets just face it guys FSX was released far too early we could easily have lived with FS9 for another year with all the fantastic addons that have transformed it out of all recognition over three years. The hardware to run FSX well just isn't even on the drawing boad at present, so why all this indecent hast to bring out a product still burdened by significant bugs that no one can use to its full potential?Bruceb

[Holger 0]

Hi there,Please, not another round of theories about the "desertification" what and why. There are perfectly plausible explanations for the issue right here in the forum. It's not a bug, it's an unfortunate combination of incorrect source data and less-than-ideal textures. Please use the forum search function with the keyword "desert" to find the previous discussions. Then go ahead and add your voice to those of us who have stated their dissatisfaction about certain aspects of FSX via the official MS email.For your problem with FSX KML I'd suggest asking the developer directly at http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2979Cheers, Holger

[brucewtb 247]

I always value your contributions Holger and am a great fan of your work but it seems to me that what counts as a bug, like art, is very much in the eye of the beholder.Bruceb

[Holger 0]

Hi Bruce,good point! I'm pretty sure though that we do agree that the "desertification" is annoying and that something needs to be done about it!?!Unfortunately, beyond "quick fixes", such as texture shuffling or installing FS9 land class files, anything else will take a huge amount of effort and time. I'd say we're lucky if the situation is close to being resolved by the time the next fall season (in the northern hemisphere) rolls around.The tricky bit is that until ACES indicates whether it'll address this issue in an update to FSX or not, any major work on the same problem by third-party developers runs the risk of being in vain or even incompatible with an update.Cheers, Holger

[RFields5421 1]

I think the "base" problem is source data - or rather the lack of reliable, consistent format source data - WORLDWIDE.Holger ran into this issue with FS9 small airports - where the available satellite photos are much better, more detailed than the FAA data about these small airports.The world is a HUGE place - and any attempt to model the whole world is bound to fall short.Yes, I'd certainly like guidance from ACES/MS - SOON, but I just hope they leave the program open for people to improve/ adapt local areas.

[scott967 62]

The fsx tmfviewer (deluxe ver sdk tool) with overlays, and Holger's landclass-to-texture tools make analyzing fairly straightforward. The only thing missing is an elevation gradient map, though that shouldn't be too hard.scott s..

[robert young 2,897]

"Erm.... not quite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertification"Yes quite, my tongue was in my cheek though.RY