Enhanced Airport Graphics

[bean_sprout 1,201]

Been using it for awhile and even in the old, outdated and ugly looking sims.  Makes MSFS default airports look better and is CTD free AFAIK.

Cheers

bs

[Moria15 950]

2 hours ago, bobcat999 said:

Sure Frank!  Flightsim.to has gotten really big over the months so it can be difficult to find stuff there now, and I notice the search function also lets some items slip through the net, so I looked in my community folder.

These two are pretty good for a start, and you just drag and drop them into your community folder, or addon folder if you use one of the add-on selector programs.  If you have any problems, give me a shout!

https://flightsim.to/file/5380/red-painted-lines-fix

https://flightsim.to/file/7963/yet-another-ground-marks-fix

 

Thanks for this.. I agree toning down the lines would be good..  just wondered if yoou have tried these in snow and what the effect is..  no biggie.. I can try it easily, just wondered if anyone had tried.

 

Graham

[bobcat999 8,444]

27 minutes ago, Moria15 said:

Thanks for this.. I agree toning down the lines would be good..  just wondered if yoou have tried these in snow and what the effect is..  no biggie.. I can try it easily, just wondered if anyone had tried.

 

Graham

Not tried them in snow yet Graham. 

[Moria15 950]

Just now, bobcat999 said:

Not tried them in snow yet Graham. 

okay.. I like the look of them, I'll put them in tomorrow and try it 🙂

Graham

[Noel 4,486]

Fascinating.  Coming from P3D default airports it's hard to believe the MSFS default airports need anything--but I actually like brand spanking new everything.  There is ample degradation in the real world so to me it's nice to have a fantasy world that looks so pristine.  I do really like what some of the 3rd party airports have done though, for example CYOW which is a work of art, while giving your hardware a run for its money.

[fppilot 4,339]

4 hours ago, bobcat999 said:

Flightsim.to has gotten really big over the months so it can be difficult to find stuff there now

I've also noticed that some new mods first show up on two or three screens back instead of on the home screen.  Makes me wonder if they slid backwards due to an upload screening process.  Seems they are listed based on when they were uploaded, not when they were later screened/approved.

[Zinertek 75]

15 hours ago, styckx said:

Bought it a month ago. And immediately uninstalled it.  It makes airports look worse. The textures are low quality and a step back in everyway from default. Waste of my money. Once you see this unsightly mess on the apron you can not un-see it. The apron and taxiways are an ugly patchwork of textures, color, and repeating patterns. 

Example

Default KPHL - Absolutely seamless transitions between varying textures. Beautiful 

Enhanced Airport Graphics KPHL - The aprons, taxiways and runways looks like default FSX 2004

 

Hi guys, we just want to address some of your feedback such as the one above here.

So far the feedback that we have received from our customers regarding 'Enhanced Airport Graphics' has been very positive. 

When it comes to texture quality, no one has complained that our textures look like default FSX or FS9. We would argue that the default textures that come with MSFS are quite bland and less detailed than our textures.

Let's take KPHL as an example:

DEFAULT:

ENHANCED AIRPORT GRAPHICS:

As you can see, our textures are more detailed and high resolution. 

The other criticism from the above post is that apron and taxiways are an "ugly patchwork of textures, color, and repeating patterns".

So here's a secret that not many people know. When you install our product and load a default airport, you are not really looking at our original textures. This is because MSFS automatically applies coloring and contrast to our textures based on actual satellite data. In essence, MSFS adjusts the way our textures look at each individual airport.

For example, if an airport has an apron that is quite yellowish in real life, MSFS will apply a yellowish tone on top of our apron texture in order to try to match the color closer to what it looks like in real life.

If you actually enable developer mode, and turn off 'Airports Coloring' you can see how this works. 

How KPHL looks with airport coloring:

Airport Coloring OFF (This is how our textures actually look)

As you can see, airport coloring can greatly impact the way our textures look and can even make them look a lot different than intended. 

In previous sims (FS9, FSX, P3D, X-Plane) airport textures would display exactly as they were designed. In this new sim, MSFS throws a curve ball because airport coloring can totally change the look of a texture at every airport. 

At the end of the day, airport coloring is a good thing because each airport will look different even if they share the same textures. You will not see these cookie cutter default airports from previous sims where runways, taxiways and aprons always looked exactly the same no matter which airport you selected. 

For us, the challenge is to find a "sweet spot" to adjust each texture with the right brightness, color, contrast, and saturation so that when airport coloring is applied on top, the texture still looks the right way. 

UPCOMING UPDATE

We are always working to improve EAG and right now we are working on a new update (free to all customers) that will improve the texture transitions between different surfaces so that they are more seamless. We also are working to improve runways, taxiways, aprons, parking spaces and more. 

We expect to release this new version near the end of this month. 

Thank you all for your feedback!

[hvw 381]

Zinertek, do I understand you correctly that we, for a better rendition, should turn airport coloring off?

[GSalden 4,655]

3 minutes ago, hvw said:

Zinertek, do I understand you correctly that we, for a better rendition, should turn airport coloring off?

No, he stated :

”At the end of the day, airport coloring is a good thing because each airport will look different even if they share the same textures. ” 

[Zinertek 75]

5 minutes ago, hvw said:

Zinertek, do I understand you correctly that we, for a better rendition, should turn airport coloring off?

We recommend you leave it on, actually. While turning off airport coloring might seem better at first, it will make all airports look too similar.

Airport coloring is applied differently at every airport so it adds a bit more variety to the textures.

Edited May 14, 2021 by Zinertek

[Ricardo41 5,935]

13 hours ago, Noooch said:

I love this addon. It is meant to be seen from ground level, not from the skies.

And the runways are much more realistic with more tire marks than the default Mario Cart runways.

I agree. And the addon has no/very low impact on performance. 

[Baber20 1,438]

51 minutes ago, Zinertek said:

So here's a secret that not many people know. When you install our product and load a default airport, you are not really looking at our original textures. This is because MSFS automatically applies coloring and contrast to our textures based on actual satellite data. In essence, MSFS adjusts the way our textures look at each individual airport.

For example, if an airport has an apron that is quite yellowish in real life, MSFS will apply a yellowish tone on top of our apron texture in order to try to match the color closer to what it looks like in real life.

Wow I am amazed by this. Didnt know MSFS did this. Truly next gen.

[Zinertek 75]

36 minutes ago, Baber20 said:

Wow I am amazed by this. Didnt know MSFS did this. Truly next gen.

Yup, Microsoft went above and beyond to make sure default airports looked as accurate as possible. 

We once had a customer write us saying that our add-on was not working properly at Madrid Barajas (LEMD) because he was seeing some unexpected green patches on some of the taxiways:

 

We had to explain to him that our add-on was actually working properly and that it was MSFS applying some coloring in those taxiways using satellite data in order to represent the green areas that are actually present in real life:

 

So we can say that Microsoft did a good job in representing the default airports.

[Baber20 1,438]

Just goes to show that they really put their heart and soul into this. Also I love your addon and a very satisfied customer. Thanks for your service.

[Zinertek 75]

1 minute ago, Baber20 said:

Just goes to show that they really put their heart and soul into this. Also I love your addon and a very satisfied customer. Thanks for your service.

Thanks, we appreciate your support! We look forward to updating EAG and improving upon it with each subsequent version 🙂