New Freeware European Ground Textures Available,

[rpowers 5]

OK,So we agree.I did not notice any lack of xclass with the new textures.New textures look good and get rid if the "sand or desert" textures.Look really nice to me.Don't understand the comparison from the Italien website.Ron

[turnandbank 243]

I'll second that. These are a big improvement over the default. Now I can fly in all the seasons again - at least in Europe. I too am looking forward to your North American textures.Thanks AdamRegardsMartin

[victorwest2 0]

Download still crawling along. Patience, patience. :-) :-)

[apm 0]

Hi Virtuali,I have no disagreement with your general view, that these textures are in effect a 'quick and dirty' fix for some of the problems with the default texture sets. Moreover, I make no bones about the fact that I have made them available (originally I did them just for myself) until Cloud 9 or Peter Wilding or somebody else comes along and does a proper decent set of textures. I should, however, like to take issue with one remark you make. You say you don't have the same luxury to do such a 'quick job'. It maybe that I am a very slow, but it has taken me several months of quite hard work to redo these textures. Now, there is no reason for you or anyone else to care about that particularly for simply because one has spent a long time doing soemthing does not make what one has done good or worthwhile. But, that said I am sorry that to you it looks as if the textures are merely a 'quick job'. I had noticed people worrying about the season problem when using Cloud 9 X-class products (which I have and appreciate) and I had hoped that these textures would resolve that issue at least until something better was released.With regards,Adam Mills

[virtuali 4,421]

Adam,You maybe misunderstood my point: nobody implied that *you* haven't spent lot of time retouched the default textures, or is not a worthwhile task. Surely this is not your full time job, so it's quite normal you can't progress at the same pace of a trained team of developers working on a payware product. I simply said that IF *we* (at Cloud9) had to do the same, retouching standard textures, for *us* it would have been a fairly quick job, but we wouldn't dare to sell it, because a commercial developer would never risk putting on the market a product derived in any way from original Microsoft artwork.The intention of the remark was just to point out that my comment on the C9 forum, that was quoted here, is still valid: if *we* ( and any other developer who tries the same route ) had to do a commercial replacement set of textures, it would a much bigger work than anything possibly coming from the freeware world, because we can't reuse/retouch and redistribute anything done by Microsoft, for obvious copyright issues.regards,Umberto Colapicchioni - VIRTUALI

[apm 0]

Hi Virtuali,Point taken! I do fully understand what you are saying, namely that from a commercial point of view you would have to produce a unique product. Given the quality of Cloud 9 work, this, of course, leads to an obvious question - why don't you?Regards,Adam.

[Guest Toni Rauch]

Just tried them - WOW, what a difference, especially in the UK.Congratulations and many thanks for reminding us that the UK (and the rest of Europe) isn't a giant sand castle with a few trees and buildings.(I guess the guys at Aces who designed the original textures don't travel much ;-) )Definately a 'must-have' addon for FSX!Toni.

[meerkat 86]

Thank you, Adam, for your huge work. A look at the file dates says enough about the time you spent.I promised to show some pictures for those who are still uncertain whether to download or not - so first some direct comparisons of texture files. Left pane: originals, right pane: reworked by Adam.Some inflight pictures later.Regards

[Guest SJDickson]

I agree. These are an enormous improvement over the originals. Thanks Adam!

[meerkat 86]

Now some inflight pictures with the reworked textures (October, midday).First one: near Leipzig (central Germany) - note the differences in color tone (maybe some unchanged US textures that are often used worldwide?).Second one: near Burgos (northern Spain).Third one: near Gdansk (northern Poland).All in all, the colors are darker with more greenish areas. No desert look, but it has (surprise, surprise) some disadvantages: - the simplified world textures which cover the globe outside the detailed textures and are visible from jetliner flight altitudes, now does no more match with the changed textures - you get a light brown edge (only with unlimited visibility).- the color balance between the different texture sets (originally all soil has this light brown tint, now we have dark brown, reddish brown, light brown) has worsened. But we know "the world is colorfull"!After all it is a step forward and with the reworked US textures will be even better.Regards

[Guest kingsnake11]

Just a word of thanks to Adam for his hard work. These are an excellent improvement over the default textures. Eagerly awaiting the north america series :-)thanks again.

[Guest bustervk]

>just one world: superb!!>a very grateful thanks for this great improvement and for the>hudge work.>these new textures are probably the best improvement to FSX>until now.>waiting forward to seeing the US textures :-)>again, thank you very much>best regards,>DavidI fully agree.Absolutely a very nice job Adam!No deserts more where they don't belong in Europe! :-)Kind regardsBert