What X-Plane should look like by default

[bogdansrb 230]

I found these pictures on the x-plane subreddit:

This is Society Islands XP - Bora Bora & Leeward Islands add-on and imo this is how x-plane should look like by default: realistic tree placement and variation including bushes (grass could be added too), better terrain textures, improved buildings autogen and improved base mesh (this isn't really ortho mesh quality but still better than default). Unfortunately I haven't found any add-on that could do this, not even x-world or global forests. 

[Murmur 3,944]

3 hours ago, bogdansrb said:

I found these pictures on the x-plane subreddit:

This is Society Islands XP - Bora Bora & Leeward Islands add-on and imo this is how x-plane should look like by default: realistic tree placement and variation including bushes (grass could be added too), better terrain textures, improved buildings autogen and improved base mesh (this isn't really ortho mesh quality but still better than default). Unfortunately I haven't found any add-on that could do this, not even x-world or global forests. 

WOOOW! Those are the most real looking pics of a sim I've ever seen! They make X-Plane lighting shine (pun intended).

I don't think that can be done worldwide for the default scenery though. But surely, there's potential for global add-ons for better trees/bushes and maybe other elements of the scenery.

Edited May 8, 2023 by Murmur

[Colonel X 1,430]

Great screens. Especially the mesh. X-Plane's default mesh has a 1990s taste to it unfortunately. 

[bogdansrb 230]

3 hours ago, Murmur said:

WOOOW! Those are the most real looking pics of a sim I've ever seen! They make X-Plane lighting shine (pun intended).

I don't think that can be done worldwide for the default scenery though. But surely, there's potential for global add-ons for better trees/bushes and maybe other elements of the scenery.

I think the vegetation does most of the trick here. I'd be really curious to find out if they're manually placed or autogen.

[Sethos 4,364]

Dang, that actually looks really good.

[Baber20 1,438]

Ok I had to do a double take..that looks incredibly realistic. Goes to show what Xplane 12 is capable of.

[MrBitstFlyer 3,879]

Doesn't look too impressive in the video

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by MrBitstFlyer

[Bjoern 1,157]

Mind that these islands are a very small patch of the Earth, which can be tightly controlled for any irregularities and errors and likely had very good source data available. This is not the case for a good part of the planet.

 

Provided that somebody takes care of the hosting, quality control, build chain, management and legal issues regarding source data, nothing is stopping us from starting a community scenery project, which would encompass mesh, landclass and vector data to provide a better global base scenery...

[bogdansrb 230]

7 minutes ago, Bjoern said:

Mind that these islands are a very small patch of the Earth, which can be tightly controlled for any irregularities and errors and likely had very good source data available. This is not the case for a good part of the planet.

 

Provided that somebody takes care of the hosting, quality control, build chain, management and legal issues regarding source data, nothing is stopping us from starting a community scenery project, which would encompass mesh, landclass and vector data to provide a better global base scenery...

That would be really awesome, I'd love to get into it

[LRBS 948]

One of the main issues is that P3D and XP have been surpassed by MSFS in terms of visuals. However, MSFS seems to attract users mainly with its eye-catching graphics, despite having some limitations.

[mSparks 2,086]

AFAIK, mesh shaders and "small vegetation" are still on their todo list, this will make a massive difference to what is possible in scenes like this. But until there is support for them the finer detail is always going to be lacklustre.

I'd say they already did a good job with the tools available now.

Edited May 8, 2023 by mSparks

[MrBitstFlyer 3,879]

1 hour ago, LRBS said:

One of the main issues is that P3D and XP have been surpassed by MSFS in terms of visuals.

The other way around surely?  Granted XP12 needs some addons (many free), but it is far better looking than MSFS by miles in the most important areas.  I think only those who haven't given XP12 a good chance could have such a view.

[LRBS 948]

44 minutes ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

The other way around surely?  Granted XP12 needs some addons (many free), but it is far better looking than MSFS by miles in the most important areas.  I think only those who haven't given XP12 a good chance could have such a view.

I have P3D, XP12, and MSFS in my collection and I've observed that the buildings and autogen in MSFS appear to be superior without any additional addons. Can we engage in a fruitful discussion about the important areas of these simulators without any unwarranted disputes?

[Torsen 495]

4 hours ago, LRBS said:

I have P3D, XP12, and MSFS in my collection and I've observed that the buildings and autogen in MSFS appear to be superior without any additional addons. Can we engage in a fruitful discussion about the important areas of these simulators without any unwarranted disputes?

Fruitful discussion? Thats very sad indeed but simply not possible due to the nature of things on avsim. There can't be an objective discussion cause you have the very loud lets call them "ultras" on both sides of the fence that can't accept the pros and cons (ah sorry cons do not exist in their limited view anyway) of their own single preferred platform who will turn every thread into a comedy session. The same will happen here 😉

The shots are amazing btw and hell yeah that would be awesome. Lets hope and dream...

Cheers T.

[Daube 354]

These shots are spectacular.

Do I understand it correctly that these are actually NOT using any ortho textures, but only default ground textures underneath that autogen ? And also, I notice the autogen buildings and trees look quite beautiful and true-to-the-place. Is that default ? Or is it a special "object library" just for that custom area ?

Concerning the autogen buildings, MSFS has a nice region-specific autogen that looks quite good, and if I'm not mistaken, each building/house gets its colors (roof and walls) from the color of the underlying texture. So even when flying in very remote and not "popular" areas (in terms of historic addons), such as middle-east or western Asia (Afghanistan for example), you do get an autogen that fits very well to the place and the local ortho textures, which makes the exploration flights very enjoyable.

How's the XP12 autogen now ? Back in XP11 it was german houses everywhere out of USA. I haven't installed other regions yet (only north west US) due to disk space limitations (for now). Had XP12 improved for the other regions of the world ?