I was a naysayer for awhile regarding this tool, but recently thought, "ah what the hell, it's $5 for a month to try out the professional version." I've gotta say, it's pretty great. Been using the updated Bing maps and they're fantastic. I tried Google, but noticed on flights lasting more than 3 hours, it would stop streaming. Not sure if Google IP bans after awhile. I also tried the experimental 'Hybrid' mode that is supposed to use the best data for each region, but noticed much more texture popping while at altitude. Enabling 'High LOD uses a higher zoom level at all altitudes; this looks especially convincing on approach, and at altitude the buildings look 3D, even though they've been culled out. Another reason I like using the Bing data is there are almost no visible 'lines' between tiles. It all looks rather seamless. Compared to the default Bing streaming, the resolution is miles better. I recently disabled Photogrammetry and found that there was quite the performance uplift, but because it was using the default streaming, the ground looked pretty blurry. This was one of the major benefits of using PG...higher ground resolution, which is very noticeable on approach. Now, even with PG disabled, the ground looks great. It doesn't even feel like PG is disabled. That plus a higher draw distance and an uplift in performance, I can't recommend this tool enough. As an added bonus, I've not had one connection issue while using the tool.

That said, there are a few niggles. The tool is supposed to have built in an automatic "stop" function, so if you forget to stop the tool after exiting the simulator, it returns your Host file back to its original state. This is hit and miss. Last night, I forgot to stop the program after exit, had to restart PC after an update, and when I opened the sim, it just hung. I had to ALT+F4, start the tool, stop the tool, restart PC, and then I could run the sim (with the tool not running). I tried using the native streaming, and kept on getting connection errors. Not sure if it is related to the tool, but after restarting the sim WITH the tool running, no issues at all. It'd be nice if it was a bit more automated (one less program to keep track of), but other than that, it's well worth it IMO.

7 minutes ago, V1ROTA7E said:

I was a naysayer for awhile regarding this tool, but recently thought, "ah what the hell, it's $5 for a month to try out the professional version." I've gotta say, it's pretty great. Been using the updated Bing maps and they're fantastic. I tried Google, but noticed on flights lasting more than 3 hours, it would stop streaming. Not sure if Google IP bans after awhile. I also tried the experimental 'Hybrid' mode that is supposed to use the best data for each region, but noticed much more texture popping while at altitude. Enabling 'High LOD uses a higher zoom level at all altitudes; this looks especially convincing on approach, and at altitude the buildings look 3D, even though they've been culled out. Another reason I like using the Bing data is there are almost no visible 'lines' between tiles. It all looks rather seamless. Compared to the default Bing streaming, the resolution is miles better. I recently disabled Photogrammetry and found that there was quite the performance uplift, but because it was using the default streaming, the ground looked pretty blurry. This was one of the major benefits of using PG...higher ground resolution, which is very noticeable on approach. Now, even with PG disabled, the ground looks great. It doesn't even feel like PG is disabled. That plus a higher draw distance and an uplift in performance, I can't recommend this tool enough. As an added bonus, I've not had one connection issue while using the tool.

That said, there are a few niggles. The tool is supposed to have built in an automatic "stop" function, so if you forget to stop the tool after exiting the simulator, it returns your Host file back to its original state. This is hit and miss. Last night, I forgot to stop the program after exit, had to restart PC after an update, and when I opened the sim, it just hung. I had to ALT+F4, start the tool, stop the tool, restart PC, and then I could run the sim (with the tool not running). I tried using the native streaming, and kept on getting connection errors. Not sure if it is related to the tool, but after restarting the sim WITH the tool running, no issues at all. It'd be nice if it was a bit more automated (one less program to keep track of), but other than that, it's well worth it IMO.

Been using it for months. It looks great, no issues, and no green roads.