Horizon Generation X Photographic scenery, can anyone bring me up to date?

[Guest X15]

Hi,I'll admit at the beginning of this post that I have not done any research but I'm hoping somebody will know what I'm after!When Horizons Generation X photographic scenery came out I found I had a number of issues with it running in FSX. I installed volume 2 and found it unusable, so have been using the Just Flight scenery.I also have volume 1 and 3 for Generation X which I haven't even opened sat on my shelf.News is that the first volume of British VFR airports will be out soon and this has been optimised for the Horizon scenery.So is there now a patch for the orginal Horizon release? What do I need to know to get the horizon scenery running well on FSX with SP1 installed?Sorry for being very lazy but I've just spent five days doing a clean install re-installing all my addons and redoing all my graphic settings etc etc, I guess most people will appreciate I'm feeling a bit burnt out at the moment and just need to be told in simple terms where we are with the horizon scenery!

[PhilTaylor 45]

A better place to ask this is on the Horizon forums. The moderators are pretty active over there.

[Guest X15]

Thanks Phil, I will try the Horizon forums.

[Virtualwombat 4]

I have no problem running Horizon's UK scenery. All of it! Never have had a problem, under SP1, SP2, Acceleration, etc. If there is an issue with it running on your PC, it seems likely to be system specific. With a new installation, it might worth trying again. Go to the Horizon website and make sure you have the lastest installer, as I believe there may have been issues with the installer program included with some of the earlier disks.Horizon are currently releasing a series of patches that add detailed water masks to their scenery. These are currenly available in bit torrent format, as they are of the order of 5-7 GB each. I understand DVDs will be released in due course.I have to say that Horizon's business model looks to be in trouble. While they had a viable product initially (the most detailed photo-realistic scenery available for FSX, for which many people were prepared to pay a premium) delays in releasing custom autogen and other improvements have meant that Horizon must now compete with the likes of FTX, which, although not photorealistic, provides much more convincing scenery at low altitude, with a fraction of the disk space, and at a fraction of the cost. I would urge Horizon (and indeed Just Flight, who have a similar photorealistic product) to consider what might be achieved by combining both approaches.Cheers,Noel.

[Guest X15]

Thanks for the reply, my problems were not system specific in the sense that I was not the only one affected. I was in contact with Horizon regarding the issue for a long time after buying the product and many people seemed to have the same problem of stutters and general slow FPS with Generation X scenery. I waited to hear from them regarding a patch but never did. I also know some people didn't have the problems at all, so if it was card related or something like that I never found out. What I do know is that the Just Flight scenery has always run great (in excess of 50 FPS with the graphics card maxed out and pin sharp), it just won't match well with the VFR airports that is soon to be released due to the way they handled the colour (I've always rated the slightly washed out look of the Just Flight product, with typical low vis set as it is in the UK, it looks very realistic in my opinion)but I want those airports!Personally I'm only interested in photorealistic scenery. I use FSX exclusively to compliment real world training. I need what is outside the window to be in the right place.

[Virtualwombat 4]

I understand your situation. Photoscenery certainly has its advantages (no autogen!). I guess one way forward is to make sure you have the latest motherboard bios, chipset drivers, graphics card drivers and Windows updates, spend some time trawlling Horizon's website making sure there are no updates you've missed, then try installing one of their packages. It is important to have your system fully sorted in terms of bios, drivers and updates, as these are the most likely areas of incompatibility. Unfortunately, this will take a fair bit of work, checking versions and so forth, and is not the quick fix you were looking for!Cheers,noel.

[Guest X15]

Well a brief look around Horizon's site didn't reveal my missing 'patch' but I have found lots of extra bits and pieces to download. The goods news is I took your advice Noel and took the time to load a volume and see how it went after the my recent clean installation of FSX and SP1. The Horizon scenery is running very well without me doing any optimisation of my FSX or graphic card settings :0) So it looks like you had a good hunch, the clean installation did something very positive! (now all I need is Track IR and I should be a happy bunny for another year or so, oh and those all important airports!!!!)

[Virtualwombat 4]

Well that's a great outcome! Gotta agree with you about TrackIR. I only have the previous model but I would not fly without it. Simply magic!Cheers,Noel.