13 hours ago, jcomm said:

I use "Map Enhancement Pro" 1 yr subscription, previously used AutoOrtho, and I can't see a huge amount of data being downloaded, at least not more than I see when flying for the first time into new regions of the World in MSFS 2024.

I surely have on both a very decent scenery, like I never had before.

Ortho4XP I used it too over limited regions, just to try it, but was not as simple to install & go as either AutoOrtho and even more Map Enhancement and it was slower than the streamed scenery in MSFS or XP12.  I get no stutters in either sim.

Scenery detail and closeness to reality is better in MSFS, while I sometimes prefer the colours and lighting in X-Plane 12.

Why should I bother if they're closing it ( ASOBO and MS ) or LR decides to migrate to Mars in an Elon shuttle to gather data for the next version of XP and will not return until the next Century? Meanwhile I will profit from what I have, and more will come in the future.

 

 

Hey, just off-topic a little. I downloaded XP Map Enhancement yesterday and was pretty pleased (though lamenting the loss of seasons)... What map server do you use? Also, do you feel any of the Pro map servers are giving better results than any of the free ones? I am holding off on buying Pro until I play around with it some more. 

11 hours ago, coastaldriver said:

I could never use a map to navigate in the sim because the view outside did not match the maps or in a way that I could relate to or was used to

This is the kind of material you get in an AIP

There is everything in the default XP scenery you need to practice very precise routes like that, (plus littlenavmap to find out where you went wrong after the flight). stick orthophoto underneath and its almost perfect for it. My main complaint was that rivers tended to be far to visible compared to real life (because they are sunk into the ground IRL)

The way I describe it to those earth bound, is to think of driving towards a set of traffic lights, and deciding you need to turn left, flight navigation is like that, but instead of a "set of traffic lights" what you are looking for is "a village with a crossroads".

Except never use "a village with a crossroads" as a (or rather the only) reference, because they are not unique enough and you will end up getting lost (I learnt the hard way, with no reset button).

Edited February 19, 20251 yr by mSparks

55 minutes ago, BostonJeremy77 said:

Hey, just off-topic a little. I downloaded XP Map Enhancement yesterday and was pretty pleased (though lamenting the loss of seasons)... What map server do you use? Also, do you feel any of the Pro map servers are giving better results than any of the free ones? I am holding off on buying Pro until I play around with it some more. 

I'm using Google-1, because I purchased a 1yr license, after a day using the free version.

The tiles have higher resolution. I really like it !  It also offers a "pre-load" option for the registered version.

So far very happy with Map Enhancement, and no impact on my rig ( 5600 x + RTX 3060 Ti, 32 GB RAM )

The map enhacement provider depends on the area where you fly, Apple and Bing usually do a good job in general, my favourite was mapbox especially in Alaska.

Does anyone know the deal with Map Enhancement/AutoOrtho and seasonal trees with Global Forests? I heard there used to be a tool that tweaks it. Yesterday I did a test and in February, I had green trees in LOWI. I landed. Changed the date to November. Trees are bare. Why are they not bare in February? Is this something that affects Global Forests only or default trees as well? And is it an ortho issue or does this happen with default scenery? 

I somehow think there is an inaccuracy that happens with it. I changed from November back to February and they remained bare. So why were they green to begin with? I am talking deciduous trees, not evergreens, naturally. 

2 hours ago, mSparks said:

This is the kind of material you get in an AIP

There is everything in the default XP scenery you need to practice very precise routes like that, (plus littlenavmap to find out where you went wrong after the flight). stick orthophoto underneath and its almost perfect for it. My main complaint was that rivers tended to be far to visible compared to real life (because they are sunk into the ground IRL)

The way I describe it to those earth bound, is to think of driving towards a set of traffic lights, and deciding you need to turn left, flight navigation is like that, but instead of a "set of traffic lights" what you are looking for is "a village with a crossroads".

Except never use "a village with a crossroads" as a (or rather the only) reference, because they are not unique enough and you will end up getting lost (I learnt the hard way, with no reset button).

I think I should perhaps refine when I said never - I actually had in mind earlier sims ala FSX and P3D and yes XPlane is a lot better but like all the sims some areas just do not get the details for reasons of geography. So Europe as an example or the US where the scenery is well mapped or textured yes and XP is better at objects such as towers and power lines roads etc but in some areas like the Australian GAFFA the texturing is poor with repeat tiling of the same type and unrepresentative of what the real world looks like - Wheat Silos (they are not all tall cylindrical some are big flat sheds for example or sheds and dirt roads especially and in areas where there are no power lines like most of Australia for example the ground textures are so indistinct as to be be unrecognisable, now I know autoortho can correct this but the overhead for me in terms of making them and file size excludes me using them generally. The file size overhead for doing Australia a continental size endeavour is just prohibitive in terms of files needed etc, it would be like to trying to autoortho the whole of Africa or South America.  I was able to rely in FSX for example on ORBX's Australia which was very well done and quite representative but that is not nor has been redone for XP and basically once out of the capital city corridors and into inland desert country it deteriorates rapidly.  IF you want to try it VFR go Broken Hill in NSW to Alice Springs in the NT you will see what I mean straightway, the map in my hand bears little resemblance to the XP Default view. Not a killer but hardly immersive or fun!

Edited February 20, 20251 yr by coastaldriver

8 minutes ago, coastaldriver said:

XP is better at objects such as towers and power lines roads etc but in some areas

Absolutely, exactly the reason I said that 2024 shot is "still almost as unacceptable as default XP11 scenery. ", there was basically nothing in the shot I could use to orient myself, might as well be desert.

But for X-Plane at least, there is a free and easy off ramp to those issues.

Simheaven has vfr-landmarks

Ortho4XP is free and fun to use (OK, you can sink a bucketload of time and HDD space into it, maybe "fun" isn't the right word).

And if it comes to the worse case, you can contribute via openstreetmap submissions, and they will go "in sim" soon(tm)

2020 doesn't seem to do wide area fixes well afaict, I'm not sure its even an option for 2024? what you get is what you get.... (disclaimer, - as far as I can tell - anyone with better knowledge please correct/confirm)

I did all Europe zl16 in a few days, the cost of storage nowadays is not too expensive and you don't need a fast HD for orthos I use an external usb hd.

I am hopefully confident that the next gen scenery and raster approach will do much to improve things. We all can say that the big limitation of immerisive experience in the sim for low level flight is the scenery and it has been so for a long long time. After all there is no shortage of people in the addon business who have done nothing else but scenery for a long time. Unfortunately they have not extended this to XP apart from Airports and well at least ORBX have done the UK and there is some great Artic scenery about to arrive as well but it is the big contintents that suffer most and as I like to puddle about in out of the way places I notice it more. Just take a run around the Pacific Islands for example with european street lights on a lonely road beside a miserable little airport that does not even have electricity and well XPs roads in general while I think placed accurately are just awful and that is being polite. If I fly at FLs it does not matter anyway as high accuracy and definition is not needed nor can you seen it. 

But here is an example just to illustrate - this is a screenshot of inland Australia

The white patches are supposed to be dry inland lakes some are salt beds some are not and the rest is well non descript. It just a measure of the problem I see but if they can come up with a better way I would be happy!

7 hours ago, mSparks said:

Absolutely, exactly the reason I said that 2024 shot is "still almost as unacceptable as default XP11 scenery. ", there was basically nothing in the shot I could use to orient myself, might as well be desert.

But for X-Plane at least, there is a free and easy off ramp to those issues.

Simheaven has vfr-landmarks

Ortho4XP is free and fun to use (OK, you can sink a bucketload of time and HDD space into it, maybe "fun" isn't the right word).

And if it comes to the worse case, you can contribute via openstreetmap submissions, and they will go "in sim" soon(tm)

2020 doesn't seem to do wide area fixes well afaict, I'm not sure its even an option for 2024? what you get is what you get.... (disclaimer, - as far as I can tell - anyone with better knowledge please correct/confirm)

You have addons to add the physical power lines, ski-lifts and solar panel farms almost everywhere in the world at once. There are also addons to add VFR obstacles and landmarks (towers, cranes, etc...) on several countries at once as well. So large area addons are not a problem at all, and indeed I wish these were part of the default scenery content, instead of being addons. But same goes with XP: I wish the SimHeaven autogen were default.

8 hours ago, mSparks said:

Absolutely, exactly the reason I said that 2024 shot is "still almost as unacceptable as default XP11 scenery. ", there was basically nothing in the shot I could use to orient myself, might as well be desert.

n tell - anyone with better knowledge please correct/confirm)

Well, I honestly don't often check the exact positioning of power lines in MSFS 2024, but windmills and pretty much all details in the scenery are surely 2nd to no other sim, unless I spend a good amount of $$ in addon scenery.

Tony posted those images above, which are simply astounding and IMO even more realistic, probably due to the colours and lighting which I believe X-Plane does better than MSFS, but heck!, when I fly out of LPMN I can find pretty much every detail from RL, and when I pick an heli and go flying next to my house, it's there, with the proper facade and dimensions, and I live in the suburbs / subarea, a ghetto for uninstallers 😉

11 hours ago, BostonJeremy77 said:

Hey, just off-topic a little. I downloaded XP Map Enhancement yesterday and was pretty pleased (though lamenting the loss of seasons)... What map server do you use? Also, do you feel any of the Pro map servers are giving better results than any of the free ones? I am holding off on buying Pro until I play around with it some more. 

I think I am hyperactive 🙂 I never pay attention to such "details"... I see the trees, and in MSFS 2020 they were too big and I noticed it for sure, and even purchased an addon to fix it, but honestly I seldom pay attention to their colours, type...

But yesterday i came across another problem which I don't know how to solve. LPMA is poorly represented in the default scenery, and I would like to use Wonderful Madeira, but I believe it's not compatible with the mesh of "Map Enhancement" 😕

I checked and there are fixes for Ortho4XP, but I don't really know how to do that with this addon...

16 minutes ago, jcomm said:

I think I am hyperactive 🙂 I never pay attention to such "details"... I see the trees, and in MSFS 2020 they were too big and I noticed it for sure, and even purchased an addon to fix it, but honestly I seldom pay attention to their colours, type...

But yesterday i came across another problem which I don't know how to solve. LPMA is poorly represented in the default scenery, and I would like to use Wonderful Madeira, but I believe it's not compatible with the mesh of "Map Enhancement" 😕

I checked and there are fixes for Ortho4XP, but I don't really know how to do that with this addon...

Hang on, Map Enhancement has meshes? I thought it's just photos that go on top of default mesh... Does that mean Global Forest should be BELOW Map Enhancement modules on the order list?

54 minutes ago, BostonJeremy77 said:

Hang on, Map Enhancement has meshes? I thought it's just photos that go on top of default mesh... Does that mean Global Forest should be BELOW Map Enhancement modules on the order list?

Have to check! Maybe I messed it ???

4 hours ago, jcomm said:

Have to check! Maybe I messed it ???

Checked, and apparently YES! because that huge /unrealistic bump in the 05/23 rw is no longer there with Map Enhancement.