High Quality Photo-Scenery - Creates A Dilemma

[nudata 10]

A sources for high quality (1 foot or better per pixel) aerial photography and improved mesh becomes available a major shortcoming of FSX becomes evermore evident. That is, the ability to either slope runways or to draw your own runways to match the underlying mesh. Much has been written about this along with speculation as to why it is a irrevocable situation. The unfortunate result is that many airports are presented with very strange inaccurate plateaus at the ends of runways or we find one end of the airport buried in a hillside. For a product that touts "As Real As It Gets" failing to properly present the centerpiece of aviation (runways & airports) is a glaring issue. If Microsoft could at least offer a "travel at your own risk" patch, or procedure, to relieve this problem I am sure many would be grateful. Perhaps a commitment that the next release will address the flat runways/airports would be very welcome if there is no possibility of doing anything in FSX.Regards,Dick BoleyA PC, an LCD, speakers, CH yoke

[Guest jshyluk]

The last I hear was a rumor passed on by a friend of a friend that your wish might come true. I can tell you for a maybe fact that perhaps ACES is aware of the issue.As has been said before, a lot of the technology that is going into ESP and Train Sim 2 will find its way into the next FS. TS2 features terrian technology that should be different from FSX, if only because the trains stay along the ground all the time (or most of the time if not operated safely). So attention to terrain mesh is a big thing for the rail simmers. If you purchase a very large terrain mesh for FSX, you have to do so knowing that some (or many) airports will be in plateaus or valleys. The better developers are actively patching their meshes to help solve this issue. I prefer to get small sceneries where the meshes are reliable for the area I am flying in. Vancouver+ and Victoria+ (freeware) come to mind for me right away as I am a fan of the work of Holger Sandmann, but there's dozens of others. Overall, I am happy with the mesh in FSX as it is. I think it's an improvement over FS9. The terrain mesh for FSX in North America seems reasonably accurate to me, but is somewhat less so for other parts of the world. Jeff ShylukAssistant Managing EditorSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

[Guest fsxmissionguy]

A solution to the problem does exist, at least as regards this company's product.http://www.aerosoft.com/cgi-local/re/ibosh...i?showd,,D10620Cheers,

[basys 4]

Hi FolksKevin -Non-flat runways only work for user a/c.i.e. no AI traffic.For the momentas Jeff indicatesblending the airport flatten into the meshis the way to go.HTHATBPaulResized logo pending ;-)http://www.fs-odg.com

[Guest fsxmissionguy]

Paul,Thanks for the clarification. I don't have LuklaX, but was amazed when I saw this runway. It's pretty sloped.I can certainly also understand why the AI wouldn't necessarily be able to land on this type of a runway ... seeing as how even a human pilot would have difficulty doing it.Having said that ... I'd note that the problem might be that the AI is not advanced enough ... not that a developer cannot make sloped runways. Sloped runways are very possible.It's getting the AI to land on them ... now that seems to be the issue.

[nudata 10]

Yes, with photo-scenery sloped runways are quite useable. The AI is a problem. The other issue is that, for my taste, I like to have at least 30cm/pixel (1 foot/p) resolution so that you see reasonably clear numbers and markings at takeoff. This resolution does challenge your video card since a lot of stuff is being loaded during landing and takeoff. But it does look nice. Also, since the best mesh that is usually available is 5m between elevation points the runway can be quite bumpy. This is exasperated due to small inaccuracies of the actual elevation values. Therefore, a program such as Airport Design Editor is needed to use a flatten to smooth the runway. You now need to add elevation vertexes (points) along the flatten to match the slope of the runway since all slopes are not linear and sometimes have their own humps along their length. Microsoft could help if they allowed textures to be laid on top of photo-scenery. AI issues remain which would require at least preordained spots on the runways for various size AI planes to land. Today there is only one common elevation value to worry about. Those spots would need individual elevations.Regards,Dick BoleyA PC, an LCD, speakers, CH yoke