Need your help...

for a long time I had been using SimHeaven in the "?.." part of the thread tittle.

Actually Global Forests (Orbx) and MEP were both very recent additions, but I recall some of you mentioning a payware product that offers autogen structures and covers Europe, part of South America and, if I'm not mistaken North Africa too(?).

I don't recall it's name, I'm also not sure if it's available for Xp12 natively or was a Xp11 product that might be installed in Xp12 too, so, I'm asking for any suggestions.

I would like better overall looking of the building and structures allover Europe.

Thank you !

P.S.: I am also aware of those specific and very high quality Orbs products (thx to Tony !) but I'm referring to a wider coverage, with less detail, prioritizing efficiency too given that my rig is a 5600x + RTX 3060 Ti 8GN VRAM GPU...

Edited June 11, 2025Jun 11 by jcomm

I think you're referring to SFD Global.

https://store.x-plane.org/SFD-Global_p_1060.html

It has not been updated for XP12 but there are some hacks posted that can help you get it working reasonably well on XP12 if you like.

https://forums.x-plane.org/forums/topic/195634-sfd-global-additional-files-3d-trees-on-autogen-for-x-plane-12/

I own (and used) SFD Global with XP11 but haven't bothered installing it in my XP12 setup.

EDIT: This thread explains how to use SFD Global buildings with Sim Heaven's overlays:
https://forums.x-plane.org/forums/topic/324639-integration-of-sfd-global-buildings-with-simheaven-x-world-sceneries/

Edited June 11, 2025Jun 11 by Malaromane

If you want to combine SFD Global with Sim Heaven X-World for X-Plane 12, I combined a couple of adaptations in one library.txt, to be put in the SFD Global Autogen folder.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vvc38irtp5vi2r8eq4umc/library.txt?rlkey=pw3i1uagw05eo00zr1zju3a5w&st=rz2qcv47&dl=0

This one works best for me as it includes the Mediterranean area.

result in the Southern French Alps (Les Alpes de Haute Provence):

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gfqcbo4kg3wg8tyfm3v46/Aspres_sur_Buech.png?rlkey=5nv300i3exij6dv1qozokjv16&st=5bm0dv9c&dl=1

Edited June 11, 2025Jun 11 by soaring_penguin

Thx guys!

Default X-Plane 12 building + SFD Global is the best balance I found.  Simheaven buildings are now very outdated in X-Plane 12 and doesn't look good up close.  Simheaven MS Footprint is amazing but it cuts FPS by 50%.

I agree, but only if you are not using Ortho overlays. 

The library.txt that I uploaded replaces the outdated and often wrong facades used by XWorld by the SFD global buildings. The disadvantage is that it doesn't always align well with the building footprint.

The result is very plausible to my eyes (and I know the region very well).

 

fyi, before you spend money on SFD Global, MisterX made a freeware version for Japan, look for Japan Pro 1.02 on the org. So you can check if it is something for you.

I would like to give SFD a go, but must admit I am very confused at all the instructions going back a long way!  I normally fly in the UK, Europe and the USA.  Is SFD useful to me in these areas?  I have Orbx TrueEarth for the UK but only use it for the Autogen over Ortho from the Map Enhancement tool.  Because the TrueEarth autogen is an improvement, I would like to try the SFD autogen outside of the UK.

Could someone please give an oldie like me some simple up to date instructions please? 🤔😊

The problem being that SFD Global was written for X-Plane 11, and there hasn't been an official update for X-Plane 12.

I have only Autogen and Landmarks installed, and dropped Terrain textures and Forests and Forrests.

Autogen has been improved for several regions, like New England (US of A), Scandinavia, Mediterranean, Asia, Africa, Caribbean, ... .

To get X-Plane 12 trees annotated to the autogen, you have to put a small patch in place which you can find on the org: 

https://forums.x-plane.org/forums/topic/195634-sfd-global-additional-files-3d-trees-on-autogen-for-x-plane-12/ (my excuses for the direct link to the org).

If you want to combine it with X-World, I recommend to overwrite the Library.txt in SFD Global Autogen directory with the one I linked to higher up in this post.

 

For me this adds a lot of variation to the default Laminar models, even in its current state, but I am using it for several years now. I don't know what Laminar is cooking, especially since the developer (MisterX6) joined them. They promised a complete update of the scenery, but only a few parts have been touched up to now.