Hey all.Can anyone direct me to a freeware third-party scenery that uses high detail photo scenery? I've seen the normal photo scenery. Recently herd of this new high detail stuff and wanted to have a look. Anyone know of any examples?Cheers,Matthew.

SBuilder will create 1.2m/pixel textures (scenery to some). However, I have only been able to make them over a flattened area. The picture shows how much clearer the hi res is. However, do not expect much more clarity when on the ground. I find that an altitude of at least 500ft above ground level is needed for non-blurred viewing. There are also problems with the textures blurring until FS2004 fully decodes and displays them. I have done a small area and they work but with caveats.Dick Boley @KLBEhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/125201.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/125203.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/125204.jpg

Hey Dick.Many thanks for that. Good comparative images and important points about the application of the high detail photo scenery. Pitty about the limitations, but they do look better than the normal images!Just as an aside, have you ever slewed around in Google Earth in the angeled view. It's probably very similar. Cheers,Matthew.

Yes, and that is the source of these photos. Luis Sa, the author of SBuilder, has written an HTML application that collects photos from Google Earth and creates a composite. You can use a variety of detail/zooms to lay down "normal" textures or hi-res. If you look closely you may be able to make out the faint Google watermarks.An interesting note is the last photo where you see normal textures blurred with clear hi-res in the foreground. Normally with FS2004 synthetic textures it is exactly the opposite with the foreground blurred!A better source (higher quality) but less coverage is Terraserver. JD Cox has a similar collector of their photos that produces a composite image for textures in SBuilder. I have done most of the San Francisco area.There is yet another problem with hi-res ground textures. That is the very large size of the BMP files. Today's PCs and operating system simply cannot cope with files that are around 300mb. Yes, they can work on them but the time is very long and the power company can ruin your day! I never exceed 200mb. Each of the texture tiles for Hi Res are only 14mb but that is a limitation of the collection area allowed by Luis's application at this time. Terraserver allows gigabytes if you like punishment. The nice thing about larger BMPs is that you can obviously do more area in one go. However until the elevation issues are worked out airports and the plains of Iowa seem the best candidates.Dick Boley @KLBE

Google's conditions of use state:"You can personally use an image from the application (for example on your website, on a blog or in a word document) as long as you preserve the copyrights and attributions including the Google logo attribution. However, you cannot sell these to others, provide them as part of a service, or use them in a commercial product such as a book or TV show without first getting a rights clearance from Google."These may have traps in them. For example "on YOUR website" and "provide them as part of a service".

Hey Dick.So these are actually large bmps, rather than mutilple images as per the conventional photo scenery? I can see why they're so heavy. I guess the idea is to make multiples that are no larger than 200MB or Luis' 14MB. Much of Oz is very flat, too. Probably more like Texas :-)Good stuff!Cheers,Matthew.