Is Megascenery for FS8/9 as good as FU3?

[Guest]

Greeting FU3 freax. Sorry for my leave of absence in this forum. I still get around to flying Flight3 on occasion, but with business and kid commitments it is hard to find the time.Still, a question. Our favorite sim is now celebrating its 4th birthday, and M$ are constantly trying to better it. The sexiest addon pack I have seen so far is megascenery (as in the .com) covering some of the DPRK (Democratic Peoples Republic of Kalifornia, as it is known by conservative gun lovers over there). The pack features 5 square meter tiles, and a lot of them, in lots of pretty colors. Is this as good as Flight3?Constantly spilling your coffee (FU3 joke),Lior

[Guest otter55]

liori have installed the new megascenery into fs2004 and flown it several hours now.imho, its is higher quality than the fu2/3 secenery that i have known and loved for so many years and there is zero performance hit.in particular, the flight from banning to palm springs will take your breath away.i hope megascenery offers more of this scenery in the future. i'd gladly pay $1000.00 for alaskan scenery done to this degree.don

[Guest otter55]

here's some screenshots i just took of the megascenery in fs2004.i reduced them substantially in size and in quality.if you don't think fu2/3 were light years ahead of their time just look at how long it took microsoft to catch up:)donhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/33466.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/33467.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/33469.jpg

[Hans_Petter 1]

Nice to hear that you're still around Lior :-)I've been looking at the "mega scenery" myself since I've been known to fly other flight sims than FU3. I even checked out X-plane a few days ago but it seems that it doesn't like my Voodoo 5500 card...The FS mega scenery looks spectacular, as one would expect from an aerial photo scenery. However, let's keep in mind that this isn't a Microsoft scenery -- it's a photo scenery adapted by the Australian group "Mega Scenery" Thus, when Don writes, "if you don't think fu2/3 were light years ahead of their time just look at how long it took microsoft to catch up" I agree, but we shouldn't give MS credit for this scenery :-)In other words, when you adapt aerial photos to a sim you can't go wrong. The only downside is that it requires GBs of disk space. It doesn't tax the flight simulator since it doesn't work any harder rendering correct texture tiles than it does rendering generic ones. The only cost of a "megascenery" is that it requires lots of disk space -- there's no extra processing "cost".So, any sim could be set up to run pretty scenery with great detail. What the improved scenery doesn't change or affect is the sim's flight "engine". Don't get me wrong, FS has a quite good flight "engine" that can be used to simulate flight quite realistically. However, it's limited. Let me add, the FU3 flight "engine" is limited too albeit in different ways. X-plane and FU3 use flight "engines" that rely on separate modeling of units of mass, inertia and mathematical "shapes" interacting with the airflow. This approach is better at capturing the feeling of flight. But then, the more "clinical" FS modeling is better at getting the exact numbers and specs right. If you want an aircraft to cruise at the correct speed at a given altitude, drawing the correct amount of fuel the MS FS flight "engine" is your best choice.However, for "riding the wind", bobbing around and experiencing the effect of downwash and ground effect the X-plane / FU3 approach is better since it relies on shape / wind interaction.I might buy the FS2004 mega scenery for California to relive the 6 months that I've spent in San Diego. best regards,Hans Petter

[JimmiG 244]

The megascenery looks very good but I''m wating for them to release some other scenery area, the LA area doesn't interest me much. FS2004 still only supports 5M/pixel (FU3 is 4m) but the colours are better in FS (not as much grey and brown) as the photos for the scenery can be imported in true colour mode.

[Guest twsimfan]

Don,"i have installed the new megascenery into fs2004 and flown it several hours now.imho, its is higher quality than the fu2/3 secenery that i have known and loved for so many years and there is zero performance hit."That is good to hear... I like your screenshots too! I have a copy siting here that arrived while I was up in Washington State. I haven't had a chance to load it up as I just got back some hours ago and have been fighting another virus... looking forward to it."in particular, the flight from banning to palm springs will take your breath away."I will be sure to try it out."i hope megascenery offers more of this scenery in the future."Me too!"i'd gladly pay $1000.00 for alaskan scenery done to this degree."Shhhhh... somebody might be listening. :-lol

[Guest R_Driscoll]

I think FU3's Seattle scenery suffers a bit from haze colouration. I'm not sure what it is but snow shouldn't be yellow. Even with Jon's explanation. This is not just a palette limitation but something slightly wrong with the palette choice. I meant to look at it but got too busy with other things!

[Guest twsimfan]

Easy... turn down the haze...

[Guest twsimfan]

Don,Have a look at this:http://www.megascenery.com/title-ny.htm.

[Guest otter55]

tomglad to see them expanding their scenery offerings.i really would like to see alaska "done right" :)don

[Guest twsimfan]

Don,They seem to be going for high density population areas... probably in hopes that many more people will want to buy them... I don't agree with their logic but it will be interesting when they get some screenshots up for the new one.

[Guest R_Driscoll]

No, I meant haze when they took the satellite pictures! Compare the UK-South colouring (taken from a light plane). :-)

[Guest]

Well, Megascenery arrived yesterday and got itself installed on FS9.The machine involved: P4 1.5 GHz, 256 Mb, GeForce 2 64Mb.The verdict: FU3 continues to kick M$ arse, and will continue to do so until I get a PC with four times the horsepower! FS9 is very pretty, especially over San Diego, but the framerate makes you want to heave.

[Guest otter55]

my son is running fs9 on a p4 1.5 768mg ram gf 5200 128 mg card with good clouds on and gets very good performance.don

[Guest evansgg]

Hi,I have or have had all the sims, and I think a more appropriate comparison might have been Megascenery Seattle which was released a couple of years ago for FS98 I think. I am an eye candy freak mostly and the Megascenery California offering which I installed in my FS2004 yesterday, is about the best scenery I have ever seen in any sim. I think to be honest that the FS2000 scenery onwards for Washington State is better than the FUIII scenery, but I still much prefer to fly in the FUIII environment. The ATC is a lot better and the way the planes feel and fly is just fantastic.Gary