Favourite scenery addons

[Bruce66]

Hi Everyone

From what I've seen and read it looks like ORBX is the way to go for scenery BUT I also see there is no Dover Castle in the UK! This is important to me as it's near where I live in rl and fly in the simulators. I also see from the ORBX forums that this has been raised before.

I have also looked to the Revolution-X add-on from Just Flight but I can't find any reviews newer than 2014 or independent user videos of any informative use. Does anyone have Revolution-X? Does anyone have something else other than the above which they are very happy with? Links to user videos would be welcome.

I am aware that Revolution-X goes on top of a vfr real scenery but the only one I could find that is not extortionately expensive is the Just Flight England set.

The other big plus for ORBX, I suppose, is it's global coverage but the accuracy of detail worries me a bit.

This is a bit at a dilemma I must admit.

[Lewis - A2A]

I cannot Orbx enough, get the region you want or global and then whack in Vector and you have total VFR, with the auto gen and the confusion that causes as in real life. Much better than a dodgy colour corrected blurred photo pasted onto a mesh with no actual depth to it.

For me personally Orbx when combined with Orbx Vector bares the most resemblance in P3D/FSX to reality when it comes to ground clutter and the whole can you spot the landmark and or airfield.

thanks,
Lewis

[Bruce66]

It does seem that ORBX is the way to go. I have yet to see anyone on any forum defending Revolution-X although the promo looks amazing.

One question about ORBX which I can't get from their web site (maybe I'm dim). If one gets the global and vector is there anything left to add if one then puts a region like EU England on top of it? I get the impression that the smaller regions are all inclusive but disconnected but I can't tell if it is a waste of money buying the England if I intend to get the global with vector in the future (I'm thinking Christmas present requests!).

So basically what I'm asking is, does global plus vector include everything in the EU England scenery?

[Blitzer]

Default scenery = cheap suit from poor quality materials.
Global + vector = decent quality suit from a reputable high street store, fits well and looks good.
Orbx regions = tailor made suit, dressed to impress.

[MM]

If you want to fly in a region, the ORBX "full fat" regions are a great pleasure. They provide more detailed custom landclass, terrain mesh, some photo-real land/water features, and special "points of interest". Overlooked, but especially important, are the lightly-modeled airports that cover the entire region. The team have created a reasonable facsimile of most airports (best for the GA airports) based on aerial images and a fairly robust ORBX object library. Thus, you can jump into your aircraft and go get your $100 hamburger at any airport in the region and you will see multiple buildings, parked aircraft and automobiles, moving people, and ground clutter – all to encourage your imagination that you are visiting a real airport.
--Mike

[Bruce66]

Thanks guys!

So I'll get ORBX EU England and the Accu-Sim Spitfire now and (if she doesn't divorce me by then) ask the wife for Global and Vector for Christmas. The rest of the world can wait till next year!

[Blitzer]

Without trying to confuse the issue further, but hopefully give you an idea of how the scenery is constructed and therefore how your future purchasing decisions may be influenced. Note this is largely based on the use of Orb scenery software - I apologise now (to A2A) as this is not strictly speaking A2A related, but we all need decent scenery in which to fly A2A aircraft...

Scenery is basically constructed by various elements, you can largely think of these as layers. I am not expert, this is my understanding so anyone with better knowledge please jump in!

1. Mesh - this namely defines the surface elevation (3D shape) of the landscape and crucially how accurately this is depicted against the real world. i.e. aftermarket add-on mesh will be of a higher "resolution" than that of default scenery, so e.g. mountainous regions will look more rocky and accurate compared with default scenery where the mountains would generally look more rounded and less defined.

2. Landclass layer (e.g. Orbx Global BASE pack & specific areas, e.g. openLC Europe) - defines what type of texture should be applied on the mesh, e.g. ocean, beach, urban, forest, rock etc. Global base is the full planet using new and additional textures to provide globally more variation and accuracy. The openLC areas take this a step further and provide more accurate and appropriate textures for those specific regions.

3. Texture layer - the actual textures you see, plus textures for autogen trees and buildings. I believe you can regard Orbx Global BASE and openLC as catering for both the Landclass layer (i.e. how the surface is mapped) and replacement textures in the Texture layer.

4. Vector layer ( e.g. Orbx Global VECTOR) - Accurate positioning of lines and shapes, essentially coastlines, rivers, lakes, major roads.

Beyond this you are then into the realms of specific Orbx regions such as EU England where region specific texture are applied as well as custom and accurately placed autogen etc.
Taking this to a final step you are then looking at specific airfields which have been recreated in the sim world to provide accurate virtual representations of those airfields and surrounding areas.

Hope this helps.

[Blitzer]

Thanks guys!

So I'll get ORBX EU England and the Accu-Sim Spitfire now and (if she doesn't divorce me by then) ask the wife for Global and Vector for Christmas. The rest of the world can wait till next year!

If you would ever consider moving to P3D in the future it may be a worthwhile investment to purchase the combined FSX/P3D license for A2A aircraft. Unfortunately, no discount is offered after that initial sale if you decided later to switch to P3D - you would basically need to pay full price for the aircraft again for the P3D platform.

[Bruce66]

Thanks Blitzer, very helpful!

The order of layers was confusing me but that clears it up for me.

The main reason for this new quest of mine is to get in and fly the Accu-Sim Spitfire. But looking at the stock landscape is a bit of an immersion killer so I wanted to get somewhere good to fly, so as you say, we all need decent scenery...

(As I type the newest Spitfire trainer has just flown past my window! Carries passengers from Headcorn for a price.)

Also a good consideration for the dual licence. I looked at P3D 4 but my computer isn't up to it. Who knows in the future though.

[Archaeopteryx]

Bruce,
if you do a search on the Orbx website for "White Cliffs" you should find a link to the excellent update for Orbx England. It adds Dover Castle and a whole lot more.

Keep 'em flying,
Bob

[Bruce66]

Bruce,
if you do a search on the Orbx website for "White Cliffs" you should find a link to the excellent update for Orbx England. It adds Dover Castle and a whole lot more.

Keep 'em flying,
Bob

Thanks, I will.

I was searching for 'Dover Castle' and just got a thread discussing the possibility.

Cheers.

[Skycat]

You may have seen this already but here is an ORBX guide that graphically explains the layers and how each type of FTX product affects detail in the simulator: https://www.scribd.com/document/2503840 ... tive-Guide

The screenshots of England and Bozeman USA are a little difficult to follow if you don't already understand the products. Basically, they show the progression as:
1. Stock FSX;
2. Adding Global base replacement textures;
3. Adding Global Vector landclass replacement;
4. Adding a custom mesh product;
5. Adding a region (like England) which is a customized package of textures, landclass, mesh and ground objects; and, finally,
6. Adding a highly-detailed FTX airport to your region.

The linked guide generally explains it all very well.

[patful]

I'm quite happy with UTX (USA, Canada, and TAC) and GEP3D. No, there aren't building replicas or folks sitting at picnic tables to gaze at, but the roads, town locations, and water are accurate, and I can fly stutter-free in the Connie at 35-40 fps over NYC and LA with all autogen full right, airline and general traffic at 25%, cloudy conditions in ASP4 and ASCA. This is on my modest GTX 1060. I hate anything under 30 fps, and refuse to cut back on autogen, so other products weren't an option.

[Bruce66]

Skycat - That is a very helpful guide, thanks for the link.

Patful - Thanks for the input - from what I've seen online those sceneries are only for P3D am I right? I doubt I will be upgrading the P3D (doing a rough calculation of age, health and finances ). There is SO much available content for FSX I feel quite overwhelmed! I had no idea what a Pandora's box I was opening.

Archaeoptyrx - I found the Dover Castle add-on scenery but sadly the links are temporarily (hopefully) down so I can't get it for now. Do you happen to know of an alternative source for this?

[patful]

Patful - Thanks for the input - from what I've seen online those sceneries are only for P3D am I right? I doubt I will be upgrading the P3D (doing a rough calculation of age, health and finances ). There is SO much available content for FSX I feel quite overwhelmed! I had no idea what a Pandora's box I was opening.

Actually, only GEP3D is just for P3D. UTX products were designed for FSX, and GEP3D is just an upgraded worldwide version of Flight1's GEX products. I had considered ORBX, but their limited payment options convinced me to stick with F1/UTX/GEX since I had been using them since FS2004. With this kind of performance, I've had no second thoughts.