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mark22

Which European scenery packages are currently the best?

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Thanks Ray, I will look into that as well although I was after more in the way of mesh and scenery for Europe rather than just certain places. I have AES installed which I use with Manchester Extreme, that's my only UK2000 product as I used to live in Cheshire (Stockport) and worked at Manchester Airport as a baggage handler, so like you, I wasn't very far from the airport! Unfortunately I moved just before Emirates A380 began it's service so as you can imagine I am gutted about that! I bet it makes the houses shake when they take off over Stockport don't they?!
Hi Mark,For mesh I use FS Global. One package covers the whole world. There are other packages which cover specific areas to a higher level of detail but you have to install multiple files. There is a new FSGlobal version for FS9 and FSX but it's quite pricey. Like others I also use Ground Environment. Mine is the older non-Pro version but still very effective. Finally Ultimate Terrain (Europe) is the icing on the cake which gives you all the major roads and it's really lifelike when you're holding at MIRSI and can see the M6 / M58 complex motorway system below.Bad timing to change jobs just before the A380 arrives. I saw it arrive on Sept 1 last year stood at John Lewis with hundreds of others. Great sight although a very ugly aircraft compared to the love of my life - Concorde. I'll be flying back from Dubai on the monster in a few months. Can't wait! It's very quiet given its size. Fortunately I live under the LISTO SID so it doesn't get near me.

Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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Hello again all. Just a couple of more queries/questions to get some advice about please...Firstly, I recently purchased and downloaded Ultimate Terrain Europe (FS9) and have it all installed but I don't know if it's something I have done wrong or I am not seeing it properly, but I cannot see any difference! I have all the sliders to the max and pretty much every box ticked in the set-up for Ultimate Terrain. Granted, I have not had that much time to fully check out the whole of Europe, but I did a test flight over Malta, just as an example, where I could see the whole island from high up but there did not seem to be any major difference, not that I could tell anyway. Any ideas?Secondly, my next add-on I was thinking of getting from your advice is either Ground Environment and/or FS Global 2010 which is pretty expensive at the moment but seems to have brilliant reviews. My question is, do I really need this as well as Ground Environment as I will be mainly flying around Europe anyway and if did install both would they both work in harmony with each other?And finally, which water environment product is the best one? I have seen Zinertek's Ultimate water advanced which looks pretty good and the price is reasonable too. Does anyone recommend this or any others?


Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. Packard Bell imedia S3210. AMD Athlon II X 3 425 Processor 2.70 GHz. 3 GB RAM. External hard drive 1TB. FS9.1, Ground Environment, Ultimate Terrain Europe, REX, Zinertek's Ultimate Water Advanced & Ultimate Night Environment 2010, WOAI, MAIW, AES, ODG Project.

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Hi Mark,UT is all about more detailed terrain including extra roads, railways, lakes and rivers so you may be too high to see them. If you're in any doubt as to UT's effect switch off the European layer (there may be more than one) in Scenery Library and see the difference from 2,000ft. I doubt you're going to see a huge difference at FL350 over Malta.Ground Environment (GE) and FS Global (FSG) are two different products. GE changes the ground textures and are considerably more accurate than the default textures.FSG makes the terrain more detailed. For example, you will get far more detail in mountains that the default. Look at these comparison screenshots here. It is expensive but you are buying it for the entire globe and also for FS9 and FSX so if you intend to move to FSX in the future it's a reasonable deal.Both GE and FSG will work together and existing airport and city scenery blends in very well. The whole package transforms FS9. Only you can decide if you're prepared to buy them but many thousands have and are very happy with them.UT has its own water textures so I haven't investigated alternatives. Others may have favourites they will share.


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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Thanks for your reply Ray, it is much appreciated. I will definately look into these 2 products as these do seem to be the most favorable ones.I keep looking at FS9 videos on Youtube which shows where people have used various add-ons such as Ground Environment, Ultimate Terrain plus others mixed together but it's not always easy to get a good picture of how it looks but I think I will invest in GE and FSG.Thanks again!


Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. Packard Bell imedia S3210. AMD Athlon II X 3 425 Processor 2.70 GHz. 3 GB RAM. External hard drive 1TB. FS9.1, Ground Environment, Ultimate Terrain Europe, REX, Zinertek's Ultimate Water Advanced & Ultimate Night Environment 2010, WOAI, MAIW, AES, ODG Project.

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Just a quick question to Ray or anyone else regarding Ground Environment, I have been searching around for it on-line and I have noticed that when I type it into the search engine (on Google), there are different versions that come up, such as Ground Environment Pro, Ground Environment Europe and Ground Environment Extreme. Which is the latest and better version? When I go inot Flight 1's website I can only find the Pro II version for about £31.61 but I cannot find it sold anywhere else....


Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. Packard Bell imedia S3210. AMD Athlon II X 3 425 Processor 2.70 GHz. 3 GB RAM. External hard drive 1TB. FS9.1, Ground Environment, Ultimate Terrain Europe, REX, Zinertek's Ultimate Water Advanced & Ultimate Night Environment 2010, WOAI, MAIW, AES, ODG Project.

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Hi Mark,Ground Environment Pro II is the latest version for FS9. Ground Environment was the original version which I have.All the versions that have X in their names are for FSX only. Given the strength of the pound against the US dollar it's not a bad time to buy. Play.com and Amazon.co.uk do sell GEX but not the older FS9 versions so you'll need to buy from Flight1. Top company so have no worries.


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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Thanks Ray, now I know!


Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. Packard Bell imedia S3210. AMD Athlon II X 3 425 Processor 2.70 GHz. 3 GB RAM. External hard drive 1TB. FS9.1, Ground Environment, Ultimate Terrain Europe, REX, Zinertek's Ultimate Water Advanced & Ultimate Night Environment 2010, WOAI, MAIW, AES, ODG Project.

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Personally I use Ultimate Terrain Europe, REX, Ground Environment Pro and Hifi Active Sky Enhanced and I am seriously impressed by this whole package. The only reason for me thinking about starting to use FSX too (I have it installed) is the upcoming PMDG 737NG!


Krister Lindén
EFMA, Finland
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Right, I have a bit of a problem regarding the scenery so this question is for Ray if possible please, or anyone else who can help....I have now done a few test flights around the UK with Ultimate Terrain European layers ticked and unticked in the scenery library to compare the difference. Now, what I forgot to mention was that I have already had installed VFR Photographic scenery and VFR Terrain for England and Wales which I think may be causing conflict issues with Ultimate Terrain.As an example, taking off from a small airport such as Norwich taking off towards the sea and making a right turn, without Ultimate Terrain the scenery around consists mainly of fields and is quite clear. With Ultimate Terrain installed, I get a different scenery completely, I see built up areas but it is not that clear, it can be quite blurry in areas despite all my settings are as high as possible.So my question is, should I have both Ultimate Terrain and VFR Photographic Scenery/VFR Terrain installed at the same time and if so do I move Ultimate Terrain below VFR Photograhic scenery in the scenery library? Would this make any difference or not? Also, If I was to get FS Global and Ground Environment, would these also interfere with VFR Photographic scenery and VFR Terrain as well? What are the best results then, as I don't really want to uninstall VFR Photographic scenery but then again would the scenery look better without it if I just had Ultimate Terrain, Ground Envirnment and FS Global?Or is it just a matter of moving things around in the scenery library and if so, in which order?So many questions, what a dilemma!


Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. Packard Bell imedia S3210. AMD Athlon II X 3 425 Processor 2.70 GHz. 3 GB RAM. External hard drive 1TB. FS9.1, Ground Environment, Ultimate Terrain Europe, REX, Zinertek's Ultimate Water Advanced & Ultimate Night Environment 2010, WOAI, MAIW, AES, ODG Project.

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Right, I have a bit of a problem regarding the scenery so this question is for Ray if possible please, or anyone else who can help....I have now done a few test flights around the UK with Ultimate Terrain European layers ticked and unticked in the scenery library to compare the difference. Now, what I forgot to mention was that I have already had installed VFR Photographic scenery and VFR Terrain for England and Wales which I think may be causing conflict issues with Ultimate Terrain.As an example, taking off from a small airport such as Norwich taking off towards the sea and making a right turn, without Ultimate Terrain the scenery around consists mainly of fields and is quite clear. With Ultimate Terrain installed, I get a different scenery completely, I see built up areas but it is not that clear, it can be quite blurry in areas despite all my settings are as high as possible.So my question is, should I have both Ultimate Terrain and VFR Photographic Scenery/VFR Terrain installed at the same time and if so do I move Ultimate Terrain below VFR Photograhic scenery in the scenery library? Would this make any difference or not? Also, If I was to get FS Global and Ground Environment, would these also interfere with VFR Photographic scenery and VFR Terrain as well? What are the best results then, as I don't really want to uninstall VFR Photographic scenery but then again would the scenery look better without it if I just had Ultimate Terrain, Ground Envirnment and FS Global?Or is it just a matter of moving things around in the scenery library and if so, in which order?So many questions, what a dilemma!
Since FSGlobal is mesh,it will always at the bottom of the addon list(just on top of the default sceneries). And then Ultimate Terrain on top of it,and then your other addons such as VFR Photographic ,and then Ground Environment.This is how I do it with my FS9 scenery library

Hoang Le

i5 13500 - eVGA RTX 3070 Ti - 32GB RAM

P3D v5

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Since FSGlobal is mesh,it will always at the bottom of the addon list(just on top of the default sceneries). And then Ultimate Terrain on top of it,and then your other addons such as VFR Photographic ,and then Ground Environment.This is how I do it with my FS9 scenery library
Sk1nNy,If you layered them like that wouldn't the Ground Environment textures hide the photographic ones? I'd be inclined to try (from the bottom) :- FSG, UT, GE and finally VFR Photo. Any airports in the area should be at the top level of course.I'm happy to be proved wrong. Mark probably needs to experiment with the VFR and GE layers and see which he prefers.

Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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Thanks guys, I will have a play around with the scenery library and see if it makes any difference to suit my taste. I appreciate all your opinions!


Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. Packard Bell imedia S3210. AMD Athlon II X 3 425 Processor 2.70 GHz. 3 GB RAM. External hard drive 1TB. FS9.1, Ground Environment, Ultimate Terrain Europe, REX, Zinertek's Ultimate Water Advanced & Ultimate Night Environment 2010, WOAI, MAIW, AES, ODG Project.

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