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shaun_ak

Megascenery Earth v2 cost

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I want night textures more than water masking for lakes...except for very large bodies of water.


Manny

Beta tester for SIMStarter 

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The default FSX night lighting is still present and works just fine. The only anomalies are when the new photoscenery has built-up areas that were not in the default scenery or where they were in error in placement in FSX.

 

So when you fly at night with v2 installed the GEX or stock will then show and not the photo scenery in daytime mode?

 

Interesting, I didn't know that. A lot of photo scenery that doesn't have night textures still displays at night but in day mode which looks horrible. I assumed this works the same unless you untick it to turn it off in the scenery library.

 

Well that's good news, maybe one more tipping point that would get me to buy it before they do the photo real night textures. At least the GEX textures would show at night without having to turn off the photo scenery.


Avsim Board of Directors | Avsim Forums Moderator

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Re night textures... Yes when these become available we will release them to existing customers as a free upgrade. I believe that is the plan anyway. Please note that I am not the project manager, just a community rep for the project. I will ask about this for you and see if I can get a more solid answer on it. No timeframe at the moment on this. Its likely we will try to get all the day photoreal out for all the states first.

 

Two question for you specifically.

 

2) Once the US is done, will PC Aviator consider selling City packs or breaking it down into a smaller tile sections? Reason being is that while the whole state is a good deal, in the past with MSE v1 and the older MegaScenery titles, I was quite happy to just buy 4 or so of the tiles from MSE that covered the greater area of my departure or arrival airport. While I wouldn't mind having the whole state, I do like the option to just have the surrounding city tiles to not only save HD space, but also since I fly mostly airliners, photoreal covering the entire state isn't that important to me at 30K+ feet. Take Georga for example, I would be interested in buying something that covered the greater Atlanta area with night textures, but have no need for the entire state or its capacity on my HD.

 

Look forward to your answers.

 

I am not going to speculate on this at the present time. i simply do not know at the moment. The focus right now is to get the whole of the USA covered in MegaSceneryEarth. Beyond that, it may be possible, however, splitting states up and selling individual tiles would be a huge project just to list and create the backend store system for managing this... No guarantees on that at the moment I am afraid, but I will pitch it to the project manager/developer for consideration of course.

 

Hi Helen,

 

I watched your video and read your comments. I've had a long profesional flying experience and I fully agree with you, photoscenery does look like the real thing and the 3D rendition is amazing as shown in your video. By the way did you know that you can currently buy the entire US in sectional charts for only 30 $ (US sectional charts, eastern and western editions)? It is really useful for realistic VFR flying such as you do (and as I do). Happy flying.

 

Hi... We are actually now providing all the relevant charts and plates for each state free of charge along with your purchase. The charts are in PDF format and can be downloaded along with your MegaSceneryEarth scenery package :) These are FAA charts (which you can get free from the net anyway of course) - but we collate all the necessary charts and plates etc so it makes it easier for you to grab them all via one convenient download :)


Dean
Manager - PC Aviator Australia

Retailing Sim DVD Software, Downloads, Hardware and Accessories

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Trying to fix everything would result in product costing 5 times more. Some of them do not get it, takes hours to water-mask and get everything perfect. See, photoariel way better deal than buying airports to me that cost just as much or more in hardware upgrades. Seen, people buying more airports but next day complain it crashes their desktop, and know from 3d modeling some 3d party software makers create objects with too many polygons and add details not needed on airports. Never bought airports because I have modded in other games and know that high poly objects cost you in FPS.

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Trying to fix everything would result in product costing 5 times more. Some of them do not get it, takes hours to water-mask and get everything perfect. See, photoariel way better deal than buying airports to me that cost just as much or more in hardware upgrades. Seen, people buying more airports but next day complain it crashes their desktop, and know from 3d modeling some 3d party software makers create objects with too many polygons and add details not needed on airports. Never bought airports because I have modded in other games and know that high poly objects cost you in FPS.

 

Yes this is true. Photoreal may not be for everybody of course. It is just another option on the table for those who find value in this type of scenery. If you want to practice real VFR flying techniques using real charts or see something different on just about every flight, there is no equal however.


Dean
Manager - PC Aviator Australia

Retailing Sim DVD Software, Downloads, Hardware and Accessories

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See, photoariel way better deal than buying airports to me that cost just as much or more in hardware upgrades. Seen, people buying more airports but next day complain it crashes their desktop, and know from 3d modeling some 3d party software makers create objects with too many polygons and add details not needed on airports. Never bought airports because I have modded in other games and know that high poly objects cost you in FPS.

 

Not for me, if it weren't for addon airports by FSDT, FlyTampa, Flighbeam, LatinVfr, etc. I wouldn't even use FSX. I've got an older, slower computer than a lot of people these days (am buiilding a new rig though) and even on my antique rig, I use all my addon airports with my PMDG birds, AI, AS2012 weather, etc. and never have CTD's or OOM's. In addition I so use a fair amount of photo real in combination with my addon airports and still no issues.

 

I do like photoscenery, when its well done and has night textures, but if I had to choose between it and all my addon airports, the photo real would be gone in a heartbeat and I would just use GEX or the default ground textures. I absolutely hate the default airports, plus on my rig some of the ones by FSDT, namely KDFW, KJFK, and KLAX perform better on my computer than the default versions while offering better realism.


Avsim Board of Directors | Avsim Forums Moderator

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Not for me, if it weren't for addon airports by FSDT, FlyTampa, Flighbeam, LatinVfr, etc. I wouldn't even use FSX. I've got an older, slower computer than a lot of people these days (am buiilding a new rig though) and even on my antique rig, I use all my addon airports with my PMDG birds, AI, AS2012 weather, etc. and never have CTD's or OOM's. In addition I so use a fair amount of photo real in combination with my addon airports and still no issues.

 

I do like photoscenery, when its well done and has night textures, but if I had to choose between it and all my addon airports, the photo real would be gone in a heartbeat and I would just use GEX or the default ground textures. I absolutely hate the default airports, plus on my rig some of the ones by FSDT, namely KDFW, KJFK, and KLAX perform better on my computer than the default versions while offering better realism.

 

Total opposite view of airports

Add on Airports think are waste of money to me. Only there for 3 minutes and they have installers that can create problems with other add-ons. The designers some of them make airports and add on are FPS chewers. Take off and Landing you are gone and default airports do the job fine.

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Add on Airports think are waste of money to me. Only there for 3 minutes and they have installers that can create problems with other add-ons.

 

Usually I am at an airport in the sim for a good 15 minutes while getting the plane setup, FMC programmed, etc. Sitting in the cockpit looking out at a good representation of the real airport adds a lot to the experience for me. Plus all default airports look pretty much the same since they use generic textures for the terminals and building. When FSX first came out and we had no addon airports I was really bummed for a long time and considered going back to FS9 until some descent airport content came out. I remember sitting at the gates of some airports and for a second forgot where I was since they all look so similar. Not for me.

 

I buy most airports from what I would call my trusted list and are companies that offer great support. In the last 4 years none of their installers have created problems with other addons. I suppose there could be some out there, but I have yet to find one.

 

What installer gave you a problem with another addon? I would like to know so I can avoid it in the future.

 

 

The designers some of them make airports and add on are FPS chewers.

 

That is true. I have some airport from ORBX that are almost unuable due to that reason, so I learned my lesson and dont buy them anymore. However, I can safely buy from FSDT, FlyTampa, Flightbeam and a few other select ones with confidence knowing their product will work well and not cut my FPS in half.

 

 

Take off and Landing you are gone and default airports do the job fine.

 

That's true also. Cars are similar. You can buy the cheapest car you can find and it will get you from point A to point B. Once you park at work you are inside for 8 hours then spend 30 minutes driving back home and the car did its job.. However, for some of us, me included, we like to drive the nicest cars we can afford because we enjoy the comfort, power, luxury, handling, etc. that comes with owning a BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Porsche, etc.

 

For me the sim is the same. Why use default airports when I can buy the BMW of airports and still get great FPS. Yeah, the default ones get the job done like an econo car since they give you a place to land and park, but some of us want more than what just fits the basic need. Same goes for addon planes. You can fly the default 737 from Dallas to New York, but why do that when you can fly the PMDG NGX and get a much better experience.

 

I'm happy you like the default airports and it will save you a ton of money and I am sorry if a rogue installer messed up one of your other addons and that they give you bad FPS. Fortunately for some of us, we have been able to have our cake and eat it to, although there may have been a few bad apple of airports along the way that taught us some lessons about who we can and can't buy from.


Avsim Board of Directors | Avsim Forums Moderator

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When FSX first came out and we had no addon airports I was really bummed for a long time and considered going back to FS9 until some descent airport content came out.

 

Same here, I unstalled it and went back to fs 2004 came back 5 years later.

 

My concerns with add-ons is I normally upgrade my computer every two years and re-install fsx and some things like Ga planes from Carendo re-install easily. Look for add-ons I know are easy to re-install and avoid ones that are pain like flight one products in particular.

 

Like products that do not destroy FPS and more important re-installation as FS2004 can install that with ease.

 

Love Orbx products but from modding other games and looking at their airport pictures knew right away my computer would choke on it. GA flyer myself and Obrx is up my alley, but i know its Airports are overdone.

 

Like San Diego Airport that came out just concern is fps as like to fly that area. Fun Airport to land as you have know where buildings are.

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The lack of watermasking for photoreal scenery is not a major issue for me. Landing or taking off of photoscenery water, even if watermasked, would not be appealing as the surrounding area will look fairly flat. I'll just have to close my eyes real tight when flying over lakes and rivers. :lol: The proper airport alignment is very important though but, so far, I have not seen any out of alignment (other than it looks like Charlotte International in NC is off).

 

Best regards,

Jim


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The good thing about MegaSceneryEarth and most other photosceneries is that you can add your favorite airport addons over the top and in almost all cases, have no major compatibility issues. They will just sit on top of the MegaScenery or photscenery addon (as long as the airport is placed higher as a layer in the Scenery Library). So your favorite commercial or freeware airport scenery upgrades can generally always be used in conjunction with MSE without any problems.


Dean
Manager - PC Aviator Australia

Retailing Sim DVD Software, Downloads, Hardware and Accessories

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The good thing about MegaSceneryEarth and most other photosceneries is that you can add your favorite airport addons over the top and in almost all cases, have no major compatibility issues. They will just sit on top of the MegaScenery or photscenery addon (as long as the airport is placed higher as a layer in the Scenery Library). So your favorite commercial or freeware airport scenery upgrades can generally always be used in conjunction with MSE without any problems.

 

I agree and if someone could develop an app with a simple to use GUI, allowing one to be able to quickly and efficiently annotate areas for autogen scenery, that would be golden!


Regards,

Efrain Ruiz
LiveDISPATCH @ http://www.livedispatch.org (CLOSED) ☹️

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I agree and if someone could develop an app with a simple to use GUI, allowing one to be able to quickly and efficiently annotate areas for autogen scenery, that would be golden!

 

True, but I have seen a developer I know try to annotate a section of MSE, and to be honest, it didnt really look right... You would need a huge library of varying objects of slightly different colours, shapes, sizes, and for trees, species too... When the Autogen was added, it covered up the natural variation in the textures and make it look all the same... So not sure annotating MSE with autogen would actually make the end result "better" in terms of realism... Certainly it would give a much better 3D look when closer to the ground, but you would also get a pretty big performance hit. Autogen would be best implemented around the immediate airport environments only in my opinion. But still, there would be a heck of a lot of work needed to do just that, even for a big team working on it... So much area to cover.


Dean
Manager - PC Aviator Australia

Retailing Sim DVD Software, Downloads, Hardware and Accessories

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Certainly it would give a much better 3D look when closer to the ground, but you would also get a pretty big performance hit. Autogen would be best implemented around the immediate airport environments only in my opinion.

 

From a practical point of view I think you're right. Certainly it's at or near the airport that the need is greatest, especially with higher res scenery.

 

Another discussion going on about exactly this subject here: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/396162-instant-studio-20/#entry2596182 . It's amazing how much a little bit of 3D detail changes how you perceive what you see at low levels.

 

Scott

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