MSE England & Wales - First Shots

[rob16584 42]

Here are a few shots and comments from my first flight in MSE Eng & Wales. Only managed about 20-30mins before FSX CTD'd. All shots taken from around 2,500ft

 

Departing from Sherburn-in-Elmet (My local)

 

Heading down the A1 towards Ferrybridge. All good so far

 

Ferrybridge and it's power station

 

My house is just below the rear of the left skid

 

Work (Haribo) is on the upper-right of the chopper. Judging by the few cars in the car park I'd say the imagery was taken on a Saturday afternoon.

 

Oh oh! You see that wasteland/building site in the centre? It's been a fully developed leisure complex since 2003. I'm not too bothered as google only recently updated maps to show it

 

Heading along the M62 this is Normanton

 

That building front right was knocked down about 3-4 years ago, although a new one has started being built in the last few months (it'll be the new Haribo mega-factory). So I guess technically there is a building there.

 

Leave the M62 to follow the railway into Leeds

 

Just outside Woodlesford this is known as 'The Locks' and is usually jam packed with boats

.

 

 

So far so good for me. Whilst there are a few ommissions/inaccuracies they are only things that you'd know with local knowledge and aren't too big a deal. Just hope the fact the FSX crashed after 20 mins isn't a sign of things to come.

[mutley 4,487]

Hi Rob

Thanks for the update, the frame rate looks great.

I don't think I have ever had a ctd before with photo scenery are you sure that is the cause?

Joe

[jaydor 345]

Rob, are you using the DX10 fixer?  Ctd's are banished using it..

 

MSE needs to be above 4000' to look good, higher the better.. 

[hifly 925]

I hate to dis a product but being new to any scenery apart from airports I'm glad I took the orbx route. Looking at the pix above the terrain is flat and blurred and the colours too garish.

 

OK from orbx UK you don't get accurately placed buildings but you get good topography and the colour palette is more subtle.

 

Just my  worth.

[Christopher Low 63]

There are positives and negatives to both types of scenery......

 

* Photographic scenery is generally a mixed bag as far as texture quality and colour is concerned, whereas FTX landclass scenery is very consistent.

* Rural areas look better than urban areas in both types of scenery. FTX scenery has the added benefit of 3D buildings, but the downside is that the underlying textures are generic, and not always displayed convincingly at texture boundaries.

* ES Treescapes makes a massive difference to the realism of photographic scenery, but FTX scenery has the advantage of both 3D trees and buildings.

* FTX scenery looks great in Spring and Summer when there is an abundance of green, but looks less convincing (IMO) in Winter when there are patches of snow on the ground. The edges of these do not look as natural as they could be.

* Islands and coastlines are somewhat disappointing in FTX scenery regions. They look like large, low resolution polygons rather than natural features, and it destroys the sense of realism. In fact, ORBx developers really should do a better job in this department, but presumably the problem is more to do with limitations in the development kit?

[rob16584 42]

James, I've not got dx10 fixer installed. I don't run FSX in dx10 mode though, will it still help?

I'm not saying that MSE caused the CTD but I've not had one for ages until I installed it

[britfrog 180]

I thought their first publicity photo showing the isle of dogs in London showed what the scenery was going to be like with skyscrapers in the water and on the roads and railway junctions. doesnt say a lot if they can t get the buildings someweher near their right locations.  Must say it doesnt do a lot for me I think I will stay with gen x , better the devil you know.

Mind you with the 25% discount offer it isnt expensive.

No doubt they will release a super high definition London in time

 

I must say I am looking forward to the ES new release which replaces gen X

[ddavid 149]

Reminds me of the early days of Gen-X - remember the craic at Horizon's forum? But it's soooo flat - does MSE include a higher def mesh or is the default used? Don't suppose Treescapes will work with MSE...

Still, it is possibly good value if, like James, you're above 5000' AGL.

Thanks for the pics, Rob.

Cheers - Dai.

[jaydor 345]

James, I've not got dx10 fixer installed. I don't run FSX in dx10 mode though, will it still help?

I'm not saying that MSE caused the CTD but I've not had one for ages until I installed it

 

Rob, I have found out the hard way that FTX and photoscenery do not like to share the same drive.

 

I have them on different drives now and no more problems.  Create a partition if you have no spare drive..

[jaydor 345]

MSE Utah from 28000

California from 9000

[dogtrack 345]

FS crashes can be induced with PS where many objects are placed on top (Power Stations) and VIEWS are changed too often. You finish up running out of VAS. London seems to be a favourite area, along with Liverpool and the usual collection of addons...PP, Refineries, Treescapes/Rev X, UK ANO, Castles, Bridges and Uncle Tom Cobley and all.

 

Oh and yes you can use Treescapes  OR  Rev X with MSE. Just save the Texture folder(s) from your Horizon install and add to the relevant MSE folder alongside the Scenery folder.

[rob16584 42]

Quick update:

I think the CTDs are too do with orbx global running in hybrid mode. I tried another two flights tonight with global in hybrid mode and FSX crashed each time. I set the FTX region to North America and then flew over MSE England for about 30-40mins without any problems

Hardly a conclusive test but a step in the right direction

[brett 2,284]

Makes sense Rob. Takes my poor laptop a long time to load a flight in Hybrid mode, so it is definitely putting a strain on things.

[britfrog 180]

excuse my hignorance but surely you should be running ftx in default mode when using photoscenery?

 

 

As others have commented, it looks very flat most unlike the UK well except for East Anglia

 

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

Love the Yorkshire flight. I used to live in Leeds,( my ex still does at Garforth) and my Daughter is in Wakefield. When I first moved up there I worked a s a security guard at Ferrybridge power station! Later I worked for a construction firm and one summer we were rebuilding part of the A1 right alongside the same power station! It was not long after that that I started working for Yorkshire Rider buses as a driver. Gods own county is a wonderful place! Thanks for the memories!

[UKJim 502]

People without GenX will find this great value for some photo scenery - People with GenX will probably give this a miss as it is too similar to justify another spend. 

 

Photoscenery and FTX scenery are different products; you would not compare how a ferrari goes round a track to a lorry going round a track - same kind of thing - the FTX products are for people that want to see nice buildings and landscape whereas the photoscenery is for people wanting to follow roads and fly over their houses etc etc but don't care that there is no autogen.

At the end of the day it comes down to personal preference when choosing photoscenery and FTX products - no right or wrong answers.

[PCAviator 30]

Thanks for the contributions. The buildings in the screenshots are default FSX hand-placed objects. Their placement by Microsoft is not as accurate as the placement of photoscenery, so they are going to appear a little off. Remember than MSE does not add, modify or place any 3D objects. It is photoreal ground texture replacements only. 

 

I've never had a crash with MSE in England or any other area, so I am doubting that is the cause. I have heard reports of VAS issues if you have 30-40+ MSE areas active in the scenery library. The simple fix is to just untick the scenery library layers for those areas you are not going to fly in. That solves that issue.

 

One of the advantages of photoscenery like MSE is that it is generally compatible with most other add-ons. So things like Treescapes, Chris Bell's Night Environment and any future autogen products that come out covering autogen buildings will more than likely work straight out of the box (or download) with MSE England and Wales (and other titles) - but obviously these extra add-ons will be at additional cost. Nonetheless, MSE and other photoreal scenery products are generally much more compatible with other add-ons (except of course, over photoreal scenery covering the exact same area - ala GenX for the UK).

 

[MyPC8MyBrain 273]

when done right; i just love autogen and object laid over photoreal

i think it’s the ultimate when it comes to our sim

this directly ties to the emersion sensation we get

the future with 64bit platforms will be very kind to "todays" so called "heavy" scenery

i think non photoreal scenery base; will be a thing of the past very soon

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

the future with 64bit platforms will be very kind to "todays" so called "heavy" scenery

i think non photoreal scenery base; will be a thing of the past very soon

 

I hope they get it right soon, hopefully then the Americans who design this stuff will stop putting skyscrapers in the middle of the English countryside and houses right down to the waters edge all along the coast! My airfield of choice, Goodwood, is surrounded by beautiful coutryside at the foot of the South Downs. Default FS9 scenery has it surrounded by tall buildings! In actual fact the nearest town is Chichester a couple of miles away to the West and the nearest big structure is the very low level Rolls Royce car factory which is just to the South East and blended in with the surrounding countryside. Ford Airfield to the East of there is also in open country with just a small village nearby. Again the default FS has it surrounded by tall buildings. although disused the airfield is kept clear and is set in agricultural farmland for the most part. I added an a/m Ford Airfield scenery but it still did not remove the default structures, It had runways running through houses and trees etc! Selsey Peninsular is just a small spur in FS whereas in actual fact it covers a huge area and is a major feature of this part of the coast. I just wish the developers would at least visit the country they purport to model and find out what it's REALLY like! Sadly a lot of Americans still seem to think that England is the capital city of Scotland etc! I find this lack of knowledge laughable at times, Not so long ago a book I was reading had a Hunt following a pack of hounds.......through Camberwell! (One of the sh*ttiest parts of South London in fact) but the author thought it was rolling countryside! I binned the book!