Andy Martin 0 Posted September 4, 2014 Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 Hi, im new and wondered what anyone can recomend as the best add on scenery for europe, especially the uk to include airfields and airports ? Is there a fsx equivalent of the good old British airports fs2004 series? The ORBX europe looks really good, is this the best current product on the market? Are there any issues with frame rates etc with it? Any help and advice much appreciated Regards Andy Link to post Share on other sites
hifly 925 Posted September 4, 2014 Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 Andy, I have Orbx FTX England and Scotland but they only have a few GA airfields and Southampton Airport EGHI. There is little or no effect on frame rates. UK2000 do some excellent major UK airports, static ac and some good animations with very little impact on fps. Both have free trials too. Just wait for the photoscenery fans to chime in. Link to post Share on other sites
britfrog 180 Posted September 4, 2014 Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 the best photoscenery is made by generation X and is available at a special price from https://earthsimulations.com/ earth sim also does an excellent guernsey , alderney and isle of man, and is now starting to make very high definition UK uk 2000 stuff fits seamlessly into photoscenery which also has less fps hit than ftx stuff so you pays ya money and takes ya choice it all depends if you are a low and slow person or a tubeliner person the ftx airports of Damyns hall, Popham, Elstree, stapleford, Old Warden are all excellent but only work fully with ftx england unless you are prepared to get your hands dirty there is also a lot of free stuff available here: http://www.freewarescenery.com Link to post Share on other sites
Christopher Low 63 Posted September 4, 2014 Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 Andy, The PlayHorizon photoscenery is currently the best available for the UK, and it covers England, Wales, Scotland, the Western Isles (Outer Hebrides), and Orkneys & Shetland Isles. In addition, the UK2000 VFR Airfields series adds nearly 250 detailed airfields to England and Wales, and they blend seamlessly with the PlayHorizon photoscenery. I am rather proud to say that I was actively involved with version 2 of VFR Airfields Volume 1, and this was released late last year. I particularly enjoyed upgrading EGHL Lasham for version 2. I used to visit that airfield with my parents and brother when I lived in Alton, Hampshire as a child, and I wanted to make it look a lot more "alive". That was just one of 8 or 9 airfields that I upgraded for the project in my spare time. Hopefully, I will be able to contribute to version 2 of VFR Airfields Volume 2 next year Link to post Share on other sites
britfrog 180 Posted September 4, 2014 Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 used to take my kids to lasham to watch the gliders and get a pint or three in the royal oak back in the early 80's and give swmbo the afternoon off. Happy days sorry i digress---- Link to post Share on other sites
Andy Martin 0 Posted September 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 Thanks for the info guys, im interested more in VFR flying but doesnt the photo type scenery blur when you get below a certain height? I do prefer the look of the ORBX scenery but their website is a bit naughty then as it states that all major and many minor airports are upgraded? This contrast with what hifly has said in his post?? Would the uk2000 airfield series work with the ORBX scenery?? Andy Link to post Share on other sites
britfrog 180 Posted September 4, 2014 Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 yes photoscenery is best seen at 2-3000 feet but it all depends on what you want to fly around an imaginary world (FTX) or a real world it is very difficult to combine the two, so you have to choose one or the other. I have both, on 2 separate drives 1 for vfr stuff the other drive is for europe and airliners so depending on mood, i choose the way that i want to fly and that dictates which drive I use. Link to post Share on other sites
hifly 925 Posted September 4, 2014 Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 Andy, orbx works well with UK2000 and as Chris says they also do VFR airfields. Orbix do a lot of GA airfields but mostly in the USA and Oz. As a tube flyer accurate scenery is not my top priority and I'm sure the GA folk here will point you in the right direction. Link to post Share on other sites
brett 2,316 Posted September 4, 2014 Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 It all depends on your personal preference Andy. You will find advocates on all sides when it comes to scenery and it all depends of what has met there needs. I would recommend trying ORBX's free trial downloads first and also try some freeware photoscenery. This can be an expensive process if you start getting any of the scenery types so look through as many reviews for screenshots and videos of ORBX, Megascenery Earth, GEX/UTX and the many other offerings out there. I like the ORBX/FTX scenery, I have the FTXGlobal textures and FTXVectors for the world and the England, Scotland, Wales regions along with a few regions in the PNW. When I look out the window I see a rich and colorful representation of mountains, cities, towns, roads, rivers and railroad at any altitude. Most airports have been updated with airports that look a-hell-of-a lot better than default so when I land I feel like it's an actual airport. I have also purchased other detailed airports from ORBX that are a real treat. My type of flying is low and slow, this makes their products perfect for me. I can fly anywhere in the world and have a better than default look. I find taking the time to make FSX a beautiful place to fly and land half the fun of this great hobby. Take your time and you will be rewarded with a satisfying world to fly through. Link to post Share on other sites
Andy Martin 0 Posted September 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 Thanks guys, i like the sound of ORBX combined with uk2000 for the airports and airfields so will give that a go. Thanks again Link to post Share on other sites
Christopher Low 63 Posted September 4, 2014 Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 By the way, it's worth pointing out that all of the ORBx English airfields released to date work perfectly with PlayHorizon photoscenery with only minor tweaks. Link to post Share on other sites
hifly 925 Posted September 4, 2014 Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 Thanks guys, i like the sound of ORBX combined with uk2000 for the airports and airfields so will give that a go. Thanks again Try their demos first Andy. Link to post Share on other sites
adrians69 159 Posted September 5, 2014 Report Share Posted September 5, 2014 Thanks for the info guys, im interested more in VFR flying but doesnt the photo type scenery blur when you get below a certain height? I do prefer the look of the ORBX scenery but their website is a bit naughty then as it states that all major and many minor airports are upgraded? This contrast with what hifly has said in his post?? Would the uk2000 airfield series work with the ORBX scenery?? Andy Actually Andy, most of the airports in the UK are upgraded with FTX England. The larger ones not as much but smaller airfields definitely improve. UK 2000 airports work very well with ORBx also for the bigger airports. Adrian Link to post Share on other sites
MyPC8MyBrain 273 Posted September 5, 2014 Report Share Posted September 5, 2014 I’m sorry for this rant in advance but... my cornea gets scratched every time i read this threads subject Link to post Share on other sites
hifly 925 Posted September 5, 2014 Report Share Posted September 5, 2014 Andy, you might also look at Night Environment UK. GAs can navigate by it. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Andy Martin 0 Posted September 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2014 Now this is weird, ive downloaded a uk2000 airfield and it doesnt seem to work at all well with the default fsx scenery. Part of the airfield looks like photographic scenery, part of it doesnt, there are parts of taxiways missing, my default aircraft is buried half in the ground , as are some static aircraft! What have i done?? And adding to that, when i now start fsx it says ' the terrain cfg file is missing or damaged. fsx will run but some terrain may not display correctly. please reinstall fsx to restore or repair file' So where has my terrain cfg file gone? Help much appreciated! Thanks Andy ok, so ive reinstalled fsx and there is now a terrain cfg file! And the free download trial from uk2000 vfr airfields work really well so all seems good(at the moment)! Ive read on some forums that there can be real problems uninstalling ORBX products if you no longer want them, is this correct? Cheers Andy Link to post Share on other sites
Andy Martin 0 Posted September 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2014 Would UTX and GEX together be a better bet than Orbx ftx england? And would uk2000 airfields work with those? The advantage of course is UTX and GEX cover all of Europe not just England. The problems of FTX upon possible uninstalling is putting me off that product. Regards Andy Link to post Share on other sites
Christopher Low 63 Posted September 6, 2014 Report Share Posted September 6, 2014 Andy, ORBx products do not come with uninstallers. I know....your guess is as good as mine as to why this is the case, particularly as they are only ever designed to work with other ORBx products. However, there is a thread on the ORBx forum that provides instructions as to what to do if you want to remove ORBx software from your PC. Link to post Share on other sites
Andy Martin 0 Posted September 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2014 The weirdest thing is now going on with my fsx and i would really appreciate some help with this guys. Ive downloaded some uk2000 extreme airports and 2 of their vfr airfield collections. All installed into fsx fine, the scenery files were added into the scenery library automatically, and on starting fsx all appeared fine. Upon going back into fsx and checking the scenery library all these add ons have now disappeared from the library! Ive now had to add them again. This has now happened 3 or 4 times, it just seems bizarre. Ive found the scenery cfg file in my c drive>program data >fsx and 2 of them have now disappeared from that! Why should add on scenery just disappear from my scenery cfg? So i reinstalled them and the whole disappearing act has happened again. Im stumped now and any help would be much much appreciated Regards Andy Link to post Share on other sites
Christopher Low 63 Posted September 7, 2014 Report Share Posted September 7, 2014 That sounds extremely strange, Andy. I am not really sure how I can help Link to post Share on other sites
brett 2,316 Posted September 7, 2014 Report Share Posted September 7, 2014 This is a new one on me too! Have you tried using a Scenery Config Editor to see if there is a problem in your system? I use the one Here. Try it out and see if it finds any errors that might be messing things up before installing your new addons. btw- ORBX vs, GEX Link to post Share on other sites
Andy Martin 0 Posted September 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2014 It all seems to be ok now after reinstalling the add ons. Im thinking maybe it was my bullguard anti virus?? Nothing else i can think of that would make it go haywire the way it did!? Link to post Share on other sites
stu7708 244 Posted September 11, 2014 Report Share Posted September 11, 2014 Would UTX and GEX together be a better bet than Orbx ftx england? And would uk2000 airfields work with those? The advantage of course is UTX and GEX cover all of Europe not just England. The problems of FTX upon possible uninstalling is putting me off that product. Regards Andy In my book getting FTX Global, FTX Global Vectors and FTX Global openLC Europe would be a better way to go than UTX/GEX. It will cost you a fair amount more, but you get FTX textures over the whole world, Vector data for roads, rivers, coastlines etc over the whole world and a great land class for Europe. I can't say anything regarding how these products look over the UK though since I have the full fat FTX region for that. As for FTX England it works fine for me as long as I avoid flying over London.. as soon as I stray to close to the city I end up with OOM errors and slow loading, blurred textures Link to post Share on other sites
brett 2,316 Posted September 11, 2014 Report Share Posted September 11, 2014 As for FTX England it works fine for me as long as I avoid flying over London.. as soon as I stray to close to the city I end up with OOM errors and slow loading, blurred textures Me too! It's the only place that gets me every time. I lower my scenery setting before I get there and then change it back when past it, FSX at it's finest. Link to post Share on other sites
hifly 925 Posted September 11, 2014 Report Share Posted September 11, 2014 London does that for me RW, spend too much time there I get OOM, Oh Old Me, slow getting anywhere and eventually blurred vision. Love it for a quick visit though. Seriously Andy, FTX and UK airports work fine on my modest rig. Link to post Share on other sites
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