Horizon Photo Scenery

[Sabre 28]

Hmm, you may some need fine tuning of your graphics, for a start you only have 1920x1080x16 selected it should be set to 1920x1080x32 try that first :001_th_smiles89:

I have 1920x1080x32 on my desktop but don't get that option in game!! Strange

Err Schoolboy error on my behalf - changed now :blush:

Still not absolutely convinced I'm getting the best out of this scenery in terms of clarity and colour even after changing the above setting. I'm now wondering if I need to make some changes to my system rather than software as the software is set up as recommended.

Is there an easy way to do some comparative screenshots with someone else's set up? The level of detail and depth of colour in other members screenshots seems better than mine somehow.

[mutley 4,498]

I am happy to do a comparative shot once I get my V3 update, it have to be in the Vol.1 area though.

[Sabre 28]

I am happy to do a comparative shot once I get my V3 update, it have to be in the Vol.1 area though.

Thanks Joe that would be great. I have volume 1 also so just let me know when your disc arrives.

[mutley 4,498]

Will do

[GabethePilot 1]

Horizon has abeen a disaster ever since it began. The updates and patches over the years have been... somewhat erm... "amusing" to say the least.

But, it is a decent product since they did the amazing water masks.

Unfortunately, you can't use it all the time for obvious reason - or at least one wouldn't wish to - and the night lighting as at version 2, was pretty dire as well. So, that does smake it pretty expensive.

Overall though, especially together with the UK2000 airfields that are are custom made for it, it is a definite purchase... funds allowing !

Is there any improvemnt in the night lighting with version 3 ?

[mutley 4,498]

I don't think so Gabe but then I am still awaiting my discs.

The V3 has a lot of higher res cities and bug fixes, the rest, I understand, is unchanged.

[PanzerFodder 0]

The UK2000 airfields are very good :001_th_smiles89:

I downloaded the demo's to test and they work great on my "Justflight VFR Real Scenery" which is handy because justflight don't seem to make any add-ons for their stuff as far as I can see?.

Cheer's...Graham...

[mutley 4,498]

Hi Graham,

There are a few specific Real Scenery downloads namely:

Scenery Areas

London

Birmingham, Coventry & Wolverhampton

Isle of Wight

Cardiff

Leeds Bradford

Real Scenery Airfields

Denham

White Waltham

I must admit though to not having seen anything new for over a year now

Cheers

Joe

[GabethePilot 1]

I quite like the JF Real Scenery as well. It is a little 'flatter' and 'greener' looking, but makes a nice change to the hard, 'colourified' GenX.

If I could afford both, I'd probably have them both, and switch between them.

Interestingly, I was looking up at Snowdonia across the Menai Straits a good few months ago, and it looked bang on the Genx rendition.

It was actually October time. So, the Wales area at least appeared to be done in the Autumn. Real Scenery looks much more "summery" imo... and the night lighting is MUCH better. So, the choice is yours. Pros and Cons... but they both have a different feel to them.

What is confusing me, is why Horizon have started bringing out Ireland VFR, before they have finished Scotland. From what I can tell, they haven't finished the Scottish mainland yet ! ?

And, the small island areas, are VERY small for £30 a pop. Hmmm... don't think I'll be putting those on the list.

[mutley 4,498]

The Ireland VFR is next on the list, it comes from a different source, Ordnance Survey and it is said to be a lot more up to date and more detailed than the Getmapping data they have been using for the UK.

There's no Northern Ireland yet, the clouds haven't parted for long enough to get a decent shot!

[GabethePilot 1]

Just noticed that the Scottish isles, are all rendered at 60cm texture res. So, I guess, it may be worth a little more on an area per £ basis... !

[mutley 4,498]

I wasn't over impressed with the Western Isles, a bit bland. Brian quite liked the Orkneys and Shetlands

[Sabre 28]

I wasn't over impressed with the Western Isles, a bit bland.

I think that's more to do with the Isles themselves, maybe a case where the realism is too real :icon_yikes:

[PanzerFodder 0]

Here's a couple of shot of where my justflight VFR meets the Default FSX (coz I don't have all the volumes yet) must say the JF Real looks a bit washed out here, and it's raining! but notice how the road matches up at the join, thats pretty good I thought .

Think that the JF Real looks Best over Wales :001_th_smiles89:, the other parts of the country are nice, but Wales is the best IMO, as long as it's on a Summers day, as Gabethepilot has already pointed out.

BTW: the first two shots were taken somewhere just west of London

Look closely at the Default FSX scenery, I can see at least three villages that look identical in shape and size from this height, reminds me of a patterned wall paper.

Just popped this shot in, Sabre has already seen it, but it's JF Real with the UK2000 airfields demo at Welshpool, look's good to me, so I'll more than likely buy these airfields at some point in the future

Cheer's...Graham...

PS: Thanks for the links Joe, , I had seen those before, but getting a set or airfields like the UK2000 stuff looks like your getting more "bang for your buck" to be honest .

[Tim_A 997]

I think Ireland came first because the photography was available first.

I suspect the reason why Norn Iron is missing is that the photos have to come from GetMapping, rather than OSI.

[ddavid 149]

If you want Welshpool, then don't forget Earth SImulations' Shawbury Fields:

And the Horizon photo-scenery is far more colourful than JF Real, nes pas?!?

Cheers - Dai.

[mutley 4,498]

That is a superb shot Dai, your system is working really well :001_th_smiles89:

[PanzerFodder 0]

Now! That does look impressive, thanks for posting this one, Dai.

Will have a look at their website in a minute to see if they will send any stuff out to Canada

Cheer's...Graham...

Noob question now, that has probably been asked a 1000 times before.

In the FSX Scenery Library, what is the best way to arrange/stack these add-ons?

I have my basic photo scenery and the mesh below my airfields add-ons, is this the correct way to do it?

[mutley 4,498]

That's the way I would do it Graham, however, I would only change the levels if I was getting strange effects from the scenery.

[PanzerFodder 0]

That's the way I would do it Graham, however, I would only change the levels if I was getting strange effects from the scenery.

Thanks Joe.

I was just wondering if I was doing something wrong, as the free JF download of RAF Coningsby http://www.justflight.com/product.asp?pid=279 just will not work on my system, if you want to take off from there or look at it from the air, the runway is "FLASHING" on and off badly? not sure what I could do to fix it so I deleted it!, all the other freeware at justflight works fine though, anyone have any ideas of what the problem may be?

Cheer's...Graham...

[mutley 4,498]

Sounds as though the textures are not optimised for FSX SP2? You could always log a tech support issue, they may have an idea.

[Sabre 28]

How does Shawbury Fields match up with the VFR Airfields etc?

[ddavid 149]

Thanks for the kind comments - just a screen shot taken while doing the Shawbury Fields Review - link.

@ Graham - Shawbury is a <400 Mb download, so not too bad.

@ Graeme - the airfields in Shawbury are complete in themselves - I think the 'excludes' will take care of other, lower priority scenery.

I haven't got shares in Earth Simulations (Not yet! -Ed), but Shawbury is their best offering to date - with the exception of Treescapes, which is an absolute must if you've got either of the U.K. photo-scenery add-ons.

Cheers - Dai.

[Tim_A 997]

@Panzer: Do you have any other Conningsby scenery that might be interfering (e.g UK2000 VFR Airfields)? When you get stuff flashing it's often because two different things are fighting to be seen in the same place.

As regards the ordering of things in the library, in general, the ordering is pretty natural: Things higher up in the list will display over the top of things lower down. But there are exceptions...

* Mesh. Can be anywhere in the list. The highest resolution is always used, regardless of its position in the list.

* Photo scenery will always display over landclass scenery. If you have multiple photo sceneries (or multiple landclasses), the highest wins.

[GabethePilot 1]

That's the way I would do it Graham, however, I would only change the levels if I was getting strange effects from the scenery.

Thanks Joe.

I was just wondering if I was doing something wrong, as the free JF download of RAF Coningsby http://www.justflight.com/product.asp?pid=279 just will not work on my system, if you want to take off from there or look at it from the air, the runway is "FLASHING" on and off badly? not sure what I could do to fix it so I deleted it!, all the other freeware at justflight works fine though, anyone have any ideas of what the problem may be?

Cheer's...Graham...

I get this with a few addon sceneries. I think it's down to the fact that they use a textured overlay for the runways and aprons. If it's not the exact elevation... it can cause issues.

I've never seen a developer "fix" the issue... as usual it appears that not everyone suffers with it.

If you disable the apron/runway bgls, you will notice that it goes away. You could then create your own default runway surfaces using ADE or some other proprietary airport design tool. It depends how much its bothering you.

I usually find that the severity of the moving "flickery-shadow" on front of your viewpoint, depends on the angle you are viewing it from. It is usually worse from the follow view than in the cockpit for example. Again, this supports the theory that it is an elevation issue, or at least a conflict between the usual SDK way of creating surfaces, and the methods employed by developers to create photo-real surfaces!