Best way to improve FSX scenery?

I am looking for an add on which can improve textures/scenery of fsx. I don't want anything too expensive but just something that would improve the overall look of the FSX Scenery. Many thanks for any help! :)

FTX Global and Vector with other FTX environment add ons. I'm getting mine this weekend. Hopefully it works with Steam and hope it runs smooth. I'm currently using the default scenery right now, but I'm hoping it will make flying a lot better once I get it.

I am looking for an add on which can improve textures/scenery of fsx. I don't want anything too expensive but just something that would improve the overall look of the FSX Scenery. Many thanks for any help! :)

 

FreeMesh is free, er, mesh. That will certainly improve things.

FTX Global and Vector with other FTX environment add ons. I'm getting mine this weekend. Hopefully it works with Steam and hope it runs smooth. I'm currently using the default scenery right now, but I'm hoping it will make flying a lot better once I get it.

 

Uh....just a quick little tip....All of the ORBX scenery items are great stuff and make things look way better. But, they will not make things run smoother. If your default scenery isn't running smooth, then adjustments need to be made.

The first thing to realise is that there are TWO main type of scenery improvements to consider - Terrain and Ground. Terrain Mesh ™ type products cover the dips and bumps (i.e. mountains, hills valleys etc) whilst Ground Mesh (GM) type products cover the ground as viewed from the air (Cities/villages, roads, rivers etc).

 

It should be noted that in the case of TM it only replaces how the terrain looks - it does not remove default FSX objects like buildings, roads, rivers etc. In the case of GM some products will replace FSX objects entirely whilst others may only correct the appearance of the ground features such as roads, rivers etc but leave the buildings.

 

The second thing is that your choice of addon must be best dictated by your 'flying' preferences - eg high and fast (airliners etc) or low and slow (small props etc).

 

The third thing, and probably the most important, is you must take into consideration your rig specs. Some of the TM/GM stuff can be very hungry WRT to CPU/RAM/Disk Space requirements

 

TM usually can be brought in packages that cover small areas, to large areas and even some that cover the majority of the world in a single package. They also come in various LOD (size) settings - basically the LOD refers to how sharp it will look so, for example, an item with a LOD of 19M will look better than one with a LOD of 76M.

 

For TM I use FSGenesis World Edition (see http://www.fsgenesis.com/world-terrain-mesh-for-fsx as I tend to fly high and fast - its cheap, does improve the way FSX looks and for the few occasions I fly low (and not so slow in a mil jet) it still looks good enough for me.

 

Like TM, GM can also be brought in packages that cover small areas or larger areas. They can be simple generic replacements fro the default FSX textures or, especially with the smaller area packages, detailed 'real life' textures that are more representative of the types of buildings, roads etc found in the area covered. The ultimate GM is 'photorealistic' products that display an exact replica of the area at the time the image was taken - so if yo got the product for your area you would be able to find your house, school, place of work etc in the exact position it is in real life. The only downside to photorealistic scenery is that the buildings are just 3d images and below 1500ft or so appear flat.

 

Again, as I mainly fly high and fast, for GM I use Ground Environment X (see http://gex.flight1.net/. I have the full set and, as with my TM product, it does for me.

 

There are better (and more expensive) TM/GM products out there than what I use - Orbx FTX seems very good - see https://www.fullterrain.com/.

 

Also worth looking at is some of the freeware stuff out there - have a look at http://www.freewarescenery.com/fsx.html. EDIT - When you view the site most of the country entries are split into two sections - the top section mainly has airports and the bottom sections has non airport stuff like TM/GM - EDIT ENDMost of the freeware stuff covers small areas but there are some out there that cover whole regions. It may be worth downloading and installing some to see what suits your needs best, especially when it comes to GM and the texture Vs photorealistic options

If you want to see your house, your street, the pub, the chip shop, the school bike shed where you kissed Betty Taylor etc, then photoreal scenery is the only way to go because it's a photo of the ground and everything is bound to be on it, but the buildings are flat 2D so you have stay above 1000 feet to maintain the illusion of 3D.

If scenery doesn't say 'photoreal' on the box you'll soon notice things are missing or are in the wrong places.

Brian,

 

Very nice synopsis!

 

One follow-up on Brian's comments. The big area of concern with your "Rig," IMHO is the native clock speed of your CPU and RAM! Modern games are based upon high use of the Graphics Processing Unit. FSX and all its' copiers are designed for a very fast Central Processing Unit. Or just the opposite of what most people today call a "Gaming Computer."

 

If your CPU isn't fast enough, there is little if anything you can do to keep your frame rates up and avoid memory errors with complicated scenery and/or aircraft. ;)

 

BTW: Speaking of frame rates, don't get all tore up and go on a Wild Goose Chase for hugely fast frame rates. That's a "brag" factor, as in "My car will do 200MPH!"

 

If your view isn't flickering to your eye, you don't need more frame rate than that. In fact many people report great success locking their frame rate at about 30FPS top speed.

Thanks for all the help everyone, very useful. What do you think of the VFR photographic Scenery generation X. Any good? With photoreal what does the scenery look like on take off and landings, is it just completely flat? Thanks for the help :)

With photoreal what does the scenery look like on take off and landings, is it just completely flat? Thanks for the help :)

 

With some photoreal airport scenery buildings, we are talking pancakes! I have a photoreal addon for KSAN and it all looks perfectly fine for takeoff and landing. I also have an addon for Edwards Airforce Base and if you taxi up to some of the buildings they look like colored puddles on the ground.