Are there any textures I can get that will allow better visual navigation?

[IcommitedAviation]

Hello all! First time poster here!

 

I used to fly GA a number of years ago until the cost became too much for me, so as you can imagine that is also what I enjoy flying in simland. As many of you probably know, the first sort of navigation taught to student pilots is basically looking out the window and finding obvious landmarks you can locate on your aeronautical chart. I would really like to be able to do that more effectively in FS9, but as is it is sort of a mess.

 

[rant-you can safely skip this paragraph] For example, there is a river that runs through my area which is quite visible from the air and is a well known feature for local pilots. However in FS9, so far as I can tell, it is non-existant. There are a couple interstates that run through the area and pass through valleys and gaps in the mountains, while in FS9 they run haphazardly up along the sides of mountains and generally just don't seem to be where they are supposed to. Smaller but still obvious roads listed on the sectional are missing or out of place, and while there seems to have been an attempt at showing right-of-ways with power pylons, they are nothing near as visible and useful for navigation as they are in real life. [/rant]

 

I have added better meshs, a texture pack, and better sky (if anyone can recommend a good tree gen add-on that would be a great bonus actually, I was thinking to get FengZ's but can't seem to find where to download it) but none of these have fixed the "map" itself with roads in the wrong place, rivers missing, etc.

 

Does anyone have suggestions about where I might get textures that improve visual navigation in FS9? Thanks!

[PhantomTweak]

Have tou TRIED looking in the library for the search term TREE? It has any number of entries...

About the only thing you can do for "accurate" visual info is PhotoReal scenery addons for the area you want, if you can find them. Pretty good for GA at 1000', lousy for commercial at 35,000'.

About the best, I think, you can find is the OrbX scenery files for different areas. It's payware though, that I avoid like the plague. I may be wrong on that, though. There may well be better out there...

I'm so broke I can't even pay attention any more.

Pat☺

[Johan_Dees]

Ultimate terrain will help with this. Textures not, only if they are made for the area.

With UT you have more accurate coastlines, roads and rivers for visuals. It helps a lot.

Scenery can help also, look in the library for your area.

[lmhariano]

Ultimate Terrain if your flying is in the US, Canada or Europe. OSM World if your flying is in Western Europe (I guess same coverage as of UT) and South America.

[scottb613]

Hi...

 

You probably want some FS Genesis Mesh to give accurate representations of the hills and mountains if you're navigating by pilotage... While most real pilots still use some form of pilotage to check their positions - today - moving map technology in the cockpit is the norm and not the exception... RXP makes a beautiful GNS430W and GNS530W - pretty much a 100% accurate representation of the real one (the official Garmin Trainer is the backend engine that drives it) - if you get around to it...

 

Enjoy...

 

Regards,

Scott

[IcommitedAviation]

@PhantomTweak

 

Well, I had searched it for FengZ. haha I was looking for recommendations really, since that one was recommended as a really good one. And as I perhaps should have mentioned I am new to the idea that you can put add-ons on FS9 (no idea why I didn't think of that earlier) so I am still sort of getting it all figured out.

 

@Johan_Dees and Imhariano Ultimate Terrain looks fantastic actually! Downloading it now!

 

@scottb613 FSGenesis looks promising, and the GPS suggestions look good too. You have made me curious, since it has been about 10 years since I flew GA. I usually rented the cheap bang up C-172 trainer with "personality" since the IFR trainer with GPS was $30 more an hour. Have they become standard on the low end planes as well?

[scottb613]

Hi...

 

Well - due to the cost (around 13K to get one installed) - a GNS430W is still not in every plane - but - just about every pilot you see today has some type of Apple device in the cockpit... The iPad offers a great screen, easy data entry, with built in moving map GPS - most people use one of three apps on the iPad: ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot, or WingX... I've used both ForeFlight and Garmin - lately I've been preferring the Garmin app... Officially - the iPad's GPS position can't be used for navigation - only situational awareness - but it's completely accurate... These apps also hold all your Sectionals, TAC's, and Approach Plates - hardly anyone uses paper anymore... With an add-on device - they also send and receive ADS-B which gives you weather/traffic and a backup source of an attitude indicator that could be used in an emergency... If you haven't kept up - it's truly amazing what an iPad can do for you in the cockpit...

 

Sure beats how I started with Loran C and no moving map - although the C172's I trained in did have GNS430's - no WAAS...

 

FS9 is not really the sim of choice around here due to its age - but - to a dedicated few - it does everything we need and then some - I still use it all the time and I'm using it to train for my instrument rating...

 

Just shout if anymore questions come up...

;)

 

Regards,

Scott

[scottb613]

Hi...

 

One more thought while getting your feet wet to save a few bucks...

 

Here are a couple files that turn the default C172 into a nicely done little aircraft... These are free...

 

I posted this a while ago:

 

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?256690-What-s-the-real-Archer-II-like&p=1725558#post1725558

 

Regards,

Scott

[PhantomTweak]

I found it!

Gerrish Grey's Trees v3 is THE tree library for FS9. It may be found by following THIS LINK. It's about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way down the page.

It is THE tree library for FS9. It's listed as being for FS2002, but it works perfectly in FS9 as well. I use it to the exclusion of all else, and it's strongly recommended by things like NovaGold, EZ Scenery and many others, as well as being required by a number of add-on sceneries.

It's listed in a couple scenery add-on's as being in the library here, but it seems to have disappeared, so Simviation was the only place I could find it. It's not even in Avsim any more for some reason. I just downloaded it from the link I gave though, so I know it's a valid link still.

I also recommend NovaGold and EXScenery libraries to add also, although they aren't REQUIRED. And any scenery object library for either of those, of course. They don't affect the road placements, highway directions, or things like that, but they do make most of the airports and so on look a lot nicer, in my opinion. As well as houses, hotels, stores, you name it, off airpoert grounds. Do they put them in the same place they are in the real world? No, but they sure look nicer wherever they ARE placed :D

It's getting hard to find, but look down the page a bit that I linked and you will have it :D

Pat☺

[Roger Wensley]

UT, and then set your virtual cockpit view to 50% magnification so that you still have to search out that grass field that you couldn't find last time. Just like real life, hidden in plain view. UT turned FS9 from a game into a simulation, and it allowed me to fly my qualification cross country in FS9 before I did it for real.

[Qballbandit]

One note about UT, that I found out after purchasing it, few weeks back -

If you fly during the day, then leave the options unchecked in the GUI for lights (2 on the left side of the GUI). This will keep your autogen in tact.

When flying at night, make sure you re-check those options first. Autogen is less noticeable and important at night vs. day, and you definately want the lights for night flying.

Sorry, not in front of my gaming rig, so can't give you the exact options, but I can tomorrow if this is rather vague to you after looking at it for yourself.

 

Neil