FSX Steam Edition - Whats the best photo realistic scenery?

[itye1970]

I just got FSX steam edition, can anyone advise which photorealistic scenery scenery packs are compatible with FSX Steam edition.

 

Is there a world scenery pack available from somewhere rather than having to download various regions

 

IF not which European scenery is the most realistic

 

Thanks in advance

[evm]

The term "photorealistic scenery" has a special meaning in all things FSX. It is defined as a scenery package consisting of actual aerial photographs that get stretched over the underlying mesh in the simulator. As those are made from photographs they are always realistic by definition. But they are often lacking in other elements, like autogen houses and trees (= you only get the flat photograph on the ground, and no trees or cities). Depends on the developer.

 

If this is really what you mean, here are the anwsers to your questions:

 

- Is there a global photorealistic package: no. The amount of data would be huge, several terabyte worth. Even the photoreal regions are massive chunks of data, so make sure you have the disk space ready for them.

 

- Which ones are compatible with SE: to my best knowledge all of them are.

 

-The most realistic: well, they all are. They just vary in quality, like photo resolution and coloring. Basically, the amount of work that the developers put into this is not always the same, so some of them look pretty good (and even have autogen) and some look really terrible.

 

- Not every region of the planet is available in photoreal. Most of the time you need a bit of luck even finding the major landmasses covered, or even your own country.

 

Always look around if freeware packages are available before you buy something.

 

For example, to cover Europe you would need:

- NL 2000 and Belgium VFR (freeware)

- Denmark VFR from Simmarket

- There is an incomplete freeware package for Norway

- VFR Germany or MegaSceneryEarth Germany (they have the same data)

- Horizon VFR scenery for Great Britain

- MegaSceneryEarth for Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Ireland and whatever else is available

- There is a good freeware photoreal for Spain

- FranceVFR packages for France (these are the best of the best IMHO)

- ... and this is pretty much it for Europe (and already about 400 Gigabyte worth of data). But more photoreal is coming to the market all the time, or is getting released as freeware.

 

Best to get really good mesh products to go with this, as photoreal looks best when the elevation model is accurate (FS Global Ultimate, FSGenesis, NEXTmesh). And for the sceneries where there are no houses and trees, maybe an autogen addon (RevolutionX, OpenVFR, etc.)

[itye1970]

great thanks for your answer

[evm]

Recently there was a thread about scenery in general and how all of this works. Might be of interest to you.

 

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?291993-Comprehensive-scenery-guide-tutorial

 

As for compatibility: in general, every FSX scenery is also compatible with SE (from the scenery perspective they are the same sim, just a different delivery method). The only hiccup can happen with the installation procedure in some cases (like dual installs of SE and boxed).

[annber]

Nuitkati has provided a great answer to your question, and has also provided you with a link to a tutorial for photoreal scenery, which is how I started. The best photoreal scenery out there is the one you create, just follow that excellent tutorial and you will be on your way.:)

[ScatterbrainKid]

I use VFR Generation X Wales and Southern England photoscenery and it's fine, here's a screenshot of my Tiger Moth over Henley-on-Thames.

Like all photoscenery it gets blurry at low altitudes and the buildings are 2D pancake flat, but if you stay above about 1000 ft like this it looks fine and the buildings have the illusion of being 3D. Flying over big cities like London many buildings are true 3D.

You do get hills and mountains in photoscenery.

One more thing, I use the 'Treescapes' program which adds 3D trees to photoscenery like in the picture-

 

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/FSX-TMothb.gif

[evm]

Me too, me too! ;)

 

The almost unnoticable difference between default scenery and a little payware (FranceVFR NextMesh Europe 4,75m and Rhone-Alpes HD). OK, neither the Blue Angel nor the Milviz T-38 is realistic in this location. Oh, and you should probably not buy this particular mesh product, FranceVFR have a new outfit (FSMesh) just for mesh with greater coverage.