X-Plane Scenery vs Real World

I did a short flight from Manchester (EGCC) to Leeds Bradford (EGNM), I used the 'FS Flight Control' program because that has a real world Satellite map view.

I let the AI take the Basler so I could watch the scenery, I had the Flight Control program open and compared the XP scenery to the real world, I was surprised to see how (near) accurate it is.

I also fly FSX using ORBX scenery which is good but yesterday I did a flight and compared, ORBX was good like I say but not as accurate and as detailed as XP, plus ORBX cost a lot of money, it has enhanced my FSX flying but XP scenery takes the prize in my book.

Hi Colin,

For an even more immersive flying experience, I highly recommend downloading the photographic scenery of your chosen area, plus the OSM data (house, trees etc).

The results are truly spectacular; due in part to X-Plane being a 64bit sim.

Oh...did I mention that all these enhancements are free?:D

Dominic

I went on Youtube, saw a few vids on Ortho4XP, I have downloaded the Python and Ortho4, so will follow the instructions on the vids, I will report back later.

Again thank you Dom for your help.

Hi Dom,

I started the download a bit late, I left it going and went to bed, woke up this morning and it was all complete.

So started the process of installing it in to XP by following the Youtube instructions, after it was done I started XP and went to EGCC where I got the 2 tiles for.

Yes as you said the details are correct, I also noticed in the Ortho installer there was a thing about 'Perge OSM' I didn't touch it but is that something to do with what you said above?

Hi Colin,

From what I understand, you need to select the purge option.

I actually use a slightly different method.

1) I download the selected photographic area here:

http://zonephoto.x-plane.fr/Cartes.php

2) Then head over to SimHeaven to get the required OSM data:

http://simheaven.com

Cheers

Dominic

Hi Dom,

2 great links there, thanks mate, I'm downloading Europe OSM from simheaven, not sure if that's all I need, will look in the zip once downloaded.

I always get a bit worried with scenery, I've had all kinds of problems with FS, sometimes having to re-install, then wishing I hadn't bothered and should heve left it while it was OK.

Hi Colin,

One of the things I've always enjoyed/appreciated about X-Plane, is the way in which it deals with aircraft and scenery.

Unlike the structure of FSX/P3D, it's almost impossible for an aircraft or scenery to botch an entire X-Plane installation (they are pretty much self-contained).

In the 17 years that I have been using X-Plane, not once have I had to reinstall the sim because of an add-on.

If something doesn't work (this includes preferences and plugins by the way), then you simply remove it; it really is that simply.

The only thing you do have to keep an eye on is your scenery_packs.ini, but even this can be deleted and made up again if need be.

In other words, don't be frightened of experimenting with X-Plane; she's a tough old girl:D

Dominic

Hi Dom,

The download failed on me part way through, I'll try again later, but now I see a couple more aircraft plus a lifboat station to play with, they will keep me busy for a bit lol.

I flew too the end of the new tile scenery, wow! Now I see the difference, from real detail to the XP scenery which is still good by the way but this Ortho is great.

I'm now seriously thinking of buying another large HD to just put Ortho Scenery on, I mainly fly the UK so I would consentrate on that for now.

Thank you Dom for putting me on to this.

I got my new 2TB hard drive today, I'm going to fit it tomorrow, then I will use it to put all my Ortho tiles on, at the moment I'm mainly going to consentrate on the UK as that is where I fly most.

If 2TB isn't enough I will have to go bigger lol.

I downloaded a few tiles from the site you mentioned above, they seem different to the Ortho ones I got from a different site.

These are zPhotoXP_+52-001_16_Peterborough_XP and so on, are they the same as the Ortho ones I got earlier?

I am beginning to change my mind about Ortho scenery. If you are flying anything from a few hundred feet or above then it is great, but I also like to see buildings when I'm on the ground.

I recently took off from a small airfield and it where buildings should be was just a patch on the ground, when I was in the air the building looked like it was there because it was photo real.

OK, so I can't have both, so I think I will stick to the default scenery.