Need Scenery Help

Hello...This may have been asked before but I have FSX :Acceleration and I was wondering if there is a better addon scenery program out there...hopefully whole world...that I can install into FSX and get a more realistic view of the scenery as it is about 20 years old in FSX. Any help would be appreciated. I have 64 bit PC with 1080 GTX and i7-7700 so I should be able to run most addons....Thanks...Dave

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. Another consideration is the impact on your wallet - some can be very expensive, especially if going for whole world coverage.

 

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.

 

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 you 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 it removes the buildings, trees etc they are replaced by 3d images and below 1500ft or so appear flat, although there are some addon products available to add back objects they may not align correctly with the 3d image.

 

For TM I use FSGenesis World Edition (see HERE) 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.

 

Again, as I mainly fly high and fast, for GM I use Ground Environment X (see HERE). 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 HERE.

 

Also worth looking at is some of the freeware stuff out there - have a look HERE to get an idea of what is available. 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. Most 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.

Hello Dave. If it's not a matter of money(payware), I strongly suggest to look

at ORBX products. At least Global, update(modernize) almost all ground textures.

With the help of two software, NVidia Inspector(that you may already have with your GTX)

and Steve's DXFixer for convert or adapt textures to DX10 for the best visual experience.

Then, following the Nick's bible (basic tweak & tuning) to make it work fine.

I use ORBX Global, LC NA, all FTX region in NA and a lot of their airport add-ons.

A little expensive but it really worth it for me, only flying GA(as in real life) in North America.

Another good(payware) alternative is Ultimate Terrain.

There are also well done freeware available for some region. In my case, for Quebec area,

I use the files of Quebec FSX site; land class, lakes and rivers, roads and railways.

Always a way to "refresh" our eleven years old FSX... Daniel

Thanks Brian...You have been very helpful. The main reason for the inquiry is that I am set up for Oculus Rift and Flyinside, which is great but I find the scenery details not so much in VR as they are distant but close up views aren't bad at all and is in 3D. I am thinking if I can get better scenery it will improve the VR experience...Let me know if you have any ideas on this...Once again...Thank you

Thanks Daniel. I am in the process of using my Oculus Rift and Flyinside with my FSX. Works pretty well but the overall scenery is a little to be desired hence the inquiry about scenery upgrade. The close up views are great as they are in a 3D visual and so too are the farther views but I think with a better scenery package I might get a better VR experience. If you have any ideas on this please let me know...Thanks...Dave

I use SceneryTech. Less expensive then orbx if you fly worldwide. Not as good, but very nice. Adds a los of buildings. Defines city/rural/desert area's different. (africa no longer is one big desert) (other area's ground looks no longer repetitive from high up.) (cities look more accurate in size and are positioned more accurately.).

 

It's landclass. (the layer that defines what's what. City/rural/etc.).

I use SceneryTech. Less expensive then orbx if you fly worldwide. Not as good, but very nice. Adds a los of buildings. Defines city/rural/desert area's different. (africa no longer is one big desert) (other area's ground looks no longer repetitive from high up.) (cities look more accurate in size and are positioned more accurately.).

 

It's landclass. (the layer that defines what's what. City/rural/etc.).

 

I have ORBX Global. Can SceneryTech be used at the same time?

Hi Brian...How do you get the maps??? Can you just get the 19m mesh map all by itself or do you need to start with the world mesh map of 76m and add to it? Thanks Oh where do you install it or does it do it automatically...Dave

For mesh info, read this:

It's the release announcement for FreMeshX. (great mesh, freeware.)

It explains well what mesh is, and how it works.

FreeMeshX moved on a bit since then, and started it's own Forum. (As Nine-Two-Productions.) There you can find the latest version.

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/467933-freemesh-x-global-10-release-announcement/

 

This is the release announcement on Flightsim.com.

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?289814-FreeMesh-X-Global-1-0-Release-Announcement

 

Heres the site of Nine-Two Productions. With the latest version.

http://ninetwopro.com/freemeshx/

 

Also read the Installation guide there. Link on the main page, "Installation Guide (obsolete)"

this link:

http://ninetwopro.com/freemeshx/fmx-installation/

Hi Brian...How do you get the maps??? Can you just get the 19m mesh map all by itself or do you need to start with the world mesh map of 76m and add to it? Thanks Oh where do you install it or does it do it automatically...Dave

 

Hi Dave,

 

It depends on the product. Most are standalone so, you could, say get 76m for most of the world and 19m for those areas that you are most interested in. Some, however, will need a base pack that you then add other areas over.

 

Installation is dependent on the product and can be manual or via an installer. The location is basically down to either your preferences or in some cases, especially in the case of payware (PW) but also some freeware (FW), as dictated by the product authors. In my years of simming I have come across stuff that will only work when installed where the installer is set to point to but in most case you can install where you want to, even when an installer suggests a location.

 

WRT the 'physical' location - that is, within reason, entirely up to you. It is important to note that, for many products (both PW and FW), you do not need to be install directly into the FSX default Addon Scenery folder, or indeed within the main FSX folder or even on the same physical drive as FSX. The BASIC important things to remember about installing ANY scenery into FSX is that it must be:

 

A. In a recognised folder structure. By that I mean that scenery files (those with a .bgl extension) must be placed in a subfolder called Scenery and texture files (those with a .dds, .bmp extension) must be placed in a subfolder called Texture. So for example:

 

These examples will work - note the first few entries are based on using the default FSX addon scenery folder and # denote the drive letter.

 

#:\FSX\Addon Scenery\Scenery\ and #:\FSX\Addon Scenery\Texture\

#:\FSX\Addon Scenery\GroundMesh\Scenery\ and #:\FSX\Addon Scenery\GroundMesh\Texture\

#:\FSX\Addon Scenery\Scenery\GroundMesh\Scenery\ and #:\FSX\Addon Scenery\Scenery\GroundMesh\Texture\

#:\FSX\\Scenery\ and #:\FSX\\Texture\

#:\FSX\GroundMesh\Scenery\ and #:\FSX\GroundMesh\Texture\

#:\MySceneryFolder\Scenery\ and #:\MySceneryFolder\Texture\

#:\MySceneryFolder\GroundMesh\Scenery\ and #:\MySceneryFolder\GroundMesh\Texture\

 

These will not work:

 

#:\FSX\Addon Scenery\

#:\FSX\Addon Scenery\GroundMesh\

#:\FSX\Addon Scenery\Scenery\GroundMesh\

#:\FSX\\

#:\FSX\GroundMesh\Scenery\ and #:\FSX\GroundMesh\Texture\

#:\MySceneryFolder\

#:\MySceneryFolder\GroundMesh\Scenery\

 

For Clarification - It should be noted that not all scenery will contain both scenery and texture files. Some of the entries listed under the 'will not work' heading will actually work for scenery that contains only .bgl files .

 

B. Unless you are using the default Addon Location (i.e. FSX\Addon Scenery\Scenery and \Texture folders) FSX must be told where the scenery is located I,e, activated using the FSX Scenery Settings page or a 3rd party scenery tool. Even if you use the default addon scenery folder and you create a new sub folder within it (i.e. as per the examples given above) you still have to activate it in FSX.

Hi Brian...Thanks for the install info...I guess I am wondering in the FS Genesis PW if I would have to have the WorldMesh 76m and then the FSGenesis NextMap United Kingdom OR could I just down load the FSGenesis United Kingdom only. That's all I need for now but I would like to know if installation from FSGenesis is automatic into FSX into addon scenery???Thanks ...dave

In each area the most detailed installed mesh is automatically used.

Airports may well end up on a plateau. A vertical column.

HI Dave,

 

I don't have any of the NextMap stuff but from a quick look at the product info page it appears to be standalone product and does not need the WorldMesh 76m product.

 

Again, not having any NextMap stuff I can't tell you if the install is automatic. However, if you compare the NextMap product versus the WorldMesh product you will see that both come in .zip files.

 

In the case of WorldMesh it has three such files. I unzipped each of the files in number sequence to a single temp folder and, IIRC, the unzipped contents were in the form of individually named files that contained data for a specific region. Double clicking on the files extracted the individual .bgl files that then had to be copied into the chosen scenery folder. In my case, I extracted each region into a specific folder for that region and ended up with a total of 11 regional folders.

 

WRT UK NextMap - I suspect that when you unzip the file contents you will either get an installer file (i.e. a .exe or .bat file) or a file similar to that explained above. If an setup file simply run it and either install it where it wants to default to OR point the installer to a location of your choice. If it requires a manual install simply copy the .bgl files to a location of your choice and activate if necessary - as per the instructions in my previous post.

 

WRT the comments make by il88pp at post #12 - As he has stated some airports may appear as if they are on 'plateaus' or even in a 'pit'. IME this is very rare and, in most cases, the problem is very small - a matter of scale feet as opposed to tens of scale feet. It can even happen with 3rd party scenery when using the default FSX terrain and is caused by an altitude discrepancy between the mesh and airport scenery.

 

il88pp's comments regarding 'the most detailed installed mesh is automatically used' is a bit misleading but it does raise an important point.

 

Scenery within FSX is loaded based on a 'priority' scale which dictates when a piece of scenery is loaded. When you view your scenery listing in the FSX Scenery settings page you will see that any new scenery is automatically installed at the top of the list at Priority (P) 1. If you scroll down you will find all of the FSX default scenery at the end of the list. If you were to open the scenery.cfg file (which is were FSX stores scenery info and uses to load the scenery) in Notepad and viewed the listing you will see that the FSX Default entries are at the top of the listing.

 

Basically, when FSX loads up the scenery it starts with the default scenery and works its way up the list - this is so that the default scenery, which is required, is loaded and then the other addon scenery is 'built' on top of the default scenery, overwriting it as required.

 

It is for this reason that ANY 3rd party scenery should always be placed ABOVE the FSX default entries. But equally, there are certain items that must be placed as low down the list as possible so that they display correctly. Any landclass type scenery (i.e. like TM and GM products) are best placed as low down the list as possible BUT above the default FSX items. Likewise, if using two different LOD sizes it is always better to place the higher LOD size scenery below the lower LOD size scenery - this will ensure that there are no conflicts when the data is loaded into memory.

 

Another example is Object Libraries. Again these should be placed as far down the list as possible to avoid instances of missing objects in a piece of scenery, say an airport. For example, if you have an airport that requires Object library XYZ and the airport is installed at P20 and the object library is at P10, some or all of the objects may not display correct or not at all. Move the object library down to P21 and everything will display correctly.

For mesh it does not matter. You can have all your mesh active, in any position. The most detailed in the area you're flying in will be automatically used. Also explained in the FMX avsim announcement.

Hi Brian..I went with world mesh in FS Genesis and let the installer automatically install to the folders 2 were scenery\world\scenery and the other stated \scenery\... But I went into there and found nothing...or I am looking in the wrong place. I physically moveed some folder up in FSX scenery up to top of list .I put addons at top...nothing in there and east/west NA and Europe so they are at top of list in the FSX scenery part of the program. I am thinking of installing again and putting them all into Addon folder so I know exactly where they are and then maybe get a handle on this.I don't care if the files are duplicated but I don't really know where then ended up as I saw folder in the install but doesn't look like they are there. Also...If they are there and they don't show up I don't see a real difference in terrain. I got the 76 meter World Mesh...just to see how it works....Dave

Hi again Brian...I put the 3 mesh file folders...Asia..Europe...West into their own same named folders in the Addon Scenery folder which is placed in my scenery files in FSX program itself at the very top being #1. Each of those 3 folders in Addons folder have FSGDocs...Scenery and Setup log folders...and in each of those Scenery files there are numbered folders each of which have another scenery folder which has the bgl file. What the heck am I supposed to do or is that ok??? Seeing as the folder ie Asia, has those numbered folders in it do I take thise folders and place them in the FSX scenery folder named Asia and try and put the number of the folders in order in that Asia folder...Using Asia folder as example.Let me know and sorry for this but it is a lot to get my head around it...:-)

P.S. I have 3 pics of what the files are and in what order...Mesh 1 to 3...after 3 you would have the last scenery folder with the Bgl file

Hi Dave,

 

A simple way to get the scenery up and running - using the Asia folder as an example:

 

Go into each of the numbered folders and move any .bgl files (using the CUT and PASTE method) that you find in it UP one level into the Scenery sub-folder - i.e place the .bgl files at .....\New Asia Scenery\Scenery\. You should end up with a list of .bgl files and the empty folders. You can now delete the empty folders and then activate the main New Asia Folder within the FSX settings page. Not wanting to offend or teach you something you already may know but when activating in FSX do so as follows (I offer up this advice as, if I am reading your comments right about the priority listing entry, you have not installed any scenery into the current install):

 

1. Start FSX

2. Go to Settings and then click on the Scenery Library button located at the bottom of the list located on the right hand side. A new window view will appear.

3. Click on the Add Area button. A standard Windows Explorer window will open.

4. Navigate to the location of the New Asia folder - expanding each folder until you see the FSGDocs and Scenery entries displayed in the window.

5. Click ONCE anywhere within the empty WHITE area (i.e. not on a folder/file entry) and then click on the OK button - this will add the scenery into priority list in the top spot. Click OK and you should see a message with a progress bar stating that the database is being rebuilt.

 

Repeat for the other areas.

..........For mesh it does not matter. You can have all your mesh active, in any position

 

AND

 

Also explained in the FMX avsim announcement..........

 

Which announcement?

 

The last I saw (and can currently find on AVSIM and the FreeMeshX developers own website) refers to the release of V2 and is dated Jul 2017. Both are the same announcement and clearly carry info regarding the positioning of the scenery.........

 

Under Additional Notes it states 'FreeMeshX should be placed above the default terrain entries in the Scenery Library, and below any airports or FTX Regions or landclasses'

 

Just below this statement there is a 'Hypothetical scenery library order' list followed by the statement 'Of course, your real load order will be different, but you must keep FreeMeshX – Patches always above the FreeMeshX regions'.

 

Clearly, there must be reason as to why the developer makes these observations/suggestions..........

In the link I posted. Probably in the discussion after. Perhaps it's in the flightsim.com discussion.

You can have all your different mesh active, the most detailed will be used.

For mesh it works that way.

Not for other scenery.

Terra, if your scenery comes with mesh, just use that.

Hi Brian...Think I have it the way you said... ADDON SCENERY\NEW ASIA SCENERY\ (in the NEW ASIA SCENERY...3 folders...FSGDOCS - SCENERY - Setuplog ) In that Scenery folder is where the bgl files are put now. The way it was before was ie... Addon scenery\New asia scenery\Fsgdocs ..scenery..setuplog and in that scenery was numbered folders ie 801\scenery\FSGdem_0801.bgl and so on for every numbered folder.I just went up past the scenery folders that were in the numbered folders and up past the past the numbered folders into the scenery folder that was located along with the FSGDOcs and setuplog in the NEW ASIA Scenery...This sound ok? I took a few screen shots of before and after in Glasgow. Now I presumably went from stock FSX scenery to 76m mesh. I don't know but it isn't a big change..at least as far as I can tell...You look for your self. I sent 3 screenshots 1 with original mesh... 2 with new mesh and the 3rd with the mesh settings in FSX maxed. Plus there is a shot of the bgl file path way as seen in the top. Let me know what you think. I did the activate thing and although I see some change...like I said not much. OR do you think the path way is incorrect or was I expecting too much.I really appreciate all the help...from you and everyone else...Dave

PS...I am thinking of going one step further and getting the FSG 19m UK mesh...If so...would I just put the new bgl files in with the current scenery bgl files that I just installed that are in the Addon scenery\New Europe Scenery\FSGDocs..scenery....setuplog ...That last scenry file in the bgl file folder. I hope I am explaining myself correctly. By the way...I don't really know a lot about this part of FSX and any info...would be much appreciated..so let me know what you know. Thanks...

Hi Dave,

 

The way you have now set it is correct. I made the suggestion as it was the easiest way to minimise the work required. You could have left the individual .bgl files in the numbered sub-folders but then you would have had to activate each individual folder within FSX. The way I have got you to do it means that you only have one active area folder covering the specific region as opposed to, in the case of the Asia scenery, 19 active areas.

 

WRT to what you are seeing - the changes will be more prominent in other regions where you have higher terrain, for example if you fly further North from Glasgow or depart from Inverness and head West, South or North. Remember that all that TM products do is to 'sharpen' the ground elements, for example, making hills, mountains etc more representative of the how they are in real life so there will be adjustments to heights, the placement of valleys, steeper more prominent sides etc.

 

WRT to the UK Nextmap 19m - I suspect that it will be an additional install and that you will keep all the current files in the Europe folder. It may, however, tell you that it needs to overwrite files associated with the current Europe scenery. If its a separate install as long as you place it higher up in the scenery list when you activate it (i.e. above the current Europe folder) it will work fine. If the files are direct replacements for files in the current Europe folder I would make a backup copy of current original files (store them outside of FSX) and then simply overwrite the current files.

 

The difference between what you see versus default and 19m (and indeed 19m and 76m) will be a lot more defined.

 

On the general subject of scenery I will offer up the following important tip WRT deleting unwanted scenery.

 

Never simply delete activated scenery by removing the files and folders created to hold the files. This will cause error messages to appear when FSX is loading. The only deviation from this is when you are deleting individual files from an activated folder that is to remain with other files still present.

 

To explain this further - say you add a new airport scenery that contained both scenery .bgl files and texture files. If you install it by simply placing the files in the default FSX Addon Scenery\Scenery and Texture folders you don't need to activate the scenery as these folders are already active and the new scenery will be recognised by FSX. Likewise, to delete the scenery you simply remove the files from the folders.

 

However, if you install into dedicated folder (as you have done with the FSGen stuff) before you delete it you MUST de-activate it in FSX as follows:

 

A. Go to the scenery settings page and UNTICK the box next to the desired scenery. Click Ok and let the database be rebuilt. This tells FSX not to load the scenery but it retains the reference to it in the scenery,cfg file.

B. Highlight the entry and then click on the Delete Area button and then OK - the database will be rebuilt again but this time the scenery.cfg entry will be removed and the area numbering sequence will be revised to reflect the removal.

C Delete the files and folders

 

Over time you will probably find yourself installing other scenery such as airports, etc. How yo do this is up to you and you will find various opinions/methods on how to do it but there are few general tips that will help you no matter what method you choose to use.

 

It should be noted that most freeware stuff, like airport enhancements, scenery objects etc tend to fall into the following categories - Basic (usually only contains .bgl files), Detailed (usually contains .bgl and texture files) and Comprehensive (as well as containing .bgls and textures it will have other files specific to the scenery such as effects, requires object libraries (see below) and even sounds. Most will also have a readme file that will (hopefully) give instructions on how to install

 

Some scenery will only use FSX default objects or include everything that is required whilst others will require additional object libraries (these are installed separately in the same manner as other scenery). On the subject of Object Libraries there are several common/extensively used libraries that you may want to download at some stage, especially if you are considering adding additional freeware stuff like airports. Expand the File Library button and click on the Must Have files link - here you will find links to many essential files, including common object libraries. It is important to note that you only need ONE instance of a library installed.

 

The same is true of addon airports - if you have two versions of an airport installed at the same time you will get issues - so if you say get a 3rd party scenery for Glasgow airport and install it and then find another version that you want to try, you must first remove the original one first.