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Review: Orbx - Monument ValleyBy Sean McLeod /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_4f07d4b8.jpgSunrise over Monument Valley, Navajo Nation, USA IntroductionIt is my honor to review for youOrbx's scenery of Monument Valley, USA for X-Plane 11. I mustapologize for not having this review to you sooner as I have, likeGollum in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, become fixated on thiswonderfully entertaining new addition to the X-Plane payware sceneryworld. Before we get to the scenery proper, first a little bit of 'gen'about Orbx; the team has been around for some time - since itsfounding in 2006 - building sceneries for FSX and P3D. You can learnmore about Orbx and the team, as well as this great piece of kit theycreated they like to call FTX Central at theirweb site...now let's get on with it. /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_b93fbe7.jpgMonument ValleyAs written on the Wikipedia page, Monument Valley is a region ofthe Colorado plateau characterized by a cluster of vast sandstonebuttes, the largest reaching 1000 feet (300 meters) above the valleyfloor. It is located on the Arizona-Utah border, near the Four Cornersarea. The valley lies within the territory of the Navajo NationReservation and is accessible from U.S. Highway 163. Monument Valley has been featured in many forms of media since the1930s. Director John Ford used the location for a number of hisbest-known films and thus, in the words of critic Keith Phipps, "itsfive square miles (13 square kilometers) have defined what decades ofmoviegoers think of when they imagine the American West". Some readers may have also heard of a little place called RadiatorSprings located in Ornament Valley, home to the world's friendliesttow-truck? That's right, the location depicted in the 2006 movie Carswas inspired by this wonderful real-world location. /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m2968da60.jpg What's Inside The Box?You can purchase this scenery fromOrbx herefor X-Plane 11; only XP11 is supported by this scenery package. ForWindows users, Orbx uses their own installer called FTX Central. I wasskeptical at first, as I'm pretty averse to using installers thataren't directly associated with big name software groups like Adobe orJava, but I jumped in with both feet on this one and was pleasantlysurprised with the end-user experience. /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m1497555a.jpgI've found using FTX Central to be hassle-free Orbx accountmanagement and I look forward to using it on MacOS as well; currentlyFTX Central doesn't support MacOS so to install any scenery you haveto do so manually. Orbx provides instructions and archive files toenable Mac users to install the scenery until FTX Central becomesavailable for MacOS. So, what else is in the box; user_guide.pdf is located in theOrbx_3D_Airport_UT25 folder in the Custom Scenery folder of X-Plane11. In the user guide is this information about the scenery: 21 3D model mountains with 4k textures. No orthophotos, but polygons / textures that reconstruct theterrain. Reconstruction of 3D buildings in the area, View Hotel,Welcome Center, airport hotels and Goulding's Lodge. Reproduced the typical desert vegetation Various tourist areas and small farms Developers Frank Dainese and Fabio Bellini have reconstructed the3D models of the mountains using DEM (Digital Elevation Model)data. These 3D models are then textured with photographic imagescreating a perfect replica of the real thing. Some important considerations: Depending on your PC hardware it is possible to have somelimitations in viewing the scenery, in particular a drastic reductionof the number of visible 3D objects. This could also be dependant onthe graphic settings the sim. In some of the peripheral areas where the USMV scenery meets thedefault scenery, there will be some misalignment of the 3D models. Wehave adjusted the mesh where possible to suit the 3D models. Despite the high quality of the textures, with excessive approachesto the mountain you may see some blurring effect. In my experience using this scenery, I have sometimes encounteredthe blurring effect described by the authors. I also experiencedsomething interesting, evidenced by the the shadows cast at certaintimes of the day. I don't normally set the X-Plane graphics to "Drawshadows on scenery" as it has a significant frame rate cost on myMacBook Pro 2015 model, but I did select it for maximum effect whenmaking screen shots for this review. /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_157a46c3.jpgYou can see a slight separation between the edge of the hillside tothe right of the bend in the road. This is considerably less evidentwith "Draw shadows on scenery" disabled. Not something you will noticeblasting along at +300 knots in your P-51D Glamorous Glen III - orwill you, eagle-eye! /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m3329a6ba.jpgThe main base of my operations for touring around the area wasMonument Valley Airport UT25. This map of the area is also found inthe user_guide.pdf. /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_32019979.jpgAs I was familiarizing myself with the region, it occurred to methat wouldn't it be fantastic to hold some kind of air racing eventthrough the valley? My typical route evolved into this; depart UT25from runway 34, climb-out and reverse back towards UT25 to begin therun. Pass over UT25, head ESE over the Welcome Centre and onwards overthe View Hotel. From there it's over to John Ford Point to get mypicture with the Man on a Horse! /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_67072473.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m2b253730.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m4bf6c830.jpgThrough the sandstone buttes and turn northbound over the deserttowards the group of buttes located in the middle of thevalley. Keeping them off the left wing, carve around westbound andfinally west-southwest back towards UT25 to make one more pass overGoulding's Lodge located at the base of the mountain off the end ofrunway 34. Goulding's Lodge /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_2502fb9c.jpgWelcome Center /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m16f931c6.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_42485421.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m4627835e.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m3f5b6067.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m7201abc.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m2606e22c.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_22a24086.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_25ec69f3.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_760e1bc1.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m8012fe5.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m30be6a18.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m2be81720.jpg The View Hotel /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_67cab631.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_3497e133.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_c74be0e.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_253d75fd.jpgCrazy X-Plane AI Drivers! /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m35cf8321.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m703adaaf.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m45975dbe.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m7f3f5cea.jpg John Ford Point /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m4fb3c477.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m2b253730.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m7d37ce98.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m596fd602.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m5bab7a60.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m4ba29bb4.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m4754d5a6.jpgMonument Valley Airport UT25 /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m6c5a30cc.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_127b75a8.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_6d5ab55d.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_5795b2de.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_m668313d8.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_17f02fef.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_509e8626.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_3eda69e4.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_6dd585b1.jpg /images/reviews/monument/t/monument_html_10bc08d1.jpgThat's basically one lap around Monument Valley. I can't simplydrop the mic and leave it there, can I? No, of course not! Orbx's representation of the area is quite impressive, consideringthe attention to customized elevation data for the surroundinggeography. It is not, however, photo-realistic or to-the-foot (meter)accurate when compared to the real location. Personally, I discovered that the hangar to the east of the runwayat UT25 is far closer in the sim than in real life; it ought to bemirrored to the east side of its current location based on thesatellite imagery I looked up. I have read elsewhere that there are other inaccuracies in thisscenery package when it comes to the depiction of the locale aroundthe UT25 airport as compared to the real world counterpart. These and other incongruities may turn off the discerning simenthusiast who has high expectations when comparing this package toother sceneries available on the market and even from Orbxthemselves. For some end-users, this scenery will simply not measureup. ConclusionFor the rest of us, I will speak for myself that I thoroughly enjoyblasting over the desert, through the odd canyon, over and around thesandstone buttes, scattering the tumbleweeds, thundering along in aMustang, Corsair or Mitchell bomber. The lack of a ton of custom objects in the scenery has theadvantage of providing a very smooth flight simulator experiencewithout any stutters. Like I mentioned, I typically do not select"draw shadows", also I normally have my graphics settings set to FXAA,Visual effects for minimum HDR, and number of world objects set toHigh; I usually see 25-30 fps on my MacBook Pro 2015 - not too shabby,I say. Let's face it - it's the desert and there isn't much out thereexcept for the spiders, snakes, jack rabbits, coyotes... ...AND YOU! I'll see you out in the valley! Sean McLeod Purchase Orbx - Monument Valley USA