Scenery for Europe

[Wendy]

I was surfing around to find a better general scenery for Europe then the default FSX scenery and found the following titles from Flight 1 Europe:
-FSGlobal 2008
-Ultimate Terrain Europe.

Has anyone tried one of these software packages on FSX or what is the best general scenery that is available for Europe. I would be most pleased if it has Belgium included.

[Trevor Hale]

Hi Wendy,

Actually I am in the middle of migrating from FS9 to FSX.

I was looking at those packages, and they do look incredible. Flight one has some amazing titles..

If nobody else posts here, please let us know what you thought about the titles if you do get them.

We are trying to expand our database and this is just the ticket.

Trev

[Michael Carter]

If UT Europe for FSX is anything like the FS9 version, it's a must-have.

There is also some pretty good mesh available for FSX.

Hmmm. I thought FSX was supposed to have enough eye candy without resorting to add-ons. I guess they were wrong.

[Joe Lavery]

Hi Wendy,

I reviewed UT Europe for PC Pilot s couple of issues ago and it's well worth a look. It's not quite as good as photographic scenery but doesn't have the frame rate imact that photo scenery does either. So it could be a better option if your machine is a bit long in the tooth, particularly if you're flying FSX which requires some hefty silicon to get it moving smoothly.

If you want more localised scenery Aerosoft have a very comprehesive range of airports covering most of Europe.
I recently reviewed their Madeira which is simply stunning.

Regards

Joe.

[Trevor Hale]

Mike, the thing about RAW fsx is it is better then RAW Fs9 but if you take an addon for FS9 and put it against RAW FSX your getting about the same quality and detail, as soon as you add an addon designed for FSX utilizing the shaders and higher quality of FSX it blows anything you have ever seen out of the water. "IF YOU HAVE A COMPUTER THAT CAN RUN IT TO THE MAX"

Just my $.02

Trev

[Trevor Hale]

Hi Wendy,

I reviewed UT Europe for PC Pilot s couple of issues ago and it's well worth a look. It's not quite as good as photographic scenery but doesn't have the frame rate imact that photo scenery does either.

Joe.

Hey Joe,

would you be able to post your review here? I would love to see it.. Not the link, but could you post your pictures and your review right here in a new thread in the FSX Scenery section?

Trev

[Michael Carter]

That won't be happening anytime soon. I just got FS9 running the way it's supposed to. Well, on the server computer anyway.

[Joe Lavery]

Trev,

I'll mention it to the editor, unfortunatley once the review is submitted it becomes the copyright of Key Publishing and they don't normally allow redistribution.
I also write for other publications and this is common practice.

But I will certainly ask.

Regards

Joe.

[Wendy]

Thank you all for the information.
Everywhere you fly in FSX, for me it looks all the same.

Mike,
you are saying that there is pretty good mesh for FSX for Europe, can you point me to the right software ?

Joe,
I'm very lucky to have a heavy Dell XPS system to run FSX, so maybe photo scenery could be an option. Have you a title or link to such a program ?


Thank you, Wendy

[Peter Dowson]

... maybe photo scenery could be an option. Have you a title or link to such a program ?

Currently there are photo-scenery packages for the UK (well, just England and Wales at present), Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and much of France. If you visit SimMarket, Aerosoft and Flight1 websites you will find them all quite easily. Getting them all would be quite expensive and would take up a LOT of disk space.

If you are into low level VFR flying in a small GA aircraft then the photoscenery is well worthwhile. I have two cockpits set up, one for my 737NG flying and another for VFR with the UK VFR scenery from Horizon, hardware setup as a Piper Arrow, and it is really enjoyable -- even my house is readily found. However, be warned, it takes many minutes for FSX to load and be ready to fly -- the photoscenery is quite well performing once loaded, but it takes a long time to be 'ready'.

If you are more into airliner flying then the photoscenery is really a waste of time as once you are at altitude you don't notice the difference between that and reasonably textured scenery. Then you really want add-ons like Ultimate Terrain Europe (which is superb), and probably Ground Environment (GEX) for Europe when it finally appears (!). I'd also recommend a good Europe mesh set, like the one from Genesis.

What really makes my airliner flying, though, are good cloud textures, as most of the time (especially in Europe) that is what you see! For that I use Flight Environment Extreme (FEX) with the super HD cloud graphics -- and weather supplied by Active Sky (ASA), of course.

But, first and foremost, for both VFR and IFR flying, I think the best investment is in the airports -- add-on airports with ultra-realistic details are so good with FSX. The Aerosoft ones are all superb, as are those from UK2000. After all, you will ptrobably spend almost as much time in the airports as you will actually flying! Especially if you get a good AI Traffic add-on like MyTraffic X!

Good flying!

Pete