Simviation Forums

I want to add stuff to the meager Florida scenery and I found this product, Flight1.com "Instant Scenery III". It seems to be aimed at beginners like me to this aspect of the flight sim world but I would like to get opinions from the "experts" here before I spend my money.

It comes with a 30 day $ back guarantee. What risk do you run? Before you know it, you'll be the expert!

I found a demo video,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22PxTylve5k
it looks like a quick and easy way to make custom scenery from inside the game while the game is running.
I think I may try it too.

Don't waste your money.

You can accomplish everything that program does without spending money. There are several options. You will need to have the FSX SDK installed for these things to work.

1) Object Placer Tool...ships with the FSX SDK. runs from inside the game and lets you drop objects anywhere you like.
2) Scenery Builder X (SBuilderX). Available as freeware, lets you add roads, railways, water, landclass, objects, change elevations, etc...
3) Airport Design Editor 1.6. Available as freeware. does everything SBuilder does, but also lets you manipulate airport elements such as aprons, taxiways, runways, signs, lighting, nav aids, etc..

Then there are all the free scenery objects available here at simviation and other flight sim add-on sites. You can DL these objects and place them In your sceneries.

Then there's free software to let you build your own objects. Google sketch-up, combined with Model Maker, and GIMP photo editing suite, and the appropriate SDK compiler programs, and presto, you are on your way to customized scenery making.

I've been using "Instant Scenery", (now version 3), for some time now.!
Excellent for adding scenery to an existing Airfield, or in my case, adding scenery to a plain grass Airstrip, and bringing it to life!

Plain drag-'n-drop simplicity!... ...!

Similar to those (me) familiar with the old "LAGO Flight Sim Enhancer" for FS 2002 and FS 2004.

Paul....with a concrete mixer and a wheelbarrow... ...!

http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=iscen3

I tried it earlier this year and only had moderate success. The placement tool was OK but fiddly to use, difficult to place stuff with any accuracy. At first glance the place multiple objects tool looks good but I soon realised multiple identical shrubs placed exactly 5 feet apart make a terrible looking hedge, useful for lamp posts or pylons maybe? I may have done better with more practice though....I'd give it 5 out of 10

The placement tools in Airport Design Editor were much more accurate and a delight to use. This program doesn't have an "in Game" placement ability and you can only place objects in and around airports. When I say "around" I mean within a few miles, which when you think about it gives you a lot of scope. Upload a stock local airport, place your desired building anywhere within quite a large radius and then compile it, Presto.

With ADE I soon got to the stage were I was making custom buildings in sketchup, converting them into the right format and adding them to the ADE library.

Well, I bought it. I'm still reading the instruction manual. I'll be trying to use it soon. My initial goal is to place parked aircraft at the airports I use all the time. Then fill in some scenery detail in the big cities around Florida and maybe replace some of the roads over water with something that looks like a real bridge.

Modlerbob wrote:Well, I bought it. I'm still reading the instruction manual. I'll be trying to use it soon. My initial goal is to place parked aircraft at the airports I use all the time. Then fill in some scenery detail in the big cities around Florida and maybe replace some of the roads over water with something that looks like a real bridge.

Tip:
For final accurate placement of objects, select top-down view, zoom in, and use the mouse to selects and re-arrange (move/rotate, etc) the objects into the final position.

Paul...Instant Scenery 3..... ...!