Better cities in Florida to add on the scenery directory

[Modlerbob]

Most of the cities in Florida on FSX only have a few identifiable buildings and landmarks. I especially don't like the treatment of roadway and railway bridges. Florida has several iconic tall roadway bridges, specifically the cable stayed suspension bridge in Jacksonville, Dame Point, and Tampa, the Skyway Bridge. Also the overseas highway from Miami to Key West. All of these bridges are shown as flat low level causeways with no way to fly under them Also none of the sports stadiums or theme parks are adequately modeled. None of the military air bases have more than one or two aircraft parked on the ramp (that's getting more and more accurate now-a-days). Maybe I'll learn how to do all of this eventually if the software doesn't cost too much. If I do learn how to make scenery add ons I will make them available to everyone.

[Fozzer]

The scenery in FSX is merely "Autogen scenery" in a "Tile" configuration, designed by the makers of the "Game". Its not meant to appear exactly like it does in Google Satellite Maps!

That would be far too much to expect from such a simple Game!

Accept it for what it is.

I doubt that any Flight Simmers local area in FSX will look any thing like it is in real life....its NOT real!!

Paul.

[Modlerbob]

Well, I don't live in New York, Boston or L.A. but I have been there and the default scenery in FSX for those places looks much more like the real structures including truss and suspension bridges. They did a good job representing the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco as well as the iconic buildings. I guess by the time they got around to doing the southeastern USA they had run out of budget money.

Don't get me wrong, I think for the money they did an overall outstanding job with the default scenery package. But this thread is about add ons that people want to see. If nobody brings these things up how will the scenery developers know what is wanted?

[Fozzer]

Well, I don't live in New York, Boston or L.A. but I have been there and the default scenery in FSX for those places looks much more like the real structures including truss and suspension bridges. They did a good job representing the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco as well as the iconic buildings. I guess by the time they got around to doing the southeastern USA they had run out of budget money.

Don't get me wrong, I think for the money they did an overall outstanding job with the default scenery package. But this thread is about add ons that people want to see. If nobody brings these things up how will the scenery developers know what is wanted?

You have no idea just how unrealistic the scenery is in my home County of Herefordshire in England, even with various add-ons, which is why I always "fly" in the USA, where it is much more "realistic"...
..my house and my back garden will never appear in FSX!...not even my Town...
...remember the various Flight Sim scenery designers all lived in Silicon Valley, on the West Coast!
California is the place to "fly"....They got it nailed!... ...!

Paul.... ...!

[OldAirmail]

Modlerbob, When I first bought FSX I naturally flew over my home.

I wasn't very happy.


Like you I thought that if I bought the MegaSceneryEarth for my state all would be fine.

From one of your first posts you found the same problem that I did - IT'S ALL FLAT!

Well, not really. Photo real scenery can look good, but only when you're out in the mountains or countryside.

To enjoy photo real scenery over a city it's best to be about 10,000 over that city.


But even if you love flying big tubes across the country, sooner or later you'll have to land.

The only way that you'll come close to what you want is to use photo real scenery AND buy (or download free) airport scenery.

One example would be to use FSX Miami City 2012 X.



AND we even have a demo of FSX Miami City 2012 X on SimViation so you could try it out before you buy.


Now where Paul says that things don't look realistic flying over his home, I'd say Hey! That looks just like I thought it would in Merry Old England.

So your second alternative is to do as he does - fly some other area with scenery that looks believable to you.

[CHUCK79]

I'm no expert, but I have put together a few sceneries (mostly military oriented) over the years:

Fairchild AFB

Port Angeles CGAS

Whidbey Island NAS

Borax Open Pit Mine

If you would like to get into scenery design/development you can get started absolutely free

First of all, if you have FSX/Acceleration or FSX Gold you have the SDK which contains many handy features including a BGL. compiler
and an object placement tool, but the SDK does not install with the sim, it needs to be installed seperately
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.p ... ation_(FSX)

Now that you have the SDK installed let's talk about Airport Design Editor (ADE). This program does many things, such as:
Create your own airport, modify a default FSX airport, place/remove objects, exclude default autogen/buildings, change elevations etc, etc.
This is a much easier install and runs outside of FSX
http://www.scruffyduck.org.uk/ade/

ADE is fairly self explanatory......with a little trial and error
If you need any help don't hesitate to ask either myself directly or on the forums. There's plenty of folks here who can help

Once you've got a handle on ADE you may want to change or alter landclass/waterclass or add some photoreal ground textures.
This is where SbuilderX comes in.
http://www.ptsim.com/index.php?option=c ... &Itemid=56

The learning curve on this one is a little steeper, but once you figure it out it's very useful. All of the above sceneries use photoreal
ground and/or water textures


Now if you'd like to make your own buildings/objects you've got a few options. I'm only familiar with Google Sketchup and Gmax and I use "familiar" very
loosely when referring to Gmax

I find that Google Sketchup is the easiest tool for making geometric shapes such as buildings, hangars and pretty much anything you'd find
at an airport.
http://www.sketchup.com/download

There are a ton of tutorials out there, but I think that opening the program and fiddlin' around is the best way to learn

Hope this helps out. Again, dont hesitate to ask questions here. We need more freeware scenery designers out there

[Fozzer]

I'll tell you what..it will take a serious stretch of a vivid imagination to expect the scenery below you to look anything like the view from the cockpit of a real, low flying, Cessna 172!

The nearest I ever get to approximate? ground reality is using my copy of "Ultimate Terrain USA", together with Orbx FTX scenery mesh, in my FSX.

...all the rest is a wild figment of my imagination!.... ...!

Paul.... ...!