Simviation Forums

I hear Silver Wings is great for low and slow flight, but is it good for low and fast flight too?

Just wondering....

If you're going too fast to enjoy the scenery, does it matter?

It still enjoyable if prefer flying vintage fighters like the P-38. However, if you're gonna fly at Mach 1, then what's the point in having the new scenery?

You can still see the scenery at Mach 1, good for screenshots too...

id asume it doesnt have problems.  Another thing I noticed is that silver wings also looks ALOT better in mountainous/hilly terrain.  flatness is not that great

Hi

It works and looks fine low and 'fast' (though I didn't get over 400kts).
Once you get higher up it does not so good though. 1000 ft above the ground is about as high as you can get for it to look it's best.
But down low it is very sweet. I may have to do a 2nd install, just for low level flying using Silver Wings. If you have the disk space, this would be a good option. I don't guess there is a way to have the best of both worlds with a single install.

The ground textures have a more "earthy" feel to them and the roads seem less vague... also places more "old-timey" objects like barns and water towers.  Looks fantastic in rural areas, even zooming along at treetop height at several hundred knots.
But I'm not sure I'm totally happy with it: climb to 1000 AGL or so, and the repetitive patterns are even more apparent than with the stock textures.
 The softer, prettier clouds are nice- but maybe too pretty. Like a painting.  I like the water textures, but there seems to be a tree-size problem.... the trees near my home airport seem to have grown 50 feet overnight, crowding the approaches!!

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I downloaded it and love it. Makes for some good screenshots. What's the best freeware scenery upgrade?

Well I haven't noticed any of these 'problems'.

To say that Silverwings textures have more 'repetitive' patterns than the standard is crazy to me. Silverwings textures have been greatly enhanced compared to default which are just unrealistic daubs and splodges of colour in comparison and how can this enhancement be lost just because you are at a greater altitude? Silverwings textures include many variations in grass and tree colour, crop textures and features like foamy torrents in rivers that the default just do not have and these enhance scenery appearance at all altitudes, at least in my sim.

Compare that approach to something like Bluesphere, which was a good first try to improve the default texture set but is really only the originals with a colour cast over them. No additions and the random ground colour splodges still remain.

Indeed, I have found completely the opposite to what some posters are saying. Silverwings textures are GREATLY superior at low altitude compared to standard and remain so as you climb.

And I'll bet some of the folks who comment adversely about the clouds then go and fly in those appallingly unrealistic orange sky textures and say how wonderful they are. Not for me they aren't  ???

I guess beauty will always be in the eye of the beholder but some of the comments made are way off the mark IMO. But then all my sliders are at full right and I have graphics that make the most of any setup. If your graphics are reduced, then maybe you will not achieve the level of satisfaction that I have.

So my advice is if you are thinking about Silverwings for the first time, don't listen to ANYONE - including me. What you get is likely to depend very much on your own setup. So do as Bill Lyons suggests. Back up your originals in the way he tells you, try the Silverwings textures and then if you don't like em, revert.

Personally there's no way I'd ever go back. but PERSONALLY is what it's all about  ;)

I tried SW and I kicked it off again. I prefer my combination of BlueSphere and other forest textures. It looks just more realistic from higher altitudes (at which I usually fly).
But then again, it's only my unimportant opinion.