Simviation Forums

I've been flying for an hour or two and so a quick review based on what I have seen so far. Firstly - autogen set to 'sparse' has more objects on screen than FS9 on maximum. Dunno about FPS but it runs smooth. Landclass is a bit crap. Large parts of the Greek islands are deserts, as is Goa. Not so in real life. Manchester airport looks a lot more realistic, but the M62 is a bit worrying, it's got vehicles that actually move. Even the areas that don't have vector road data are substantially improved and much more natural looking. Coastlines seem to be very angular. Haven't seen any animals but the boats make the sim more immersive. The terrain mesh is much better as well. All in all I'm happy with it, I just need someone to produce better landclass and coastline files now.

People seem to be reporting that some places look like deserts. Sometimes it can be a simple case of the seasons making the terrain textures look more desert like at around fall. In fact, we're in fall or close to it in real life aren't we? Back when I was stationed in Arkansas in real life, much of the grass in the airports and parks looked more or less golden-brownish during either the summer or fall while it sometimes looked as green as st. patrick's day during spring and autumn.

So, I'm not surprised by the influx of such reports from those who managed to get their greasy hands on FSX Deluxe.

As for the report on the coastlines, it's starting to become a little more common that the coastlines look too angular. Some people on other site forums have reported certain islands that looked almost triangular in appearance. I'm guessing this is due to the lack of available terrain data. Sure we have google earth, terrain data from NASA and major corporations that sell quality satellite images to the highest bidder [aka: Uncle Sam], but even those sources don't provide all the details of the earth's surface.

Anyone can blame Microsoft if they want for these errors, but I normally blame lack of data.

Anyone can blame Microsoft if they want for these errors, but I normally blame lack of data.

its more fun to blame microsoft  ;)

[quote]

its more fun to blame microsoft

Oh, I agree with you wholeheartedly Katahu on the lack of data for certain areas. I don't actually think Microsoft do these things to annoy us deliberately although a small cynical bit of me thinks that it was deliberately put in at the design stages so we'd have something to whinge about on forums... A lot of the desert-like areas are much greener in other seasons, I've checked, but it still looks odd to see those great expanses of sand dunes, especially when you know what it should look like. I'll have to delve into the SDK and see if I can make it more lifelike.

Sounds like the landclass is "botched".  That is what determines stuff like desert, fields, forest, farms, towns, and cities.

best,

...................john