Simviation Forums

I remember reading about a problem with one particular mesh product in which it did odd things to the terrain around most airports.  Something about it puts them up on a pedestal which looks awkward in the sim.  

Is the FSGenesis mesh the product that does this or is it another mesh product?  If it's not, is there any other issues with the FSGenesis mesh I should be aware of or is it a good mesh to buy?

flyinjoe

Yes, it is FSG

The issue is not FSG but how MSFS does not allow airports to sit on anything other than a FLAT surface. There is no such thing as a true FLAT airport pad or runway. Since the mesh makes the area appear correct in elevation, the sim sets some of the airports either high or low so they are flat with the mesh that is correct. In doing so it makes some airports appear on a plateau, or in a gully.

Its been that way for some time in MSFS

They need to change MSFS to allow the world and all the airports to sit correctly on the landscape when a higher resolution mesh is installed.

So is FSGenesis mesh still woth getting despite the airport issues?  Is it a big enough improvement over the stock mesh to put up with the airport issue?

flyinjoe

You know.. some people just can not stand the plateaus and gullys... and refuse to use the mesh.

Its been that way since FS9. I can tell you the 10m USA mesh and world buffer mesh does improve the realistic quality because it makes the hills, valleys and other areas much more realistic in elvation and it does add areas the default mesh does not show, but it is not as much of a drastic change as it was using it in FS9 because the FS9 mesh was really bad to begin with. The FSX mesh is much closer and therefore what you see in the way of change will be a direct result of how well you know the area you are flying and if the mesh changes it enough to make for a better experience.

Here are some examples... just a few

http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az= ... &mode=full

I would not fly without it because I know the Cascades and several other mountain ranges like the back of my hand from the air and the mesh improves the detail of them much closer to realistic flying so the airport issue is secondary to me.

I understand Jason may be working on a way to streamline fixes into his mesh product at a later date which will fix the mesh around airports nut I have not heard anything lately about that.

I went ahead and bought it since it was only $25, but geez is it a big download to get all the files.  Plus, their download speeds are horribly slow.  It will take me all day just to download all the files covered in the US\Canada\Mexico update.   I may not get a chance to try it out until tomorrow since I'll set it to download overnight.

Should I backup anything special before trying it in case I don't like the changes or it reduces performance too much so that I can revert back to defaults if needed?

flyinjoe

[quote]I went ahead and bought it since it was only $25, but geez is it a big download to get all the files.

I finally got one area downloaded and installed.  I picked the one covering my area first since that's the area I fly around most often and would recognize the changes.  I find the changes to be worth every penny.  They are sublte changes for the most part, but noticable enough to make a big difference in the overall view of things.  The airports are a bit disappointing, but you only run across one of those every so often so i's no big deal.  The only thing that really bothers me is that some sections of small waterways are now up on plateaus as well, but again, not that many so I can put up with them.    I imagine when I get up high in the air that the airport and waterway plateau problem will become even more of a non issue as well.

I think I got all the addons I need now.  I got UTX for road and waterways, GEX for improved ground textures, FSGenesis and Cloud9 landclasses to switch between as needed, FSGenesis mesh for improved terrain and FEX for improved weather, especially when they finish their weather engine.  Let's see:  

FSX+Accel              = $60
FEX                        = $45
UTX                        = $35
GEX                        = $30
FSGenesis Mesh       = $25
FSGenesis landclass = $17
Cloud9 Landclass     = $10

                TOTAL    =$222 (I think I better stop now  ;D )
               

Tony Meredith and also the author of the fantastic UK2000 airports like Bristol, Stanstead, etc etc have made airports that completely remove the plateaus and cliffs.  Tony has a large number of great UK airfields and he keeps putting them out as freeware (Avsim, Flightsim).  Both his and the great UK2000 majors for FSX have built these to merge seamlessly with the Horizon Generation X photoscenery.

I haven't followed US free and payware airfields so closely but I wouldn't be surprised if some AFX authors aren't already applying these techniques - although there may be some IP involved.