Eric and I have seen the future....

[RollerBall]

Yes folks, Eric Rose and I have seen the future - and it's terrain mesh.

A short while ago Eric posted some screenies over Spain which used the new Spain terrain mesh scenery (70MB - I've got it but haven't installed it yet). They looked so good they prompted me to look for other mesh during my monster US download session.

I got 2 sets for the UK - 6.2MB covering the whole of the UK and Ireland by Pietro Mauri and 2 zips totalling 30MB covering just the UK by Josiah Haut.

Now I don't do low level VFR, do I. But I've been punting round the north west of England at 300 kts and 3-4000 feet in  the Falcon with the biggest grin on my face. I've been flying over rolling hills with woods on top that suddenly give way to lakes, fields, small villages and stuff. And I swear the roads and rivers are cleaner and sharper as well.

I could have done dozens of screenies but here are just a couple (in deference to Pete's server!) showing the default (before) and the Mauri mesh (after).





So what do you think? I reckon that with things like more highly designed planes and airports (there's some excellent freeware out there - no need to buy payware), animated ground action (possibly) and advanced ATC, it's the way forward to the future.

But then again, I might be wrong....

[FSTipster]

Looks great.

The problem I have with terrain mesh is that it may look great, and be vastly more accurate than the default, but with 90% of my add-on airfields, they're not built to cope with the revised elevations. Consequently, they're either sunk in pits, or more commonly, on raised ground compared to the surrounding scenery.

I've got UK2000 airports and it's an absolute nightmare with those.

I originally had some free UK terrain mesh installed but I removed it in the end. The airports just looked ridiculous.

[RollerBall]

Yeah I'm looking at that and doing a few experiments.

Flew around the south coast last night from IOW to London City. Only passed Lydd (that was OK), Manston (also OK), Rochester (addon - bit scruffy as roads corrected by designer did not now line up but was on slight plateau as in real life) and Lon City where I landed (OK).

Obviously need to look at other fields which are on higher ground in the north and Midlands. I've got an East Midlands addon (I think) which already looks stupid in the default scenery so it'll be interesting to see how it looks on the mesh.

[ross607]

Hi there..... Yeah, am also using the Mauri Mesh...looks great and I also have ALOT of freeware UK airports and sceneries added (no payware stuff though).

At the moment I'm just in the middle of flying around the UK and Ireland just basically checking out all the stuff i've installed and I have to say as far as the scenery and mesh is concerned so far so good, everything has fitted together well so far. I have been all over northern England and Scotland, all around the outskirts of southern Ireland (mesh looks fantastic there... lots of woods and rolling hills and stuff, loved every minute of it!)

So yeah I'd say its definately worth while doing, its certainly increased my enjoyment no end.  ....oh btw rollerball, I have family that live on the isle of wight and visit them at least once a year...... hows the mesh job look on the island? can you remember?? - I haven't made it down to the southern coast yet and I wondered if there's been any improvement over the erm 'flatness' of the default!  

[RollerBall]

[quote]oh btw rollerball, I have family that live on the isle of wight and visit them at least once a year...... hows the mesh job look on the island? can you remember?? - I haven't made it down to the southern coast yet and I wondered if there's been any improvement over the erm 'flatness' of the default!

[RollerBall]

I've got UK2000 airports and it's an absolute nightmare with those.

I originally had some free UK terrain mesh installed but I removed it in the end. The airports just looked ridiculous.

John, everything I've tried so far with this Mauri mesh is great. It hasn't changed the mesh so much as to be unbelievable - it's rather more subtle and gives nice coastal beaches, additional textures, rolling scenery and so on. I'd definitely give it a try and see how it goes with your addons.

PS
There is still the odd funny - like a road on the water - but I guess those can't be avoided without a lot of rejigging work

[codered]

I too have seen the future, and it looks freekin fantastic!  On top of freeware scenery meshes, great looking addon aircraft and airports, plus the the combination of weather-maker 1.4 and the FSW clouds....  FS2002 went from COOL to MY-OH-MY!  You have to practically put a plastic cover over the keyboard to protect it from all the drool....  Anyway, the best part about these great addons is most of them (atleast for me) were free!  Granted, you could steer clear of the payware, and still have a terrific simming experience.  

[Ivan]

that was the same reaction i had after installing mesh scenery for the himalaya's

only the framerate drop was not so drool-able

[ozzy72]

I've got freeware meshes for the whole of Europe. A few gigs worth, but well worth it. I remember flying in the Basque region before, and it was flatter than a witches whatnot, after, lots of beautiful mountains and loads of fun! Especially in poor visability!!!!

Ozzy

[FSTipster]

John, everything I've tried so far with this Mauri mesh is great. It hasn't changed the mesh so much as to be unbelievable - it's rather more subtle and gives nice coastal beaches, additional textures, rolling scenery and so on. I'd definitely give it a try and see how it goes with your addons.

PS
There is still the odd funny - like a road on the water - but I guess those can't be avoided without a lot of rejigging work

Ok you convinced me.

Is this mesh available here? (I'm not being lazy here- I'm in the middle of flying Leg 11 as I write this and I'm trying to saty away from hopping around on the net right now. My ISP connection has been somewhat fragile the last few days and I don't want to lose my real weather updates half way through).

Once I've installed it, I'll definitely take a look and see if Mr Summons airports can cope with it. It could be that the last Mesh I had installed simply wasn't accurate as opposed to the airport elevations being wrong.

[Ivan]

I've got freeware meshes for the whole of Europe. A few gigs worth, but well worth it. I remember flying in the Basque region before, and it was flatter than a witches whatnot, after, lots of beautiful mountains and loads of fun! Especially in poor visability!!!!

Ozzy

Radar altimeters are a must when using mesh scenery. it happened to me often that altitudes in FSNavigator were LOWER than the actual height of the mesh terrain!