Freeware Scenery?

[Walter]

Does anybody know of a good freeware scenery that covers a large area? I'm getting tired of the default scenery's shortcomings.

Thank you!

Walter

P.S. I forgot to mention that I am a newbie to upgrading scenery, so if there is anything else I should do as well, please let me know!

[dhazelgrove]

What do you mean by 'scenery'?
What shortcomings are you finding?
Where do you fly?

If you want more detail, you'll have to download a great deal of it.
You can start by looking on avsim, flightsim and simviation.
There is also Blue Sky Scenery, which covers large parts of the USA.

Dave

[Walter]

What do you mean by 'scenery'?
What shortcomings are you finding?
Where do you fly?

If you want more detail, you'll have to download a great deal of it.
You can start by looking on avsim, flightsim and simviation.
There is also Blue Sky Scenery, which covers large parts of the USA.

Dave

I just want it to look better than this:

90678

I don't really fly any one place often. I like going all over the place. I like how ORBX looks, but I don't want to buy it, yet.

[Dino Cattaneo]

If you like photoreal sceneries, I highly suggest BlueSky's offerings - very large coverage and breathtaking sceneries (at altitude)...

http://www.blueskyscenery.com/

If coupled with detailed airport sceneries the result is great. I fly from freeware NAS Fallon and FSX:A Edwards and I am totally satisfied.

[falcon409]

One thing to remember about most "Photoreal" scenery. You'll notice that Dino adds "at altitude" in parenthesis, meaning that when you land, you won't see much if anything in the way of autogen (trees, buildings, houses, anything). As long as you're flying, from what I've seen in screenshots, the vista is breathtaking, it's just that the closer you get to the ground, the less impressive it is. Try it by all means, just understand that if you're looking for the full package, it won't be with photoreal scenery.

One addendum to that, and you've already mentioned it. . .Orbx is a major exception....what they've done is how I'd like to see all photoreal scenery produced, but you can imagine the time involved in placing autogen vegetation over huge expanses of terrain not to mention accurately placing buildings and such.

[rdaniell]

I just want it to look better than this: I don't really fly any one place often. I like going all over the place. I like how ORBX looks, but I don't want to buy it, yet.

Walter, I plan to upload my Ware Island scenery in the very near future. Your screen shot looks a lot like the FSX default Ware Island. Take a look at the screen shot I posted on my thread: Ware Island. I'm afraid you will need to have UTX installed, however. Otherwise, the shore lines, etc., won't line up exactly with the scenery bgl.

That's one of the downsides to using third party sceneries.

RD

[falcon409]

Yep, what RD said. He also brings up another option to "photoreal" scenery. Many freeware scenery developers utilize photoreal textures for their ground textures which enhances the airport experience a lot, plus being a relatively confined area (that covering the airport itself) placing autogen vegetation and buildings is relatively easy and the effects can be stunning. So you might try some individual airports that have photoreal textures and see how that works for you as well.

[Paul Domingue]

You have to remember that this is a flight simulator with the emphasis on flight. If you want really nice ground textures with autogen then you will have to come out of pocket. Another consideration with scenery addons is your system because some of the scenery will have a noticeable effect on FPS on low end systems.

[TheGrunt]

There are freeware meshes made around the world, which improve overall look somewhat. Freeware landclasses are a rarity, but there is at least one made for Japan that I know. Global or continent level texture sets are also pretty uncommon, but there are Aime Leclerq's sets and Adam Mill's sets for Europe (I don't think he did any for any other part of the world). Whole terrain sets for country level, which include more or less all of the components are pretty few. I have only one, FinlandX which is huge improvement over the default with objects, landclass, mesh and improved textures.

[Reddog]

There are freeware meshes made around the world, which improve overall look somewhat. Freeware landclasses are a rarity, but there is at least one made for Japan that I know. Global or continent level texture sets are also pretty uncommon, but there are Aime Leclerq's sets and Adam Mill's sets for Europe (I don't think he did any for any other part of the world). Whole terrain sets for country level, which include more or less all of the components are pretty few. I have only one, FinlandX which is huge improvement over the default with objects, landclass, mesh and improved textures.
Adam Mills also did them for the USA, I have both. Am now waiting for FTX global to come out to repace his.

[Walter]

Ok, I'll look into the BlueSky option. I'd rather have something like ORBX and FTX, so I guess I'll have to buy those later.

Thank you!

[anthony31]

Always a good index of freeware scenery:
http://www.freewarescenery.com/fsx.html
List by country and within each country you have airport and non-airport scenery categories

Netherlands photoreal scenery is also good
http://www.nl-2000.com/nuke/

[Bjoern]

There's an all around upgrade for Norway as well.