Mesh Install

[jackryan172]

Hi all,

I am starting my install of FS9 on the new machine. The first thing I think I want to install post 9.1 is a good mesh, correct? Any suggestions for good freeware or payware mesh? Do I want to have different meshes for different areas with higher LOD?

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks,
Sean

[Tom Clayton]

Two names to look for: Raimondo Taburet, and Justin Tyme. Plus, anything that has FSGenesis and freeware in the same sentence. There's quite a bit to choose from out there, and nearly all of it excellent. There's also a set from SOH user "rhumbaflappy" that was "marketed" for the CFS2 crowd, but that Sim uses the same scenery engine as FS9.

Also, to make the most of any mesh, open your fs9.cfg and go to the [TERRAIN] section. Edit the TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL line and raise it to 21.

[Naismith]

Personally I like FS Global 10, I used to have Genesis years ago and found that to have a lot of anomalies (lakes on plateaus e.g.) when my 3 year licence ran out and I lost them in a HD crash and the company denied me to re-download, I then opted for Global. Have been very pleased. It discriminates between FSX & FS9 in the install procedure and is great in both.

[Mick]

I've mainly used FSG freeware mesh for years and been pleased with it, but I can't compare it to anything else because I've almost never tried anything else. The single exception was early on, when I tried some mesh that I'm pretty sure (not certain) was by Raimondo Taburet, and it was incompatible with the corrected waters of FREEflow New England - I had lakes hanging on mountainsides at crazy angles. I can't say that FSG is perfect - it probably isn't (what is?) but at least my mountains are steep, located properly in relation to lakes, rivers and coastlines, and my lakes and rivers are flat.

As for having different levels of detail in different paces, definitely yes. You'll want the highest detail you can get in your local area, where you're familiar with every little hillock and vale, and in places with a lot of spectacular vertical scenery, like like the Grand Canyon, the Alps and the Himalayas. No surprise - these are just the sort of places that the highest resolution mesh is available for. (Well, except maybe your home town, depending on where you live.)

I read here (I can't recall who wrote it) that you can have mesh of different levels of detail installed and that FS will know enough to read and use the most detailed mesh it has in each location where you fly, so you can just drop all your mesh into one folder, and FS will sort it out. I followed that advice and it works for me; I see the extra detail in the places where I expect to see it. I keep my mesh folder very low in the scenery stack, with pretty much everything else layered on top of it. I don't know how necessary that is, but it seems to make sense.

Here's a little tidbit about high definition mesh. I've lived in this town for more than forty years and have explored it thoroughly on foot and bicycle. But when I installed high def mesh in FS9 and flew over it, I discovered a couple interesting geological features that I hadn't spotted in the real world, and when I went looking for them, sure enough, the real ground was just like the sim.

[jackryan172]

Well I just purchased FS Global 10 so we will see how that plays out. If I read it right its 6 CDs worth of data? I assume most of that is for FSX but man thats a lot of data points.

Sean

[Naismith]

Be aware it takes a long time installing. Put the coffee pot on. I am sure you will be pleased with it though.

[rich12545]

You can put all your mesh of different LODs in the same folder. FS9 will use the best automatically. The only time you need to be concerned with different levels is if you have the same LOD from two different places. Put the one you want to see on the bottom (higher number).

After a lot of experimentation I don't use anything higher than LOD9 in FS9 unless it's designed for the area like Misty Fjords or whatever. It can cause too many problems with the most common airports on pedestals or in ditches even 20 feet deep. Or it can screw up scenery like Cap Keith.

[Tom Clayton]

Well I just purchased FS Global 10 so we will see how that plays out. If I read it right its 6 CDs worth of data? I assume most of that is for FSX but man thats a lot of data points.

Sean

My mesh for the Philippines by itself is 78.7 MB. You're right, mesh files can be huge. I hope you have a massive hard drive - you've bought 25 GB of data.