falcon409
August 3rd, 2009, 10:44
I've been looking at this almost since I first saw advertisements for it, but I was flying strictly FS9 and this wasn't (isn't) available for that platform. Since moving back into FSX I decided to try a bit of it, especially since New Jersey is one of the areas that's almost completely covered.
Very first impression. . . .it looks washed out. I worked as a Commercial/Graphic Artist for almost 30 years and so stuff like this, in a production release drives me nutty, lol. Hasn't anyone ever heard of "contrast"? Tweaking these tiles to add more contrast would not only add more depth to them but also (in this case) allow them to sync better with the autogen that's dribbled around the landscape. . .as it is the autogen sticks out like a sore thumb. Every offering I've seen come out that incorporates satellite imagery as ground textures is done the same way, washed out, flat as a pancake and off color. Yea it takes a lot of work to tweak those tiles, I can only imagine, but geeeeze what a difference it would make, aaaaaand you might get a lot more return customers with a quality product.
Ok, second impression. . .very cool, lol, lol. Yea, all that above still holds true, but revving up the Northwest Chopper and flying over a state I grew up in and recognize almost every highway and side street is very cool indeed. The Atlantic City Exprwy (North/South Frwy as we knew it), Black Horse Pike, Rt 42, Sunset Beach, My High School, Atlantic City, Cape May and on and on. . . .just very cool. The other thing that's just amazing to me (I'm easily amazed) is that the ground traffic, which is default in FSX, follows the exact track of the highways as set in Megascenery. So all the clover leaf turns, off ramps, overpasses, everything as seen from the air has traffic that follows those curves and circles, etc. Just the coolest thing ever. I'm havin' a blast going home and hangin' out for a bit.
Finally, yea I know . . ."Tile Proxy". Well, it doesn't have autogen and getting it to work was an on again off again process that I never really mastered so this, in my opinion, is already better than putting up with the hassles of TileProxy. The other thing is that if you have "Easy Scenery", "Instant Scenery" or any of the other scenery placement programs for FSX, you can now drop objects "exactly" where they need to be because the ground textures are there for placement. . .which is exactly what I plan on doing for some of the airports around Jersey. Oh yea. . .I'm lovin' it, lol.
Very first impression. . . .it looks washed out. I worked as a Commercial/Graphic Artist for almost 30 years and so stuff like this, in a production release drives me nutty, lol. Hasn't anyone ever heard of "contrast"? Tweaking these tiles to add more contrast would not only add more depth to them but also (in this case) allow them to sync better with the autogen that's dribbled around the landscape. . .as it is the autogen sticks out like a sore thumb. Every offering I've seen come out that incorporates satellite imagery as ground textures is done the same way, washed out, flat as a pancake and off color. Yea it takes a lot of work to tweak those tiles, I can only imagine, but geeeeze what a difference it would make, aaaaaand you might get a lot more return customers with a quality product.
Ok, second impression. . .very cool, lol, lol. Yea, all that above still holds true, but revving up the Northwest Chopper and flying over a state I grew up in and recognize almost every highway and side street is very cool indeed. The Atlantic City Exprwy (North/South Frwy as we knew it), Black Horse Pike, Rt 42, Sunset Beach, My High School, Atlantic City, Cape May and on and on. . . .just very cool. The other thing that's just amazing to me (I'm easily amazed) is that the ground traffic, which is default in FSX, follows the exact track of the highways as set in Megascenery. So all the clover leaf turns, off ramps, overpasses, everything as seen from the air has traffic that follows those curves and circles, etc. Just the coolest thing ever. I'm havin' a blast going home and hangin' out for a bit.
Finally, yea I know . . ."Tile Proxy". Well, it doesn't have autogen and getting it to work was an on again off again process that I never really mastered so this, in my opinion, is already better than putting up with the hassles of TileProxy. The other thing is that if you have "Easy Scenery", "Instant Scenery" or any of the other scenery placement programs for FSX, you can now drop objects "exactly" where they need to be because the ground textures are there for placement. . .which is exactly what I plan on doing for some of the airports around Jersey. Oh yea. . .I'm lovin' it, lol.