Plausibility of X-Plane's default scenery

[RealScenery]

The following quote is from the NorCal Screenshot of the Day forum and was brought here to expand on the broader topic of the plausibility of default scenery in X-Plane.

Fantastic eye candy, I feel like I'm watching those endless billboard TV commercials - just kidding

it looks great! I feel Austin's "plausible world" is somewhat of a joke. I think he should've stuck to the real world. His plausible world Is probably the greatest mistake he has made with this program. But that won't stop me from flying it everyday. I've seen many posts on other forums which people wished he would use X Terra or something similar. In spite of the fact he does not like ortho photos I find they are the only way to fly VFR from point A to point B and know where the hell you're going by way of recognizable landmarks.

Thanks JazAero - always appreciate the nice comments! As far as the plausibility of the default scenery is concerned, there are a lot of differing opinions on this topic. First, you have to keep in mind that Laminar Research (LR) and RealScenery produce two very different products with respect to ground scenery and "realism." LR has to create scenery world-wide and make it as plausible as possible. Traditionally, this has been known as "landuse-based" scenery. Basically, you come up with generic image textures to use for urban and rural areas, taking into account the landuse, climate, elevation, etc. To conquer the world-wide scenery problem, this is about all you can do. Could LR use actual imagery to cover the world? Sure, but no one would want to use it because the resolution would be so low - talk about "implausibility!" With RealScenery, I create imagery from real data sources, and combine it with elevation and hydrography (water features), to create my own "plausible world." I don't have to deal with creating scenery for the entire world (although many have asked! ) Are they different? You bet! Is one more plausible than another? Probably. There will be many differing opinions on this, for sure. Many people swear by only flying with image-based scenery, like RealScenery, or the excellent work that Drawbridge Designs, Chris K. and others have made for smaller areas. Others really enjoy the new scenery of X-Plane 10. There's no right or wrong answer. The good thing is that there are choices.

If I were making my own sim, I would definitely take the approach of creating generic scenery in as "plausible" way as possible. The other approach is to create a sim that covers only a small geographic area, combining imagery and 3D objects. While this can be great for a small area, this won't be an attractive option for most people that live outside this region.

I'm sure others will have strong opinions on this topic. The topic of plausibility has also been discussed in other flight sim forums as well. Most likely, this debate rage on as long as there are flight sims!

Eric

Edited February 17, 2013 by RealScenery

[Muskoka]

Great post Eric,

 

I am not a fan of the plausible world, I'll get that out upfront. In most cases the plausible world falls way too far from reality, even a "make believe" reality, something that could be considered plausible.

 

It's like taking a few 2x4's, and 4 wheels and saying, "well it's a car, or can be a car". Yes it can be, but in reality it falls far short from being a car. Well the plausible world in XPX in a lot of cases falls far too short, it's not plausible, there's no reality, it's not really believable.

 

That can be lived with I guess. The problem I have / see is there is no way to enhance it. We are offered the ability to inject OSM data into our area of choice to fly, the problem being that the OSM data for a great portion of the world is non-existent. The onus is put solely on the end user to do something about it, very unfair as far as I'm concerned. I've already paid for a program that should have believable / accurate placement of scenery (or options - see below), now I'm expected to provide hundreds if not thousands of hours doing OSM editing to enhance - enrich a paid product. This is just not going to happen, end users don't have the time, or the desire to cover the world.

 

Although the concepts of using OSM data are great , the reality of it falls far too short. It's great if you live in an area with great coverage, but there's not enough of them. Anyone can post screen shots of how great their area looks, and good for them, I can show thousands where there's nothing, and the Xplane world looks terrible verses reality. I would gladly pay someone to provide me with accurate scenery, but not even that is available. I think end users have more than enough justification to complain about this aspect of XPX, it's a huge problem that turns a lot of potential long term users away.

 

People want choices, and with Xplane, other than developer created aircraft addons, we have no choices. Where's all the commercial scenery, there is none. Granted, there are some very nice freeware sceneries out there, but not on a grand / global scale, and certainly not on a commercial level that makes it easy for the end user to enhance their flying world to their liking. This is just one of many things that needs to change for XPX to truly succeed as a complete flight simulator. It's time to move from being a "Engineering Tool", to a complete fully functional flight simulator. If that's not the "vision" of the developer, then I guess it's fine in it's current state, I'm hoping for so much more. Better scenery is one aspect.

 

Just my  thoughts guys.

 

Glen

Edited February 17, 2013 by Muskoka

[john82088]

Eric: Is south California next after north California is out?

[RealScenery]

Hey John, I've made a lot of progress on SoCal, however, the next scenery release after NorCal will not be in California. I'll announce where, and show previews, after the NorCal release. The good news is that the region is almost done. All the infrastructure X-Aviation is building for the NorCal scenery will be used for future packages, so the time to get them to our customers will be rapidly reduced...

Edited February 17, 2013 by RealScenery

[john82088]

Wow! That is great news. Looking forward to that announcement. I always enjoy flying in states with RealScenery.