X-Plane Terrain and Autogen

[Tom Knudsen]

I wish to start a healthy discussion on global ground textures and autogen in XP10 for both HDR and not.

 

I am one of those that think XP has the best default texture sets of all flight simulators, but placement and variation is somewhat horrible. 

Perticular areas they are awsome but in most places they seem to be stiched togeather by a blind person (no offence)

 

Previously I used FSX (well a couple of years now since) but moved permently to XP when version 10 was out (have both 8 and 9 too). 

I spent my time doing scenery design and also had something to do with GEX for those that know this package.

 

Anyway, I have had a long talk with AIPilot about the posibilities of mesh and texture and know all about the triangler issues regarding how x-plane is made. 

But I tend to think there must be something we can do about changing the quality or even the look and feel of the ground texture.

 

I see a small but reasonable good change in the latest beta with introducing the urban texture, this did have a nice small effect on the landscape. But I do believe 

there are many more areas we need to fix.

 

I want to pull up an image from the 3rd party vendor FTX for FSX that makes the known FTX Global a landclass and autogen scenery for MSFS

 

 

I think these farm textures and open field texture are more in the way of realism and a color de-saturated version for XP10 would be more suited than these stiched ones.

 

 

 

There are many areas that need to be looked at, but if we can have a healthy discussion, purhaps Ben or any other in the development team can start to see what we are wishing for.

 

 

What do you think, are there areas you would like to change? 

[FloB]

Deleted

Edited November 16, 2013 by FloB

[JGregory]

I want to pull up an image from the 3rd party vendor FTX for FSX that makes the known FTX Global a landclass and autogen scenery for MSFS

So you want to discuss third party (ORBX) ad-on scenery compared to stock XP10 default scenery?  Doesn't seem like the right place to start.

[Tom Knudsen]

Then you misunderstood me sir, i want improved textures not orbx

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[JGregory]

Then you misunderstood me sir, i want improved textures not orbx

And you have apparently misunderstood me as well.  You say want improved textures.  I'm asking if you are suggesting that the X-Plane developers (Laminar) create (improved) default scenery that is equivalent to ORBX payware add-on scenery?  Otherwise, why post the ORBX pictures?  Anyway, that's not going to happen... but third party X-Plane developers could certainly match or exceed what ORBX has done.

[Nicola_M]

I think I read Tom's post correctly - he's suggesting something along the lines of Orbx, but just not as colourful. 

XP's default scenery's colours are closer to real world than the brightness that is Orbx's offering, but the basic mesh of XP-land is awful.

 

Something in the middle would be great - a better mesh sort of like Orbx, but with the dulled-down colours of xp.  That's what I think he's suggesting.

I like the idea.

[scotchegg]

It seems unrealistic to expect LR's small team that has to cover everything to achieve similar texture variation to ORBX's much larger team that only focuses on scenery, but I'm totally behind the drive to press somebody to have a go at serious regional (and seasonal) textures. Given how good XP10 can look in the areas it does well, particularly with OSM, even closer focus on regional specifics would be stunning and would surely be a licence to print money even with the current market, let alone attracting a huge new following.

 

BTW Nicola, the default mesh of XP is not bad at all, and AlpilotX's HD free meshes seem much more detailed than anything I ever saw in FSX.

[JGregory]

It seems unrealistic to expect LR's small team that has to cover everything to achieve similar texture variation to ORBX's much larger team that only focuses on scenery, but I'm totally behind the drive to press somebody to have a go at serious regional (and seasonal) textures. Given how good XP10 can look in the areas it does well, particularly with OSM, even closer focus on regional specifics would be stunning and would surely be a licence to print money even with the current market, let alone attracting a huge new following.

Exactly. Laminar will NOT be producing ORBX level of detail scenery as default.  It would make NO SENSE for them to do so. However, as you state, the technology is available to any and all third party developers (i.e.. SkyMAXX) to make the sim shine...even better than what the competition is currently displaying.  Again, I think John's work is amazing and P3D will be put to shame by his stuff, and what X-plane is capable of.

[Ben Russell]

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-when-agricultural-landscapes-become-patchwork-quilts?image=0

[eaglewing7]

Ben, you've reminded me of what I've seen many times flying over farmed fields, logging cuts, etc.  Sometimes patterns exist in nature, and other times, patterns exist because humans make them.

 

 

[Ben Russell]

A bit more diversity in Laminars approach would be nice, there's nothing wrong with the textures themselves.... they're just used too often.

 

Plausible though.