RealScenery

Hi John, Good suggestion! We'll consider a naming convention for our next package. Many of our customers are now having several scenery packages loaded at the same time, so this naming convention will become important in keeping your scenery organized. Just so you and others know, you can name the scenery folders whatever you like. So, for example, you could rename the Nashville folder to TN_Nashville. Renaming the folders will have no effect on using your RealScenery. However, you don't want to do anything to the files/folders inside the Nashville folder unless you really know what you're doing, or you can break the scenery and X-Plane will not see it. Happy flying! Eric

Hi dpais, Yes, I experience that as well, with both the current release and the beta. Unfortunately, this is not something that I have direct control over. I will look into this some more and see if the methodology used to create the scenery files can be modified to eliminate this. However, RealScenery is designed to be used without the X-Plane roads. The default roads in X-Plane are from a much smaller scale, and therefore, less detailed source. In many cases the roads will not align well with the more accurate imagery underneath. While 3D objects are certainly supported with RealScenery, such as buildings, roads, and forests, you may find that flying without them turned on will add to the realism of the sim as well as improve your performance and framerates when flying. Obviously, the choice is yours as to whether you like to fly with 3D objects. Many of our customers prefer to leave these settings turned off and just enjoy the imagery. I will let you know if there is a way to control this behavior, but right now I believe it is within the X-Plane rendering code itself and not something that I can change... Thanks. Eric

RealScenery Tennessee is now for sale on X-Aviation. Get complete details at RealScenery.com! Demos, screenshot galleries and HD movies are all available now. All RealScenery products are now available through download or DVD from X-Aviation.com. Eric

Enjoy our latest HD movie of RealScenery Tennessee. [vimeo]4674791[/vimeo]

Enjoy our latest HD movie of RealScenery Arizona. [vimeo]4538814[/vimeo]

Hi John, We've completed all of the scenery production for TN. What we are working on now is the transition to selling through X-Aviation. X-Aviation is developing an online store complete with downloads of all of our scenery packages. We are also getting DVDs manufactured for all of our scenery packages. The conclusion of all this work should only be a short time away and we will release TN and the rest of our products all at the same time on X-Aviation.com. Thanks for your patience! Eric

Hi Dick, Yes you're right. As stated in the first post in this forum, these are "preview" images and haven't had any image processing done. During image processing, we removed this excess blue from the original images and they are much improved over the images show here. Each image undergoes about a dozen steps from the time it's created to the time it's ready for X-Plane. Also, as you indicated, there are a lot of influences into how an image will appear including: Software used to view the image. Video card Monitor File format Operating system used (Mac/PC/Linux all render a bit differently) Even X-Plane puts its own spin on how images look. Thanks for your comments. Overall, I think this package will be a lot of fun to fly in X-Plane and we're very excited about it. Eric

Hi GlowWorm, Four main factors go into answering your question. 1. Size of geographic area are you interested in covering. 2. Resolution of your images. Everytime you increase your resolution by a factor of two, you quadruple the number of pixels (eg., where you had 1 pixel, you now have four). 3. Image format. Will you be saving your imagery as .bmp, .png, or .dds files? 4. Bit depth of the imagery. Will you be using 24-bit or 8-bit images? 5. Do you need an alpha channel for transparency support? This will determine which formats you can use. All of these factors will make a significant difference in the storage necessary for any image-based scenery package. Usually, it's a trade-off between detail and geographic area covered, with the image format and bit-depth secondary factors. Hope this helps. Eric

Wadesworld, Thanks for the nice comments. They are always appreciated. We are really looking forward to this TN release. The image quality is outstanding and we've developed some new image processing techniques that really enhance the details of the imagery. Also, look for a California package from us in the future! This is still in the early stages, but it's on our list and most likely will be in multiple parts, such as NORCAL and SOCAL. Hopefully some HR packages for California as well, similar to our PhoenixHR and TucsonHR scenery packages, which are higher resolution than the statewide packages. Eric

Here are sample images of the index maps for the new Tennessee scenery. I've included the overview map, which will be available on RealScenery.com. The larger images are examples of the detail included with the scenery on DVD. All RealScenery packages include high-resolution sectional charts to help plan all of your flights! The index map shows all of the areas included with the Tennessee RealScenery. Each scenery area is 1 square degree, which is approximately 3,800 square miles / 9,840 square kilometers at the latitude of Tennessee. Each full scenery area will contain 1600 images! Zoomed-in sample of the Memphis East scenery area: Full resolution sample:

The last couple of weeks have been spent developing the image processing routines for the Tennessee imagery. After the routines were developed, all of the raw imagery was processed. I've included some examples below. The imagery looks great in X-Plane! We developed some new image processing techniques with this scenery package that have really improved the quality from the raw imagery. Each image undergoes 11 different processes from the time it's created with the GIS software to the time it's ready for X-Plane. Keep in mind that the size of the images has been reduced to make it nicer to view in this forum. The actual imagery used by X-Plane is a larger size. The images below are just a sample of imagery that covers the entire state - over 17,500 images will be included in this package! Development status: In addition to all of the processed imagery, all of the X-Plane terrain files have been created, so a lot of the work is now complete! The next steps involve bringing each scenery area into X-Plane for the final quality control checks. After all of the images are checked, they will be converted to their final format. We're hoping to have everything complete sometime in mid-April. Enjoy.

John, All objects really work similarly in X-Plane, whether you download them, or use the ones that Overlay Editor references in various X-Plane libraries. I'm not an expert in this area, but I don't believe 3D objects have any inherent geographic coordinates. They just know their relative dimensions. Because of this, you need to place them using a program such as Overlay Editor. The nice thing about this is that you can place any object anywhere on the earth. You could take objects from an airport in one area and place them at an airport your interested in. I typically use Overlay Editor to place static aircraft on the ramp area at my airport. For more information on using and placing objects, you might want to post some questions on the Scenery Development forum found here: http://forums.x-pilot.com/index.php?board=12.0. There are a lot of people in the X-Plane community that are very knowledgeable about working with objects in X-Plane. Hope this helps! Eric

We often receive questions regarding whether 3D objects are supported with RealScenery. The answer is “Yes!” You can use Overlay Editor to place a variety of different 3D objects on top of your RealScenery. These include a variety of aircraft and airport objects, as well as your own custom objects that you may have designed. X-Plane prioritizes scenery packages based on the alphabetical order of the scenery folders in your X-Plane > Custom Scenery folder. A scenery package containing 3D objects will not be displayed if it has a name later in the alphabet than a full scenery package covering the same area. Example: You have loaded the Oregon RealScenery and want to place some aircraft at the Corvallis, Oregon airport, KCVO. Use Overlay Editor to view the Corvallis airport and place your objects. When you're done, save your scenery package as Corvallis, preceded by a number or underscore. Example names could be 0Corvallis, 9Corvallis, _Corvallis, etc. All numbers and some special characters, like "_" will make the Corvallis scenery object package a higher priority than the full Corvallis RealScenery package. Following this naming convention should allow you to successfully enhance your RealScenery 3D objects. RealScenery is also fully supported by Overlay Editor which allows you to view the RealScenery image textures so you can accurately place your 3D objects! Overlay Editor is a free, editing environment, created by Jonathan Harris, for placing objects in your scenery. It can be found here: http://marginal.org.uk/x-planescenery/tools.html.

One of the best X-Plane videos around. I've watched it several times. You've really captured the essence of X-Plane here. Look forward to seeing other videos that you create.

Cam and Robin, Glad to hear from both of you though email that the terrain files were the issue. v9.2 and above is definitely the way to go if you're flying with large image-based scenery packages.

Hi Cam, If you ordered Florida and Washington, both of these should be using the new faster terrain files. Here's how to tell: Go into your X-Plane > Custom Scenery folder. Look in one of your RealScenery folders. You should see a "terrain" folder. Open up any of the files in a text editor. They are just plain text. You should see something similar to the following: I 800 TERRAIN BASE_TEX_NOWRAP ../textures/Mt_Olympus_9_12.png LOAD_CENTER 47.575000 -123.575000 5559 1024 Look for the LOAD_CENTER in the file. If you have this, then you are using the 9.2 terrain files. Depending on your system, it may still take several minutes to load the data, especially if your texture resolution is set to a higher value such as Very High or Extreme. Keep in mind that you don't have to load all of the data. Look at the high-res index aeronautical charts included on the DVD. You can pick and choose the areas in which you'd like to fly, which may give you better performance. Hope this helps! Eric

Here is the link to the updated terrain files. You will just need to update your existing terrain folders with the new 9.2 version. www.realscenery.com/update/WashingtonEast.zip www.realscenery.com/update/WashingtonWest.zip The new terrain files will increase the load time significantly, even on a high-end system like yours. The state of Washington scenery was developed prior to 9.2 being released. All of our scenery packages, including Washington, now include these new high-performance terrain files. Enjoy!

Hi Robin, These load times would be expected if you're using the pre-9.2 terrain files. As I recall, you ordered the WA scenery right after we announced its availability, which would have been pre-9.2. After 9.2 was released, we sent out an upgrade to all of our customers by email with a link to download new 9.2 terrain files. I suspect this is the issue you are experiencing. Let me know if you need the new terrain files and I'll post the link here for you. All of our other scenery packages were released with the 9.2 version terrain files. Hope this helps! Eric

Hi John, Welcome to X-Pilot! Thanks for stopping by the RealScenery area to look around. We're hoping for a mid-April release date for Tennessee. An announcement will be posted here as well as sent to the X-Plane News Yahoo group when its available. Also, be sure to look at the screenshots from our Oregon scenery that was posted by another X-Pilot member. http://forums.x-pilot.com/index.php?topic=79.0 Eric

I wanted to give everyone an update... The first phase of image processing is now complete! This involves completing the initial processing of all the raw imagery and is the most labor-intensive step. The next steps involve all of the image processing to make the imagery really look sharp in X-Plane. This includes removing and reducing atmospheric haze, sharpening, and saturation adjustment. Resampling of all images to their final resolution will also be completed during this phase. The final image count for the state of Tennessee will be over 17,500! This will be the largest and highest resolution state package yet! I'll get more preview images posted as they become ready to bring them into X-Plane.

Welcome to X-Pilot, Boleyd. This is something I've wondered about for a long time. However, I can tell you that a significant portion of my customer base are real pilots, which I'm very pleased to see. Perhaps this could be a poll question. I think the results would be interesting. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'd say that X-Plane has a higher percentage of real pilots than MSFS... Hopefully you've started some interesting discussion here.

Geofa - glad you liked the TN preview. Nice to hear from another real pilot. Many of our customers are real pilots and, like you, enjoy flying with real imagery under their wings. This should be a fun package to fly. Working with some of the imagery in rural eastern TN really makes me want to get this into X-Plane to see what it's like!

Yes - All of our State series covers each state, border to border. In some cases, such as Oregon and Washington, there is significant overlap to the neighboring state if the imagery allows us to do so.

Our latest scenery work is for the State of Tennessee. This is going to be an exciting product for us and we hope you enjoy this preview. Like all of our other scenery projects, there are many steps and several different software packages used in getting the final imagery into X-Plane. We are almost finished processing the raw images. The preview area features screenshots around the greater Nashville area. These images have had no additional processing and are still in their raw state. Feel free to post comments or questions here! Enjoy! Zoomed-in map view showing the Cumberland River northeast of Nashville. An interesting shot showing default X-Plane scenery on top, RealScenery on the bottom. Zoomed-in map view showing the detail of the rural landscape northeast of Nashville. Flying along the Cumberland River. Always new things to explore during first flights with new scenery! A nice VFR flight to get that $100 hamburger. ;D Flying along the seam - can you tell which is which? Flying at higher altitude after a spring time thunderstorm close to sunset. Flying over downtown Nashville with objects turned on. KBNA in the distance. The X-Plane water matches the imagery perfectly.

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