FSX Scenery Library Order

[pcubine]

Almost all of the different airports and sceneries I have installed indicate in their documentation that they should be at the top of the list in the FSX scenery library. Obviously this is not possible. Right now I have all addon airports in no particular order, then addon scenerey, then FSX default scenery. Is this correct?

Thank you
Michael Cubine

[virtuali]

Almost all of the different airports and sceneries I have installed indicate in their documentation that they should be at the top of the list in the FSX scenery library. Obviously this is not possible.

They can only say that, because they can't suggest any other ordering, since it depends on what ELSE you have installed so, the only generic suggestion is to put them at the Top of the Scenery Library, since it minimize (not 100% eliminate) the chance for conflicts.

In general, sceneries covering a smaller area should be on Top of those covering larger areas.

[cmpbllsjc]

Michael,

What I do with mine is start from the west and work my way to the east, with ORBX products starting at the farthest western point and directly above Ultimate Terrain. Then as I go west from there I layer in my products. So I start with California with any photo real stuff like MegaScenery/MegaScenery Earth being the first followed by KSFO, KLAX when its out, then Las Vegas MegaScenery, then FSDT KLAS, etc. I always make sure to put the photo real stuff first then the airports on top of it that fall with in that region. I do the same thing until I get to European sceneries which always remain at the top of my scenery layers.

Do it in this order has served me well thru the years and of course since it goes from west to east, it makes it easier to find an entry in the library should I need to remove, enable, or disable it.

[Frank Lindberg]

Um.... does it matter

[cmpbllsjc]

Um.... does it matter

Of course it matters otherwise there wouldn't be a way to change the layers. You wouldn't want to have some products on higher layers than other products or you will sometimes get conflicts between two seperate scenery items. Ultimate Terrain is a good example of a scenery layers you want to keep on the bottom otherwise you will get their roads showing up on top of photo sceneries if you have them installed. Looks really funny having UT polygons sitting on top of photo scenery imho.

[Bruce Hamilton]

What I do with mine is start from the west and work my way to the east, with ORBX products starting at the farthest western point and directly above Ultimate Terrain. Then as I go west from there I layer in my products.

Interesting way of doing it.  I normally take anything in the realm of photoreal and drop it right above the entry for addon scenery, then I group my airports by developer or publisher.  My UK2K airports in one bundle, FSDT in another, and so on.

[pcubine]

Just testing screenshots.

Michael Cubine

[skimmer]

The more intense or the bigger the scenery is should always go on top. So FSDT with the addon manager and all it offers go on the top of my list. I have all my Flight 1 scenery under that even though they say to put on top. I have had no problems since I did it this way.

[pcubine]

Michael,

What I do with mine is start from the west and work my way to the east, with ORBX products starting at the farthest western point and directly above Ultimate Terrain. Then as I go west from there I layer in my products. So I start with California with any photo real stuff like MegaScenery/MegaScenery Earth being the first followed by KSFO, KLAX when its out, then Las Vegas MegaScenery, then FSDT KLAS, etc. I always make sure to put the photo real stuff first then the airports on top of it that fall with in that region. I do the same thing until I get to European sceneries which always remain at the top of my scenery layers.

Do it in this order has served me well thru the years and of course since it goes from west to east, it makes it easier to find an entry in the library should I need to remove, enable, or disable it.

That sounds like a logical and unforgettable way to install airports and scenery. The last reinstall that I did all the airports and scenery were reinstall in a haphazard manner depending where I wanted to fly first. I then ordered them in the FSX Scenery Library in accordance with what I wrote in the first post. I had a question regarding the screenshot below. I am attempting to get rid of those repeatable rows of whatever. This shot was in Canada just north of Montana. I am thinking that maybe GEX-NA or UTX-NA would eliminate these rows. I am not concerned about terrain seen from lower altitudes. I am satisfied with FSX default except where I have installed MegaScenery X or MegaScenery Earth but these shots from cruise altitude are horrible. Do you have any idea about which one may do the trick and work with Windows7 64 bit. To assist you I am posting the rest of my signature from a avsim forum. The 300 charater limit wipped out all of the adddons

Seagate 500GB External HD
WD 250GB External HD, FSX Gold
CS 757-200, 757-200F, 767-200, 767-300,PMDG 747-400X, 747-8X. MD-11
ASX, X Graphics, REX2+OD, FSUIPC4 registered TOPCAT
FS Dreamteam KJFK, KORD, KDFW, KFLL, TSS Sound for 767-300 GE and PW, IRIS 757-200 RR Sound
vroute premium, MegaSceneryEarth, MegaSceneryX-So Cal, PHX, nDAC3, FlyTampa-KBOS KTPA, Aerosoft-EHAM, EDDF
imagine KATL, VHHH, ORBX PNW

[cmpbllsjc]

This shot was in Canada just north of Montana. I am thinking that maybe GEX-NA or UTX-NA would eliminate these rows. I am not concerned about terrain seen from lower altitudes. I am satisfied with FSX default except where I have installed MegaScenery X or MegaScenery Earth but these shots from cruise altitude are horrible. Do you have any idea about which one may do the trick and work with Windows7 64 bit.

Michael, those repeating rows have to do with the landclass or lack of it more than the actual textures. The problem with the default landclass that came with FSX is that it was way off, which explains why there is what looks to be vast amounts of desert in the US by default. There are a few landclass products on the market. Personally, I use the SceneryTech products for North America, Asia, and Europe, which seem to do a good job eliminating those repeating tiles and placing cities, forrests, wetlands, etc., where they are supposed to be. If your running Ultimate Terrain X for the US and or Eurpoe it comes with a landclass which can also be used with Scenerytech, but it needs to be layered in to the scenery library in a specific manner, which you can find on the UTX forum at Simforums.com and also in NickN's setup guide, also on Simfourms.com in the GEX section.

No doubt that GEX North America will also help somewhat to make the ground textures look better, HOWEVER, if you have bad landlass data or lack of landclass, then GEX wont really help much since its the landclass that tells FSX what textures to place on the ground.

Landclass works in a similar matter to waterclass, which in my opinion is pretty messed up in FSX/FS9 as well, and no 3PD has ever made an aftermarket waterclass product. An example of this is to load up Rio de Janerio (SBRJ) in FSX and slew up to 1000' feet and you will see that bright blue water. This is due to the waterclass in that area calling for tropical shallow or something to that effect. Now, i've been to Rio in real life, and while it is a "tropical area" the water is nothing like that. It's much darker and while it maybe shallow, it still doesn't look bright blue or turquoise. Now you can fix it a little by using REX water textures or you can use SbuilderX or something similar and change the waterclass to something else to make FSX call for darker water textures. Have a look at the 6 pics I posted below. The first 3 show the default FSX waterclass for Rio and the last 3 show my modified waterclass for Rio. Its a night and day difference and is basically the way landclass works for displaying the ground textures.

If I were you I would start taking a look at different landclass products that cater to areas that you fly and that will help you with those repeating texture tiles somewhat. Also, GEX North America is a must have product in my opinion as well as UTX USA. UTX Canada is great also, however I dont own it since I never fly in Canada.

[pcubine]

cmpbllsjc

Thanks for the pointers.

Michael Cubine

[cmpbllsjc]

cmpbllsjc

Thanks for the pointers.

Michael Cubine

No problem Michael, hope you find a landclass product that suites your needs. 

[pcubine]

Screenshots

[pcubine]

More screenshots.

Michael Cubine

[pcubine]

Addditonal Screenshots