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Coastline add-on for United Kingdom, what option's?

ian elliot

ian elliot

SOH-CM-2025
One of my biggest bug-bears with FSX, is how poorly the coastline of Great Britian is modeled, Strangley, more effort was put into FS9 stock coast's than in FSX. I would be very intrested to know if there are any payware ( or possibly freeware, unlikely, i know as ive looked ) option's out there i could consider, im toying going down the Orbex route, but as i fly alot of WW2-50's,60's aircraft from retro'd airfields, i dont like my install looking to modern.
I remember buying photo scenery from Just Flight for FS9 that had very good beach-shoreline, but i sent it to a charity shop when i moved over to FSX as it probably would'nt work in the newer sim.

cheers ian
 
I have OrbX Scotland and England, but haven't examined the coastline in detail. I can tell you the lighthouses are painted in a selection of generic schemes and often look plain wrong - especially when I know a number of 'em as classic white, not striped in red and white or chequered. I do enjoy the much better mesh resolution than FSX stock for VFR flights.
 
I don't recommend using ORBX vector if you fly multiplayer. The elevation correction tool causes way more problems than it corrects.If you fly multiplayer everyone else will either be floating 20 feet in the air or underground. Try taking a look at P3Dv4. LM has done quite a bit of work on the coastlines.
 
There's always Ultimate Terrain Europe for FSX. I used it in FS9 and it gave very good coastline and terrain features for the UK and most of Europe - and it won't adjust your airport elevation settings (or subject you to generic scenery objects such as lighthouses or city landmarks)

It doesn't give you mesh, but there's always FreeMesh X for that.

A.

This was a screen taken in FS9 over St Ives Cornwall, looking SE - St Michael's Mount in the right hand distance:

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I fly mainly WW2 a/c, and I use UTX and Orbx FTXG with all UTX roads disabled. I also use FSGenesis mesh and SceneryTech landclass. IMO this gives a reasonable impression of 1940s UK away from the major towns and cities. I can still navigate VFR using land and water features and major conurbations.

I tried Horizon/Genx and it was very good from altitude, but completely unrealistic at low level.
 
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Thanks Dick, thats very useful, did'nt know you could use UTX and Orbx FTXG side by side, and that you could disable the road's in UTX, thats the only thing i did'nt really like about UTX in the screen shots :wavey:

Had'nt heard of SceneryTech landclass either, just been looking into that also, and i like.
 
ian elliot said:
Thanks Dick, thats very useful, did'nt know you could use UTX and Orbx FTXG side by side, and that you could disable the road's in UTX, thats the only thing i did'nt really like about UTX in the screen shots :wavey:

Had'nt heard of SceneryTech landclass either, just been looking into that also, and i like.
Click to expand...
UTX and FTXG is a great combination IMO. As well as the roads, I also disable the railways. And I tweak the water features a bit too.
 
I finally took the plunge with both UTX and FTX global vector and im happy so far with the coastline improvement, the screen shot is my local area and the bays and beaches around the coastline are pretty spot on and the river Stour and fishing lakes around Canterbury as well. Still have some tweaking to do, ive lost the roads and railways, but im not to concern'd, my opinion is, unless your going down the photo terrain route, they never look right anyway :adoration:

Originally, i was going to purchases both Base and Global from Orbx but there was a problem with my credit card. Ill wait for my next CC statement and maybe get Base for X-mas before the sale ends :adoration:
 
Thanks for the HU DB, although , i was looking at an You Tube interview by the head honcho of Orbx given at the recent flightsim show at Cosford indicating that any further development for FSX was probably coming to an end.
And personally, as i fly mainly WW2 and early jets, i prefer a more generic look rather than modern photo accurate landscapes

cheers ian
 
Dangerous Beans said:
It might be worth holding off on ORBX UK for the moment.
There bringing the new True Earth tech to the UK eventually, the south is already available for X-Plane and they will release it for P3D and I assume FSX eventually.

The current ORBX UK sceneries are really good but True Earth is a significant step up from that.


https://orbxsystems.com/forum/topic...otoreal-regions-coming-to-xp-afs2-and-fsxp3d/
Click to expand...


The video is slightly mis-leading (actually, no, it's very mis-leading) as it's of a real flight in an A330 coming into the real Gatwick. John Vemema says; "Imagine flying in this level of detail" - well, yes, I can, and I'm sure we all can - but it doesn't show that Orbx True Earth is going to be like that and in my opinion it isn't either - judging by the x-plane version already available.
Don't say as much on the Orbx forums as it'll get you an instant life time ban and a real world visit in the dead of night by a couple of guys with iron bars!

That having been said he does flash up a coupe of screenies of the "real" True Earth later in that post and it does look pretty good albeit with the cartoony Orbx look.
 
Ganter said:
The video is slightly mis-leading (actually, no, it's very mis-leading) as it's of a real flight in an A330 coming into the real Gatwick. John Vemema says; "Imagine flying in this level of detail" - well, yes, I can, and I'm sure we all can - but it doesn't show that Orbx True Earth is going to be like that and in my opinion it isn't either - judging by the x-plane version already available.
Don't say as much on the Orbx forums as it'll get you an instant life time ban and a real world visit in the dead of night by a couple of guys with iron bars!

That having been said he does flash up a coupe of screenies of the "real" True Earth later in that post and it does look pretty good albeit with the cartoony Orbx look.
Click to expand...

Your right that video is misleading, and I know better than to post anything negative on there forum, although I'm a biker and all my mates are bikers so if he wanted trouble that could be arranged ;)

I have the X-Plane version and I'm pretty happy with it so far. I did disable the X-Plane roads though which look totally out of place and spoil the effect.
I don't find it cartoony unlike the normal ORBX stuff and its pretty accurate, I even found my house, something I cant do in FTX England.
 
I'd personally like to see the Cliffs of Dover done the right way. They might get the elevation right, but hate seeing tree's and roads running across the face of it. Looks ignorant!
 
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