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The Staff of SOH
IslandSimPilot strikes again
- Thread starter Priller
- Start date
vipgroup
SOH-CM-2024
I tried an early version of this program a few years ago and did not like it then. However, I watched the above video yesterday and decided to try it once more.
Initially, when installing it, I got "gun-shy" as it started installing other required elements. I stopped the process in case there was some nefarious information-sharing tracker in there somewhere. After a while, I decided to do it regardless.
I followed the suggested settings from the video, and launched MSFS.
WOW.
Here on the Canadian prairie, several towns within 100 miles of my location had been a disaster in MSFS. Suddenly I could see them clearly. The new bypass for the city of Regina is also there. I was impressed.
In Wales, the horrible red colour of some of the mountains north of the Mach loop was corrected. That brought a smile to my face.
But, in the English midlands, near my birthplace of Northampton, and the town I grew up in (Corby), there seems to be too much brown tone. I know that can be changed and so I will experiment with it today.
I do experience more stutters, and I have to do the old FSX trick of performing several 360 degree rotations of the spot view to load in the world to help cure that. So yes, a bit of a performance hit.
Initial verdict? Tentatively positive. But only a week or so of use will cement that into place, or eliminate it.
- Kenneth
Initially, when installing it, I got "gun-shy" as it started installing other required elements. I stopped the process in case there was some nefarious information-sharing tracker in there somewhere. After a while, I decided to do it regardless.
I followed the suggested settings from the video, and launched MSFS.
WOW.
Here on the Canadian prairie, several towns within 100 miles of my location had been a disaster in MSFS. Suddenly I could see them clearly. The new bypass for the city of Regina is also there. I was impressed.
In Wales, the horrible red colour of some of the mountains north of the Mach loop was corrected. That brought a smile to my face.
But, in the English midlands, near my birthplace of Northampton, and the town I grew up in (Corby), there seems to be too much brown tone. I know that can be changed and so I will experiment with it today.
I do experience more stutters, and I have to do the old FSX trick of performing several 360 degree rotations of the spot view to load in the world to help cure that. So yes, a bit of a performance hit.
Initial verdict? Tentatively positive. But only a week or so of use will cement that into place, or eliminate it.
- Kenneth
Read the manual carefully Danny! There's quite a few things to think about. Like disabling the rolling cache and so forth.
The manual will open after installation.
Jan
I tried it briefly oner Maui. While there are some nice improvements, the west Maui Mountains are a mess. I think the stock MSFS2020 data must be "cleaned up" quite a bit before implementation. As such, more "raw" data will have things like clouds painted on the ground surface and/or other distractions - until the data is sanitized.
heywooood
Mayor Emeritus of Taco City
I'd only be concerned about how the PG lays on top of it compared to the ASOBO MS original imagery - as well as what DaveKDEN says above.
I got to the point with FSX and all the tail chasing that went on to try and improve performance, and appearance and all the edits and whatnot that I finally just decided to let good enough be good enough.
Also - with the ongoing 'official' City Updates and Regional Updates still to come who knows how they will interact with this mod.
I got to the point with FSX and all the tail chasing that went on to try and improve performance, and appearance and all the edits and whatnot that I finally just decided to let good enough be good enough.
Also - with the ongoing 'official' City Updates and Regional Updates still to come who knows how they will interact with this mod.
Money makes the world go round, right ? But what about this updated virtual variable ??....
I downloaded the latest version and been reading up some stuff about it but soon enough the word 'license' turned up. There's a lot to read about that too and as far as i understand it's the first thing you're obliged to do in order to install this awesome looking maps upgrade : buy a license ! No where however it is stated what the price is you'd have to pay for such a license ??.... I think i also understand that it's not a one time only license but a subscription ?....
What exactly is the deal here, gentlemen ? Can you please shed some light on this license thing ?
Thanks !
P.S. i think the Scottish screenies that Ken posted look pretty awesome and amazing but with MSFS2024 in the pipeline i'm not sure about buying licenses for upgraded scenery textures and such...
I downloaded the latest version and been reading up some stuff about it but soon enough the word 'license' turned up. There's a lot to read about that too and as far as i understand it's the first thing you're obliged to do in order to install this awesome looking maps upgrade : buy a license ! No where however it is stated what the price is you'd have to pay for such a license ??.... I think i also understand that it's not a one time only license but a subscription ?....
What exactly is the deal here, gentlemen ? Can you please shed some light on this license thing ?
Thanks !
P.S. i think the Scottish screenies that Ken posted look pretty awesome and amazing but with MSFS2024 in the pipeline i'm not sure about buying licenses for upgraded scenery textures and such...
Last edited:
tiger1962
SOH-CM-2025
Yes, and 30Gb is the recommended size.
I'm using Bing Maps (latest) with no performance or graphics issues so far; I've mostly flown over my home town to check for updated details and it's still 3 or 4 years behind but it's an improvement, nonetheless.
It's the bing servers you need to connect to. The exact same servers as MSFS connects to, but this connection downloads the latest available maps.
The program has it's own cache database. You can find it here: C:\Program Files\MSFS2020 Map Enhancement\resources\core\release
It's called cache.db
Priller
Well, took the plunge. I trust the guys here and am I glad I gave Bing Map Enhancement a go. I had a bad experience with the old Google Map Enhancement app. The difference in the scenery is striking. The install went with no issues. I followed the video shown by Priller with no difficulty. Thanks to all for your input and recommendations. This is a great addition to MSFS.
vipgroup
SOH-CM-2024
Glad to hear that the use of Bing is free. I had no awareness of the program having any payware or license conditions. But since Bing is the only one I would even consider using, then that is a sigh of relief. I also tried simply not running it before starting MSFS, and I was back to the regular images.