Howellerman

Well, I think I am done with True Earth. Tried different things and like Wayne said, it just does not work correctly. On top of that, I noticed that object textures were "softer", shadows had less definition, and that frame rates wildly oscillate. I did a test loop from KTTD (Portland Troutdale), up the Columbia Gorge, turn right at Hood RIver, and climb from 4,500 to 10,500 to go around Mt Hood. All well and good until I started to head back into the Portland area where my system became really unstable and oscillated between locked up and 30 fps. I uninstalled TE (both WA and OR, since they overlap in the area) and repeated. Land class textures were sharp, and frame rates were consistent. And truth be told, Orbx did a really good job with land class in the area, to the point I actually prefer the appearance of the cliff faces along the the sides of the Gorge, and the Hood River valley looked just fine if you did not obsess with Route 35 running through "neigborhoods". I took some A/B screenshots and will post them later. On a "more humorous" note, we may have been dealing with inconsistent scenery colors in V5 for quite some time. The other night, tired of fighting with TE, I flew from KJAC (Jackson Hole) to KSLC (Salt Lake). Nothing special, except that KJAC is located in Orbx NA CRM and SLC is located in Global openLC NA. I was tooting along just enjoying the flight when I noticed the seam where CRM abutted openLC NA. CRM was very green, while openLC was a truer (in my opinion) shade of desert tan. This may be due to where the regions were crafted for 4.5 running Directx 11 and did not translate well into Directx 12.

I will give this a try this evening. If it doesn't screw up everything else (I am thinking cockpit, where we all spend a lot of time) it could be a keeper. Thanks, guys!

Well, against my better judgement I purchased and installed True Earth Southern California. Flew from KMRY south to the "line of demarcation" and was rewarded with burnt toast. Burnt toast to the left of me, burnt toast to the right. Sigh. I have given up on Orbx True Earth products. Ain't anything true about them at all. If you want an example of what it really looks like, go to Google Maps and select King City, California. Then find San Bernabe Vineyards. The street view gives you a good look at what is NOT "burnt toast". "burnt toast"...

That is as likely as good an explanation as any. I only have a stock installation of V4.5, but I might try TE to see what happens. I uninstalled Oregon and Washington as well. Low and slow, it looks a LOT better than TE. I do miss the accuracy, but that is about it. We are getting our asses kicked by all the wild fires here in California, John - good luck with your coming summer!

Replying to both John Dow and Newtie2, isn't a whole-sale manipulation of the color spectrum a bit of overkill? What would it do to aircraft/cockpit/airport/terrain-correct installations?

I fixed the problem - I uninstalled True Earth Northern California. Really too bad, actually: this is the only Orbx product that I have uninstalled because I was dissatisfied with the result. Sad.

I'm sorry, but I do not buy into this. Dozens of airport vendors have had no problem "blending" with Orbx products. I only own Orbx airports in Northern California, but even there if you look at my first post you can see that Orbx airports (e.g., KTVL) do not blend with their own True Earth products. Going back to Northern California, this is a satellite image of the area marking the southern border of TE NC. Not a hint of red to be found anywhere. The True Earth products are just poorly color calibrated, period.

But wait, there's more! Thought I would check out True Earth Washington. While not as blatant as Northern California, the red saturation still exists. This is the border of eastern Washington and Idaho. Same, looking south. In the mountains the effect is not so pervasive, but it's still there. Lost it for a bit as I turned west to follow the Canadian border, but the red saturation is still there.

Look what I found in Orbx True Earth Oregon! I thought I would take a break and fly the Lewiston -> southern Snake River challenge. You can only stay in the canyon so long before it tightens up and you have to aborr. Look what I found when I came up! That looks like a lot of RED on the border of Oregon and Idaho. Who did the color calibration for the True Earth NA products? Looking south now. Looking west toward Oregon. Houston, I think we have a commie .... er... red problem.

Heya Gulfstream, Yeah, that was me - Round One. In Round Two I am trying to get someone to at least acknowledge the issue exists. I tried to make this thread a bit more succinct and revealing, but so far I got nuttin'. Maybe in a day or two, eh? Thanks!

True Earth North California is just way to "red". Landscapes that should be the color of straw (which in summer is most of NA CA) are either pink or deep red. While I LOVE the detail of True Earth, these abnormal color shifts are huge distractions. I submitted some information a while back in a separate thread, but thought I would try again using high lights (low lights?) screen shots. First up, a shot from the Lake Tahoe area. In this shot we have Orbx NA California to the front of the aircraft, Orbx True Earth North California in the middle, and Misha's KTVL behind. The differences are pretty clear, no? The next shot is from the same flight (straight up noon, by the way), just slightly north. This highlights the TE NC area that protrudes into Nevada. That is one clear delineation! The third shot is same flight, continuing north from Lake Tahoe. It is pretty clear there is a red shift from right to left! This shot is over Misha's KTVL and surrounding mountains. I just do not understand how Misha's work cannot be acknowledge as "color correct" for the rest of the region! You can also see the "seam" where TE NC extends into Nevada really clearly. The final shot is at the southern edge of TE NC and how it mates with Orbx SA California. That is a really grotesque difference in appearance! Note that I do not use any shader programs, and my shader cache was cleared before these shots. I think we can agree that True Earth North California just a wee bit TOO RED? Thanks. I look forward to any explanation why this is so. Like I said, the detail and sense of realism from the True Earth products (I own WA, OR, and NC) is great, but this red shift if really distracting! I can provide other examples if required! Lots and lots of them! Thanks, John Howell Licensed owner of 90-percent of all Orbx products!