What is this scenery doing?

[rockliffe]

Please guys, can anyone tell me what the heck is going on with my PNW. Started a flight out of Walter sutton's and became instantly aware of roads in all sorts of crazy places... not just here and there but everywhere you look. See pic as only one example. i have just installed GEX and UTX Europe, but only did so because the Orbx guys have said they are compatible, providing FTX Central  is switched off North America during installation, which it was... has anyone please got any answers, thanks....  :'(

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi there,

don't see any screenshot, sorry, please try again.

Note that all UTX entries should be below the FTX entries in the scenery library menu meaning at lower display priority. Also, I assume you've set FTX Central back to North America?

Cheers, Holger

[rockliffe]

Oops .... try this

[rockliffe]

Sure, Holger done all that!

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi there,

I see. Well, welcome to the world of the might chainsaw  I'm surprised you hadn't noticed that before but there are thousands and thousands of miles of logging roads all over the Pacific Northwest and those more or less sharp-edged openings are the associated forestry cutblocks. Take a look in Google Earth or Bing at the same location and you should see the road network too. In fact, we weeded out many of the smaller roads in the more urbanized areas because they tend to cut across the ground texture's features.

In short, based on that screenshot all is well with your installation.

Cheers, Holger

[rockliffe]

Sorry Holger, don't buy it It's not right.... check out some other pics...

[Holger Sandmann]

Me again,

yup, that's like it should be. It's the same for any add-on scenery that uses "generic" ground textures with vector road, railroad, and stream networks layered on top (including UTX+GEX). It's the way the FSX terrain engine is designed unless one uses "pure" photoreal textures like MegaScenery or Horizon's UK files. The trade-off is between overall file size, seasons, autogen density and accuracy, etc. Lots of discussion about the pros and cons of the two approaches in various forums.

Besides, the issue with the vector roads on top of the ground textures becomes a lot less obvious if you look ahead rather than straight down.

Cheers, Holger

[rockliffe]

Crikey, far from it to question you Holger, you obviously have far more experience and knowldege in FSX than I, but I find it really hard as I have been flying continuously around PNW every night for over a fortnight now and all of a suden I become aware of this which seems so obvious. Cannot understand why I haven't seen it before if it is supposed to be like this...

[rockliffe]

Holger, please accept my apologies if I sounded dismissive of your reply to my query, that was not my intention. You are obviously correct with your assessment. Many thanks...

[Nyxx]

Could not help but find this a funny reply,

"Besides, the issue with the vector roads on top of the ground textures becomes a lot less obvious if you look ahead rather than straight down.

Cheers, Holger"

Yes you dont want to be looking down on the scenery you bought do you  O no, just look ahead 

[rockliffe]

Hi Dave, sure, no I thought that was a strange thing to say. I've been flying around PNW for about a fortnight and this was the first time I had noticed anything. It came after I had installed UTX and GEX Europe and I thought there may have been some compatiility thing going on. However, it seems these abnormalities are normal?

[Griphos]

Guys!  These pictures look amazing, don't you think?  I've been flying around all the Orbx areas for a couple of years and the default areas as well, and this is what happens.  The difference with Orbx is that it happens less.  I'm actually very impressed with the improvement of vector roads in FTX scenery.  As for the little roads, those look quite real, at least from my perspective as a RL pilot who sees all those little roads we never see from the ground all the time when I'm flying. 

What Holger was saying is that vector roads are less noticeable unless you look pretty much straight down, which is a fun thing to do.  He wasn't saying not to look straight down, he was saying you won't notice this inevitable conflict in FSX as much if you don't.  Which the OP pretty much confirms since he's been flying around PNW where this kind of thing does in fact occur, I can confirm from many instances of seeing it for myself, but he didn't notice until recently, when all the little roads he didn't expect to be there (but which are in RL) and didn't expect to look as they do (but they do in RL) came to his attention. 

Again, take a look at those pictures again.  It took me a second to even see the problem with the vector road across that property because the whole was so convincing.  Try flying over that same area in Default! 

And at least in Orbx, most of the roads go where they actually go in RL.  I remember the first time I flew along the Oregon coast north of Florence and saw the little bridge and road leading up to the Heceta Head lighthouse.  No lighthouse, of course, but the little road was there, right where it should be and right where it is in RL.  Made me nostalgic! 

Maybe it's just because this scenery is so darned close to real that we nitpick over the few bits that pop out and, momentarily at least, interrupt our suspension of disbelief.  I've found it's pretty momentary for me.  And it is a bunch of pixels on a computer screen after all.  Just darned impressive and realistic looking pixels for the most part. 

Kudos, Holger, and the rest of the Orbx team.  I wouldn't be flying FSX if it weren't for your scenery.

[rockliffe]

No you're right Griphos, I hear what you are saying. The Orbx team are simply the best! I spend most of my time flying in Orbx territory, it is just so impressive. I have just had the most fantastic flight flying from Tsuniah Lake across to Scar Creek (see community screenshots) it was the most amazing experience, simply breathtaking scenery, made all the more so with REX2

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi guys,

thanks for the feedback and no need to apoligize, rockliffe. It's always interesting to hear what users consider problem spots because that sometimes differ from discussions within the development team.

One of the issues with the forest road vectors is that they don't get obscured by trees as much as in the real world, especially in the mid to far distance where FSX automatically thins out autogen display. We got quite a bit of flak about "spaghetti roads" after releasing Australia BLUE and thus developed some new techniques with feathering and semi-transparency of dirt road textures to reduce the effect.

Similarly, in urban and agricultural areas we try to remove all but the main roads from the source data in order to minimize "conflict" with the content of the ground textures. Of course, we still need to keep main arteries because they are important spatial references and also carry the moving vehicle traffic. 

Cheers, Holger