ACTIVE Some Issues with KJAC/Photoreal Road Display

[juniorg]

Hi there,

 

First off, great job to everyone at ORBX for making absolutely amazing scenery addons. Everyday I go for a virtual flight in one of the areas I purchased I just cannot get over how real everything looks. This holds true even after having traveled in some of the areas I own.

 

After purchasing KJAC I noticed some discrepancies which I could not find any sort of mention on on the forums so here it goes.

 

When flying straight east along the small airport road to the main N-S highway and turning S to follow the main highway into Jackson, I noticed that in many places the road vehicle traffic is driving off the photo-scenery road.

 

Example: Just north of Jackson

 

 

This is only one of many places where this occurs along that road. I have not checked any other roads around KJAC for this issue. I just noticed it the other day.

 

This image illustrates another problem with photo scenery in general. I feel like the roads that are displayed in default FSX scenery, or also in non-photoreal scenery in general, look better. They look like they have a more realistic texture to them, especially at very low altitudes such as with helicopter flying. In photoreal scenery the developers use the images for the roads, which makes them look extremely pixely from low altitudes (I have noticed this in VFR Germany also, at an extreme, almost show-stopping level.)

 

Just wondering if anyone could tell me why you guys don't put those "dedicated road textures" found in non-photoreal scenery over the aerial images to get the ultimate look, if you will. Or if there is a way to put them over the images myself somehow via scenery library ordering.

 

Just thought I'd share some thoughts/observations.

 

Would love to get some input from devs and other users on how they feel about the issues.

[Alex Goff]

To answer the second question about using vector roads vs photoreal, to put it simply photoreal overrides land class and vectors. Regardless of library ordering photoreal comes out on top.

Although I do recall a product a while back, maybe in FS9, that placed vector roads on top of photoreal I'm not sure of the method behind it or if it could be replicated in FSX

[Tim Harris]

Do you have the servicepack for CRM installed? as this contains road fixes for KJAC if I recall correctly http://www.fullterrain.com/support.html#crm

[juniorg]

Thanks for the replies. I do have the CRM.001 patch installed. According to the CRM .001 user guide it fixes issues around KWYS. No mention of KJAC.

[Jarrad Marshall]

G'day there,

 

Echoing Tim's comments, I thought CRM SP1 included traffic adjustments for the KJAC coverage area, however I'm sure Holger will chime in to confirm this. 

 

 

 

This image illustrates another problem with photo scenery in general. I feel like the roads that are displayed in default FSX scenery, or also in non-photoreal scenery in general, look better. They look like they have a more realistic texture to them, especially at very low altitudes such as with helicopter flying. In photoreal scenery the developers use the images for the roads, which makes them look extremely pixely from low altitudes (I have noticed this in VFR Germany also, at an extreme, almost show-stopping level.)

 

 

To be honest, I agree that the roads for KJAC (outside of the immediate airport vicinity) are a little low-resolution. They are an anomaly amongst the ORBX world though - the main KJAC ground resolution is 1m/pixel (7cm for the airport surrounds), compared to 15cm for a "default FTX" style road texture. This is lower than almost every other ORBX airport - most are either 30cm or 60cm/pixel, and this was due to lack of suitable source material, plus limitations of download size. Whilst it is certainly possible to have a default-style road show through a photoreal ground texture (by "cutting" a hole in the PR and lining up the default road underneath), it would be almost impossible to justify the enormous development time complete the task - as far as I'm aware there is no way in FSX to overlay a vector (default) road over a PR automatically. And whilst the the roads around KJAC don't look the best up close, they do have the benefit of including real-world variations such as turning lanes, changes in road texture, dirt tracks, etc, that a generic repeating-texture road texture can't match. For an idea of some higher-resolution road textures within a photoreal coverage, I've included a shot from closer to the airport, within the 15cm coverage zone. 

 

Hope this gives you a little more insight from my point of view - as I said, not perfect, but the best-suited option for the task (IMO at least!). 

 

Cheers,

Jarrad