ANNOUNCEMENT USA SW "Green Deserts" - please give us some locations

[Sid]

For that matter, has anyone checked adjoining Mexico? Perhaps the issue is that textures for semi-desert scrub regions are coming out  green worldwide instead of what they are actually like and a maybe a texture replacement can sort it all out? Not sure really but the issue does seem to affect areas in Asia and Africa too. Hopefully they can be sorted out in the later Open LC packs for the respective areas but it would be good for the SW USA and Northern Mexico to be sorted and blended with this patch. Can't wait to see how the Grand Canyon's gonna look after this!

[Ripcord]

For that matter, has anyone checked adjoining Mexico? Perhaps the issue is that textures for semi-desert scrub regions are coming out  green worldwide instead of what they are actually like and a maybe a texture replacement can sort it all out? Not sure really but the issue does seem to affect areas in Asia and Africa too. Hopefully they can be sorted out in the later Open LC packs for the respective areas but it would be good for the SW USA and Northern Mexico to be sorted and blended with this patch. Can't wait to see how the Grand Canyon's gonna look after this!

 

Good point Sid.  A good survey might be useful, however I fear that making the scope too large will just lead to delays.  JV will want to address this area by area -- eat the elephant one bite at a time (not suggesting the problem is that large).

 

Some areas along the border in Mexico might well be affected.  West Texas might also be affected - though it is kinda green anyway, not the reddish-orange hues that you see in places like Monument Valley UT and places like that.

[Sid]

Good point Sid.  A good survey might be useful, however I fear that making the scope too large will just lead to delays.  JV will want to address this area by area -- eat the elephant one bite at a time (not suggesting the problem is that large).

 

Some areas along the border in Mexico might well be affected.  West Texas might also be affected - though it is kinda green anyway, not the reddish-orange hues that you see in places like Monument Valley UT and places like that.

 

Thanks for the info Rip  . Great to hear more about your neck of the woods...on a North America scale anyway  . Hey, I totally agree with you mate! Personally, I think its actually better, as you point out, to address it area by area in each respective Open LC patch to allow for potential regional (colour/scrub) variation in the semi-arid and scrub regions around the world and it also allows better opportunity to gather better info on particular areas from us users gradually as any affected areas are discovered to help out, as here.

 

Then another post like this can be opened for each continent one at a time. But, as you say, I'm sure the phenomenon is sporadic in certain well-defined areas, e.g. Rajasthan, India or North Africa etc. rather than lots of tiny snippets so replacing some sort of basic texture or developing textures for e.g. East African Savannah might be more digestible one bite of the elephant at a time  . I'm confident Open LC packs will do a better job than imagined anyway so not worried.

 

Anyway, guess my point is that I completely agree with you that John and the team shouldn't get distracted by anywhere but these South-Western US/Mexican border areas you and others have pointed out here for now. Looking forward to flying them in patch 1.2  . By the way, let us know what you think of Bonners Ferry when you get it...I'm getting really tempted with that one after seeing Emmsie's pics today...Looks absolutely gorgeous around there! Take care for now buddy

 

Sid

[dave302]

New Mexico is affected no less than these states - and also southern Colorado.

Actually, New Mexico is not affected as much as Arizona, for example.  The greener textures only appear in the western and northern quarters of the state.  Central New Mexico, the Albuquerque area for example, uses a texture that *does* have about the right coloring.  It is only when you cross the boundary into the North America Southwest region that the texture changes to the greener one.  You can see the boundary clearly if you look at a top-down view of western New Mexico.  Most of New Mexico is in the North America South region, which calls different textures than the North America Southwest region. 

[Ripcord]

Actually, New Mexico is not affected as much as Arizona, for example.  The greener textures only appear in the western and northern quarters of the state.  Central New Mexico, the Albuquerque area for example, uses a texture that *does* have about the right coloring.  It is only when you cross the boundary into the North America Southwest region that the texture changes to the greener one.  You can see the boundary clearly if you look at a top-down view of western New Mexico.  Most of New Mexico is in the North America South region, which calls different textures than the North America Southwest region. 

 

OK, I'll accept that -- I flew from Holloman and proceeded NW toward 4 Corners (kinda green), so that would be the western part, I guess.

[Bugdani]

Hello,

 

I flew from Pocatello ID. KPIH heading south to Wendover KENV! When exiting south boundary of CRM, had to deplore a "Swiis landscape" for a while, just north west of the Salt lake.

This region is very desertic in reality...

 

I would like, in the future, to see a better redered of the vicinity of Wendover and the salt flat of Bonneville (Famous place in US) and also White Sands NM. and the vicinity of Alamogordo and Hollman, other great place and wonderful landscape.... (may be see my blog)

At this time, I have UTX USA and Scenerytech NA installed.

I will be in the first buyers of the future ORBX US LC......

 

Anyway, thank you so much for FTXG and apologise for my poor english

 

Bug.

[macca22au]

Use UTX outside CRM. Scenery Tech is ok, but at the price it has many weaknesses. UTX is a better made landclass, but for Asia and the Indo Pacific there is only ST. (except of course for Orbx Aus/NZ which should be layered above). Outside of Orbx and UTX, except for specialist scenery like Truelandscape France, ST and defaults still leave those horrible coastlines.

[macca22au]

PS I should apologise to Scenery Tech on one aspect. It is land class not vector data ... So it doesn't do anything to coastlines etc. it only modifies land class whic in turn calls up the textures ... In our case FXGlobal.

So Clobal has revealed other scenery shortcomings. Roll on the Open LC add-ons. A tiny observation would be that Europe and North America are the least urgent but Asia, South America, Africa, Carribbean and the Indo-Pacific are sadly in need of a make-over.

[birdguy]

KROW, Roswell New Mexico.

 

Noel

[Byron Farrow]

 A tiny observation would be that Europe and North America are the least urgent but Asia, South America, Africa, Carribbean and the Indo-Pacific are sadly in need of a make-over.

 

Seconded, but default areas of North America and Europe do have significant errors and - commercially - I guess you want to start with the biggest sellers. I'll be getting the whole set for sure, and hopefully the follow-on vector and water packages

[macca22au]

Agreed Byron, sadly...

[Sundog]

For me, the main areas to fix now would be the Vegas/Area51 area down to the Phoenix area. But there are so many other places to fly, I can wait for the USA LC pack release. Though I thank Orbx for working an update to Global for this issue.

 

I started in the PNW, went to Canada (Cold Lake-AFB), then flew south via Salt Lake to Area-51 (Homey AFB - I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you). Then flew to Luke, then Forth Worth NAS JRB, then Eglin and up the east coast to explore the Global textures. I'm at Plum Island and preparing to head down through Central America and explore the South American continent/textures.

 

Since I know what Oz looks like , I think I'll be heading to Africa after that exploration.

[Kilstorm]

KALS Alamosa, CO. In real life its the high desert and is a starved valley which is mostly knee high sage brush all the way down to Santa Fe area.

[VB.]

Since other texture products such as GEX do not seem to have this issue, would it be possible to make a hotfix  by simply replacing the green textures by more desert-ish ones to fill the gap while OpenLC are being developped ? Surely there must be plenty of suitable textures to choose from in the AUS and CRM addons.

 

I realise this would have adverse effects in other areas, but the occasional patch of arid land in a temperate landscape  would be less inaccurate than emerald green deserts IMO.

[dubliner]

The area around Mammoth Yosemite Airport, Mammoth Lakes, CA (KMMH)

[utley]

Heres a great one - Area 51. AKA A51

[Todd Harrell]

Area 51 [AR51] surrounding terrain should be almost barren. With Aerosoft LV installed,

this makes a nice practice strip.

Umm, sorry that doesn't exist, sir. Or do you need a little - let's call it - "convincing" from Uncle Sam himself? ..................

[Ripcord]

Utley has entered a new dimension in time and space.

 

[Tabs]

The settlements - yes, they are green. The rest, see for yourself:

 

 

 

I was answering to a post which was referring to KPHX only and not to the whole of SW.

 

But also the Desert around Phoenix can look quite green.Habe a look here http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/63555/63555,1215494157,1/stock-photo-beautiful-expansive-shot-of-desert-landscape-near-phoenix-and-scottsdale-az-14640397.jpg

 

I remember, when I was there the first time, I thought to myself, why are they call it "desert", for a desert, there is much too much vegetation there.

 

Wolfgang

 

Guys,

 

The true color of the desert here is not that sand-type stuff in the Google Maps shots. I don't know why satellite shots end up looking that way but it's not at all how it actually looks here. It's much closer to a rusty brownish type of thing when you're on the ground.

 

Something like these - it's much darker than the way most textures have portrayed this area:

http://movingtoswdesert.com/image_store/uploads/9/1/6/6/6/ar128344675466619.JPG

http://globitrotter.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/img_2294.jpg (this is a really good representation of how most of the desert mountains actually look in AZ)

 

As far as green in the cities and desert areas - it is that way but only at specific times of the year. We get monsoon thunderstorms from July-September here and that's when it looks like the greener type of thing Wolfgang posted because there's water for everything to grow. Come back to the same location in the winter and the colors will be much more muted/brown looking.

 

Ryan

[Double J]

Phoenix is very green in reality. Have a look hre

http://www.google.at/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nalweb.com/azupdate/phoenix_az_2_reszie1.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.nalweb.com/azupdate/&h=420&w=560&sz=97&tbnid=GAXpRCTSb0a71M:&tbnh=90&tbnw=120&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dphoenix%2Baz%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=phoenix+az&usg=__4w7uCAefxNaBjzXnrUNND6My0Is=&docid=bQe3dO_gBQUxlM&sa=X&ei=ztAEUrGjF8TMtAau1IGoDQ&ved=0CEkQ9QEwAw&dur=1188

 

I guess, that's depending on the season though.

 

Wolfgang

 

 

 

Phoenix golf courses are always green. January and February might put a green ting (if it rains) to the surrounding hills and valleys but nothing like we see it in FTX.

All of AZ under 5000 ft is much to green.

 

This is a rare "green" day in North Phx after a good day of rain and a damp Jan and Feb. 

[Dibidut]

Maybe there is an easy solution/approach to the problem, for ORBX??

Cut some one in the Forum eg. show JV. where there are a similar Groundtexture/landskape in FTXG, as for example. in the real Phoenix area.

An example cut be somewere in eg. FTX/G-Australia??

And transfer the texture ao. to the Phoenix area??

You cant use pictures from Google earth, i think, because the colour change trough the day and year, so it will never tell the truth

anyhow.

I admit that i dont know mutch about scenery build in this kind of details.

 

 

-Just my 2 cents, of course!

 

Kind regards

Henrik

[carpent]

From KMMH to KRNO

[freddy]

The mountains close to Denver (KDEN) are, for me, covered in the same grassy green as the Grand Canyon.

 

But, as someone who does not live in the USA, I have no idea if that is actually how those mountains are really supposed to be.  At any rate, they certainly don't look like rocks, rubble and stone.

[MacKuen]

It is naturally disappointing to see FTXG cover the dramatic and harsh desert beauty of the American Southwest with green alpine grass textures. But the team has recognized the enormity of the problem and have committed to solving it. It might prove a challenge to make the proper changes here (and in other deserts) while maintaining the greenery of northern landscapes. Nevertheless, the FTX group has enormous talent and I am confident that they are up to the task. We are all eager to see the brilliance of their solution!

 

Best wishes to the team,

Mike

[Tobias]

It is naturally disappointing to see FTXG cover the dramatic and harsh desert beauty of the American Southwest with green alpine grass textures. But the team has recognized the enormity of the problem and have committed to solving it. It might prove a challenge to make the proper changes here (and in other deserts) while maintaining the greenery of northern landscapes. Nevertheless, the FTX group has enormous talent and I am confident that they are up to the task. We are all eager to see the brilliance of their solution!

 

Best wishes to the team,

Mike

 

 

Couldn't have said it better myself. I'm looking forward to this improvement since I do a lot of my flying in the American Southwest. Just a great classic landscape with so many good add-on airports available.

[Akila]

I have the same at OJAI (Amman , Jordan) after FTX Global

[B777LR]

Guys just a heads up that this LC fix may not make V1.1, likely V1.2 - we don't want to hold up the V1.1 features (due end of this month) because of LC work in the USA SW. I am sure you understand and appreciate that.

 

JV, been busy and away from here. Have you spoken yet of the contents of what will be in v.1.1?

[Gypsy Pilot]

The area around KLAM.  Global completely missed the White Sands desert which can be seen for miles.

5V5 Shiprock and the area around 4 corners.

KELP El Paso and the southern New Mexico desert.

 

All of these deserts have different textures. 

 

Thanks,

[pepsimachine]

I don't seem to have the "green" issue in the southwest. I use UTX and Xclass by Cloud 9 landclasses. If I turn off the Xclass, then the green appears.

[Tobias]

I don't seem to have the "green" issue in the southwest. I use UTX and Xclass by Cloud 9 landclasses. If I turn off the Xclass, then the green appears.

Interesting. SceneryTech landclass helped a bit, but not enough. Could you be so kind and check on the specific areas mentioned above?

[lthendrix]

standin on the corner in winslow arizona such a fine green i see 

 its like a dream coming true the desert in bloom

for miles and miles you see 

 all the way out to meteor crater its so green but Ill wait for the  fix

because deserts in green is my fantasy

and I aint even trippin!

[jhuntphx]

These were taken just last week between Phoenix and Pinetop. This time of year it gets pretty green in AZ, even more so up north.

Not always dead and dry around the southwest deserts.

 

Just Saying...

 

 

[Ken Terry]

Just flew from Love (Prescott) KPRC SW to 16AZ then NW to E51Bagdad and on to Kingman KIGM.   Green desert needs correction.

Thanks

Ken

[ShawnG]

Interesting. SceneryTech landclass helped a bit, but not enough. Could you be so kind and check on the specific areas mentioned above?

 

 

A week or so ago, I posted a few screenies from different areas with Xclass and FTXG

 

http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/63465-american-southwest-ftxg-xclass-landclass/

 

 

hope that's a little helpful, while we're waiting for the goods from orbx.