VFR Photographic Scenery - Generation X review

Here you can see the two Old Trafford sports venues.

If I'd written this review not long after the release of Horizon's three-volume VFR Photographic Scenery - Generation X I would have told you to avoid it like the plague.

As far Microsoft Flight Simulator X add-ons go, this photographic scenery package of England and Wales felt like a rushed and unfinished release. Certainly it seemed a stark contrast to the care and attention lavished on a similar product coming soon from Just Flight, a London taster for which I reviewed recently.

So what were the problems and why aren't they as important now?

Launch Problems

My dad lives down there

Let's lay some groundwork first. Each of these volumes covers a third of England and Wales and comprises three DVDs. That's a total of nine DVDs if you buy the whole set and you're going to need slightly over 60GB of hard disk space if you're going to install the lot.

As you can imagine, installations of this magnitude take some time. However due to some errors in the first release the installer required a ridiculous level of disk swapping. It took me hours to get the whole 60+ GB installed.

Then there were the errors. Corrupt files had crept into the final release which meant crashes for some users, disappearing scenery tiles for others. Then there were other problems. In many areas the default coastal scenery still appeared and the night lighting mentioned prominently on the DVD case was nowhere to be found.

High Resolution

The much-misunderstood beauty of Stockport town centre

Yet Horizon's small and dedicated team has worked wonders with this scenery add-on since its release. And while not all issues have been addressed, two of the major ones have been. Two sets of patches have dealt with issues of corrupt files and the coastal scenery. So with these issues out of the way, what does Gen X have to offer?

The volumes feature photographic scenery at 1.2 metre resolution, making for strikingly sharp details down to quite a low resolution.

There's a lower resolution set of photo textures featured too if your PC doesn't quite cut the mustard, which is also used for when the scenery is further away. To complete the package there's 3D topographical mesh of 5 metre resolution.

The combination of 5m mesh and 1m photo scenery is rather striking as you can see in many of the screenshots I've included in this review.

Gorgeous?

Where I went on my honeymoon

The imagery itself doesn't always totally look like the real thing. Unlike Just Flight's scenery, there's an unreality to many of the colours on show, especially in rural areas.

Neon looking fields don't look natural at all. However the high contrast scenery, while not totally convincing as realistic, is in many ways more suited to use in Flight Simulator X than more natural paler hues. The high contrast brings out so much, especially in residential and industrial areas that the odd colours elsewhere can be forgiven.

What can be a problem is the stutters that the scenery introduces into the sim for many users. There's a lot of data being shifted around as the sim accesses 60GB of date. So you have to make sure the official Microsoft FSX photo scenery patch is installed and the hard disk thoroughly defragged. Setting the scenery texture to 7cm, even though the textures are 1.2, also seems to help.

Rival Just Flight says it knows why Horizon's photo scenery induces stutters. But it remains to be seen if Just Flight's forthcoming UK photoscenery will offer better performance than we see here. Once your system is well set up for Horizon's offering, and the various patches installed, the scenery works very well indeed.

Water Water

The Top Gear studio

Where I might have expected more effort is in the nature of lakes and coastlines. Thankfully a patch a few days ago excluded the original FSX coastline removing the clash of two sets of mesh. And Horizon has created a very pleasing effect in the textures where the land meets the sea. But I really would have liked the option for lakes and other water bodies to feature FSX's own animated water textures rather than the blank photos on offer.

As with many issues surrounding Gen X scenery, Horizon seems to be very on the ball and buying this scenery now means you're going to enjoy some of the best support around. Certainly there's going to plenty of releases, such as the lake textures etc., that are forthcoming from the team. The night lighting, for example, which didn't make the final release due to contractual issues - will be released pretty soon. As will many 3D enhancements to the scenery.

As you can see in some of these screens, Horizon has added two very detailed bridges to the Menai Straight and further down the coast there's a very detailed set of Conway bridges and Castle. Horizon is pledged to add more detailed 3D objects to the scenery and in future provide city photo scenery in even higher resolution.

Final Thoughts

The M10 and a bit of St. Albans

The real issue is how good does this scenery look to you? To these eyes, Horizon's Gen X scenery doesn't look entirely realistic, but I do think it looks rather good.

Being able to use real world VFR navigation techniques such as following roads and other map features is fantastic, especially if you enable FSX's road traffic.

Some users may struggle with performance issues and the only real show stoppers are the issue of occasional stutter and the current lack of night lighting. However as I've already explained there are many ways of minimising the stutter issue and the night lighting is coming soon.

Right now Horizon's Generation X scenery has put some launch mishaps behind it and has become a must own piece of software of FSX users who like to fly over England and Wales. Once you've used it, it's very hard to go back to the default scenery.