Simviation Forum - My hometown now exists!!

Jun 17^th, 2004 at 6:47am

Silver1SWA Offline
Colonel
Morgan Hill, Ca. (SF Bay Area)

Gender:
Posts: 703

Well, after many, MANY months of anticipation, MegaScenery Vol. 3, Northern California finally arrived! I am so excited that the San Francisco Bay Area, MY HOME, is now covered picture perfect in flight sim!

I live about 12 miles south/southeast of the city of San Jose, and about 25 miles south/southeast of KSJC in a small town called Morgan Hill. Microsoft left my whole town out of the game, as the only thing that exists in the default scenery between South County airport (Q99) and the city of San Jose is nothing but open land. No surprising though...heck people in San Jose barely know what and where Morgan Hill is.

Anyway, I'm so excited LOL that I decided to give you guys a glimps of my hometown. But even more impressive, I have included two screenshots that contain a real life image taken from a video I took on a SWA flight from San Diego to San Jose, and shots from the game taken from the same spot along the approach. I live directly under the standard approach path into KSJC.

Ok, now for the pics:

In this shot, the plane is directly over my house (which is not visible), and looks out to the East side of town.

This shows Hwy 101, the only freeway connecting Morgan Hill and from San Jose, passing through Coyote Creek golf course.

Looking out towards San Jose. It's literally a straight shot to KSJC from here.

Looking out towards the Monterey Bay in the distance.

Directly over my neighborhood and house. In fact, the nose of the aircraft points right to my house. I have watched planes on approach to SJC fly over my house thousands of times in my 21 years of existence. Always fun to see it from the opposite perspective.

Well there you have it. My hometown. I love this game/simulation more and more every day!

« Last Edit: Jun 17^th, 2004 at 8:16pm by Silver1SWA »

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Reply #1 - Jun 17^th, 2004 at 7:16am

Nexus Offline
Colonel
The greater of two evils...

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Posts: 3282

Wow, awesome scenery!
Does it have winter textures Roll Eyes

I wish there was a similar scenery for my hometown, that would be sweet.

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Reply #2 - Jun 17^th, 2004 at 10:27am

Rifleman Offline
Colonel
" Full size A/C are just
overgrown models ! "
Tropical island in the Pacific

Posts: 6622

Quote:

I love this game more and more every day!

A Game ?......you call this A GAME ? Angry

........most of us here think of it as much more than just a GAME !

Grin

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Reply #3 - Jun 17^th, 2004 at 10:52am

Nexus Offline
Colonel
The greater of two evils...

Gender:
Posts: 3282

Well it becomes whatever you wants it to be. I'm pretty close to have it as realistic as it can get, but for real pilots, FS2004 is just a game...

8)

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Reply #4 - Jun 17^th, 2004 at 3:17pm

SaVas Offline
Colonel
KSTL Home
St. Louis, MO

Gender:
Posts: 2632

Is it just me or does your hometown look like a swastika?

Great scenery

My life is like the movie Office Space

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Reply #5 - Jun 19^th, 2004 at 9:40am

jrpilot Offline
Colonel

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Posts: 2255

Awesome.....

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Reply #6 - Jun 20^th, 2004 at 1:22am

tsunami_KNUW Offline
Colonel
Life is good.
Oak Harbor, Washington

Gender:
Posts: 1215

Amazing! I like the sim pics better than the real world pics Grin

&&Home Airport: NAS Whidbey Island (KNUW)-Oak Harbor Airpark (76S)&&Current FS Location: Seoul/Incheon, South Korea

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Reply #7 - Jun 21^st, 2004 at 10:15pm

SideWinder9 Offline
Colonel
Denver,CO

Gender:
Posts: 1753

Great detail and pics! The FS is definetley more than a game!!!!!

Sim-V member since 2003!

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Reply #8 - Jun 25^th, 2004 at 5:21pm

Fozzer Offline
Colonel
An elderly FS 2004 addict!
Hereford. England. EGBS.

Posts: 24861

If the "Megascenery" photographic scenery is similar to the VFR Photographic Scenery for England and Wales, then the scenery is only of value when viewed from an altitude of 1500 feet AGL or more.
At lower levels, and ground ground level, there are no 3D buildings, trees, etc, just a flat blurry texture.
Remember it is only a flat 2D photograph draped over the DEM mesh scenery.
It's excellent for high level VFR flying but not for low level or landing on... Roll Eyes

...!
Also. because the photographs were taken at a particular season/time of day they will always appear the same, (no Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter textures!).
Best flown at mid-day, mid Summer.
Remember it's only a satellite photograph... Wink

...!
...unless someone convinces me otherwise... Roll Eyes

...LOL...!

Cheers all... Grin

...!

Paul.

P.S. Silver...take some shots at around 250-500ft AGL... Wink

...!
P.P.S. one of my home bases is South County airfield,
(Q99)... 8)...!

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Reply #9 - Jun 25^th, 2004 at 8:11pm

Silver1SWA Offline
Colonel
Morgan Hill, Ca. (SF Bay Area)

Gender:
Posts: 703

Quote:

If the "Megascenery" photographic scenery is similar to the VFR Photographic Scenery for England and Wales, then the scenery is only of value when viewed from an altitude of 1500 feet AGL or more.
At lower levels, and ground ground level, there are no 3D buildings, trees, etc, just a flat blurry texture.
Remember it is only a flat 2D photograph draped over the DEM mesh scenery.
It's excellent for high level VFR flying but not for low level or landing on... Roll Eyes

...!
Also. because the photographs were taken at a particular season/time of day they will always appear the same, (no Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter textures!).
Best flown at mid-day, mid Summer.
Remember it's only a satellite photograph... Wink

...!
...unless someone convinces me otherwise... Roll Eyes

...LOL...!

Cheers all... Grin

...!

Paul.

P.S. Silver...take some shots at around 250-500ft AGL... Wink

...!
P.P.S. one of my home bases is South County airfield,
(Q99)... 8)...!

Well yes, you are correct that Megascenery does not show it's full effect at low altitudes, particularly under 2000 feet. It really shines between 3000-7000 feet which is perfect for your typical VFR single engine, private pilot flying, which is what this scenery is actually designed for. However, the use of Megascenery still includes autogen objects, which now allign with the Megascenery under it.

I find that approaches look amazing from the cockpit, even at low altitudes. I dunno, something about that angle, still allows it to look ok from the pilots seat. If you replay a landing, and start messing with your views, and angles, then yes, you can see that the scenery does not look as great below one, or two thousand feet. I basically only fly airliners, so during the initial climb phase, you can't even see the ground from the pilot's seat.

As for the seasons. The first volume, Megascenery Southern California is the only edition that only has summer textures. This is no big deal seeing as how California's landscape changes very little from season to season...except for the Sierra's, but they are not covered. Same is true for Northern California. We hardly have any seasons here. So that is hardly an issue. I don't own the New York edition, but I think it comes with winter textures, primarily showing the region covered in snow.

Yes it is only a satelite photograph, but it is true to life. A lot more interesting (especially if you are familiar with the area) than the default, rendundant textures, which by the way, also look like crap at low altitudes. When the aircraft sits on the runway using Megascenery, surrounding scenery like mountains, still look stunning, because you are far enough away from them and autogen still gives the same effect it does when using default scenery.

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Reply #10 - Jun 27^th, 2004 at 4:36am

Fozzer Offline
Colonel
An elderly FS 2004 addict!
Hereford. England. EGBS.

Posts: 24861

Hi Silver..!
Thanks for the reply... Grin

.!
It's interesting to note that the auto-gen 3-D objects are included in the Mega-scenery... Grin

...!
At least you have "things" sticking up at low levels... Shocked

...LOL...!
My VFR scenery is perfectly flat at ground level apart from any hills, and the autogen objects are excluded from the scenery apart from the usual default Airfield scenery/objects... Cry

...!

All of my flying occurs between Santa Rosa and Los Angeles, (Highway 1/101, single engine props, low level VFR), so together with my relief map of California I am very aware of the lack of built-up areas in Silicon Valley...including Morgan Hill and Q99... Wink

...!
Your Megascenery certainly looks more realistic... 8)...!
How much of California does it cover...?

Cheers Mate... Grin

...!

Paul...Off from Half Moon Bay, (KHAF), over the Bay to Livermore, (KLVK)... 8)...!

P.S. Here is a typical shot of Gloucertershire, (England), using VFR Photographic Scenery, (actual photographs from aircraft), at around 2000ft AGL.... 8)...!

http://www.justflight.com

...> Terninal 02 > Flight sim add-ons > VFR Scenery

See also....>>

http://www.getmapping.com

..for how it was done... Wink

...!

Dell Dimension 5000 BTX Tower. Win7 Home Edition, 32 Bit. Intel Pentium 4, dual 2.8 GHz. 2.5GB RAM, nVidia GF 9500GT 1GB. SATA 500GB + 80GB. Philips 17" LCD Monitor. Micronet ADSL Modem only. Saitek Cyborg Evo Force. FS 2004 + FSX. Briggs and Stratton Petrol Lawn Mower...Motor Bikes. Gas Cooker... and lots of musical instruments!.... ...!
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