VFR London X plus FTX England

[Javis]

Hey guys,

Anyone here using Aerosoft's VFR LondonX/FTX England combination ?

I just bought VFR London X but it doesn't seem to integrate very well with FTX England. F.i. i see autogen trees in LondonX screenshots but i don't see any when flying over the city center. I suppose it was made to work only with FSX default or Horizon VFR, right ?

I found a workaround by a guy called 'Etienne' but you are supposed to create your own photoreal ground textures by using Google Earth and a nifty little program called 'FSEarth Tiles' . Working with Google Earth is simple enough, particularly because a kml file of the area is already present. It is this 'FSEarth Tiles' proggy that has me scratching my chin pretty much...

I was just wondering if anyone here has got Etienne's integration method working satisfactory and, if affirm, how is the result ? Is it worth to learn about using this FSEarth Tiles proggy ? To begin with i can't for the life of me make heads nor tales of " Open the file FSEarthTiles.ini and complete the Service configurations! " ....

Anyone, please ?

Thanks so much on forehand !

Cheers,
Jan

[Paul K]

Jan, installing London VFR into FTX England has been on my 'to do' list for quite a while, and will probably stay there. The only guide I know about is this one, which I assume is the one you refer to.

http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/ ... don-vfr-x/

I might get round to it one day. Horizon Sim's London is superior to the one Orbx gives you in FTX England. Sorry I can't help you any more.

[Javis]

Thanks, Paul. Yep, that's the one. Looks nice, éh ?

Staring at this FSEarth Tiles.ini for a while longer it began to dawn on me that Etienne wants you to replace the rows of x's in the ServiceUrl to form a correct link. He only gives you a start and end letter.... It's sort of a puzzle....

So i got a little bit further, FSEarthTiles.exe now starts without errors but when i drop the kml file onto it still nothing. I believe though that i need Mozilla for these actions( i'm using Chrome) so i will try that.

Nobody else having a LondonX/FTXEngland combination to fly over then ?....

( oh, btw, i'm on DX10 but just for the heck of it i tried DX9 and got the trees back in. London X looks very good and certainly much more realistic than FTXEngland London. Love it! )

Cheers,
Jan

[Paul K]

Interesting that you are using DX10, Jan. This screenshot shows what happened to the O2 Arena ( formerly the Millennium Dome ) when I tried DX10 preview in FSX way back when...



There was a flickering strobe-like effect around the lower half of the dome and the support masts were shimmering ( both arrowed ). I posted this on the Aerosoft support forum, but never got an answer. Then came P3D and FSX was abandoned.

[Javis]

Paul, yes, the dome doesn't look too well in DX10 here neither :



Here it is in DX9 :



When i installed LondonX yesterday i got this little dialog asking if i wanted to use DX10. Do you remember getting that too ?

I use DX10 shader fix but that doesn't seem to help much here neither. Funny thing is that i get a shimmering runway at London City with DX9, not with DX10....

London could be one of the nicest major cities in FSX to fly over if only the 'barren' areas could be filled in with autogen by FTX England a bit easier as it is now, having to use this FS Earth Tiles thingy. ( Drzwiecky Design NYC looks totally amazing but even with my high end machine it's still a slight show. No fun at all. Bit of the same with Paulo Ricardo's Rio, could be fantastic but major 'barren' areas spoil the show here too)

How is LondonX with FTX England in P3Dv2, Paul ? Same thing ?

Cheers,
Jan

[Paul K]

Hi Jan,

Ah, so it wasn't just my problem with the Dome !

I've never had VFR London installed in P3Dv2, so I can't tell you how well it works. I'll find out if and when I have a go at installing it. I don't remember the dialog about DX10, but I know what you mean about the empty areas outside the core VFR London area. I tried compensating with higher autogen settings, but I don't remember it helping that much and of course the frame rates suffered. I don't know whether you have Fly Tampa's Hong Kong & Kai Tak, but that works extremely well because the hills surrounding the city provide a natural border to the built-up area, and so it's not so obvious where the add-on finishes and default starts. Frame rates are remarkably good too. I seem to remember trying it in FSX's DX10 Preview and apart from a few little oddities, like a moored ship sitting in a rectangle of very bright water, it worked fine.

[GHD]

London X in P3D:

[Javis]

Thanks, Paul. Yes, i have Fly Tampa's Hong Kong, it's fabulous! Haven't seen it on my new rig yet, i'm only just beginning to put the cherries on the FSX pie. I have setup P3Dv2 as well but haven't used it much sofar, very happy with FSX at the moment.

Thanks for the P3D pics, George. Any special procedure needed to make it work P3Dv2 ?

Just stumbled over this video from a guy that got LondonX/FTX England combination working (with some flooding of the Thames here and there, the water itself looks a bit eerie if you ask me...). Also the difference between LondonX and FTX England autogen is extremely obvious. At first i was over the moon with FTX England, now i'm not so sure anymore.... I might forget this whole combination thing...

http://youtu.be/SBIWE9qJbpY

Cheers,
Jan

[Paul K]

At first i was over the moon with FTX England, now i'm not so sure anymore.... I might forget this whole combination thing...

Jan, I've been thinking along similar lines these past few weeks. 'Tis the season for the flight sim sales and if Orbx have one, I think I might buy their Open LC Europe ( which I think I want anyway ) and see if that's a better substitute for the UK than their dedicated FTX England scenery. I'm thinking VFR London might be better with OpenLC.

https://www.fullterrain.com/product/ftxgolceu

Ian Pearson ( of Ian P's Dark Corner ) has been doing a model of RAF Watton for me, which has elevation-change problems around its edges when using the FTX England mesh, but not when using the FTX-compatible PIlot's Mesh. All his other airfields are now bundled up into a single package, and the same goes for them - elevation change embankments with FTX England, but no problem with Pilot's Mesh. On the other hand, if I delete FTX England, Orbx's UK airfields such as Elstree, Popham, Old Warden, Stapleford etc might not work properly with just Pilots Mesh and Open LC Europe.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

[GHD]

Any special procedure needed to make it work P3Dv2 ?

I just needed to copy over the default.xml, AutogenDescriptions.spb etc from FSX.