Got it installed and it looks absolutely fantastic - the FSX default textures surrounding the area while not great, are of course more in line with reality:

 

 

versus FTX-G

 

 

 

the mesh is obviously fantastic as well, but the provided texture colors being true to the area really make the deal:

 

 

and

 

 

Thanks for pointing me to this add-on, and here's hoping OpenLC will sort the FTX-G texture issues in the future...

 

Right now this is all I use for this area...its pretty darn good and I know the area first hand as well.

 

The planet is a big place and FTXG was not ever meant to replicate each and every corner like the real world.  Looks to me that they have done and extremely good job, now it will be the OpenLC and custom regions + airports to fill in the gaps...by then I will be 100+years old...lol and grandkids will ask "what's a PC grandpa".

My judgement is that the Vegas/Grand Canyon area is the least realistic in FTX-G that I have certainly experienced thus far, but as is being rightly pointed out, there is more greenery in that area than those unfamiliar with the region may suppose from postcards and the like. There is a lot of low level vegetation in the Mojave Desert - the windswept sands of the Sahara it ain't.

 

All we're seeing here, I think, is the generic nature of the landclass that is available at present. This is where the Orbx magic is going to show through pretty soon with the OpenLC range.

 

That said, I have been incredibly impressed with other areas, most notably Northern Europe/Norway. So,so much more convincing than default. A flight in the Lancair around Bergen today was 100% more immersive than hitherto. Flying in Germany and France is a similar revelation.

 

Doesn't matter whether it's low level VFR or PMDG/Airbus IFR, this IS the game changer we have been promised and so keenly anticipated. It's only going to get better too

the textures depict scrub vegetation, which is a real thing.  the effect of it, though, and the fact that the landclass calls for that terrain even on steep slopes of mountains means that from a distance it looks like grassland and not desert, if you look top down, it doesn't look as unrealistic.  even so, I prefer this "too green" landscape to FSX/GEX "too brown" landscape any day, as well as how this product makes many areas look in this sim.  lets hope they can get it better.

 

in the meantime, does anyone know the texture files that these "green desert" uses?  I may try an overwrite of the corresponding GEX textures to see how that looks/blends.

 

 

in the meantime, does anyone know the texture files that these "green desert" uses?

 

Just use the TmfViewer tool in the FSX SDK to determine this.

My judgement is that the Vegas/Grand Canyon area is the least realistic in FTX-G that I have certainly experienced thus far, but as is being rightly pointed out, there is more greenery in that area than those unfamiliar with the region may suppose from postcards and the like. There is a lot of low level vegetation in the Mojave Desert - the windswept sands of the Sahara it ain't.

 

Glad to see someone else saying this - people hear "desert southwest" and think it's supposed to be all tan colored with sand dunes etc like the Sahara or the Arabian Peninsula. I've lived in Arizona for more than half my life and that's not at all how it looks here. There's a lot more vegetation than people would expect, especially in the cities and especially in the summer when we get the monsoon rain. The Sonoran Desert (and the Mohave that borders it) are semiarid deserts, not the full blown things seen elsewhere in the world with the sand dunes and stuff. There's really nothing like that at all anywhere in North America.

 

This is a decent example here of what it actually looks like on an average summer day here in Phoenix:

http://www.billmahan.com/briefcase/283619_0.JPG

 

The rusty darker brownish tint to the mountains is a really characteristic thing here though that I've yet to see any FSX scenery really get right. Most addons and photoscenery do the more tan thing with them - hopefully openLC or a full FTX USA SW region can do this kind of thing:

http://yeahthatskosher.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/phoenix-az-kosher.jpg

 

With respect to the Grand Canyon - the area surrounding the canyon on both rims is actually an alpine evergreen forest, not desert. The altitude there is almost 7000 MSL at the South Rim and nearly 8500 MSL at the North Rim - it doesn't look like the lower desert areas near Phoenix or Tucson or even the way the Lake Powell/Glen Canyon area looks despite the geographic proximity. It looks similar to forest type places in Colorado that are at that elevation for instance. A good chunk of northern and eastern AZ (the White Mountains area) is this way - it's really the central and southern basin areas that are desert. Even in Tucson you can drive just 20 or 30 miles and be up in an alpine forest on Mt. Lemmon north of town - there's even a ski place up there in the winter.

 

 

The Sonoran Desert (and the Mohave that borders it) are semiarid deserts, not the full blown things seen elsewhere in the world with the sand dunes and stuff. There's really nothing like that at all anywhere in North America.

 

Well there is actually, just on a much much smaller basis. Kelso, Oceano, Death V., etc. My sand rail has been to many miniature iraq's

This is what I see with the Cloud9 Landclass UTX and FTX Global

 

Heading over to Lake Meade from Las Vegas

 

 

 

A Couple over Lake Meade

 

 

 

 

 

Coming up to the Mouth of the Canyon and the Colorado River from Lake Meade

 

 

 

In the Canyon

 

 

 

 

Would it be worthwhile checking the textures at other times of the year? Each landclass texture will have 5 seasons (ie winter, spring, summer, autumn and hard winter (ie snow)) plus a night texture. Is it more green or less green during January (I would expect during July in the US it would be at its driest though).

 

I know that in Australia where I live during summer it is actually far greener here than during winter (I live in a subtropical area where there is more rain during summer than winter). With default FSX textures though this is not represented properly with the FSX rendition during summer being a desert while winter is depicted as green (which is what it is like in the south of the country).

I think, ORBX did simply set the focus a little different than FSX originally. While in the native FSX, the brownish-yellow desert dirt textures were waaay overrepresented, now the greenish ones are. There is no chance to change that in FSX. It is impossible, without any landclass file, that you have the Grand Canyon area as it should be without the disadvantage of the FSX native deserted textures somewhere else in your FSX. So you have only those options:

 

1. keep FTX Global greenish textures. Like this, all misplaced desert textures look better (many places in Europe, North America and Asia profit). However, you get some unnatural greenish look also in those regions, where the native FSX deserted look fitted better.

 

2. change back to FSX native. Like this, you will have again the deserted textures look better for some regions and vice versa.

 

3. Buy / download a LC file for the specific region. Like this, everything is sorted out.

 

Verdict: lets assume, that in FSX 80% of the deserted textures are simply looking wrong (Nice Cote d'Azur as an example), while in 20% (Grand Canyon, Kabul etc.) it looks ok. ORBX decided to let the 80% benefit from a greenish looking texture and let the 20% look wrong now. Still an improvement. You can not judge FTX Global being NOT an improvement by looking only on specifc spots as it is a texture overhowl for the whole world! So only if you compare hundreds to thounsands of spots you could properly judge FTX Global being an improvement or not. And I am sure, you would agree, that it IS an improvement if you compare that many spots.

Just use the TmfViewer tool in the FSX SDK to determine this.

 

Well, yes and no.  You also need a landclass to texture mapping guide (I use Holger Sandmann's spreadsheet  HS_FSX_Land_Class_Table_v2 for this).

 

scott s.

.

This is what I see with the Cloud9 Landclass UTX and FTX Global

 

Heading over to Lake Meade from Las Vegas

A Couple over Lake Meade

Coming up to the Mouth of the Canyon and the Colorado River from Lake Meade

In the Canyon

 

In all those pix I see the water is the same green as I see in England -- the Thames and reservoirs etc all looking like they are covered in algae. I don't like it at all. They should be darker brownish blue. Not found why this has changed -- JV or Orbx says FTXG doesn't change this.

 

Pete

It is impossible, without any landclass file, that you have the Grand Canyon area as it should be without the disadvantage of the FSX native deserted textures somewhere else in your FSX.

 

According to some, the textures used in the Grand Canyon area are specific to the "North America Southwest" region, Region "C" in this chart:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc707102.aspx#Regions

 

If so, shouldn't they be able to change that particular texture without it affecting other parts of the world?

Maybe you're right. I do not know how FTX Global separates the textures into regions worldwide. If they use the same pattern as FSX, so yes, maybe it should have been possible to have the Grand Canyon properly covered. If not, there we go. If they use for the whole US the same set of textures, it is still a landclass issue.

Can not beat blueskyscenery freeware photo real textures. OpenLC will improve it vastly I imagine.

In all those pix I see the water is the same green as I see in England -- the Thames and reservoirs etc all looking like they are covered in algae. I don't like it at all. They should be darker brownish blue. Not found why this has changed -- JV or Orbx says FTXG doesn't change this.

 

Pete

I think that's more a UTX or REX issue then FTXG, I don't believe FTXG does anything with water textures.