I thought I would share my experience with photoreal sceneries vs Orbx.

I have been P3D simming for many years, and I have always wanted as much Orbx scenery as possible. Everything such as Orbx Global, LCEurope, England, Germany, TrueEarth etc., to make the visuals as good as possible. Everyone has been saying that Orbx is a "must" and you got to have it.

Over time, however, I have felt that the Orbx sceneries are boring and repetative. Not very realistic at all, in my view. Simply boring.

I started my search for an alternative. At the websites RealworldScenery.com and Megasceneryearth.com I came across photorealistic sceneries with autogen, which I had not realized were available.
Several freeware sceneries of high quality with autogen are also available at websites such as FSDeveloper.com, fsxforum.com, ftxdes.com and also avsim.com. And many more.

Wow! I am completely hooked! Photoreal with autogen has completely transformed P3D for me. I was actually moving over to MSFS, but now I have stayed with P3D. I have removed my Orbx and only fly photoreal now. Its been a complete gamechanger for me. Italy, France, Greece, Turkey never looked so good. And many more countries are available. I even downloaded the countries in northern Africa complete with autogen for free. WOW! The world is amazing now that I finally got rid of Orbx - and got to see what the world really looks like!

 

The ORBx TrueEarth regions are photoreal, so you do not need to get rid of those packages.

Correct, but TrueEarth really kills the FPS. These other photoreal sceneries with autogen run much better (and look better also)

Why not go the whole distance and create your own files with Ortho P3d.

I have done this for the entire UK at ZL17 and it makes Orbx TE laughable.

I'm mixed.  I have MSE/Nuvecta for California/Colorado/Nevada/New Mexico/Utah.  Looks really nice.  But not for low level flight.  I've found that MegaScenery Earth can look great or not really.  Georgia and Florida do not look good to me.  I uninstalled those.  Then of course anywhere with seasons you are locked to just one.  Sometimes I find the crispness of landclass refreshing also.  I've even considered trying out the Orbx FTX california.  Don't want the true earth.  

Cant fly my FSL busses in to KLAS/KSFO/KLAX without MCE these days. Really love them. Never heard of autogen on top of these ?

I am actually thinking of expanding a little MCE products.

Michael Moe

I have tried autogen with quite a few photoscenery addons, and none of them have provided the realism that ORBx TrueEarth GB and Netherlands deliver. There is something about the placement of ORBx autogen and custom buildings that just looks more realistic to me. Of course, flaws can be found if you look too closely (both in the placement, and also the texture quality), but from the air it looks impressive.

Edited March 1, 20224 yr by Christopher Low

More or less all of the European countries, Africa and the Middle East are available in stunning photoreal with plenty of autogen on top. Mostly freeware. Dont know about the US but i would be surprised if autogen is not available there also.

nuvecta is pretty inexpensive.  You add it to each state you have megascenery earth for

It would appear that the topic title "Orbx is overrated" could just as well read "I have finally discovered photo scenery".
That way, there would have been no need to mention any developer and simply eulogise your new discovery.

 

If you are using P3d V5+ Orbx TE works very well and looks amazing. I get great frame rates with it. I do flights from Washington thru Oregon down to California.

4 hours ago, Reader said:

It would appear that the topic title "Orbx is overrated" could just as well read "I have finally discovered photo scenery".
That way, there would have been no need to mention any developer and simply eulogise your new discovery.

 

Ah, but this thread wouldn't have gotten nearly as many clicks without the bait in the title.

 

Using a combination of TrueEarth, MSE+Nuvecta, the P3D version of Ortho4XP, and other freeware, I have TBs of photoreal/ortho ground textures with autogen in my P3D. It's just like running P3D v6 or MSFS-lite... 😁

Silly clickbait comparison aside, running quality ortho imagery+autogen in my P3D can make my flights look rather realistic.

Anybody found anything for any Canadian cities like Montreal?

There is someone who is trying to do photoreal sceneries for the world.

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/photosceneries-and-autogen-packages-for-the-world.447703/

5 hours ago, bluemja2002 said:

There is someone who is trying to do photoreal sceneries for the world.

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/photosceneries-and-autogen-packages-for-the-world.447703/

I have several of his sceneries, and they are of high quality. The autogen is also of high quality. A lot better than orbx. P3D never looked so real.