All,

I've had Ultimate Terrain UTX for years as it's compatible with FSX and all versions of P3D. But with LM having invested time in improving the default scenery I wondered if UTX is still the better option.

Here are a couple of screenshots centred on the city of Liverpool, England together with a Google Maps screenshot. I'm not identifying which screenshot is which other than naming them 1 and 2. One has UTX layers enabled, the other doesn't. Which do you feel is better?

Picture 1

Picture 2

And here is the default scenery from P3Dv3 just for comparison. LM have made significant improvements.

 

Edited March 3, 20224 yr by Ray Proudfoot
P3D v3 image added.

Personally, there is not much difference for me.

I prefer #2 - the blending of the coastline looks a little better (less roads running straight into the sea) and the appearance of beaches looks better to me (if there are indeed beaches there).  Roads look a little better shaped to me as well in #2.

***EDIT***: plus fields/parks appear to be where they ought to be rather than streets judging by the Google Maps screenshot

Cheers,
Rudy

Edited March 3, 20224 yr by VHOJT

In terms of accuracy I would say Picture 1. Why? These things caught my eye:

• The dock area on the west side of the river is depicted more accurately than on Picture 2 when compared with the Google Map
• Birkenhead Park looks to be better defined in Picture 1 than it is in Picture 2
• Aintree racecourse which is shown in Picture 2 top right corner is lacking detail- just a couple of light green "blobs".

 

As for colour and contrast, they are quite close however I discern that the roads are greener in Picture 2. e.g. M53 motorway and hence not as realistic.

For me personally, I would opt for Picture #1 but that's just my subjective opinion. 🙂

 

I would dump both of them and install ORBx TrueEarth GB Central, but then I have always considered generic landclass scenery to be essentially worthless.

Edited March 3, 20224 yr by Christopher Low

33 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

I would dump both of them and install ORBx TrueEarth GB Central, but then I have always considered generic landclass scenery to be essentially worthless.

If I was a more serious VFR flyer I'd consider it but IFR is my main interest. What should be considered is the space of TE GB plus the fact it's only GB. What about all the other countries in the world?

It looks like LM has quietly improved the default scenery without shouting it from the rooftops. Take a look at the top post as I have now added the default P3D v3 scenery. Quite a difference especially around the docks.

@VHOJT and @787flyer, just to put you out of your misery Number 1 is with UTX disabled and 2 is with it enabled.

I'm going to leave it disabled for a while and see how I feel about it. The main reason I stuck to UTX was for the detailed coastlines compared to earlier versions of P3D but v5 seems to have caught up.

Whether the other features of UTX are worth it time will tell.

@787flyer, you obviously know Liverpool well. Nice observations. I was hoping they might have featured Anfield and Goodison but the owners of Man Utd probably paid more to have their stadium featured. 🤣

3 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

All,

I've had Ultimate Terrain UTX for years as it's compatible with FSX and all versions of P3D. But with LM having invested time in improving the default scenery I wondered if UTX is still the Better option.

I can't see a difference, and, for me, this issue has to be solved by cost-benefit analysis. Cost (disk space, fps, time to load the sim, keeping it updated, compatibility with other addons, etc.) vs Benefit (Just a little bit better, perceptible only by trained eyes - not my case).

Regards.

1 hour ago, mdelacruzperu said:

I can't see a difference,

The differences are now minimal. Compare picture 1 with the one showing P3D v3. That does show a difference.

UTX Europe enhanced FSX and P3D up to v4 but with v5 it has become more accurate as LM are using more recent satellite imagery compared to UTX probably last updated around 10+ years ago.

39 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

...but with v5 it has become more accurate as LM are using more recent satellite imagery compared to UTX probably last updated around 10+ years ago.

Yes, that's something to consider. Does it affects simulator performance? If you allow me to choose, for me, I would remove it if I got a sim performance degradation.

I'm in a similar situation with ORBX Vector, testing. What do you think about Vector? 

54 minutes ago, mdelacruzperu said:

 

I'm in a similar situation with ORBX Vector, testing. What do you think about Vector? 

IMO Absolutely no need for it with P3dv5.

LM are actually using more recent data than Orbx now.

What with the added loading time and FPS hit, dump it, would be my advice.

 

 

Edit: Apologies for replying to off topic question. Just copped it now.

Edited March 3, 20224 yr by Sparkrite

@mdelacruzperu, no noticeable change in performance. They’re only texture files for the most part.

No need to uninstall just yet. Using SimstarterNG I can create a new scenery entry and disable all the UTX entries. I have Europe, North America and the Caribbean and Central America. Easy to switch between them should I want to compare.

Plenty have reported problems with Vector. Seems incompatible with v5. Uninstall and test. You can always reinstall if you wish but I don’t think you will.

Ray,

Ignore this - I started rambling about Vector - instead of UTX... My presence here is denying a village of it's word not allowed! 🙂

 

 

Edited March 3, 20224 yr by Bunkie
Wrong topic!

@Bunkie, this topic is about Flight 1’s Ultimate Terrain X for various regions of the world. Some have mentioned Vector but I don’t have it. No need for any action.

I have Pago Pago which acts as a stopover for Concorde flights from Honolulu to Sydney or Auckland.

3 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

@Bunkie, this topic is about Flight 1’s Ultimate Terrain X for various regions of the world. Some have mentioned Vector but I don’t have it. No need for any action.

I have Pago Pago which acts as a stopover for Concorde flights from Honolulu to Sydney or Auckland.

The vector and mesh data have been improved upon by LM which is a big part why the download is bigger then the 13gb it used to be. But I still feel like you should add UT UTX or ORBX Global, the choice is yours, but neither will hurt FPS as they are simply replacing the default texture files. Personally I used UT UTX way back in the day and liked it, but for a long time now I have used ORBX global, as I like the look of it better. As a added bonus it blends with most other scenery very well.

1 minute ago, TurboKen said:

but for a long time now I have used ORBX global, as I like the look of it better. As a added bonus it blends with most other scenery very well.

Not just vector and mesh. Coastlines are now far more detailed certainly than v3. I can’t check v4. Hence my posted images at the top.

Did you check what the v5 default scenery looked like before installing FTX Global? It may well still be an improvement over v5 default scenery but I’m still waiting for a definitive answer.

UTX is a different product than FTX Global. The former improved coastlines, added roads, rivers and bridges. The latter only changed the default terrain.