I guess we all tend to fly where we live, so although I love mountain flying (as in a previous post I made), I still fly around my home town a lot (NYC). X-plane has great looking mountains, but is rather lacking in urban or city scenery. I’m told this is being worked on, but for now, I’ve gone ahead and ported one of my favorite FSX add-on scenery’s to X-plane to liven up the city, plus I bought KLGA for XP and a few freeware add-ons to fill in the blanks. I pleased the result. Though not perfect by any stretch, (there are a few graphic anomalies) but it will hold me over until Xplane X matures a little more.

Where do you get your addon aircraft from Scoobe? Great pics by the way.

Thanks
I got some from Xplane.org, a few from X-aviation.com and a bunch from Carenado.com


Rob

Scoobe, you are not making it easy for me not to get XP10.

Thanks. Can you by chance post a pic of your graphics rendering page? I'd like to see what settings you are using.

Sure, Here it is. I turn off Hi res planet textures from Orbit, since I dont do much flying there and I was told it will save a few FPS, but honestly, it really doesnt seem to make much difference. HDR used to be a frame rate killer, but now after a few updates, It seems to run the same with it or without on my system. Anyways, with these settings Im getting 45-50 FPS over NYC and 65-70 in mountain areas.

Keep an eye on the "total size of all loaded textures at current settings" (at the very bottom) You dont want this to go above the total amount of vram your video card has.

Rob

Gorgeous pics, Scoobe. But I have to take issue with you on one thing: your theory about where people fly. I never fly where I live. My reason for enjoying a civilian flight sim is to explore where I don't live, especially places I've never been. That's the whole point. What's the point in flying around where you do live? You already know what it looks like.

Valid point. I do venture outside of my own area, but not as often as I should. NY is a rather boring looking place geographically. but for some reason I am more likley to by an addon for FSX or Xplane if its close to my home town. Dont know why. But you are correct, it is a good way to see the rest of the world. I should venture out more.

Rob

I don't live in New York, but I do work in NYC. I work in the Wall Street district for a financial firm. I'm a flaming political liberal who is also a bloody capitalist. I make a pretty good living working in the belly of conservatism, but I vote only for liberals. Am I a paradox? Rhetorical question.

Anyway, I work in NYC. The last thing I would want to do i' s fly around NYC. The beauty of FSX is the ability to fly anywhere in the world.

I work in Manhattan too! Midtown for a Liberal Newspaper. LOL.

I use to never fly around NYC in flight sims, But then I flew down the Hudson corridor one day with my brother (we both co-own an Archer with a third person) and it was beautiful site. When I went back to work the next day, it was Meh!

Rob

I make occasional flights around the area I live primarily to check the authenticity of the virtual world compared to the real world. I drive a delivery route so I get out to a 75-100 mile radius of home on a daily basis. Occasionally I find stuff that I'd like to see from the air instead of from the driver's seat, so I create small local flights with specific objectives. If what I'm looking for is natural (rivers or waterfalls), I can usually find it within the sim; if it's man-made then my success rate is much lower (windmill farms, for example).

Of course I'm fully on board with the notion of visiting (within the sim) far-flung locales that I most likely will never see in real life. It's those places, with a little dose of imagination and a blissful bit of ignorance on what the location really looks like, that make FSX (or any flight sim) truly magical in my opinion.

Very neat thread gents. I live in Milwaukee metro area. I like to create flights (with the little cessna's) flying out of General Mitchell or Waukesha County airport and take little jaunts up the side of Lake Michigan to upper peninsula, look around, find a small airstrip and land for my little fishing expedition. Practice my VFR landings on small airprots and my VOR navigation. Practice IFR on the bigger airports.

I also like to go sightseeing around the world checking out places I've never been or probably will never visit in real world.

Screenshot #5: "Hello Brooklyn!" Brings back some wonderful memories.

Nice screens! Really enjoyed them.

I'm not so much into flight sims anymore. But have to say, X-Plane looks very interesting. Especially as it is cross-platform compatible.

Dang those are great shots! X10 is a bear to install and not that user friendly when it comes to the menus. So, there it sits on the floor as I play DCS A-10. However, every time I see shots from you it makes me want to try'er again. I think the long weekend will be just the time.

Love the down low shots and #4. Great great stuff!

Wonderful shots.

Yea, its not that user friendly, but ive grown use to it. However, thery are re-vamping the UI, and in the near future, there will be a new menu system which should make it a lot user friendly. So hold on to your copy and wait for that update.

Rob

Yeah, I hear you TGFan. My mind is still in FS2009 mode. I'm struggling with UI as well but actually Scoobe's pics keep me interested. When I get pissed, I just put it away and come back to it the next day. Just got my graphic settings the way I want them. I do dislike the way they impliment TrackIR in this simulation though. My (virtual head) is all over in the cockpit, seems no limitations to the view centers. Sometimes my head will move a bit back and the headrest of the seat is right in front of me blocking my view. Other times, I'll look back over my shoulder and my viewpoint is outside the cockpit looking down the edge of the fuselodge. Frustrating to say the least.

I always like flying over where I live, but mainly just to see how it compares to reality. More often than not, I am disappointed because I don't live somewhere like New York where you can get super detailed scenery addons for.

Awesome shots you got there!