Worldwide scenery

  • If you are looking for high quality scenery with world wide coverage then you will not find it in AFS2. Users have made some pretty good stuff and posted it here but we do not have whole world coverage. What we do have is incredible frame rates and a game that can be played on all 3 operating systems as well as on phones and tablets.


    PS. I am not sure as I do not have it but I think MSFS is probably the only sim that has that sort of world scenery coverage and quality although you can expect several iconic landmarks and cities to be missing or lacking in detail. (For example I read that the Sydney Harbor bridge was not modelled).

  • I am not sure as I do not have it but I think MSFS is probably the only sim that has that sort of world scenery coverag

    Hello,


    Despite I keep using AFS2 for some specific use (VR and some other stuff) I did personally stop making photorealistic sceneries for AFS2 since I've got MSFS : I cannot reach the quality of MSFS sceneries in many places especially on the coastlines and I have been surprised by the very good performances of the sim and he high quality realistic autogen : if you ant a Worldwide sim it's probably the best choice

    although you can expect several iconic landmarks and cities to be missing or lacking in detail. (For example I read that the Sydney Harbor bridge was not modelled

    This kind of stuff will be improved when Australia will be concerned by one of the "World Updates" but you can also find many addons for missing details on Flightsim.to : there are actually many versions of the Sydney harbor bridge ( here is one : https://flightsim.to/file/83/sydney-harbour-bridge ) and many addons for Sydney (have a look there : https://flightsim.to/discover/Sydney)


    Actually ou can fin 16836 freeware addons for MSFS on Flightsim.to...


    It's a pity that AFS2 did not offer us (or to payware developers) some convivial tools to improve the basic scenery. Thanks to AeroScenery from "nickhod" and "Spit40" 's fscloudport we have been able to make some nice stuff but the fact is in most of the cases MSFS offers a better basic rendering than the one I can reach spending hours to improve the scenery : so I gave up...


    By the way : MSFS works well with very high settings in 1920 x1080 on my computer* with a "slow" 10 Mbits Internet connexion (never less than 30 fps perfectly smooth and typical 40 fps BUT if I "lower" the rendering to make it comparable to AFS2's one (example, no stuff like 3D grass) I can get very high fps probably comparable to AFS2 : never tried as I do not use MSFS for VR** and the sim is perfectly smooth at 40 fps (no stuttering or autogen popup or blurred textures)


    *CPU i7 8700K, 32 Go RAM DDR4 2400, Win 10 64 on internal SSD 240 Go, GTX 1070 TI 8Go, MSFS on internal SSD Nvme 1To, AFS2, FS9, FSX, Flyinside Flight Simulator, DCS, XP11.50 and P3D V5 Pro on external SSD USB3


    **People with 2080 graphic cards seem to be happy in VR with HP Reverb. Currently Microsoft/Asobo seem to be working on a even more performing version of the sim (probably for the need of the Xbox version) but I am fully satisfied with what I get today with my computer (first Microsoft's Sim which did not obliged me to upgrade my computer...)

  • Hmmm.... you make it sound like it might be worth a shot to try it, and there are certainly a lot of Aussie things on those websites. My laptop is not as powerful as your system specs and the base cost is about $100 through Steam . Bookmarked those websites and thinking about it.

  • Hmmm.... you make it sound like it might be worth a shot to try it, and there are certainly a lot of Aussie things on those websites. My laptop is not as powerful as your system specs and the base cost is about $100 through Steam . Bookmarked those websites and thinking about it.

    I do not know if there is a refund opportunity on Steam to allow you to try (the problem is downloading the game takes a lot of time after launching it for the first time : so you my exceed the allowed time for a refund...) : you should ask steam's support (personally I did buy the sim on Microsoft 's Store)


    I fear a laptop will not be powerful enough (depends on the settings you want to apply but if yo want to really enjoy it 16Go RAM and 6 Go VRAM would be nice)


    Will have a look if I can find people using laptops

  • Well to be totally honest I was not really thinking of loading it on my laptop (which is quite happily running AFS2 but on my wife's PC). She is still working full time and is going to return to working in the CBD for 3 days per week soon and she has a gaming machine so ..........


    I will probably pass because I would not want to mess up any of the settings she has on the PC for her work. :)


    Thanks for the info though. Much appreciated.

  • Still looking at the perfs, if I "load" AFS2 with a complex scenery comparable to MSFS (ex : Paris Ile de France from France VFR, I get comparable fps on my computer for both sims (keeping in mind there is no trafic AI no real weather, no reflections on water and no 3D grass on the ground in AFS2 : so if someone would like to compare he should de-activate these features and probably lower some rendering options in in MSFS)


    By the way : my settings are quite all on "High", some on "Ultra", only the waves and AI 100 % activated, only the waves and contact shadows on "Medium"


    P.S. sorry did not read your last post before answering (we were writing at the same time :) )

  • I tried MS Flight Simulator 2020 but refunded it after spending 2 hours downloading about 5%, as even though I have a download 135Mbps capacity it only wanted to down load at 10Mbps from MS servers even though I bought it through Steam. I eventually ended up buying and am now using X-Plane 11 exclusively as it has global coverage including buildings on the ground rather than flat rectangles as long as you have the graphics settings high enough. It downloads off of Steam servers without issue and rapidly at my full download bandwidth. Unlike MSFS 2020 it does go on sale, it was $34 during the last Steam summer sale. It does not have as good scenery as MS FS 2020 although you can find free and pay (Ortho4XP and Orbx True Earth respectively) HD scenery which is better but still not FS2020 level. But it does not require a continuous internet connection and does not continuously download data eating up your monthly data cap or take 20 hours to install each frequent update. Also I found that the flight dynamics was extremely good compared to Aerofly FS 2. While I also have Aerofly FS 2 on Steam I don't use it much anymore as I don't do VR and prefer the correct flight dynamics, breadth of addon aircraft that are available, and the global coverage and 37000+ airports in X-Plane 11. Sadly, even after 5 years IPACs failed to meet the expectations that they would continue to add features to bring Aerofly FS 2 up to a full quality flight simulation like the X-Plane series. I bought all the DLC for Aerofly FS 2 (and not on sale either) so I am a little salty about this game.