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advise: which scenery for Discus?


ArtMan_NL

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Hi all,

As a n00b in gliding I'm wondering which add-on scenery is nice for gliding. So, I'm looking for a nice airfield surrounded by mountains / hills. As a Dutchman I have no knowledge about nice airstrips in Germany, Swiss or Austria for gliding.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

Regards,

Arthur

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Hi Arthur,

I strongly recommend Switzerland Professional and the swiss Airfield series. It simplay looks wonderfull and the framerate is far better than in MS Standard scenery. Even with full autogen.

The mountains ensure very good ridge lift, and slope thermals if you got CumulusX1.5.

Sure Swiss pro isn't cheap but it is really worth the price!

I only fly there. My virtual "homebase" is Thun. It is next to the mountains two very beautidul lakes and if you want even flat lands in the other direction. In my opinion one of the most beatiful places in FSX to start soaring. But there are many other fields also, like Bad Ragaz, Sion and so on and so on.

Best regards Joachim

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The mountains ensure very good ridge lift, and slope thermals if you got CumulusX1.5.

CumulusX1.6 will do fine also <_<

Other airports with great soaring conditions nearby: Sion (LSGS), Innsbrück (LOWI) and Zell am See (LOWZ).

With CumulusX installed an wind set to 360 at 15kts, try to make a trip from Sion to Zell am See, it's a real challenge.

Veel plezier,

Bert

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Thanks a lot. I'm looking forward to buy Switzerland Professional. But the money.....:wacko: Is an add-on scenery that worth? 129 Euro? And beside this add-on Flylogic is supplying add-ons for small airfields! So my conclusion is for 129 Euro you have a beautiful scenery add-on without detailed airfields? :wacko:

Regards,

Arthur

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  • 1 month later...

Hi!

It's really worth every cent. For all low & slow flights, this is my favourite!

That brings me to a question:

Is cumulus x ought to draw shadows on the ground under its clouds?

If so, does that Happen on any kind of scenery?

Coming from Condor, regarding soaring, I'm completely new with gliders in FSX, and I've only seen shadows once, that was on GEX-textures over Slovenia! So I'm not sure about these shadows. Otherwise I have to say that I'm really impressed by the fantastic work you did with the Discus, and CumulusX seems to do a good job either.

But finding thermals and stay in them is much easier in Condor! ;-)

Thanks in Advance & greets,

Michael

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Ok, then it looks as if I had a problem.

On "normal" sceneries I have shadows from time to time, but on photo-sceneries (like Switzerland Pro or VFR Germany) I've never seen a shadow on the ground at all.

Greets,

Michael

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CumulusX is relying on FSX to do the ground shadowing, and cloud shadows are simply something FSX is not good at... an FSX cloud shadow is a flat dark area drawn at ground level centered in the correct place, but (a) this looks poor when you're low down and the ground isn't flat and (B) it wouldn't surprise me if photoscenery stops the clouds shadows anyway...

Because the visibility out of the cockpit is limited in any PC based sim (I use 3 monitors and it's still nothing like the real thing...) I think thermalling has some fundamental challenges. A bit like (but more than) real gliding, it pays to stick somewhere near cloudbase to have confidence in centering in the thermal, and it is reasonable to compensate (IMHO) by making the thermals a larger diameter. Ridge soaring truly kicks ass with CumulusX (I'd be interested to hear more about how Condor provides ridge lift) and there are at least as many cross-country ridge soaring pilots in FSX as thermallers.

Re scenery the particular soaring requirement is that you are up close and personal with the scenery (i.e. ridges and mountain slopes) a lot of the time. On that basis photoscenery (which usually means no 3D autogen trees and buildings) is not my preferred choice although it is nice to see from high up. If you're going to ridge soar the NE ridges of the USA, then I'd say my first ($17) scenery recommendation would be FSGenesis Landclass for North America. The ridges become much better defined and from my extensive personal experience soaring those ridges I can confirm this add-on makes the most difference to the fidelity of the landscape. In Europe, then Austria or Switzerland are the ones to enhance because the soaring in those countries is just exceptional and there's an outstanding combination of whole-country enhancements through to improvements to individual airfields. Austria is cheaper but Switzerland is just amazing - I'd love to have either of the Aerosoft products (well, particularly Switzerland) but haven't had the courage to hand over my credit card.

B21

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There is another option that I have been watching for awhile, called SIRX 2009. It is at this website:http://sirx.flightsimulatorcenter.com/, and is supposed to be available soon for free! It looks very impressive. I have held off getting Switzerland Pro, until this comes out. At that point, I may go with Switzerland Pro, anyway, because SIRX 2009 looks like it might require lots of hard drive and RAM memory above and beyond what I care to add. If it wasn't for SIRX 2009, I would have Switzerland Pro already, to go with my Aerosoft Discus.

I hope I haven't stepped on any Aerosoft toes by mentioning this option in this blog, since they are a for-profit company and have excellent products.

I have the FSGenesis Landclass B21 mentioned, and like it very much

binky9

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Indeed, it looks cool, but as far as I can see, you have to download hundrets of small pakages, is that right?

Would be a nice addition to swiss pro, because you could fly to the south :-)

Cheers Joachim

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Indeed, it looks cool, but as far as I can see, you have to download hundrets of small pakages, is that right?

Would be a nice addition to swiss pro, because you could fly to the south :-)

Cheers Joachim

Joachim,

That's the way it looks to me, also. Another reason why I am reserving judgment. I hadn't thought of putting the two together. Worth considering.

Thanks,

binky9

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Hi,

regarding shadows, this is really a sad story. An FSX-Shadow is flat polygons, that is levelled at the coordinate where it is located (same with aircraft shadows, too).

In mountains, this means usually that you have a sort of floating cakes, as the shadow is not aligned with the ground. CumulusX! therefore checks the slope angle beneath the cloud and if it is steeper than appr. 10° it omits the shadow. The same is done in higher altitude regions, as they are usually in mountains anyway.

If the result is still annoying, there is an option (see manual) to disable cloud shadows altogether by renaming one the alternative SimObject.cfg files in the CumulusXClouds directory.

I have currently no idea of different behavior with photo scenery, but I will check it.

best regards,

Peter

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Hey Peter,

Not sure but you may want to check out the in-development REX2 addition of Cloud Shadows.

They're doing very well, you may want to contact them saying you're developing a non-commercial product and would like to see their tech , etc.

Not really bothered though a CumulusX works a treat regardless.

Jacklaugh.gif

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Thank you for the replies!

The missing shadows are not a big issue for me.

After a little practice I really enjoy the Discus and Cumulus X, they work together perfectly!

Here are a few shots of my last flight over Switzerland.

Greets,

Michael

comp20103162252255.jpg

comp2010316225855248.jpg

comp2010316225919104.jpg

comp20103162352776.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Hi,

newbie with a question re Switzerland Pro.

If one flies Switzerland Austria and Italy how much overlap is there possible?Do you fly out of Swiss airspace and the revert to autogen scenery?

If so are there any packages which would add to the Swiss Pro one which would give a fluid scenery flight.

Regards

David

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