scenery addons

highpockets

highpockets

SOH-CM-2023
I have been flying in combat sims for a while and thought I would spend some time in FS2004. I have the basic scenery that comes with the sim. Any suggestions as to what to D/L to give it more detail. Additional Global layers? I can work on local cities & airports as I go.
Thanks in advance.
 
There's gobs of mesh and scenery addons - the only limit is your HD capacity! Here's a good start to make most of the world look tons better:
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?23958-Rhumbaflappy-s-LOD8-mesh-set

After that, there's piles and piles of freeware airports that range from not-so-great to fan-friggin-tastic! There's a few scenery entries in the Freeware Gems thread (see the stickies in this section), and you can do a global search for scenery at FlightSim.com. There's also the Walhalla site with listings for just about anyand every scenery out there.
http://www.flightsim.com/imgmap.php
http://walhalla.mine.nu/fs2004.php

While you're at FlightSim, you can also go to the Advanced Search page, select FS2004 Scenery, Sort by Downloads, and leave everything else blank. You'll get all the listings starting with the most popular.
 
Here are three very important things:

1 - Terrain mesh. High resolution mesh transforms the world of FS. Start with some that covers your local area, and see the difference. Bumps become hills; hills become mountains, and you can actually recognize where you are by the look of the terrain. Once you're seen what it can do, you'll quickly start covering more of your world with it. There is good quality mesh available as freeware.

2 - Water textures. Grab a set of replacement water textures. There are a gazillion choices of freeware and it almost doesn't matter what you select; all of them are leaps and bounds above the stock water textures, which I believe were made by a desert-dwelling hermit who's never seen more water in one place than what it takes to fill his bathtub.

3 - A replacement enviro.bmp file. As with the water, any of the many replacements available is better than the stock one. This is the file that makes reflections reflect in the sim, and the stock item is a complete failure.
 
One thing to remember: Install ONE scenery package at a time, and TEST each one by flying to, from, and around it. The last thing you want to do is install twenty packages, only to find that your Sim crashes and you have no clue which package (or combination of packages) is the cause.
 
I recently downloaded some payware scenery from Aerosoft; German Airports 3 (small airfields, 15 of them) and German Airports 3X (huge airports, international, 5 of them). One comes with FS2004 scenery versions also. Actually, I think both do, but the big one is a seperate download, the small airstrips are all on one download.

They are brilliant. The big airports are like cities. The cars are all movine, trucks, baggage carts, buses, with turn signals blinking when you are turning, etc. Really cool.

Its small 'area' scenery though, not countrysides. If you are into Mega Scenery, that is pretty cool. I hope to get the pro Switzerland scenery someday. That is pretty picturesque and I think the maxed out pack (expensive) has alot of airports and things that come with it.

Aerosoft also have some US area's and airports as well.


Bill
 
I have been working on a little "guide" that will help folks take a factory fresh FS2004 install and make it look tons better for free. This "guide" is exactly how I have my FS9 tweaked....and I must say...it looks pretty darn good for a freeware based set up.

I haven't gotten to the mesh section yet......but I will give you a suggestion in that area. The LOD 8 mesh that Tom Clayton mentioned....the one by Rhumbaflappy...very nice. I use his LOD 5 and 7 world wide mesh and his LOD 8 mesh (which covers 1/3 of the world....most of Europe, a good chunk of North Africa and all of the Pacific...basically the parts of the world were WW2 aircraft engaged in conflict). The LOD 5 and 7 makes the entire world look much much better and the LOD 8 takes the covered areas to an even higher level of WOW!

Rhumbaflappy has all of his files hosted on a site....lots of files to download...some of them are pretty big..some so big that he had to break them down into 2 parts and create an installer for them. You can find his mesh here:

http://cid-f3950c5bbd2bcfa1.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/FS%20Addons/Mesh?sa=173203563

I will attach my in-progress guide "Making FS2004 Look Great for Free" for you all to check out. Keep in mind that this is a work in progress...still have some revisions to make, some things to clear up and better explain....but it's a good start on a good looking freeware based install.

OBIO
 
Obio
I have used Rumbaflappy's mesh in my CFS 2 combat installs. I hoped they were useable in this sim. That's where I will start. I will add water textures & go from there.
Thanks to everyone for your suggestions.
And yes add SLOWLY! I have already been down that other road. :kilroy:
 
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