This FAQ is obsolete. Please refer to the Visual Flight Forums for up to date information.

Areas covered/packaging

How is  it packaged?

The photographic scenery for England & Wales covers the whole of England and Wales, the Isle of Man. Due to the sheer volume of the photographic data, it is sold in four separate volumes, each containing almost 3 CD's worth of data:

The map above shows the approximate areas for each of the four volumes:

• East & South-East England

• South & Central England

• South-West England & Wales

• Northern England & The Isle of Man

A complete package containing all four volumes is also be available.

Note: The Scilly Isles and the Channel Islands are unforunately not included.

Is my local airport shown?

All real-life airports in the photographic scenery area are shown (provided that they were in existence when the photography was taken). Visit the East & South East England page to check which FS2002 airports within the vol 1 area.

What about Scotland and Ireland?

Photographic scenery for Scotland & Northern Ireland should be available shortly after GetMapping have completed acquisition and processing of the aerial photography sometime in the first half of next year. We are unable to announce plans for any other areas at this time.

How can I order the photographic scenery?

You can order the photographic scenery from Getmapping plc via their telephone order line:

Tel. 01530 518562. For more information, see the Orders Page.

What's included

Will it include the whole country, or just the major cities?

The photographic scenery will show not just every major city, but also every town, village, hamlet, wood, field, copse, stream, river, road, railway, canal, shopping centre, factory, in fact every visible feature, in between.

Will airport scenery be included?

Yes, the photographic scenery by its nature contains every airport, airfield, farm strip, heliport, etc. in England & Wales (or to be precise, all those in existence at the time of the aerial survey). This includes all the airfields not included in FS2002, and includes all the WWII airfields no longer in use but which are still visible from the air.

No, the photographic scenery doesn't contain any airport scenery of the type typically available from commercial and freeware producers as add-on scenery.

What will the detail be like in my area?

The level of detail will be the same in all areas, from the largest cities to the most remote communities. You can get an idea what sort of detail and quality to expect by looking at the screenshots.

What about seasonal variations?

The aerial photography used in the scenery was shot at various times of year from Spring through to Autumn. GetMapping have used their image processing skills and techniques to make a complete, seamless image suitable for use in Flight Simulator, but it is not possible for practical reasons to produce separate seasonal variations.  If we did this, the data would be four times the size of the existing scenery, i.e. approx 26-28 GB.

The same photographic scenery will be displayed during all seasons within FS2002, and though the differences in light levels may alter the appearance to a certain extent, this will not fully represent the seasonal variations seen in real life.

Read more about this in FAQ Part 2.

What about night-time?

It is not currently possible to include a separate night-time variation of the scenery (producing accurate night-time textures would double the overall size of data to 13-14 GB). 

For the moment, the photographic scenery will usable from dawn to dusk, but after dark the best results will be obtained by turning the photographic scenery off.  For instructions on how to do this see Temporarily disabling the Photo Scenery in the Hints and Tips forum.

Quality

Is the photographic scenery based on satellite images?

No. The photographic scenery uses GetMapping's Millennium Map aerial photography which is based on images shot from aircraft flying at around 5000 feet. The resulting photographic quality and seamless coverage cannot currently be matched by satellite imagery. You can find out more about the GetMapping photography at www.getmapping.com.

What's the best height to view the scenery?

The scenery is probably best viewed at a height of 2000 or more. Just how acceptable the photographic textures are when you fly lower really depends on what you're doing and where you're looking.  For some people, they're OK right down to landing because you're mostly looking ahead into the near distance, but if you're peering down from a helicopter hovering over your house, the image quality may begin to deteriorate below 1500 feet.

It's a bit subjective though, and it depends partly on the type of scenery you're looking down on. Beaches and fields are more satisfactory at low altitudes than towns. In any event, the photo scenery isn't lost below 1500 feet, it just no longer looks it's best.

What will the scenery be like in my area?

The quality of the scenery in your area will be the same as in every other area, so you can get a good idea of what to expect from the screenshots page. There is no difference in the level of detail or coverage between different parts of England & Wales.

What about the 3D appearance at low altitude?

From a reasonable height above ground level, the photographic imagery can be effective at suggesting the 3D nature of ground objects such as buildings and structures.  From lower down however, only objects which are specifically created as 3D objects, either in the default scenery or in add-on scenery, will be seen in true 3D (though the landscape itself is in 3D).

Performance

What is the minimum hardware specification?

• Multimedia PC with Pentium III 700 MHz (equivalent or higher) processor. (500MHz may be possible, but is not supported).
• Graphics card with 16MB (or higher) video memory, 3D hardware acceleration and DirectX 8.0A compatible drivers.
• Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP.
• 128MB RAM (64MB may be possible but is not supported).
• Super VGA monitor supporting 800x600 resolution/16-bit colour (or better)
• DirectX8.0A (or later).
• 650MB hard disk space for partial install, 1.8GB for full install per volume.

Will frame rates be affected?

Typically, no. The photographic scenery is actually easier for FS2002 to render than other types of scenery, so frame rates should not be affected. Actual results will vary from system to system though.

Compatibility

Will it work in FS2000 or CFS2?

No. You will need to be running FS2002 in order to use the scenery.

Will it be compatible with other terrain mesh scenery?

Yes, though the more accurate and detailed the mesh, the better the overall appearance and effect.  The photographic scenery is compatble with Lago TerraMesh scenery.

Will it be compatible with add-on airport scenery?

The photographic scenery should be compatible with high quality add-on airport scenery from commercial and freeware producers.

Gary Summons of UK2000 Scenery has has said he will release a patch to make his excellent UK2000 Airports compatible with the photo scenery. You can read more about his early impressions and see some screenshots of the combined sceneries here.

Will it be compatible with Autogen scenery?

Yes, although by default you will not see any autogen scenery in the photographic scenery areas.

The thinking behind autogen scenery is very different to the thinking behind the photographic scenery. Autogen aims to make intelligent guesses as to what type of trees and buildings it should place on the landscape based on a number of factors, whereas the photographic scenery aims to represent the actual trees and buildings on the landscape via an accurately placed photographic image.

Generic autogen scenery (e.g. based on land classification data) would destroy the reality of the photographic scenery by inappropriately placing buildings and trees in areas on the photographic image where no buildings and trees exist in real life. For this reason, the default autogen scenery is effectively disabled in the areas covered by the photographic scenery.

Autogen scenery can be added to the photographic scenery using the FS2002 Autogen SDK.

Read more about Autogen in FAQ Part 2.

Will I still need the Visual Flight terrain mesh?

Yes. If you plan to fly in Scotland or Ireland, or in any of the parts of England and Wales for which you haven't purchased the photographic scenery, you can use the Visual Flight terrain mesh (available separately) to achieve the dramatic improvements over the default FS2002 scenery. Please email mesh@visualflight.co.uk to check availability.

No. If you will be flying solely within the area covered by the photographic scenery volumes that you've purchased, you won't need the stand-alone Visual Flight terrain mesh. Each area of photographic scenery will contain a limited version of the Visual Flight mesh specially designed to enhance the photographic scenery.

Screenshots, demo

Are there any screenshots?

Yes. Go to the screenshots page.

Are you going to release a demo?

A selection of video clips will be available via this web site.

A demo may be produced on CD for a small charge if there is sufficient interest.

It is unlikely that a downloadable demo will be released due to the very large download size that would be involved.

Miscellaneous

Is this a new idea?

No, but to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a photographic scenery has been produced on a national scale with the level of detail and quality found in the Visual Flight/GetMapping scenery.

Visual Flight would like to extend a special thanks to Neil Birch for pointing the way with his inspirational scenery for Microsoft Flight Simulator 98.

What's the difference between photographic and photorealistic scenery?

Photorealistic refers to the technique of using samples of photographic textures to represent the landscape over a wide area.  For example a single photograph of a set of fields may be used to display fields in many different locations in a flight simulator.  (More likely, several different photographs will be used, but the principle is the same).

Photographic scenery on the other hand uses the actual photograph of each location to display the scenery at that location in the flight simulator.  The biggest difference is that all visible features in the real-world landscape are displayed in their true location in the flight simulator.

What's the difference between terrain mesh scenery and photographic scenery?

Photographic scenery and terrain mesh scenery are two completely different types of scenery.  Terrain mesh scenery provides a 3D model of the terrain, while photographic scenery provides a photographic image of the landscape from the air.

When combined, the photographic scenery is draped over the 3D model provided by the mesh to present a realistic looking scenery as it might be seen from the air.