Top-Rated Scenery Add-Ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator X
Article by Jonathon Webster
Microsoft’s Flight Simulator has seen drastic improvements in scenery quality over the past two decades. Even so, the default textures seem to always leave us yearning for more.
Take your gameplay to the next level with one of these highly acclaimed scenery expansion packs for FSX.
1. Sim Savvy by Photoreal America — Sim-Savvy’s “Massive Scenery Collection” makes its debut with Photoreal America. And massive it is! The program uses photo-based scenery textures to cover all of the continental United States–a gigantic 400 gigabytes of textures.
Where does all this data come from? The USDA’s National Agriculture Imagery Program NAIP, which takes 1 meter/pixel arial photos every 2 years of the continental U.S.
Is hard drive space a little tight on your machine? Fear not, a 1 TB external hard drive is included with every purchase. The program comes pre-loaded on the hard drive and can run from it directly.
Considering the scope of this project, be prepared to pay a hefty price: 9 USD. Despite the big price tag, this may still be a good investment in the long run since you will receive free updates as soon as they are available. Check out the detailed flightsim.com review here: flightsim.com/main/review/simsavvy.htm
2. Ground Environment X USA & Canada by Flight1 — At .95, this add-on is an affordable alternative to Photoreal America. GEX replaces the default FSX scenery with highly detailed 1024×1024 pixel images that have a 1m/pixel resolution.
One advantage of GEX over Photoreal America is that GEX includes night textures while Sim Savvy’s product does not.
Customers say that the scenery enhancements you’ll see with GEX are subtle but definitely noticeable. Empty white road lines are transformed into major expressways and interchanges bustling with traffic, for instance.
GEX also provides a better “blending of seasons.” Spring and fall textures mark a much more natural transition to summer and winter, respectively.
More good news: users say that they get great frame rates with this program.
3. Megascenery Bundle: Hawaii, Las Vegas, Reno by PC Aviator — Previously released as three separate photoscenery programs, you can now get all three cities bundled together for under .
Megascenery Bundle fills the void left by Ground Environment X and Photoreal America, which do not include the beautiful Hawaiian Islands. While the program only has scenery for 1 island (Oahu), the photorealistic textures are amazing.
View some of the screenshots on the megascenery.com website and see for yourself. The ground looks exactly like what you’ll see in real life–distinct neighborhoods and enclaves of homes, major expressways with traffic, and even highway interchanges.
The same is true with the Las Vegas and Reno scenery. The Las Vegas component provides over 2,100 square miles of high-resolution textures, and includes the surrounding rocky mountains and hilltops.
The only shortcoming is the fact that the program doesn’t add or enhance any of the 3D buildings in the Vegas Strip. Even with the add-on, all the buildings on the Strip are part of the default FSX scenery.
4. Megascenery X Southern California by PC Aviator — As a Los Angeles native, I’m always excited to hear about new SoCal add-ons. I was very impressed with Megascenery X. The level of detail is incredible. I was able to find where I went to high school and even my house!
As with the Megascenery Bundle, this program doesn’t add any 3D objects to the area, but several other features make up for it.
For one, I actually get better frame rates with the add-on scenery compared to the default scenery. That was pleasant surprise.
For another, you get night textures with this program. This is something that a lot of scenery expansion packs don’t have.
5. Manhattan X by Aerosoft — Making a detailed simulated version of Manhattan is a difficult feat, especially considering how massive and dense the NYC area is. Despite the apparent challenges, Aerosoft does a good job here.
There are numerous bridges with traffic, sound effects, and highly detailed renderings of many of NYC’s most popular buildings like the Empire State Building and the New York Public Library. The entire city is rendered in photorealistic textures–you can even see people on the sidewalks.
About the Author
It goes without saying that you will need a powerful computer to run these graphics programs. An excellent gaming laptop is the ASUS G73JW with a 4 quad Intel i7 processor. Be sure to read the detailed ASUS G73review provided by shopguides.net.
