X-Plane 10 scenery - stock vs HD mesh with g2xpl textures

[stevekirks]

Never been a fan of photo scenery at all. To be honest i prefer default with hd mesh.

I created a couple of low-res smaller tiles and it was great for situational awareness on patterns in a prop plane. Makes for pretty landings in a jet. Then again, if you've got the horsepower like Josh Gibbs, it will make you cry...

[stealthbob]

I now fly VFR over the PE area, you can do real dead reckoning using real visual that are so clear you can read the logos on the sports fields.

Also the higher alt flights have more interesting views.

Attached are a low alt and a high alt view....

They say in French "chacun à son goût" ..."To each his own taste"

[RyanK]

I used to dislike photo scenery because of how flat and textureless it is at low altitudes, but I've come around. X-Plane does a surprisingly good job of overlaying trees, roads, and buildings in the right places, so I leave all of the autogen on and it looks good from low altitude. Up high it looks spectacular. Navigating by pilotage was always very doable with X-Plane but it feels more authentic now. There's also an "Add Decals" plug-in at the org that I'd recommend that can add texture to the imagery so it doesn't look like a plain solid color up close.

[Keith Smith]

I now fly VFR over the PE area, you can do real dead reckoning using real visual that are so clear you can read the logos on the sports fields...

That would be pilotage

Ded (short for 'deduced') reckoning is flying a known heading for a known period of time.

[Keith Smith]

Bob, excellent screenshots, btw!

[stealthbob]

I now fly VFR over the PE area, you can do real dead reckoning using real visual that are so clear you can read the logos on the sports fields...

That would be pilotage

Ded (short for 'deduced') reckoning is flying a known heading for a known period of time.

Well that is embarrassing....

Thanks for clearing that up, makes sense....not sure I was entirely too comfortable with the notion of flying a procedure that included me being dead.

[zengei]

not sure I was entirely too comfortable with the notion of flying a procedure that included me being dead.

To be fair, dead reckoning is by far the more commonly used term compared to ded reckoning (also see Google Books's n-gram viewer comparison). The Straight Dope has a good discussion on the etymology (or lack thereof) of "ded reckoning".

[Keith Smith]

zengei, agreed. My point in using that was to show the origin of the term. I agree that 'dead reckoning' is more frequently used. However, the original point was that pilotage was the correct term

[zengei]

zengei, agreed. My point in using that was to show the origin of the term. I agree that 'dead reckoning' is more frequently used. However, the original point was that pilotage was the correct term

Aye, pilotage is definitely the correct term, but I also wanted to point out that that origin for "dead reckoning" is a bit of an aviation old wives' tale. The first known usage of "dead reckoning" predates "ded reckoning" by 300-odd years.The Straight Dope article covers the history and posits the hypothesis that since "ded" was a common spelling of the word "dead" prior to standardization of written English (thank you Mr. Webster) someone may have come across "ded reckoning" in a log somewhere, retroactively came up with that explanation for it and it spread from there. Just wanted to nip it in the bud before that explanation spread more.

[Keith Smith]

Holy cow. I had no idea that someone had put that amount of time and effort into exploring the history of....DR.