VFR flying in X-Plane 11

[Juho Vastapuu]

Hi,

It's been 15 years since I last time flew Flight Simulator 2004 and it seems that things have changed after that. But now I am getting again interested in sims and installed X-Plane 11 and I am getting familiar with basic flying again. So next step is to get familiar with all addons and to get the sim and environment look as realistic as possible. So far I prefer VFR flying in Finland and I am wondering is there any good addons to get to make VFR flying more realistic?

Here are questons I have:

1. What is best scenery for Finland or Scandinavia? I found https://simheaven.com/simdownloads/x-europe-4/ and it seems to be quite new. So this addon updates the gound scenery according to OSM data? But however, it does not include landmarks, masts or buildings etc. which are important in VFR flying, am I correct? I also found that TruScenery has made Finland OSM but it is no longer available? 

2. So where do I find addon which adds all important VFR-flying objects to the sim?

3. I there a possibility to add real-world navigation data (waypoints, fixes) to XPlane? I found Navigraph or Aerosoft NavData but I am wondering is it only for FMS and does it only add SID/STAR -routes but not waypoints or fixes. Am I right? Is there a way to get real-world fixes visible in X-Planes own GPS 530?

These for starters :) Thank you for answers!

[Christian Kovanen (1379372)]

1 hour ago, Juho Vastapuu said:

Hi,

It's been 15 years since I last time flew Flight Simulator 2004 and it seems that things have changed after that. But now I am getting again interested in sims and installed X-Plane 11 and I am getting familiar with basic flying again. So next step is to get familiar with all addons and to get the sim and environment look as realistic as possible. So far I prefer VFR flying in Finland and I am wondering is there any good addons to get to make VFR flying more realistic?

Here are questons I have:

1. What is best scenery for Finland or Scandinavia? I found https://simheaven.com/simdownloads/x-europe-4/ and it seems to be quite new. So this addon updates the gound scenery according to OSM data? But however, it does not include landmarks, masts or buildings etc. which are important in VFR flying, am I correct? I also found that TruScenery has made Finland OSM but it is no longer available? 

2. So where do I find addon which adds all important VFR-flying objects to the sim?

3. I there a possibility to add real-world navigation data (waypoints, fixes) to XPlane? I found Navigraph or Aerosoft NavData but I am wondering is it only for FMS and does it only add SID/STAR -routes but not waypoints or fixes. Am I right? Is there a way to get real-world fixes visible in X-Planes own GPS 530?

These for starters Thank you for answers!

1. Best is just to generate some Ortho tiles (photorealistic) with Ortho4XP. Maybe get some airport sceneries for airports that have better than default sceneries available (Many default airports already include the best scenery available as deafault on X-Plane (use https://gateway.x-plane.com/ to check when the default scenery has been updated and by whom)).

2. VFR landmarks from https://simheaven.com/ is OK but for best results use Ortho tiles as well.

3. Data from Navigraph or Aerosoft will update all fixes, airways, VOR/NDB/DME/TACAN stations, ILS localizers as well as all SIDs and STARs. Basically everything there is to update.

[Juho Vastapuu]

1 hour ago, Christian Kovanen said:

1. Best is just to generate some Ortho tiles (photorealistic) with Ortho4XP. Maybe get some airport sceneries for airports that have better than default sceneries available (Many default airports already include the best scenery available as deafault on X-Plane (use https://gateway.x-plane.com/ to check when the default scenery has been updated and by whom)).

2. VFR landmarks from https://simheaven.com/ is OK but for best results use Ortho tiles as well.

3. Data from Navigraph or Aerosoft will update all fixes, airways, VOR/NDB/DME/TACAN stations, ILS localizers as well as all SIDs and STARs. Basically everything there is to update.

Hi, and thanks for answer! 

What basically is the difference betheen generating ortho tiles with Orto4XP compared to photorealistic scenery, for example x-europe 4?

And is it true that in Ortho4XP it is also possible to import all landmarks (masts, towers, big buildings, antennas, factory chimneys) to Xplane from real world data? As far as I have understood, Ortho4XP is only to convert open-satellite-maps (google maps, bing etc) to X-Plane?

[Christian Kovanen (1379372)]

On 13/04/2020 at 20:40, Juho Vastapuu said:

Hi, and thanks for answer! 

What basically is the difference betheen generating ortho tiles with Orto4XP compared to photorealistic scenery, for example x-europe 4?

And is it true that in Ortho4XP it is also possible to import all landmarks (masts, towers, big buildings, antennas, factory chimneys) to Xplane from real world data? As far as I have understood, Ortho4XP is only to convert open-satellite-maps (google maps, bing etc) to X-Plane?

X-Europe is not photorealistic scenery it is autogen based on OSM data (correcting the default autogen buildings, forests etc.) if you want to have photorealistic scenery use Ortho4XP to generate Ortho tiles, which converts satellite imagery into the scenery. You can use X-Plane default mesh for autogen, the aforementioned X-Europe or HD/UHD-mesh from Alpilotx for the mesh but Ortho4XP won't generate that mesh itself you need to include that yourself.