FScene4X

Ruud Faber developer of the FScene replacement ground textures for the Microsoft Flight Simulator is working on fine-tuning the Night Textures as used in FScene for FSX.

The patches for FScene4X USA&Canada and South America have been obtainable a few weeks already.

To-day he released the third patch covering Africa with 146 revised textures, again as a free download.

This is a work in progress and more patches will follow as soon as ready.

Because FScene4X simply replaces the default textures in your Flight Simulator with a different set, it is fully compatible with updated mesh terrain and photoreal scenery. Inside those special areas FScene textures will not be visible.

If you are a user of TotalPack (covering all 6 continents) and you can't wait, you can safely install these patches already now, although a bundled patch for the TotalPack will be available as soon as all continents have been covered.

Get the revised night textures for free at <www.fscene.com >

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q. What does FScene4X actually do?

Answer. Flight Simulator uses a large number of textures to define the ground you see when flying. These textures are applied based on the type of ground it is. Farm, rock, desert, fields, villages, towns, cities, forest, woods and so on. They are also varied depending on the part of the world you are in So, for instance, forests in England will look different from forests in Australia. Finally they are varied according to the season of the year. FScene4X provides enhanced replacement for a large proportion of these default textures. Each volume replaces the default textures for a particular area of the world. The FScene4X versions are designed to give a much more 3-Dimensional visual effect and also created using shades that are much more realistic for their location in the world.

Q. Does FScene4X work in all seasons?

Answer. Yes. FScene4X provides matched replacements for all the seasonal versions of the textures it supplies. The seasonal versions of the textures are carefully designed to give a more realistic variation than that provided by the default.

Q. Will FScene4X work with 'Roads and Rivers' add-ons?

Answer. Yes. The default roads are still used by FScene4X and these will be disabled and replaced in the same way.

Q. Will FScene4X work with add-on mesh terrain scenery such as MyWorld, FSTerrain, Ultimate Terrain or FSGlobal?

Answer. Yes. FScene4X replaces the ground textures in Flight Simulator and just as the default textures will flow to match the ups and downs of the terrain so will FScene.

Q. Will FScene4X work with custom airport sceneries such as British Airports or World Airports.

Answer. Yes. FScene4X will only affect the ground outside the perimeter of airports. All the default airports and any custom ones you have installed will appear exactly as intended. Only the ground outside the airport will be changed and the increased realism of the FScene4X textures should make your airports look even better from a distance.

Q. Will FScene4X work with photographic terrain scenery such as the VFR Photographic scenery packages available for England and some other parts of Europe?

Answer. Yes. The way Flight Simulator handles Photographic scenery is different from the way it handles the normal ground terrain. With Photographic terrain Flight Simulator prevents the display of the normal ground textures and replaces them with individual photographic tiles. The same is true of the default Flight Simulator ground textures they are turned off in areas where Photographic scenery is in use. You can still install and use FScene4X even if you have photographic scenery for some areas. Outside the photographic areas the FScene textures will appear. Inside the photographic areas the new ground textures will not be visible.

Q. Does FScene4X affect the Flight Simulator Autogen trees and buildings?

Answer. No. FScene4X is carefully designed to work with the default autogen in Flight Simulator. It also has the added advantage that its enhanced 3D appearance can give the ground a much more 3 Dimensional appearance even from heights where the autogen is no longer visible.