Five Great Scenery Add-ons for Flight Simulator X

Scenery quality in Microsoft’s Flight Simulator franchise has improved drastically over the years. Even so, the default textures seem to always leave room for improvement.

Take your gameplay to the next level with one of these great scenery add-ons for FSX.

1. Photoreal America — Sim Savvy

Sim-Savvy’s “Massive Scenery Collection” makes its debut with Photoreal America. And massive it is! The program includes photo-realistic scenery that spans the entire U.S. mainland–a whopping 400 GB worth of scenery.

The photo data comes directly from the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) run by the USDA. Every 2 years, the NAIP takes detailed 1 meter/pixel aerial pictures of continental U.S. The data is provided free to the public.

Worried about the size of the program? Fear not, a 1 TB external hard drive is included with your purchase. The program comes pre-loaded on the bundled hard drive, and can run from it directly.

Considering the size of this project, Photoreal America comes with a big price tag: $199 USD. In spite of this, Sim Savvy’s program is still a worthwhile investment in the long run. You are entitled to free updates whenever they become available.

2. Ground Environment X USA & Canada — Flight1

At $34.95, this add-on provides an affordable alternative to Photoreal America. GEX replaces the default FSX scenery with crisp 1024×1024 pixel images with a 1 meter/pixel resolution.

One advantage of GEX is that GEX includes night textures while Sim Savvy’s product does not.

Flight simmers say that the scenery enhancements you’ll see with GEX are subtle but noticeable. Empty white road lines are transformed into major expressways and interchanges humming with traffic.

With GEX you also get a better “blending of seasons.” Fall and spring textures mark a much more natural transition to winter and summer.

Despite the enhanced details, users say that they still get great frame rates.

3. Megascenery Bundle: Hawaii, Las Vegas, Reno — PC Aviator

Previously released as three separate photoscenery programs, you can now get all three locales bundled together for under $20.

Megascenery Bundle fills the void left by Ground Environment X and Photoreal America, which do not include Hawaii. While you only get scenery for Ohau island, the photorealistic textures are amazing. View a few screenshots on the megascenery.com website and see for yourself. The ground looks exactly like what you’d see in real life–distinct neighborhoods, enclaves of homes, and major expressways with traffic.

Over 2,100 square miles of city landscape, rocky mountains, hilltops are included with the Las Vegas textures. The only drawback is the fact that the program doesn’t add any of the 3D buildings on the Vegas Strip.

4. Megascenery X: Southern California — PC Aviator

As a Los Angeles native, I’m always anxious to get a hold of the newest SoCal add-ons as soon as they hit stores. I was delighted by the quality of the scenery in Megascenery X. The level of detail is incredible. I was able to spot my high school, my neighborhood, and even my house!

As with the Megascenery Bundle, this program does not add any 3D objects to are, but there are several other features that make up for this. The add-on scenery loads with better frame rates than the default scenery. Another cool feature:, you get night textures with this program. Most scenery add-ons do not have night textures.

5. Manhattan X — Aerosoft

Creating an elaborate virtual Manhattan is a daunting task. Even so, Aerosoft did a great job with this product.

The entire Manhattan Island is recreated in stunning detail. Not only is there tons of 3D automobile traffic with everything from limosines to public busses, you’ll also see the regularly scheduled Staten Island Ferry and something else that’s typically absent from flight sims–people!

Manhattan X comes with a “sightseeing mission” where you tour the city in a helicopter. Beginning at the Wall Street heliport, you fly around the city with a co-pilot who doubles as a tour guide. With a heavy New Yorker accent, your co-pilot points out areas of interest and provides brief historical footnotes for many of the landmarks you encounter.

Users say they get frame rates between 15 and 35 FPS on an Intel Quad Core machine with 2 GB of RAM. In the user’s manual, Aerosoft explains exactly how you should set the FSX display settings to maximize performance.

To get the most out of Megascenery X and all the other scenery programs in this review, you will need a powerful gaming PC. With 8 GB of RAM, a GeForce GTX 460M graphics card, and a quad core processor, the Asus G73JW is one of the best gaming gaming PCs on the market. Check out the Asus G73JW review from shopguides.net