Ground Environment X Europe represents our new approach in texture design, incorporating high level detail graphics in the default Flight Simulator X 1-meter texture. For all topics relating to the Ground Environment X for FSX.
Product Information Publishers: Description: Ground, diurnal, seasonal textures, and autogen replacements for Europe. Download Size: 1.8 GB Format: Download Simulation Type: FSX Reviewed by: AVSIM Staff Reviewer - March 14, 2010 Introduction Reviewer's Note: Version 1.01 was used for this review. When the scenery enhancement called was first introduced for FS2004 I was impressed, for a while. Until the Ultimate Terrain series replaced that real estate on my hard drive. However, except for roads and bridges, UT did little to improve ground texture tiles and autogen.
This was resolved with the introduction of Ground Environment 2006 followed by Ground Environment PRO which covered the whole world under the FS2004 flag (an AVSIM was written by senior editor Alexis Esguerra in early 2007). Although a few European-specific landclass replacements became available both as freeware and payware (the XClass series was at AVSIM by David Wilson-Okamura), none of these replaced any ground textures and if it did, it was not to any appreciable extent.
Flight1's first FSX installment of Ground Environment was intended for USA/Canada (extensively by our senior review writer, Angelique van Campen), so a Ground Environment specifically designed for Europe's architecture and landclass differences did not appear until 2009, the version that I am reviewing now. Except for some trees, great effort was made to limit disruptions to your previously installed Ground Environment for USA/Canada textures by the co-existence with a subsequently installed Ground Environment for Europe. Test System Vista64, SP1 Quad Q6600 @3. Heroscape Master Set Pdf. 2G 6G RAM 800MHz BFG GTX260 896MB max Running 1920x1200x32 Active Sky Adv + FEX Ultimate Traffic X 2 SP1 FSGenesis Mesh UTX for USA CAN and EU GEX for USA CAN and EU Flying Time: 11 hours UTX for Europe and GEX for Europe work together in making colossal enhancements to the realism that is experienced in every aspect of the European experience in FSX.
Here is the list of features for GEX for Europe from Flight1's: • Complete coverage of Europe which extends from the Arctic circle through southern Greece. • Enhanced textures to assist in rendering clear visuals as low as 250-500ft in many places. • 1m/pixel - 1024 x 1024 Textures - No excessive resolution to render or to fill hard drive. • High volume autogen layout designed to work in tandem with autogen slider position. • Structured texture layout to assist in covering most landclass products.
• All seasons including incredible snowy winters and mountain terrain. • Special features/upgrades for Ultimate Terrain X Europe users. • 2D enhancements produce simulated 3D depth in textures. • Textures derived from licensed Arial and Satellite imagery.
• FSX tree render issue addressed in autogen annotation. • Upgrade for USA-Canada users, no switching required. • FSX road night lighting upgraded (Default and UTX). • Realistic custom designed night textures. • Highly detailed aerial views. • Natural seasonal blending. The listed requirements for GEX_EU are: • Microsoft Flight Simulator X • Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7 • 5 GB Hard Disk Space It would be wise and useful to read through the for Ground Environment X Series before making a purchase decision or before installation.
I copy the following information from the same site: ' FSX basic terrain layout is (edited by reviewer): • Mesh (i.e. FS Global 2010, FSGenesis) • Landclass (i.e. SceneryTech, XClass or UTX, although UTX does a LOT more than just Landclass; like the 3d lights, real-to-life placement of roads and railroads, rivers, glaciers, coastlines and very detailed custom scenery) • Textures + Autogen (GEX)' • with default FSX where any of the above are not added. This last list shows what does what with respect to FSX add-ons. Installation: There are two methods for acquiring the data for GEX Europe, one to use if you expect intermittent downloading (continuation of successive downloads), and one as a one shot fast download.
You only pay 'after' you have the files by clicking on the installer which opens a dialogue box where you complete the purchase information (see picture) so you can just go ahead with the downloads and pay later on. I always chose the latter since I have a reliable broadband connection for which 1.7 gigs took me about 30 minutes to download. Regardless of the method you choose there are two files to obtain; the installer being quite small, only 10 MB, and the data package of 1.7 Gig. Installation will prompt you to select a drive on which a full back up of the files it is replacing will be saved. It is best to keep these on a separate drive.