Prepar3D v.5 running "ORBX Cityscape Canberra for FSX and Prepar3D" - Oct 5th, 2020

Note: Due to me not selecting mission a critical setting after the install - the results here are now proved redundant.

Click here to see the results of a correctly configured install.

• Feedback from ORBX

Having immensely enjoyed ORBX "AU Australia v2" I splashed out the coin for "ORBX Cityscape Canberra for FSX and Prepar3D".

First up let me say that overall it is great!

At about 1/2 the retail price of the host sim (Prepar3D) for a relatively small area (you can fly across the main area of interest in a few minutes in a slow mover), it has to be categorised as a premium product.

If it were freeware or budgetware I would ignore niggling errors. The Flight Sim Museum is replete with examples of this dating back to 1998. I'm a passionate flyer but not a pedantic flyer!

So having said that, I found three critically immersion-breaking issues:

1. Tall trees near the runway threshold
2. A floating Federal Parliament
3. Less critical, but immersion breaking: flickering runway texture at Canberra airport.

Here's a cockpit video of the final approach.

Yes, I tried all kind of auto-gen adjustments to chop down those trees.

Suggested graphic settings from the manual for " ORBX Cityscape Canberra for FSX and Prepar3D "

I note that the manual was published in 2016 - perhaps a settings update for Prepar3D v5 is in order?

This is the approach to Canberra airport as rendered by ORBX " AU Australia v2 ". Video here.

Lovely.

The colours are too bright, that was before I found the chroma setting in Prepar3D v5 which, when set at about 25% renders the Aussie landscape hues to perfection.

This is the approach to Canberra airport as rendered by " ORBX Cityscape Canberra for FSX and Prepar3D "
Note that I'm on glideslope and ... are they trees near the threshold?

Oh yes, very big trees. Just a couple, but at about 80 feet high that'll do it!

Federal Parliament as renderer by ORBX " AU Australia v2 ".
Nice!

Federal Parliament as rendered by " ORBX Cityscape Canberra for FSX and Prepar3D "

Follow the white avenue from the top of the scene, it lines up with the centre of the Federal Parliament building. At the bottom you can see two images, one floating about 200 feet above the original.

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Feedback from the ORBX support forum

Nick Cooper: Tick the Australia v2 boxes (in the scenery library).

My settings in ORBX Central for Prepar3D v5.

My scenery library settings in Prepar3D. The ORBX installer has done it's job well.

OK, under Cities < Cityscape < Canberra < Configure I showed:

Whereas it should have been:

John Dow: Try different options for ground poly or APX.

Parliament House: My initial settings, based as close as possible on the manual suggestions.

Parliament House from radar altitude 270 feet.

Lowered the tessellation to MEDIUM.

Parliament House from radar altitude 270 feet.

Lowered the mesh resolution to 38m.

Parliament House from radar altitude 270 feet.
Parliament House is at about radar altitude 200 feet.

Call in the arborist?

Well it does seem that I tend to drift below the glideslope, especially near the threshold.

As John Dow suggested, I am going below glideslope as I cross the road and boundary fence. I'm off to practice!

By the way the overcast weather in these flights is using ORBX preset 4, and I am really enjoying the atmospheric perspective it puts into the environment. As a landscape painter myself, I can see how authentically the colours are changing towards the horizon. Well done!

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