We will be releasing a upgrade patch for Europe, free to all Europe users, before the end of the year. Please dont ask when as it will be as soon as we complete the update. 

GEX Europe has been undergoing development changes over the last 6 months. We have addressed all the issues that were reported to us by users and we went several steps over and above to upgrade and improve the quality of the product and your flight experience.

 

The upcoming patch will provide the following:

 

New airport pads for wet and dry locations

Completely reworked coloring and tone of all textures

Removed tram (repeating distance) lines where possible

Upgraded the default FSX road textures for those who do not use UTX

Added north and southern Europe full texture support for Xclass Europe landclass

Reworked autogen to reduce trees and buildings (north EU) to better depict open space in rurals

 

You must be on GEX Europe v1.02 or above to install this patch. This patch is inclusive and only requires v1.02 to install it.

 

The changes will have a profound effect everywhere in Europe both north and south and in all seasons.

 

Shortly after this patch is released, we will be introducing a new location: GEX Africa and the Middle East. FSX splits Europe and the Middle East in a strange location which makes the eastern Greek Islands, eastern Bulgaria and half of Istanbul the Middle east. We have taken that into account so when GEX Africa and Middle east is installed the texture support is correct for those locations and properly completes Europe. The only Landclass we know of that covers the Middle East is Xclass Africa, which includes Turkey the Middle East and Asia. SceneryTech offers a landclass for Africa only. As with any landclass you must decide what works best with your location. Sometimes FSX default landclass works best.

 

 

 

 

Yes, it is a free update for all GEX Europe customers

 

 

Great news

 

 

 

Here are a few starter images to wet your whistles

 

 

there is no bloom mod or any lightning mod in use. We are importing FX into the textures that do what the ENB mod does, but without the mod. OF course that wont change hard light 'bloom' but the effect 'in-sim' is quite impressive, something a screen capture wont truly show 100%

 

 

This is November 1st or early winter in the sim

 

These shots are using UTX Europe as the LC product with UTX roads disabled but railroads enabled

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More as I get time and complete seasons....  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jim

 

 

 

Switzerland in spring

 

hazy day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

....and on a clear day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paris, France in spring

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wish to make something clear

 

 

I dont want to read any posts here about colors/brightness not looking right. If you do not understand LCD or CRT monitor calibration, you probably do not see all the gray (grey) tones and the colors as they should appear. GEX is produced using IPS monitors that are calibrated on a weekly basis. We don't use wide gamut monitors and we calibrate using the sRGB specification to be sure of correct color format.

 

6500K (D65) white point, 500:1 contrast ratio, 130-140 cd/m2

 

My last calibration validation is shown here

 

 

 

 

A MAX calibration < .75 dE is damn near perfect  

 

I am well below that

 

If you are serious about real world colors and tones in all your applications I highly suggest you invest in a monitor calibrator and the software. I use a i1Display2 with the software ColorEyes Display Pro. The software BasicColor is also a good product and somewhat easier to use than CE Pro. The combination costs about 300-400 USD as much as a typical monitor iteself but the results provide the user with REAL world color and REAL world tones with gray (grey) scales that are correct and that by default, or 'out of the box', no monitor will display and no person on this planet can ever adust a monitor correctly by eye  

 

even the best of the best at 'by eye' calibration would validate well above 3dE

 

 

 

 

 

 

I edited this thread to get it back on subject...

 

 

 

 

Here are some summer shots  

 

the first 2 being low altitude shots so you can see the quaility @ 200-500ft, the rest are between 1800-2000ft

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a few more in summer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nick, can you show us some pics before / after update please?

For me it's easier to recognize the real delicate distinction.

 

 

As I posted above, UTX is in use but the UTX EUROPE ROADS are disabled in the Scenery Library

 

When I show Italy later in production I will be using UTX + Xclass Europe as the veg landclass

 

 

UTX is landclass, with very few textures in use other than roads and a few other small items in Europe. UTX does place streams/rives and shores correctly too but when it comes to the textures UTX simply places the GEX textures so everything you see visually in terms of ground textures and autogen is GEX.

 

As for compares..   right now I do not have time to do a swap of my installs to run compares. If I get time later in production I will do that

 

 

the changes are not delicate.. they are very pronounced. Boot a flight in spring at LSZB with UTX and no other veg LC in use. then look at the images I posted marked Swizerland in Spring

 

you will see the difference, right off the bat

 

 

 

More Switzerland in Spring

 

 

No worries, I will get to more locations in Europe soon. Right now we are focused on this area

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or is that just old age?

 

:)

 

Vic

 

 

Old age, I keep a wipe handy too

 

 

North Italy, spring..   UTX+Xclass LC's, roads disabled

 

 

a work in progress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Southern France, south of L'Herm (LFBR)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few in Espana

 

 

 

Congrats to Spain on FIFA World Cup!! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is what makes our job so difficult.. there is no such thing as "Spain" textures and we must try and import/blend different visual elements so each location the tiles are used presents at least somewhat of an indication of location. That is not easy to do when the tiles that are used in Spain are also used in other countries as well.

 

I am importing more earthy reds into the tiles on purpose as well as adding in natural sunlight tones that will change the hue and shadowing based on time of year and time of day.. the better the monitor is calibrated the more vividly the color gradients can be seen.

 

 

The default night textures look natural?

 

Thats the first time I have ever read that.. those textures are far oversarturated and burnt in color

 

 

GEX EU night textures are not red..  they are amber as most Europe lighting is, with greens/reds/blues and other colors in support. Red is used/seen much more in Asia although it is seen in some parts of Europe too.

 

The night textures are being tuned somewhat, but not anything drastic in change.

 

Monitors come in all types and quality, then there is calibration..    from 'by eye' which is never accurate to professional with a calibration puck and expensive software such as i1D2 and ColorEyes.

 

What you see at night and what I see at night (or daytime for that matter) are completely different

 

There is no way to please everyone when it comes to things like that. FSX is pooly made for correct ambient night light. It usually requires, especially with a correctly calibrated monitor, adjustments in driver control to set the correct contrast/brightness for night flying and must be set back for daytime.

 

 

Gregor

 

 

 

 

 

A few early/mid Fall shots

 

 

NOTE: Images were pulled due to incorrect texture version    my bad!   

 

See new fall shots below

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I use FS Genesis mesh, everything they offer for FSX..    they just released mesh for Northern Russia and pretty much all of the Middle East too

 

I only had a small reservation with GEX Eu so far and that was that it was a bit "too green" in the fields. Now I see a very nice colour variation with clay and brown that looks very realistic.

 

Looking forward to the upgrade. A shot from Greece would also be nice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few in Fall Dimus, taken while I am in-progress on the season

 

 

 

a few have your airport scenery in them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trondheim Norway in Fall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amsterdamn in Fall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few from Central and Southern Italy

 

 

note that UTX EU + Xclass EU LC's are in use

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few in Greece, Summer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am showcasing our work in texture and autogen layout for a GEX patch, not UTX even though we do try and provide seamless upgrades to UTX for GEX users, the roads have not changed.

 

I actually prefer to fly with all roads disabled since they unnaturally cut though and across textures and remove autogen. Unless I know a area from the air seeing roads cut across textures like that tends to lower the quality of the illusion, at least for me.

 

There are times when I turn them on for VFR and especially night flying. If I do turn them on I use the UTX roads, not default.

 

 

 

 

The shots all over Europe look great. I can't wait to return to Europe as I do most of my flying in the US at the moment enjoying the GEX NA product.

 

 

Dimus   the pad you see is not the same one your scenery assigned originally. We replaced the 128b grass skirting texture set because it was clashing, especially the fall variation, with a lot of different areas. What we came up with is the best we could do without going to a higher resolution for all airport pads. Something we considered doing as well, however people have enough performance issues to deal with so the idea of forcing a >1024 resolution at airports was dropped. It defeats the purpose of keeping GEX in line with default FSX design

 

 

 

and do remember, these are 'work in progress shots'. We are still making changes to tone, color, exposure, etc   

 

 

 

 

NickN wrote:   We will be releasing a upgrade patch for Europe, free to all Europe users, before the end of the year. Please dont ask when as it will be as soon as we complete the update.

 

I have the last of the textures in process and will be uploading the package to Steve, probably on Thursday/Friday of this week, however he will need time to complete the interface/installer compile and then set it up on the update system.
 
This means we will have the package completed before the end of the year but it most likely wont be posted till sometime next week.
 
Sorry about the delay, as I posted earlier I had expected this would have been released at the beginning of December but unforeseen circumstances slowed the process and put us a month+ behind.  
 
None the less, an announcement will be made at the top of this forum when the GEX Europe 2.0 patch is live. Expect it sometime next week.

 

The full product wont shift to 2.0 till sometime after patch release. This is done to assure things like DVD burn include any fixes that may pop up, although we dont expect any.. with software its best to allow 'soak time'

 

 

 

 

 

The patch was posted to Steve and he is wrapping up work on the interface and the new update login system. We are working on simplifying the update system and its in the process of being tested/verified.