Linux Mint Forums

by **Anubisone** on Sun Mar 17, 2013 7:19 am

Currently I play well in FlightGear plane simulation. Does someone know how to upgrade terrain somehow, so that I don't need to get high to see the ground in pixels? I know I can upgrade airports, but I dont know how to upgrade the surrounding.

by **cebif** on Tue Mar 26, 2013 8:24 pm

Anubisone wrote:Currently I play well in FlightGear plane simulation. Does someone know how to upgrade terrain somehow, so that I don't need to get high to see the ground in pixels? I know I can upgrade airports, but I dont know how to upgrade the surrounding.

You can automatically download scenery when you fly into a area with none. Terrasync will download the scenery to a folder you create. After you've started flightgear go to environment menu. At the bottom is the scenery. Click that and choose your download folder. It is best to keep it separate from the Scenery folder in flightgear data (Especially if you installed flightgear from apt-get or synaptic). You should keep it somewhere in your /home/user_name. The choice for the terrasynce server is already available to select. You can tick the box to have automatic scenery refresh or do it manually. I find sometimes even though I have automatic refresh on, it does nor work and have to click the manual refresh button, when I get to an area with no scenery. This forces terrasync to download and update the scenery. A few minutes later if in control tower view, the scenery appears.
If you are starting from fgrun or fgo, don't enable terrasync download from there. Enable it from fgfs after you start flightgear. If you have it enabled from both there wil probably be a conflict.
I know in windows you have to enable terrasynce from fgrun, fgo or command line. No need in linux.
You can download scenery manually too. If you do this it should not be to the same folder as terrasynce because terrasynce wont automatically update it. Also if your ISP has a low data limit, it is probably best to not click the atomatic update box.

by **homerscousin** on Sun Mar 31, 2013 5:54 pm

I didn't think you could actually upgrade the scenery. It is what it is. You can enable terasync or download additional scenery, but it is all about the same quality.There isn't any superior scenery out there. I downloaded flightgear 2.10, all the Linux source files along with some scenery blocks and saved it all to a folder. I have yet to actually build the game. It looks like a not very simple task. I have been checking you-tube videos for flightgear 2.10 and comparing those to Microsoft's is it FSX? No comparison in graphics quality. MS is so much better, but you have to pay for it, you have to pay for the additional superior scenery and you need some very serious hardware to make it look that good. You-tube videos are very helpful, but I wish all posters would include their hardware specs so we know what runs on what. and at what quality. If anyone knows anything about scenery or the graphics quality in general beyond what I have seen in these videos, please post.

by **cebif** on Wed Apr 03, 2013 5:44 am

You don't have to compile flightgear to get 2.10. Copy and paste this to Terminal:

Code: Select all: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:saiarcot895/flightgear

After that do:

Code: Select all: sudo apt-get update

After that you will find in Synaptic; flightgear 2.10 for installation.
With my hardware:
Graphics: HD 7850 2048MB overclocked from 860/1200 to 1000/1395
CPU: AMD FX8320 8 core 3.5Ghz, turbo up to 4Ghz.
Memory: 12Gb at 1600Mhz
In the flightgear Data folder is the file preferences.xml. I altered it to enable use of CPU multicores. I don't that it enhances the frame rate much though. I just opened it with:
sudo gedit preferences.xml and used gedit to search with "multi" to find the line for multithreading mode. Just under that it will say to: "Uncomment the above element to select OSG multi-threading mode."
Do that if you want. It may help. Offcourse save the file first.
I find my frame rates on nearly highest settings vary from about 14 to 65 or more. At some airports like KJFK it is only about 14. At Hongkong VHHH, it is quite a bit higher. Also if you have real weather fetch enabled. The amount of 3d clouds and their detail and coverage can lower FPS. This used to affect my Nvidia 450GTS much more than my currant card. I have my cloud coverage limited to about 12km radius from the aircraft

by **homerscousin** on Wed Apr 10, 2013 4:11 pm

I saw that ppa on the Flightgear homepage. I haven't done this before. It's nice to know you say it works. Ceblf, are you very happy with the graphics quality?

by **cebif** on Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:43 am

I can post some example pictures with my settings, so you have an idea of what to expect. I think the graphics quality in 2.10 is getting closer to Xplane or MSX for ground scenery but not as good yet. For clouds it is better than Xplane. Not sure about MSX. I have not had any experience with the latest Microsoft version either, just the trial version of MSX.